Amendment 4 - AMENDED Attachment 2 - Statement of Objectives.pdf

Attachment 2

Statement of Objectives

1) PURPOSE

The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to expand the Commercial Platforms (CP) program by awarding contracts to commercially available online platforms that can provide the

Government with business-to-business (B2B) online shopping capabilities for agency

Government Purchase Card (GPC) holders for the purchase of routine, commercial items. This acquisition, referred to as the Commercial Platforms (CP) program, is based upon the authority granted in Section 846 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, Pub L. 115-91, directing the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to establish a program to enable Federal agencies to procure routine commercial items through partnerships with multiple commercial online portals. Section 846 language can be found at the following link -https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2810/text/enr#toc-

H6166FFFC316E4B49BAC0A40658CEC684.

2) INTRODUCTION

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR subpart 12.6, Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for

Commercial Products and Commercial Services. This announcement is seeking proposals to establish multiple no-cost contracts with commercially available online platforms. The combined synopsis/solicitation is being issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP) number

47QSCC23R0002.

The GSA, Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), Office of General Supplies and Services (GSS), Office of Acquisition Management Internal and Emergency Acquisition Division (IEAD) is seeking proposals from commercial online providers who offer commercially available B2B online commerce platforms.

3) SCOPE

This SOO describes the requirements and expected outcomes for the platform provider(s) to provide Federal GPC holders access to, and facilitate sales through, a commercially available online platform that meets the requirements outlined in this SOO and other documents associated with this solicitation. After award, Government users will be able to access the commercial online platforms that meet agency user experience requirements to purchase routine commercial items at competitive pricing.

GSA seeks to award multiple contracts to providers of commercial online platforms that own, operate and manage an online, commercial platform that is widely used in the private sector and has sales with multiple Federal Government agencies and their cardholders. GSA is not looking for development services or commercial software that can be configured into a commercial online platform. Successful platforms are expected to offer a wide range of general products and routine commercial items through the B2B platform. Services, other than those offered as ancillary to the products being purchased, are out of scope of this solicitation. These online platforms should align with and support multiple categories of products as identified by the https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2810/text/enr#toc-H6166FFFC316E4B49BAC0A40658CEC684 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2810/text/enr#toc-H6166FFFC316E4B49BAC0A40658CEC684

Category Management Leadership Council and OMB in the Government-wide category structure. The 10 common spend categories as outlined represent those categories where a

Government-wide approach to spend management is beneficial, as opposed to agency or user-driven purchasing.

The target market for this contract is spend that is open market spend rather than strategic purchases. As part of GSA’s ongoing assessment of the commercial market, the program estimates that the potential addressable market for the commercial online space is approximately

$1-2B. This figure includes roughly $500M in spend made on the GSA SmartPay purchase card where the merchant names end in a .com or .net, and a less-quantifiable (but two to three times larger) secondary pool of spend where merchants may have both an online and brick-and-mortar presence, making it more difficult to pin-point those sales that are online only.

GSA currently has over 25 agencies participating in the Commercial Platforms program and intends to continue to promote and expand our program to additional agencies. Current feedback from agency participants has been very positive with buyers stating that the program has saved them time by helping them with guided buying options, supply chain risk management, and other compliance areas in the open market space.

Section 4 of this document outlines the outcomes desired from the CP platform providers.

Offerors eligible to participate in Phase II of the procurement are requested to detail their existing commercial practices for each of the listed areas. If your commercial practice does not accommodate a listed objective, please state whether or how you may be able to approximate the desired outcome while keeping deviations from standard commercial practices to a minimum.

4) PROGRAM OUTCOMES AND OBJECTIVES

The identified requirements below align with the core policy objectives of the Commercial

Platforms program:

● Carrying out Section 846 of the FY18 NDAA, which mandates the CP program procurement occur, to the maximum extent practicable, under the standard terms and conditions while promoting strong competition and maximizing use of commercial practices; and

● Continuing progress with helping agencies better manage their open-market spend through improved visibility, new commercial features, and actionable data insights.

● Maintaining GSA’s strong support of the AbilityOne program, including promoting agency compliance with the JWOD Act.

