Questions_&_Answers_Solicitation_140F0119Q0253_final.pdf

Questions for Solicitation 140F0119Q0253

Note that a small number of contractor questions were not included here because they were deemed as redundant.

1) PWS Section 3.5 states “Most web management, design, writing, editing and updating will take place remotely at the contract holder’s place of business,” and Section 5.1 states “most services can be carried out remotely.” Is it possible that this position could be 100% remote, as long as the government’s requirement that “communication between SFWO staff and the contractor must be robust with the contract holder meeting deadlines and responding promptly to communication via phone, email, or other channels of communication” is met?

Yes, this account can be managed remotely.

2) PWS Section 5.1 states “the contract will be part-time as needed, approximately 10-20 hours per week for one year, and is renewable for up to 4 years.” Can the government please clarify how the 10-20 hours per week will be allocated (e.g., will it be a steady 4 hr/day, 5 days a week, or more “bursty”)? This will help us in sourcing the best candidate for the position.

The work will mostly be steady with occasional bursts. Each week, the contractor will be provided a list of items that need to be completed with associated timelines. Occasionally, short turnaround items will come up unexpectedly, and the contractor will need to shift work to prioritize that item.

3) I have checked the instructions for the solicitation. There is no format for the proposal except that we quote on a letterhead or SF-1449 form. Is there a format for the proposal?

(Sections and Volumes).

This a price and other factors evaluation under FAR part 13. The solicitation instructions now include information on evaluation factors and what is required for submission. Please refer to the documentation included under amendment 2

4) Also there is no requirement for references. How do we submit references?

Requirements updated and past experience now requested. See Synopsis and solicitation attached with amendment 2.

5) Do we need to send the resume of the Key Resources?

A resume of key resources is not necessary to send, see question 4 above and include this information about required skills and experience from PWS.

6) The number of hours can be between 10-20/week. What are the hours that we can take into account for the purpose of the proposal?

The contractor will average 15 hours of work a week, with some weeks being 10 hours and others being 20 depending on the agency’s needs.

7) Reference: first paragraph of “instructions” on first unnumbered page of solicitation;

1.7.6 on page 3 of PWS; and second paragraph of 5.1 on page 11 of PWS

Comment: “Instructions” and 1.7.6 define firm, fixed price contract, while 5.1 defines work effort as part-time, 10-20 hours per week, which is inconsistent with a firm fixed price type of contract.

Question: In order to propose a firm fixed price for the minimum of two key personnel defined in 1.7.11, what is the ceiling number of weekly working hours required by all personnel that will be used to evaluate the proposal?

See answer to question 6 above. Evaluation will be based on the overall price, not an hourly rate, so please quote according to your best price within these parameters.

8) Reference: second paragraph of “instructions” on first unnumbered page of solicitation

Comment: All that seems to be required for submission is a completed SF-1449 and the resumes of key personnel identified in 1.17.11 on page 5 of the PWS.

Question: Do we correctly assume that SF-1449 and key personnel resumes are all that is required to complete the quote submission?

See answers to questions 4 and 5 above.

9) Reference: PWS, page 1, 1.3

Comment: In order to assign the correct number of staff, it will be necessary to understand the scope of the environment.

Question: What is the quantity of webpages defined by “numerous webpages”?

We encourage you to visit the website to get an understanding of the scope of the site:

https://www.fws.gov/sacramento/. The Contractor will be responsible for updating webpages within that site and adding pages (such as news releases or featured stories). Not all of these pages will necessarily be updated regularly, but contractor must have necessary skills to update the pages.

10) Reference: PWS, page 5, 1.7.11 https://www.fws.gov/sacramento/

Comment: It appears that SFWO is looking for as many as four key personnel as follows, Web Programmer, Web Graphic Designer, contract manager, and alternate contract manager.

Question: Provided that key personnel meet the qualifications, do we correctly assume that required key personnel positions can be filled by just two people using Web Programmer as contract manager and Web Graphic Designer as alternate?

The Contractor can choose to staff the account with as many or as few people as it deems appropriate as long as the team members have the necessary skills to complete the duties set forth in the contract.

11) Reference: PWS, page 6, 1.7.14

Comment: Reference is made to “travel (outlined in 1.6.13)”, yet there is no section 1.6.13.

Question: What is the reference intended by 1.6.13?

No travel will be required with this account and no contractor travel will be paid for under this contract. This has been corrected within the PWS.

12) Reference: PWS, page 12, 5.2.4

Question: Is training required to be delivered onsite at SFWO, or can training be delivered interactively over internet?

