Enterprise Software Packaging Solution

Trade Agreement: WTO-AGP/NAFTA/AIT/Canada-Peru
FTA/Canada-Colombia FTA
Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited
to bid
Attachment: None
Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Exclusive Rights
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Vendor Name and Address: 
FLEXERA SOFTWARE
1000 E. WOODFIELD RD SUITE 400
SCHAUMBURG Illinois
United States
60173
Nature of Requirements: 
Friesen, Manon
Telephone No. - (819) 956-1161 
Enterprise Software Packaging (ESP) Solution


ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE

Nature of Requirements: (ACAN) (HEALTH CANADA) Enterprise
Software Packaging (ESP) Solution
	
Delivery Date Required:  March 31, 2013			

1. 	You are hereby notified that on behalf of Health Canada
(HC), PWGSC intends to enter into a sole source contract through
the Software Licensing Supply Arrangement (SLSA) method of
supply with FLEXERA SOFTWARE Inc., of Shaumburg, IL, a Supplier
Arrangement (SA) holder, for the purchase of their AdminStudio
Suite of products. The estimated value of the contract is
$240,300.00 before applicable taxes. In addition, Training and
Consulting Services will be purchased separately through another
procurement vehicle.

Software product list:

Licensed Software

QUANTITY	DESCRIPTION

15,000		AdminStudio 11.5 Enterprise Complete (Users licenses)
15,000		AdminStudio 11.5 Enterprise Complete Maintenance and
Support Services		15,000		Workflow Manager 6.0 (User licenses)
15,000		Workflow Manager 6.0 Maintenance and Support Services

This is a requirement for licensed software, support and
maintenance, for HC's Desktop Engineering (DE) team for their
ongoing requirement to package software for enterprise
deployment. The estimated project is for a period of 1 year.  To
support their requirement, HC will require on-site education
through Training Services as well as Consulting Services for the
Admin Studio products, which will be procured separately through
another procurement vehicle.

2. 	An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments
and agencies to post a notice on MERX, 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 contracting authority
may then proceed with the award. However, should a Statement of
Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the
ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full bid
solicitation process. You are hereby notified that the
Government intends to solicit a bid and negotiate with one firm
only as identified above.

3. 	Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and
available to provide the services/goods described herein, may
submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing by mail or e-mail
to the Contracting Officer identified in this Notice on or
before the closing date. The Statement of Capabilities must
clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the requirement
described herein.  THE CLOSING DATE AND TIME FOR WRITTEN
STATEMENTS OF CAPABILITIES CHALLENGING THIS REQUIREMENT, IS 2:00
P.M.. EST, on FEBRUARY 28, 2013. As it is intended to proceed in
a timely manner, responses received after the closing date will
not be considered.

4. 	Statements of Capabilities received on or before the closing
date will be considered solely for the purpose of deciding
whether or not to conduct a competitive procurement. 
Information provided will be used by PWGSC for technical
evaluation purposes only, and will not be construed as a
proposal. Your written Statement of Capabilities must provide
sufficient evidence (e.g. precise specifications, existing
product capabilities, technical data, or any other proof) that
clearly demonstrates that your firm is capable of providing the
total services to fulfill the Department's requirement. 
Suppliers who submit a Statement of Capabilities prior to the
closing date and time will be notified in writing as to PWGSC's
decision whether it will continue with the aforementioned
procurement, or proceed to a full bid solicitation process.

5. 	Should you have any questions concerning this requirement,
please contact the identified Contracting Officer.  The PWGSC
file number, the Contracting Officer's name and the closing date
of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the envelope in block
letters or, in the case of an e-mail, in the subject line.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada
to the Contracting Authority listed below.
 
