24-28-A-PMO-OITA ES TSM BPA_ IRS Responses to RFI QA_7-18-2024at.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 26 KB Posted
- Solicitation number
- 070924_TSMS
About this file
This document contains the questions and answers (Q&A) from a Request for Information (RFI) for Enterprise Services Technology Strategy and Management Support Services for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The RFI seeks industry information and expertise to provide end-to-end support to the IRS in improving its Digital Operations competency and delivering a full range of development and associated services.
Key details from the Q&A include:
- The RFI covers a range of NAICS codes including 541512, 523940, 611430, 518210, 541430, 541511, 541519, 541611, and 541618.
- The IRS has not yet determined if this will be a small business set-aside or full and open competition, or the number of expected awardees for the multi-award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA).
- This is a new requirement, with no incumbent contractor currently performing the work described in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).
- The PWS covers 8 task areas including project/program management, IT service delivery, technical strategy and integration, transition services, and training.
- The IRS plans to release the final Request for Proposal (RFP), but has not yet provided a timeline. The set-aside determination and estimated number of small business awards are also to be determined.
View the file
Other files
On GovTribe
Work with this file
- Download the original file
- Contacts named in this file
- Similar government files
- Ask GovTribe AI about this file
Text version
Q&A
| Question # | RFQ Section #, Title & Page | Question | Answer |
| 1 | Will the government please clairfy Question 3 of Part 1 of the sources sought questions? Are you asking the offerer for recommended NAICS codes other than those provided below within the sources sought document? NAICS Codes: |
• 541512 Computer Systems Design Services
• 523940 Portfolio Management and Investment Advice
| • 611430 Professional and Management Development Training | 518210 (Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting and Related Services). 541430 (Graphic Design Services). 541511 (Custome Computer Programming Services). 541519 (Other Computer Related Services). 541611 (Administrative Management and General Management Consulating Services). 541618 (Other Management Consulting Services). Offeror is not required to recommend more NAICS | |||
| 2 | Can the governement please identify where to submit this sources sought information? | Check out instructions and reach to POC | ||
| 3 | Page 1 section 1.2 | Is this solicitation targeted to Small Business (GSA MAS SB) or will it be full & open? | TBD | |
| 4 | Page 1 section 1.3 | How many awardees are contemplated for this multi-award BPA? | TBD | |
| 5 | Will the government please idenify the current incumbent(s) performing the work described in the PWS? | New requirement. No incumbent performing this work now | ||
| 6 | Page 35 section 4.1.3 | Please clarify, for the key personnel required (Program Manager - overall lead for the BPA), is this single FTE resource envisioned to be directly billable across multiple Call Orders, on a dedicated Call Order, or as a part of the vendor's cost? | for each Call Order | |
| 7 | Page 7 Section 3.4.1 | Does the government currently track metrics for desired dashboards? | The government currently tracks metrics but is open to more dashboard metrics | |
| 8 | Page 7 Section 3.4.1 | Will the government provide status of current documentation of processes? | Yes for each Call Order | |
| 9 | Page 8 Section 3.4.2 | Will the government clarify how many inter-agency connections would need to be developed? | No inter-agency connection needed for this BPA | |
| 10 | Page 10 Section 3.4.2 | How many legacy systems will need to be modernized as part of this effort? | TBD | |
| 11 | Page 11 Section 3.4.2 | How often does Enterprise Systems Testing occur? | As needed | |
| 12 | Page 13 Section 3.4.2 | How often does red-teaming programs/testing occur? | As needed | |
| 13 | Page 33 Section 3.5 | Will the government clarify the anticipated due date for the Quality Control Plan? It currently says "2 business days after" | 2 days from award | |
| 14 | The RFI define scope as “Offer technical strategy and integration support services ” (RFI Template page 4) yet on page 6 of the RFI Template and others within the RFI document itself, the government includes IVV and asks for experience providing IV&V services. Is the government’s intent to separate the areas of strategy/planning from execution and to have a separate I&V effort? If so, will this be executed under the same contract? | Verification and Validation (IV&V) efforts should be conducted for every task order and the same contract to establish or confirm accuracy, completeness, sufficiency, appropriateness, and/or effectiveness of IRS-selected elements including program solutions, designs, products, technologies, data, frameworks, processes, practices, and documentation. | ||
| 15 | PWS: 3.4.3 Task Area 3 | Delivery of Platforms with IT, BOD, and others, Page 14 states “The Contractor shall provide IRS with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) for Data Analytics Platforms (Tableau, Salesforce, SAP BO) on-prem and an optional assessment of whether Cloud migration is appropriate for the current platform”. Is the intent of the government to procure data analytics SaaS through this contract? | No, hardware/software/SaaS will have to be procured separately. We are looking to get Resources/SMEs to do the delivery through this BPA for various Asks. | |
| 16 | PWS: 3.4.4 Task Area 4 | Technical Strategy and Integration, page 18 - can the government clarify the scope of “Conduct FS 24/7 support during Filing Season”? | During FS, the government requires support and responsiveness 24/7 to remediate P1 and P2 incidents to reduce/avoid work stoppage | |
| 17 | When does the IRS plan to release the Final RFP? | TBD | ||
| 18 | Will the IRS consider a set-aside for small business/8(a)? | TBD | ||
| 19 | If the IRS is planning on awarding to small business, how many small business awards will be made? | TBD | ||
| 20 | How many Call Orders are expected to be made? | As necessary | ||
| 21 | PWS 2.1 | Section 2.1 states "see Section III below." On page 3, Section III is identified as Section 3.0. Recommend replacing Section III with Section 3.0. | ||
| 22 | PWS 1.3, 3.5 and 4.3.1 | Sections 1.3, 3.5 and 4.3.1 state "Section IV" implies it covers 508, Treasury and IRS-Specific Clauses, Post Award Conference. Recommend adding a clauses section or correcting the reference. | Deleted these statements.Clause section will appear in contract | |
| 23 | PWS 3.3 | Section 3.3 identified Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) processes. These processes have been replaced by the One Solution Delivery Life Cycle (OneSDLC). Recommend changing ELC to One Solution Delivery Life Cycle (OneSDLC) and replacing other instances of ELC with OneSDLC. | CORRECT. Changed | |
| 24 | PWS 3.4.2 | Section 3.4.2 states that "Contractor shall leverage the metrics within the constructed standardized frameworks to optimize development cycle time.". We recommend that the government identify the specific "constructed standardized frameworks". | The requirement will be described more sepcifically in each Call Order | |
| 25 | 3.4.2 | Third bullet states "AD" initiatives, processes and practices. Should this be ES and AD initiatives, processes and practices as this effort focuses on the Enterprise Services? | Yes. Changed | |
| 26 | 3.4.3 | Please confirm that the contractor will be required to procure the Platform Software/Platform as a Service licenses. Describe how the "Pay-As-You-Go" mode will be executed. | TBD | |
| 27 | 3.4.3 | Please define which "IRS roadmaps" are included in this effort. | Will be described in the Call Order for each requirement | |
| 28 | 3.4.3 | It indicates that "Service Level Agreements (SLAs): to follow IRS SLAs outlining the levels of service and support they will provide, including response times, availability guarantees, and performance metrics.". Please define the IRS SLAs for this effort. | Will be described in the Call Order for each requirement | |
| 29 | 3.4.3 | Under the ATO (Authority to Operate) Preparation bullets, it states that contractor will "Collaborate with agency security teams to address any security requirements and concerns. Please identify the agency security teams (any organization outside of IRS CYBER) identified here. | None. Collaborating with IRS Security Teams | |
| 30 | 3.4.5 | Identify the time period in number of days to complete the ramp-up and ramp-down activities, | Will be described in the Call Order for each requirement as a Deliverable | |
| 31 | 3.4.9 | Knowledge Incident/Problem Service Asset Management (KISAM) has been replaced by ServiceNow. Recommend ServiceNow replace the Knowledge Incident/Problem Service Asset Management (KISAM). | Agree. Changed | |
| 32 | 4.4.5 | Section 4.4.5 states "The text of the IRS-specific clauses is in Section 4.8, below." Recommend adding a section 4.8. to the PWS with the IRS-specific clauses or correct the reference. | Statement deleted. Clauses will be added to the contract | |
| 33 | Is there any limit to the response for each of the questions in the Excel response template? | No | ||
| 34 | Could the agency confirm where/to whom we need to submit the RFI response Matrix? | Yes | ||
| 35 | How is the agency planning to respond to the questions? Would it be released on the Sam.gov portal or will we receive the answers via email? | Amendment to the RFI | ||
| 36 | PWS, 3.5 Deliverables | Anticipated Due Date /Frequency (Subject to Change as Specified in Each call order) Will the IRS differentiate between BPA and TO deliverables for this section? | Yes. Specific deliverables will be listed in the Call Order for each requirement | |
| 37 | PWS, 3.4.9 Training | 3.4.9 TrainingSection 3.4.9 has a description, activities, and desired outcomes. Based on these elements, should this be Task Area 9 Training? Should this be included in QASP? | No. Training is part of the 8 task areas. | |
| 38 | PWS 3.4.10 Technologies, Standards, and Processes | PWS 3.4.10 Technologies, Standards, and ProcessesThis section does not appear to be a task. Should it be moved up in the PWS within the 3.2 Objectives as section 3.2.3? | No. It is a task because it requires the Contractor to work with several listed technologies | |
| 39 | 4.5.3 Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan and Acceptable Quality Levels, Task Area 9 | Task Area 9, Development, Modernization and Enhancement (DME)Should this be Task Area 9 Training? | Thank you. Deleted. It was extra. There are only 8 task areas. | |
| 40 | PWS Section 3.4.3 Task Area 3: Delivery of Platforms with IT, BOD, and others | 3.4.3 Task Area 3: Delivery of Platforms with IT, BOD, and othersManaged Services tasks are in both Task area 3 and Task area 5. Having the tasks and desired outcomes in a single task will remove the redundancy when developing a response for quotation. | Task Area 3 and Task Area 5 are different | |
| 41 | PWS Section 3.4.5 Task Area 5: Transition Services, Managed Services, and Surge Support | The Contractor shall provide IRS with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) for Data Analytics Platforms (Tableau, Salesforce, SAP BO) on-prem and an optional assessment of whether Cloud migration is appropriate for the current platform. Consequently, IRS capability to define relationships among different IT platforms would be enhanced so that it starts efficiently monitoring interdependencies and evaluating operational solutions. The new tools would integrate with IRS governance standards and enterprise technology domain architectures to help drive requirements management for most of IT and enterprise architecture endeavors.Will the IRS consider consolidating the managed services activities and desired outcomes into a single task area? | No | |
| 42 | PWS Section 3.4.1 Task Area 1: Project and Program Management Support | Providing the Managed Service Provider (MSP) for Tableau, Salesforce, and SAP BO platforms to support and maintain the platforms’ IT infrastructure. With these new models, IRS can get reduced IT overhead, proactive monitoring, increased scalability, access to expertise, and predictable costs. | No | |
| 43 | Maintain Data Analytics Platform (Tableau) System Integrity. he IRS and the public rely on the Data Analytics Platform (Tableau) for business insights through Dashboards. The Contractor is responsible for ensuring that the Data Analytics Platform (Tableau) environment and all applications are fully functional and operational, are maintained to support existing technology, and are online 99% of the time (downtime is minimized). IRS Management shall decide on all issues regarding the operations and maintenance of the Data Analytics Platform (Tableau). It will communicate to the Contractor any expectations for task delivery or completion. | No | ||