A. PROMOTING JWOD ACT COMPLIANCE

GSA will continue to support and promote the purchase of AbilityOne products through its

Commercial Platforms program.Agencies are required to comply with FAR 8.002, Priorities for use of mandatory Government sources, and are directed to not buy items that are essentially the https://acquisition.gov/content/category-management https://acquisition.gov/content/category-management same (ETS) as AbilityOne products, unless the products required are not available through the

AbilityOne Program. An important Government objective is to provide features that mark or provide notification of ETS items and features that prevent the sale of ETS items to Government buyers that may otherwise inadvertantly be made through a traditional commercial purchasing website, and to promote JWOD Act compliance the purchase of the AbilityOne item instead. A preferredPer AbilityOne and NIB, a proven approach to JWOD compliance is blocking ETS items and substituting Procurement Listor blocking ETS items. The AbilityOne Procurement List is maintained by the AbilityOne Commission and will be provided to the platform providers.

Only authorized AbilityOne distributors may sell AbilityOne items; however, offerors are not required to become authorized distributors in order to receive an award under this RFP.

To that end, platforms must either:

1. Offer a blocking or blocking and substitute mechanism to prevent the purchase of

ETS items on the platform during the shopping experience to enable Government buyer compliance with the requirements identified in FAR Part 8; AND/OR

2. Offer other commercial features to help promote agency buyers’ compliance with the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (JWOD) buying mandate.

GSA will be tracking the sale of AbilityOne items as a key metric for the program.

Note: FAR Subpart 8.7 provides implementing guidance for the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act (41

U.S.C. 8501-8506). FAR 8.704, Purchase priorities, states that the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act requires the Government to purchase supplies or services on the Procurement List, at prices established by the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, from AbilityOne participating nonprofit agencies if they are available within the period required. The Procurement List can be found at:

https://www.abilityone.gov/procurement_list/ . The authorized distributor’s list is available at:

https://www.abilityone.gov/distributors/independent.html.

A.B. USER EXPERIENCE

The Government seeks a commercial online platform that offers a modern buying experience similar to those currently used in the commercial environment and has robust business-to-business (B2B) capabilities. The Government views user experience as a primary adoption driver for this initiative. Please describe your ability to assess and measure the user experience on an ongoing basis to ensure it is effectively meeting the needs of GPC holders. Additionally, please provide details on your tactics to promote the user experience/platform capabilities to participating agencies, as the FAR encourages cardholders to spread their purchases around, and

GSA will market all awarded platforms on an equal playing field. Awarded platforms shall support monthly virtual platform demos and requested individual customer meetings. See

Attachment 1 for a list of the core requested User Experience capabilities.

B. C. RISK MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE

The Government seeks commercially available online platforms platform solutions that enable buyer compliance with the Federal purchasing rules and regulations that apply to all purchases https://www.abilityone.gov/procurement_list/ https://www.abilityone.gov/distributors/independent.html made on the Government Purchase Card, while also offering many of the benefits of today’s e-commerce experiences.

(i) Supply Chain Risk Management and Third Party Supplier Management

Describe your ability to accommodate Government requests (whether GSA or the buying agency) to prevent the sale of individual or categories of products to Government buyers that have been excluded by the Government. Additionally, please outline your capabilities related to preventing the sale of products to Government buyers from prohibited vendors on the platform. These include, but may not be limited to, any products or vendors covered under the following directives:

● Hardware, software, or services developed or provided by Kaspersky Labs or other covered entities per FAR Subpart 4.20;

● Covered telecommunications and video surveillance services or equipment per

Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, include, but are not limited to:

○ Dahua Technology Company

○ Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company

○ Huawei Technologies Company

○ Hytera Communications Corporation

○ ZTE Corporation

● Excluded entities listed on SAM.gov

This list will be continually updated and will be provided to platform providers at the time of award, and on a regular basis thereafter as more products or vendors are added.

Additionally, if your platform supports third-party sales (also known as ‘third party sellers’, ‘third party merchants’ or ‘third party suppliers’), describe your commercial practices for managing those third-party entities that operate and sell products on your marketplace. The platform provider is responsible for all supplier vetting, onboarding, and order fulfillment.

The proposal should describe the processes in place to vet third-party suppliers prior to those suppliers joining the commercial online platform, taking competition and supply chain risks into account. This vetting process should be published in a transparent manner on the platform provider’s site and publicly disclose all supplier fees associated with selling on the platform. This site will be used as a reference point by the

Government to direct prospective suppliers seeking information about the onboarding process. Platform providers reserve the right to manage the rules governing the on-boarding of new suppliers in accordance with their commercial practices.

