36C10A22Q0036_1.docx

VA-22-00007354

GENERAL INFORMATION

SET-ASIDE

Technology Acquisition Center - Austin

1701 Directors Blvd, Suite 600 Austin TX 78744

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contract Specialist Leticia Blackmon Leticia.Blackmon@va.gov 512-981-4427

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

ADDRESS

POSTAL CODE

COUNTRY

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

AGENCY’S URL

URL DESCRIPTION

EMAIL DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION

THIS IS A Sources Sought Notice ONLY. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information & Technology desires to procure Local Exchange Carrier Services.

This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes - it does not constitute a Request for Quote (RFQ)/Invitation for Bid (IFB)/Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFQ, IFB or RFP in the future. This notice does not commit the VA to contract for any supply or service. Further, the VA is not seeking quotes, bids or proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited proposals in response to this Sources Sought Notice. The VA will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this notice. Submittals will not be returned to the responder. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future RFQ or IFB or RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the Governmentwide Point of Entry. It is the responsibility of potential offerors to monitor the Governmentwide Point of Entry for additional information pertaining to this requirement. The anticipated NAICS code is: 517311 Wired Telecommunication Carriers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Information and Technology, Telecom Provisioning Office has a requirement for Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) Services across the enterprise. This Product Description (PD), to include all attachments hereto, details the LEC services required, as well as the meetings, reports, deliverables, and other tasks required in support thereof. The Contractor shall provide each of the requisite LEC Service Types and Features, via the Government-required Delivery Method, as specifically identified in the Product Description. The Government’s required LEC Service Types and Features shall be provided in the total quantities identified below for the base period of performance; those same total quantities shall be maintained over the course of any option period exercised thereafter. Accordingly, the Contractor shall provide the required LEC services, in the quantities required, to the Government’s identified location in the PD.

RESPONSE SUBMISSION

Please submit responses via email to Leticia.Blackmon@va.gov by 12:00 PM EST, December 17, 2021. The VA reserves the right not to respond to any or all emails or materials submitted.

DISCLAIMER

Reminder: This Sources Sought is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this Sources Sought that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. 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. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Source Sought.

Modification to a Previous Notice Modification to a Previous Notice

Modification to a Previous Notice

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Office of Information and Technology, Development Security and Operations, Solution Delivery, Telecommunication Provisioning Office, LEC Services

LEC Telecom Data Services Tomah CBOC

Date: 8/11/2021

VA-22-00007354

Version 1.1 Revised 12/2/2021

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Development Security and Operations (DSO), Solution Delivery (SD), Telecommunication Provisioning Office, LEC Services (TPO-LEC) requires continuity of LEC telecommunication voice and data services at a VA location in Wisconsin.

1. REQUIREMENTS:

The Contractor shall provide all LEC services currently installed by SOLARUS Telecommunications as listed below. All lines shall be installed at the building’s demarcation point (DEMARC) location and shall not be extended.

These services are to be provided at the location listed below in Section 4, PLACE OF PERFORMANCE.

Contractor shall utilize the VA OB-10 (Tungsten is the vendor) system or an approved Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) software system to electronically submit invoices for processing. Current purchase order number, site locations, invoice number and period of performance must be reflected on the invoices or they will be rejected for non-compliance. Invoices must be submitted monthly in arrears and shall not become more than 3 months behind on submissions. Submitted invoices must not contain any taxes (Federal/State/Local). Upon completion of the POP and the final invoices are paid Contractor must notify the COR and the Contracting Officer so the purchase order can be closed out.

Long-distance services should be pic/lpic to 0432 under the National Networx contract and frozen to only the specified long-distance carrier. Identified billing, charges, or invoicing errors due to vendor's pic/lpic errors shall be the sole responsibility of the vendor to correct. There shall also be a 3rd party billing block on the lines.

All disconnect or discontinuations of service requests will stop billing within 30 days of the VA original requested date to the Contractor regardless if the Contractor has discontinued the service.

All VA accounts must be identified in the Contractor network as a Federal Government account and will not be subject to disconnect for any reason other than the Government requests that it be disconnected.

2. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:

The period of performance for this contract shall be a 12-month base period from the day of award with four (4) 12-month option periods.

Installation, maintenance and/or disconnection of services shall commence between 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, excluding Federal Holidays. Work may be required outside of normal business hours due to system failures and other issues. Maintenance that requires intrusive testing will have to be completed after normal working hours unless the service is not currently functioning and coordinated with the VA Area Manager. If services will be affected, then Contractor must coordinate with the site POC and work be performed after hours.

There are ten (11) Federal holidays set by law (USC Title 5 Section 6103) that VA follows:

Under current definitions, five are set by date:

If any of the above falls on a Saturday, then Friday shall be observed as a holiday. Similarly, if one falls on a Sunday, then Monday shall be observed as a holiday.

The other six are set by a day of the week and month:

3. TYPE OF CONTRACT:

This is a Firm-Fixed Price contract.

4. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE:

The place of performance will be at the VA facility listed below.

5.0 SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA)

The Contractor shall agree that services they provide conform to Service Level Agreement (SLA) parameters as defined in the following subtasks. This SLA will apply from the Government Acceptance Date for the Service to the duration of the Service Term. Satellite, cellular, or other radio services shall not be an acceptable solution.

5.1 CONTRACTOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

The Contractor shall use an Escalation Process to resolve customer service issues and provide a single point of contact for each issue or dispute. The Contractor shall provide the COR an Escalation Process 14 days After Receipt of Order (ARO) outlining the specific steps taken to resolve customer service issues. The process shall include a full escalation list that provides resolution if necessary, at the Contractor’s senior executive level.

The Contractor shall provide the COR a Customer Support Organization Chart containing employee names, email addresses, and direct phone numbers.

The Contractor shall provide technical help desk support. Technical help desk support is required 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days year. A toll-free number shall be designated as the primary help desk number for VA Telecom Staff to call to report a trouble ticket. A Trouble Ticket is the method used by the Government to advise the Help Desk of a perceived Fault, including a Service Outage or a failure to meet an SLA. A unique Trouble Ticket reference number will be raised and given to the Government representative and also used each time the Government calls in to the Help Desk for any Fault update or, if appropriate, to inform the Contractor of restoration of the Service.

The Contractor shall provide the COR a monthly report of Help Desk trouble tickets at the completion of each billing cycle if any exist. Credit shall be automatically given to the VA for any service that is not usable, without the VA having to ask for credits.

5.2 MEAN TIME TO REPAIR

MTTR is the average time for the Contractor to restore the Service during a Service Outage in a billing month. The SLA for MTTR shall be 4 hours for outage and 24 hours for services being affected. The Contractor shall provide technical support/resolution during established business hours to assist VA with issues pertaining to the LEC Services in Section 5.3.1. MTTR times begin when the Contractor receives a support request from VA. The Contractor shall respond to VA’s support requests according to the following classifications of fault. If problems are not being completely resolved within 3 business days, the Contractor shall provide an explanation with plan and timeframe for resolving.

5.2.1 PRIORITY 1– SERVICE OUTAGE

A Service Outage is defined as an unscheduled period in which the service is interrupted and unavailable for use by Customer for 60 or more Unavailable Seconds within a 15-minute period. Contractor shall acknowledge the trouble ticket within 1 hour of being reported. This includes a business impacting function or service is not available such as loss of dial tone, inability to dial 911, or inability to receive a call on the circuit due to service outages. This shall include total loss of service or the service is degraded to the extent where the Government is unable to use it. This shall include the inability to receive or transmit data or access critical medical systems due to circuit impairment. The Contractor shall respond to all Service outages within four hours. Notifications shall be provided to VA local POC as identified by COR or trouble ticket, every business day via telephone until restored. The fault shall not return for seven days or it shall be considered a continuation of the original service impact.

5.2.2 PRIORITY 2– SERVICE DEGRADED

Service Degraded means VA’s workflow is not seriously affected or limited as defined in 5.5.2.1 The fault shall not return for 30 days or it shall be considered a continuation of the original fault. Contractor shall acknowledge the trouble ticket within 1 hour of being reported. The Contractor shall respond to all Service outages within four hours. Notifications shall be provided to VA local POC as identified by COR or trouble ticket, every business day via telephone until restored.

5.2.3 EXCLUSIONS

During scheduled maintenance of the LEC Service, the Contractor shall notify VA within three days of the maintenance window and describe in detail how long and to what level degraded service is to be expected. The Contractor shall obtain approval in advance from the appropriate VA facility POC before scheduled maintenance occurs. The voice service shall not be considered to be unavailable for any outage that results from any maintenance performed by the Contractor as defined by the following three exceptions:

1. VA is notified at least three days in advance of outage or service degradation;

2. During the installation period; and

3. Trouble beyond the demarcation point or Network Interface (NI) not caused by the Contractor.

5. POINTS OF CONTACT:

To be provided at award.

6. INFORMATION SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS:

The Assessment and Authorization (A&A) requirements do not apply, and a Security Accreditation Package is not required.

7. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

a. No loss of service can be incurred during transition out of any services listed above.

i. Where the awardee of this task order is the incumbent provider, the Contractor will waive any early termination fees from the previous contract if one was awarded.

During the base period of performance of this contract the quantities and types of services and features will fluctuate routinely with regard to SDP activations/deactivations

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