Attachment 8_Instructions to Offerors_Advisory Down-Select Process_A002.pdf

ATTACHMENT

L-001 – INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

L.1 Proposal Submission

All Stage I proposals must be submitted electronically to the Contracting

Officer/Specialist identified on the cover of this RFP by the deadline listed in timeline table in Section L.3 in the required format.

The RFP will be issued via SAM.gov and will provide for Offeror questions. Per L-006, questions must be submitted to both LordTG@state.gov and FitzgibbonME@state.gov in order to be considered. Q&A responses will be provided in time that the responses may be appropriately considered by Offerors in proposal preparation. Questions from Offerors for Stage

I of this solicitation shall be submitted no later than the deadline listed in timeline table in

Section L.3.

This request for proposal (RFP) is to provide support for EX/IT, the IT organization for the

Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, and its customers. The Government is issuing a competitive 8(a) small business set-aside solicitation for the purpose of entering into an IDIQ with task orders for transformation and ongoing support services.

L.2 Source and Advisory Down-Select Process

Each proposal review will begin with an initial GO/NO-GO screening to determine whether the

Offeror fulfills certain required qualifications. Offeror’s not meeting these GO/NO-GO criteria will not receive further consideration and their Stage I response will not be reviewed.

Those Offerors meeting the initial GO/NO-GO required qualifications will enter a two-stage source selection process (Stage I and Stage II). Following the initial screening, Stage I will focus solely on technical evaluation for Factors 1, 2 and 3.

Between Stage I and Stage II, each Offeror will receive an Advisory Notification. The Advisory

Notification will inform the Offeror that either: 1) it will be advised to participate in Stage II, or

2) based on the information submitted, it is unlikely to be a viable competitor. The intent is to minimize proposal development costs for Offerors with little or no chance of receiving an award.

However, notwithstanding the advice provided by the Government in response to the Stage I submissions, all offerors who participated in Stage I may participate in Stage II if they meet all required initial screening GO/NO-GO qualifications and have submitted a complete and fully responsive proposal for Stage I.

Note:

1) The Advisory Notification is the only notice the Government will provide from Stage I;

debriefings will not occur at the end of Stage I.

2) Participation in Stage I is a mandatory part of this acquisition. Failure to participate in

Stage I will preclude further consideration of the Offeror’s proposal. Stage II submissions mailto:LordTG@state.gov mailto:FitzgibbonME@state.gov will not be accepted from any Offeror who has not participated in Stage I and submitted a complete and fully responsive Stage I proposal.

3) Evaluations of Stage I will be carried over to Stage II to be included in the overall evaluation of proposals.

Stage II will include both evaluation of additional technical factors (Factors 4, 5, and 6) as well as pricing volume evaluation (Factor 7).

L.3 Timeline

Solicitation Milestone Schedule (updated A002)

Milestone Target Date

Issue solicitation 08/20/2021

Offeror Questions Stage I Due (see L-

006) 08/24/2021

Q&A Stage I Issued to Offerors 08/30/2021

Receipt of Stage I Proposals and Past

Performance Questionnaire(s) 09/14/2021

Notification of Offerors for Stage II 10/08/2021

Offeror Questions Stage II Due 10/12/2021

Q&A Stage II Issued to Offerors 10/19/2021

Receipt of Stage II Proposals 10/27/2021

Contract Award Target Timeframe January 2022

*NOTE: Target timeframes for Milestones after the date of submission of Stage I proposals are best estimates. The Government reserves the right to amend the milestone schedule after receipt of all Stage I proposals, if necessary. In the event of unforeseen delays, schedules will slip accordingly.

L.4 Proposal Content Requirements

Offeror’s Proposal shall include three separate volumes:

• Business Volume

• Technical Volume

• Pricing Volume

All volumes shall conform to the page limits specified below for each volume and the following format requirements:

• Minimum one-inch margins on all sides

• Times New Roman 11-pt font or larger

Business Volume

The Business Volume is not included in the evaluation factors for award; however a completed

Business Volume must be received as part of Stage I proposals. Failure to submit a complete

Business Volume as part of the Offeror’s Stage I submission will render the Offeror’s proposal non-responsive and the Offeror’s proposal will not be further evaluated.

