Questions and Answers_CCIN.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 28 KB Posted
- Solicitation number
- 36C10G23R0007
About this file
This solicitation is for a Connected Care Integrated Network contract to provide commercial products and services to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Key details include a total period of performance of seven years consisting of a five-year base period and two one-year option periods. The estimated maximum value is $2 billion to be ordered under firm-fixed-price line items. Offerors must submit any questions by the specified due date and time to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist. The minimum dollar amount the government agrees to order is $100,000. Products and services required include a HIPAA-compliant interactive chat application, pulmonary function testing and sleep monitoring software licenses, mobile device management, and help desk support. The incumbent contractor must provide documentation and source code during transition.
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Sheet1
| # | Document | Page | Question | Answer |
| 1 | RFP 36C10G23R0007, Section E.4 Proposal Submission | 62 & 63 | Instructions state on page 62 that Proposal volumes should be submitted electronically to both the Contracting Specialist and Contracting Officer via email. However, on page 63 there is a reference that asks vendors to register for a Vendor Portal. |
| We believe the reference to and instructions regarding the Vendor Portal should be removed. | VA will remove the reference to the Vendor Portal in the RFP. | ||||
| 2 | RFP 36C10G23R0007, Attachment C, PWS CCIN, Attachment D B Table for Offerors_CCIN | n/a | The solicitation includes ODCs (e.g., shipping, storage, ITSM, Lab Equipment, etc.). Will the Offeror have the ability to bid ODCs at the Task Order level or will the Government consider adding an NTE ODC CLIN to the IDIQ? | The Government does not intend to add an ODC CLIN to the IDIQ. | |
| 3 | RFP 36C10G23R0007 | RFP Section E.4.5 on page 72 |
and RFP Section E.4.H on page 82 On Page 82, the solicitation states: "The Pricing Workbook and the price proposal narrative will facilitate the price evaluation."
| Question: There is no price narrative volume in the instructions table (ref E.4.5 page 72). We assume, a PDF Volume V – Price Factor Narrative is allowable – if so, is there a page limit? | Price narrative is allowable, but not required. There is no page limit for the price narrative. | |||
| 4 | Attachment C - CCIN PWS & RFP 36C10G23R0007 | Attach C PWS Page 10 & RFP E.4.5 Page 65 | In the PWS, the Government requests the Offeror provide an "authorized distributor letter" from the OEM vs an "authorized reseller agreement" as stated in the RFP instructions and evaluation criteria. |
We respectfully request the Government update the PWS to require Authorized Reseller Agreements (e.g., remove reference to authorized distributor letters/agreements).
| Per the RFP instructions, Offerors will be Resellers and will get authorized reseller letters direct from the OEM or through an OEM's authorized distribution partner. | The PWS and RFP will be updated to state that the Offeror may be an authorized distributor or reseller. | |||
| 5 | RFP 36C10G23R0007, Section 5.4 Instructions - OEM Authorized Reseller Letters | Page 69 | The solicitation states that the OEM Reseller Agreements ..... "... must be on the manufacturer’s letterhead, contain the signature of an authorized official for the manufacturer, and cover the duration of the IDIQ." |
Many OEM partner program requirements do not allow for multi-year certification.
