RFP_Amendment_00002-_STB_Case_Management_System.pdf

Amendment 00002 RFP No: 693JK418R900001, STB Case Management System

Question 1: Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this? (like, from India or Canada)

Government Response: In order for a company to do business with the Federal Government, they must be registered in www.sam.gov. While a firm can be located in the US or abroad, they must demonstrate the necessary technical capability and past experience for the work to be performed.

Question 2: Whether we need to come over there for meetings?

Government Response: The selected awardee will coordinate meetings with the Technical Representative. At this time, there is nothing precluding a face to face meeting, though in some cases, in person meetings could be more effective.

Question 3: Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA? (like, from India or Canada)

Government Response: See the response to question 1. Some tasks may require a team to be onsite for implementation and migration.

Question 4: Can we submit the proposals via email?

Government Response: Yes, please see the submission email address a in the RFP. Be sure to use the designated text for the subject line. This will avoid your proposal being missed.

Question 5: Is the subject effort a new requirement or a follow-on to an existing contract? If the latter, can I please find out the incumbent contractor's name and contract number? we submit the proposals via email?

Government Response: This is a new requirement. Proposals via email are acceptable.

Question 6: N/A.

Government Response: N/A

Question 7: B.1.3 - States that contract performance cannot exceed 1920 hours per year - Please confirm this is accurate?

Government Response: Offerors may propose up to 1960 hours per person within each designated labor category with the appropriate rationale. The total hours per person should not exceed 1960. This amount does not represent the total number of hours for all personnel assigned to a team.

Question 8: C.3.2 States that is if a contractor is shortlisted on the basis of the RFP response, STB will invite the contractor in to demonstrate how it will be supporting case management activities – Will this be a factor in the evaluation criteria? Will ALL viable contractors be asked to provide a demonstration?

General – The RFP Documents have “Draft” written on them – please confirm they are official?

http://www.sam.gov/

Government Response: The Final RFP is attached to this amendment. See section M in the final RFP for evaluation criteria.

Question 9: General – Please confirm this requirement is competed on an unrestricted basis?

Government Response: Confirmed.

Question 10: Who was commissioned to conduct the independent research on case management solutions?

Government Response: Forrester Research.

Question 11: Is this a final RFP or a draft? The SOW has draft in the watermark background. Please clarify.

Government Response: The final RFP is attached to this amendment 00002. Please see the attachments within this amendment.

Question 12: Will there be an opportunity to provide a demonstration of our case management solution prior to the award?

Government Response:. Yes, see the Final RFP.

Question 13: How did STB determine the number of staff and hours to complete this project?

Government Response: These are estimates. Offerors are invited to propose their own labor and staff mix. Any deviation should be explained in the proposal. The final RFP does not include the number of staff and the hours per person should not 1960 hours.

Question 14: When would STB like to have the new case management system live?

Government Response: The STB would like to have a working Case management solution that can be utilized by all staff by the end of the base year.

Question 15: When does STB plan to make an award?

Government Response: This procurement will be awarded during the Fiscal Year 2018 and before September 30, 2018.

Question 16: What contracting vehicle is being used?

Government Response: This is a hybrid type of Contract, Firm fixed price rates will be used for the licenses and Fixed Labor hour for the services.

Question 17: Reference C.3.2, page 10. Does the offeror need to address all of the detailed elements in C.3.2 with its proposal, or should they wait to demonstrate these elements after the short-listing?

Government Response: The offeror does need to address them in their response as they relate to the Business, Technical, Security and Implementation requirements specified in the RFP.

Question 18: Reference L.5 Part I, page 50. Is the offeror required to address each detailed element and sub-element of SOW C.3 in its proposal, or can the offeror demonstrate understanding, approach, and experience to meeting these objectives in a more general way?

Government Response: The offeror must demonstrate understanding, approach and experience in a way that clearly outlines how the offeror will be able to meet the requirements specified in the RFP.

Question 19: Reference L.5 Part I, page 50. Where in Section M.1 is Part I of the technical approach evaluated? Put another way, what specific elements of M.1 are aligned to Technical Approach Part I?

Government Response: See the revised Section M.1 in the Final RFP.

Question 20: Reference M.1, Technical Proposal, page 54. How are offeror’s short-listed (see C.3.2) and what criteria are used to make that decision?

Government Response: See the revised Section M.1 in the Final RFP.

Question 21: Is the STB open to Microsoft Azure or is AWS hosting a requirement.

Government Response: The SaaS shall be FedRAMP certified with a FedRAMP provisional or Agency ATO or should be hosted in a FEDRAMP certified environment.

Question 22: Is it possible to see some of the test cases STB uses to validate its processing in its current environment.

