Questions and Answers for Draft RFQs 11152011.docx

Questions and Answers from Draft RFQs

The only method by which any term of this RFQ may be modified is by a formal amendment to the RFQ generated by the issuing office. No other communications, whether oral or in writing, will modify or supersede the terms of this RFQ.

1) How will the vendor GSA verification process be administrated to verify that all vendors and products are correct and on a current GSA Schedule and TAA compliant? GSA Advantage is not always up to date and correct with many of the vendor display companies not being TAA. Would you consider a current TAA certification letter be a requirements as part of the BPA submission?

Answer: TAA is covered in the schedule solicitation under FAR 52.225.5 and contractors have to certify in ORCA that they are TAA or Non TAA. When it is alleged that products are non-TAA Compliant, the Government requires the vendor with the products to verify that the products are in fact TAA Compliant. If the vendor cannot verify that the product is TAA compliant, it is removed from the schedule. Vendors are also required to recertify during the solicitation phase of the RFQ.

2) Who are you using for your reverse auction software in the solicitation listed above?

Answer: Reverse auctioning will not be used in the award of the BPAs. However, the BPAs will allow agencies to utilize this pricing approach at the individual ordering level as agencies deem appropriate to their specific acquisition.

3) Do you have to be a prime contracting or can small business who represents a larger company respond to this request?

Answer: Competition will be sought among all Schedule 70 contract holders both large and small.

4) If there are 10 BPA holders for this will a good portion of those be for small business?

Answer: Competition will be sought among both large and small businesses under Schedule 70. Socio-Economic status is an evaluation factor in the RFQs. For consideration under the socioeconomic factor, the greatest preference will be given to award to small business offerors. The next preference will be to award to other than small business offerors that demonstrates aggressive small business subcontracting goals. It is the government’s intent to award to approximately 10 BPAs. The number of BPAs selected will be based on the overall best value contractors who meet the government’s requirements, taking into consideration the complexity of the specify acquisition and the resultant administrative efforts required.

5) Are contractors permitted to put in multiple offers for varying manufacturers?

Answer: For the Mock Buy No, companies are not permitted to provide multiple manufacturers for evaluation purpose. Multiple manufactures are allowed in the entire catalog offering.

6) Do I have to supply all items on the Items List?

Answer: Yes, the item list is for evaluation purpose. This will place all offers on an even playing field.

7) You have requested quotes for specific manufacturers’ products. Recommend providing generic minimum specifications and consider all potential vendor products to ensure GSA customers have the best possible selection of COTs products.

Answer: The government revised the product descriptions with the intent of describing the minimum salient characteristics to ensure best possible selection of products for GSA customers consistent with the existing Federal Supply Schedule 70 contract.

8) Many government customers’ requirements are not standard COTs configurations, i.e. custom configurations, especially as it relates to rugged product line. Recommend revising the wording for rugged devices to extend the time frame to “30 days” as is found on GSA.

Answer: Since decentralized ordering is authorized, GSA and/or individual agencies will procure their custom requirements as applicable to the specific configuration. GSA and other federal agencies will work closely with their respective technical matter experts.

9) Who are the target customers for this BPA?

Answer: GSA, DoD, all other Federal, approved State and local governmental agencies.

10) What are the benefits to the end-user government customer to purchase off this BPA versus GSA?

Answer: The NITCP is a new program in which was launched Feb 2011, this year. The mission of the NITCP is to procure IT commodities and ancillary services for customers located nationwide, including other GSA entities.

11) What is the anticipated launch date for this RFQ? Award date?

Answer: The release of the final RFQs is tentatively scheduled for the middle to latter period of Oct 2011; and, BPAs awards tentatively scheduled during the last quarter of 201.

12) In Section 3: If a Contractor Teaming Arrangement is utilized, will it require the team leader to have product from their schedule included on every task order issued under this BPA. On a given task order, what if all product is provided by one team member?

Answer: If a Contract Teaming Arrangement is used, both contractors are required to have their respective BPA products on FSS schedule 70 consistent with teaming agreement. If a product is required and listed on only one team member’s schedule and not the other one, then the team member who has the required product should submit a quote consistent with Schedule 70, SIN 132-8. A copy of the teaming arrangement will be submitted to the government along with the quote submission.

13) In Section 4.1.1: Does this mean the same discount must be applied across all product lines for all manufacturing lines? This will be difficult to meet since each manufacturer has their own unique discounting policies within the channel and within each product family. Recommend deleting this requirement.

Answer: Yes, the discount will apply to those same or similar functional products.

14) In Section 4.1.2: If the GSA CO allows a product replacement to be priced at a lower discount than the previous unit, i.e. Price Increase, will this be allowed on the BPA?

Answer: Price will be reviewed and the CO will make the final decision.

15) In Section 4.3.1.b: 5 days to update GSA Advantage is not sufficient given the GSA CO has up to 7 days to approve an upload. Realistically, the process of updating GSA Advantage can take up to 14 days or longer. Recommend extending the timeframe to 14 days.

Answer: GSA has looked at the current process. If this relates to mod changes, the changes will occur within 24 hours provided the proper information is included in the SIP file.

16) In Section 4.3.2: Company X is a $10 billion a year IT distributor and much of our work for our manufacturing partners involves detailed and audited Point of Sale reporting (POS). Several of the data points listed in this section are not standard items found in Pa OS: Ship From Zip Code; Freight amount; Discount Amount; Debit/credit indicator; Merchant’s name, city and state; Merchant category code, business code, FEIN, SBA codes and 1099 status and merchant zip code. Recommend adhering to standard industry reporting requirements and remove superfluous data requests. Also, please clarify what you mean by “merchant”.

Answer: GSA has not had any issues with the reporting requirements under the FSSI Office Supply BPAs. The vendors can capture this information on the purchase orders. In addition the point of sale data provides this information.

17) In Section 4.3.3: It is stipulated that “All support and technical assistance required for this acquisition shall accommodate the communication needs of end users with disabilities….must include the availability of TTY access and internet based web page must meet all of the requirements of Section 508.” This is not required in the commercial sector nor by GSA. This will place an undue hardship on the bidders and most likely force many to withdraw. Recommend removing this requirement.

Answer: Requirement moved from the solicitation.

18) In Section 4.3.4: All credit card orders will receive the BPA discount? We object to inclusion of this language. It is an attempt to go beyond the parameters of GSA business and capture all Federal credit card business and claim it as business generated under this BPA. Credit card orders under $2500 are exempt from standard procurement guidelines and therefore should not be considered business that falls under this BPA. This language is overly broad and inclusive and we recommend it be removed.

Answer: GSA has not had any issues with the reporting requirements under the FSSI Office Supply BPAs. The vendors can capture this information on the purchase orders. In addition the point of sale data provides this information.

19) In Section 4.5.1: Our system tracking does not provide break down by method of purchase (via, e-mail, fax, in person etc.); value/percentage of all Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) items and activities to promote EPP products. Requiring this type of additional tracking capabilities will be unduly burdensome. We recommend removing this requirement. Can you define Environmentally Preferable Purchasing items (EPP)?

Answer: GSA is committed to advancing the President’s initiatives to provide environmentally friendly products- Tracking the federal IT spend is a step in the right direction to show how the Federal Government is doing its part in reducing Green House Gas emission and increasing the use of environmentally friendly products. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing is defined in the glossary.

20) In Section 4.5.2: System reports do not track environmentally preferable content, GHG, Sustainability product, shipping/freight charges (not applicable anyways for CONUS); delivery method; shipping weight, supp fees, payment method. Requiring this type of additional tracking capabilities will be unduly burdensome. We recommend removing this requirement.

Answer: GSA is committed to advancing the President’s initiatives to provide environmentally friendly products- Tracking the federal IT spend is a step in the right direction to show how the Federal Government is doing its part in reducing Green House Gas emission and increasing the use of environmentally friendly products. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing is defined in the glossary.

21) In Section 4.7.3: 24 hour response may be delayed due to weekend and holidays. Recommend revising accordingly.

Answer: This requirement has been removed from the RFQ.

22) In Section 4.7.4: Replace within 3 days may be impossible based on availability and stocking location. Recommend revising to reflect “best efforts” instead.

Answer: This requirement has been removed from the RFQ.

23) In Section 4.7.5: We need more details on exactly what type of “order tracking system” the government will require under this BPA. Is using GSA Advantage acceptable for those type orders in lieu of this other system?

Answer: This is a specific requirement of the BPA, as with commercial practices if an item is shipped and the customer has not received the product, the vendor should be able to provide a tracking number if shipped via commercial carriers.

24) In Section 4.7.7: IFF fee plus an administrative fee to be determined later. The amount of this additional fee will determine if we submit an offer. Can you advise on the amount of this fee?

Answer: The Fee is 2% --will be included in final RFQ

25) In Section 4.8.1: This requirement is not possible if shipping product from multiple warehouses. Each warehouse will generate a separate credit card charge for the product shipping from that location. This is a standard industry process that we recommend be accepted for this BPA.

Answer: Removed from RFQ

26) In Section 4.10.2: 5 days to update GSA Advantage is not sufficient given the GSA CO has up to 7 days to approve an upload. Realistically, the process of updating GSA Advantage can take up to 14 days or longer.

Answer: GSA has looked at the current process. If this relates to mod changes, the changes will occur within 24 hours provided the proper information is included in the SIP file.

27) Company X has concerns about the core purpose of the BPA. Company X can provide equivalent products for a subset of the products you list in your draft RFQ. But, by limiting response to “Brand Name or Equivalent”, we feel the BPA gives unfair advantage to the named manufacturers and limits competition. More importantly, the approach would limit the ability of your BPA users to have access to a broader vendor portfolio, including more innovative or technically superior solutions. If you would consider removing the requirement for brand names, making the requirements for each items more generic, and awarding BPAs for multiple manufacturers’ products, we believe you would be able to more flexibly and fairly meet federal government customers’ needs.

Answer: The government revised the product descriptions from brand name or equal to minimum salient characteristics.

28) How will task orders be competed post-award?

Answer: Orders will be competed between the awarded BPA Schedule 70 holders consistent with FAR 8.405-3(c )(2). All orders will be firm fixed price.

29) Will NITCP expect the contractors to provide compliant requirements in which regulatory compliance is more important than exact model number or feature specification within a CLIN configuration?

Answer: NITCP expects contractors to provide compliant products in accordance with the BPA requirements, regulation, policy and statue regardless of the CLIN configuration.

30) To encourage utilization, will the Program Funding Fees suggested in Section 4.7.7 GSA Program Funding Fee (.75% + 1% additional Service Fee) be negotiable in order to be competitive with other GWAC contract vehicles? For example the NASA-SEWP contract currently has a .45 percent fee with a maximum of $10,000 per order.

Answer: The fee is currently set at 2%.