TACCOM_II_FBO_SPECIAL_NOTICE.docx

Special Notice The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issues this Special Notice related to the Tactical Communications II (TacCom II) re-compete requirement to:

· Provide TacCom II Objectives

· Communicate a tentative timeline of RFP release

· Provide Draft documents and Instructions for Industry feedback

· Survey prospective offerors

· Provide previous sales data CBP appreciates the valued contributions of our Industry partners in the TacCom II re-compete requirement. In this spirit, this Special Notice is issued with the intention of providing useful information to vendors when making a business decision to submit an offer to TacCom II, while gathering feedback for the upcoming RFP.

Please Note: Any information in this Special Notice and Draft Documents is subject to change, at the sole discretion of the Government.

TacCom II Objectives The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to establish a multi-agency contract (MAC) vehicle for commercially available, tactical communication equipment and services (TacCom). This acquisition is a follow-on to the existing DHS-wide strategically sourced contract for TacCom that will expire on September 25, 2017, and is therefore referred to as TacCom II. The CBP Office of Acquisition has been designated the Executive Agent to fulfill contracting responsibilities for this initiative. The DHS Joint Wireless Program Management Office (JWPMO) of the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer has been designated as the central Program Office for this procurement.

CBP anticipates TacCom II will be a multiple award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract vehicle. The scope of the IDIQ will be segmented into two technical categories (TC). These categories, TC1 Equipment, and TC2 Services, which are subdivided into smaller functional areas, subcategories, by core market offerings, comprehensively support tactical communication requirements. Evaluations will be conducted at the subcategory level to ensure quality competition at the delivery and task order level for targeted functional requirements. TC1 and TC2 will both have a small business and an unrestricted track in each subcategory.

· TC1: Equipment

· Subcategories:

· 1. Radios and Accessories

· 2. Infrastructure

· 3. High Frequency

· 4. Maritime

· 5. Satellite

· TC2: Services

· Subcategories:

· 1. Radio

· 2. System

· 3. O&M Services

· 4. RF

· 5. Site The intent of the IDIQ is to promote competition, while maximizing buying power, and ensure technical interoperability and compatibility with existing legacy systems. Because maintaining interoperability and compatibility with other federal agencies engaged in joint operations is of high importance, and contributes to buying power, DHS will allow partner agencies to place orders against the resultant IDIQ contracts. As such, this contract vehicle will be a MAC. External agencies that may use TacCom II include, but are not limited to: Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture, Department of Treasury, Department of State, Department of Interior, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and the White House Communications Agency.

The IDIQ will have a one-year base and four one-year options for a total period of performance of five years. The IDIQ will allow for Firm-Fixed-Price and Time and Materials orders.

Additional information is provided in the draft solicitation documents.

Tentative Timeline The following dates are estimates, and subject to change:

· April 20, 2017 – Special Notice: Release Draft Requirements Documents on FBO for Industry Feedback

· Section B

· Section C

· Sections L (Instructions to Offerors) & M (Evaluation Factors for Award) Documents

· Attachments

· April 27, 2017 - Industry Special Notice Responses Due (To both Survey and comments/question to Draft documents)

· May 2017 Pre-Solicitation Conference

· May 12, 2017 - RFP release

· Q4 Fiscal Year 2017 – Issue Awards

Draft documents for Industry feedback

SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENTS ON FBO TO THIS NOTICE

The draft RFP documents will allow offerors to review the acquisition approach and provide recommendations that best support TacCom IDIQ objectives.

Instructions Prospective Offerors have an opportunity to provide feedback to the Government through the release of these Draft documents. Responses to this notice are not required. Comments and suggestions are welcome from Industry. Please note, if a response is planned, please submit to Theodore.J.Langel@cbp.dhs.gov AND Claire.A.Breen@cbp.dhs.gov no later than April 27, 2017 in order for CBP to review and incorporate any suggestions that are deemed appropriate into the RFP documents.

If vendors elect to do so, electronic responses shall take the format of e-mail submissions and use the RFP QUESTIONS COMMENTS TEMPLATE. The subject line must include the "[Company Name] Response to Special Notice – TacCom II."

Survey In addition to Draft RFP document feedback, prospective offerors are asked to respond to the following questions:

· Do you intend to submit a proposal in response to the TacCom II RFP?

· Which TacCom II Technical Category/Categories, and subcategories are you prepared to support and submit a proposal for?

· Is small business well represented in the current award subcategories?

· This contract contemplates off-ramps. Feedback is requested regarding frequency and criteria for off-ramps.

· Does your company have a GSA Schedule? If so, please provide the schedule number, schedule name, and award number.

· In general, what is your customary business practice in providing discount pricing to Federal and non-Federal customers? Please provide a one (1) page summary.

· Are the TacCom II price strategies reflected in Sections L & M effective in supporting competition (specifically, the sample orders and Government provided labor category rate ranges)? Are these strategies effective in driving IDIQ-level discounts to be applied throughout the duration of the contract?

· Are the provided Draft RFP documents clear and understandable? If not, please specify areas that require clarification.

· Do you have any suggestions for improving the Draft RFP or TacCom II?

· Are you involved with any industry associations related to tactical communications equipment and/or services? If so, what are they?

This survey is optional and will help in Government planning efforts.

DHS Spend Data In order to provide industry with meaningful data for projecting potential spend on TacCom II, and to help offers in making a business decision to submit an offer, the following tables are provided:

DHS spend on the existing TacCom contract vehicle, from contract award through Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, is shown in the table below:

Table 1: DHS Spend on the TacCom IDIQ

The existing TacCom contract vehicle is not a government-wide contract vehicle. However, DHS partner agencies are allowed to order off the existing TacCom vehicle. These DHS partner agencies, as specified in the contract, include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Department of Justice, and Department of Treasury.

Spend by department on the existing TacCom vehicle is shown in the table below.

Table 2: Government-Wide Spend on the TacCom IDIQ

The existing TacCom contract vehicle allows for small business set-asides via small business tracks. Of the $524M in total TacCom spend, $155M (or 30%) went to small businesses on TacCom small business tracks.

NOTE: This acquisition is being conducted in collaboration with the DHS Procurement Innovation Lab (PIL). The PIL is a virtual lab that experiments with innovative techniques for increasing efficiencies in the procurement process and institutionalizing best practices. There is nothing you need to do differently for this requirement. The PIL project team may reach out to successful and unsuccessful Offerors to assess effectiveness of the procurement process and the innovative techniques applied. The anonymous feedback will be used to further refine DHS procurement practices. Additional information on the PIL may be found at https://www.dhs.gov/acquisition-innovations-motion Disclaimer This Special Notice is issued solely for informational and planning purposes and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids, Request for Proposal, or Request for Quotes. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Additionally, the U.S. Government will not provide reimbursement for any information that may be submitted in response to this RFI. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI, and any submissions to this notice will not result in an evaluation or rating by the Government.

The Government's explicit intent is to not receive from respondents any proprietary data, trade secrets, business sensitive information, or information considered CONFIDENTIAL under 18 U.S.C. §1905. The Government's constraint does not in any way relieve contractor's from their responsibility to properly mark proprietary data when it is provided, nor does it alleviate any requirement for the Government to protect marked data. The Government is not obligated to protect unmarked data.

Respondents shall ensure that any material/data that is provided is marked appropriately to ensure proper handling of all information. Unless otherwise noted herein, anything submitted in response to this Special Notice will not be returned to the sender. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the survey or results of information submitted, nor will it respond to telephone or email inquiries.

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