Vendor RFI Questions.pdf

Vendor RFI Questions Government Response 1 Is there a current incumbent? Yes – Fors Marsh

Group 2 Will Clearances (Facility or Personnel) be necessary or required for participation?

Clearance is required prior to working onsite or on DoD systems.

3 In regard to the FAR Clause 52.219-14, can you verify that 50% of the work has to be done by small businesses (when the prime is a small business) and not the SB prime contractor themselves? (since other small businesses are "similarly situated entities")

As this is simply an RFI to gauge small and large business capabilities, no determination of a small business set aside has been established.

4 Would the government consider pursuing both a large business and small business track within the IDIQ contract structure?

We believe this would allow small businesses to be more competitive in the domains where they have significant expertise.

The purpose of this RFI is to determine small and large business capabilities to perform the requirements listed in the RFI.

5 With respect to 4.3 and 4.4, what environment or platform should the modernized SRT system operate on?

The target platform should be of a hybrid nature with the ETL processes to be hosted in the DoD provided research and analyses environment, such as ADVANA or DMDC AWS General Purpose Cloud instance, and having the output with any necessary stylistic requirements to be applied on the PC platform, virtual or otherwise.

6 Place of performance is listed as onsite at the Mark Center or contractor locations.

Could the government say more about any requirements for onsite work at Mark Center and what the timeline for those might be (including # of days/wk)? Are contractor locations required to be in the Washington Metro Area?

Currently all are teleworking. This may change in the future to 2-3 days telework, 2-3 days in the office. Once back in the office, contractors may be needed for onsite for weekly meetings. The government does not require contractor locations to be in the Washington Metro Area; however, the Government will not reimburse travel costs associated with routine in-office workdays and weekly meetings.

7 In order to allow bidders time to fully consider the scope relevant to the acquisition and respond to the requested information, would GSA consider an extension to the due date of responses of one week, to April 29, 2022?

The response date will be extended until 29 April 2022.

8 In the RFP, will the Government be providing technical specifications and capabilities descriptions for the four Government-owned, Government-developed software packages? Including Strongmail?

Government will not provide technical specification and capability descriptions for the Government-owned, Government developed software packages. StrongMail should not be called out by name as a specific technology used. Instead, it should reference a Campaign Management Tool, processes, and interfaces.

9 Is the Government interested in transitioning to newer, more robust software systems?

The technology refresh to a more modern and efficient system and processes has always been in the best interest of the Government provided the efficiencies are also cost effective.

10 Will the Government provide detailed information on current and planned survey projects and data analytics tasks to support improved knowledge of the level of effort?

Will the Government provide scope of analyses, frequency of reporting, survey’s

See Technical Exhibit 1 attachment.

sample sizes and modes as a framework to determining level of effort?

11 Could the Government please provide a description of the approval process associated with modifications to the custom tools modification?

The approval process is elaborated on the DMDC’s Architecture Review Board with an associated handbook available for review.

This is a standard process that DMDC supported organizations must comply with and follow.

12 What is the base software platform on which the SRT and SURVANT tools are based?

SRT is currently based on the outdated and divested VB6 code base. Similar to SRT, SURVANT is using outdated and unsupported by DMDC technology for survey authoring.

13 Will the contractor be required to migrate SAS tools to R, and if so, will the contractor have to provide visual / GUIs for use?

No, contractor will not be required to migrate SAS tools to R.

14 Do the analytical techniques used generally fall within the realm of inferential (vs counterfactual) procedures?

Yes, inferential and descriptive models.

15 Does all work have to be conducted onsite (or can certain tasks, such as development, etc.) be conducted at contractor’s offices?

Currently all are teleworking. This may change in the future to 2-3 days telework, 2-3 days in the office.

Contractors may be needed for onsite meetings.

16 Are interview and focus group studies to be conducted entirely online, or is travel required?

Travel may be required for some focus groups.

17 Does the Government require expertise with particular types of personnel record data (or, is experience with varied types of personnel records data sufficient)?

No, this expertise isn’t required.

18 Would the Government provide examples of user manuals?

User manuals are currently unavailable.

19 Approximately how many hours / year does the incumbent provide on system development and maintenance activities?

Approximately 1,000 hours.

20 Approximately how many briefings / reports are provided per quarter and annually?

Approximately 10-20 briefings/reports are provided annually.

21 Approximately how many quick turn analyses are provided monthly/quarterly/annually?

Approximately 2-3 quick turn analyses are provided monthly.

22 Approximately how many analytic / coding memos are provided monthly/quarterly/annually?

Approximately 2-5 codebooks are developed annually.