Collaboration Portal

T8080-210043- Collaboration Portal

1- Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN):
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 the requirement:

To meet increasing policy needs for new data to fill current gaps, Transport Canada (TC) is committed to building a modern enterprise data collection application, one that will increase its data collection capacity, all the while meeting the latest digital standards for the Government of Canada, including Cloud-first. TC has also begun development of the National Trade and Transportation Platform (NTTP) that will assist with meeting TC strategic vision of a safe, secure, green, innovative, and integrated transportation system that supports trade and economic growth. Through the power of data, this Platform will provide the ability to quickly identify and address gaps and inefficiencies in the transportation of goods network nationally and internationally, via all modes of transportation. It will leverage and improve upon existing systems in order to ensure seamless data collection, increased data storage, improved access and data sharing, as well as analytics and visualization capabilities, and dissemination and reporting. This platform will be comprised of several interrelated and dependant systems, including the Enterprise Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (eBIDA) system, the Enterprise Geospatial Information System (eGIS), the Electronic Collection of Air Transportation Statistics (ECATS) system and the Transportation Data Information Hub (TDIH).

The objective will be to assist with the foundational activities that will culminate with the awarding of contract to build the Collaboration Portal, to confirm the technical approach to data sharing and processing, and to complete an initial stakeholder engagement program.

We want to make it clear this particular contract is only for the aid and expertise in creating the RFP that we will then compete on the open market to find a company to make the Collaboration Portal. This contract is not for the Collaboration Portal itself- only the help to create the RFP.

3- Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)

Transport Canada requires specialized transportation industry technical services and experience to inform and complete a Release for Proposal (RFP) to build the National Transportation Collaboration Portal. Building on previous research and documented lessons learned, TC will confirm technical frameworks, governance structures, and sharing agreements reflective of current industry collaboration websites for inclusion in the RFP. TC will seek to ensure that the new Portal will make it possible to provide the following:

• Monitor supply chain performance across commodities through a near real-time dashboards;
• Act as a system of record for supply chain performance reporting;
• Predict arrival and departure times of containers;
• Identify operational constraints and capacity bottlenecks based on live system data or simulations;
• Improve cargo forecasting predictive analytics to estimate volumes, identify possible capacity issues, and support long term operational planning;
• Improve coordination of local container activity; and
• Coordinate with other data platforms.

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that its product/equipment/system (as appropriate) meets the following requirements:

• Recent experience documenting and planning technical frameworks,
• Recent experience delivering governance structures, sharing agreements and lessons learned from existing industry collaboration websites.
• Recent experience creating an RFP for an existing industry collaboration website.

Experience in the following tasks:

• Monitoring supply chain performance across commodities through a near real-time dashboards;
• Acting as a system of record for supply chain performance reporting;
• Predicting arrival and departure times of containers;
• Identifying operational constraints and capacity bottlenecks based on live system data or simulations;
• Improving cargo forecasting predictive analytics to estimate volumes, identify possible capacity issues, and support long term operational planning;
• Improving coordination of local container activity; and
• Coordinating with other data platforms.

The vendor has significant and recent experience with RFP production and evaluation for collaborative transportation portals and will provide expertise to assist with and advance the Collaboration Portal project this FY.

4- Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement:
This is a sole source requirement and thus is not subject to trade agreements.

See answers 8. & 9.

5- Set-aside under the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business:
N/A

6- Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement(s):
N/A

7- Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier:
Transport Canada believes this supplier is the only one capable of doing the work. Creating an RFP to help Transport Canada find a supplier to create a functioning collaboration portal with all the complex tasks Transport Canada.

We want to make it clear this particular contract is only for the aid and expertise in creating the RFP that we will then compete on the open market to find a company to make the Collaboration Portal. This contract is not for the Collaboration Portal itself- only the help to create the RFP.

8- Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s):

Treasury Board Contracting Policy GCR Subsection 6(d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work".

9- Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reason(s):

Article 513: Limited Tendering- Section 2. B. iii due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

10- Ownership of Intellectual Property
Canada intends to retain ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract on the basis that the main purpose of the contract is to deliver a component or subsystem that will be incorporated into a complete system at a later date (not necessarily by the original Contractor), as a prerequisite to the planned transfer of the complete system to the private sector (not necessarily to the original Contractor), through licensing or assignment of ownership, for the purposes of Commercial Exploitation.

Basis for Canada's Ownership of Intellectual Property (Re: 7.1) F. (https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=13697)

11- Period of the proposed contract or delivery date:
The product/system/equipment (as appropriate) must be delivered on by December 31 2021.

12- Cost estimate of the proposed contract:
The estimated value of the contract, $150,000 + applicable taxes.

13- Name and address of the pre-identified supplier:

Cascadia Strategy Consulting Partners

420-1090 Homer St.

Vancouver, BC V6B 2W9

14- Suppliers' 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 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.

15- Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities:
3 septembre 2021 14h (HNE) / September 3rd 2021, 2pm EST

16- Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities: 

Sharmarke Edan

Contracting Specialist

Transport Canada

Tower C, 330 Sparks Street

Ottawa, ON

Sharmarke.Edan@tc.gc.ca