61320618Q0188_New_release_distribution.doc.docx

PWS for News Release Distribution Service

1. Description of Services The contractor shall provide electronic distribution of CPSC press releases, blogs, statements, and other documents to newsrooms nationwide in the U.S. and translate CPSC press releases, blogs, and other documents into Spanish.

2. Contract Type This is a firm fixed priced performance based contract for electronic distribution of CPSC press releases, blogs, statements and other documents in the specified quantities as listed below.

3. Background The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is a small, independent regulatory agency with the mission of protecting consumers from injury and death relating to 15,000 different types of products under its jurisdiction. CPSC often makes important news vital to keeping consumers safe. The agency utilizes an electronic distribution service to distribute and amplify its recall announcement and product safety messages to a broad, nationwide audience.

4. Performance Work Statement

A. Independently, and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all necessary labor, materials and services to provide distribution and translation services.

B. The contractor shall provide electronic distribution services and shall transmit CPSC news releases and other documents to national, local, and Hispanic media, reaching a minimum of 3,000 media outlets.

C. The contractor shall send press releases to members of media (i.e. meteorologists) in targeted regions upon request by CPSC.

D. The contractor shall receive and distribute multiple news releases simultaneously.

E. The contractor shall receive from CPSC and distribute up to 200 news releases, blogs, statements and other documents in English, each containing unlimited word count.

F. The contractor shall proofread and, if necessary, edit CPSC press releases, blogs, statements and other documents and get verbal or electronic final approval from CPSC’s Office of Communications prior to distribution.

G. Electronic distribution shall be transmitted via newswire within one (1) hour of electronic receipt from CPSC to the contractor.

H. The contractor shall be prepared to receive electronic distribution twenty-four (24) hours a day.

I. The contractor shall provide a confirmation report and a report tracking views to CPSC’s Office of Communications for each press release distributed.

J. The contractor shall translate and distribute up to 50 CPSC releases and other documents per year into Spanish with unlimited word count.

K. The contractor shall translate news releases and other documents with up to 400 words into Spanish within four (4) hours after receiving the English version or the next business day, if received after 3 p.m. ET. An additional one (1) hour per 100 words will be allowed for news releases that exceed 400 words. This translation time does not include additional CPSC approvals or changes following the initial translation submitted by the contractor to CPSC for approval. Contractor shall distribute the translated news releases immediately upon CPSC approval.

L. To ensure timely translations and consistent use of CPSC’s favored language, the contractor shall establish a designated team to process CPSC’s requests for Spanish translation.

5. Contractor Qualifications The contractor performing this service shall have a minimum of three years of experience providing the same or similar services.

6. Period of Performance The base period of performance is September 15, 2018 through September 14, 2019. Two (2) twelve-month option periods are included and, if exercised, will run sequentially.

7. Delivery or Performance Performance shall be measured in accordance with timely distribution of news releases, media advisories and other types of releases.

A. CPSC will electronically deliver to the contractor all materials (news releases, recall, advisories, etc.) required for distribution and/or translation.

B. All materials provided hereunder are for the exclusive use in performance of this contract only.

C. The contractor shall keep all CPSC news releases and other documents confidential until the time that CPSC schedules the information for electronic distribution/public dissemination.

D. The contractor shall designate in performance of this contract a direct contractor representative to work with and respond to any concerns or expedited requests from CPSC.

E. The contractor shall be prepared to receive request for distribution of news releases, etc. from CPSC three (3) to eight (8) times a week. A request can consist of more than one (1) release.

F. CPSC will request distribution of news releases three (3) to eight (8) times a week throughout the entire contract year.

G. The contractor shall distribute the materials via newswire services within one (1) business hour after receipt.

8. Reporting Requirement:

A. The contractor shall provide an email confirmation notice to CPSC for each press release or document distributed.

B. The contractor shall submit a monthly report to CPSC detailing the number of CPSC press releases and other documents distributed over the newswire in English, and on a separate line, in Spanish. The report shall include the number of views tracked by the contractor for each release or document. The report shall be emailed to CPSC’s COR by the 5th of the month following distribution. e.g. April’s newswire distributions are to be reported by May 5.

9. Government furnished Materials/Equipment The government shall furnish to the contractor for use in connection with this contract the materials/equipment set forth below:

A. CPSC Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) will provide the contractor with press release, media advisory, etc. that is to be distributed by the contractor. The contractor shall not have to write the press release.

B. All materials provided hereunder are for exclusive use in performance of this contract. Any such material not expended in performance on this contract shall be returned to CPSC upon completion of the contract.

C. All other materials/equipment required in the performance of this contract shall be furnished by the contractor.

10. Performance Assessment Plan The contractor performance requirements shall be summarized into performance objectives that relate directly to the mission essential tasks of this contract. The performance thresholds briefly describe the minimum acceptable levels of service required for each objective. The thresholds are critical to mission success. Successful performance will be measured by:

Provide dedicated, competent, well-trained, courteous and respectful employees to interact with the customer.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTION TO OFFERORS

BASIS FOR AWARD: This is best value procurement. Award will be made, subject to available funding and quoter responsibility, to that acceptable quote, the price or cost of which is not necessarily the lowest, but which is sufficiently more advantageous to the Government than the lowest offer so as to justify the payment of additional amounts, based on the evaluation criteria described in this section.

