Amendment 0001 Solicitation 69319522R000002- Questions received.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 38 KB Posted
- Attached to
- Amendment 0001 - NTD Program Support
- Solicitation number
- 69319522R000002
About this file
This document contains questions received and responses provided relating to a solicitation for National Transit Database program support services. The solicitation seeks proposals for contractor support including help desk services, data validation, training provision, and user acceptance testing. Proposals are due May 17, 2022. The incumbent contractor is Boyd Caton Group, Inc. under contract number DTFT6017C00001. Key personnel requirements include a project manager, subject matter expert, and database architect. Resumes are required for both key and non-key personnel and do not count toward the page limit. Up to 20 pages are allowed for past performance documentation and questionnaires are due by the revised date of May 17, 2022. Pricing is to be provided for labor hour and firm-fixed-price contract line items as estimated in the corrected Attachment J-1.
View the file
Other files
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| 69319522R000002 - SF30 Amendment 0001_Signed.pdf | ||
| Amendment 0001 Attachment J-1 Pricing Matrix.xlsx | XLSX spreadsheet | |
| Amendment 0001 - Attachment J-2 Past Performance Questionairre.docx | DOCX document | |
| Amendment 0001 - Request for Proposal No. 69319522R000002.pdf | ||
| Attachment J-2 Past Performance Questionairre.docx | DOCX document | |
| Final RFP National Transit Database (NTD) - Program Support RFP.pdf | ||
| Attachment J-1 Pricing Matrix (1).xlsx | XLSX spreadsheet | |
| 69319522R000002 - SF33.pdf | ||
| Attachment J.3 - Resume Template.docx | DOCX document |
On GovTribe
Work with this file
- Download the original file
- Contacts named in this file
- Similar government files
- Ask GovTribe AI about this file
Text version
Q&R
| FTA RFP/Solicitation No.69319522R000002 |
| National Transit Database - Program Support |
| No. | Questions | Government Responses |
| 1 | Do we need to propose non-key personnel as well as key personnel/would our response be considered more favorably if we provide resumes of non-key personnel in addition to the key personnel? | The proposal requires both key and non-key, resume's must be submitted for both personnel. |
| 2 | From our understanding, there are 3 key personnel resumes required at a maximum of 5 pages each (for a total of 15 pages). How are these resumes to fit into the staffing plan with a 15 page limit? Do these resumes count towards the 15 page limit? | No resumes do not count towards the page limit. |
| 3 | Is there an incumbent performing the work? | Current incumbent is Boyd Caton Group, Inc - Contract Number DTFT6017C00001 |
| 4 | Is there a limit or minimum on the number of past performances or just the 20-page limit. | There is a page limit of 20 pages for the Past Performance Volume. |
| 5 | If this is a follow on requirement to a previous contract? If so, can you please provide the previously awarded contract number? | Please refer to response for Question #3 |
| 6 | What is the due date for our customers to send you Past Performance Questionnaires? | Due date is May 17, 2022 |
| 7 | Is the page count limit for all resumes and WBS 15 pages in total or does that limit only apply to the combination of WBS and key personnel resumes? | Please refer to response for Question #2 |
| 8 | In which Volume should we include a summary of our ability to meet Section 508 Compliance requirements? | Please include your responses in Volume 3 - Price Proposal |
| 9 | Does the support for NTI courses described under CLIN 0011 - Training Provision include any activities that would be performed by the Trainer labor category? | No, the NTI courses described under CLIN 0011 are taught (instructed) by NTI staff or contractors. The activities where CLIN 0011 are involved in the NTI courses are to review the content that NTI's staff or contractors present. |
| 10 | Is it permissible to include hours under a Labor Hour CLIN for a labor category that is not listed? For example, a Quality Assurance Analyst under CLIN 0012 - User Acceptance Testing and Data Modeling? | The estimated labor categories are listed in Attachment J-1, including quality assurance-related activities. While a different labor category (e.g., Quality Assurance Analyst) could potentially fulfill the requirements listed therein, overqualified personnel may impact pricing and the competitiveness of an offer. |
Note, unrelated to the Quality Assurance Analyst question, upon further review Appendix J-1 was found to have some inconsistencies between base and option years. A new (corrected) Appendix J-1 is attached per this amendment 0001.
| 11 | Must the data validation processes be hosted on the same server as the FTA NTD reporting application, or is it expected that some processes continue to be managed on other DOT-managed servers (e.g., “Branch”)? | No, FTA welcomes different approaches that present robust validation options that utilize FTA's NTD reporting application and Branch, in whatever configuration meets the requirements described in the solicitation. |
| 12 | Should the contractor expect to furnish SmartCard readers for all contractors connecting to the DOT Virtual Desktop? | As described in the solicitation "FTA will provide connectivity to contractor personnel through the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) as well as Virtual Private Network (VPN) on government-furnished workstations. The contractor may run queries against the database system to generate reports and data products...." |
At this moment, FTA is moving away from VDI towards requiring government furnished equipment (GFE) as needed for certain functions listed as VDI in the solicitation. At that time, FTA will work with the contractor to obtain as much GFE as needed. However, until that time, yes the contractor would be expected to supply their own equipment, including smartcard readers as needed.
