Sec_E_00_Solicitation_Provisions-Contents.doc

Solicitation # 14-00103

SECTION E

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE/

SOLICITATION PROVISIONS

The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous and best value to the Government. The Government intends to award a task order without discussion with respective contractors. The Government, however, reserves the right to conduct discussions if deemed in its best interest. The evaluation process will assess technical quotes, rank the quotes by price, and assess relative risks This is a firm fixed-priced, best value, non severable service requirement.

The total page count of 45 pages shall include both quotes to include the past performance references, cover page(s) pricing summary, key resumes, etc.

Nathan Jackson

Contracting Officer

GSA/FAS

Phone: 312-886-2362

Email: nathan.jackson@gsa.gov All questions resulting from the RFQ shall be submitted in writing via e-mail to all individuals identified above by 27February 2013, 4:00 (CST). All questions received will be consolidated and a response will be issued via a RFQ amendment.

The Proposal is due by 27 February 2014, 4:00 (CST).

The quote shall reflect the complete price to perform the stated requirements. Quotes submitted shall be in sufficient detail to allow for thorough evaluation. The Government intends to award a task order without discussion with respective contractors. The Government, however, reserves the right to conduct discussions if deemed in its best interest.

Quotes will be evaluated on the following criteria:

STEP 1 (Technical) – Evaluate all non-price factors for each quote. Technical Evaluation (non-cost) factors are significantly more important than price. Award will be made based on a best value analysis using criteria in the following order of importance: Management Approach / Staffing Plan and Past Performance.

1. Management Approach:

(a) The Contractor’s technical quote shall address all key points in the PWS, showing an understanding of the requirement. It should also address any proposed deviations from the PWS as it is written by the Government, as an accepted quote will be incorporated into the contract by reference. The technical quote should specifically address the management approach in terms of staffing (process for dealing with employee turnover, handling leave, and recruiting / retaining qualified employees), proposed skill levels and mix of employees to fill the requirement, and quality control. The quote should also include key points of contact from the standpoint of project management.

(b) The proposal should provide resumes for key personnel of the team who will be assigned this project. The evaluator will review the key personnel experience and check references where appropriate to ensure that the experience is really applicable to the project.

The key personnel shall include the required experience for the positions, resume or other documentation showing qualifications and experience performed by individual on the last two similar projects on which he / she was employed and the duties to be performed on this project.

2. Past Performance – The Contractor shall include information related to at least three projects similar in size and scope of this requirement. The past performance information shall include the contact title, brief contract description, contract value, dates of performance and a contracting point of contact from the client organization.

STEP 2 (Cost) – Evaluate reasonableness of all quotes, and then rank by total evaluated quote. The quote will be evaluated separately. Offerors are encouraged to provide discounts. The contractor quote shall include the items listed below. Failure to comply with all requirements listed below will render the quote non-responsive.

1. Periods of Performance. The contractor quote shall include a quote for the base performance period and each option identified in the following list. The Government is under no obligation to exercise the option periods.

Based Period – April 1, 2014 through September 30, 2014

Option 1- October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015

Option 2- October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016

Option 3- October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2017

Option 4- October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018

2. Contractor shall also provide cost breakdown per deliverable including an itemized cost breakdown by approved GSA Schedule Labor Task Category is also required. If another or alternative item name is to be used in the quote, please indicate its equivalent on schedule price list.

Per hour prices and hours to complete project by each labor/task category line item shall be listed. Total hours to complete the project shall also be included. Final quote must include overall total to complete all elements and must also be broken down by each deliverable.

The Contractor’s proposal shall identify the contract number, contract expiration date from which the pricing is being quoted, the applicable size standard, contractor’s TIN and DUNS codes, and confirm current registration in the CCR. The Contractor shall provide prices that are both reasonable and realistic. Discounts from existing scheduled contract prices are encouraged.

Pricing Proposal shall provide CLIN pricing structure. The following abbreviations are used in this schedule:

CLIN- Contract Line Item Number

FFP- Firm Fixed Price

FFP CLINs for Base Period of Performance:

Total FFP CLINs

FFP CLINs for Option Period Two:

Total FFP CLINs

FFP CLINs for Option Period Three:

Total FFP CLINs

FFP CLINs for Option Period Four:

Total FFP CLINs

STEP 3 – The contracting officer may limit the number of quotes in the competitive range to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among the most highly rated quotes.

STEP 4 – Technical – Cost Trade-off: Perform and document an integrated best value assessment of the evaluated offerors. This step identifies the process for the Technical Cost Trade-Off. The technical score is significantly more important than cost. Technical and Cost offers will be evaluated separately. The respective offeror’s technical scores will be ranked and then assessed against the total cost using a trade-off approach based on the relative risks and benefits of the individual offers. This trade-off will identify the best value offer to the Government. When making these trade-offs, the technical will be considered significantly more important than cost. The trade-off approach is explained as follows:

The offer (A) with the highest technical score/least risk will be considered first when making the best value determination. If the offer (A) with the highest technical score does not also have the lowest proposed cost, the Government will compare it with the second highest technical score (B), provided it (B) has a lower proposed cost than offer (A). The Government will determine if the higher technical score between these two offers is worth the additional cost offered by (A). If yes, the Government will proceed to compare offer A with the third highest technical offer (C) and perform the same analysis [comparing A to C]. This process will be repeated [A to D, A to E, etc.] with each offer unless an offer with a lesser cost is found whose technical score justifies the cost differential between offers. If none are found, the contractor offering the highest technical score will receive the task order award. If at any time an offer is found to have a technical score determined acceptable at a lower cost, the Government will continue the analysis in the same manner using the better valued offer in the equation (in place of A) to make the comparisons [e.g., B to C, B to D, etc.].

Funds are not presently available for RFQ and resultant award. No legal liability on the part of the Government for any payment may arise until funds are made available to the Contracting Officer for the resultant award and until the Contractor receives notice of such availability to be confirmed in writing by the Contracting Officer.

Source Selection Procedures

This procurement is conducted IAW FAR Part 8.405-3. There is no formal source selection. However, the Government will evaluate the response based on the evaluation criteria identified in the RFQ. This will be a best value procurement. The Government intends to award a task order without discussions if deemed in its best interest. The evaluation process will assess technical responses, rank the proposals by price and assess relative risks.

The award will be based on a best value determination. The FAR requires that the government evaluate competing quotes based solely on the factors described in the instruction to offerors. The Instructions to Offerors and Description of Evaluation Factors will be utilized for this commercial acquisition.