ALL SUBMISSIONS SHALL INDICATE PRICING IS VALID THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29, 2018.

FORMAT AND INFORMATION FOR SUBMITTING A QUOTE:

Please email your quotation in the following THREE SEPARATE BOUND VOLUMES via e-mail to Sheryl Johnson at sjohnson@cpsc.gov.

Each volume shall be submitted as a separate attachment. DO NOT COMBINE all three volumes as one attachment.

VOLUME 1: CONTRACT AND PRICING DOCUMENTS:

· Signed 1449 (page 1, blocks 30a, 30b and 30c)

· Your price quote shall be a separate volume from your technical quote. The price quote is to be submitted as a FIRM FIXED PRICE.

VOLUME 2: TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

The quote shall address all Evaluation Sub-factors. The technical quote will be a highly important consideration in the selection of the Contractor for the procurement and shall, therefore, be as complete and specific as possible.

Technical Capability:

The following technical evaluation sub-factors shall be addressed by the Contractor.

a. Sub-Factor A: In accordance with the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall have national, local and Hispanic media distribution capability reaching a minimum of 3,000 media outlets. Please describe your firm's capability to meet this requirement and provide a list of media outlets.

b. Sub-Factor B: In accordance with the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall send CPSC press releases and other documents to members of media (i.e. meteorologists) in targeted regions upon request by CPSC. Please describe your firm’s capability to electronically distribute CPSC press releases, etc. to the media in targeted regions. Provide details of targeted distributions offered by the firm.

c. Sub-Factor C: In accordance with the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall translate press releases into Spanish and distribute them within four business hours of receipt from CPSC. Please describe your firm's experience and capability to provide the required services efficiently and timely.

Relative Importance of Factor: The technical evaluation sub-factors are considered to be equal to one another.

VOLUME 3: PAST PERFORMANCE

Quotes will be evaluated based on the performance demonstrated in previous, similar projects. Offerors with no relevant past performance shall be evaluated neither favorably nor unfavorably. The Government reserves the right to obtain information for use in the evaluation of past performance from any and all sources including sources outside of the Government. Past performance information will be utilized to determine the quality of the contractor's past performance as it relates to the probability of success for the required effort.

THE EVALUATION PROCESS:

The Government will award a contract resulting from this quotation to the responsible Contractor whose quote conforming to the quotation will be the most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following evaluation factors shall be used to evaluate the prospective contractors. Factor 1 is more important than Factors 2 and 3. Factors 2 and 3 are equal in importance.

Factors:

1. Technical Proposal (Sub-Factors A-C)

2. Past Performance

3. Price

Written quotes will be evaluated by technical evaluators. Quotes will be adjectively evaluated and placed into one of the following categories: Outstanding, Acceptable, Susceptible to being made acceptable, or Unacceptable. The definitions for these categories are as follows:

Outstanding - A unique approach which satisfies all of the Government's requirements with extensive detail to indicate how the approach is innovative and not only feasible but desirable, and which is well supported by experience and quantifiable evidence that it will be successful. A quotation which offers significant advantages to the Government in meeting all requirements.

Acceptable - An approach which satisfies all of the Government's requirements with adequate detail to indicate the feasibility of the approach and an understanding of the Government's need.

Susceptible to being made acceptable - An approach which, as initially proposed, cannot be rated acceptable because of minor errors or omissions which are capable of being corrected without a major rewrite or revision of the proposal. This proposal does not clearly meet the Government's requirements. (Quoters will only be given an opportunity to correct this rating if the Government enters into negotiations. Otherwise, such proposals will be determined to be unacceptable. Therefore, quoters are encouraged to provide complete and thorough explanatory technical proposals with their initial submission.)

Unacceptable - The proposal fails to meet or to address the technical factors of the solicitation, contains major errors, omissions, or deficiencies, or indicates a lack of understanding of the Government's need. The proposed approach is based on unproven techniques or is inadequately supported with evidence that it will be successful, or the approach cannot be expected to meet the Government's requirements without a major rewrite or revision of the proposal.

The Contracting Officer's determination for technical acceptability will be based only on the technical evaluation from technical evaluators. Negotiations may be conducted whenever the Contracting Officer deems it appropriate.

Pricing will not be scored. In the event that the quoters' technical factors are evaluated the same, award will be made based on the lowest overall price offered.

Final Proposal Revisions:

The Government reserves the right to award based on the initial quotations received. Award may be made without discussions. Negotiations may be held and final Proposal Revisions may be requested as deemed necessary by the Government. Offerors should be aware that a complete understanding as to pricing, technical, and other terms and conditions of the proposed contract must exist between the Offeror and the contract terms and conditions submitted. If negotiations are conducted and Final Proposal Revisions are requested, the Final Proposal Revisions shall not be subject to further discussions or negotiations, and may render the offer unacceptable to the Government.