Questions_Response FAA JA Solicitation 6973GH-22-R-00047_6.29.2022FInal.docx

Vendor questions: SIR 6973GH-22-R-00047

A. General

1. The solicitation is issued by the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI); however, it appears from some of the language in the PWS, that the support activities are intended to support other FAA business units as well. Does the Government intend for the specified support activities to apply to:

a. CAMI only; or

b. Multiple FAA business; or

c. The entire FAA enterprise?

B. All service units within the FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO)

2. Ref PWS, page 3, 2.1 Scope of Work – k. Print and distribute updated career maps, and deliver them to specified locations. The number of maps to be printed will vary depending on the number of service units in which positions are added. Printing costs can vary depending on the number of maps to be printed for a given service unit and the dimensions (size) of those maps. Please provide an estimated number of maps to be printed for a service unit under associated CLINs (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) and dimensions of those maps so accurate cost estimates can be provided. Also please specify whether any assembly of maps for delivery to FAA is required under the aforementioned CLINs (e.g., insertion of maps into labeled tubes for shipping) as this would impact cost estimates.

This would be not required during the base year. This will be a requirement for option years when we add multiple positions to CPT. The contractor will print 24” X 46” full career maps and deliver stuffed, labeled shipping tubes to FAA HQ. Each map must be printed on high quality stock paper (able to withstand handling and hanging on walls, shows finer details). Air Traffic and Technical Operation Service Units will require 500 copies each. The other six Service Units will need 150-250 each.

C. IT Support

1. Are the 20 hr/week support for end-user questions, or is it for technical operations/break-fix?

20 hr/week for database/technical operation fixes. – Not full time on-call. Must be available during regular business hours to respond within 24 hrs. The government would expect that this IT support should be included in the FFP Program Management price.

2. What version of ASP.NET is being used? What version of AngularJS is used? 4.6

3. Are there 3rd party plugins used by the application? If so, please list the versions used for each. 1.5.8

4. Does the CPT connect to other systems and, if so, how (e.g., pulling from an API)? (Row 18 of the Excel spreadsheet accompanying the solicitation references “System Interfaces.”)

No, CPT does not connect to other systems (only connection is the database).

D. Administrative

1. The current PWS shows an anticipated start date of June 1, 2022. Will the Government please provide a new anticipated start date? Assuming we get a bid on July 14, how quickly can we award this? Anticipated start date will be immediately after the initial kick-off meeting following award.

Award is anticipated to occur September 2022.

1. SIR Page 9, Section AC01604 Contract Periods states “The effective period of this contract is 1 year from the award date, to include the phase in period, for the base year...”. Can the Government confirm if the Start Date and the Award Date will be the same, or if they are different, what impact that will have to expectations for the contractor to appropriately phase-in?

The start date will be scheduled upon post award meeting immediately following the award.

Section 11 of the PWS indicates that travel for in-person meetings may potentially be required during the performance of the contract. However, Section B.3. Schedule B Proposal Table does not have appropriate CLINs specified to support Travel Pricing. Can the Government please clarify if travel will be necessary and how those estimated costs shall be included in the proposal, if required?

No travel will be required.

1. Section 12 of the PWS indicates GFE will be provided. Will the contractor require GFE (e.g., an FAA-furnished laptop) to perform work on CPT, or can FAA servers pertinent to work on CPT be accessed with contractor-owned equipment and relevant credentials (e.g., FAA CAC/PIV) and permissions? Can the Government clarify if the GFE needs to be physically connected to the FAA network upon initial logon, or if the GFE can remotely access FAA networks for initial logon when equipment is issued to the contractor?

The FAA will not provide GFE. The contractor will access FAA servers pertinent to work on the CPT with contractor-owned equipment and relevant credentials. No GFE is needed. The PWS has been updated to reflect this change.

E. Past Performance and Experience Requirements

1. SIR Page 51/numbered page 53 in the solicitation cites 3.10.4-20 Software Measures Proposal Requirement. Can the government confirm that offerors can satisfy this requirement by providing the requested data on behalf of an offeror’s technology partner?

Yes

2. Section M.4.(a), Factor 2, Sub-Factor 2(a) in the solicitation implies that only the Corporate Experience of the “Offeror (PRIME)” will be evaluated. This is correct.

