Renewal of Chicago-Soft Software Maintenance
Agriculture (all) · USDA, OCP-POD-ACQ-MGMT-BRANCH-FTC
Capture briefs (a one-page, shareable copy of this page) are part of Pro. The CSV here holds the notice, its timeline and past awards.
Where this opportunity stands
Every notice posted under solicitation AG-1177593 in this department, oldest first.
- Sep 18, 2026 · this noticeSpecial Notice
Next steps for this stage
Standard steps for the notice type; not advice about this buyer.
- Answer the notice: this is when the requirement can still be shaped.
- Contact the contracting officer named on the notice.
- Check who won similar work; they are the likely bidders.
What the notice says
The United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Chief Information Officer, Digital Infrastructure Services Center (DISC) intends to award a purchase order on a Sole Source bases to Chicago Soft for the RENEWAL of our current MVS/QuickRef Mainframe Software. The USDA mainframe platform relies on these specific tools and cannot function without their maintenance and support. Chicago Soft, LTD. is the proprietary owner of these software products. MVS/Quick-Ref is a mainframe product that provides instant online access to message descriptions and programming information on MVS systems. As l… (show all)
icensed products, this software is proprietary and has various legal restrictions for use and maintenance. Only the software developer has the rights to the source code. The source code is required to make changes and corrections to the software. No other source is authorized for license, maintenance, and technical support of this proprietary software. In addition, only the developer has the expertise to provide the maintenance required for the software. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS/QUOTE. Responsible sources may submit a capability statement in response to this requirement. Any response must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. In doing so, interested sources must submit technical capabilities, pricing, and other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the Governments Requirement by the posted deadline. A determination by the Government to compete the requirement based on the responses to this Special Notice is solely the discretion of the Government. All information received from this notice shall be used for planning and market research purposes only. The Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or use of such information.
Who won similar work
3 award notices on SAM.gov in the last 24 months. Matched by: Same office (USDA, OCP-POD-ACQ-MGMT-BRANCH-FTC), same product/service code (PSC) 7A21.
Single-winner award sizes (3): middle half $261K to $1.5M, median $437K; range $85K to $2.5M.
| Winner | Awards | Value | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom, LLC · $FTHM · $335.2M | 1 | $2.5M | Sep 8, 2026 |
| FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT AND BENEFITS INSTITUTE, L.L.C. | 1 | $437K | Jun 1, 2026 |
| DATACAMP, INC | 1 | $85K | Aug 25, 2025 |
Value counts single-winner awards. "Shared" awards are multiple-award contracts that list every winner with the same total ceiling; that ceiling is not one company's win, so it is not added in. Revenue next to a ticker is the company's last annual revenue from its 10-K.
- $FTHM reported $335.2M revenue in FY2025. The median single-winner award in these 3 past awards, $437K, is 0.1% of that. 10-K
One award's total value against one year of revenue; many awards are paid over several years.
- Sep 8, 2026Fathom, LLC$2.5MPRATUS Platform Training and ImplementationMateriality: 0.74% of $FTHM revenue (Low) SEC
- Jun 1, 2026FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT AND BENEFITS INSTITUTE, L.L.C.$437KFinancial Literacy, Retirement and Thrift Savings Plan eLearning Course ContentNo listed company matched (Materiality N/A)
- Aug 25, 2025DATACAMP, INC$85KDATACAMPNo listed company matched (Materiality N/A)
Materiality: one award's value as a share of the winner's revenue over the latest 12 months in its SEC filings (or its last fiscal year, as noted when you point at it). Low under 1%, Medium 1 to 5%, High 5% or more. Many awards are paid over several years, so this overstates a single year's share.
Competitive landscape
For the 3 most frequent past winners above. Lobbying is matched by the company's exact name or exact ticker; agencies are as named on the filings.
- 0 of these past winners lobbied Agriculture, Dept of (USDA) since 2024 (0 filings)
- 0 of their lobbyists list a past Agriculture, Dept of (USDA) job
- No corporate PAC money from them to the overseeing committees since 2024
- 0 foreign-agent (FARA) registrations
Policy around it
Bills the past winners named while lobbying this agency's issues, rules from the department, and executive orders that name the agency, last 12 months.
- 0 bills named on the past winners' lobbying filings
- 132 rules from the department in the last 12 months
- 0 executive orders naming the agency in the last 12 months
Market
For past winners matched exactly to a listed company. Insider trades are open-market buys and sells (Form 4) in the last 90 days, shown as facts; our own study found insiders do not reliably buy ahead of awards. A sale marked 10b5-1 was made under a trading plan set up in advance.
- 1 of the past winners are listed companies
- 0 insider buys and 0 insider sells at them in the last 90 days
Sources: SAM.gov notices and award notices; Senate LDA lobbying filings; FEC filings; FARA; Federal Register; congress.gov; SEC Form 4. Every row above links to its record.
Companies are matched to tickers by exact name only. A company we could not match shows no market rows; that is a miss, not a finding.