| Will VA accept a current partner status certification as of time of bid and then add a requirement for annual recertification? | The PWS and RFP have been updated to this effect. | |||
| 6 | PWS Attach 3 Product List CCIN_4JAN23 | Line 7 | Product List States: "Pulmonary Function Testing Enterprise License to manage 25,000 patients per year and unlimited upgrades during the term of the contract." |
| Question. The description of line item #7 appears to be a license to manage only 25,000 patients. Would there be a separate SKU for the base platform that these additional managed patients would be applied to? | No. This CLIN must provide support for up to 25K users and would be excercised again if the Government requires a license for another 25k users. | |||
| 7 | PWS Attach 3 Product List CCIN_4JAN23 | Line 8 | Sleep Monitoring Software Enterprise The product list states: "License to manage 25,000 patients per year and unlimited upgrades during the term of the contract." |
| Question. The description of line item #8 appears to be a license to manage only 25,000 patients. Would there be a separate SKU for the base platform that these additional managed patients would be applied to? | No. This CLIN must provide support for up to 25K users and would be excercised again if the Government requires a license for another 25k users. | |||
| 8 | PWS Attach 3 Product List CCIN_4JAN23 | Lines 1&2 | Regarding: HIPAA-compliant Interactive Chat Application |
| Will the government consider adding an additional CLIN for an all inclusive enterprise HIPAA-Compliant Chat Application that supports unlimited encounters? | No. The Government does not intend to change this CLIN. | ||||
| 9 | RFP and Attachment 3 | RFP page 68 of 103 | Phase II, Volume II, paragraph 3 indicates that authorized letters are required from the OEM or intermediary distributor. Please confirm this isn't required for mobile support bundles and data plans (Items 12-17D). | Letters will be required for data plan carriers and the Mobile Device Management license. | |
| 10 | RFP and Attachment 3 | RFP page 68 of 103 | Phase II, Volume II, paragraph 3 indicates that authorized letters are required from the OEM or intermediary distributor. Please confirm this isn't required for software identified in items 1-11 and 18-19. | Software items defined in lines 1 -11 will not require an authorization letter from the OEM or intermediary distributor. Authorization letters will be required for lines 18 and 19. The PWS and RFP have been updated to this effect. (The Government is assuming the line items used are excel line items vs actual CLINs) | |
| 11 | RFP | RFP page 68 of 103 | The table describing page limitations for Volume IV - Past Performance states in part, "**No page limit for final CPARs PPIRS documentation". Will the government accept "Interim" and "Final" CPARs for contracts that have a minimum of 1 year of performance? | Only Final CPARs/PPIRS will be evlauted. PPQs will be evaluated for those contracts/orders that do not have a final CPARs or PPIRS report available. | |
| 12 | RFP | RFP page 69 of 103 | VOLUME III – TECHNICAL FACTOR, paragraph a) states in part that a Transition-In Approach shall include a draft Transition-In Plan describing how the Offeror will perform a successful, low-risk transition from the incumbent within 180 calendar days. In addition, Offeror's must also provide a management approach, proposed milestones, and details of their plan to transition from the current COTS software. Please confirm the Draft Transition-In Plan is included in the 15 page limit for Volume III? | Yes. | |
| 13 | Attachment C & Attachment G | N/A | Which tools in the VA TRM will OCC and/or OIT provide access and licensing? | The vendor will have access to the tools listed on PWS Attachment 2, VHA Technical Stack. | |
| 14 | Attachment C | 19 | When does OCC anticipate the CCPC product list being available? | The finalized product list for CCPC will be provided to the vendor upon CCPC award. The draft CCPC product list was posted to SAM.gov on January 25, 2023. | |
| 15 | Attachment D | N/A | For this solicitation, we are responsible for costs such as Facilities, ITSM, IVR and DevSecOps Tools. How are these costs to be reflected in the pricing sheet for each of the Functional Areas? | Offerors should build all costs into their firm-fixed price line items. | |
| 16 | Attachment D | N/A | Will the OCC provide the current Manufacture and Part/Product Number for items in the CCIN Product List, where one is not currently listed? | No. The information on manufacturers and corresponding parts numbers for currently procured producst are included in PWS Attachment 6, Products Available on Current Contract, and Attachment 10, Current COTS Software. | |
| 17 | Attachment D | N/A | Is the OCC expecting the vendor to provide a Part/Product Number and Manufacturer for all products in the CCIN Product List? | The Offeror must fill in the Manufacturer and Part Number for all products they are proposing in Solicitation Attachment D, B Table for Offerors. As stated above, PWS Attachment 3, CCIN Product List, has been adjusted to reflect current manufacturers and part numbers, where possible. | |
| 18 | Attachment G | 20 | In the Sample Task Order, Task 5.4 starts with storage and logistics, where as the PWS includes Product Ordering. Will the OCC confirm that the vendor will not be responsible for product ordering in the Sample Task Order? | Yes. | |
| 19 | Attachment G | 25 | Would the OCC to include Task Number 5.5 (Connected Care Device Support) in the Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation Requirements Table? | The sample TO has been adjusted to this effect. | |
