Q&A_8-14-18.pdf

RFP No. 693JJ318R000028 Questions and Answers - 8/14/2018

1. Can you provide incumbent contract information (e.g. contract number, contractor currently performing) if one is available? See Synopsis information on Fed biz opps.

2. How many awards will be made for this requirement? See Section L of the RFP. 1 or more

3. Can we use our subcontractor teaming partner’s past performance in the past performance section of the proposal? Yes, if it meets the past performance requirements of L.4.

4. Does the Program Manager need to be onsite 100% for this contract?

---It is possible the Program Manager may be required to be located on site. It will depend upon which and how many task orders any specific contractor wins.

5. Is remote work acceptable for certain task orders?

---Yes, we will allow for remote work for certain task orders. Those positions will be specifically identified in the specific task orders

6. Can you provide the different possible place of performance for the task orders?

---Arlington, VA is the prime location, although we do have support at the Sam Nunn Federal Center in Atlanta GA. Depending upon the needs of our unit, other locations may be requested. At this point, we do not know what or where other services may be requested.

7. What learning management system does NHI use?

---NHI is presently using a mixture of Adobe Connect with a home-grown system. FHWA is in the process of moving to another learning management system, which NHI must adapt. The system is similar to the learning management system currently used by FAA.

8. For, section C.3.2.b Course Hosting and Technical Support, can you clarify whether the technical support required includes troubleshooting of WBT, and hosting issues?

---Yes, the NHI staff must support troubleshooting of WBT and hosting issues.

9. Can you confirm that the contractor will NOT be responsible for delivering the actual training but rather, provide support to the instructors?

---No we cannot confirm this assumption. Our present Instructional design staff do support delivery of the NHI Instructor Development Course and the IDC for WCT courses. We anticipate this type of support will continue into to the new contract period. Our staff may also provide support for delivery of other Web Conference Trainings by serving as the course producers.

10. Can you advise if a secured electronic signature is acceptable from the authorized representative for proposal submission? Yes.

11. L.4 Proposal Content and Configuration, Volume II – Business and Cost/Price, Part III – Other Financial / Organizational Information, Sub-bullet (c). Can the Government please confirm that if an Offeror has registered and completed their representations and certifications in the System for Award Management (http://www.sam.gov) then the Offeror does not need to complete and submit a complete copy of RFP Section K with their proposal submission package? Please complete Section K.

12. RFP_693JJ318R000028_7-31.pdf, Section C.3.3.c Course Content Management, Page 9. The requirement for this section states that: “The Contractor assists NHI with maintaining all course records in electronic repositories. This includes management of all course files and materials and version histories.” Can the Government please specify what is used as their current electronic repository for maintaining all course records, files, materials and version histories? NHI currently has a mixture of online and manual processes. Most host requests come in via the NHI Website. For instructor-led sessions, NHI sends out paper-based forms for registration and evaluation. The instructors send the paper forms back to NHI where the service support activities manually enter the information into the appropriate data bases. This information allows NHI to invoice for the appropriate number of attendees, maintain records of attendance, records of satisfactory completion, records of student reactions to course materials, instructors, and suggestions for improvements.

13. L.3 PROPOSAL FORMAT. What is the minimum allowable font size for tables? Text must be legible.

14. RFP_693JJ318R000028_7-31.pdf, Section C.3.2.a, Administrative and Customer Service Support Page

7. “The Contractor shall manage and maintain customer service request tracking tools and regularly report on customer service metrics.” What level of Customer Service is required for help desk and ticketing? Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3? Also, what GFI SW program will NHI use for ticketing/tracking requests? (ServiceNow, Remedy-BMC, others, etc…?) Yes, all three levels of support are required.

NHI currently uses a SharePoint site to maintain records for Customer Service tracking.

15. RFP_J.2_Schedule_of_Rates.xlsx. Can the Government add a ‘quantity’ column to this attachment to assist Offerors in providing their rates by knowing how the total amount will be evaluated? No, the calculation is explained in Section M.

16. RFP_J.2_Schedule_of_Rates.xlsx. Historically, transportation SME or other SME may be used for this contract at part time capacity. Will the Government please consider adding those labor categories to the pricing spreadsheet so that Offerors can provide the Government with a complete rate card?

No, NHI will not consider adding technical SMEs to this contract. Any specific development or delivery work done under these task orders, FHWA will provide SME support.

17. Will the Government clarify how Joint Ventures (JV) should provide documentation required in Volume II Business and Cost/Price proposal? Specifically whether they need to come from the JV only, each member of the JV, or all three? We need information regarding the JV. The JV may submit information about the members as it sees fit to meet Section L requirements. We reserve the right to request further information about the JV or members as needed.

18. Will the Government please allow the list of names and titles of the persons who actually write the proposal and his/her relationship to the offering organization to be provided outside of page count?

Yes.

19. Is the current training program managed directly by NHI? Yes.

20. Understanding that NHI delivers its training courses based primarily on demand from customers, can you provide the total volume of trainings delivered in 2017? 777 sessions

21. Of the total volume of training delivered in 2017 was the predominance of that delivered as

WBT, WCT, VCT, classroom or other? 597 Instructor-led; 174 Web-based (asynchronous); and 6 Web-Conference trainings.

22. Is there an expectation that the use of any of the platforms above will change dramatically in 2019?

Possibly, but at this point, it is unknown how much and which platforms.

23. How many training facilities are owned/managed directly by NHI? What is the lease to own ratio of training facilities? NHI has facilities in Arlington, VA. All other facilities are provided by hosting agencies.

24. Can you provide the historic locations of training facilities utilized in 2017? Permanent vs.

temporary? See #23 above.

25. What is the primary technical platform for NHI’s training system? NHI is presently using a mixture of

Adobe Connect with a home-grown system. FHWA is in the process of moving to another learning management system, which NHI must adapt. The system is similar to the learning management system currently used by FAA.

26. Will the Contractor be permitted to leverage NHI’s existing technical platform? Or is the Contractor expected to propose a platform going forward? NHI will provide the platform.

27. What is the estimated start date to assume the proposal duties? We plan to award the contract by the end of September. Task Orders would be issued afterwards as needed.

28. What is the estimated length of the contract? See Section F.

29. Section C.3.2.b references that “The Contractor shall provide technical support for all WCT that NHI provides…”, can you define what is meant by technical support? Specially will the Contractor’s staff be required to perform any coding or code changes in the system? Technical support for Web Conference Training includes but is not limited to helping participants register for training, log into the training room, providing the correct telephone number, assist in setting up the meeting rooms, assist with walk-through practices, help set up break-out rooms, and assist participants download assets and resources.

30. F.3 The RFP states that the location of work performed under this contract will be specified in each task order. Will companies with a presence near FHWA headquarters be looked at more favorably?

Historically, has the effort been performed on the government site or at the contractor site?

Evaluation criteria is in Section M of the RFP. The work location(s) will be identified in the specific task orders. Arlington, VA is the prime location, although we do have support at the Sam Nunn Federal Center in Atlanta GA. Depending upon the needs of our unit, other locations may be requested. At this point, we do not know what or where other services may be requested.

31. M.1, (b), (2) The RFP states, “Discussions/Final Proposal Revisions – Except as described in (3) below, if discussions are held, the Contracting Officer will establish a competitive range comprised of the most highly rated proposals.” Q: The referenced section (3) does not exist. Please provide the missing information. Section (3) referred to something that is not applicable to this RFP, so it was removed. Please disregard.