| 13 | Can the government confirm that only resumes for Key Personnel are required? | Resumes are expected for both Key and Non-Key personnel. Also, refer to Questions #1. |
| 14 | Can the government confirm that PPQs are not required? There are no instructions for PPQs. | Past Performance Questionnaires are required, instructions for their submission can be found via the Attachment J-2 Past Performance Questionnaire. |
| 15 | If PPQs are required, can the government provide the correct due date? The due date included in Attachment J.2 is listed as February 22, 2022. | The due date has been adjusted and is refelected in the revised PPQ document titled "Amendment 0001 - Attachment J-2 Past Performance Questionnaire. |
| 16 | On page 98, the key personnel listed are "Project Manager, Subject Matter Expert, Database Architect, and Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) Developer," and on page 125 the key personnel listed are "Project Manager, Subject Matter Expert, and Database Architect." Can the government confirm that the ETL Developer is not a Key Personnel? | Page 98 is incorrect, and page 125 is correct. Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) Developer is personnel but not key personnel. Thus, per amendment 0001 to this solicitation, the correction has been made. |
| 17 | Can the government clarify what are the "twelve preceding objectives?" There are no twelve objective defined in any of the included solicitation attachments. | Twelve preceeding objectives is incorrect. This language should be 15 CLINs. Thus, this has been updated and provided via amendment 0001 to this solicitation. |
| 18 | FTA expects the contractor to be responsible for proactively identifying and rectifying broken or mismatched links at least once per quarter using automated open-source software and to provide quarterly reports to FTA of how many and which links were incorrect or broken. Can the government share what is the current tool being used for this? | Currently, this is done manually, catching broken or mismatched links ad hoc. |
Existing software that could be used to perform this task include Python, which is free and open-source. However, this is illustrative, and offerors are free to propose methods, techniques, or software to perform this task.
| 19 | Can the government please extend the proposal due date by one week? | At this time, proposal submission date will not be extended. If that changes, an amendment will be posted to SAM.gov - Contracting Opportunities. |
| 20 | How many FTEs are currently supporting this contract? | For the government, there is a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) who administers the contract, an Assistant Contracting Officer's Representative (ACOR), and several employees or contractors who assist. In total, approximately 2.5 FTE work on the NTD full-time. |
Since this is a hybrid labor hour/fixed-price contract, the government does not want to specify how many FTEs are required to for this contract. However, the contractor would be expected to supply more than the FTE required to meet the hours listed in the labor hour CLINs listed in Attachment J as the fixed-price CLINs would require additional hours.
21 Can the government please provide the number of FTEs supporting the current Help-Desk environment? Note the help-desk referenced in the quoted section is the Delphi Help Desk, not the NTD Help Desk. The quoted section relates to submitting invoices to FTA to be paid, and the Delphi Help Desk is staffed by another FTA office or its contractor to assist with this process.
The NTD Help Desk is described in CLIN 0001 of this contract and is firm-fixed price. Since this is a performance-based, fixed-price contract, the government does not want to specify how many FTEs are required to for this contract, including firm-fixed-price CLINs.
| 22 | How many hours does the government consider to be an FTE? | See response for question no. 20 above. Additionally this is a a labor hour per labor category contract and proposal should be based of labor hours proposed in pricing attachment. |
| 23 | What does the government expect to be the total level of effort for this contract? | This contract is performance-based and does not require a total level of work. Labor hour CLINs contain an estimate of hours in attachment J-1 but fixed-price CLINs do not. |
| 24 | Please provide clarification: will the incumbent be responsible for proposing the ways to improve the process, or will these proposals be collected from other units/departments/contractors? If an improvement proposal is considered viable, does it become the work item under the CLIN? | The new contractor will be responsible for proposing ways to improve the process. If the improvement proposal is considered viable, it would not change the substance of the work of the CLIN in terms of deliverables, but it could improve (e.g., reduce) the number of required labor hours if they could be automated. Also, changes that come from these process improvements, if adopted, would become part of fixed-price CLINs. |
| 25 | We see issues with the validation rules and NTD codebase that could be improved. The RFP doesn't mention improving the NTD SQL codebase activity directly. Is this kind of work assumed under this RFP? | As mentioned in the SOW, for the 1100 indirectly managed validation rules, the contractor is responsible for maintaining general documentation about the business logic and submitting requests to TAD to update, fix, or change these rules. |
Currently, the contractor is able to sort and prioritize validation rules to eliminate, change, or fix validation rules on a routine basis. This occurs about twice per month, and in total dozens of rules are fixed, added or eliminated per year.
Wholesale improvements to replace , rewrite, or improve all 1100 are not assumed for this RFP.
For the 400 directly managed validation rules, the contractor is responsible for the same as the 1100, but in addition, coming up with processes (e.g., stored procedures, triggers) to run these rules in an efficient manner.
There is also no wholesale improvement to replace, rewrite, or improve all 400 of these rules.
File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated .