12314422Q0119 Attachment 2 Combined Synopsys and Solicitation.pdf

12314422Q0119 Attachment 2 Combined Synopsys and Solicitation

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial service prepared in accordance with the format in FAR subpart 12.06 and 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number is 12314422Q0119 and is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ). This solicitation document incorporates those provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2021-06. The associated NAICS Code is 519130 and the Small Business Size Standard is 1,000.

Any amendment and documents related to this procurement will be available electronically at the Government Point of Entry (beta.sam.gov).

Description of Work:

This is an annual subscription service providing monthly (and annual) official merchandise trade data by harmonized system (HS code) for imports/exports, covering approximately 100 countries accessed through a contractor's web-based interface. This includes all HS codes from the most general to the most detailed level available from each reporting country. Additionally, FAS requires the same data fed into its Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS) for use by internal users as well as access to customized reports and data extraction to include customer support and training.

Period of Performance: Base Period 9/1/2022 – 8/31/2023 Optional Period 1 9/1/2023 – 8/31/2024 Optional Period 2 9/1/2024 – 8/31/2025 Optional Period 3 9/1/2025 – 8/31/2026 Optional Period 4 9/1/2026 – 8/31/3027

The Contracting Officer (CO) is the only point of contact for this acquisition. All questions pertaining to this solicitation must contain reference to the solicitation number and must be submitted, in writing via e-mail to mandie.lee@usda.gov no later than 11 Aug 2022 @ 3:00pm Mountain. Questions with the Government’s responses will be issued within approximately 2 business days from the question submission due date. Please be advised that the Government reserves the right to transmit those questions and answers of a common interest to all prospective offerors. The Government will evaluate questions and answers to determine if a second round of questions is required. If the Government determines a second round of questions is required, that date will be identified via amendment.

The Government is not liable for any expenses incurred by the Offerors in developing and submitting proposals for this RFQ. Offerors shall ensure the Representations Regarding Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services found at Solicitation Provision FAR 52.204-24 are updated in their SAM record, included with their submitted quote. This rule prohibits contracting officers from issuing awards to contractors who certify they use any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services as a substantial or essential component of any system, or as critical technology as part of any system, unless an exception at FAR 4.2102(b) applies or a waiver is granted. A waiver is not expected to occur under this procurement.

STATEMENT OF WORK

See Attachment 1

QUOTE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Questions The Contracting Officer (CO) is the point of contact for this acquisition. Offerors shall submit any questions to the CO at the email address below.

Mandie Lee at mandie.lee@usda.gov

Quote Due-Date and Delivery All quotes must be submitted on or prior to August 18th 2022 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time / 3:00PM Mountain Time. USDA will not accept quotes received by fax or mail. Vendors are to submit quotes electronically by email only. Electronic quotes are to be delivered by the closing date and time as stated above.

Electronic Quotes shall be emailed to:

Mandie Lee at mandie.lee@usda.gov

The non-price evaluation factors quote shall describe how the Offeror shall perform the effort required in this RFQ.

Submission

Documents to be included in quote:

In order to be considered responsive, Offerors shall respond by:

1) Providing all associated documents identified in the attached clauses and provisions document, specifically 52.212-1 Instruction for the Preparation of Offers (Addenda).

2) Have an Active SAM.gov registration and complete the Representations in FAR 52.204-54;

the Representation and Certification section should also be completed electronically in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov.

3) Your submission MUST cite your company’s name, address, and company point of contact to include phone and email address in response to this RFQ.

4) Submit the following:

mailto:mandie.lee@usda.gov mailto:mandie.lee@usda.gov http://www.sam.gov/

Non-Price Factor 1, Global Trade Data Access (Written and Demonstration)

The government will assess its level of confidence that the contractor will successfully perform the work through evaluation of the offeror’s response to both:

Written Submission Indicate how trade database satisfies SOW’s section 3, Data Requirements / Tasks.

In no specific order, the Government is specifically interested in:

• Ability of data to be incorporated into Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS)

• List of reporting countries specifying monthly and annual data updates

• Reliability o In the last 12-month period how many hours was your web-based interface down?

o Time required to upload new data, i.e. when published to when available o Data validation process

Demonstration (23 Aug 2022; 30 min)

The Government would like a demonstration of customization of reports, queries, and how information is brought into excel and resulting document. The Government is interested in available functionality, ease of use, and resulting formats for the following:

o Ability to create, run, and retrieve customized reports o Ability to create, run, and retrieve pre-set queries o Process to download data from system and resulting document format

Scheduling for the demonstration time will be set by the contracting officer after receipt of written submission. Times slots will be issued on first-come-first service basis.

Provide scheduling point of contact on your quote’s cover sheet.

The focus of this meeting is the customization features of the offered product. Presenters should not view this time as an opportunity to deviate into areas outside of system functionality. Offerors are reminded that this is a time-boxed event, and the offeror is encouraged to consider how information be adequately covered during the demonstration.

A general product overview may be given at the beginning of presentation with expected focus of presentation functions listed above.

The Government does not request artifacts, slides, or any other submission of information for the demonstration. Any written material submitted for this sub-factor either prior to or during demonstration WILL NOT BE EVALUATED. Only the content of the demonstration (verbal and direct visual demonstration) is being evaluated, and any material not verbally communicated during the demonstration will not be considered in the evaluation regardless of its presence in the visual field of the presenters such as text or other information in the background or otherwise virtual visual field of the evaluation team.