32. L.4, Part II – Staffing/ Resumes The RFP states, “The Offeror shall provide a staffing plan that includes: 1. Academic credentials, professional experience and authority of the Program Manager to ensure compliance with contractual requirements. 2. Experience and qualifications of other required personnel (see J.1) and their capability to perform the required tasks.” Exhibit J.1 provides Labor Category Descriptions that express “High”, “Mid”, and “Low” Experience/Education levels. Q: Is the USG expecting multiple resumes for all levels of Experience/Education for each labor category? The offeror shall provide the requested information about the staffing to allow the government to properly evaluate them.

33. C.3.1.d Training Design and Development (External) Will the contractor be required to perform any corrective actions or training design or development activities/tasks in support of the External contractor? Can you elaborate on the tasks for this item? The contractor will take an active role in monitoring all aspects of the design, development, and delivery of NHI courses. This includes but is not limited to evaluating the deliverables received for compliance with standards, guidelines, and previous discussions or decisions related to course designs or updates; evaluating the ongoing delivery of courses; assisting with or suggesting potential course designs for new or updated courses; Record notes, compile feedback, evaluate pilot deliveries and provide written comments which will be provided to the external contractor.

34. C.3.2.c Management of Instructor Development and Quality Program “The Contractor may be asked to observe instructors while teaching to diagnose problems and/or provide coaching.” Can NHI clarify where instructor observations would occur? NHI training is “by request” meaning a variety of entities can serve as the “host” of an NHI course session. These include: Federal, State or local transportation agencies; private sector consultants; associations; industry, LTAP/TTAP centers, etc.

Instructor Observations shall occur at the host’s requested facilities. Course deliveries will be held within the Continental United States (CONUS), Hawaii and Alaska, and US territories.

35. C.3.2.c Management of Instructor Development and Quality Program. “The Contractor shall also support the instructor certification processes in a number of ways, including: by providing Master Trainers who have expertise and experience in adult instruction to observe, coach and evaluate new instructors” Master Trainer is not listed in the Labor Categories. Can you verify that this is not key personnel? Can NHI estimate how many master trainers would the contractor be expected to provide? Can you verify that the master trainer certification you are seeking is the ATD Master Trainer certification? The Master Trainer is a Task, not a position, therefore not Key Personnel. NHI currently has 15 Master Trainers, 5 of which are current contractors. NHI has its own master trainer certification. The Master Trainers maintain the credibility of the Instructor Certification Program. An overview of the NHI Instructor Certification Program is available https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/99julaug/instrucert.cfm

36. C.3.5 Support to Other FHWA Offices and Programs.“Other FHWA offices and programs may use this contract vehicle to obtain services covered under the preceding tasks. Contractor personnel may be required to be stationed in major FHWA field offices across the country and/or to perform work from remote locations.” If contractor personnel are required to be stationed in FHWA field offices, will the contractor be working in government-provided offices and with government-provided equipment? The work location(s) and requirements will be identified in future specific task orders.

Depending upon the needs of our unit, other locations may be requested. At this point, we do not know what or where other services may be requested. It is anticipated, but not guaranteed that the government will provide office space and government-provided equipment.

37. L.8 Important Delivery Information. The Important Delivery information states that the Business and Cost/Price spreadsheets shall be submitted in an unlocked version of Microsoft excel. Does the Government expect all information for the Business and Cost/Price volume to be on the unlocked Microsoft excel document or a pdf/word for a majority of the Business volume and Cost/Price spreadsheets in excel? The Government expects pdf/word for a majority of the Business volume and Cost/Price spreadsheets in excel.

38. Page 5 RFP. C.3.1.a. Accreditation Process – Is there a specific skillset/expertise required to assist NHI with maintaining accreditation or is this requirement more aligned towards the operational management and administration of the Accreditation process. As specified in this requirement, NHI maintains certifications for the course deliveries. The contractor must have knowledge of certification requirements and assist NHI with obtaining continuing certification, maintaining and/or improving certification requirements, incorporating certification standards into NHI standards, guidelines and processes.

