OCEAVIEW AND OCEAALERT ANNUAL SOFTWARE LICENSE AND HARDWARE

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with Dickson/Unigage, 930 S. Westwood Ave, Addison, IL 60101, for the purchase of a OceaView Environmental Monitoring System hardware and software  needed by the Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) at NIST.

Background:  NIST's Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) serves as the Nation’s reference laboratory for chemical and biological measurements and standards to enhance U.S. industry’s productivity and competitiveness, assure equity in trade, and provide quality assurance for chemical measurements used for assessing and improving public health, safety, and the environment. The NIST campus in Gaithersburg, MD, has a need to monitor the temperature and alarm status of liquid nitrogen (LN2) vapor phase and air freezers (-150 °C), electric upright and chest freezers (-80 °C and -20 °C), and refrigerators (4 °C), experimental environment of laboratory incubators (temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 concentration), as well as room conditions (ambient temperature, pressure, and relative humidity) in numerous locations across the campus. The integrity of thousands of reference materials and related calibrants and controls is dependent upon the maintenance of the correct temperature over the life of the materials

In FY25, MML purchased hardware, software licenses, and service agreement necessary to install, deploy, and use the OceaView environmental monitoring system manufactured and sold by Dickson/Unigage.  NIST requires additional Dickson services and OceaView brand supplies for continued and expanded use of this existing, installed system.

Sole source determination is based on the need to purchase additional Dickson hardware and annual software license for MML’s existing environmental monitoring system for the continued and expanded use of this existing, installed system.  Dickson is the sole provider of the OceaView cloud software licenses, OceaAlert cloud software licenses, and OceaView cloud-compatible environmental monitoring hardware.  Purchasing software and/or hardware from any other source would not meet the government's need to maintain and expand the existing system for which substantial investments of government resources have already occurred.

Dickson is the only known vendor who can provide the required software licenses and hardware.

 The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334513, Instruments and Related Products Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying, and Controlling Industrial Process Variables, with a size standard of 750 employees. 

A determination by the Government not to complete with the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.  Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

No solicitation package will be issued.  This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations.  However, responses received by June 11, 2026, 8:00 am, ET will be considered by the Government.