The content of the Business Volume shall include:

1. Company Information including the following:

a) Company Name

b) Primary Point of Contact Name, email and phone

c) DUNS number

d) CAGE code and Status/Level of Facility Clearance (FCL)

i. If the prime entity is a Joint Venture (JV), the CAGE and FCL information for each entity making up the JV is required to be included.

e) Confirmation of 8(a) certification

f) 8(a) Graduation date

g) If the prime entity is a JV, a copy of the JV agreement

2. All required certifications/signed statements as required by RFP, to include the following:

a) RFP F-006 I – Potential Organizational Conflict of Interest Statement

b) FAR 52.204-24

c) FAR 52.204-26

d) FAR 52.209-7

e) FAR 52.209-12

f) FAR 52.212-3

g) FAR 52.229-11

h) DOSAR 652.239-70

There is no page limit for the Business Volume – all required certifications/signed statements must be completed as part of the Stage I response.

Technical and Pricing Volumes

The technical and pricing volumes shall be submitted separately. The table below provides guidelines for the format and page limitations for each Stage (Stage I and Stage II) and each

Evaluation Factor.

Stage/Factor Factor Format Page Limits *

Initial Screening Required Qualifications Separate PDF N/A

I / Factor 1 Technical Work Product: Data Analytics &

Visualization

Web-based URL to Dashboard utilizing Power

BI with access granted to the

Government

300-word limit for narrative

(excluding dashboards)

I / Factor 2 Technical Work Product: IT Modernization PDF

2 pages

(excluding diagrams)

I / Factor 3 Past Performance and Past Performance

Questionnaires (PPQs) Word

2 pages per past performance

(excluding PPQs)

II / Factor 4

Technical Approach, Agile Development

Management Plan (ADMP) & Q&A

- Sub-Factor A: Technical Approach to

Functional Areas

- Sub-Factor B: ADMP

- Sub-Factor C: Responses to Q&A Topics

PDF

#25 pages total for Stage II response

(technical only, pricing separate) excluding key personnel resumes

II / Factor 5

Staffing Plan and Key Personnel Resumes

- Sub-Factor A: Overall Staffing Plan &

Approach

- Sub-Factor B: Key Personnel Resumes

- Sub-Factor C: Employee Tenure & Retention

PDF &

Excel

(Tenure Table)

II / Factor 6

Program Management Plans (Transition, Communications, Quality)

- Sub-Factor A: Transition Plan

- Sub-Factor B: Communications Plan

- Sub-Factor C: Quality Plan

PDF

II / Factor 7 Pricing Volume

(evaluated separately from technical portion) Excel N/A

*After noted exclusions: Cover Page, Table of Contents, Images/Diagrams (required to fit on an 8x11 page), Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs) and/or Resumes for Key Personnel

L.5 Go/No-Go Initial Screening: Required Qualifications Instructions

Please submit a response confirming that the PRIME offeror meets each individual required qualification below. The Prime cannot rely on any proposed team members (Subcontractors or teaming partners) to meet the Go/No-Go requirements. Note: If Offeror does not meet these five

Go/No-Go requirements, Offeror will not advance to Stage I. Responses to Go/No-Go requirements are excluded from word and page limit requirements.

1) Offerors shall be certified at the CMMI Development – Level 3 or higher and the CMMI

Service – Level 3 or higher (both). Proof must be provided with Phase 1 submission.

2) Offerors shall be ISO 9001 certified and provide proof of such certification with their

Phase 1 submission.

3) Offerors shall possess AWS Consulting Partner Network Select (Standard) or higher and provide proof of this with their Phase 1 submission.

Offeror’s unable to substantiate meeting all GO/NO-GO criteria will not receive further consideration and their Stage I response will not be evaluated.

