IEP 2.0 Virtual Industry Day Q&A.pdf

Industry Day IEP 2.0 Virtual Industry Day & RFI Questions & Answers

1. Will you share the PPT slides?

Answer: Yes. A copy of the slides and Q&A will be shared on sam.gov.

2. When do you think the acquisition plan be finalized in terms of SB set aside or Unrestricted?

Answer: We are still in Market Research phase; therefore, this requirement does not yet contain a SB set-aside. Based on our current Market Research, we anticipate that Small

Business Subcontracting goals will be included.

3. Can you please share the contract vehicle planned as of now?

Answer: We anticipate using the GSA Schedule IT-70.

4. Who is the incumbent?

Answer: Accenture Federal Services

5. GSA MAS You mentioned 5451S PS code, can you provide more information?

Answer: The IT Professional Services Special Item Number (SIN) is 54151S for the GSA

Multiple Award Schedule Program.

6. Will the IRS provide a list of participants?

Answer: Yes. A participant list will be provided to all Registered Virtual Industry Day attendees.

7. Can you talk about your small business subcontracting requirements?

Answer: This has already been addressed

8. You mentioned Task Order 1 will primarily be transition. How long is the expected transition period?

Answer: A Draft Service Initiation O&M Task Order was provided with the RFI that was posted on sam.gov. A copy was also included with the Industry Day Virtual invitation.

Once the RFQ is released, the Government expects bidders to determine the level of effort and transition timeline.

9. Single award? Or multiple award?

Answer: We anticipate that this requirement will be a Single award.

10. Is there any incumbent currently? If yes, who is that?

Answer: This has already been addressed

11. Will you share the email and company names to everyone who join the call?

Answer: This has already been addressed

12. I missed the PSC code and other details. Can you explain one more time?

Answer:

a. Anticipated Award Type - Single award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) utilizing General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS)

Information Technology Category.

b. Anticipated Period of Performance - 8 years (5-year ordering period + 3 one-year award term options)

c. Projected BPA Value - $1.7B

d. NAICS – Special Item Numbers 54151S – IT Professional Services

e. Product Service Code – DA01 IT and Telecom – Business Application/Application

Development Support Services

13. In terms of pricing and pricing evaluation, does the government anticipate providing the required labor categories?

Answer: We have not made this determination yet as we are still in the “Pre-solicitation” phase of our acquisition.

14. Does the government anticipate providing estimated hours mapped to anticipated LCATS for evaluation purposes at the BPA level?

Answer: We have not made this determination yet as we are still in the “Pre-solicitation” phase of our acquisition.

15. Will the Task Order be priced separately from the BPA as part of the competition?

Answer: We have not made this determination yet as we are still in the “Pre-solicitation” phase of our acquisition.

16. Will the government consider an extension to the RFI response date?

Answer: Yes. The RFI response deadline has been extended until June 30, 2023, at 8:00am, Eastern Standard Time.

17. Are software and hardware included in of support IEP program?

Answer: Quoter will be responsible for providing resources needed to deliver services, except where identified by the RFQ. Specific GFE licenses and services may vary by individual task order requirements. The RFQ will identify GFE licenses being provided under the current

IEP 1.5 contract.

18. I did not see a request for transformative web technologies over duration of contract. Is that implied and scored?

Answer: The quoter can propose innovative solutions to satisfy the IEP RFQ. Refer to the

RFQ evaluation factors for how your proposed solution will be evaluated.

19. Would the government please provide a list of CSP services will be available to offerors as GFE at the time of the award?

Answer: The GFE currently available to the IEP 1.5 vendor will be listed in the RFQ.

20. Is it a mandate to use Govt. Cloud services or can other cloud services be used...for example

Amazon etc.

Answer: Use of government cloud services will not be mandated. Other authorized cloud services may be proposed as a part of the quoter's solutions.

21. What is the technology stack that IRS looking to leverage for the IEP 2.0?

Answer: The IEP technology stack is not dictated beyond technical stack requirements for each application. The current IEP application technical stack attributes will be available in the IEP 1.5 Current State document included in the RFQ.

22. Is current environment (hw/sw) government or contractor owned? if contractor owned, what is expected for transition to new awardee?

Answer: The current IEP environment includes both government and contractor owned items, with the majority of those being contractor owned. The current IEP 1.5 contract has no provisions for transfer of contractor owned equipment. The GFE currently available to the IEP 1.5 MSP will be listed in the RFQ.

23. Is the current implementation of private cloud in the incumbent's data center?

Answer: Yes, the current implementation of IEP private cloud is provided by the incumbent's data center hosting services.

24. With IRS looking to further modernize this hybrid cloud environment? Would the IRS provide more details about the private cloud infrastructure, capacities, etc.?

Answer: The RFQ IEP 1.5 Current State document will provide details on all IEP workloads and traffic volumes supported.

25. Is there physical infrastructure hosting all virtual/cloud, in IRS data centers or some hosted in incumbents’ private data center?

Answer: There are no IEP physical infrastructure components in an IRS data center. The

RFQ IEP 1.5 Current State document will provide details on all IEP workloads and traffic volumes supported.

26. Do you have any help desk call/ticket volumes available?

Answer: Information on service desk requests and incident management volumes are included in the IEP 1.5 Current State document.

27. Will there be code challenge involved in the selection process?

Answer: There are no plans at this time to conduct a code challenge as part of the IEP 2.0 selection process.

28. Would the government please provide a list of CSP services will be available to offerors as GFE at the time of the award? Will the services be provided "raw" from the various CSP consoles, or will some level of security controls be added to form the underpinnings of MSP services?

Answer:

The GFE currently available to the IEP 1.5 MSP will be listed in the RFQ. The configuration of CSP services will vary based on individual task order/ work request scope and requirements.

29. Can the government confirm whether IEP 2.0 will require accreditation at the FedRAMP

Moderate or High level?

Answer:

Current workloads are supported with FedRAMP Moderate level services, but future security requirements will be dependent on the cybersecurity risk assessment for the services needed to meet emerging IRS business requirements and changes to federal/agency cybersecurity regulations. Proposals will be evaluated on how they address the requirements included in the

RFQ. Requirements for subsequent services would be addressed by subsequent task orders/work requests.

30. The QASP outlines SLOs which govern the initial services provided in the first TO. Would the government provide evaluation criteria which allows vendors to propose thresholds that are higher/provide higher value to the government and/or disincentives which could be more stringent then found in the QASP to increase the attractiveness of their offering? Would such disincentives be evaluated more favorably?

Answer:

Quoters can propose any solution they consider as best value to satisfy the IEP RFQ. Refer to the

RFQ evaluation factors for how proposed solutions will be evaluated.

31. As written, the penalty for three of the transition SLOs is difficult to understand. Can the government provide an example of how this penalty will be assessed?

Answer:

The details for how SLOs will be measured and assessed will be negotiated and agreed to in the

IEP 2.0 QASP developed after BPA and task order award.