Government Response: Attachment D provides high level users stories to demonstrate how Cases should be processed.

Question 23: The RFP references messaging capabilities. Is it possible to provide more information as to the format of the desired messaging functionality.

Government Response: The solution should be able to send Automated alerts / reminders based on configurable SLAs, milestones, status changes, etc. as well as Electronic / automated notification of decisions to relevant parties.

Question 24: The RFP includes labor categories with estimated hours. B.2, Price Schedule, indicates that the contractor may propose additional labor categories. Should respondents ignore the estimated hours shown in the RFP?

Government Response: See question 13.

Question 25: Services are to be provided under a Labor Hour contract. B.2, Price Schedule, requires a milestone payment schedule based on deliverables. Please clarify whether the intent is for the contractor to invoice monthly for hours worked, or invoice fixed milestone prices for deliverables.

Government Response: Contractors are to submit a combination of monthly invoices for the labor and per milestones as listed in the Price Schedule listed in the final RFP.

Question 26: B.2, Price Schedule, reference integration with current Lotus Notes Case Management system. Will Lotus Notes remain in place? If so, please describe the desired functionality of the integration.

Government Response: The goal is to eliminate Lotus Notes once a new Case Management System has been implemented and data migrated to new solutions.

Question 27: Will the section of the STB website used to expose documents from the case management system be on the WordPress platform?

Government Response: Yes. WordPress is the Content Management System that will be used to maintain the Board’s website.

Question 28: Page 10: “The solution proposed by the Contractor should include updates to the website to consolidate and display information from both the current Lotus Notes based Case Management system and the new solution on the STB’s website.” Is information from the current case management system being displayed on the website at this time?

Government Response: Information from the current case management system is currently being displayed on the website.

Question 29: Is the requirement to migrate all data from the old system into the new system, or only the current case data, or current data and some subset of non-current data?

Government Response: The requirement is to migrate all case data from the old system into the new system.

Question 30: Figure 2 shows Bigazi, SharePoint and Appian. Are these the expected tools and platforms?

Government Response: The tools shown in Figure 2 are examples only. Services and tools proposed do not need to include these solutions.

Question 31: Portions of Figure 2 are illegible. Please provide a clearer copy.

Government Response: See Attachment I – Sample Conceptual End State.

Question 32: In the desired end-state, do all documents reside within the case management system, or will STB continue to use SharePoint?

Government Response: Depending on the solution proposed, documents may reside within the replacement case management solution or within SharePoint.

Question 33: Must the case management system manage SharePoint documents in place?

Government Response: The Case Management Systems does not need to manage SharePoint documents in place.

Question 34: On page 12, must the contractor demonstrate a working interface with Pay.gov during the down-select demonstration?

Government Response: A working interface with Pay.gov is not required for the demonstration.

Question 35: On Page 12, please explain the requirement “Ability to allow end user to work in a document without opening it in an editing tool.” Is the requirement that document editing be done entirely within the case management system, or that document editing be done outside the case management system with a tool like MS Office?

Government Response: The requirement is to allow for editing to be done from within the case management system where possible.

Question 36: On Page 13, please describe the functionality required for external users.

Government Response: External users will submit Case related (For example Filings, environmental comments) and other types of content (for example: Recordations) to the Board.

Question 37: In the case of a solution that is FedRAMP Authorized with several agency ATOs, how long should we expect STB’s ATO process to take?

Government Response: Depending on availability and accessibility of documentation the process should take no longer than 45 calendar days.

Question 38: Regarding past performance: Are subcontractor/team member past performance submissions acceptable?

Government Response: Yes. They are acceptable. However, the Offerors shall provide no less than three Past Performance references of recent projects completed within last five (5) years that were similar to the effort described in this solicitation.

Question 39: Past Performance Questionnaires; In order to reduce the burden on references and other Government employees will DOT accept a CPARS record and ratings if available in lieu of completed questionnaires.

Government Response: The PP Questionnaires should be submitted as requested. DOT will access PPIRS and CPARS to review PP history as well.

Question 40: User Stories, Story ID 1.0; Should the Case Management system provide its own payment processing capability or should it use DOT’s current payment processing application and integrate to it.

Government Response: The Case Management system does not need to provide its own payment processing capability. Payment is currently processed manually. Pay.gov will be utilized in the future for tracking fees and billing related to cases and other Board activities.

Question 41: L.4 Proposal Format; Do the Past Performances count within the 30 Page limit of the Technical Proposal?

Government Response: PP does not count in the page limits.

Question 42: L.4 Proposal Format; Are there any page limits for Resumes or per Resume?

Government Response: Resumes should not exceed 4 pages. These are not included in the page limits.