L.6 Stage I Instructions

Stage I technical factors (Factors 1, 2, and 3) will have the word count and page limits described in the table in Section L.4, with the noted exclusions (e.g. use of diagrams/dashboards).

Factor 1: Technical Work Product: Data Analytics & Visualization – EX/IT is in the process of standing up a new data management and analytics capability to better support data-driven insights and decision making across ECA and would like to utilize this test case to test Offeror’s abilities.

Instructions:

1. Objective: Utilize publicly available base data, directed/given by EX/IT, and find additional publicly available supplementary data to execute data visualization and build a dashboard that will be a decision-making tool to assist the Department of State’s ECA leadership on how to better fulfill its mission, which is to foster mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries around the world.

2. Base Data: Download the following economic indicators (publicly available data) from the World Bank website, analyze and understand the data, and utilize it to execute data visualization and build an interactive dashboard.

a. All countries’ GDP (current US$)

[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD]

b. All countries’ Consumer Price Index

[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL]

c. All countries’ Inflation, GDP deflator (annual %)

[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.DEFL.KD.ZG]

d. All countries Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)

[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG]

e. All countries’ Population

Total[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL]

Note: If the data is not accessible on the World Bank site, please contact the Contracting

Officer on the cover sheet of this solicitation, and the Government will provide the data directly as soon as possible. No extensions will be given on Stage I deadlines, so Offeror should be sure to notify the Contracting Officer within a reasonable amount of time if experiencing any issues accessing data.

3. Supplementary Data: The Offeror is required to independently identify and integrate other publicly available data sets that are co-related with these indicators in order to complete this technical work product. Integration of additional relevant public data sets

(such as other World Bank data) that would improve the ability to “tell the story” is critical to developing a complete response to Factor 1. Please cite the source(s) (e.g., publicly available URL/link, name of source, etc.) and the nature and relevance of the additional data sets used. Note: These source citations will be excluded from the word/page limits.

4. Technical Work Product: The Offeror will then derive insights from all of the data, synthesize this data using best practices to fulfill the objective (in #1) and “tell a story” that will enable more effective, data-driven decision-making through:

a) Building an interactive dashboard, which will be shared with EX/IT via an Offeror-hosted web-based URL.

Note: Please provide a POC who can grant access. Once the Offeror has passed the GO/NO-GO criteria, the Contracting Officer will provide the stated POC with the email addresses of the individuals that should be granted access, if the

URL will not be visible to the public.

b) Writing a brief narrative (length limit of 300 words) to accompany and explain the approach taken in building the interactive dashboard. This narrative should “tell a story” around the key insights from the data, the choice(s) of the supplementary data in #3, design and/or functionality choices for the data visualization execution of the dashboard, and how this will help enable effective, data-driven decision-making in support of the objective in #1.

Factor 2: Technical Work Product: IT Modernization – The ECA DIN infrastructure, supported by EX/IT, is quite outdated and needs to be modernized to enable more efficient processes and customer support. The current state is represented in the diagram in Attachment 4.

Technical Work Product To Be Developed: How would you go about updating the current infrastructure to be more efficient, effective, secure, and aligned with industry standards to support the following:

• Up to 1000 Wi-Fi users and guests

• Up to 100 remote users that utilize a secure connection (e.g., multi-factor authentication)

• Up to 400 on-site users (connecting directly to the DIN)

• Application Development Environment (development environment and custom applications) – please refer to Attachment 1 for details

• Platforms and Infrastructure Environment – please refer to Attachment 2 for details

Please provide a creative approach articulating your updated strategy.