| 20 | Attachment C | 25 | In the Veteran Focused Integration Process (VIP), what is OCC's release cycle duration? Sprints per release? | The VIP process is no longer used. The PWS has been updated to this effect. | |
| 21 | Attachment C | 25 | In the Veteran Focused Integration Process (VIP), to what degree will the Epic Owner, Product Owner, Customer, and Service Manager be involved in the VIP Lifecycle? | The VIP process is no longer used. The PWS has been updated to this effect. | |
| 22 | Attachment C | 25 | Configuration, change, and risk management: What is the current approval process? Lead time? Number of environments before moving to production? What tools are being used? | The approval process is a combination of automated code scans and governance reviews. Lead time is usually a few days, dependant upon OIT workload. There are three environments before moving to production (Development, SQA, and Pre-Production). The tools used are listed in PWS Attachment 2, VHA Technical Stack. | |
| 23 | Attachment C | 25 | What is the number of software development projects executed in one year? | There are around 15 products in development and sustainment with a large microservices backend. | |
| 24 | Attachment C | 25 | What is the level of documentation available for the applications that are in scope? | All current and past development efforts have a Jira repository of requirements, a log of completed requirements, a backlog, as well as an additional Confluence repository for product documentation related to each development effort. All source code is stored in OCC's source code repository, with past releases available. | |
| 25 | Attachment C | 25 | Will the incumbent vendor providing software development and software quality assurance provide all test cases and test scripts, during transition? | All project documentation, scripts, and code developed on the current contract are stored in the technologies previously mentioned. | |
| 26 | Attachment C | 25 | Will the incumbent vendor providing software development and software quality assurance provide automated test scripts for all applications? | All project documentation, scripts, and code developed on the current contract are stored in the technologies previously mentioned, along with automated reporting from Sonarqube and Flexline. | |
| 27 | Attachment C | 22 | Will the OCC provide a breakdown, by month of Call Volumes for Tier I, Tier II, Tier III, Transfers? | All contacts to the help desk are initially answered by Tier 1. In 2022, the OCCHD received, on average, the following contacts per month: Tier I - 25,543, Tier II - 1085, and Tier III - 108. There were on average 1203 call transfers per month. The sample task order has been updated with this information. | |
| 28 | 36C10G23R0007 | 62, 63 | Will the government confirm that proposal submissions are made via email to the CO and CS in accordance with instructions on page 62? If so, will the government remove the instructions regarding a Vendor Portal on page 63? | VA will remove the reference to the Vendor Portal in the RFP. | |
| 29 | 36C10G23R0007 | 62 | Will the government allow a Q&A exchange for each Phase? | VA will consider additional Q&As, if necessary, for Phases II and III. | |
| 30 | Attachment C and Attachment G | Attachment C, page 18, Attachment G page 22 | Which system is the considered to be the source of truth for Assets Management System (ServiceNow/Asset Management - listed in the PWS, or Maximo/Asset Tracking - listed in the Sample Task Order)? | All assets are tracked in the current Asset Management Platform (ServiceNow). Tablets are tracked in both ServiceNow and Maximo. | |
| 31 | Attachment C and Attachment G | Attachment C, page 18, Attachment G page 23 | Are the asset databases for ServiceNow and Maximo kept in-sync via automated means, and is the contractor responsible for managing and/or reconciling both? | These systems are managed independently. | |
| 32 | Attachment G | Page 14, 23, 24, 25 | Is OCC requiring the use of PowerBI for providing dashboards, or will OCC allow the vendor to leverage capabilities related to products on the VA TRM that can provide dashboards? | The dashboards are currently provided using PowerBI, for which VA has an enterprise license. | |
| 33 | Attachment G - Sample Task Order | Page 12 | As requested, the Contractor shall provide one-on-one (VA providers/staff), technical virtual trainings per year to walk end-users through the operation of VHA digital technologies for common tasks or issues. The PWS states "per year" but doesn’t give a yearly quota. Is there an estimated number of one on one training sessions? | The "one-on-one training sessions" are included in the overall OCCHD workload numbers and do not have a yearly cap. | |
| 34 | PWS Attachment 5 Current OCC Warehouse Inventory_CCIN_8DEC22 | N/A | Can the government please provide a “set number” for the vendor to address freight rates for CCPC items to be ordered? Or, can they advise how the vendor should articulate freight rates for CCPC items in the pricing sheet? | This question needs to be addressed with the CCPC requirement. | |
| 35 | PWS Attachment 5 Current OCC Warehouse Inventory_CCIN_8DEC23 | N/A | Can the government please provide a “set number” for the vendor to address freight rates for CCIN items to be ordered? Or, can they advise how the vendor should articulate freight rates for CCIN items in the pricing sheet? | Offerors should build freight rates into their firm-fixed price line items. | |
| 36 | 36C10G23R0007 | Page 102 | In Section E.9 (a), OCI, It appears the references to “Program Support Integration (PSI)” and the “Connected Care Integrated Network (CCIN)” are transposed. Can the government correct the solicitation as needed? | The clause E.9 Organizational Conflict of Interest will be updated accordingly. | |
| 37 | n/a | n/a | We understand that all questions and inquiries are to be submitted using Attachment E provided in the RFP no later than 12 PM EST on 2/2/2023. After Phase I has been evaluated, will the Government provide a 2nd Q&A period to bidders who have been advised to move to Phase II and III? Or, are all questions for all phases due on 2/2/23? | VA will consider additional Q&As, if necessary, for Phases II and III. | |
| 38 | Attachment D B Table for Offerors_CCIN | Tab CCIN Products, Rows 68 | This line does not cover TAA DX80s. We suspect that there should be a line for TAA DX80s as Federal agencies purchase the TAA version. If the DX80 is widely fielded, we would expect the estimated quantity for this to be much higher than 15 units. Recommend this be updated if applicable. | The part number for this line item has been adjusted in Solicitation Attachment D, B Table for Offerors, and in PWS Attachment C, CCIN Product List. | |
| 39 | Attachment D B Table for Offerors_CCIN | Tab "CCIN Products" Row 13 | Many OEMs offer tiered pricing to offer lower costs as you grow towards an enterprise license. These tiers could be 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 workflows. The first 4 years of estimated quantities only request a per workflow price. This would not allow for the discounted tiered pricing that OEMs offer, resulting in a significantly higher unit price to the Government. For example it will be more cost effective for the government to buy quantity 1 of 15 workflows vs quantity 15 of 1 workflow. We would suggest adding lines to the product list to allow for tiered pricing options. | The CLIN for this support will remain the same. | |
| 40 | RFP 36C10G23R0007, Section C.19 OCI | Page 53 | The solicitation states, "The Contractor agrees not to participate as a prime Contractor, subcontractor, consultant or team member in any acquisition for hardware or software wherein......" ...... |
After reviewing the PWS for CCIN and the RFI for CCPC, we do not believe that there is a conflict of interest between the 2 contracts. A) the PSI vendor (not CCIN) is responsible for the analysis and recommendation leading to the acquisition decision to acquire a system and B) placing orders with pre-determined CCPC vendors (selected by VA) does not result in an unfair competitive advantage – no information is gained regarding future purchases by performance of this work.
| Is the Government indicating with this clause that the CCIN vendor is prohibited from participating on the CCPC contract? | The Government anticipates actual or potential conflicts of interest based on language in the CCIN solicitation PWS. For example, the CCIN contractor will be responsible for areas that consists of diagnosing a defect that would require new software/hardware or triaging an issue that would require the CCIN contractor to identify a software or hardware solution. These responsibilities would require a clear separation of function to avoid the CCIN contractor being funded by the Government for triaging/diagnosing a sw/hw solution and possibly being the recipient of Government funding of this solution as the CCPC contractor/Authorized Supplier for the sw/hw. See FAR 9.505-1. To avoid this situation of the CCIN having this type of advantage, the Government is requiring the submission of an OCI mitigation plan that avoids, neutralizes or mitigates the actual or potential OCI. | |||
| 41 | RFP 36C10G23R0007, Section E.9 | 102 | This section states: It currently anticipates the probability of conflicts between this Program Support Integration (PSI) solicitation and resultant contract and the following two contracts: 1) the Connected Care Integrated Network (CCIN) contract; and 2) the Connected Care Product Catalog contract(s)." |
1. Clause in E.9 appears to contain language from the PSI solicitation (see above). Will the Government please update accordingly.
2. Additionally, if the response required by E.9.c results in no OCI, (e.g. the offeror self-identifies that there are no OCI issues), is the Offeror still required to provide a mitigation plan in Volume VII?
1. The clause E.9 Organizational Conflict of Interest will be updated accordingly
2. The Government believes that, at a minimum, there is a perceived impaired objectivity OCI for any vendor that receives both an award of the CCIN contract and one or more of the CCPC awards. As such, the Government requires the submission of an OCI mitigation plan. The failure to submit the OCI mitigation plan could jeopardize an offeror’s eligibility for award.
42 RFP 36C10G23R0007 Section G Page 80 Evaluation Criteria States: "Past performance (Prime & Subcontractor) will be evaluated to determine whether each reference is relevant (based on size, scope, and complexity as compared to this requirement), recent (within the past three years), and reflects performance which is satisfactory or better."
Please confirm, Government is not requiring past performance from subcontractors - but will accept it, only in the event an Offeror choses to use a past performance from a subcontractor. Yes, that is correct. The government is only requiring past performance from the Prime Contractor if they performed as a subcontractor.
File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated .