RFI ONLINE AUCTIONING SERVICES

Trade Agreement: WTO-AGP/NAFTA/AIT/Canada FTAs with Peru/Colombia/Panama Tendering Procedures: Attachment: YES (MERX) Electronic Competitive Procurement Strategy: N/A - P&A/LOI Only Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Nature of Requirements:

Amendment No Reason for amendment 2 This amendment no 2 is raised to change the date regarding confirming interest for an Industry Day from October 24 to October 31, 2013 found under (b) Objective and to correct the contact email address. 1 Amendment no 1 was raised to include the RFI in its native format in order to have access to Attachment 1: GCSurplus.ca - Business Requirements.

1.1 OBJECTIVE, BACKGROUND OF THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

(a) Introduction

GCSurplus of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has a requirement for a bilingual commercially available Online Auctioning Service (OAS) that can be readily configured and customized to meet Canada's needs and hosted and managed by an external third party. Canada is seeking information on current marketplace capabilities and interest to work collaboratively with GCSurplus to provide this transformative technology to meet current and future functional business requirements as well as implement new technologies to enhance the systems supporting the GCSurplus.ca business line for the sale of Surplus Crown Assets.

This Request for Information (RFI) process is to solicit industry opinions and feedback to help further define the requirements as well as to understand current market capacity and interest.

In particular, this RFI is a means of gathering information to assist in accomplishing the following specific purposes:

1. To validate GCSurplus.ca functional and technical requirements and potential upgrades against marketplace offerings; 2. To investigate possible approaches and techniques to meeting current and potential future business requirements in a timely and cost effective manner; 3. To determine the extent to which there exists current capacity within the marketplace to offer a "turn-key" or integrated solution approach to the provisioning of the underlying systems and web-based interfaces which support the delivery of GCSurplus.ca, providing for one (1) system / one (1) platform; and 4. To determine the interest and ability of the marketplace to work collaboratively with GCSurplus to provide access to this solution and related services to maintain and further enhance the GCSurplus.ca business model while leveraging shared investments with the possibility of shared benefit.

The information provided in response to this RFI process should be reflective of systems, services and capabilities that are readily available within the marketplace. The information provided, while incorporating any lessons learned therein, will partly contribute to the scope and range of service offerings sought by PWGSC in any subsequent solicitation process.

(b) Objective

Through this RFI and any subsequent solicitation process, GCSurplus is seeking to achieve the following business outcomes:

To achieve a modern, robust and sustainable technological solution for the delivery of GCSurplus.ca; providing for one (1) system / one (1) platform;

To provide a flexible platform, that builds upon existing solutions available in the marketplace with ideally minimal customization or configuration to support current business as well enable GCSurplus to respond to changes in how business is delivered over time;

To leverage business and technological advances currently present and emerging in the marketplace to provide a future-oriented solution which drives efficiencies in current business activities as well as provides for scalability to add business functionality over time; and

To understand and identify the extent to which capacity and interest exists within the private sector marketplace to support and enhance the application and infrastructure underlying GCSurplus.ca as well as to work with GCSurplus to jointly deliver and further develop the associated business opportunity. The desired outcome of this work is to establish a long-term mutually beneficial relationship (i.e. shared risk/shared reward) with ideally one (1) best in class service provider, which will leverage the strengths and investments of both parties to continue to provide a quality program with a view to minimization of cost, while maximizing best value to Canada in the disposal of its surplus assets. A desired outcome is to achieve an end-to-end solution that provides full audit and reporting capability to monitor and demonstrate the attainment of these objectives.

Through this RFI and any subsequent solicitation process, PWGSC may wish to seek a single organization to provide some or all of the design, delivery and maintenance aspects of its requirement to provide the GCSurplus.ca system, as well as support future application development needs.

