Health Canada, Product Safety Laboratories - LabWare (LIMS)

ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE  (ACAN)
1.	Definition

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a pre-identified contractor.  If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the competitive requirements of the government's contracting policy have been met.  Following notification to suppliers not successful in demonstrating that their Statement of Capabilities meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contract may then be awarded using the Treasury Board's electronic bidding authorities.

If other potential suppliers submit Statement of Capabilities during the fifteen calendar day posting period, and meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, the department or agency must proceed to a full tendering process on either the government's electronic tendering service or through traditional means, in order to award the contract.

2.	Definition of Requirements

Health Canada, Product Safety Laboratories is undertaking an effort to add additional functionality to their LabWare v6 system. This functionality will provide enhanced Visual Workflow interfaces, Electronic Laboratory Notebook, and a unified Lab Project Reporting tool to the system. Services will be utilized to help configure these enhancements and the underlying LIMS configurations necessary to support them. 
Part of this work would be to provide Health Canada, Product Safety Laboratories with the knowledge and understanding of their LIMS so that they can continue to make system enhancements on an on-going basis.  This would be done with qualified LabWare trainers.
This work would have to be done with modifications to the existing system and modules tested and approved for use in the LabWare v6 system.
DELIVERABLES
The following services are estimated to be required in order to meet the requirements of the PSL LIMS.  
Visual Workflow Configuration:
Creation of a LabWare Visual Workflow (VWF) to streamline the processing and review of submitted Projects and to provide an overview of overdue samples. This activity will require the configuration analyses, calculations, and folders for sample status in order to support the VWF operations. 
These Visual Workflows are of two overall types:
•	Executive "Dashboard" displays
•	Streamlined analysts workflows
The Visual Workflows provided will allow for streamlined user interfaces, tailored to the specific needs of the laboratory areas with the following capabilities:

SAA Role: 
•	List all Project needing to be released for processing in the laboratory
•	Open the Project directly from the Visual Workflow
•	Release the Project to be processed in the laboratory
•	List all Projects requiring back end processing
Manager Role:
•	List all Project needing to be reviewed along with dates due
•	Show status of all laboratory and overdue samples
•	Show average sample turn-around-time by laboratory and/or analysis
•	Provide an indication of sample backlogs
•	Open folders for review, and approval, of samples and test results
Laboratory Functions (Flammability, Engineering, Chemistry):
•	Listing Projects needing to be tested along with due dates
•	Show the "In-Process" samples and samples needing to be reviewed
•	Allows for folders to be opened for samples/tests

Lab Project Reporting:
PSL desires to have a single Lab Project Report for use by all the individual laboratories' reporting back to the Project submitters. The detailed requirements will need to be defined and may require efforts at achieving consensus among the laboratory sections in order to allow the configuration of a single report that meets all of the individual laboratories' needs.
Once these requirements have been defined, services will be utilized to complete the configuration of the report with the following capabilities:
•	Creation of a flexible routine report that uses images and text uploaded to LIMS or inserted into a project reporting table
•	Creation of a flexible lab project report
The Lab Data Report will be a data-driven configuration. Each individual report's format and content will be defined through configuration so that every report output meets the PSL requirements for distribution of the appropriate information to the submitting agencies.

Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) Configuration:
Configuration of ELN to support the laboratories.  Current experiment definitions are stored in WordPerfect docs and these must be converted to Excel.
The high-level activities for ELN configuration of the laboratories are:
•	Conversion of existing WordPerfect experiment definitions to Excel 
•	Creation of Experiments once the excel spreadsheets have been created
•	Configuration of Instrument PM and Verifications
•	Role Setup and configuration
•	Configuration of LabWare Folders to support the VWF interface
The laboratories have different needs for ELN configuration. An approximate count of ELN experiment configurations is:
•	Flammability Laboratory: 15 experiments
•	Engineering Laboratory: 20 experiments
•	Chemistry Laboratory: 50 or more experiments
Note that the Chemistry laboratory configuration is much more complex than the other two laboratories. This laboratory also introduces the following requirements:
•	Creation of LIMS Batches functionality and QC to support processes
•	QC Charting
•	LabStation parsing script for direct capture of instrument data

3.	Trade Agreements

This requirement is excluded from trade agreements based on the following:

	NAFTA Article 1016 - Limited Tendering Procedures
1016.2 (b) - where, for works of art, or for reasons connected with the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights, or proprietary information or where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons, the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists. 

	WTO-AGP Article XV: Limited Tendering
(b) when, for works of art or for reasons connected with protection of exclusive rights, such as patents or copyrights, or in the absence of competition for technical reasons, the products or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists;

	AIT Article 506 – Limited Tendering (Paragraph 12)
(b) where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons and the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no alternative or substitute exists;

	CCFTA - Article Kbis-09: Tendering Procedures
where, for works of art, or for reasons connected with the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights, or proprietary information or where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons, the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists;

	CPFTA – Article 1409: Limited Tendering
(b) where the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist for any of the following reasons:

(i) the requirement is for a work of art,

(ii) the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights, or

(iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

	Canada-Colombia FTA - Article 1409: Limited Tendering
(b) where the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist for any of the following reasons: 

(i) the requirement is for a work of art, 

(ii) the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights,  or

(iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;


 
4.	Title to Intellectual property 

The contract will not result in the development of IP

5.	Contract Period

Initial Contract Period: April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2016
Option period 1: April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017
Option period 2: April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018

6.	Estimated Cost

Initail Contract Peiod: $200,000.00 CAD (plus applicable taxes)
Option Period 1: $100,000.00 CAD (plus applicable taxes)
Option Period 2: $100,000.00 CAD (plus applicable taxes)

7.	Exception to the Government Contracts Regulations and applicable trade agreements

	Section 6 (d) of the Government Contract Regulations stating only one firm or individual is capable of performing the contract

LabWare LIMS software is the mandated enterprise solution for Health Canada. This requirement is linked to specialized Lab application purchased through contract no. H1021-020241/001/ET issued by PWGSC through an open bidding process.  

LabWare, Inc. is a supplier of LabWare LIMS and consulting services.  LabWare is the only service organization certified to provide training and services to Health Canada and other Canadian customers.   LabWare is the only company that can sell LabWare LIMS licences and has access to the source code for product modifications. 


8.	Name and Address of the Proposed Contractor

LabWare, Inc.
Three Mill Rd, Suite 102
Wilmington, DE 19806
Phone: (302) 658-8444
Fax: (302) 658-7894


9.	Inquiries on Submission of Statement of Capabilities
 

"Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing, preferably by e-mail, to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date and time of this Notice.  The Statement of Capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements."



10.	Closing Date

March 21, 2014 at 2:00 PM EST

11.	Contract Authority

Tarigh Arand
Senior Procurement and Contracting Officer
Health Canada, PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACTING UNIT
200 Eglantine Driveway, Tunney's Pasture 
Ottawa, Ontario  
K1A 0K9 
Email: tarigh.afrand@hc-sc.gc.ca 
Telephone :  613-954-8254
Fax :  613-941-2645