Request the government accept corporate experience of its team members, to permit the government to benefit from gaining a comprehensive understanding of the full range of relevant experience an offeror's team will offer in support of this work.

Please see below question 3 for full response.

3. Sections L.5.(e) and L.6.b. in the solicitation provide offerors with instructions for providing relevant past performance.

Section M.6. Past Performance Evaluation in the solicitation states, "Evidence of successful past performance submissions must be prime (meaning performed as the prime contractor)... within the last three years."

The restrictions on past performance presented in the Section M Evaluation Criteria do not align with the Section L instructions to offerors.

Request the government permit offerors to provide:

a. Examples of past performance by its team members, in addition to their own past performance, to permit the government to benefit from gaining a comprehensive understanding of the full range of relevant experience an offeror's team will offer in support of this work.

b. Examples of past performance where the offeror performed the work in its entirety through a prime contractor's purchasing vehicle, independent of the prime contractor's involvement.

The Offerers Corporate Policy and its application toward this requirement will be evaluated as part of the PRIME’s experience. Specifically, the Offeror should include as part of its Corporate Policy and application how it historically attains and maintains relationships with Subject Matter Experts (SME) as Sub-vendors and how its corporate policy/process will transfer for this effort. Of note, the government does not have privety with sub-vendor partnerships unless they are formalized through the Small Business Administration or currently under continuous service. The vendor should provide its experience and how that experience attaining and maintaining specific experts in any field in support of delivery of the government requirements. This will be evaluated as part of the PRIMEs experience.

F. Pricing

1. Please clarify what is meant by the statement “Reports are not separately priced” in the description of each CLIN in Section B – Supplies or Services/Prices of the solicitation. Does this mean that the price of any reports that are part of the CLIN should be included in the quoted price?

Yes, the price should be included in the quoted price. The CLIN structure has been updated.

2. Per unit pricing is understandable for deliverables tied to a given position (e.g., conduct a job analysis for a given position, where an individual position is considered the “unit”). However, it is not clear what meaning per unit pricing has for deliverables that are not tied to a given position (e.g., conducting review of the existing CPT database, updating career path linkages, updating career maps, various type CPT software/system updates). Please clarify how the vendor is to interpret per unit pricing for deliverables that are not tied to work for a single unit/position so we can provide the government with meaningful, accurate cost estimates. As we allude to in our questions that follow, asking for per unit pricing for deliverables that can’t be meaningfully tied to single positions/units may have unintended consequences for with respect to per unit and total cost estimates provided.

Review of the existing CPT database should not be tied to a specific position because no new units will be created during the review.

Per unit pricing will apply to creating new position profiles.

Per unit pricing will also apply to updating career path linkages and career maps if new positions are added to the tool, and not during the program management, database review or updating software and systems.

1. Can the Government confirm that it may purchase any number of units of each CLIN at the per unit price Contractors quote? For example, that between 0 and 10 units of CLIN 0002 will be purchased in the base year, with the price paid by the Government the unit price times the number of units purchased? Alternatively, does the Government intend to purchase based on the Total Cost quoted for a CLIN, regardless of the number of positions that are analyzed or updated? In other words, would be Government fund based on the Total Cost quoted for CLIN 0003 even if only 2 positions are analyzed during the relevant contract period?

Yes, the government will purchase any number of units of each CLIN at the per unit price the contractor quotes for CLINS 00002, 00003, 00005, 00007, 00009, 00011

2. Item m in Section 2.1 Scope of Work of the PWS states “Provide up to 20 hours per week of on-call CPT software support.” This support is not shown in the Excel sheet linking deliverables to CLINs. If that support is priced as part of existing CLINs (e.g., CLIN 0002, 0004, etc.), and assuming the government intends to purchase an unknown quantity of the CLIN based on the unit price (per question 2 above), bidders would need to price approximately 960 hours of support in the CLIN per unit price, because a specific number of units is not guaranteed to be purchased by the Government. This would result in overly high unit prices, which would translate into artificially inflated total costs. To avoid this, would the Government issue a modification with a separate CLIN for each year for up to 20 hours per week of on-call CPT software support?

The cost for the CPT support should be captured within the program management cost.

3. In the Excel sheet linking deliverables to CLINs, several deliverables for which a quantity of one per contract period appears to be appropriate, or that are related to career maps or linkages and not individual positions, are linked to CLINs, which are to be priced per unit/each with one unit being one position. Specifically, these include:

a. Technical Project Kickoff & Meeting Minutes

b. Milestone Schedule

c. Draft Management Plan (PMP) and Integrated Master Schedule

d. Monthly Status & Financial Reports

e. Job Analysis Methodology

f. Develop Written Processes for Data Collection and Data Analysis Methods

g. Develop All Materials Used to Conduct the Job Analysis

h. Develop Written Processes for Reviewing Existing CPT Database

i. Conduct a Review of Existing CPT Database

j. Career Path Linkages

k. Career Maps

l. Software Code

m. System Interfaces

The CLIN structure has been updated. The Excel linking the CLINs to the Deliverables has been updated to link to the new CLIN structure provided in Schedule B. (Please note that Schedule B has been revised for clarity)

Assuming the Government intends to purchase an unknown quantity of these CLINs based on the unit price (per Pricing question 3 above) and not necessarily, fund based on the Total Cost quote, bidders would need to price these services into the CLIN unit prices. This would result in overly high unit prices, which would translate into artificially inflated total costs. If the intention is to purchase an unknown number of units of those CLINs, can the deliverables that can’t be meaningful tied to a single position/unit be split into separate CLINs?

4. Item f in Section 2.1 Scope of Work of the PWS states “Conduct a review of existing position documentation and career paths, and update them as needed.” In the Excel sheet linking deliverables to CLINs the title of this task is shown as “Conduct a review of Existing CPT database”.

a. The deliverable for this task is linked to CLINs 0002, 0004, etc. in the Excel sheet linking deliverables to CLINs. Those CLINs are to be priced per position (estimated 10-12 positions per contract year). However, as alluded to in our questions above, updating of career path information is not specific to a given position – changes to career paths to one position may require changes to career paths to another position and typically such information would be revisited for a set of positions within a Service Unit in general, not only for a specific position. Please provide further detail on the extent of career path revisions FAA envisions making (or that should be assumed for costing purposes) in each contract year. See note above.

The CLIN structure has been updated to reflect a CLIN in the BASE and each Option Year to cover Program Management and CPT Annual Maintenance and Updates. This CLIN should cover all related costs that are not directly associated with a position.

The contractor should include in its proposed pricing for CLIN 00002 all costs in support of its proposed Job Analysis methodology that will support the delivery of the methodology and 2 new positions.

Per PWS 2.1.c the contractor must explore, scope, and design a method for reviewing and verifying the accuracy/currency of existing position documentation and career paths. The contractor must review all of the existing positions in the CPT (100 current positions across seven organizations within the ATO) and all future positions added to the CPT (Up to 50 per option year). The Contractor may develop its own solution as to how it will provide analysis and management of the existing positions.

The Contractor should include in its proposed pricing for CLIN 00001all costs in support of its proposed solution for Program Management (maintenance) of the CPT and the current positions within the tool as indicated above.

Pricing for CLIN 00004, 00006, 00008, 00010 - The contractor should consider program management costs for the current positions and additional new positions anticipated to be delivered in the supporting option years. The vendor may provide a range of pricing for the number of positions added each option year. For example, the contractor may develop its own set of ranges (IE. 0-15, 15-30) and propose the pricing for additional business within each year.

The PWS has been updated 2.1 f.

Summary of PWS Revisions

2.1.f. - Added, “Estimated at 100 positions”.

2.1.m - Added, “Not full time on-call. Must be available during regular business hours to respond for support within 24hrs”.

3.- Period of Performance was adjusted to reflect current dates. This is still an estimated POP. The period of performance may be adjusted based on contract award.

9. – Updated the CLIN numbers to reflect CLIN changes

11. – Redacted, “and in-person meetings at FAA Headquarters if and when air travel is safely accessible, based on CDC guidance. The Government will provide the necessary laptop/computers (GFE) with access to the FAA network”.

12 – Redacted, “The Government will provide the necessary laptop/computers (PFE) with access to the FAA network”. Added, “The contractor will receive access to the FAA Servers through the CPT. No GFR will be required or provided”.