Attachmet 2 - Questions and Answers.pdf

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

• Hardware pricing: RFQ Schedule of Supplies/Services: Can you please confirm whether the required physical archway or similar structure, cameras, lighting, and associated hardware should be included in the GE Modernization Install unit price or should there be a separate line item for hardware vs. installation investment not yet included in the document? Include all components and labor of the vendor’s solution with the exception of Government furnished equipment specifically listed. If a structure is part of the vendor’s solution, either at all or some of the installations, then this should be included. It is assumed that there is not a single configuration that will work at every one of the terminals.

• Archway quantities and dimensions: SOW Sections 5 and 9: Can you please confirm the number of archways or similar structures required at each terminal, or the sizing basis quoters should use if quantities are contractor-determined? Please also provide any available site drawings and dimensional constraints, including clear passage width and height, maximum footprint, and overhead clearance. Is a common configuration acceptable across locations, or will site-specific dimensions be required?

The solution installation will be one per international terminal. It is assumed that there is not a single configuration that will work at every one of the terminals. Every terminal is different and design constraints will be varied.

• Traveler flow and contractor scope: SOW Sections 3 and 5: Will the archways be installed within existing designated Global Entry processing areas? Please identify any contractor-provided signage or physical channeling required to separate Global Entry travelers from other arriving travelers. Separately, for the Section 3.4 exception processing requirement, please identify the contractor-provided equipment and interfaces required to notify officers and support routing travelers requiring additional processing, including any officer displays or traveler indicators. Solutions will be installed within existing FIS, but solution installation location may vary. “Physical channeling required to separate Global Entry travelers from other arriving travelers” is not part of this contract. Section 3.4 exception processing is assumed to be software requirement.

Officer interfaces or traveler interfaces are not part of this contract.

• Throughput and simultaneous travelers: SOW Section 4.4: Does the capacity of up to 3,500 passengers per day apply to each archway or to the complete installation at a terminal? Please also provide the required peak processing rates and clarify whether simultaneous side-by-side passage is required, or whether individual walk-through passages are the required scenario. The solution installation will be one per international terminal. Capacity is for both as they are identical. There is no additional peak processing rate requirement. Also to clarify, an archway or structure is not required if the proposed installation does not necessitate one. The solution is assumed to allow natural movement through the capture zone.

Attachment 2 - Questions & Answers

• Government-furnished infrastructure and interfaces: SOW Sections 7 and 10: Please provide the server specifications and available capacity, switch port and Power over Ethernet capacity, and power/network connection locations available to each installation. Please also identify any additional contractor-furnished infrastructure required and when TVS interface documentation and test access will be available. What traveler processing statuses and response-time parameters will the interface provide, and what contractor actions are required for each status, including no match or no response? Officer Interface is not part of this contract. GFE provided is assumed capable to operate with the proposed solution.

• Performance and acceptance: SOW Sections 4, 12 and 13: Please provide the minimum TVS image-rating threshold referenced in Section 4.5, as well as the test methods, sample sizes, and measurement periods that will be used for the Section 4 performance criteria. How will Government matching performance, network availability, and response delays be treated when determining contractor compliance? Compliance will be measured as a monthly average and consideration will be given for circumstances outside the vendor’s control and vendor continuous system improvements.

• Maintenance service levels: SOW Section 6: Please specify the required support hours, remote and on-site response and restoration times, preventive maintenance frequency, and spare-parts/replacement obligations. Please also clarify the expected allocation of recurring software support between the Software and Maintenance line items. Support hours shall be 24/7, response within an hour; on site response time, if needed, assumed to be within 24hrs.

• Software license term: SOW Section 6: Does CBP require a perpetual software license or a term-based subscription? If term-based, please confirm the required license duration, when the license term begins, and whether a common expiration date applies across all terminals. Assumed to be Term based, period of 1 year from each installation included.

• Option periods: SOW Section 6; RFQ II.10: SOW Section 6 references subsequent option years, while RFQ Section II.10 identifies options as not applicable. Please confirm whether option periods are contemplated and, if so, their number and duration, where option pricing should be submitted, and whether that pricing will be included in the evaluated price. If renewals are intended outside those option periods, please clarify how renewal pricing should be provided. – No option years are included.

• Video management and retention: Is integration with an existing video management system or the provision of video recording and playback required? If so, please identify the system, required interfaces, retention periods, and Government-furnished storage.

Please also specify any retention requirements for facial images and transaction audit logs. No photo or video recording or playback is part of this contract.

• Training delivery: SOW Sections 2 and 11: Please specify the required number of operator and administrator training sessions and anticipated attendees per terminal, whether training must be conducted on site or may be delivered remotely, and whether repeat sessions for different shifts are required. Training is assumed to be delivered to HQ OFO and OIT employees and not individual terminals.

• Three of the thirty-eight terminals are preclearance facilities in Canada. Should the price include Canadian importation duties and brokerage? Include all foreseeable costs in the firm fixed price.

• Section 5.0 has the contractor furnish the archway structure, lighting and cabling.

Which CLIN carries that hardware? The hardware shall be included in CLIN 30.

• SOW Section 4 - Performance Requirements. Please clarify the measurement methodology and contractor-controlled system boundaries for the performance requirements in SOW Sections 4.1 through 4.5. Please confirm that the contractor will not be responsible for performance failures to the extent caused by CBP or airport systems or facilities, government-furnished equipment or information, utilities, TVS or successor systems, third parties, or other circumstances outside the contractor's reasonable control. Compliance will be measured as a monthly average and consideration will be given for circumstances outside the vendor’s control and vendor continuous system improvements.

• SOW Sections 8-9 - Deployment Schedule and Site Readiness. Please confirm that the deployment schedule will be based on mutually agreed site-readiness criteria and that-twill receive appropriate schedule and price adjustments for delays or additional costs caused by site conditions, airport approvals, government-furnished equipment or information, facility access, power, connectivity, or other matters outside reasonable control. Installations shall start a maximum of 30 days after award and vendor shall be capable of completing 2 installations per week.

• Software License Term and Commencement. Please clarify the intended software licensing model and commencement date for each installed solution.

Should recurring software licensing begin at contract award, installation, site acceptance, or operational go-live? If sites are deployed over several months, is each site expected to receive a full 12 months of software licensing and maintenance from its individual acceptance date? Software licensing is assumed to be Term based, period of one (1) year from each installation included.

• SOW 4.4 requires processing up to 3,500 passengers per day 'at each installed solution', and 9.0 lists 38 terminals. Is an installed solution one archway and one capture lane per terminal, or may a terminal need more than one lane to carry its Global Entry volume? Please provide peak hourly Global Entry arrivals per terminal, or the number of archways CBP expects per terminal, so a firm fixed price per EA can be set. The solution installation will be one per international terminal. Capacity is for both as they are identical.

• Please identify the other direct costs the Contractor is to carry within the firm fixed price, and who bears the cost of each: electrical circuits and conduit to the archway, data cabling from the government furnished switch to the capture point, airport authority permits and design review fees, airport-mandated or union labor where a terminal requires it, freight, import and customs duties for the Canadian sites, and removal and disposal of any existing Global Entry kiosks displaced by the archway. Include all foreseeable costs for the solution in the firm fixed price. Contractor will not be responsible for removal of existing equipment.

• Please specify the government furnished CBP server: hardware model, operating system, virtualization, CPU, GPU and storage, and whether one server is furnished per terminal or per airport. Please also state the switch port speed and Power over Ethernet budget, when the equipment will be in place at each site relative to the two-installs-per-week schedule, and list any other government furnished property, equipment or information the Contractor may rely on, such as terminal floor plans and lane drawings.

GFE provided is assumed capable to operate with the proposed solution. Government expects sites to be available and ready as needed to meet delivery schedule.

• Over what period, and from which data source, will the 99 percent operational reliability, the 5 percent maximum No Facial Match rate and the 99 percent photo capture rate be measured? Please confirm that outages of government furnished equipment, the CBP network or TVS, and non-matches caused by a missing or poor gallery photograph, are excluded from the Contractor's measured rates, and state any remedy that applies when a threshold is not met. Compliance will be measured as a monthly average and consideration will be given for circumstances outside the vendor’s control and vendor continuous system improvements.

• On what device is traveler status shown to officers, is that device government furnished or Contractor provided, and must status appear inside an existing CBP officer application? For exception processing, does CBP expect a physical routing indicator at the archway, such as lights, signage or a gate, or an officer alert only? Officer interfaces or traveler interfaces are not part of this contract.

• SOW 1.0 states that CBP performs biometric matching, traveler verification and adjudication through TVS, so the Contractor's solution captures and transmits images.

Please confirm whether the AI Specific Conditions apply to on-device face detection and image quality algorithms, whether the AI Specific Conditions for LLMs apply when the solution uses no large language model, and whether the Project Management and Documentation bullets on leveraging 'enterprise data sets' for 'the development of Artificial Intelligence applications' apply to this requirement. AI Specific Conditions apply if vendor’s solution uses AI.

• Please confirm that all Contractor software runs on the government furnished CBP server with no Contractor-hosted or cloud component. If a cloud service is permitted for device health monitoring, software updates or remote maintenance, what FedRAMP impact level applies, and where does CBP place the authorization boundary between that service and the CBP network? CBP server only, no cloud component.

• Please state the service levels required for maintenance and technical support: help desk hours of coverage, response and resolution times for a lane-down fault, the on-site repair time, whether spare units must be held at each airport, and whether remote diagnostic access to the devices over the CBP network is permitted. Support hours must be 24/7, response within an hour; on site response time, if needed, assumed to be within 24hrs.

• Toronto Pearson Terminals 1 and 3 and Vancouver International are outside the United States. Please confirm who is responsible for export, import, customs clearance and duties on equipment shipped to Canada, whether Canadian electrical certification (CSA or equivalent) is required for the archway and lighting, whether U.S. installers need Canadian work authorization, and whether CBP or the airport authority coordinates site access at those preclearance facilities. Include all foreseeable costs.

• Who obtains airport authority design approval for integrating the archway with each Federal Inspection Services area, and who obtains any construction or electrical permits? Will site surveys or terminal drawings be provided before award or before the first installation, and may quoters see a representative Global Entry processing area before the oral presentations? The Government will be responsible for coordination with airport authority.

• The line 'Applicable 508 requirements for software features and components' carries no entry, while all Chapter 4 hardware requirements and all Chapter 6 support documentation requirements apply. Please state which Chapter 5 software requirements apply to the officer feedback software, and whether an Accessibility Conformance Report is required with the price quote, at the oral presentation, or at delivery. At delivery, if applicable to the solution.

• Will the capture solution operate under an existing CBP authority to operate, for example the TVS authorization, or must the Contractor produce security authorization documentation for a new or modified system within the term? Are there existing POA&M items or open issues on the current Global Entry lane equipment or the TVS interfaces that would transfer to the Contractor? Existing authorities to operate remain intact.

• May the capture device retain facial images locally at all, for example as a buffer during a network interruption? If so, what maximum retention period applies, and which encryption requirement (for example FIPS 140-3 validated modules) applies at rest on the device and in transit to the CBP server? No