Questions_and_Answers_RFP_19-236-SOL-00012_Amd0002.docx

Q&A

Answers

The RFP states that the “Contractor shall be responsible for providing all hardware, software, and software licenses required”. Please provide the following clarifications:

1. Since this is a labor-hour contract, please confirm that the contractor will be reimbursed for provision of hardware, software, software licenses, and other materials.

1. What existing software licenses are currently in use for O&M services? Specifically, for: Source Version Control, IT Service Management (e.g., Jira), Source Code Propagation, Software Deployment, Testing, Defect Management, System Monitoring, Data Obfuscation Tools, etc.

1. Does IHS have licenses that will be made available to the selected contractor? If so, for which software?

1. The government will pay associated licensed software, for Intersystems Healthshare, Server based SQL, associated with supported software products under this contract. All client software is the responsibility of Offeror. 2. The government holds licenses for production and testing environments for:

Healthshare 2017 Microsoft VSTS

3. Licenses will be made available for:

Healthshare

VSTS

SQL

PlanView

Does IHS plan to procure new tools in support of Agile Portfolio Management?

IHS has purchased PlanView and uses VSTS in tandem.

(a) Please clarify how many and what specific other contractors the Offeror/Contractor will be required to work with to support the various types of testing? Will the Offeror/Contractor be responsible for maintaining an overall testing environment for all of these products to be integrated and tested together?

(b) Is the Offeror/Contractor required to provide situational awareness on all products or only “their” (the Offeror’s delivered products) products?

a.) The following contract companies are incumbent contractors supporting HITSS projects:

General Dynamics Information Technology, Integrated Government Solutions, Respec. Integrated Testing environments are maintained by government or other contractors outside of this RFP. Modular development/testing environments will be maintained by all respective contractors.

b.)The Offeror/Contractor is required to provide situational awareness on only the products maintained under the contract.

(b) Will the contractor have the ability to implement changes to existing tools?

a.) All documentation shall be submitted using Microsoft Word or provided by government.

b.) No changes to existing tools are anticipated.

1. What is the source from which the Contractor will receive stakeholder requests?

2. How will the Contractor receive stakeholder requests?

3. Please confirm that the measure of one business day is initiated when the Contractor receives the request per the agreed reporting tool (i.e., not email).

4. Please confirm that the estimated resolution time notification may exceed 48 hours if agreed by the parties.

5. Please clarify whether the Contractor will have direct contact with the Interoperability Platform users or whether another contractor will be receiving customer calls via a call center operated outside if this contract.

1. Stakeholder request are submitted via the Office of Information Technology Helpdesk ticketing system.

2. Tickets are triaged by helpdesk and sent via written message to assigned contract teams.

3. The measure begins at the time the ticket is sent to contractor.

4. There are instances where resolution time may exceed 48 hours but those should be few. Where there are delays, COR or Federal project lead must be notified.

5. Calls will be received via IHS helpdesk and routed to Offer. Upon receipt there may be a need to have direct contact with users.

1. Please confirm that the Agency will work with Contractor to define a release testing process that includes user acceptance testing responsibilities for IHS.

2. Please confirm that the Agency will work with Contractor to define a release process that incorporates prioritization, testing and defect severities, and overall governance process jointly run by Contractor and Agency.

1. IHS will work with Offeror to discuss established release processes as well as work with Offerors on release testing responsibilities.

2. IHS will work with Offeror to define established release processes that incorporate prioritization, testing and defect severities, and overall governance process.

Please confirm the following deliverable approval process will be used during the life of the contract or that such a process will be agreed prior to final contract signature:

1. The COR will provide deliverable approvals within 10 days of receipt of the deliverable.

2. Alternatively, if COR deems the deliverable not approved, then, within 10 business days of receipt of deliverable, the COR will provide written comments describing defects and associated resolution items.

3. Contractor will provide the revised deliverable within 5 business days of receipt of COR written comments.

4. COR will have 5 business days to approve the revised deliverable or provide written comments exclusively on the corrections made by Contractor in the second submission of the deliverable.

Section E item 3 remains as written in the RFP.

1. Since the RFP does not include a clear definition of how which customers will be included in the rating process nor a definition of the rating criteria, please confirm that this customer satisfaction rating process will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation.

Customer for Software Products satisfaction rating process will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation but is largely dependent on project scope.

1. Since the RFP does not include a clear definition of how which customers will be included in the rating process nor a definition of the rating criteria, please confirm that this customer satisfaction rating process will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation.

Customer Satisfaction for Problem Report Handling will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation.

1. Since the RFP does not include a clear definition of how which customers will be included in the rating process nor a definition of the rating criteria, please confirm that this customer satisfaction rating process will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation.

Customer Satisfaction for Training will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation.

1. Who selects the tested users?

2. How are the tested users confirmed to have the prerequisite skills to use the functionality associated with the tasks?

3. How are the “top ten user tasks” selected? Using what criteria? By who?

4. Please confirm that this performance measure rating and process will be defined and agreed between parties during contract initiation

1. The agency as an established testing process and identifies individuals and sites.

2. Testers and Users are federal, tribal and urban personnel who have participated in the requirements elicitation processes and regularly perform operations with the associated software functionality desired.

3. The top ten user tasks are selected by Federal personnel and dependent on importance and priority to the agency.

4. Additional conversation on this metric (tested users complete the top ten user tasks) will be further discussed and agreed upon during contract initiation.

2. For 24/7/365 after-hour coverage for emergency situations, what is the definition and/or criteria for “emergency situations”?

1. Contractors are anticipated to work during government closures if funding supports activity. All other emergencies would require CO approval. See details referring to federal holidays.

2. Examples of emergency situations include such situations as: IT systems are not operational, database corruption, fail over solutions are unavailable. Any situation that prevents operations or endangers operations and data supported under this RFP.

2. Please describe the Agency’s responsibilities during the Phase In/Phase Out Period.

1. The incumbent contractor will provide information on established support processes (e.g., patching, backups etc.) and explanation on system architecture and products as well as documentation and transition any work in process.

2. The agency will ensure all technical materials, access and information is made available to the awardee, introduce appropriate Federal Staff and introduce established processes associated with software development and release management.

1. Given the 25-page limit for the entire Technical Response, can the government please confirm if it is acceptable for the Offeror to describe the process by which and IMP is created and give examples of maintenance tasks to be performed? This approach will allow for coordination with government leads following contract award and result in a more comprehensive and tailored IMP with events, accomplishments, and criteria for all PWS 5.0 and 5.1 tasks.

1. Can the government please specify preferred format for the IMP as part of the proposal response (i.e., embedded picture or editable table, MS Project)?

1. Would the government consider including the IMP as an appendix that is outside the defined page limitations?

1. Yes descriptions at a high level are acceptable.

2. The IMP should be developed in a format that best depicts the offerors high level understanding of the work outlined in the RFP.

3. IMP should be articulated within the primary proposal and the page limit will be increased by three (3) pages.

1. Please confirm that the “original PWS tasks” are 5.2 – 5.20.

1. The “original PWS tasks” are 5.2 – 5.20.

3. Does the Government anticipate that “eRX enhancement” means development of new code within the eRX solution, or does it mean the replacement of eRX with an industry provide COTS solution?

2. The government is expecting summary level detail.

3. This is development of new code.

Does IHS intend to revise the CLIN numbering at award so it varies across option years and labor type (base vs. optional labor?)

Yes – numbering will be revised as appropriate.

Will IHS please clarify if Security Architect should be added to Section B.2 Schedule of Prices?

Security Architect services will be required and should be included in schedule of prices under optional labor, via contractor proposed labor category.

Will IHS clarify the titles of the optional tasks?

Task Areas G and H are Tasks that may/may not be undertaken. These tasks will be invoked at the discretion of the government and applicable to applications covered under this RFP as optional tasks. Additional Optional Labor will fulfill these tasks as need.

Will IHS please clarify the due date of the QCP and the QASP?

The plan shall be submitted two months after award.

With the staffing levels indicated in B.2 Contract Pricing (page 2), does IHS expect the contractor to staff a PMO?

Instantiation of an Agile PMO will not be required on the contract. The contractor will provide staff such as Project Mangers, Business Analyst to support agile development work within established agency PMO processes and procedures.

Will IHS add this role to the RFP? Or is it expected that proposed personnel will fulfill this need?

Anticipated SME support is expected from Clinical Informaticist whom are familiar with best practice methods of health care delivery goals and objectives of interoperability products within the EHR/EMR and health care setting. Two position are identified in optional labor section and will be used as needed for limited durations.

Will IHS provide a labor description for the Application Developer Journeyman role?

Labor Description: Functioning as a software developer focused on the development of applications, SOA infrastructure, COTS/GOTS integration, interfaces and web services with an Ensemble environment.

Researching and developing critical applications to include HIT interoperability enabled applications.

Writing system documentation, provide input to end-user documentation Supporting software and system integration testing for developed applications.

Required Skills:

Bachelor’s Degree is required; BS Computer Science, Electronics Engineering or other Engineering or Technical discipline is desired 2 to 3 Years’ experience with Ensemble, Java, SQL, XML, Hibernate. HL7.

Service Oriented Architecture knowledge and Experience with agile software development practices (unit testing, and continuous integration).

Ability to easily adapt to new technologies and skillsets Excellent written and verbal communication skills and candidate must be customer service oriented Highly motivated team player who performs well in a team-oriented environment

Does IHS anticipate establishing a direct WAN connection with the contractor facility to provide IHS Network connectivity to contractor systems or will contractors VPN into the IHS network utilizing an IHS supplied VPN client? If contractors will VPN into the IHS network, will an Authority to Operate (ATO) still be required or will an Interconnectivity Security Agreement (ISA) be utilized instead?

If an ATO is required and there is no direct IHS network connection, will a quarterly Independent Assessment be required for individual endpoint devices utilizing the IHS supplied VPN client? Will the scope of the ATO extend beyond those individual endpoints?

No WAN connection will be established. All work will be conducted on the IHS VPN virtual desktop solution. No agreements are anticipated.

Due to this requirement, will IHS confirm that all personnel are required to be located CONUS?

Yes all personnel are required to be located in CONUS.

Will IHS please allow additional page count for subcontractor narratives as this significantly increases the amount of corporate experience references required and impairs our ability provide an adequate response to the remaining technical elements?

The page limit is increased by three (3) pages.

Will IHS please clarify if resume page count is limited to three pages or four pages?

Three (3) pages

If the new Contractor and the legacy contractor are to provide services to the Government concurrently, how will responsibilities and contractual obligations be assigned to each contractor while maintaining independence across contractual and delivery responsibilities?

The current contract for services described in this RFP is currently provided under a bridge contract with the incumbent. The bridge order will expire within two months of the award resulting from this RFP.

Would the government please consider moving the Corporate Resume detailed component for each prime and subcontract to the L.1.3 Relevant Past Performance section (10 pages) or provide the detailed corporate experiences (prime and subcontractors) into an Appendix similar to the resumes?

The page limit has been increased to 28 pages and corporate resume must be included with the technical capability response.

1. Please confirm that the pricing being requested is solely for evaluation purpose and that no funding limitations will be determined based on the selected vendor’s Cost Proposal.

Please clarify whether “total ceiling price for each period…” means that the total contract value is being determined using the Schedule of Prices defined in section B.2 Contract Pricing section.

Awardee’s total proposal evaluation price represents the contract ceiling price. The total ceiling price for each period includes the pricing for both base & optional labor.

Please confirm that the Prime is to provide detailed corporate experience narratives for 3 contracts and 3 questionnaires; and for each proposed subcontract provide 2 detailed corporate experience narratives and submit 1 questionnaire.

Yes, Prime is to provide detailed corporate experience narratives for 3 contracts and 3 questionnaires; and for each proposed subcontract provide 2 detailed corporate experience narratives and submit 1 questionnaire.

Will IHS please include this clause within the contract?

No, contracting officers are to insert the clause at 52.229-3, Federal, State, and Local Taxes, in solicitations and contracts if—

(1) The contract is to be performed wholly or partly in the United States or its outlying areas;

(2) A fixed-price contract is contemplated; and

(3) The contract is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold.

This RFP is to award a labor hour contract, and also, 52.229-4 is for noncompetitive awards.

Please confirm that Offerors indeed must provide a Sustainable Acquisition Plan and if so, please clarify where the plan should be located in the proposal as well as dedicated page count.

This can be submitted as an appendix and the offeror is to determine the applicability of the clause to their potential contract performance.

Will IHS please clarify where in the proposal submission package these items should be included and adjust page count accordingly?

Representations and Certifications can be submitted as an appendix and the minimum acceptance period can be submitted with the price proposal.

Will IHS allow for the font size of tables and graphics to be 10 point instead of 11 point?

Allowed

Can the Govt clarify if this is a new opportunity or if there an incumbent currently preforming on the contract. If there is an incumbent, can the government provide the name and contract number of the incumbent?

The incumbent is General Dynamics Information Technology. The incumbent’s original contract number is GS35F4357D/IND12PD00750.

We are a staff scheduling/workforce management software company, headquartered in Rockville, MD. Is there an element of the RFP that might apply to us? Can you explain exactly what services and products are being sought in the above solicitation?

In general, the RFP identifies a need for software development and support services. Please refer to the RFP to determine if your company can meet the requirements outlined in the RFP.

1. Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this?

(like,from India or Canada)

All work must be performed in the USA. The proposal shall reference applicable regulation, law and/or approval for the award eligibility if the offeror is from outside the USA.

2. Whether we need to come over there for meetings?

There will be meetings held requiring travel to Rockville, Albuquerque or other sites.

3. Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA?

(like, from India or Canada)

All work must be performed in the USA. The proposal shall reference applicable regulation, law and/or approval for the award eligibility if the offeror is from outside the USA.

4. Can we submit the proposals via email?

Best Regards!

Offeror’s are authorized to email their proposals by the established due date. Proposals received after the established due date may be considered unacceptable and rejected.