The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)/Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)/ Agricultural Marketing Services (AMS)/ Transportation and Marketing Program in Washington, DC  intends to award a sole source, contract to  Bloomberg Finance L.P. DUNS:  809980993/CAGE: 51M77 for a subscription to Bloomberg LP to provide the USDA-AMS-TMP-TSD with consistent, accurate, reliable historical domestic and global agricultural commodity, commodity derivative, specialty crop biofuels cash price data for domestic and global locations, agricultural export price data in free-on-board (FOB) format of primary agricultural commodities and their derivatives.   The period of performance is for twelve months and one possible twelve month option period.                                                      

This procurement is being conducted in accordance with  Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)  6.302-1

The property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency. 

And

6.302-1 (b)(2) Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements  The existence of limited rights in data, patent rights, copyrights, or secret processes; the control of basic raw material; or similar circumstances, make the supplies and services available from only one source.

The statutory authority is 41 U.S.C. 253( c )(1)

Rationale or circumstances for limiting competition:

After a comprehensive analysis of multiple products that are widely recognized as industry standard tools, AMS believes that Bloomberg LP is the only vendor that can provide the requisite and complete data to meet their mission and business requirements.   No other evaluated product offers the scope and depth of domestic and global agricultural cash price and shipping data Bloomberg supplies. 

1. Bloomberg LP is the only vendor that has the requisite domestic agricultural commodity and commodity derivative cash prices, global agricultural commodity export prices, shipping vessel data, energy data and access to historical financial and economic data inside of a single access point platform and at single price point.
2. Bloomberg LP provides access to all data inside of the platform using an API.  This API is designated to work with USDA’S core business analysis tools.
3. Bloomberg LP accommodates the USDA’S desire to disseminate data in various formats for public consumption. 
4. Bloomberg LP provides three levels of on-demand technical and general support services that is standard with  the monthly subscription fee.
5. The USDA also determined that Bloomberg LP is the only solution in the market that has a comprehensive interactive development environment that contains tools for quantitative/data and visual analysis.  This environment is backed by on-demand technical support. 
6. Bloomberg LP does not contain any hidden, add-on or third-party fee structures. 

This Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive proposals.  No solicitation documents are available and telephone requests will not be honored.  However, if a firm believes it can meet the requirements it must furnish information about its products and services, as well as three (3) references from other customers who are using these products or services, to the Contracting Officer by 4:00pm. Central Time (CT)  on the closing date of this notice.   Supporting evidence must be furnished in sufficient specifications and  detail to demonstrate the ability to comply with the above requirement.  The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 519130 - Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals , and the  Small business size standard is 1,000 Employees.

Responses received after the response date or without the required information will be deemed nonresponsive to the synopsis and will not be considered. Capability statements may be sent (via email only) to: Carol Dingess, Contracting Officer /[email protected].