Question 43: B.2 Data Migration Costs; The size of data to be migrated is substantial and may be very costly to house on an active case management cloud system. Does DOT expect to migrate all the data to the new platform as live data or migrate the more current cases and archive the rest. What would be the breakdown of the data between these two categories.

Government Response: STB expects to migrate all active cases to the new Case Management System.

Archived cases do not need to be migrated to the new Case Management system but must still be available and accessible to users. Some content from archived cases must still be available through the website.

Question 44: B.2 Price Schedule; DOT has provided estimated hours for Base and Option Years. How were these determined? Should contractors utilize these hours or are we able to propose other labor categories and hours?

Government Response: See question 13.

Question 45: B.2 Price Schedule; Annual SaaS Licensing – how many Case System users should be priced for licenses? Information indicates 150 employees plus 10 contractors. Please confirm if this is the correct number and if all of them will need access and licenses.

Government Response: Licensing for 150 employees plus 10 contractors is correct. All users will need access and licenses.

Question 46: C.3.3 Business Requirements; Will DOT use SharePoint to house documents associated with Cases in the new Case Management system or does the new System have to provide complete Content Management capabilities similar to SharePoint.

Government Response: Offerors should propose a solution that would best meet the requirements of the STB.

Question 47: Can you please provide the user counts for the different types of users identified in Attachments B, C and D?

Government Response: Estimates are provided below:

• Chairman and Board Members offices: 18

• Office of Proceedings: 45

• Office of the General Counsel: 14

• Office of Economics: 28

• Office of Environmental Analysis: 10

• Office of Public Assistance, Governmental Affairs and Compliance: 14

• Office of the Managing Director: 21

• External Account Holders (Accounts required for submitting Formal Filings and Recordations) – Submissions are made via the website: 2500

• Public (Account not required) – comments/questions submitted via the website.

Question 48: O365 is mentioned in the RFP, as well as AWS. Does the government prefer the case management capability be built on Microsoft Azure or AWS?

Government Response: The government does not have a preference. However, the SaaS should be FedRAMP certified with a FedRAMP provisional or Agency ATO or should be hosted in a FEDRAMP certified environment.

Question 49: A potential demonstration is mentioned in section C.3.2 for shortlisted Contractors, but section L.2 states that the Government intends to evaluate proposals and make awards without discussions with offers. Also, the evaluation factors do not take into account the demonstration. Will the results of the demonstration be used as an evaluation factor for contract award?

Government Response:. Section M.1 Evaluation Criteria has been updated in the Final RFP. The successful offerors meeting the RFP requirement after their proposal has been evaluated shall provide an implementation and a sample service overview, by demonstrating the solutions.

Question 50: Can the Government clarify the following requirement in Section C.3.3, Collaboration:

"Support for enterprise tools such as wikis, discussions, expertise locators.” Can you provide further details on these enterprise tools?

Government Response: Tools such as wikis, discussion boards, expertise locators would be used as a knowledge base and repository for Board employees to share ideas and collaborate more effectively, providing employees with the ability to easily contact and communicate with Subject Matter Experts and team members.

Question 51: Based on the pricing tables and labor categories provided on page 2, it is assumed that the responsibility for security controls will be handled by STB. Can the Government please clarify if this assumption is correct?

Government Response: The labor categories provided on page 2 (draft RFP) are examples only. Offerors are invited to propose their own labor and staff mix (See section B.2 of Final RFP). Any labor that is required to support security requirements should be proposed by offerors as necessary. The subset of controls that are the responsibility of the agency will be handled by the STB. The offeror is responsible for all other security controls.

Question 52: Can the government provide a Microsoft Word version of the RFQ document?

Government Response: See final RFP attached.

Question 53: Can the government please identify the names of any incumbent companies supporting this work?

Government Response: This is a new requirement.

Question 54: Page 48 mentions a Contingency Plan - can the Government clarify what information they require be included in the Contingency Plan?

Government Response: Requirements for a Contingency plan are listed in NIST SP 800-34.

https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-34/rev-1/final

Question 55: Regarding data migration and the table included on Page 4 - Price Schedule, can the Government provide the source system platform for each item listed in the table? Also, how many years need to be carried forward for each item listed in the table?

Government Response:

Data Type Platform Years to be carried forward

Case Documents used by Offices Lotus Notes All

IT Team Windows Network File Shares

TBD

Personal shares Windows Network File Shares

TBD

Documents generated through SAS Analytics

Windows Network File Shares

TBD

Microfiche/Microfilm Windows Network File Shares

All

Question 56: Section B.1.3 states that “The Contractor Performance cannot exceed 1920 hours per year.” Please confirm that contractor hours cannot exceed 1920 per employee without express written consent from the Contracting Officer.