To support this goal, PWGSC may undertake a non-mandatory industry consultation process, to seek interest, feedback and advice from industry about capacity within the market to:

Provide the components of GCSurplus.ca which meet GCSurplus' current business requirements and that are capable of working with existing and emerging business processes, while also demonstrating the ability to provide future-oriented innovation through technology and business approaches; Provide transition/migration and related support services during and subsequent to the transition to a new GCSurplus.ca system provided by industry (e.g. hosting, application development, disaster recovery, help desk, documentation, training, etc.); and Work collaboratively with GCSurplus in the delivery of a robust and forward-looking GCSurplus.ca system that promotes shared benefit while ensuring compliance with applicable legislative, regulatory and policy requirements and providing assurance of public accountability.

Attendance at the Industry Day session may be in person or via teleconference. Interested parties are requested to confirm their interest for an Industry Day to the PWGSC representative identified in section 1.10 of this RFI no later than close of business on October 31, 2013. Information on how to participate in any Industry Day session is provided in Attachments 2 through 5 to this RFI. If required, additional information on how to participate in the Industry Day session will be provided through this RFI process.

(c) Background: GCSurplus is part of the Acquisitions Branch of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). GCSurplus' core functions include the sale of federal surplus assets through its online bidding system, GCSurplus.ca; providing strategic, procedural and technical advice to federal government departments, agencies and other organizations who use GCSurplus' services; supporting government-wide consultations and related functions, including life cycle disposal advice; supporting Treasury Board policy development; and exploring ways and means to increase efficiency, reduce disposal costs and maximize Canada's net proceeds of asset sales.

The technology which supports the GCSurplus business is currently comprised of three (3) disparate components:

GCSurplus.ca - a public facing website and functionality associated with this system for sales of Surplus Crown Assets (e.g. validation of customer; closed bidding; payment remittance; etc.); GCSci - a client interface web portal used by Client departments/agencies to declare and manage their surplus assets, as well as by GCSurplus personnel to manage the surplus and sale process from Client identification through to customer pick-up. GCSci also supports Clients in program-level reporting and analytical capability; CASS 2000 - a 'back-end' database application to which the GCapplications interface to provide for a secure common dataset and single record of activity. CASS 2000 also supports GCSurplus in program-level reporting and analytical capability through custom reports.

These three (3) components are currently hosted by an external service provider to the Government of Canada (GoC) and are maintained and administered by GCSurplus. Application development is currently undertaken by GCSurplus personnel. GCSurplus also currently provides a tiered help desk with call centre for system users (GCSurplus, Client departments/agencies, and Customer inquiries) as well as associated user training on these systems.

GCSurplus' systems report financial information and transaction data (funds) to separate systems housed in PWGSC (the Departmental Financial Information System - SIGMA - built on the SAP platform; and the Receiver General through the Receiver General Buy Button - RGBB).

GCSurplus also interfaces with PWGSC's Customer Information System (CIS) to read updated Client department/agency Customer information (e.g. consignee code, etc.) that is subsequently written to GCSurplus.ca through a third-party API.

Federal organizations, with a few exceptions, must use GCSurplus to dispose of moveable (i.e. tangible) Surplus Crown Assets, which are moveable equipment and materiel no longer required or seized goods, ranging from ships, aircraft and cars to furniture, tools and clothing. Through GCSurplus.ca and a small number of contracts with service providers, GCSurplus disposes of surplus assets through its nine (9) regional sales centres. Client departments and organizations notify GCSurplus of their surplus assets and GCSurplus then manages all aspects of the asset disposal, returning the net proceeds to the client department or organization once the items are sold. The activities and programs of GCSurplus were previously funded via a combination of Parliamentary Appropriation and proceeds of sale. The business has transitioned to a funding framework based exclusively on proceeds of sale as of April 2013.

Transformation

In support of its strategic plan to explore ways and means to increase efficiency in its operations and maximize its revenue potential, GCSurplus is looking to outsource the design ("configuration"), development, and operation management (including hosting, maintenance, support, back-up, disaster recovery and future development) of the functionality of these systems in order to take advantage of private sector experience and technology. For greater clarity, GCSurplus is not looking to replicate its existing technologies or systems, but rather looking for a market leader with existing technical capability to support its current business operations.