Note: GSA maintains a listing of parties (individuals and companies) excluded from

Federal procurement and is made publicly available on SAM.gov.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/06/15/2018-12847/federal-acquisition-regulation-use-of-products-and-services-of-kaspersky-lab https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5515/text#toc-H4350A53097BD46409287451A50C4F397

The Government seeks platform solutions that employ effective supply chain risk management processes and controls to ensure the integrity, security, quality, and resilience of the supply chain and its products offered on the platform. Risks may include tampering; unauthorized production; insertion of black market, gray market, and counterfeit items; products that pose cyber risks; and more.

(ii) Small Business Identification

The platform provider(s) shall outline their capabilities related to identifying the various

U.S. Small Business Administration defined socioeconomic groups in the shopping experience (for those with 3rd party sellers), to include whether products can be filtered on certain designations or whether the items have been sourced by small businesses.

Note: GSA’s System for Award Management (SAM) manages the Federal Government's database of vendors, including the small business designation and other socioeconomic statuses. Suppliers interested in doing business with the Government are encouraged to register in SAM. Section 846 allows for purchases made through the commercial e-commerce portals to receive credit towards agency small business goals (as required by

Small Business Act (15 U.S.C 644 (g)).

(iii) Third-Party suppliers (as applicable)

Commercial platforms may offer the ability to provide products from third party suppliers as an opportunity for small businesses or other suppliers to reach Government customers who may not already do so through other channels. It enables competition among suppliers on price and other factors important to Government buyers and taxpayers. If as a platform you are utilizing third party suppliers, please describe how your platform can maximize opportunities for multiple third party suppliers at the product level and extend opportunities for third-party small business involvement. Additionally, for platform providers with third party vendors, offerors shall outline their capabilities to remove listings from vendors attempting to sell AbilityOne products but who are not an authorized AbilityOne distributor (as applicable).

(iv) [RESERVED] AbilityOne and ‘Essentially the Same’ (ETS) Items

GSA will continue to support and promote the purchase of AbilityOne products through its Commercial Platforms program. The AbilityOne product list is maintained by the

AbilityOne Commission and will be provided to the platform providers. Only authorized

AbilityOne distributors may sell AbilityOne items, and prospective platforms are not expected to become authorized distributors.

Agencies are required to comply with FAR 8.002, Priorities for use of mandatory

Government sources, and are directed to not buy items that are essentially the same as

AbilityOne products unless the products required are not available through the

AbilityOne Program. An important Government objective is an ability to mark or provide notification of restricted ETS items, as well as to prevent the sale of ETS items to

Government buyers and to promote the purchase of the AbilityOne item instead. To that end, platforms must either:

1. mark or restrict, “Essentially the Same”1 (ETS) items on the platform during the shopping experience to enable Government buyer compliance with the requirements identified in FAR Part 8; AND/OR

2. have the ability to identify, highlight, and promote AbilityOne products that are offered by authorized distributors.

Additionally, the platform provider shall outline their capabilities to remove listings from vendors attempting to sell AbilityOne products but who are not an authorized AbilityOne distributor (as applicable). GSA will be tracking the sale of AbilityOne items as a key metric for the program.

Note: FAR Subpart 8.7 provides implementing guidance for the Javits-Wagner-O’Day

Act (41 U.S.C. 8501-8506). FAR 8.704, Purchase priorities, states that the Javits-

Wagner-O’Day Act requires the Government to purchase supplies or services on the

Procurement List, at prices established by the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, from

AbilityOne participating nonprofit agencies if they are available within the period required. The Procurement List can be found at:

https://www.abilityone.gov/procurement_list/ . The authorized distributor’s list is available at: https://www.abilityone.gov/distributors/independent.html.

(v)(iv) Government Purchase Cards

The GSA SmartPay® Government Purchase Card (GPC) is the primary authorized method of payment for purchases placed on the commercial platforms. Government buyers are not allowed to use third-party payment processors (e.g., PayPal, Venmo, Google Wallet, WePay) or payments using any form of cryptocurrency. The GPC shall be the primary method of payment by buyers (per FAR 13.201) and all platforms must accept the GPC as a form of payment. Additionally, GSA encourages the transmission of

Level 3 data to the GSA SmartPay banks, and working with payment processors to understand the necessary processes and data elements to do so per the industry's standard.

(vi)(v) Environmentally Sustainable Products

The contractor(s) shall outline their capabilities related to identifying environmentally sustainable (e.g., “green”) products required by statute, FAR Part 23, and Executive

Order on the platform. GSA will be tracking the sale of sustainable products as a key metric for the program.