Government Response: See revised section B.1.3 in final RFP.

Question 57: Will the government please provide an expected award date and contract start date?

Government Response: See question 15.

https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-34/rev-1/final

Question 58: Will the government please confirm that the Program Manager is the only key personnel?

If not, will the government please identify what other roles will be considered key?

Government Response: The Program Manager and Solutions Architect are considered key.

Question 59: Will the government please confirm that the work can be performed at the contractor site?

Government Response: See Section F4: While some work may be performed at the contractor site, some work may need to be completed at the government location.

Question 60: Will the government please provide clear color images of the figures provided in the RFP?

Government Response: Final RFP includes color images of the two figures. See attachments for clearer images. Attachment 1- Sample Conceptual End State is added to the Final RFP.

Question 61: Will the government please provide a searchable Word or PDF version of the RFP documents?

Government Response: The Final RFP is attached to this amendment in searchable format.

Question 62: Will the new case management system be integrated with MS 360 or SharePoint?

Government Response: See Section C.3.3. Integration with O365 is preferred but not required.

Question 63: Will all documents will be stored in new case management system or in SharePoint?

Government Response: Offerors should propose a solution for document management that would best meet the requirements of the STB.

Question 64: Will the Information required on the external website be passive data or will it be real time and extracted from Case Management System?

Government Response: The website should update in real time with changes made in the Case Management System.

Question 65: Please provide a MS Word version of the the solicitation document named '693JK418R900001,_STB_Case_Management_System'. The document is a scanned document and difficult to utilize for preparing a proposal business volume that addresses the requirements in this document.

Government Response: See attached Final RFP.

Question 66: To ensure STB receives thorough proposals that will assist the evaluation of the proposed solutions, will the government please consider extending the proposal due date by two weeks?

Government Response: The proposal due date has been extended to June 14th, 2018

Question 67: To allow offers the opportunity to adequately address the RFP requirements, will the government increase the page limit for the Technical proposal to 45 pages?

Government Response: The page limit is set to 30 pages.

Question 68: Will the government please confirm that the contingency plan is excluded from page count?

Government Response: Although the contingency plan should be addressed in the proposal, the plan itself does not need to be submitted with the proposal. The contingency plan is excluded from page count. See Section C.3.8.9

Question 69: Will the government please confirm that the contingency plan should be included in the Technical Proposal and excluded from page count?

Government Response: The contingency plan should be addressed in the proposal and should be excluded from the page count. The Contingency plan does not need to be submitted with the proposal.

See Section C.3.8.9

Question 70: Will the government accept a cover letter in each volume? If so, please confirm that this cover letter is excluded from page count.

Government Response: The cover letter is excluded from the page count.

Question 71: The RFP mentions vendors will be shortlisted and invited to demonstrate their solution’s ability to meet the program requirements, will the government please confirm that this is a two-phase evaluation? If so, there are no instructions or evaluation criteria provided for this second phase. Will the government please clarify and provide additional information?

Government Response: This is a two-phase evaluation. See revised Section M in final RFP.

Question 72: The evaluation criteria list management approach but this is not addressed in section L.

Please clarify.

Government Response: Please see revised Evaluation criteria in Final RFP.

Question 73: Volume II – Part I Cost/Price Information; Are offerors allowed to use off-schedule GSA pricing for additional labor categories.

Government Response: Offerors can submit off-schedule pricing labor rates .

Question 74: Is a Past Performance questionnaire required for every PP?

Government Response: The PP Questionnaires should be submitted as requested. DOT will access PPIRS and CPARS to review PP history as well.

Question 75: Does the Executed Standard Form 1447 count towards the 30 page limit for this volume? Or may it also be considered exempt from page count?

Government Response: The Executed Standard Form 1447 is considered exempt from page count.

Question 76: RFP PG 27; If the PaaS offering resides in a cloud other than AWS, is this acceptable or does STB want it an AWS?

Government Response: The PaaS offering may reside in a cloud other than AWS but it must be FedRAMP certified with a FedRAMP provisional or Agency ATO.

Question 77: Is there a projected time frame when the questions will be answered?

Government Response: Questions will be answered by May 17th.

Question 78: Formatting: We are having trouble keeping within the 30 page limit of the requirements with the expected amount of detail for this RFP response. Margins are not specified within the RFP, is it safe to assume we can go smaller than 1" margins for the response to keep within the 30 pages? Will there be an amendment perhaps increasing maximum number of pages?

Government Response: Margins should not go smaller than 1’ (one inch). See Section L.4, Proposal Format of the Final RFP for more details.

***End of Amendment 00002***