In addition to technological change, and growing the existing customer base for GCSurplus.ca items through the provision of further buyer-friendly system and online auctioning features, GCSurplus is also interested in exploring the ability to offer related new and complementary business lines through GCSurplus.ca which could potentially include:

(a) Functionality to support GCSurplus in exploring opportunities with non-federal government public sector organizations who could benefit from access to GCSurplus.ca for the disposal of their organization's surplus assets via sale.

(b) Functionality to supports the transfer of assets between federal organizations Federal organizations to promote re-use of assets with residual value within the public sector. An asset transfer would be at no charge to the receiving organization.

(c) Functionality to support the donation of surplus assets to third parties (in accordance with policy requirements) such as non-profit, charitable or other organizations (e.g. schools, First Nations, etc.). A donation would be at no charge to the recipient.

Through this process and any subsequent solicitation, GCSurplus is seeking to establish a strategic arrangement whereby it will be able to share the financial risks and potential benefits associated with the expanded use of a modern and robust online auctioning system and complementary sales marketing approaches.

At this time, it is anticipated that the scope of any future solicitation will include provision of: A single integrated and modern online auctioning solution which fulfils all of the functions required in the current GCSurplus.ca, GCSci and CASS 2000 components; providing for one system / one platform. This includes the ability to provide secure data transfer of financial information and funds to departmental systems, as well as providing access to enhanced functions associated with modern online auctioning and potential future innovations associated with the delivery of the solution (e.g. real time bidding, online shipping, enhanced system functionality and features, mobile applications, broader system use through additional complementary applications and other marketing measures, etc.); A robust business intelligence, market analytic, and reporting capability (canned / custom reports) on all aspects of the underlying database to enable GCSurplus personnel to access key decision-making information as well as to inform departmental and public reporting requirements. This includes data, analytics and reporting both on current asset disposal activities as well as historical data retention and associated reporting capacity; Secure off-site hosting, maintenance, application development, and disaster recovery for the above components, including full redundancy; and Help desk call centre, system documentation (technical and user), and associated system user training for the above components.

For the purpose of this RFI, the above components are considered to be included within the term "GCSurplus.ca".

Scale of Business

GCSurplus is National in scope, encompassing GCSurplus.ca system use from nine (9) regional sales centres. In FY2012-2013, across all regional sales centres, approximately $38,182,221.78 in sales was processed through GCSurplus.ca. This figure included approximately 26,184 individual surplus asset sales transactions as well as 43 contracts for surplus materials sales (known as period contracts). A breakdown of these transaction volumes by regional sales centre and type of sale or contract is provided in Appendix B. GCSurplus.ca is used to sell a variety of Surplus Crown Assets, including vehicles, furniture, office equipment, technology, and seized goods. In addition to surplus assets, GCSurplus.ca is also used to establish period contracts for scrap and removal of materials which maintain some residual value. Military sales for items registered under the Controlled Goods Program are not processed through GCSurplus.ca.

GCSurplus currently provides services to over 90 federal department and agency Clients. There is a potential opportunity to support an enhanced Client base within the federal arena (e.g. special operating agencies and Crown Corporations not currently served by GCSurplus). It is also anticipated that other organizations from within the broader public sector (e.g. provincial, territorial, municipal, etc.) could find the established GCSurplus.ca model of potential benefit in the disposal of their surplus assets. Customers for Surplus Crown Assets are from across Canada and internationally.

Current annual operating costs for information technology (software, hardware and infrastructure) to support the delivery of the GCSurplus.ca business are approximately $600,000.00. As noted previously, as of FY2013-2014, GCSurplus has moved to a business model that is fully funded by proceeds of sale.

GCSurplus provides its services to federal organizations on a commission-based sales model. In seeking to work collaboratively with the private sector through a strategic arrangement, it is anticipated that there is a potential for shared reward in return for shared investment in the GCSurplus.ca infrastructure, system and business supports.

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

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

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.