Offeror Participants: Offeror is limited to no more than three (3) virtual participants.

The Government intends for the demonstration to be a demonstration with interactive dialogue between the offeror and the Government that would also demonstrate how the vendor would work with the Government if awarded. These exchanges are viewed as a component of the demonstration itself and do not constitute formal exchanges.

The Government intends for the demonstration to proceed as follows: The demonstration will be a maximum of 30 minutes inclusive of interactive dialogue and Q&A between the offeror and the Government.

Rules of Engagement:

1. The Government WILL NOT ask questions about information contained in offeror’s submission for Non-Price Factor 2, Customer Service Experience.

2. The Offeror may not generally ask questions during the demonstration. Any questions asked must be directed to the Contracting Officer and should only deal with logistics and conduct of the demonstration.

3. Demonstrations do not constitute formal exchanges. The Government will not ask questions that will invite or allow the offeror to change its offer. The Offeror shall not volunteer any information that might be construed as changing its offer.

4. Offeror can expect the demonstration to be conducted via Zoom.gov hosted by the Contracting Officer.

5. The Government will not record the demonstration. The offeror shall not record any portion of the demonstration.

Non-Price Factor 2, Customer Service Experience (Written) The government will further assess its level of confidence that the contractor will successfully perform the work through evaluation of the offeror’s customer service experience. Specifically in the areas of response rate and training. Provide two instances of experience servicing a government agency in the areas of customer service for your offered Global Trade Data Access:

o For each instance, provide your company’s response rate to include average response time and average resolution. Indicate for these instances how your company has met or exceed SOW’s paragraph 6.0, Customer Support.

o For each instance, indicate how your company met or exceeded SOW’s paragraph 5.0, Training, and paragraph 9.0, Deliverables/Schedule, item number 14, Training.

Offerors must also include the following details for each prior experience referenced in the written response to the questions above:

a) Client organization name and client contact information (name, email, phone)

b) Contract or Task Order Number

c) Period of Performance

d) Objective of the prior project and team compositions/roles

The Government may contact the client point of contact for each Customer Service Experience example. It is the offeror’s responsibility to ensure the information provided is current.

Price The Offeror shall provide firm-fixed price (FFP) for each 12-month period as indicated under Delivery for Base and each Optional Period.

The Offeror shall identify any assumptions, conditions, or exceptions related to price, payment, or schedule in their quote. Offeror is responsible for their mathematical computations.

Price quotes are evaluated for reasonableness by comparing proposed prices received in response to the RFQ and may be compared to the Independent Government Estimate (IGE). Price shall be considered in conjunction with the non-price factors to determine the quote offering the best value to the Government.

Response Page Limits Please limit the submission to the following:

• Cover letter: 1 page. Must include identifiable information to include company’s Unique Entity ID (UEI) and the name, email, phone for point of contact to schedule demonstration.

• Non-price factor 1: Max 10 total pages, 8 1/2 x 11, 1 in margins, 11 Calibri

• Non-price factor 2: Max 6 total pages 8 1/2 x 11, 1 in margins, 11 Calibri

• Price: 1 total page

Basis for Contract Award

The USDA will select the offeror whose overall quote is determined to be the Best Value consistent with the evaluation criteria and in the best interest of the USDA. For purposes of this RFQ, Best value means the expected outcome of an acquisition that, in the Government's estimation, provides the greatest overall benefit in response to the requirement. The Government may elect to award to other than the lowest priced quote, or to other than the highest technically rated, based on the results of the tradeoff analysis between non-price and price factors.

Offerors should propose their best approach to meeting the requirements of the RFQ. The Government anticipates selecting the best-suited Offeror from initial responses, without engaging in formal exchanges with Offerors. Offerors are strongly encouraged to submit their best technical approach and price in response to this RFQ.

Evaluation of Quotes

In accordance with FAR 13.106-2, The Government will be considering the following:

• Nonprice Factor 1, Global Trade Data Access (Written and Demonstration)

• Non-Price Factor 2, Customer Service Experience

• Price All factors, Non-Price and Price, are considered equal.

The Government will consider the benefits and risks associated with the Offeror’s proposed approaches to arrive at a confidence assessment of the Offeror’s likelihood of successfully performing the work and meeting the requirements of the RFQ. The table below shows the ratings the Government will assign in its evaluation of these factors.

All factors, Non-Price and Price, are considered equal.

The confidence ratings are defined as follows:

Table 1:

High Confidence (Low Risk)

The Government has high confidence the vendor understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the contract with little or no Government intervention.

Some Confidence (Moderate Risk)

The Government has some confidence the vendor understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the contract with some Government intervention.

Low Confidence (High Risk)

The Government has low confidence the vendor understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, or will be successful in performing the contract even with Government intervention.

Evaluation Approach

Non-Price Factor 1, Global Trade Data Access (Written and Demonstration) The government will assess its level of confidence that the contractor will successfully perform the work through evaluation of the offeror’s response to both:

• Written

• Demonstration

Non-Price Factor 2, Customer Service Experience (Written) The government will assess its level of confidence that the contractor will successfully perform the work through evaluation of the offeror’s customer service experience.

Specifically in the areas of response rate and training.

Price

No rating assigned

End of Synopsys and solicitation