Questions answers summary- 6-15-22 final .docx

Questions-Answers Summary for Solicitation 36C-248-22-Q-1063-Tele-Town Hall & Robo Call Services for VAMC West Palm Beach- 6-15-22

Questions- Mr. Guley, In reviewing your PWS, I believe the government need to not be clearly defined; [Patent-ly] Ambiguous.

Patent Ambiguous: a solicitation must enable offerors to intelligently compete, and be sufficiently free of ambiguity to allow offerors to compete on a common basis. Global Tech. Sys., B-411230.2, Sept. 9, 2015, 2015 CPD, i 335 at 19. Thus, the agency's description of its needs must be free from ambiguity and must describe the agency's minimum needs accurately.

Patent Ambiguous at the PWS:

A. FY22 work activities include Robo Call & Voice Prompts recordings that participants will either hear when they answer the phone informing them to remain on the line to connect to the tele-town hall or left as a voicemail in the event, they missed the call.

-[1] Service Call Message-recorded not to exceed 60 seconds or 110,000 calls. The placement of "or" in the deliverable statement impact the deliverable.

[2] Tele-Town Hall event Service (2501-5000 dial size) up to 60-minute event or (5000 – 10,000 dial size) up to 60-minute event.

Question- What is to be implied by 60-minute events? That deliverable is not defined in the PWS The placement of "or" in the deliverable statement impact the deliverable.

Answer- Contractor furnished items, services, and responsibilities:

The contractor shall provide

· Robo Call- Per call (Recorded message up to 60 seconds).

· Outbound calls not to exceed 110,000 (per Town Hall event).

Tele-Town Hall Event Service:

· (2501-5000 dial size) up to 60-minute virtual event (per Town Hall event)

· (5000 – 10,000 dial size) up to 60-minute virtual event (per Town Hall event)

Patent Ambiguous at the Price Schedule:

Question-A. How often are the calls [deliverable] to be placed[i.e., weekly, monthly, with the event period only] ? and how often?

Answer- Tele- Town Hall events and robo-call delivery (to be determined). Virtual Town Hall Events expected to be done quarterly (Not set on a recurring date), with need for robo call or tele-town hall services determined as needed

Please revisit your requirement to ensure the need clearly represents the facility and the needs of the careline.

1 B.1 6 “The target audience includes all Veterans who may be eligible for healthcare from the VA to include but not limited to: OEF / OIF Veterans, 55+ Male Veterans, Women Veterans, Vietnam Veterans and Veterans in areas that includes Palm Beach, Indian River, Okeechobee, St. Lucie, Martin, Glades and Hendry Counties.”

Question- Does the government intend on only targeting audiences within these FL-based areas OR will participants be located outside of FL? Veterans residing in these locations with out-of-town area codes will be considered at this time.

Answer -Contractor please see the SOW about servicing Veterans only in the 7 county service area listed.

Question- Contractor assumes only outbound calls only and will not be responsible for any inbound traffic – correct?

Answer- services will support outbound calls, and virtual Tele - Town Hall Events.

2 B.1 6 “FY22 work activities include Robo Call & Voice Prompts recordings that participants will either hear when they answer the phone informing them to remain on the line to connect to the tele-town hall or left as a voicemail in the event, they missed the call.”

Question- Will the contractor be responsible for coming up with all audio content for messaging?

Answer- Recorded message provided by WPB VAHS

Question- Will the contractor be responsible for marketing campaign assimilation for the VA’s strategic objectives supporting VAMC West Palm Beach Florida?

Answer- No marketing campaign service needed by contractor.

3 C.15 35 “All support contractors conducting this review on behalf of VA will be required to sign an “Information Protection and Non-Disclosure and Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest Agreement” to ensure the Contractor's business records or other proprietary data reviewed or obtained in the course of assisting the Contracting Officer in assessing the Contractor for compliance are protected to ensure information or data is not improperly disclosed or other impropriety occurs.”

Question- Will the contractor be required to store all communications data on our HIPAA-compliant servers?

Answer- Contractor will not store phone list or any other communication data.

Question- Are there any specific font type/size requirements for the submission?

Answer-No Question- Block 20 of the SF-1449 states “See Continuation Page.” There does not appear to be a Continuation Page provided. Could the government please provide the “Continuation Page”?

Answer- Please see page 4- Section B-Continuation of SF 1449 Blocks

Question- Are “staff trainings” referring to platform-specific trainings with the platform provider, personalized event trainings with the contractor to prepare talking points, or a combination of both?

Answer- The trainings are a 2-3 hour orientation for the VA Staff members 2-3 people on how to use the services. Training can be virtual.

Question- The scope of work calls for 110,000 total calls per contract year to be split amongst three (3) total tele town hall events. All three (3) events include an invite call (24-48 hours prior) and live event (day-of event) dial-out to stakeholders. Two (2) of these events would include dial-outs to a maximum of 5,000 stakeholders per call (20,000 calls total) and one (1) would include dial-outs to a maximum of 10,000 stakeholders (20,000 calls total) for a total of 40,000 event-specific calls.

Will the remaining 70,000 calls be used for additional town hall related messaging, messaging unrelated to the town hall events, or something else?

Answer- That is the maximum number of calls they are requesting. The actual number of calls used may not be at the maximum.