Include both:

1. A diagram documenting your approach. Solutions should accomplish the following:

• Optimize workloads, maximize efficiency, and build a resilient system

• Leverage enterprise emerging trends and technologies while ensuring a balance with operational stability

2. Key written takeaways summarizing your approach. Be sure to address the following in your approach:

• Balances the need to innovate while “keeping the lights on”

• Keeps costs down and optimizes operational costs, both on-premises and off, while ensuring flexibility and scalability for future requirements

Factor 3: Past Performance – Provide at least one, but not more than three, examples of projects performed within the past three years of comparable size, scope, complexity and technical difficulty to the requirements outlined in the Functional Areas of the SOW. At least one past performance project must be for a federal agency IT services contract.

Also, at least one past performance project must have the Offeror serving as the prime contractor. If past performance examples are from subcontractors (not the Offeror), the subcontractor must have been the prime contractor for the project referenced.

Examples should highlight performance relevant to the six EX/IT functional areas in the

SOW and describe key problems/obstacles encountered and solutions/corrective actions taken to resolve. For each past performance project cited, the Offeror shall clearly document what portion(s) of the project work were performed directly by the Offeror or other proposed Teaming Partners/subcontractors, versus what aspects of the work were completed by other contractors not part of the Offeror’s proposed team for this solicitation. Lack of clarity regarding the work performed by contractors relevant to the proposed team for this solicitation vs others may result in a reduced confidence assessment related to a given past performance. Please include references and points of contact for each project cited. The Government reserves the right to contact the provided references.

Please provide the following information for each past performance cited. Each past performance shall not exceed two (2) pages in length. The Past Performance Questionnaire for each citation is not included in this page limitation.

1. Name of Company acting as Prime Contractor on the project being referenced

a. Must be the Offeror or a Teaming Partner/Subcontractor on the Offeror’s proposed team for this solicitation

b. Past Performance references where a proposed Teaming Partner/Subcontractor was a subcontractor on the project referenced are not acceptable and will not be considered.

2. Contract Number

3. Title of Contract

4. Customer Agency or Organization

5. Point of Contact most directly familiar with the work performed. Include Name, Title, Phone

# and E-mail Address;

6. Contract Type: (FFP, labor hour, etc.);

7. Annual Dollar Value;

8. Total Dollar Value;

9. Period of Performance;

10. Performance Responsibility of the Prime Contractor noted in #1 vs subcontractors.

a. At least one past performance citation must be with the Offeror serving as the Prime

Contractor

b. Offerors must clearly document the support provided by each contractor that is part of the proposed team for this solicitation – worked performed by contractors not part of the proposed team for this solicitation is not relevant and will not be considered

11. Brief Description of Scope;

12. Offeror to send Attachment 5 Past Performance Questionnaire to the reference

POC in #5, who will be responsible for filling it out and returning to the Contracting

Officer/Specialist listed on the cover page of this solicitation by the deadline for Stage

I submissions noted in the milestone schedule in L.3 above.

At least one past performance questionnaire per Offeror must be for a Federal customer and received by the deadline for the Offeror to remain under consideration for Stage II. Failure to receive at least one questionnaire from a Federal customer will cause the Offeror’s submission to be rated “non-responsive” and will remove the Offeror from consideration for Stage II.

L.7 Advisory Down-Select Notification

After its assessment of required Stage I submissions is complete, the Government will issue an

Advisory Notification between the two stages, as described in Section L.2 above.

Notwithstanding the advice provided by the Government in response to the Stage I submissions, all offerors who participated in Stage I may participate in Stage II, if they meet all required initial screening GO/NO-GO qualifications and have submitted a complete and fully responsive proposal for Stage I.

L.8 Stage II Instructions

After receiving their Advisory Notifications, Offerors choosing to continue to Stage II must submit their Stage II proposals via email to the Contracting Officer/Specialist on the cover page of this solicitation by the deadline provided at the time of the Notice. Only those Offerors who submitted fully compliant Stage I proposals by the Stage I deadline will be eligible to be considered for Stage II evaluation. Stage II technical factors (Factors 4 through 6) will have a combined 25-page limit, not including resumes for key personnel.

Factor 4: Technical Approach, Agile Development Management Plan (ADMP) & Q&A –

Factor 4 includes three Subfactors that will be evaluated together as part of one Factor, given that together, they inform the critical fundamentals of the Offeror’s technical approach.

Sub-Factor 4A: Technical Approach to Functional Areas

• Offeror’s approach to addressing the goals, vision, and requirements of the six defined functional areas and reflecting a sound understanding of the requirements:

A. Customer Engagement

B. Data & Analytics*

C. Solutions, D. Platforms, E. Security*, and

F. Governance

*These functional areas will be more heavily weighted than the other functional areas

• This technical approach statement focuses on the Offeror’s expertise and recommendations.

The Offeror may draw upon demonstrated experience through specific client examples, especially Federal ones within the past 2 years.

• Preferred qualifications: While not required, Offerors are asked to provide proof of the following additional preferred qualifications, if held:

o ISO 20000 and/or 27001 certification o Google Cloud Partner status and/or Microsoft Gold Partner status

Sub-Factor 4B: Agile Development Management Plan (ADMP)

• Offeror to provide a draft ADMP that demonstrates how the Offeror will manage, develop, implement, and maintain the requirements described in the Scope of Work and the Task

Order Procedures sections of this solicitation. As part of the ADMP, the Offeror shall:

o Document the management of transformation and ongoing operational services to help

EX/IT reach its goals using Agile processes. The plan should describe the necessary activities to support the proposed agile solution with integration of DevSecOps methodology considerations.

o Provide contact information for all senior leaders and an organizational chart showing the Offeror’s organizational hierarchy and reporting structure, with specific designation: Management resources; Technical resources and skill sets required to develop, implement, and maintain the work described in each functional area o If Quoter is selected for award, a final version of the ADMP will be incorporated into the IDIQ award.

Sub-Factor 4C: Responses to Q&A Topics

• Offeror to provide a response to the following questions to provide information on the

Offeror’s experience and capabilities to provide the resources and technical expertise required by EX/IT:

1) What challenges have you experienced implementing DevSecOps methodology in the federal space and how did you respond to successfully overcome these challenges? Please use a specific example(s) from your past experience.

2) Describe your approach to ensuring that your support of EX/IT effectively incorporates technological innovation and new, more efficient ways of doing business, especially regarding software development and network management (among other relevant technical areas). What specific approaches/methods and new technologies would you utilize to ensure ongoing innovation and use of industry best practices? Please make sure to describe the impact and results of your approaches.

3) After the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “new normal” requires a large amount of virtual support. What best practices did you utilize when moving from an on-site delivery model to a predominantly virtual environment, especially with regards to ensuring security? What were the key lessons learned in resolving issues for clients, and how have you successfully adapted your approach to service delivery to ensure effective support?

Factor 5: Staffing Plan and Key Personnel Resumes

Sub-Factor 5A: Staffing Plan

• Describe the Offeror’s staffing plan demonstrating Offeror’s ability to satisfy contract requirements, especially in providing Key Personnel.

• This plan shall highlight company recruiting, retention and training approaches to ensuring uninterrupted access to all skills and capabilities required over the period of performance

Sub-Factor 5B: Key Personnel Resumes

• Provide resumes for all key personnel listed in Section C of the RFP, taking care to highlight relevant, successful and stable employment history; skills, experience, expertise and qualifications in relation to the requirements.

• Provide verification/proof that proposed key personnel satisfy all required qualifications and certifications listed in the Labor Category Description

• Note the extent to which key personnel possess any preferred qualifications or certifications listed in the Labor Category Descriptions and submit verification/proof of such qualifications

• There is no page limit for the resumes portion of the RFP response.

Sub-Factor 5C: Employee Tenure & Retention

• Provide a description of the Offeror’s Talent Management Strategy and approach to attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel. Of particular interest are innovative or unique aspects of the Offeror’s approach rather than basic details of compensation and benefits. Such aspects may include, but are not limited to, training and other skills development programs, opportunities for promotion, awards and recognition or other incentive plans designed to promote high quality performance and employee retention and satisfaction for this contract.

• Provide a count of current employees aligned to current positions held and the duration employed (prime and teaming partners). Each employee shall be referenced in a single position that is currently held by that individual. Please populate this information in the

Excel template provided as Attachment 6 of the RFP.

Factor 6: Program Management Plans (Transition, Communications, Quality)

Sub-Factor 6A: Transition Plan

• Submit a Transition Plan that:

- Ensures contract requirements are met

- Identifies all the necessary steps and level of resources, with roles and responsibilities assigned to them, schedule, communication, incumbent transition and recruitment strategies to be ready for performance of the first Task Order under the IDIQ

- Identifies risks and develops mitigation strategies that will ensure a timely and seamless assumption of services, and for turnover to a successor contractor at contract end

- Ensures no service delivery degradation from the expiring contract for similar services during and after transition, with no service disruption to vital Government business

- Identifies equipment, hardware, software, documents, and other artifacts included in the transition

- Define a knowledge transfer, property inventory, and transition approach

• If selected for award, the Offeror shall provide a final Transition-In Plan that will be based on the Offeror’s proposal Transition-in Plan submitted with this RFP response, in accordance with the timeframes outlined in the RFP Statement of Work.

Sub-Factor 6B: Communications Plan

• Submit a Communications Plan to ensure the successful completion of quality services and deliverables, which accomplishes the following:

- Demonstrates communications plan/approach in a collaborative, structured manner, and explain how it will utilize timely, pertinent communications to various stakeholders within the organization that ensure the successful completion of quality services and deliverables.

- Defines lines of communication (onsite/virtual) and responsible/involved parties.

Sub-Factor 6C: Quality Plan

• Submit a proposed draft Quality Plan to ensure the requirements are provided as specified in the SOW, which includes the following elements:

- Offeror’s organizational structure and functional statements showing the relationship with work items in the contract

- A quality control inspection program covering all general and specific functional areas included in SOW

- A specific management methodology to be followed during the performance of the work, including such aspects as documentation management and control, development coordination procedures, design checks and reviews, technical review, CI/CD, DevSecOps, and managerial continuity and flexibility.

- Specify tasks or areas to be inspected on either a scheduled or unscheduled basis and the manner in which inspections are to be conducted

- Detail method(s) of identifying deficiencies before performance becomes unacceptable in accordance with this Statement of Work

- Detail how Offeror personnel will be trained

- Detail how customer satisfaction will be tracked and maintained

- Review services to be examined for quality and identify the Government-furnished systems and facilities required to execute the plan

• The Offeror’s approach to quality assurance shall demonstrate best practices and ensure timely, consistent, professional, and quality services and deliverables.

• The Offeror’s approach should address how to ensure quality of provided solutions and services at both the IDIQ contract level, as well as management of supplemental documentation for each Task Order under the IDIQ.

Factor 7: Pricing Volume

Offerors shall submit pricing for all Labor Categories detailed in Attachment 3 of the RFP using the Excel Pricing template provided in Attachment 7. Offerors shall submit not-to-exceed (NTE) fully loaded hourly labor rates for each labor category for the Base Year and each option year using the five numbered tabs provided in the Excel Pricing Template.

Additional guidance on pricing is provided in Section B of the RFP and in the Instructions Tab of the Excel Pricing Workbook (Attachment 7). Price quotes shall be submitted in a separate file using the provided excel pricing spreadsheet.

Offerors shall submit their quote in accordance with the instructions provided in this RFP. The government anticipates issuing a single IDIQ as a result of this solicitation but reserves the right to make multiple awards if deemed in the best interest of the government.

To be eligible for award, offerors are required to meet all solicitation requirements, including terms and conditions, and non-price and price instructions. Failure to comply with all solicitation requirements may result in the Offeror being removed from award consideration. The

Government may also reject a quotation whose proposal reflects an inherent lack of competence or failure to comprehend the overall requirements of the solicitation.