Contracting Authority: 	PWGSC
Att:			Manon Friesen
Address: 		11 Laurier, Place du Portage III Floor 4C1
City:       	 	Gatineau 
Province:    		Qc
Postal Code: 	 	K1A 0S5 
Telephone:		(819)-956-1161
Fax:         	 	(819)-953-3703 	
E-mail:			manon.friesen@pwgsc-tpsgc.gc.ca


6. 	The reason(s) for single tendering is (are):

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

Annex 4.4 articles 506.12(a) and 506.12(b) of AIT are applicable
on the basis of limited tendering due to compatibility with
existing products, to recognize exclusive rights, such as
exclusive licenses, copyright and patent rights, or to maintain
specialized products that must be maintained by the manufacturer
or its representative, and  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, respectively.

Article 1016.2(b) of NAFTA is applicable on the basis of limited
tendering due to reasons 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.

Article XV (b) of WTO-AGP are applicable on the basis of limited
tendering, to recognize exclusive rights, such as exclusive
licenses, copyright and patent rights, or to maintain
specialized products that must be maintained by the manufacturer
or its representative, and  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, respectively.


7 .	Requirement: (Mandatory)	

Health Canada's Corporate Desktop Engineering (DE) team has an
immediate requirement to replace its existing software packaging
solution "Wise Package Studio" as vendor support is being
discontinued and the product will no longer be supported.  In
addition, DE's current packaging solution is not capable of
supporting the Windows 7 Operating System and 64-bit application
packaging requirements and the department is compelled to
migrate to 64-bit Windows 7 as a result of Microsoft's decision
to terminate extended support for the Windows XP Operating
System presently used extensively throughout Health Canada's
enterprise network. As well, AdminStudio is the only application
readiness software product that provides MSI repackaging
customization for WIN7 32/64-bit, agnostic virtualization
functionality and automated testing and remediation for WIN7 in
one integrated solution.

Note: All items listed below as mandatory must be complied with.
Changes, revisions, modifications, exceptions or non adherence
to any/all items detailed in section 6 of this ACAN will render
the suppliers statement of capabilities as non compliant and no
further consideration will be given. 

Health Canada's technical and strategic requirements analysis
has determined that the following high level functional
requirements are mandatory and must be available as part of an
Enterprise Class single vendor solution:

1)	Inventory Tracking,
2)	License Optimization,
3)	Software Asset Management
4)	License Entitlement Management
5)	Application Readiness Assessment,
6)	Application Remediation Capabilities,
7)	Application Packing Capabilities, and
8)	Cloud Computing.


In addition, listed below for both technical and strategic
requirements inclusion is detailed criteria related to ESP
solution required.

i.	The solution must support the creation of application
packages for deployment on both physical and virtual platforms. 
Health Canada currently utilizes both physical and virtual
platforms; the vast majority of desktops are physical, while
most of the server infrastructure is virtual, in order to
optimize utilization of hardware, streamline management, and
maximize return on investment.   Health Canada, in conjunction
with Shared Services Canada, is planning for the virtualization
of desktops to achieve similar savings.  For maximum flexibility
and ease of physical to virtual migration, it is therefore
important that the ESP solution can easily interconvert packages
between physical and virtual deployment models.

ii.	The software must be already in wide usage, both within the
Government of Canada and within private enterprise.   Due to the
massive range of services provided to the public across Canada,
Health Canada must ensure that the solution is proven to work in
a large organisation of over 10,000 people that is
geographically widely dispersed.    A demonstrated record of
recent, successful implementations, current successful usage,
and positive business outcomes is also desirable.   This
criterion reflects risk reduction in selection of the product,
but also reflects availability of resources trained in the
product and an available community of practice for exchange of
knowledge.  

iii.	The software vendor must be able to provide consulting
resources, product training, and technical support services
within Canada (though the source of these services can be from
outside Canada), as it is expected that extensive training and
integration with existing packaging business workflows will be
necessary.

iv.	In order to reduce the risk to Health Canada from adoption
of an unstable, rapidly shifting product offering, the product
must have at least five years presence in the market and display
evidence of a clear roadmap for future development.  As per
(ii), a demonstrated record of recent, successful
implementations is desirable.

