SCANNING AND DATA PROCESSING

SCANNING AND DATA PROCESSING

1. An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. DEFINITION OF REQUIREMENTS

The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada (FJA) requires that its collection of Canada Federal Court Reports published between 1971 and 1992 (253 books – 45 950 pages) be scanned, OCRed and processed to enable its publication on the Federal Courts Reports (FCR) website. This includes splitting the volumes into individual files corresponding to each reported decision, and processing them so they are amenable to being published on the FCR website.

FJA plans to enter into a sole source contract with Lexum informatique juridique inc. for the procurement of services to process the legacy collection of Federal Court Reports using Lexum’s proprietary technology, SpiffyPDF, to render electronic files amenable to being published on the Federal Courts Reports section of the FJA Web site.

3. CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT OF THE STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that their product and services meet the following requirements:

GENERAL POINTS AND PREREQUISITES

M1 – Any technology proposed to meet this requirement must be "off-the-shelf", meaning that the services provided by the technology is commercially available and requires no further research or development and is part of an existing product line with a field-proven operational history (that is, it has not simply been tested in a laboratory or experimental environment). If any of the proposed technology is a fully compatible extension of a field-proven product line, it must have been publicly announced on or before the ACAN closing date.

M2 – A live sample of an existing publication scanned and rendered electronically in accordance with all requirements listed below must be provided.

M3 – The supplier must have at least 5 years of verifiable expertise in processing complex legal documents, more specifically, in extracting and publishing documents such as judgments

M4 – The technology used to do the work must be capable of processing the bilingual side-by-side format in order to have the English language active on the English FCR Web site and the French language active on the French version of the site.

M5 – The supplier must be able to provide results of performance testing, demonstrate proper functionality and provide results generated based on the above-mentioned criteria.

DELIVERABLES

M6 – The technology used must be capable of creating:

M6.a – a PDF file for each of the 253 legacy publications – this file must be compressed in order to optimize the ratio of quality vs. size for web publishing.

M6.b – a separate PDF file for each decision that is part of the publication.

M6.c – two separate files, one in English and one in French, for each decision to be processed so as to be amenable to being published on the FCR website. More specifically, they must be retrievable using the FCR Web site search engine. These files must incorporate both the image of the scanned page with an HTML 5 overlay to combine the accuracy of the image with the convenience of HTML.

M7 – Requirements for Full volumes

M7.a – Scan and OCR full volumes of the Canada Federal Court Reports for the period ranging from 1971 to 1992, and process them to enable publication on the FCR website.

M7.a-1 – The scanned pages are to produce a black and white 600 DPI TIFF file for each book.

M7.a-2 – Each TIFF file is to undergo an OCR process and be converted to PDF format with a 300 DPI resolution. The text can be generated automatically and not controlled, but with English and French legal dictionaries applied for terminology.

M7.a-3 – Files are to be compressed in order to optimize the ratio of quality vs. size for web publishing. More specifically, large PDFs are as quick to load as any text or HTML files

M8– Requirements for Individual Decisions – PDF format

M8.a – Split the volumes into individual files corresponding to each reported decision. The same corrections as for full volumes must be applied.

M8.b – Each PDF file must be compressed and able to be quickly downloaded/accessed as an attachment to the Web friendly display.

M9 – Requirements for Individual Decisions – Web site display

M9.a – Each individual decision must be processed into two files, one for each language.

M9.b – Text-zones are to be applied on English columns in English files, and French columns in French files, in order to delimit the portion of text to be processed for each file.

M9.c – PDF files for individual decisions are to be processed so as to create a file able to be displayed on our Web site embedding both the OCRed text and the original picture of the file. Both versions are to be integrated in a way allowing users to use the HTML text while being able to interact with the image.

M9.c-1 – In particular, the body text of these files must be searchable using the FCR search engine, and search terms must be highlighted within the search results.

M9.c-2 – PDF files must be directly rendered within the webpage – eliminating the need to open or download files, or to use external plug-ins or applications.

M9.c-3 – On the English Web site the English text will be rendered and fully searchable with the bilingual side-by-side image in the background and on the French Web site the French text will be rendered and fully searchable with the bilingual side-by-side image in the background.

M10 – Metadata specific for each decision is to be extracted and inserted between tags in the header of the HTML files including: case name; date rendered; FCR citation; docket number, subjects, party names and name of presiding judge(s).

4. APPLICABILITY OF THE TRADE AGREEMENT(S) TO THE PROCUREMENT

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):

- Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

5. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PRE-IDENTIFIED SUPPLIER

Lexum’s proprietary technology, SpiffyPDF, is the only known technology capable of incorporating both the image of scanned pages with an HTML 5 overlay so as to combine the accuracy of the image with the convenience of HTML.

6. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS REGULATIONS EXCEPTION(S)

Section 6.d of the Government Contract Regulations is being invoked in this procurement as only one person or firm is capable of performing the contract.

7. EXCLUSION AND/OR LIMITED TENDERING REASONS

The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the section of the trade agreement(s) specified:

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) - Article 513 (b) (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

8. OWNERSHIP OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract will vest in the Contractor.

9. THE PERIOD OF THE PROPOSED CONTRACT AND DELIVERY DATE(S)

The proposed contract is for a period of 3 months. All deliverables mentioned in the requirement must be delivered within 90 days of Contract award, or by March 31, 2018, whichever comes first.

10. NAME AND ADDRESS OF THE PRE-IDENTIFIED SUPPLIER:

Lexum informatique juridique inc.
910-4200 boul. Saint-Laurent
Montreal QC H2W 2R2

11. SUPPLIER'S RIGHT TO SUBMIT A STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN, 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 of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

The FJA file number must appear in the subject line of the e-mail or on the covering page, in the case of a facsimile or hardcopy transmission.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.

12. THE CLOSING DATE FOR A SUBMISSION OF A STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is December 4, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. EST.

13. INQUIRIES AND SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Daniel Morin
A/ Corporate Procurement and Administrative Services Coordinator
Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs
99 Metcalfe Street - 8^th Floor
Ottawa ON K1A 1E3
Telephone: (613) 947-6339
Facsimile: (613) 995-5615
E-mail address: Daniel.Morin@fja-cmf.gc.ca