Questions and Answers_Part 2.pdf

Imaging Service Contract

# SECTION QUESTION

1 PWS Pg 2 PWS states “Contractor must be able to provide certified product training at the request of USDA-MNGDBL in support of the project.” Are you requesting training on how to use the searchable PDF file deliverables? Answer: only if the contractor uses a method of indexing files that needs explanation or training.

2 PWS Pg 2 Task 1.

The Tasks and Performance table references “Analysis of Existing System and development of plan.” What system will the contractor be analyzing? What plan are you requiring, a replacement plan? Answer: existing system refers to current method of storing paper documents and their organization.

3 General The quantities are unclear. The Background statement in the PWS states that half of the collection consisting of 1 million pages is complete where the pricing table asks for the Contractor to process 600,000 pages in the Base Year followed by 1.2 million in the 2023-2024 period and 1.2 million in the 2024-2025 period for a total of 3 million pages. Answer: the number of pages per document year is unknown. Approximately 1 million were processed in the first year. It is expected that approximately the same number may be expected to be processed in each year Please clarify what the total number of pages and images for autofeed and the total for glass work will be for each contract year. Answer: we don’t know. They types are mixed and will need to be evaluated sheet by sheet.

4 General A standard Bankers Box will hold approximately 2200 sheets of paper. Based on 600,000 pages for packing in the Base Year, this will require 272 boxes and the second and third year will require 545 boxes each year. Do these estimates reflect the pulling, packing and transport requirements? Answer:

The quantity would be no less than 600,000 and could approach 1 million pages (double-sided page = 2 pages). Documents should not be removed from current contains for which approximately 5 per banker’s box will fit.

Inside current magazine style boxes may be 50 to 75 documents containing an undetermined number of pages.

5 General Can all of the documents for each contract year be picked up at one time?

No. We would expect that approximately 1/3 of the material be picked up at at a time as this is a working collection that is in use. This will hopefully minimize disruption.

6 PWS Pg 2 Task 2.

Where will the Contractor be pulling the documents from….file cabinets, all in one area or multiple areas? Answer: library style compactor shelves in one room for first year. In another room the second year.

7 PWS Pg 2 Task 2.

Are all of the documents to be pulled stored in file folders? Answer: No. None are in file folders for first year’s work. All are stored in magazine style cardboard boxes.

8 PWS Pg 2 Task 2.

Will the Contractor be required to provide the packing boxes? Answer: yes

9 General Can we schedule a day this week to visit the site to review the documents?

Answer: no due to some construction/repair work the area is closed.

However, photos have been provided.

1) Could you please clarify how the Imaging Technician I fits into the overall project? Such that, that role is only allotted for 400 hours for the glass scanner. It is estimated that there will be 300,000 documents. 300,000 / 400 = 750 per hour. If that is broken up over the 5 year span of the project that 150 documents scanned each hour. This doesn’t include prep time to handle these documents gently to ensure they are not damaged. Plus, what personnel is accounted for feeding the 300,000 through the sheet feeder scanner. Then ensuring all are named properly and loaded correctly into the proper digital location. Answer: all work other than handling the fragile documents on the scanner can be priced out as the contractor sees fit for the bid. 400 hours is an estimate. It is an unknown quantity and difficult to estimate.

2) Are there multiple Imaging Technicians envisioned for the project? Answer: This is at the discretion of the contractor.

3) Is it envisioned that the 400 hours would be used over the course of an entire year or a 400 hour sprint over 3 months? Answer: Unknown – depends on the number of documents requiring special handling.

4) Is the transport to and from the facility considered within the 400 hours? Answer: No

5) Is the unpacking and initial triage of the documentation into imaging treatment (i.e. glass scanned vs. sheetfed scanned) counted as well? Answer: No.

6) Our company submitted a proposal for this collection in 2021. Please let us know so we can fully understand the complexity of work if the awarded vendor to the 2021 solicitation is able to bid on this solicitation; also, what is the reason for not exercising the renewal options? This requirement does have renewal options. Please see the attached price schedule.

7) May we utilize the answers to questions and photographs provided for the 2021 solicitation in preparing our response to this 2022 solicitation? No, this solicitation is independent of previous solicitations

8) Please confirm that this project is for offsite work at contractor’s facility. The answer would be yes to off-site work.

9) Since materials are not described in this solicitation, please provide clarification and description of the remaining collection that has not yet been digitized. Are they aged and fragile or in good condition? A mix of aged and fragile, requiring individual scans, and more recent and robust.

Q& A PART II

• Items 2 & 3 (on the Pricing Sheet) – both have the same volume, but 75% is on line 2 and

25% on line 3 It should be 50/50 for #2 & 3, but those are only estimates and the double vs single sided issue is also unknown.

