RFP_270-17-0503_Questions_and_Answers.pdf

RFP 270-17-0503 – Questions and Answers

Section L. Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors

2. Instructions to Offerors

b. Technical Proposal Instructions (Page 49 of 63):

Are appendices included in the total 100-page limit of the technical proposal? No, appendices are not included in the total 100-page limit.

2. Section L. Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors

b. Technical Proposal Instructions

4. Technical Discussion

d. Management Plan (Page 51 of 63):

o Given the large number of optional tasks, and the variation of numbers delivered within them, the offeror estimates that loading charts will consist of 30-45 pages. Will including loading charts as an appendix, not included in the 100-page limit, be acceptable? No, the loading chart is included in the page count for the technical proposal.

3. Section L. Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors

c. Business Proposal Instructions

9. Proposals from Subcontractors or Other Collaborative Partners (Page 56 of 63):

According to this section, “…Separate submission of proposals by subcontractors or collaborative partners is not permitted, and proposals submitted in that manner will not be accepted or further considered by the Government.” Please clarify how subcontractors submit sealed proposals if separate submissions are not permitted. Please refer to Attachment 18, Sealed Proposal Cover Page for instructions.

4. Section M. Evaluation Factors for Award

2. Non-Cost Evaluation Factors

a. Evaluation Factor 1: Technical

2. Technical Approach, b (Page 59 of 63):

Does the evaluation factor of “..The Offeror shall also discuss systems and procedures for developing, delivery, evaluating and tracking usage of online training curricula.” refer to the web-based tutorial (Task 3.2) or the online training (Task 3.3)? Answer: 3.3

5. Attachment 2, Delivery Schedule (Page 3 of 10):

o According to the schedule, bi-annual reports for Task 1.3 are due “…on the last day of each six month period,” and bi-annual reports for Task 2.3 and 3.4 are due “within 15 days of end of six month period." Please clarify the due dates for bi-annual reports. All should read “within 15 days of end of six month period.”

6. Attachment 3, Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan:

(Page 2)

Please clarify performance measurement support to grantees in Optional Task 8 and Optional Task 9 of the QA Surveillance Plan since it is not included in the Statement of Work. Remove “performance measurement support” from this task.

7. Attachment 9, Packaging and Delivery of Proposals for Use with the electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) Website o Is eCPS available for technical questions on Sunday, April 2? No o Is eCPS available for technical questions via telephone on Monday, April 3? Yes, if needed.

o If the offeror experiences technical issues requiring eCPS technical support on Monday, April 3, will the offeror’s proposal be accepted if the resolution surpasses the submission deadline? No, it is advisable to not wait until the last minute to try to upload your proposal.

Based on other contract programs, what is the estimated length of time for the eCPS upload process? It can vary depending on the size of your proposal.

8. Attachment 1 Section C. General Requirements (Pages 3 through 31 of 43):

Does the offeror address the items outlined in this section in the business proposal or the technical proposal? It should be addressed in both the technical and business proposal.

9. Attachment 1

Part 1. SAMHSA Information Technology Contract Requirements SAMHSA’s Division of Technology Management Standards (Page 3 of 43):

Is the migration plan due with the proposal? If so, is the migration plan included in 100-page limit of the Technical Approach? Or, can the migration plan be submitted as an appendix that will be evaluated with the proposal but not included in the 100-page limit?

Yes it should be included in the proposal as an appendix. It does not count towards the 100- page limit.

10. Attachment 1

Part 1. SAMHSA Information Technology Contract Requirements Encryption, #3 (Page 6 of 43):

o Is the written copy of the validation documentation due with the proposal?

o Is the written copy of the validation documentation due with the proposal for systems hosted on SAMHSA servers?

Is the written copy of the validation documentation due with the proposal for development, stage, and production environments?

Yes if validation documents for the products are available and they can attach them to the proposal as evidence.

11. Attachment 1

Part 2. SAMHSA/Office of Communications Requirements, Adherence to SAMHSA Technical Governance (Page 18 of 43):

This section references the SAMHSA Extranet infrastructure. On what platform does the SAMHSA Extranet currently exist? The Extranet platform is currently a Drupal based Content Management System with Opigno as the Learning Management System, but we have been directed by the ELT to forego the Learning Management component and focus exclusively on the CMS side. As a result, it seems that the plan calls for the contractor to use Moodle unless otherwise directed by the COR. I would advise that we have them build to the Extranet specifications anyway, in case the ELT decides next FY or the year after that they want to do a migration after all. That would make it much easier in the future.

12. Attachment 1

Part 2. SAMHSA/Office of Communications Requirements Adherence to SAMHSA Technical Governance D. Web Content Migration Plan (Page 19 of 43):

What is the learning management system (LMS) that currently exists on the SAMHSA Extranet? Opigno is the LMS that was built out on the Drupal platform for the Extranet, but as mentioned above, it is not going to be implemented this year. We are descoping the LMS piece of the Extranet for the short term (at least through the end of FY17)

13. Confirm that proposal submissions are electronic only (no hard copies). Yes, proposal submissions are electronic only.

14. Clarify the electronic submission process for subcontractors that are requesting to submit a sealed proposal if separate submissions are not permitted? Please refer to Attachment 18, Sealed Proposal Cover Page for instructions.

15. Over the past several years, the cost for cross-country and rural community roundtrip airfare per person traveled has increased. Will the offeror’s historical cost for airfares be acceptable? No, please use what was provided. Adjustments can be made if necessary when tasks are being planned to stay within budget.

16. Task 4.2 and Task 10.2 refer to Optional Task 14. Is it the intend of these tasks to refer to Optional Task 13? Yes, the intention was to refer to Task 13.

17. To accommodate the timing of SAMHSA’s readiness for migration of the NCACW website to SAMHSA servers, can Task 5.1 be moved to an Optional Task? No.

18. Task 7.1 references 17 grantees, while Task 7.1.1 references 15-20 grantees. Should the offer budget for 17 grantees, 15 grantees, or 20 grantees? In response to Task 7.1, the offer should budget for 17 grants. Per the 2 forecasts released for the RPG Round IV grants, HHS-2017- ACF-ACYF-CU-1229 is anticipated to fund 11 grants by this forecast and HHS-2017-ACF- ACYF-CU-1230 is anticipated to fund 6 grants, for a total of 17 anticipated grants. As always, grants are awarded based upon the availability of funds and this number is an estimate.

19. What is the maximum number of attendees that the offeror should budget for in Optional Task 11.1? Budget for an additional 100 (in addition to those invited to the Policy Academy), but no travel will be provided for those additional participants.

20. What is the expected length and duration of time-limited IDTA in Task 10.3? We would be interested in your responses about what you think would be appropriate.

21. Should the offeror plan for available space at government facilities such as SAMHSA and ACYF for Optional Task 12? We always look for available space in our facilities first, but since space is very limited, please propose options other than in our buildings.

22. Should the offeror assume meetings in Optional Task 7, Optional Task 11, and Optional Task 12 will take place within Washington, DC? Within the District/Maryland/ Virginia geographic area, as well as Baltimore. Within driving distance from SAMHSA/ACYF.

23. Referring to Optional Task 11, will the contractor be providing post-academy technical assistance to the State Policy Academy Teams? Yes.

24. Will the National Center for Substance Abuse and Child Welfare provide TTA services to communities awarded RPG grants under the American Indian Alaska Native specific competition? If not, will there be a separate TTA Center for the American Indian and Alaska Native grantees? Yes, the National Center for Substance Abuse and Child Welfare will be expected to provide TTA services to communities awarded RPG grants under the American Indian Alaska Native specific competition.

25. Will the COR provide copies of the previous contractor’s biannual reports, which includes evaluation data about the TA requests (Subtask 2.3) and training (Subtask 3.4), so any issues previously identified for improvement are continued to be addressed in the new contract? No, not the biannual reports. The COR will provide whatever the COR deems necessary to inform the work post-award.

26. For existing and new online training, what authoring software has been used? Are there any specified authoring tools we will need to use? Net software, Articulate Studio ’13.

27. It is unclear whether the agency is currently using a learning management system it wants to keep, or if the successful vendor is expected to provide a new platform. What system is currently being used, and will it be available for this new contract? See page 18, Adherence to SAMSHA Technical Governance, Item 7. This question seems to have been asked and answered above, but in short, the contract language was meant to account for the Extranet but not require its existence in order for the contractor to be able to successfully perform under the contract. That being said, the situation is that the Extranet platform is Opigno for LMS and Drupal for CMS, and the contractor should build to the specs that the Extranet team provides in order to make this process more future-proof, but they will need to provide their own LMS platform at least through the end of FY17.

28. On page 20, Web Content Migration Plan, item D says that the contractor will be responsible for obtaining/maintaining professional accreditation for training materials. What accreditations currently exist? What needs to be obtained/maintained? From which accreditation bodies? As far as accreditations go, each individual contract is responsible for their own. SAMHSA has not established a standard set of accreditations that need to be obtained, so this would need to be something that is discussed directly with their COR in terms of which accreditations make the most sense for their particular program, and go through the proper channels outside of SAMHSA to obtain those. Even if the Extranet was built out completely, this is beyond the scope of that project and would need to be a program/COR/contract-specific decision based on their audience.

29. Attachment 1, Task 2.3 specifies the need for tracking TA activities. Is there a current system in place that can be maintained or enhanced, or does the agency expect a new solution? If a current system exists, can it be described? There is an existing system in place that provides a complete description of the TA request, proposed approach to address the request, staff assignments, budget, and an area for the COR to approve or disapprove with comments.

The current system resides with the current contractor and won’t be able to be migrated to a new contractor.

30. Attachment 1, Task 3.2 and 3.3 indicates that training content is to be maintained and updated.

Can you estimate the percentage of content that will likely need to be changed? No we cannot estimate the percentage, but the training is public and available for review.

31. Page 57, a. “A list of the last three (3) contracts and subcontracts completed during the past THREE (3) years and ALL CONTRACTS currently in process that are similar in nature to the solicitation work scope.” Does this include all current projects for subcontractors, or just for the prime? Subs are included as well.

32. Does the agency anticipate any new electronic learning materials that will need to be built as part of the Child Welfare Curriculum or Tutorials? If so, can they describe? Please see answer to question 30 and the SOW.

33. Attachment 1, pg. 24. 2.2 - How many in-depth TA requests should we plan for annually (beyond the site visits)? Do we need to plan for coaching, webinars, networking, calls, etc. beyond the TA visits? The number, level of effort, and type of support is provided in the SOW.

34. Attachment 1, pg. 25. 3.1 - How long is each webinar? ( 30, 60, 90 minutes?) There is no set time.

35. Attachment 1, pg. 25. 3.2 - Can the agency confirm that the contractor would be provided the source files for the online tutorials? Yes.

36. Attachment 1, pg. 25.3.3 - Will the online training need to be built in a mobile format? No.

37. Attachment 1, pg. 26. 4.2 - Does the contractor need to plan for 508 of the materials created?

Where will the materials be published? Yes, all materials will need to be 508 compliant. The materials will be published on the website as cleared documents or TA tools (not cleared but still 508 compliant.)

38. Attachment 1, pg. 27 Task 5 How many update cycles should be planned for? Or is just one round per year required? Per the deliverable table, “updates as needed” and revision to the appearance once per year.

39. Attachment 1, pg. 27 Task 5 – Would the contractor be required to post external resources on the website? Would we have to make those 508 compliant before posting? Other government documents are posted on the site, and are usually already 508 compliant. Occasionally grantee or TA recipient TA documents are posted, and yes, they would need to be 508 compliant.

40. Both the Technical Proposal Instruction (page 50 of 63) and Business Proposal Instructions (page 52 of 63) state, “Pages must be letter size (8.5 x 11 inches) and must be in portrait orientation.”

Some of the required items in the RFP are typically formatted using landscape orientation (e.g., loading charts, organization chart, logic model, flowcharts, budgets etc.). Is it acceptable for the offeror use landscape orientation if the offeror rotates landscape orientation pages by 90 degrees for the purposes of electronic review? The pages are to be portrait – the table can be landscape on the page (from the top of the page to the bottom) but the page itself cannot be landscape.