39. Page 8 RFP. C.3.2.c. Management of Instructor Development and Quality Program – Are there any specific requirements for the 'Master Trainers' in terms of experience and certification? Is ISSA certification required for the Master Trainer? Master Trainers are the key to ensuring and maintaining quality learner-centric instructors. Master trainers come from a pool of experienced FHWA (including NHI Service Support contractors) NHI-certified instructors who consistently demonstrate a high degree of learner-centric training delivery as demonstrated by performance evaluations and Master Trainer Observations. Information about Instructor Certification is available at https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/docs/2016_InstructorCertificationPolicy.pdf.

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/99julaug/instrucert.cfm https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/docs/2016_InstructorCertificationPolicy.pdf

40. Page 9 RFP. C.3.3.c. Is all of the NHI course content managed within SharePoint? If so, which instance of SharePoint is being used and would the awarded Contractor be provided an overview of the taxonomy for the instance. If the solution is not SharePoint or partially SharePoint, what other systems/platforms are used for your content? planning to migrate to other solutions in the future. Is NHI planning to migrate to a different system within the near future? NHI is presently using a mixture of Adobe Connect with a home-grown system. FHWA is in the process of moving to another learning management system, which NHI must adapt. The system is similar to the learning management system currently used by FAA. The Course Management System (CMS) provides the ability to maintain records about the courses. Records include but are not limited to course status (Concept, Under Development, Currently Offered, Currently Offered Under Development, Not Offered Under Development, or Discontinued); Associated contracts for course development, course updates, course deliveries; prices; individual session results; canned reports related to the various courses.

41. Page 10 RFP - C.3.3.e Section 508 Compliance Support - This section references awareness of tools and practices for compliance testing. a) Please share the names of those tools?, b) Will access be provided to the awarded Contractor? and c) Will the Contractor need to procure licensees for any of the tools required? NHI uses a number of tools and techniques to evaluate and assess compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Many of the NHI Instructional Design staff took portions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Trusted Tester program to learn how to consistently evaluate and determine compliance. NHI will provide the proper tools/software for assessing and monitoring 508 compliance.

42. Page 11 RFP - C.3.4 General Administrative, Office and Conference Center Support - This suggests the need for an office/facilities manager type role with additional support. Is this role fulltime onsite, virtual or a hybrid? NHI needs administrative support which includes maintaining the calendar and preparing our training room(s) for scheduled training sessions or meetings. Specific requirements including locations will be identified in individual task orders.

43. Page 15 RFP C.7 - The wire2netllc team will utilize small businesses as a subcontractor, however, since this RFP is an 8(a) set-aside, normally a subcontracting plan is not applicable. Please clarify. A subcontracting plan is not applicable, but we do require information about your subcontractor requested in Section L.

44. Pg. 18 RFP - F.3 Place of Performance – Please provide possible place of performance locations.

Arlington, VA is the prime location, although we do have support at the Sam Nunn Federal Center in Atlanta GA. Depending upon the needs of our unit, other locations may be requested. At this point, we do not know what or where other services may be requested.

45. General - Although we have visibility of course types, is it possible to have access to a course/selection of courses to obtain an idea of the flow, interface and instructional methodology applied to current course offerings? Please see the NHI Website (https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/Home.aspx), specifically the information at the bottom of the web page for specific answers.

46. Will DOT FHWA extend the due date until 9.14.18, based on the need for DOT to provide answers and eligible contractors the time to review and possibly revise core elements of their proposal responses. An extension is not possible at this time.

https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/Home.aspx

47. Could the government clarify the statement at the end of H.11, “Therefore, the Contractor is expressly prohibited from competing on all related work.”? Would the government accept OCI mitigation plans on, for instance, program-level training development contracts that are overseen by the awardee(s) of this contract? Does the statement refer equally to all awardees and their subcontractors regardless of task order awards and scope? The Contractor is not permitted to propose on any work that they provided assistance in the development of. See page 6.