Training can be delivered interactively over the internet if the contractor uses the same software or applications available to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service will not purchase new software or download any software that is not approved for use by the federal government in order to receive training from the contractor.

13) In the last 12 months, how many non-urgent, urgent, and total requests have been submitted?

In the past 12 months, the current contractor received 3-5 non-urgent items weekly (approximately 200 page updates). In the past 12 months, the contractor received approximately 1 urgent request per month.

14) May proposed personnel include foreign nationals?

This is a question best inquired with the Department of Labor, but as far as we know, if the person is legally allowed to work within the United States, there are no regulations or laws against the employment of foreign nationals by the contractor for work on federal contracts.

15) Is there an incumbent vendor that is currently providing these services and will they be participating in this solicitation as well?

There is a contractor from a previous contract for these services, Red Inc. and we are not able to share information about an ongoing solicitation, including potential interested parties.

16) Will we have direct access to the FWS web hosting platform (and eventually access to the DOI Drupal platform)? What tools and processes exist for deploying new work to these platform? Is code managed in a repository such as GIT and will we be responsible for deployment or do we merely handoff updates that get deployed by another team?

The Contractor will have direct access to the FWS web hosting platform and will be expected to post requested changes directly to the website.

17) Can we go through the process of obtaining PIV and NCHC upon award, or is it required that we have already done this before submitting a proposal?

The Contractor that receives the award will go through the process of obtaining PIV and

NCHC.

18) Will preference be given to vendors who are local to Sacramento and can meet in person?

No, preference cannot and will not be given on account of geographic location.

19) Is it possible to submit a quote with holding a GSA contract?

Yes, please reference your GSA contract number in your quotation.

20) In order to provide a firm-fixed-price contract we would need to know the average annual number of hours, personnel, and requests that have been required to support this web initiative historically, can you please provide?

See responses to questions 6-7, 10, and 9. We cannot provide details on how the previous contract was carried out.

21) Would SFWO be open to changing its current website to a technology that is more user-friendly, robust, and secure than PHP-based technologies, Drupal, etc., if proposed by a vendor?

No. The FWS is currently in the process of developing a new website using the Drupal platform that will be adopted by all field offices in the next 18 months. No major changes will be made to the current platform for the SFWO site in the meantime.

22) Is there an incumbent on this contract? If so, please provide the incumbent name, current contract number, duration, historical level of effort and value of the contract?

The most recent contract is INF13PD01685 and the contractor is Red, Inc. Public information about this contract can be found at www.fpds.gov.

23) How many FTEs do you anticipate for this task?

The number of staff directed to work on this account is at the discretion of the Contractor.

We require that people part of the contractor team collectively have the skills necessary to fulfill the contract obligations.

24) What positions are KEY?

Please see PWS section 1.7.11 Key Personnel

25) "What do you mean by the following sentence? Is the total hours for each week only 10-20 hours per week for each FTE?

""The contract will be part-time as needed, approximately 10-20 hours per week for one year, and is renewable for up to 4 years. Weekly hours may increase when working on special projects and when the SFWO site migrates to Drupal. This is currently scheduled for January 2019."""

The total amount of work expected per week for the website is 10-20 hours, 15 hours per week on average. How that work is delegated among contractor staff is up to their discretion.

Also see answer to questions 2, 6 and 7 above.

26) How much cost is estimated for ODC?

No other direct costs are expected or required.

27) Can the Govt clarify the below statement? We could not find the section 1.6.13?

"1.7.14 Other Direct Costs This category includes travel (outlined in 1.6.13), reproduction, and shipping expenses associated with training activities and visits to contractor facilities. It could also entail the renting of suitable training venues."

See answer to question 11 above.

28) Can Govt clarify the following: -- How many training sessions are expected? Are the training sessions CBTs or instructor led (classroom based)?

"5.2.4 Train SFWO staff to use Dreamweaver and Drupal for future day-to-day updates, upon request" http://www.fpds.gov/

29) Can Govt provide submission instructions for the Technical Volume, Price Volume and Past performance (if applicable) - Page limit, Font, font Size for text, font size for table and graphics etc.

This has been updated and included in the solicitation synopsis.

30) This RFP is asking for a FFP quote, yet a portion of the SOW calls for tracking and submission of billable Hours. Will these billable hour submissions be used for anything more than informational (or audit) purposes by the government? What is the payment schedule proposed? Is the government asking for a proposed fixed payment schedule?