• Line 7 (on the Pricing Sheet) – Is this in addition to Line 3 or an alternative? that is an estimate related to #3 as this would be the person (s) doing the manual glasswork scanning.

• Per scope of work under ( Task and performance measure ) that mentioned ( Pull documents and transport to scanning facility ) , So where is the location of scanning facility ? or that mean ( Contractor facility ) ? Answer: Contractor facility

• Per scope of work under ( Task and performance measure ) that mentioned ( Safe transport and return of documents to USDA-MNGDBL ) , So Does it mean from our facility to MNGDL ? Answer: Yes

• Per scope of work under ( Government Furnished Property ) that mentioned ( MNGDBL will provide workspace consisting of a room, desk or bench and office chairs for onsite work, if necessary, in addition to the documents to be scanned ) , So will scan in our facility or MNGDBL facility ? Answer: Contractor facility

• Is this work currently being performed by contractors or Government personnel? Answer:

No

• Is this a recompete contract? This is a new solicitation with option years, please see solicitation RFQ12305B22Q0206 on Sa,.gov

• Who is the incumbent contractor? ImageWorld Technologies

• What is the current staffing level? Answer: unknown.

• How many employees do the Government require to perform the work? Answer: TBD by contractor.

• Are security clearances required for personnel performing the work? Answer: No. A visitor pass will be required when on-site picking up and returning documents, but no clearance is required.

• As stated in the PWS, the Government will provide room, desk or bench and office chairs for onsite work if necessary; will Government provide equipment to scan documents while working onsite? Answer: No scanning expected to be done onsite. Desk or office chairs are provided as an option if the contractor needs to examine documents as they are packed into boxes for transportation to Contractor’s site.

• When does the anticipate awarding the contract? September 2022

• On SAM description page it mentions the Place of Performance as Beltsville, MD while the SOW talks about pulling the documents and transporting to scanning facility, Can you please confirm if the work can be done Off-site at Contractor’s facility? Answer: The work can be done at the Contractor's facility off-site.

• Will the files need to be restapled/reclipped after they are digitized as per original, or can we simply put them in order as received? Answer: The pages should be clipped together or separated in some manner.

• Is this a new requirement? This is a new contract with option years.

• Is there an Incumbent currently providing similar services to USDA? If yes, can you provide the contractor’s name and contract details? The incumbent is ImageWorld Technologies Contract 12305B21P0188

• Pricing Schedule Item 2 – If 75% of the total pages are Auto Feed and the total Quantity is 600,000, the Auto Feed Quantity would be 450,000 instead of 300,000. Can you revise that? Answer: these numbers are only approximated. We do not know how many actual pages exist.

• Pricing Schedule Item 3 – If 25% of the total pages are Glasswork and the total Quantity is 600,000, the Glasswork Quantity would be 150,000 instead of 300,000. Can you revise that? Answer: the total pages are likely closer to 50 to 75% glasswork. Any answer will be an estimate only.

• Pricing Schedule Sept. 2023-2024 and Sept. 2024-2025, Based on total page count to be 600,000 Images can you correct the 75% Auto Feed and 25% Glasswork Quantity?

Answer: the total pages are likely closer to 50% to 75% glasswork. Any answer will be an estimate only.

• Can you provide an example of how the files would be indexed? Answer: By name of file, which would be “author name(s) year,” as handwritten at the top of first page of document.

• Would USDA provide Boxes or would that be contractor’s responsibility? Answer:

Contractor’s responsibity to provide banker type boxes.

• What percentage of documents are Double Sided? Answer: unknown, perhaps 75% or more.

• Are most documents of Letter Size or Legal Size? Answer: letter size to 5” x 8”

• What Percentage of documents are larger than 11*17 and would require digitization using Large format scanner? Answer: None to our knowledge.

• Our current run-rate and throughput is approximately 30,000 images per week utilizing 1 rotary scanner and 1 flatbed scanner utilizing 2 clerks. For the Base Year, we estimate completion within 20 weeks at this rate. Upon project start date, will all materials be available for scanning or will the materials be provided on a more staggered timeframe, i.e., will USDA only provide a limited number of documents on a weekly basis? If the documents will be limited, approximately how many will staff provide on a weekly basis? Answer: USDA will provide approximately 200-300 magazine style boxes at a time, which might correspond to approx. 1 month’s worth of work at a time.

• Can post-processing (OCR and data entry) be completed off-site? If no, can you confirm the square footage of the space that will be provided? Answer: all work is to be done off-site.

• Can you confirm that all pages are single-sided and black & white? Answer: No. many are double-sided. All can be scanned in b/w as the vast majority of are b/w, if not all.

