Questions and Comments v2 - FAA RFP 697DCK-21-R-00165.pdf

QUESTION AND ANSWER TEMPLATE V2

FAA RFP 697DCK-21-R-00165

Solicitation ‐ Comments, Questions and Answers

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE FORTHCOMING AND WILL BE PROVIDED IN THE NEXT AMENDMENT.

Paragraph Reference / Other (Sample. Para 5.1)

Industry Questions Government Response

1 N/A Does all work have to be performed in the United States?

Please refer to clause 3.6.2‐41 Employment Eligibility Verification for details.

Additionally, please note that security requirements provided at the parent BPA level or BPA call level will likely not authorize work to be performed outside of the United States.

2 N/A Does all work have to be performed by U.S. persons?

Please refer to clause 3.6.2‐41 Employment Eligibility Verification for details.

Additionally, please note that security requirements provided at the parent BPA level or BPA call level will likely not authorize work to be performed by personnel who are not within the United States or who are not citizens of the United States.

3 RFP Attachment 2 Customer Satisfaction Survey

Will the government permit the contractor to submit a CPAR instead of the Customer Satisfaction Survey?

No, only Customer Satisfaction Surveys are accepted.

4 SA51 Submission of Offer 2.a) Past Experience

Can the government provide a page count for the past experience portion of the technical response?

The FAA requires the page count (not including cover letter) for responses be limited to 15 pages (8½x11 one‐sided), 12 font (Times New Roman), with a minimum of 1‐inch margins)

5 SA51 Submission of Offer Can the government provide formatting instructions for the RFP response, including: font, size, margin, page size?

The FAA requires the page count (not including cover letter) for responses be limited to 15 pages (8½x11 one‐sided), 12 font (Times New Roman), with a minimum of 1‐inch margins)

6 SA51 Submission of Offer 2.

Technical Proposal

Can vendors include in the Technical Proposal an executive summary to accompany the cover page and cover letter?

Yes; however, please note only the evaluation factors included in section L and M will be evaluated.

7 Page 42 of the RFP, B) Past Performance

Will the government consider allowing the prime to have 1 RPA past performance reference with a subcontractor providing the other two?

Only the offerors Past Experience will be evaluated; however if the offeror’s previous work was performed as a subcontractor, that experience will be evaluated.

Only the offerors Past Performance will be evaluated; however if the offeror work was performed as a subcontractor, that experience will be evaluated.

8 RFP697DCK‐21‐R‐00165 – Page 6.

Section B – Schedule

The Government states, “Each individual BPA Call shall not exceed $1 million dollars. The period of performance will be 60 months; 12‐month base plus four 12‐month option periods or when the maximum amount of $3.0 million is reached, whichever comes first. Period of performance will be as stated by each Call issued.”

• Is the $3M period of performance maximum a ceiling for the overall BPA vehicle (all combined task orders for all awardees cannot exceed $3M) or is it calculated for each of the individual awardees of the BPA (each firm awarded a BPA can be awarded up to $3 million?)

The $3M ceiling is the maximum ceiling for each individually awarded BPA (including Call Orders). Each contractor awarded a BPA will be given a $3M ceiling.

9 RFP697DCK‐21‐R‐00165 – Page 39.

Section 3.2.4‐1 TYPE OF CONTRACT

(APR 1996)

The FAA contemplates award of a Firm Fixed Price contract resulting from this Screening Information Request. Will the firm fixed price rates be hard coded to the small, medium and large categories identified in the SOW for all future bids or will offers be expected to provide specific FFP bids for each BPA Call that comes out post award?

Section B of the solicitation has been amended to include a Quantity and Unit of Measure. Each vendor should price each line item (CLIN) per RPA project.

After the BPA’s have been established, each BPA holder will be given the opportunity to bid against the FFP Call Order SOW; however, pricing should not exceed the CLIN pricing established in the BPA Master Agreement.

10 RFP697DCK‐21‐R‐00165 – Page 41.

Section SA51 SUBMISSION OF OFFER – SERVICES, Subsection 1.

Business Proposal, Part (d)

The Business Proposal Requirements requires the offeror to provide “8(a) certification from the Small Business Administration (if applicable).” We are a certified 8(a) firm but will submit our proposal as a joint venture under 13 CFR

124.513. Joint ventures, themselves, do not receive any certification from the SBA.

Thus, please clarify that the certification requested for subsection (d) of the Business Proposal is that of the certified 8(a) company itself, not the joint venture.

Confirmed. For the JV to be considered an 8(a) JV, the 8(a) Participant has to be the majority owner, in addition to all the other requirements. As long as the 8(a) JV complies with all the requirements of the 8(a) Program, including that the 8(a) participant must own at least 51 percent of the JV then the annual continued eligibility determination letter serves as validation.

