Attach_III_15BNAS20RRCA0001_EvaluationCriteria.pdf

15BNAS20RRCA0001

Attachment III

Evaluation Criteria

The Bureau will evaluate each offer based on the best value, trade-off process as outlined in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, part 15.101-1- Tradeoff Process. All evaluation factors and sub-factors other than price, when combined, are significantly more important than price. As the evaluation of competing offeror proposals in the non-price factors become more equal, the more important price will become in selecting the best value for the Government. Evaluations will note the strengths, deficiencies, weaknesses (to include significant weaknesses) and risks of each proposal, in a summary format with supporting narrative. The Government intends to evaluate offers and award a contract without discussions with offerors.

Therefore, the offeror’s initial offer should contain the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint.

Definitions:

• Strength is an aspect of the proposal that increases the likelihood of successful contract performance.

• Deficiency is a material failure of a proposal to meet a

Government requirement or a combination of significant weaknesses in a proposal that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance to an unacceptable level.

• A weakness is a flaw in the proposal that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance. A “significant weakness” in the proposal is a flaw that appreciably increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance.

• A Risk is a potential to cause disruption of schedule, increased cost or degradation of performance.

NON-PRICED FACTORS:

Factor 1: Technical

Sub factor A- Written technical proposal. This written proposal shall contain the following: (DUE NO LATER THAN

PROPOSAL DUE DATE)

I. High School Equivalency

• Acceptance – The HSE credential shall be accepted by all 50 states and Territories, military services, overseas installations, and foreign entities.

• Standards Based – The HSE credential must demonstrate it is aligned to education and/or career standards.

II. Test Delivery - The HSE shall:

• Be available in paper-based test (PBT) and computer-based test (CBT) batteries.

• Provide a subtest for each subject, Language

Arts (Reading and Writing, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics).

• Be available in English and Spanish.

• Provide a Braille version, employ screen-reader technology (with headphones for audio for each test item), and tactile graphics.

• Use subtest randomization to ensure testers are not administered identical test during a testing session.

• Provide test accommodations for testers with various and unique needs (learning and other cognitive disabilities, physical disabilities and chronic health, psychological and psychiatric disorders, and special learning needs).

• Have controls to release subtest for administration (acceptable level on a corresponding subject prerequisite subtest, by authorization of Education Branch, or the vendor approving a written request of Education Branch

• Provide various passing performance levels.

III. Scoring- The HSE test and service shall provide:

• Scoring of all HSE tests (subject subtest, corresponding subject prerequisite subtest, and test with accommodations).

• Score reports shall be available in 30 minutes after scoring, on average, but shall not exceed one day, and no more than three days of receipt of PBT except in special circumstances.

• Combine scores (records or accounts) from multiple records.

IV. Records and Reports - The HSE records and reports shall:

• Provide the Agency with near real-time reporting about BOP testers that have taken tests, as well as provide statistical reports, trend analysis, and empirical data via an interactive reporting system with on-demand and secure data retrieval.

• Secure and/or encryption for test results and tester demographic data during storage and transfer.

• Provide statistical reports electronically, both monthly and no testing activity reports by institution, region, and agency, by the 10th day of the following month.

• Provide individualized prescriptive score reports for each subject subtest and corresponding subject prerequisite subtest regardless of outcome and include the following based on test results:

i. The learner’s score and percentile

ii. Skill areas and skills for improvement

iii. Skills needed to achieve at a higher passing performance level

iv. Evaluation of written answers (essays, extended written responses, etc.)

v. Suggested HSE study materials

vi. Study plans correlated and customized to multiple HSE published material (print and electronic) with specific page, unit, module, screen, etc. references

vii. Print functionality

• Ensure tester accounts are accessible throughout the BOP, editable, and include partial or failed test results.

• Maintain permanent records of all Federal inmate’s test results, to include all test scores and administrations dating back to approximately 1954.

• Treat all scores and data as confidential information and shall not release testing records.

V. Credential – The HSE credentials shall provide issuance of the HSE credential (State Department of Education diploma and transcript) for those tester who successfully pass the HSE tests within 15 working days.

VI. Support – The HSE support shall provide:

• Test, supplies, testing artifacts, examiner policy and procedure manuals, training materials, other necessary materials, and HSE credential verification.

i. Dedicated technical resource staff, contract administration resource staff, support resource staff.

• Support Monday – Sunday, 7:00 AM – 11:59 PM EST

• Toll free and email support, and may provide addition methods of support

• No remote access to any government for any purpose including troubleshooting

VII. Professional Development – HSE resource staff shall provide specialized training approximately twice a year, and shall develop and/or provide additional training as the need and/or request are determined by the COR.

VIII. Additional Test Delivery – The testing platform shall provide access to a variety of occupation training (OT) testing which results in industry recognized and accepted certification currently being taught in Bureau facilities.

Sub-factor B Testing Platform Technical Requirements

I. Current Environment – The HSE testing platform must be operational in the current environment (client-side, infrastructure, centralized private virtual network, proxy/internet, client quantities).

II. Key Business Objectives/Intended Results – The testing platform shall:

• Deliver HSE testing in the Current Environment outlined in the SOW.

• Provide a cloud-based (cloud-based solution/platform) and centralized private virtual network (on-premise solution/software defined platform).

• Provide interfaces and tools for administration of HSE testing with detailed description.

• Provide the government the capability to manager (add, delete, and edit) user accounts, including a bulk account creation and deletion process.

• Provide the government a single centralized backend administrative management interface with detailed description.

• Provide minimum/recommended system requirements

(CPU, memory, disk storage capacity, etc.), back-end server environment requirements, front-end client device requirements and any dependencies or limitations which confine the deployment options to specific hardware types, operating systems, or deployment modes (e.g., appliances or endpoints).

• Provide details specific to user session average bandwidth usage/consumption based upon educational content type (audio, video, etc.)

and any hardware and/or software requirements for content test delivery (i.e., caching equipment, plug-ins, etc.) at customer location.

• Provide high availability configurations and detailed information documentation to the Information Technology (IT) Management on the configurations for adaptability or current and future hardware types, operating systems, or deployment modes (e.g., appliances or endpoints).

• Provide a migration plan to ensure the continuity of user accounts, data, and progress, in the case of migration.

• Provide the Service Level Agreements (SLAs)identified in the SOW.

• Identify any additional SLAs that relate to system availability.

• Application event logging is required to include user transactions logs (system access, duration of general access, time spent per course, etc.). Application logs must be exportable to a syslog database for forensics and analysis. If the testing platform accesses external feeds or integrations with third-party software or services, those interactions shall be logged. The government reserves the right to deny any third-party software or services.

• Provide a secured isolated space/domain for the government (i.e., BOP specific URL) which have authentication controls that fail securely and deny access.

• Provide multi-factor authentication for administrative users with detailed description.

• Provide the user self-service feature for password or account reset.

• Provide a failed login attempt threshold with government notification.

• Provide a session management auditing feature(s). Describe the auditing features in detail.

• Credentials shall be transported using a suitable (minimal 256 bit) encrypted link.

• Cryptographic libraries shall meet or exceed the FIPS 140-2 cryptographic libraries standards and describe the LMS key management system (KMS) in detailed description.

• Provide binary digital signature support by a publicly trusted Certificate Authority.

• Use encryption for all application traffic and define all ports and protocols used for communication with detailed description.

• Be browser based and browser agnostic.

• Provide any additional client software without requiring additional licensing or cost with a list of additional client software.

• Ensure isolation and segregation of all authenticated user accounts, to include data, and organizational units with detailed description.

• Not allow public access and access beyond the contractor and Bureau.

• Provide 508 compliance. Provide 508 VPATs.

• Allow the BOP to provide its own licensing for operating systems, databases, etc.

• Be compatible with BOP’s current Microsoft supported server operating system version.

Sub-factor C Proposal Volume I. Sub-factor A - narrative responses to demonstrate project comprehension and address HSE (See SOW pages 2 - 7) must not exceed 20 pages.

II. Sub-factor B - narrative responses to demonstrate project comprehension and address technical requirements (See SOW pages 7 - 10) must not exceed 15 pages.

Note: submission shall not exceed 35 pages in total.

Factor 2: Past Performance

Recent and relevant past performance shall be evaluated on its performance under existing and prior contracts for similar services, with an emphasis on the similarity of the Offeror’s experience to the Request for Proposal (RFP). The purpose of Past Performance is to allow the government to review the Offeror’s recent and historical probability of meeting the solicitation requirements.

A Offeror’s past performance information shall include three (3)of the contractor’s most recent contracts occurring during the past five years that are similar and relevant in nature to the services required in the Statement of Work. Contracts listed may include those entered into with the Federal Government, agencies of state and local government, and commercial entities.

Offerors shall address any instances of past performance problems in the referenced contracts and explain how these problems were resolved. The Government may consider efforts performed by the Offeror for agencies of the federal, state, or local governments and commercial customers as potentially relevant to the Past Performance evaluation.

Offerors should not provide general information on their performance on the identified contracts. General performance information MUST be obtained from the references on the Past Performance Questionnaire and submitted along with the Offeror’s proposal. Offeror’s without a record of relevant company past performance or for whom information on Past Performance is not available will not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on Past Performance. References other than those identified by the Offeror may be contacted. Information utilized may be obtained from the references listed in the proposal, other customers known to the Government or of whom it becomes aware, and any others who may have useful and relevant information (i.e. Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), System for Award Management (SAM), Federal Awardee Performance & Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), and internet).

Factor 3: Price

The Government reserves the right to award a contract to an offeror other than the offeror proposing the lowest price when the Government’s evaluation determines a proposal is significantly superior from a non-price standpoint and warrants payment by the Government of a premium.

Price is defined as the Offerors’s price proposal. The Contracting Officer will evaluate price independently. Pursuant to FAR 17.203(b), the Government’s evaluation of offers shall be inclusive of options. Price proposal in Schedule of Items (Attachment I) will be evaluated on the base period and options periods in total, including the Option to Extend Services FAR clauses 52.217-8.