Note: Executive Order 14057 states that the Federal Government shall use its scale and procurement power to achieve net zero emissions from Federal procurement.

Federal agencies are required to purchase sustainable products and services in

1 Federal agencies with a requirement met by an item on the AbilityOne Procurement List must purchase the

AbilityOne items exclusively from the sources authorized by the U.S. AbilityOne Commission.

https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-23 https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-23 accordance with statute, FAR Part 23 and executive order. GSA seeks a solution that makes it easy for buyers to identify and purchase sustainable products. Refer to the

GSA Green Procurement Compilation for a comprehensive list of sustainable products required by statute, FAR Part 23 and executive order.

(vii)(vi) Membership Programs / Other Business-to-Business Benefits

The platform(s) shall provide agencies with any membership benefits associated with their

B2B platform in accordance with their commercial practice. This includes any benefits related to expedited shipping and handling, product warranties, enhanced customer service, and/or other purchasing benefits. The Government (including GSA and any participating agencies) will not pay any membership fees or premiums for access to these benefits.

DC. CYBERSECURITY AND DATA CAPABILITIES

A key intended benefit of this program is to gain better insight into what is being purchased using Government Purchase Cards. To enable this benefit, GSA seeks purchasing and spend data from the platform providers, both at the account level (for buyer’s use) as well as at the platform level (for GSA’s collection and dissemination out to agencies). This data will be used to help agencies make informed buying decisions as well as to get a better understanding of what is being introduced into their supply chain.

(i) Cybersecurity and Data Protections

The platform(s) shall provide specific details on their approach to complying with the information on data protections and cybersecurity as outlined in section C.8 of the RFP.

How do you proactively manage the many facets of cybersecurity, including, but not limited to:

o Protecting financial data from theft/fraud o Defense against cyber attacks o Compliance with information security standards o Data storage o Vulnerability assessments/monitoring o Encryption o Disaster recovery o Network monitoring

(ii) Counterfeiting Prevention

The platform(s) shall detail their proactive approach to counterfeiting prevention, both as part of their existing commercial practices and any additional tactics that will be employed as part of this contract.

Additionally, the contractor shall outline the process by which customers report suspected counterfeit items, the remediation process and timelines, and any corrective supplier actions that are taken. The Government requests that contractors have the ability to run https://sftool.gov/greenprocurement/ https://sftool.gov/greenprocurement/ reports on any reported items that may be counterfeit, that might include the product’s item number and any final determination (and corrective actions) taken to prevent future purchases. Areas of interest include:

○ What proactive capabilities exist as part of your commercial practice to prevent buyers from purchasing counterfeit items?

○ What processes are in place to effectively vet your suppliers, distributors, and 3rd party sellers (as applicable) to prevent an agency from purchasing counterfeit?

○ What additional capabilities, if any, are you proposing in addition to your commercial practices to prevent Government buyers from purchasing counterfeit?

○ Please outline the reporting process for a customer who suspects an item is counterfeit during the market research process.

○ Please outline the process if a customer suspects they have received a counterfeit item.

○ Is the contractor able to run a report on the number of reported customer submissions as a result of suspected counterfeit items?

○ Does the platform maintain a list of suspected or highly ‘counterfeited’ items?

Could that list be made available at the Government’s request?

(iii)Spend Data and Analytics

The platform provider shall describe their ability to provide Government buyers with spend data and historic spend information, to help drive buying decisions for that user.

Spend data includes information for agency approvers as well as purchase and invoice history for individual buyers. This data should also be made available to agency administrators that manage multiple buyers.

Platform providers shall provide data analytics and dashboard capabilities similar in nature to those offered to other B2B customers. Platform providers should provide their data analytics capabilities for customer groups, such as by agency. Dashboards will be used as an information management tool to visually track and analyze performance and may include the following information, to the extent it is currently commercially available.

(iv) Data Extracts

Monthly Sales Data

The platform provider shall provide data extracts to GSA through the Sales Reporting

Portal (SRP) on a monthly basis by the 10th of each month. The data provided to GSA will include the elements in the table below.

Data Element Type Data Element

Contract Data Contract Number

Order Number

Purchase Data

Shipping costs

Quantity of item(s) sold

Sell Price (per unit)

Total Item Price

Order Date

Shipped Date

Delivery Date*

Order Net Total

Order Shipping & Handling Costs

Order Status

Account User

Department / Agency Name (level 1)

Component or Bureau (level 2)

Office or Division (level 3)*

Delivery address

Buyer ID / Buyer Account Name

Product Data

Manufacturer Part Number

Manufacturer Name

Description of item

Product Unit of Measure

Product Service Code / Product

Category / UNSPSC

Sustainable / Green “designations” for all sustainable/green products*

Country of Origin*

AbilityOne Item Number, for all

AbilityOne Items offered*

Vendor Data (Vendor is defined as the ‘seller’ and not necessarily the platform themselves in the case of Third Party

Sellers)

Vendor Name

Vendor Small Business status

Vendor Status socioeconomic*

Third Party Seller Identification*

*as available/applicable

GSA maintains the right to review and amend these data elements as needed in support of the program, and will provide platform providers at least 30 days notice prior to any new data element requirements. The platform provider(s) may also recommend other data elements that they might supply to their B2B customers and believe should be included in the data set.

Monthly Customer Experience Data

Each month, platforms are asked to submit buyer data for any user that made a purchase within that month for participating agencies in the program, to assess the customer experience across all platforms. The file will be submitted to the COR by the 10th of the month as a Comma Separated Value (.csv) file. NOTE: This file is only required for those platforms that don’t include email address as part of their Monthly Sales Data reporting through SRP.

Data Element

Buyer Email Address (Gov)

Agency

Order Date

Monthly Adoption Data

Each month, platforms are asked to submit agency adoption data for those participating agencies in the program. The file will be submitted to the COR by the 10th of the month as a Comma Separated Value (.csv) file.

Data Element

Buyer Email Address (Gov)

Buyer Name

Hierarchy Path (or Agency +

Bureau/Group as separate rows)

Role

Invitation Status (Activated / Not-

Activated)

6) CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION

1. CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION POINTS OF CONTACT

Contracting Officer Dominic Lackey

General Services Administration

1800 F. Street

Washington, DC 20405

Email: dominic.lackey@gsa.gov

Phone: 202-501-2272

Contract Specialist Sarah Duncan

General Services Administration

1800 F. Street

Washington, DC 20405

Email: sarah.duncan@gsa.gov

Phone: 202-501-1565

Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) To Be Determined (TBD)

Note: The CO/CS/COR may be updated without specifically amending the RFP and SOO.

2. CONTRACTING OFFICER’S AUTHORITY

The Contracting Officer (CO) assigned to this contract has the responsibility of ensuring the performance of all necessary actions for effective contracting, ensuring compliance with the terms of the contract, and safeguarding the interests of the United States in its contractual relationships. In this regard, the CO is the only individual who has the authority to enter into, administer, or terminate this agreement. In addition, the

Contracting Officer is the only person authorized to approve changes to any of the requirements under this agreement, and notwithstanding any provision contained elsewhere in this agreement, the said authority remains solely with the CO.

The platform provider must immediately request clarification from the CO when a question arises regarding the authority of any person to act for the CO under the agreement or when the platform provider receives direction that appears outside the scope of the agreement.

3. CONTRACT SPECIALIST’S AUTHORITY

The Contract Specialist (CS) acts as an acquisition consultant and serves as liaison between the CO and the awardee(s). The CS may have regular communication with the contractor, drafts contract documentation including modifications, and will participate and may lead modification negotiations, as applicable. However, no changes to the contract will be made without the express signature of the CO. Only contracting officers have authority to enter into, administer, or terminate contracts, and only the CO is authorized to sign and administer the contract.

4. AUTHORITY OF CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE (COR)

Only those Government representatives (e.g., COR), as designated in writing by the CO, may provide technical or other interpretations in the performance of this contract.

Technical interpretation will be provided only within the limits specified in this paragraph, as delineated in a letter of authority from the CO, or contained in Section G or elsewhere of this agreement.

As used herein, “technical interpretation” is defined as providing technical clarification, confirming the results of meetings, completing details in the form of work orders, pursuing certain lines of inquiry, or otherwise serving to accomplish the contract requirements. Technical directions may be issued either verbally or in writing. Such technical direction must include or comply with the following:

1. Be consistent with the general scope of work and terms and conditions contained in the contract.

2. Does not constitute assignment of new work or change the terms, conditions, or specifications of the contract.

3. Does not constitute a basis, either directly or indirectly, that could result in a change in the pricing, quantity, quality, or period of performance as established in this contract.

Technical direction that exceeds the authority listed above or the limits of specific letters of authority is invalid and will not be enforceable against the Government. Any costs incurred by the platform provider in violation of this clause will be considered unallowable costs and will not be reimbursed by the Government.