• Can you confirm that all physical documents must be scanned onsite? Answer: No. Work would be performed at Contractor’s facility.

• How many documents/pages may be picked up at one time? We need an estimate of the number of trips required in order to provide an accurate estimate of cost. Answer: The number of pages is unknown, but approximately 200 magazine style boxes could be picked up at once.

• The contractor will box the documents. Will the contractor be expected to provide the boxes. Answer: Yes. USDA however does not wish to retain the transport boxes.

• Do you anticipate a minimum of 600,000 pages in base year? Answer: approximately so, with some being double-sided and some single sided.

• The solicitation indicates the government will provide a workspace. Please confirm that transporting documents to the contractor's facility for processing is acceptable. Answer:

Yes transport to contractor's facility is expected. Workspace is provided if needed when picking up or returning boxes.

• Are there oversized documents? If so, what is the largest size anticipated? Will there be any documents larger than 11 x 17? Answer: Documents will be in the 5”x8” to letter-sized range. No legal or larger sizes are expected.

• What % of documents are oversized (larger than 8 1/2 x 14)? Answer: None.

• Would you describe the removing of staples, paperclips, etc. as:light litigation (few staples/clips)? Answer: Likely one staple or clip per document. Very few with more.

• medium litigation (multiple staples, clips, sticky notes)? or high litigation (lot of staples/clips, etc.)? Answer: Likely one staple or clip per document. Very few with more

• Will the contractor be expected to reassemble the files (reclip, re-staple, etc.)? Answer:

either reclipping (restapling not necessary or a divider page between documents.

• The government states “optical character recognition”, does that simply mean that it’s to be scanned and convert to PDF files? Answer: Yes. Conversion to text recognition PDF.

• Per the SOW, “Successful production of PDF and text-based files”, does the documents also need to be converted to text-based files like MS Word and etc.? Answer: No. CSV or text-based index file by name of document and folder (box name).

• What is the preferred naming convention of the files? Can the government please provide a sample?

• Is the government looking for indexing to be done in Excel? Can the government confirm that the metadata of each document is included in the indexing? Beside “author, date, and literature number”, are there other metadata needed? Answer: No other metadata are required. Indexed would be by folder/box name and file name.

• In the pricing table, “Glasswork - Scanning into B&W - 300 dpi Multipage PDF. Approx 600,00 pages - 25%”, what does the 25% mean? Does it mean approximately 150,000 of 600,000 pages will require glasswork? Answer: this is an estimate. Uncertainty exists as to the actual numbers and it is likely that closer to 50% will require glasswork (perhaps 300,000 individual pages which may be double or single sided.

600,00 pages - 25%’’, the units states ‘’300,000 pages’’. Is that a typo? Can the government please clarify on how ‘’300,000 pages’’ came about? Answer: Some uncertainty exists due to the potential numbers of double-sided vs. single-sided pages.

• Base on the pricing table, it appears that the goal/mission is to scan 30,000 files per year (which includes about 600,00 pages). Can the government please verify? Answer: we anticipate approximately 30,000, which may contain 600,000 or so double-sided pages on average. Actual quantities unknown.

• The government states “optical character recognition”, does that simply mean that it’s to be scanned and convert to PDF files? Answer: Yes, PDFs that have been converted from image based to searchable text

• Per the SOW, “Successful production of PDF and text-based files”, does the documents also need to be converted to text-based files like MS Word and etc.? Answer: No – text based refers to a basic index in CSV or similar format for contents of the boxes (files named as “Author name (s) Year” by folder name (box name/number)

• What is the preferred naming convention of the files? Can the government please provide a sample? Answer: Naming convention should be “Author name Year” as written at the tops of the documents

• Is the government looking for indexing to be done in Excel? Can the government confirm that the metadata of each document is included in the indexing? Beside “author, date, and literature number”, are there other metadata needed? Answer: No.

600,00 pages - 25%”, what does the 25% mean? Does it mean approximately 150,000 of 600,000 pages will require glasswork? Answer: Yes that is what was intended at the time;

however uncertainty exists as to how many will require glasswork as does how many are double-sided, so this could be as much as 50%.

600,00 pages - 25%’’, the units states ‘’300,000 pages’’. Is that a typo? Can the government please clarify on how ‘’300,000 pages’’ came about? Answer: This is an estimate only and uncertainty exists as to how many actual pages will need to be scanned.

• Base on the pricing table, it appears that the goal/mission is to scan 30,000 files per year (which includes about 600,00 pages). Can the government please verify? Answer: We believe that about 30,000 can be reasonably scanned given the fragile nature of some of the pages. Some pages are double-sided and some are single-sided leading to some of the discrepancies of numbers, as we can only estimate what is in the collection.