v.	The product must be able to be integrated into a complete
Enterprise solution for application management, incorporating
workflow from software requests to package creation and
deployment, including inventory management, user rights
management, and license management.   The vendor must be able to
articulate the mechanism by which its product integrates with
other products (either their own or others) to demonstrate this
capacity.

vi.	The product must be able to create MSI installation packages
for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP (all versions
and service packs), Windows 7 (all versions and service packs),
and Windows 8.  It is must also be able to create MSI
installation packages for Windows server versions 2008 and 2012
(all versions and service packs).

vii.	 The product must provide capabilities for created
application packages to dynamically or programmatically set
variables, install options, and install outcomes at runtime.

viii.	The product must provide advanced MSI editing
capabilities, including MST and MSP transform files.  It is
required that the product be able to allow technicians to create
install packages that do not rely on separate post-installation
Active Setup executables for proper deployment.  This is to
avoid the long login times that are seen when new clients login
to systems for the first time,  creating long waits during
logins as post-setup executables are triggered.

ix.	The product must be backward compatible with packages
previously created with Wise Package Studio, i.e. it should be
possible to directly open and edit .msi, .mst and .msp files
made with that product, or migrate these packages to the new
product with minimal fixing.

x.	The product must have the capability to seamlessly and
accurately assess the compatibility of existing installation
packages with Windows 7 in an automated and scriptable fashion,
i.e. allow the user to assess readiness of a package to install
and correctly work on Windows 7.

xi.	The product must be able to support multiple users and
administrators, concurrently, with audit trails for all usage
and functions.

xii.	The product must provide automated conversion from Windows
XP-deployable to Windows 7-deployable packages, including the
fixing any compatibility problems (or at minimum, identification
of manual fixes that are required).

xiii.	The product must be able to provide web application
compatibility testing with Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10.  It is
desirable to provide web application compatibility testing with
other browsers and versions (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera).

xiv.	The product must be able to provide assessment of conflicts
with other packages in the application package repository and
offer fixes as needed.

xv.	The product must offer a centralized application package
repository with appropriate change controls and relevant
activity reporting capabilities.

xvi.	The product must be capable of conducting compatibility
assessments and system dependencies for successful deployment of
packages on targeted systems.

xvii.	The product must provide high-level scripting capability
to support customized packaging, workflow, deployment and
automation capabilities. 

xviii.	Packages created using the product must be compatible and
readily deployable without modification with the following
automated deployment technologies:  IBM Tivoli Endpoint Manager,
Novell ZenWorks, and Citrix XenApp.  Health Canada currently
uses Tivoli Endpoint to deploy packages and patches to Health
Canada desktops,  Novell ZenWorks is used to deploy packages
(NALs) and group policies to Health Canada desktops, and Citrix
XenApp is used to support remote access and virtual applications
for Health Canada employees.

xix.	The product must be able to repackage non-standard
installations into MSI format for standardized deployment on
virtual platforms.

xx.	The product must be able to assess packages for
compatibility with conversion and deployment to Microsoft App-V,
Citrix XenApp, and VMware ThinApp.  The product must also be
able to create packages that are compatible with Microsoft
App-V, Citrix XenApp, and VMware ThinApp.   All three
technologies are supported in the Health Canada enterprise to
deliver applications.
xxi.	The product must be capable of performing target system
compatibility assessments and report deficiencies related to
established prerequisites for successful deployment of packages
on virtual platforms.
xxii.	The product must be capable of creating application
packages using install capture methods.  
Xxiii.	The solution must provide packages capable of
self-contained application repair, backup and rollback.

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

You are hereby notified that the government intends to negotiate
with one firm only as identified above. Should you have any
questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting
officer identified above.

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 contracting authority
may then proceed with the award.  However, should a Statement of
Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the
ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full
tendering process.

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available
to provide the services/goods described herein, 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.

The PWGSC file number, the contracting officer's name and the
closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the
envelope in block letters or, in the case of a facsimile
transmission, on the covering page.

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any
procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.