| 44 | 3.4.5 Task Area 5: Transition Services, Managed Services, and Surge Support As for managed services, it is defined under TSM as IT software services where it is determined that a total vendor solution is the most beneficial to the government. Under this task, the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating need for providing oversite, management, and resources to requisite work as specified within a given Call order becomes the responsibility of the vendor with limited government oversite. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) will be determined at the Call order level. The SLA will define the level of service expected, laying out the metrics by which that service is measured, and the remedies or penalties, if any, should the agreed-on service levels not be achieved. Adopting managed services is intended to be an efficient way to stay up to date on technology, have access to needed skills and address issues related to cost, quality of service and risk. | No | ||
| 45 | PWS Section 3.4.1 Task Area 1: Project and Program Management Support | Implement a test plan(s) that conform to IRS test procedures. The primary objective of the system test is to validate that the software and database meet the specified requirements of the customer and will perform satisfactorily in the customer’s environment. For this BPA, Project Management Support is defined as internal support to each respective task-order. Please confirm that test plan(s) are part of Task Area 8 Enterprise Services and not Task Area 1. | Test Plans are part of all Task Areas | |
| 46 | Is there a forecast of license consumption that can be shared with the respondents? Any detailed information or projections would greatly aid in our planning and response process. | No, Licensing procurement for Products/Hardware/Software is not part of this BPA | ||
| 47 | What are the expectations for small business utilization for this contract? Understanding this will help us align our proposal with your requirements. | TBD | ||
| 48 | Task Area 1: Project and Program Management Support is likely supported by firms with a 541611 NAICS. Is the government willing to consider responses from firms with this NAICS along with the others listed? | Yes. Added to Question 1 Answer | ||
| 49 | Would you please provide set-aside for this opportunity? | TBD | ||
| 50 | Would you please provide an approximate timeline for the RFP release? | TBD | ||
| 51 | Can the IRS represent platforms, vendors or third party tools that support OneSDLC or are they proprietary? | TBD | ||
| 52 | There are a number of vendors that market low and no code platforms. Is there an already utilized no or low code platform in place? | Yes | ||
| 53 | Can the IRS represent platforms, vendors, or third party tools that support OneSDLC applied to testing or are they proprietary? | TBD | ||
| 54 | There are a number of CTI tools, platforms, API services (from TAPI, TSAPI to SIP ...) to vendors and services providers (Cisco WebEx, MS Teams). Is there a specific communication server that is in place that is required to be integrated with and supported? Is this a requirement for customer support or modernized application support? | This is a requirement for modernized application support.Yes (Cisco, MS Teams, and others) | ||
| 55 | Is there a current legacy modernization vendor that provides tools to support current tailored IRS standards? | No | ||
| 56 | Task Area 1 | Project and Program Management Support is likely supported by firms with a 541611 NAICS. Is the government willing to consider responses from firms with this NAICS along with the others listed | Yes. Added to Question 1 Answer | |
| 57 | Is there a forecast of license consumption that can be shared with the respondents? Any detailed information or projections would greatly aid in our planning and response process. | No, Licensing procurement for Products/Hardware/Software is not part of this BPA | ||
| 58 | What are the expectations for small business utilization for this contract? Understanding this will help us align our proposal with your requirements | This will be a Small Business Contract | ||
| 59 | Would you be able to provide an estimate of the solicitation timeline and award timeline? I saw 09/24 and 11/24 respectively, is that accurate? | TBD | ||
| 60 | Would a good estimate be around $34M? (Getting that from the average of the listed NAICS code) | TBD | ||
| 61 | What is the contract type? PWS says BPA, is that still correct? | Yes | ||
| 62 | What vehicle are you closest looking at? | TBD | ||
| 63 | What is the set-aside expected to be? | TBD | ||
| ERROR:#REF! | And is the period of performance still 5 years, with 1 year base and 4 option years? | Yes |
File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated .