34300023Q0002 Q_A Amendment 001.pdf

34300023Q0002

Amendment 001

Questions & Answers

Q1: in terms of giving out the log-in information. Is that within 48 hours of when the quotation is due on December 12th?

A1: No, you will be notified when we would like the login, many days in advance, but this will be after receipt of bids.

Q2: Need clarification on this statement:

Product Demonstration:

Each offeror is required to provide login credentials for 48 hours, so that the USITC may sample the database and user interface.

Additionally, the USITC may require offerors to provide a brief (30 min) demonstration of their product, via teams, Webex etc. as part of their Technical Factor.

Login to what? This system needs to be developed, so what login is this referring to if the login is not developed until after the contract is awarded?

Can it be logins of work we've done (not govcon, but private sector projects) in the past to show that we are capable?

A2: This requirement is not for development of a system. We are looking for a database currently in the marketplace.

Q3: What's the rough order of magnitude, dollar range, or NTE (not to exceed) amount on the size of the contract?

A3: We expect the awarded amount to be between $50,000 and $160,000 per year.

Q4: Is there an incumbent on similar contract? if so, what was the contract award number and/or size amount?

A4: MARKIT GROUP LIMITED (Now SP Global), 34300019C0001. $476,000 over 4 years.

Q5: Which cloud does this need to be deployed on? cloud.gov? Can it be any other FedRamp authorized platforms like AWS? Will staff from the winning contractor be able to have constant admin access to the server to make sure this system is up and running?

A5: The database will be held on the offerors’ server or cloud.

Q6: What are the (cyber) security audit requirements? How about insurance requirements (other than general business liability insurance)?

A6: There is no audit required.

Q7: Are there requirements for API access into/out of the system? if so, what are the inputs/outputs expected?

A7: No.

Q8: Is integration with login.gov (or any government-centric authentication system) required ?

- If not, does its own authentication (usual username/password) need to have 2 factor authentication?

A8: No.

Q9: Is multi-language support required?

A9: No.

Q10: Is admin dashboard required? if so, what are the tasks that admins need to be allowed to do?

A10: No.

Q11: "Available customer service"

- Does this need to be real time (live chat) or can it be support ticket?

- Whichever method... can 3rd party commercial service be used? (if not we need to deploy open source alternative in-house.. which requires different type of maintenance)

A11: Real-time customer service is preferable to awaiting response to a “support ticket” request.

Q12: "Worldwide trade data sources from national statistical offices of trading countries and from other sources to the extent national trade is not available."

- Does this mean that the data needs to be imported automatically or will users be manually entering in data?

- Is this data source open? If private, will we be given access credentials

- Do these data sources have API or do they need to be "scraped"?

A12: The data will be entered by the contractor. The USITC will not have any uploading or editing ability.

Q13: How many changes / feature requests are expected throughout the lifecycle of the product?

Breakdown would be helpful (how many 1st, 2nd, 3rd... etc.)

A13: This is not for the development of a new program.

Q14: How are bug reports supposed to be communicated to the contractors? Is the contractor expected to manage these requests on our own platform or is that considered "part of this package"?

A14: The contractor is expected to resolve system “bugs” reported on its own platform. As strictly a user, the USITC expects the contractor’s data system to function fully as advertised.

Q15: Is the domain name already determined?

A15: It is expected that the offeror already has a domain in use.

Q16: Is SMTP already setup for this system to interact with (ex. sending out notifications)? If not, does it need to be setup separately by the contractor?

A16: This is not required.

Q17: Is SMS notification required?

A17: This is not required.

Q18: Does the contractor determine which third party service providers to use? Example, translation (google vs. microsoft), SMS (twilio vs signalwire), A18: This is not required.

Q19: Will someone from U.S. International Trade Commission

- give feedback during the development process to make sure that the development is going in the direction it desires? If so, how often does it happen?

- give some examples of how they would use this on daily basis? (example, " i want to pull export data by searching X and expecting Y answers")

- spend some time with contractor over zoom to give detailed explanation of some of the terms used in the RFQ (when the contract is awarded)?

A19: This is not for development of a system.

Q20: Will this be considered a Low Impact Level cloud service offering (CSO) since there's no personally identifiable information (PII)? https://www.fedramp.gov/baselines/

A20: This is not for development of a system.

Q21: Is the annual cost of FedRamp supposed to be estimated into the CLINs or can it be estimated?

(since we won't know the actual cost until the security audits are actually ordered)

A21: This is not for the development of a FedRamp system.

Q22: What happens between we submit the deliverable but have to wait for fedramp process to complete? Is the contract "on-hold" (i.e. no invoicing) or do we submit invoice as if contract is still progressing?

A22: This is not for the development of a FedRamp system.

Q23: How many different agencies will this system be interfacing with? We need this information b/c FedRamp assessment costs are per agency.

A23: This is not for the development of a FedRamp system.

Q24: Since there are many unknown factors with security audit from FedRamp, how can we protect ourselves ? we don't want to quote so low when the fedramp assessment costs are unknown... but not so high that we make ourselves uncompetitive.

A24: This is not for the development of a FedRamp system.

Q25: Could you please provide clarity on the preferred requirement, “search criteria options include industry code”? Does this mean the NAICS or SITC codes

A25: The USITC needs global trade statistics according to HS 2-digit, 4-digit, and 6-digit codes; and country 8-digit & 10-digit codes; rather than by SITC codes or the more geographically limited NAICS codes.

Q26: During the user interface testing portion, can the offeror provide an “on call” support # or representative to answer questions on the features and navigation of the database?

A26: Yes, you may and are encouraged to provide user support during the testing.