Amendment_001_Attachment_II_-_Basis_for_Award_Evaluation_Criteria_and_Required_Submissions.pdf

1333ND18QNB730411

Attachment II - Evaluation Criteria, Basis for Award, and Instructions to Offerors Amendment 001

I. EVALUATION CRITERIA

The Government intends to use a cost/technical tradeoff process to award a single Task Order to the responsible Offeror whose quotation represents the best value to the Government, cost/price and other factors considered. The Government reserves the right to make an award to other than the lowest-cost/priced Offeror or to the Offeror with the highest technical rating if the Contracting Officer determines that doing so would result in the best value to the Government. The Contracting Officer intends to award without discussions, but reserves the right to initiate discussions if necessary.

Upon receipt of quotations, the Contracting Officer will review them to determine if each Offeror followed all of the quotation preparation/submission instructions in this solicitation. A quotation that did not follow the proposal submission instructions to an extent that the Government cannot properly evaluate the quotation in accordance with the stated evaluation factors may be deemed unacceptable and may not be further evaluated.

Each quotation will be evaluated using the tradeoff method against the evaluation factors listed below. An Offeror’s failure to address any factor may be considered indicative of the Offeror’s lack of understanding of the Government’s requirements and may result in the quotation being determined unacceptable.

Non-price Factors A, B, and C are considered equal in importance. In determining best value, all non-price factors, when combined, shall be more important than price.

Factor A – Technical/Management Approach

Factor B – Past Performance

Factor C – Experience

Factor D – Price

Factor A: Technical/Management Approach

The Technical/Management Approach factor consists of three (3) sub-factors, considered equal in importance:

1) Sub-factor 1 – Technical Understanding: The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s overall understanding of the SOW, and the extent to which the Offeror has demonstrated the expertise and ability to perform the requirements of the SOW.

2) Sub-factor 2 – Management Approach/Management Plan: The Government will evaluate the extent to which the Offeror’s quotation demonstrates an effective and feasible approach for managing a team of personnel; tracking and reporting of project deliverables; resolving conflicts and mitigating delays; regularly engaging NIST research staff in a consistent, meaningful and effective manner on a daily basis.

3) Sub-factor 3 – Key Personnel: The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s proposed key personnel to determine the extent to which the proposed personnel are representative of the work to be performed under this requirement (i.e. personnel meet minimum Contractor qualifications identified within the SOW).

Factor B – Past Performance

Amendment 001

The Government will evaluate the Offeror's past performance information and, if appropriate, its proposed subcontractors' past performance to determine its relevance to the current requirement and the extent to which it demonstrates that the Offeror has successfully completed relevant contracts in the past three years. In assessing the Offeror's past performance information, the Government will evaluate, as appropriate, successful performance of contract requirements, quality and timeliness of delivery of goods and services, cost management, communications between contracting parties, proactive management and customer satisfaction. Evaluation of this factor will be based on information contained in the technical portion of the quotation and information provided by references. The Government will evaluate past performance information by contacting appropriate references, including NIST references, if applicable.

The Government may also consider other available information in evaluating the Offeror’s past performance.

NOTE -- If an Offeror does not have a history of relevant past performance, or if past performance information is not available, the Offeror will receive a neutral past performance rating.

Factor C – Experience

The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s relevant previous experience, either as a prime Contractor or as a subcontractor, in performing work on similarly scoped contract/orders completed or substantially completed within the past 5 years and have at minimum a Masters Degree (or equivalent) in physics, engineering, or computer science as stated in the SOW. An Offeror without a history of relevant experience may receive a lower rating for the experience evaluation factor.

The Government will further evaluate the Offeror’s submitted writing samples to the extent to which the Offeror has demonstrated experience writing about research results in the areas of physical sciences, electrical engineering, and information technology.

II. INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

ADDENDUM TO FAR 52.212-1: QUOTATION PREPARATION/SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Offerors shall submit their quotations in two separate volumes as detailed in this section of the solicitation.

Quotations shall be via e-mail to adam.powell@nist.gov no later than August 2928, 2018 5:00 p.m.

Eastern Time. Quotations received after this date/time will not be considered for award. It is the Offeror’s responsibility to ensure delivery of the quotation is on time and to confirm receipt of quotation delivery date and time. The email must reference the RFQ # in the subject line. Quotations shall remain valid for a minimum of 60 days from the date of receipt.

All quotations shall conform to solicitation provisions and be prepared in accordance with this section.

The quotation shall be clearly and concisely written as well as be neat - indexed (cross-indexed as appropriate) and logically assembled. All pages of the quotation shall be appropriately numbered. Page limits are provided below for the different sections as appropriate. In all sections of the Offeror’s quotation, the Offeror must use a font size of no smaller than 11-point, and must use margins of no smaller than 1 inch on top/bottom/left/right.

mailto:adam.powell@nist.gov

OVERALL ARRANGEMENT OF QUOTATIONS

VOLUME I – TECHNICAL VOLUME

There shall be no pricing information or labor rates included in the Technical Volume. Volume I shall include the responses to Factors A and B. The page limit for Factors A, B, C combined is 15 pages, excluding resumes, writing samples, cover letter and executive summary; any pages beyond the 15th page will not be evaluated. There is no page limit for Factor D. The Offeror’s quotation shall be clearly divided into the following distinct sections:

Note: The Table of Contents does not count against the 15-page limit.

A. Technical/Management Approach:

The Technical/Management Approach section of the quotation shall consist of the following three subsections:

1) Technical Approach: The Offeror shall include its technical approach to completing the requirements of the SOW. The technical approach shall demonstrate that the Offeror understands the requirements of the contract and demonstrate the Offeror’s expertise in the requirements.

2) Management Approach and Staffing Plan: The Offeror’s management approach shall demonstrate the Offeror’s approach for managing personnel, tracking and reporting of project deliverables. The management approach shall also describe the Offeror’s plan to resolve conflicts and mitigate delays, and their plan on how to regularly engage NIST research staff in a consistent, meaningful and effective manner.

3) Key Personnel: The Offeror shall provide resumes of its proposed key personnel that meet the

Contractor minimum qualifications included within the SOW. Each resume shall not exceed three

(3) pages. Each resume shall demonstrate the proposed individual’s ability to perform the role for which they are being proposed and their experience in performing the same or similar service. At a minimum, resumes shall include: 1.) Full name; 2.) Education; 3.) Chronological work experience (i.e. list of previous contracts worked on; reports; etc.).

B. Past Performance

The Offeror shall provide at least three examples of past performance conducted within the last three years of contracts of relevant work of a similar type and scope as the current requirement with federal, state or local Governments and/or commercial customers. If the Offeror has no relevant past performance it shall include a statement to that effect in its quotation. The Government reserves the right to consider past performance data obtained from sources other than those provided by the offeror in its quotation.

The description of each reference described in this section shall not exceed a half page. For each of the contracts, the offeror shall provide the following information:

• Contract number

• Client’s name and address

• Dollar value

• Period of performance

• Narrative describing the requirement and its relevance to the current requirement

• Name of contracting officer or point of contact, telephone number and e-mail address

The Offeror may include: a) past performance information regarding any problems encountered on the contracts described above and corrective actions taken to resolve those problems; and b) Any quality awards or certifications, letters of appreciation, commendations, industry recognition of excellence or special awards received with respect to performance of services. The Offeror shall describe when the award, certification, etc. was received, and may provide as an attachment to this part.

C. Experience

At a minimum, the Experience subsection shall provide examples of experience (either as a prime Contractor or as a significant subcontractor) in performing work on similarly sized and scoped contracts completed or substantially completed within the past 5 years.

The Offeror shall submit three (3) writing samples; no more than five (5) pages each. The writing samples shall demonstrate experience writing about research results in the physical sciences, electrical engineering, and information technology in an engaging journalistic style for lay readers.

VOLUME II – BUSINESS VOLUME

The Offeror shall also submit the following as part of Volume II:

The Offeror shall provide a firm-fixed price quotation for the solicitation. The price quotation shall include sufficient documentation that clearly demonstrates how the proposed firm-fixed price was calculated. The Contractor may include a Travel CLIN in the amount of $6,800.00 per contract period for pricing purposes.

Note: The business volume shall include a proposed payment schedule based on the deliverables included within the SOW.