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 The Canada Economic Development (CED) Innovation Incubator has a mandate to develop, through experimentation, new products or services that can be integrated into the organization’s day-to-day activities with a view to increasing the satisfaction of its clients, its employees, or both.
To this end, the Incubator:
together with employees, explores current and future opportunities and challenges;
experiments with non-traditional solutions, particularly in the digital field; and
uses an agile and inclusive method to carry out its projects.
In order to involve employees, not only in the identification of opportunities and challenges, but also in the search for solutions, the Incubator sought to acquire a collaboration and ideation platform.
Statement of requirements
The key elements or features of the collaboration and ideation platform are listed below:
Mandatory features:
Possibility for users to access the platform in both official languages
Compliance with federal government security standards relating to the protection of “Protected B” information. Suppliers must comply with, or agree to comply with, the standards established by the Treasury Board Secretariat. Specifically, we require that the supplier possess or obtain third-party certification: ISO 27001, SOC2 Type 2; and demonstrate or ensure that all electronic data will be stored in a GC-approved computing facility located within the geographical boundaries of Canada.
Non-mandatory features
Possibility of configuring objectives to guide the collection of employee proposals
Possibility of configuring participants’ access rights (e.g., manager vs. participant only)
Possibility of allowing access via our existing systems, without the need for additional passwords for employees
Allows for the standardized intake of proposals (e.g. fact, consequence, potential solution, etc.)
Allows for anonymous/non-anonymous proposal intake
Possibility of associating the proposals with the specific objectives sought by the organization in general and the Incubator in particular
Possibility for users to express their support for the proposals and provide feedback quickly and easily
Possibility of structuring the problem-solving process by taking the following steps:
Proposal capture (intake)
Creation of a work team
Analysis of potential solutions
Action plan
Validation of the implementation
Possibility of inviting participants (those who make proposals, express their support or provide feedback) to contribute to the proposals submitted
Possibility of viewing the progress of proposals in a single location
Possibility of notifying participants of the progress of the proposals
Possibility of generating a weekly summary of the platform’s activities
Possibility of abandoning proposals and informing the participants
Possibility of putting proposals on hold and informing the participants
Possibility of monitoring process-related performance indicators (number of ideas collected, number of participants, number of ideas implemented, average processing time, number of connections, etc.)
Possibility of configuring a number of information collection spaces linked to employee proposals
Possibility of adding visuals to the proposals (png, jpeg, gif)
Possibility of quickly searching the content of submitted proposals
Possibility of filtering proposals according to various criteria
Possibility of evaluating the costs and benefits of each of the improvements generated
3. Criteria for assessing the statement of capabilities
Interested suppliers must demonstrate, by means of a statement of capabilities and an in situ demonstration to the client, that they meet the following requirements:
a) It must be demonstrated that the product offered by the supplier meets all the requirements listed in the “Statement of requirements” in Section 2 (22 elements or features).
Analysis grid that will be used for Non-mandatory features:
Rating System*
Feature
The product does not meet the requirement (0 points)
The product could meet the requirement, subject to additional adjustments/configurations (2 points)
The product meets the requirement (4 points)
Feature #X
b) The supplier must have the capacity to implement the chosen solution within two months of the awarding of the contract, and be able to provide the necessary coaching.
c) The supplier must have sufficient capacity to be able to assist the department with problems that could prevent employees’ involvement in the identification of opportunities and challenges, but also in the search for solutions. It is expected that support will be made available to the Agency within five days of receipt of a request for assistance.
4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement: Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
5. Justification for the pre-identified supplier
Further to the above statement of requirements, the Innovation Incubator has decided to consider Bambou Space.
In terms of the desired features and requirements, Bamboo Space Solution meets all the criteria in Section 3, with minimal additional configuration requirements for the various features. Thus, in accordance with the Government contract regulations, it is proposed to award a contract to Bambou Space which is, to our knowledge, the only company that is able to meet all the functionalities
6. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)
The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) - "only one firm is capable of performing the work".
7. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the:
Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) – Article(s) 1. B. iii) Lack of competition for technical reasons
8. Ownership of Intellectual Property No intellectual property rights will result from the performance of the work under this contract.
9. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date The proposed contract is for a period of 2 years, from issuance date of the contract.
10. Cost estimate of the proposed contract The estimated value of the contract, including option(s), is between 35 000.00$ and 55 000.00$ (applicable taxes are extra).
11. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier Bambou Space
500, Places D’Armes, Suite 1800,
Montréal (QC) H2Y 2W2
12. 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.
13. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is: June 21st, 2019 at 2H p.m. (EDT)
14. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities.Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:
Marc Joseph
Chef, Gestion des approvisionnements et des contratsDirection générale des finances ministériellesDéveloppement économique Canada pour les régions du Québec / Gouvernement du C••••••••@••••••.ca / Tél. : 514-462-1547
