Title: “National Cancer Institute's: Contact Center”

This Sources Sought Notice (SS) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Rockville, Maryland is seeking capability statements from all eligible small business concerns [Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Woman-owned Small Business (WOSB), Historically Underutilized Business (HUBZone) Small Business, Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)] that are interested in and capable of performing the work described herein. In the event an RFP is issued, NAICS code 621999 with a size standard of $10 million is being considered. Based on the responses received from this Sources Sought announcement, the proposed acquisition may be solicited as a Total Small Business Set-Aside. THIS IS NOT AN RFP AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE NCI, NIH TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE. NO RFP PACKAGE IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NCI shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought announcement or the NCI’s use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement.

The NCI Office of Public Information and Resource Management (OPIRM) is seeking a potential source to operate its NCI Contact Center. The NCI Contact Center provides tailored information using NCI information resources to the public seeking information on how to prevent, detect, and treat cancer. The NCI Contact Center provides evidenced-based information via multiple access channels (telephone, LiveHelp, and e-mail). The NCI Contact Center currently operates via three (3) competitively awarded contracts, currently held by Colleges, Universities and Cancer Centers. These contracts are expected to expire January 14, 2010.

The NCI Contact Center provides access channels to the United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and U.S. Associated Pacific Territories. The contractor shall provide services in English and Spanish responding to inquiries via telephone (1-800-4-CANCER), Web-based instant messaging and E-mail to NCI’s Web site Cancer.gov. The contractor, which includes a staff of trained information specialists, must be knowledgeable about cancer information across the continuum and be able to tailor cancer information to meet the needs of the public, cancer patients and their families. The government is seeking a contractor who has knowledge and experience of cancer clinical trials and an ability to work with the NCI as the nation’s premier agency for cancer research. Contractors must have experience and familiarity with contact center workforce management, training and quality assurance practices that will enable staff to provide cancer information in accordance with the Government’s key performance indicators. The Government is interested in a contractor who has knowledge and skills in data collection, management and analysis to ensure the quality and integrity of program data The contractor should have the capacity to participate in collaborative activities and pilot new approaches to accomplishing contract tasks. The NCI seeks a contractor who will provide feedback to the Institute on trends in cancer information seeking behaviors, and input on the update of its publications and information databases. The NCI seeks a contractor with superior management capabilities, enabling the efficient and cost effective operation of the Contact Center with a focus on quality improvement and staff retention. The contractor shall have the ability to operate in accordance with data and security access requirements and regulations of the federal government. The contractor shall have adequate facilities to house staff. The contractor shall have Internet capacity with reliable connectivity, dependable up-time for contact center operations and ability to operate a completely integrated telephone/internet system, as well as the ability to support operations real time. The contractor’s Internet capacity must allow staff to interface with the Government-furnished web-based telephone system, information systems and databases. The anticipated period of performance for this acquisition is five years with a base period of two years with three one-year options.

Sources possessing experience and demonstrated capability to accomplish the aforementioned requirements are to supply pertinent information in sufficient detail to demonstrate their ability to perform the required services. Information furnished must not exceed 10 pages and should include an outline of previous or similar projects for the NCI to perform a proper evaluation of the companies capability. The statement should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of the capability statement.

All capability Statements sent in response to this SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Kenya Crawford, Contract Specialist, at crawfordke@mail.nih.gov in either MS Word, Wordperfect or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by October 15, 2008, 3:00 PM, EST. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered.