19-233-SOL-00098_Responses_to_Questions_Version_2.pdf

Department of Health and Human Services/Program Support Center

Intelligent Automation/Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) solutions, services and products

Solicitation No. 19-233-SOL-00098

Responses to Questions - Version 2

1. It appears in the amendment that ALL qualifying experience must have been delivered by the offeror. While experience shows that Joint Ventures can represent individual firms' experiences as experience of the JV, we ask the government to please confirm the requirements of the subject solicitation. That is, will the government accept experience of JV participants as qualifying experience? Response: There are no restrictions to this in the solicitation. Firms may be part of multiple teams either as a Prime Contractor or subcontractor, and Prime contractors may propose subcontractor or teaming solutions. The Prime contractor will be evaluated against the evaluation factors described in the solicitation.

2. Q&A Answer #139 Organizational Experience - Please confirm that the proposal response for

Organizational Experience should be written with a single, combined write up for each project example that addresses both Factor 1 and Factor 2 requirements and evaluation criteria, as stated in Q&A answer #139. Or, as indicated in Q&A answers 22, 83, 90 and 91, should the proposal response include two discrete Organizational Experience sections that separately address Factor

1 and Factor 2 requirements and evaluation criteria for each project example? Response: The

Government responded to each of your abovementioned mentioned questions, based on the specific question that was asked. To provide clarity on this topic: offerors are writing one technical proposal (one write-up) and one business proposal. In each proposal, the offeror must provide specific information to the Government. See Section L for the instructions on what information should be included and how to submit proposals. All of the required information needs to be included in each of the proposals. How the offeror decides to structure or format their proposals in order to include all of the required information is at their discretion, as long as they meet the formatting guidelines provided (see Section L). Section M provides the evaluation factors that the Government will use to evaluate all proposals. Offerors are provided this information so they can prepare their proposals accordingly.

3. Q&A Answer #2, #134 & #315 Organizational Experience - Please confirm that the Prime

Offeror for IAAI can use organizational experience examples from Government contracts where they were either the prime contractor or a subcontractor. Response: Yes. Confirmed.

4. Q&A Answer #237 & #302 Subcontracting Plan Review Form Attachment J.3 - Attachment J.3 appears to be the Small Business Review form that is used by the Government to review an offeror's small business subcontracting plan. Could the Government please provide the HHS

Small Business Subcontracting Plan template or confirm that the offeror's small business plan template will be accepted? Response: You are correct that the incorrect form was provided as

Attachment J.3. Please use the attached form for offerors to complete, as applicable. The updated Attachment J.3 is the “HHS Subcontracting Plan Template”. Please disregard the initial Attachment J.3 Form titled “HHS Subcontracting Plan Review Form.”

5. Q&A Answer # 73 The revised Technical Proposal instructions found in Section L.9 on Page 71 now state: “It is important to note that the test and font contained within charts or diagrams may be single spaced and no less than 9-point font. All other elements within technical proposals shall be double spaced, with 1-inch margins and using no less than 12-point font.” Please confirm whether ancillary content in the technical proposal, specifically the cover and header/footer text in the margins, must be 12 point and double spaced, or it can also be single spaced and no less than 9 point font. Response: See question #145 on previous Q&A document regarding the Cover

Letter. Header/Footer information must also be 12 point and double spaced.

6. Reference: Section L.10.6 – Subcontracting Plan

Request for Clarification: Amendment 2, page 76 states that the Contractor is to submit with our proposal Attachment J.3 “HHS Subcontracting Plan Review Form.” Are we to submit both a

Small Business Subcontracting Plan AND the Subcontracting Plan review form? Or is the

Government requesting the Contractor to just submit Attachment J.3? Response: The Review form provided as Attachment J.3 was an error. See response to question #4, above.

7. Section L.9.3. Third paragraph, on page 71 “The Offerors in their response to Organization

Experience and Technical Capability should provide information on a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of four (4) government contracts (federal, state or local) awarded / issued within the past 5 years (after 02-08-14) that demonstrates experience in the following four (4)

Functional Areas identified in Section C.4.1.”

Would the Government accept Corporate Experience contracts from non-US government clients such as New Zealand, Australia, and Canada? Offerors must provide experience with

Government contracts (federal, state or local).

8. In L.9.3, page 73, the Government states:

Please note, the past five (5) years is defined as a contract / order that was issued / awarded after 02/08/2014.

Will the Government accept a Corporate Experience example that was awarded prior to

02/08/2014 (for example, in 2013), but which currently ends in 2021, as this technically meets the past 5 years’ requirement? Offerors must provide experience with Government contracts

(federal, state or local).

RFP reference, page number &

RFP Text Question

1 Section L.9 TECHNICAL

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

(page 71)

Are we correct to assume that tables are included in

“charts or diagrams” and may be single spaced and 9

pt. font? Question 199 says bullets may be single space and tables are usually columns of bullet type

RFP reference, page number &

RFP Text Question

Technical proposals shall be limited to 25 pages double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, and using not less than

12 point font.

info. Bullet points may be single spaced but must still be no less than 12 point font. Charts and graphs may be no less than 9 pt. font.

2 Question 199 “bullets list may be single spaced”

Please clarify. Does this mean only one line bullets or would putting a bullet in front of a paragraph mean it could be single spaced? Please follow the guidelines for formatting.

3 Question 22 “The specified formatting requirements are also applicable to the Business Volume.”

The Business Volume included sections of the RFP

(SF 1440, Section B, Reps and Certs) and OCI information. Are we required to double space these sections? In some cases (SF 1449) this would not be possible. If you are proving fillable information that has been provided in the solicitation, offerors may use the formatting as it appears in the solicitation. For example, if you are providing Section K-

Representations and Certifications and filling in the information as provided in the solicitation, if it appears as single spaced in the solicitation, offerors may provide it as single spaced in their proposals.

All other proposal components must follow the required formatting guidelines.