SOW.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK FOR THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (GFMS)

1 Introduction

The School of Professional and Area Studies – Management Team Training (MTT) division of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) at the Department of State seeks a vendor to utilize current course materials for the classroom environment, to train new end users on the Global Financial Management System (GFMS) software platform. Vendors must meet evaluation criteria stated in section 17 to be considered viable candidates for the proposed contract.

Established in 1947, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the lead training bureau of the U.S. State Department. FSI is the federal government's primary training institution the U.S. Government’s foreign affairs community. FSI promotes substantive, regional, and linguistic expertise, leadership finesse, personal resilience, and innovative problem solving. FSI is located at the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, VA. Moreover, FSI has other locations in the Washington metropolitan area, plus several domestic and overseas regional training centers. FSI offers more than 800 classroom courses, including some 70 foreign languages, about 275 custom-developed distance-learning products, and about 2,700 commercial distance-learning courses available worldwide 24/7 through the Internet. Annual enrollments exceeds 170,000.

2 Background

The Department of State utilizes the Global Financial Management System (GFMS), also known as Momentum, as its primary financial accounting platform. GFMS is a web-based accounting system providing a single platform for our domestic financial data, reporting requirements, and data standardization. The core software product underlying GFMS is the Momentum Financials Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) system developed by CGI Federal, Inc.

The Department of State uses GFMS platform version 7.0.1.

Within the Department of State, the GFMS financial system is responsible for processing over 40 billion dollars annually. GFMS accounts for a wide range of financial transactions from, but not limited to: vendor payments; reimbursable payments to other U.S. Government Agencies; Grants disbursements; Depreciation Adjustments; and Data Warehouse reporting. In total, the GFMS system will process over 200,000 financial transactions Department-wide during any given fiscal year. The system contains multiple sub modules allowing data to be imported and exported to various internal Department of State systems as well as non-Department of State systems.

The Foreign Service Institute is now seeking proposals from a vendor to take the lead on all on-going GFMS training for the Department. FSI wishes to engage the services of a vendor who will provide the following training on the GFMS system.

3 Scope and Objective

The Foreign Service Institute would like a vendor to utilize the current materials to continue providing GFMS new-user training. All revised and newly developed training materials should contain the most recent GFMS implementation. All materials revised and/or developed will become the property of the Department of State.

Via the classroom environment, the vendor will use the current GFMS course materials to train Department of State employees in FSI’s two GFMS courses (five-day courses) in order to provide new and existing users of the GFMS system the knowledge and skills needed as end users. The number of sessions is subject to change as demands for additional sessions warrant. The anticipated sessions planned are as follows but are not limited to:

· 4- Five-day training sessions held on the FSI campus located in Arlington, Virginia. These sessions would entail a total of 40 hours a week (Monday – Friday) of actual instructional time for each session.

· 2- Five-day training sessions at the Global Financial Service Center (CGFS) in Charleston, South Carolina. These sessions would entail a total of 40 hours a week (Monday – Friday) per session of actual instructional time for each session.

Audience Typical enrollees or new end users will include domestically-based direct-hire employees and third party contractors hired by the Department of State who handle financial information data inputted into the GFMS software. “New end users” are employees of the Department who have not completed FSI’s GFMS courses but may have worked on the GFMS system in the performance of their jobs. Consequently, knowledge of the GFMS system can and will range greatly among enrollees.

Classes are scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM and run until 4:00 PM. And due to the self-paced instructional design, students in some classes may need to continue working until 5:00 PM. The vendor is expected to be in the classroom by 8:00 AM to prepare for class and to stay until 5:00 PM if one or more students require assistance or guidance in performing GFMS functions on the computer. The vendor may leave at 4:00 PM if no students remain and the classroom is prepared for the next day’s session.

The vendor and students are entitled to two 15-minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and one hour for lunch.

The vendor is expected to prepare the classroom for the next day’s session before leaving each day. Preparation involves arranging all materials needed by each student on their desk. This includes training modules, job aids, any supplemental materials required for the class, name tents, highlighter markers, etc. It also includes testing the training database for the next day’s session and promptly notifying the Course Manager if issues were to arise.

The vendor will coordinate activities, via the assigned Contracting Officers’ Representative (COR), with FSI Course Managers, GFMS Subject Matters Experts (SMEs) throughout the Department of State, and GFMS software developers to revise, update, and improve training materials. The current materials for the GFMS courses include approximately 1,200 power point slides, a GFMS training database used by students to provide hands-on training, and numerous printed materials used in class. Any revised, updated, and or new materials created for either GFMS course must incorporate industry standard adult learning methodologies. A class may have a minimum of ten students and a maximum of 30 students. The vendor will be notified of the number of students enrolled in each course, two weeks prior to the start date of the training session.

The final product(s) submitted by the vendor must meet the following course and lesson objectives for both five-day courses.

By the end of either session the participants will be able to:

1- Have the ability to navigate through GFMS screens and identify their usage.

2- Explain the roles and responsibilities of a GFMS user domestically.

3- Show how to generate key reports and articulate the usage of said key reports.

4- With the aid of reference (e.g. Standard Operating Procedures) materials, participants will gain hands-on experience using the GFMS software system.

5- Analyze and interpret input and output (reports) data with the use of case studies.

6- Using the GFMS software, perform hands-on exercises using “what-if” scenarios.

7- Have the ability to explain effective service performance standards that meet current end-user standards.

8- Identify GFMS workflows and relate the workflows to specific office roles.

9- Identify the roles within GFMS and the tasks associated with those roles.

The Government will provide for the course administrative support which will include the following:

a) Provide the vendor with access to information about any major changes/additions to appropriate GFMS training materials, the training database or to basic GFMS or Department procedures as necessary.

b) Provide the vendor with access to classroom computer terminals and the GFMS training databases at least two weeks before class sessions begin.

c) Provide the vendor with the number of students enrolled in each session, two weeks prior to the first training day of the session.

d) Determine the number of training sessions required by the Department of State and establish the GFMS training calendar based on the Department’s needs and priorities.

e) Coordinate the registration of all students and provide the vendor with a copy of a class roster by the start of each training session. MTT will also provide end of course certificates to be given to the students by the instructor.

f) Provide classroom space, computer terminals and set-up materials including, as necessary, flipcharts, markers, computer and video display for computer screen. FSI-DC Metro classroom facilities are located at 4000 Arlington Blvd., Arlington, VA. Charleston classroom facilities are located at Charleston Financial Service Center, 1969 Dyess Avenue, North Charleston, SC.

During the agreement period, the vendor shall:

1. Prepare to conduct training sessions.

a. Study and analyze GFMS materials and submit detailed instructor guides and a daily schedule to COR/ Course Manager. All vendors must be thoroughly familiar with the materials for each course they will conduct. All vendors must remain current on updates made to GFMS training during the period of performance. This will entail attending at least four of the Department’s monthly Global Financial System Support (GFSS) helpdesk meetings throughout the year. These meetings are four hours in duration.

b. Practice working online with the GFMS training database. Vendors must be able to perform all transactions taught within lessons and exercises. They must also be familiar with the basic information (documents and records) that make up the training database. In addition, they must have knowledge of the system to respond accurately to student questions.

c. Meet with GFMS stakeholders and SMEs as deemed necessary by the Course Manager to remain current on pending and recently made updates to GFMS.

2. Vendor’s administrative responsibilities include:

a. Printing and shipping the course materials to the Department’s Charleston Financial Service Center located at 1969 Dyess Avenue, Charleston, SC. This does not include the power point presentations. Please note, for the FSI-held courses, printing will be done by the Management Team Training division, as long as materials are received one week prior to the start of any FSI-held courses.

b. Ensure all students sign the FSI attendance roster and that the roster is returned to the Course Manager or designee at the conclusion of the course.

c. Vendor’s instructors are to promptly inform the Course Manager of student absentees. Additionally, instructors are not allowed to excuse students from any segment of the course without prior permission from the Course Manager.

4 Period of Performance

The anticipated period of performance will be a five-year Blanket Purchase Agreement.

5 Program Management

A scheduled offering may be cancelled at the convenience of the government due to low enrollment and or funding constraints. The vendor will be given two weeks’ notice prior to cancellation of either GFMS course and will not be eligible for compensation. Please refer to the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) for additional details. – FAR 52 215-4.

For planning purposes, the vendor should expect to conduct four five-day sessions on the FSI campus, located in Arlington, Va., during the following the months: October, February, April and June with exact dates TBD.

For planning purposes, the vendor should expect to conduct two five-day sessions at the Department of State’s Charleston, SC location during the months: February, and August with exact dates TBD.

Course offerings are subject to change at the convenience of the government.

6 Specific tasks to be performed

Materials Development and Delivery

The vendor will provide consulting services on GFMS training. Services may range from telephone consultations to direct assistance with system components in tailoring and implementing project cycles.

The vendor, with input from MTT’s Course Managers, will modify current GFMS training materials to include the following; all current updates; any future updates; best practices of end users; and any process changes to include reports changes in screen layouts and database functionality.

The vendor will provide a qualified trainer (to be determined by the Contracting Officers’ Representative (COR)) to teach the GFMS sessions and a qualified back-up trainer (to be determined by the COR).

Foreign Service Institute’s five-day course PA350 includes the following topics supported by approximately 30 system exercises:

CGFS five-day course PA351 includes the following topics support by approximately 45 system exercises:

Project Cost Accounting System (PCAS)

System Exercises

The vendor will update an existing training database for the GFMS courses. The training database system will provide students hands-on training that supports the above mentioned topics. Within each GFMS course, the vendor will create enough copies of the exercises for each student enrolled and will refresh the training database before the start of each course. There will be minimal system configuration needed since the environment is already active and ready for use. The vendor will be responsible for updating the database based on exercise data used in the GFMS courses. Individual system exercises can be three to ten minutes in duration depending on the topic covered. The instructor is expected to assist students as they work through training exercises and provide classroom-type instruction to demonstrate and illustrate the following:

· Reinforce important points or procedures explained in training materials.

· Clarify the use or purpose of certain data fields, functions or procedures, which may be confusing.

· Illustrate how to complete specific transactions by demonstration and leading students as they complete a sample exercise.

Course Materials and Updates

Upon an initial contract award to a vendor, the Management Team Training division of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) will provide the vendor a master set of existing course materials for review and study a minimum of ninety days before the start of the GFMS courses. Any updates and/or revisions to course materials by the vendor will be subject to final approval by the COR and Course Manager. Thus, changes to course materials must be submitted to the COR and Course Manager three weeks prior the start of the GFMS course. All documentation produced under this contract will be unclassified.

Baseline course materials consist of;

· Fourteen separate power point presentations. Ten of the fourteen presentations are the same in both the FSI five-day course and the CGFS five-day course. The CGFS five-day course has four additional presentations. In total, there approximately 1,200 slides that make up the power point slide decks.

· System exercises consist of approximately forty-five separate exercises. Thirty of the forty-five exercises are the same in both the FSI five-day course and CGFS five-day course. The CGFS five-day course has an additional fifteen exercises.

· Handouts/Standard Operating Procedures –These will vary depending on whether there are any GFMS system updates or policy changes within the Department of State.

7 Authorized Travel Expenses 1-When GFMS training courses are scheduled and held outside of the metropolitan Washington, DC area, the cost of travel will be reimbursed based on the Federal Travel Regulations (FAR).

2- GFMS courses held within the Washington, DC metropolitan area are not subject to travel reimbursement of any kind. If a vendor has personnel traveling to DC for the purposes of training or consultations or meetings with the COR/Course Managers or SME’s, travel expenses will not be reimburse. In rare instances the vendor may be required teach GFMS courses at other Department of State facilities. The Washington DC metropolitan area is defined as any Department of State building and/or annex within a fifty-mile radius of the FSI campus in Arlington, Va., so travel expenses will not be reimbursed to the vendor.

8 Key Personnel and Other Department of State Stakeholders The vendor will provide a project manager and a lead trainer as points of contact.

1. Instructor(s) will be evaluated in classroom via observations by the COR on their ability to;

a. Relate subject matter to work situations.

b. Keep discussions focused on relevant topics.

c. Encourage participation among students.

d. Prepare daily to deliver classroom instruction to students.

e. Manage classroom time effectively so that all topics are covered daily.

f. Adapt GFMS updates and changes into GFMS courses.

g. Respond promptly to both student and COR inquiries.

h. Ensure attendance rosters are completed

2. Achieving an initial baseline favorable rating (65% to 75%) among student evaluations at the end of the session, with the expectation that the instructors’ ratings will show continual improvement.

3. Project Manager will be evaluated on his/her ability to;

a. Respond promptly to both the Contracting Officer and COR’s inquires.

b. Manage contract costs.

c. Adapt GFMS updates and changes into GFMS courses.

d. Provide a high standard quality of work submitted.

FSI will provide a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) as point of contact to the vendor. The COR’s role is to ensure that both FSI and the vendor are in compliance with contract terms.

As mentioned above, the vendor will coordinate activities, via the COR and with the Department’s Global Financial System Support (GFSS) helpdesk to incorporate common issues end users find challenging in using the software platform and will adjust training materials to overcome those challenges.

9 Adherence to FSI Curriculum:

Liaise with the COR on all aspects of training to ensure training delivery is in accordance with FSI curriculum standards.

As directed, vendor is responsible for destroying or returning any and all excess training materials, including electronic or other media and ensuring that all downloaded materials are deleted at the end of the course if requested by the COR. If it is not possible to destroy training materials then the media will be returned to the COR.

10 Quality Control Plan:

The vendor must adhere to the requirements outlined in the SOW and facilitate a high-quality, coherent and appropriate training course. The vendor, not the U.S. Government, is responsible for providing quality control services that meet the performance standards set forth in this contract. The vendor shall develop, submit, and maintain a Quality Control Plan (QCP). The QCP shall enumerate well-defined and understood lines of authority, responsibility, and accountability for performing and monitoring work performed under this contract.

11 Timeliness of Performance:

The vendor must adhere to the deadlines specified by the COR/GTM with regard to providing training materials, delivering training, and/or participating in debriefs with the Course Manager as well as other Department stakeholders.

12 Business Relations/Customer Satisfaction:

The vendor must provide effective customer service to the internal FSI clients of this contract – COR and MTT’s staff and students – per their duties in the SOW.

13 Engagement Parameters:

The vendor shall be required to interface with Department of State staff and students.

The vendor, both on and off duty, is a direct reflection of the United States, the American people and their employer. As such, the vendor conduct shall be in a manner that reflects the highest level of self-respect, business integrity.

Vendor misconduct of any nature, to include participation in or unreported knowledge thereof is subject to immediate recall and permanent removal.

14 Required Vendor Training:

The vendor shall be prepared to enroll and complete Department of State annual ethics training and additional courses, as warranted.

15 Appearance:

The U.S. Government considers a favorable image (i.e., positive energetic attitude, courtesy, cultural sensitivity, and subject matter expertise) to be major assets towards accomplishing the training objective. Vendor personnel shall present a neat appearance at all times, paying particular attention to personal hygiene, clothing, and equipment. The vendor shall wear appropriate business attire for classroom training environment.

16 Background and Suitability Screening:

All instructors should be vetted and undergo checks to determine their suitability for employment. The checks shall include criminal history, credit status, legal standing and other potentially derogatory or embarrassing activities that would potentially reflect negatively on the program.

Vendor’s instructors must be able to gain and maintain a Public Trust designation during the contract’s life cycle. FSI will require instructors to obtain a Department of State issued contractor badge.

17 Evaluation Criteria

Vendors will be evaluated based on the following criteria; Criteria-1-Technical aspects of proposal; Criteria-2- Past performance evaluations/surveys; Criteria-3-Training methodology (i.e. andragogy); and Criteria-4-Price proposals. Awards will be made based on the best overall value to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). Please note criteria 1, 2 and 3 are weighted equally and when combined are significantly more important than criteria 4.

These criteria will be rated on the following scale:

· Excellent - Proposal demonstrates excellent understanding of requirements and approach that significantly exceeds performance or capability standards. It has exceptional strengths that will significantly benefit the Government.

· Good- Proposal demonstrates good understanding of requirements and approach that exceeds performance or capability standards. It has one or more strengths that will benefit the Government.

· Fair- Proposal demonstrates acceptable understanding of requirements and approach that meets performance or capability standards. It is an acceptable solution. It has few or no strengths that will benefit the Government.

· Poor- Proposal demonstrates shallow understanding of requirements and approach that only marginally meets performance or capability standards necessary for minimal but acceptable contract performance.

· Unsatisfactory- Proposal fails to meet performance or capability standards. Requirements can be met only with major changes to the proposal.

Criteria 1 - Proposals will be evaluated on the following Technical aspects;

a) Qualifications (resumes illustrating prior experience and professional background including relevant training experience and degrees) of vendor, course developer(s) and course trainer(s).

b) Quality, coherence and appropriateness of the proposed approach or methodology (including course design) to perform the required work. Vendors must submit sample course materials (including handouts and exercises) for a possible 90-minute training session in the classroom environment.

c) The vendor’s project manager, lead instructor and backup instructor(s) must have a basic working knowledge of Microsoft’s office products, e.g. PowerPoint and SharePoint. Basic working knowledge is defined as the ability to navigate either product; make changes to presentations; and upload materials to a SharePoint site.

d) The instructor(s) must have basic knowledge of the federal appropriation process and knowledge of the basic components of fiscal data used to account for spending by federal agencies.

e) The vendor should also submit a 90-day action plan detailing a timeline for the review of each GFMS course and materials, updates to materials and training systems preparations and testing.

Criteria 2 - Past performance evaluations/surveys;

a) Vendors must list and describe two past performance experiences, within the past five years, developing and delivering training in a U.S. foreign affairs agency. Specifically, vendor must describe their experience in developing materials to address specific requirements of at least two agencies. Vendor must demonstrate knowledge of Momentum software or an accounting system similar in size, scope and functionality. Vendor must show a demonstrated experience in providing training for a Momentum or Momentum-type system implementation. The vendor should also have expert knowledge of government accounting.

b) The vendor will be rated on the level of success of past performances via the submission of six end-of-course evaluations/surveys from courses conducted and completed within the past five years. Additionally, the vendor should provide references of current or previous customers (within the past five years) who can attest to past performances of training courses on the matter at hand.

c) The vendor will be rated on the relevancy of past performance to the current requirements.

Criteria 3 - Training methodology;

a) The vendor must demonstrate their knowledge and ability to design, develop, teach, and maintain course materials (and training database) on a financial accounting system similar in scale to that of the GFMS/ Momentum platform. Specifically, the proposal should demonstrate how the vendor has instructed other agencies on at least five of the topics as listed in section #4 of this Statement of Work(i.e. course Micro’s, Macro’s and daily schedule(existing or proposed)) Criteria 4 - Price proposals;

b) The vendor must provide a per session cost estimate total for both the five-day FSI course and the five-day CGFS course. Both cost estimates should include a detailed level of effort needed to accomplish course of objectives (i.e. labor hours, support personnel, and travel estimates where applicable, etc.) and cost control measures.

A contract may be awarded to a vendor based on the overall value to FSI and not solely on the lowest priced proposal. However, in cases where proposals are technically equivalent or substantially similar, cost or price may become the determining selection factor.

FSI reserves the right to schedule interviews/oral presentations with vendors and the vendor’s key personnel. These interviews/oral presentations will be at the expense of the vendor.

This contract will be closely monitored by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and/or Government Technical Monitor (GTM) when applicable, throughout the agreement’s life cycle and will be reported upon at a minimum, one time annually. This written evaluation will be considered in determining if FSI will continue to use the vendor for training services. Listed below are the performance metrics by which the vendor will be evaluated in addition to the vendor’s adherence to Statement of Work (SOW) requirements. The vendor must be considered successful in fulfilling the contract requirements in order to continue to be considered for future opportunities. To be considered successful the vendor will score a minimum of four (4) in all categories listed below. The vendor will be evaluated using a scale (Poor 1- Superior 5).

· 5 - Superior: Vendor routinely demonstrates outstanding understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course(s) and significantly and consistently exceeds performance standards. Vendor has exceptional strengths that significantly benefit the Government.

· 4 - Excellent: Vendor demonstrates excellent understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course(s) and exceeds performance standards. Vendor has one or more strengths that significantly benefit the Government.

· 3 - Acceptable: Vendor demonstrates acceptable understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course(s) and has an approach that meets performance standards. Vendor is an acceptable solution and has few or no strengths that benefit the Government.

· 2 - Fair: Vendor routinely demonstrates shallow understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and approach.

· 1 - Poor: Vendor routinely fails to demonstrate understanding of SOW requirements and approach.

Quality:

The vendor must adhere to the requirements outlined in the SOW and facilitate a high-quality, coherent and appropriate training course. Multiple measurements will be used to formulate a rating between 1-5, including student feedback, review of teaching materials, and observations by the COR/GTM and or other Department stakeholders and subject matter experts.

Timeliness of Performance:

The vendor must adhere to the deadlines specified by the COR/GTM with regard to providing training materials, delivering training, and/or participating in debriefs with the Course Manager as well as other Department stakeholders. The rating between 1-5 will be formulated by the COR based on his/her observations.

Business Relations/Customer Satisfaction:

The vendor must provide effective customer service to the internal FSI clients of this contract – COR and MTT’s staff and students – per their duties in the SOW. The COR will use his/her expertise and general observance of interactions and customer service with FSI staff and students. A rating between 1-5 will be tabulated for this evaluation based on student feedback, FSI staff feedback, and COR observations. The COR’s observations will include timeliness of responses to inquiries and requests within the scope of the contract and delivery of training.

Cost Control:

The vendor must provide effective cost controls within the contract awarded. A rating between 1-5 will be tabulated for this evaluation based on COR/s observations, including timeliness, correctness and complete submission of billing/invoicing.