11 RFP697DCK‐21‐R‐00165 – Page 41.

Section SA51 SUBMISSION OF OFFER – SERVICES, Subsection 1.

Business Proposal

May offerors submit a cover letter as part of the Business Proposal?

Yes

12 RFP+Attachment+1+‐ +RPA+BPA+Statement+of+Work+‐ +3.15.21

2. Scope of Work ‐ RPA Project Size and Time Frame Estimator Table

Can the government please confirm the estimated RPA costs for each complexity level used for pricing are each for a single business process automation?

I.e.:

• Small: cost is for a single business process automation that requires 1 bot, uses <1 applications/systems, has <5 decisions, and takes 4‐6 weeks to implement.

• Medium: cost is for a single business process automation that requires 2‐5 bots, uses 1‐ 2 applications/systems, has 5‐ 15 decisions, and takes 8‐12 weeks to implement.

• Large: cost is for a single business process automation that requires >5 bots, uses >3 applications/systems, has >15 decisions, and takes >12

Yes, confirmed.

13 RFP+Attachment+1+‐ +RPA+BPA+Statement+of+Work+‐ +3.15.21

2. Scope of Work ‐ RPA Project Size and Time Frame Estimator Table

Can the government clarify if there is an estimated upper bound to # of bots, applications/systems, decisions, timespan for the Large level?

The SOW and Section B of the solicitation has been amended to include a Quantity and Unit of Measure. Please see Amendment 0001 for additional details.

14. Section B, RFP, page 6 Section B says “Each individual BPA Call shall not exceed $1 million dollars. The period of performance will be 60 months; 12‐month base plus four 12 month option periods or when the maximum amount of $3.0 million is reached, whichever comes first.”

What’s the minimum and maximum ceiling for the BPA?

Is $3M correct or a typo?

How many awardees will be selected?

How many call orders are expected per year?

There is no minimum; the maximum ceiling PER BPA is $3M to include Call Orders.

The FAA anticipates up to 3 Awardees;

however reserves the right to award to less than 3.

The FAA is not able to estimate the number of call orders anticipated. The solicitation however has been amended to include a Pricing Template that includes a Quantity to be used for evaluation purposes.

15. SA51 Submission of Offer – Services, RFP, page 41‐42, paragraph b

Says, “Prime Contractor is REQUIRED to have at least three (3) of the attached customer satisfaction surveys”.

We understand per the statement above that for section b, the prime must provide the customer satisfaction surveys. Can this be amended to include sub‐ contractor’s surveys, as well?

Also, can the past performances for section a of the technical volume come from the sub‐contractor?

And if so, can you amend the RFP to include this? It will allow for a stronger team to include sub‐contractor past performance and surveys.

Only the offerors Past Experience will be evaluated; however if the offeror’s work was performed as a subcontractor, that experience will be evaluated.

Only the offerors Past Performance will be evaluated; however if the offeror work was performed as a subcontractor, that experience will be evaluated.

The solicitation will be amended to reflect this clarification.

16. Pricing Given how the Government is requesting pricing, there is an inherent risk on the contractor given the unknowns of the Call Order requirements and actual complexity, thus increasing the overall proposed price.

As such, will the Government consider changing the award basis from lowest priced, technically acceptable (LPTA) to Best Value?

The FAA has taken this question into consideration. The basis of award however will remain as LPTA.

17. Pricing The Government states on page 1 of the Statement of Work “The individual call orders will specify the services to be provided and not every BPA call will require every service listed in this Statement of Work. Although process automation can vary by complexity”.

Since at the time of BPA pricing the contractor and Government do not know the tasks required in the Call Orders, will the Government consider evaluating pricing based on Labor Category (LCAT) rates, versus a Firm Fixed Price by item no. (CLIN)?

The FAA has taken this question into consideration. The basis of award however will remain as LPTA.

18 Solicitation – Schedule of Prices

(Pages 2 ‐4)

What is expected in column C “Quantity”? If this is not part of the RFP, then how is column F “Amount” to be computed?

The solicitation has been amended to include a Pricing Template that includes a Quantity to be used for evaluation purposes. Please see Amendment 0001 for additional details.

19 Statement of Work – Scope of

Work (Page 2)

The largest project size “large” is open ended, having 5 or more bots touching more than 3 systems and making more than 15 decisions each.

How can any firm‐fixed price be given on an open‐ended requirement?

Please refer to the response for question #13.

20 SOW, Para 3, phase 1 We would like to request access to the mentioned FAA “RPA Candidate Evaluation Checklist” for evaluating suitable processes for robotic automation.

The RPA Candidate Evaluation Checklist is attached to the Statement of Work, page 9 of the PDF document.

21 SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD Would the Government consider granting a 1‐week extension, until May 21, 2021?

The Government has extended the solicitation due date from May 14, 2021 to May 21, 2021, 10 AM CST. See solicitation amendment 0001 for details.

22 SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD

Section B – Schedule

The Government states “. The BPA(s) and resulting calls shall be issued as Firm Fixed Price.

Each individual BPA Call shall not exceed $1 million dollars.

The period of performance will be 60 months; 12‐month base plus four 12‐month option periods or when the maximum amount of $3.0 million is reached, whichever comes first.”

Could the Government confirm what dollar amount that BPA Calls will not exceed?

Will not to exceed amount be $1 million dollars or $3 million dollar?

A single Call Order will not exceed $1Mill.

23 SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD

SECTION L

SA51 SUBMISSION OF OFFER –

SERVICES,

2. Technical Approach,

a. Past experience, Page 41

Can the Government confirm that Past Experiences provided by any Team member from a Vendor Team be counted as part of the three Past Experiences submitted by the Vendor Team?

Please refer to the response for question #7.

24 SECTION L

3.2.4‐1 TYPE OF CONTRACT (APR

1996), Page 39

Does the FAA envision issuing only Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Task Order Awards? Or will the FAA envision using other types of awards given the maturity of this marketplace?

The FAA anticipates FFP call order awards at this time.

25 SECTION L

SA51 SUBMISSION OF OFFER –

SERVICES,

2. Technical Approach,

b) Past Performance, Page 42

In addition to the Prime Vendor past performance submissions, can the offeror provide past performance references from the Vendor Team as part of the three required past performance references?

Please refer to the response for question #7.

26 STATEMENT OF WORK For Robotic

Process Automation ‐

General Question

Can the Government confirm that no key personnel requirements are required at the BPA level?

Confirmed.

27 STATEMENT OF WORK For Robotic Process Automation – General Question

Can the Government disclose whether there is an incumbent contractor currently providing RPA services to the FAA under any prior contract awards?

This is a new requirement and therefore there is no incumbent contractor.

28 STATEMENT OF WORK For Robotic Process Automation – General Question

Has the FAA already identified specific Use Cases for automation?

No.

29 RFP+Attachment+1+‐ +RPA+BPA+Statement+of+Work+‐ +3.15.21.pdf Section 2 (Scope of Work)

If support is required at a FAA Regional Office, does the contractor need an on‐site presence at the Regional Office? If so, should travel and other expenses for such presence be included in the Firm Fixed Price?

On‐site presence is not anticipated so travel should not be included in the BPA pricing. If this changes, it will be addressed at the BPA Call Order level.

30 Select a Tool Task Since Uipath is on the FAA TPL list is this consider approved?

We noticed Uipath is not FedRamp complaint but is on the TPl list.

UiPath is approved for usage in the FAA with no restrictions. The implementation of UiPath is installed in the FAA AWS Cloud Environment, which is a FEDRAMP‐ authorized environment.

31 SOW, Para 3, phase 4 Is “Automation Anywhere” among the approved tools in the FAA’s Technology Products List?

Automation Anywhere is not in the TPL.

32 SOW, Para 3, phase 2, 3 Could the FAA elaborate on the “industry‐standard” format required for modelling “as‐is” and “to‐be” processes?

Are there any preferred or approved BPMN compliant formats that should be used?

Any diagram that complies with the specifications of BPMN version 2 is satisfactory to the Government (https://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/).

33 Other Does FAA currently utilize an automation platform?

The FAA utilizes Blue Prism and UiPath.

34 Other Will FAA or the Contractor be responsible for management of the automations?

The Contractor is expected to maintain any automation(s) developed unless an agreement is made between the FAA and the Contractor specifying that the FAA will assume support.

35 Other Will contractors have access and precedence to the FAA‐ managed dev, test and production environments?

Contractors will have access to the Dev, Test, and Production Environments maintained by the FAA and are expected to use these environments.

36 Other Where are the locations for the development environment?

The Development Environment for UiPath is comprised of an implementation of UiPath Orchestrator running in the FAA AWS Cloud Environment along with UiPath Studio running on the Developer’s machine.

The Development Environment for Blue Prism is comprised of an implementation of Blue Prism Application Server running in the FAA AWS Cloud Environment along with Blue Prism Object/Process Studio running on the Developer’s machine (or on a designated VM at the Government’s discretion).

37 RFP+Attachment+1+‐ +RPA+BPA+Statement+of+Work+‐ +3.15.21.pdf Section 3 (Requirements): Develop the Automation

The government has stated that “Regardless of the development environment, the Contractor shall ensure that any Releases are tested and deployed into the FAA‐ managed test and production environments.” Who does the actual deployment tasks in Test and Production environments?

The FAA has designated System Administrators who are responsible for deploying automations based on Developer request.