This will be a firm-fixed price contract, and tracking and submission forms will be used for tracking and informational purposes to keep up with the progress of the contract. These should be submitted prior to invoicing, which is proposed as monthly progress payments.

31) Drupal Migration: Has the current HTML5 website been reviewed to see if any critical components or specially developed features will have a conflict when the site is to be migrated to Drupal?

The current website is built on the same platform as the Agency’s main website: fws.gov.

The agency is determining conflicts that will occur as information is transferred to the new platform.

32) Can you provide more detail regarding the volume of work in regards to "large and complex projects" reference in section 1.4 Scope?

Storymaps and interactive maps could be requested.

33) Are you expecting 1 full time developer or a full time development team including web development work, software development, architecture, etc?

The total amount of work expected per week for the website is 10-20 hours, with 15 hours a week on average. How that work is delegated among contractor staff is up to their discretion.

34) Is the vendor responsible for content creation or will that be provided?

The majority of content (text, photos, maps) will be provided by the agency to the Contractor. There could be some web-based content that the Contractor would need to develop (storymaps or interactive maps).

35) What level of imagery will be provided? Will we be responsible for creating imagery from scratch following a style guide?

The Service does have a Style Guide, however, requests for new graphics or imagery will be limited if any.

36) Can all work be completed remotely?

See answer to question 1 above.

37) Should we accommodate all the labors in Sacramento in our local office?

Yes. No office space will be provided by the Agency.

38) For past performance, if we are a new company, without significant past performance, but if we have personnel with the required background and skills, will this suffice for past performance on a government contract?

Past performance information is required, but if the company does not have examples directly related to the skills required, examples of projects of employees who will be working on the project can be submitted using the same format.

39) If a new company without significant past performance wishes to bid on this based on our individual skills and our familiarity with, for example, differential privacy, is the scoring negatively impacted by our lack of past performance?

See question 39 above, this will substitute for lack of past performance as a company.

40) How many websites are there? What are the technology platforms of those websites?

As noted in the scope, this contract is for a single website that contains multiple pages:

www.fws.gov/sacramento.

41) Who is currently maintaining the website? Are there any incumbents to bid on this opportunity?

See answer to question 15 above.

42) Is there any estimated budget that is set aside for this project?

The government cannot provide that information before or during a solicitation.

43) Is this opportunity Single Award / Multiple Award

Award will be given to a single successful Offeror.

44) Do we have to estimate the hours of work involved for a period of 1 year?

See answer to questions 6-7 above.

45) Given 10-20 hours of work spread across the duration of 1 week, Can we provide firm fixed price based on the 20 hours of (For eg: 20 hours = 960 hours/ year) work?

Pricing should be at the discretion of the contractor, noting a 10-20 hour swing, and an average of 15 hours.

46) Can the work be performed outside USA, to provide cost effectiveness?

No, work must be conducted inside the USA by a USA based company.

47) What are the SLA you have for the Support and maintenance activities?

We do not have any service level agreements for support and maintenance activities, see above for information about the previous contract.

48) Is there any ticketing tool utilized for this project?

No. Communication will be conducted via email or phone.

49) Is there any coding / development involved as part of this project?

Yes, see sections 1.4, 1.7.8, 1.7.11 and 5 of the PWS.

50) Is hosting also involved as part of the scope?

No.

51) Is the training limited to showcase the utilization of Dreamweaver effectively for future day-to-day updates needed OR is there any other activities / technologies (Photoshop, SQL Database, Java, Drupal, HTML 5, CSS3 etc.) involved as part of training?

The training, as specified in the RFQ, is to train staff on Drupal and the transition from the current platform to the Drupal platform.

52) How many number of SFWO staff need to be trained as part of this project? How many days of training is required?

Up to 5 staff will need to be trained. The number of days is up to the discretion of the contractor and what they feel is necessary to train staff well.

53) What kind of training is required to be performed by the contractor (Class room, Online, remote etc.)?

Since no travel is included in this contract, training should be conducted online in a deskside setting.

54) What is the estimated number of pages and graphics the contractor will manage and migrate?

That is unknown at this point, but see questions above general overview of past workload.

55) How frequently are pages and graphics updated?

There’s a set of 5 pages that are updated monthly. New graphics could be created monthly, if deemed necessary.

56) How frequently are KML files updated?

2-3 times a year.

57) What is the size of the SQL database?

While the database is extensive, the contractor would be responsible for a small portion of the database.

58) Does the 10-20 hours per week estimate include the migration from the current HTML site to Drupal?

Yes. When that happens, that will be the priority.

59) The PWS states a migration date of January 2019. What is the current migration date?

The current migration date is sometime in 2020.

60) Does the government prefer one or two volumes? We did not see where it specified and this is an LPTA.

This will be evaluated under FAR part 13, so is not LPTA under FAR part 15. Please see amendment 2 of the solicitation on what is required for submission.

61) What is the invoice terms for this solicitation?

Because this is only open to small businesses, the invoice terms for the final contract will be Accelerated Payments.

62) Please clarify, this solicitation options. Is the option 4 one-year option periods (if exercised) as stated on page 1, or is this the total duration of this contract, including exercise of any options under clause 52.217-9 not to exceed Two years five months?

This was a mistake and has been corrected. Clause 52.217-9 currently states that the contract shall not exceed Five years.

63) Since award determination will be based on the “lowest price determined fair and reasonable,” we presume that it would be advantageous for the government to specify what “lowest price” refers to — unit (hour) or total price. While the contract is “firm, fixed price,” the government is requesting itemized invoicing for “billable hours” (units).

This is a fixed price contract, and therefore, the lowest price will be based on quotes for a fixed price contract.

64) If “total price” is the basis, then what is the maximum or average number of hours per week that the government is requesting a quote for? That is, “10-20 hours per week” is a wide range on which to quote. Quoting on the high end of anticipated need could effectively result in doubling the “total price” over the low end of capacity. Should contractors assume 15 hours per week on average and quote accordingly? Or a specific total number of hours per year, such as “not to exceed 1,040 hours per year?”

See answers to questions 2 and 7 above.

65) What specific costs for reproduction and shipping expenses associated with training activities; visits to contractor facilities; and renting of suitable training venues? What direct costs are the contractor expected to cover? The “other direct costs” alluded to in 1.7.14 of the RFP could be significant. Should these costs be detailed as units in total price calculation?

Other direct costs will not be required, this has been corrected in the PWS.

66) Also, is the development of the site being performed by another entity in Dreamweaver and that we will migrate that Dreamweaver site to Drupal as part of this scope? OR will our team perform the design and development of the new site in Dreamweaver prior to January and then migrate to Drupal?

The current site is currently managed using Dreamweaver. This site will be migrated over to the Drupal platform.

67) Have there been any discussions internally yet around the upgrade to Drupal 9 and D8’s

2021 end of life (EOL)? This change follows the proposed optional contract length and we want to confirm these updates are being accounted for?

Those discussions are taking place at the Headquarters level of the Fish and Wildlife Service and we do not currently have any information on this.

68) Can you provide details around the current FWS web hosting platform?

This is an internal FWS hosting platform located at the IT Headquarters in Denver.

69) When do you anticipate moving to the DOI-wide Drupal hosting platform?

Sometime in 2020.

70) Do you anticipate hosting the new Drupal website with the same infrastructure as the current site?

There will be fewer pages once the site migrates over to Drupal.

71) Is there a balance you are looking for between Dreamweaver and other legacy technology versus Drupal expertise?

No.

72) What kinds of graphics are you expecting the vendor to need to create and what portion of the contract do you anticipate being dedicated to graphics development

Banner graphics or graphics for maps and story maps. We anticipate this need being very minimal.

73) Is the selected vendor to perform copy development and other site content?

No copy development. Occasional graphics development.

74) Does the 10-20 hours per week for one year include all services stated in Sec 1.4 Scope?

Yes, this includes all of the activities in the scope and in section 5 of the PWS.

75) How many large projects do you do a year?

2-3 large projects.

76) Is there an average number of hours in a complex project?

20 hours a week.

77) How many PDF 508 compliance conversion requests occur within 1 year?

We do the majority in-house. Less than 10.

78) How many staff trainings do you envision taking place throughout the year?

1-2 trainings per year.

79) Is the HTML to Drupal migration still in scope of this PWS?

Yes.

80) How large is the website? Specifically, how many pages are in the website today (old and new Drupal sites)?

Please review the current website to get a sense for its scope: www.fws.gov/sacramento. It is currently undetermined how many pages will be transferred to drupal.

81) What are the website sections today?

· Fish and Aquatic Conservation

· National Wildlife Refuge System

· Endangered Species

· Historic Preservation

· Forensics Laboratory

Incorrect. Those are sections for the national page. Visit www.fws.gov/sacramento to see the site that you are bidding on and to get a sense for the sections and pages.

82) Is the Sports Fishing Restoration subdomain website within scope of this SOW https://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/?

No – that’s a national level program http://www.fws.gov/sacramento http://www.fws.gov/sacramento https://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/