2.5.1 70B06C24R00000019 A00003 Attachment 4- Phase II Q&A.xlsx

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SOW for RAM/WSM 13 (SOW)

Phase II - Notice of Intent to Proceed 1-2 N/A N/A In instruction to offerors that was sent at the end of June, CBP provided additional instruction: “Along with the biographical statement (resumé) under Factor 3, the Offeror shall submit in written format the following: …A biographical statement (resumé) for the Key Personnel identified in the SOW (Data Analyst)” Yes, that is acceptable.

Will CBP accept the submission of additional Key Personnel that are not required per the SOW or Factor 3? For example, if an offeror would like to submit additional Key Personnel, can the offeror provide additional resumes for those individuals and commit those personnel as available to support Day 1 for the initial Task Order?

(1) RFP (1) Page 46 (1) SECTION III.1 Instructions to Offerors for Proposal – Advisory Down Select (1) Phase II- Evaluation Factors and Instructions Multiple documents for this procurement reference the initial task order level of effort and labor mix: Question 1: CBP has not established a predetermined format for this submission, therefore offerors are free to use a format of their choosing. The information CBP is looking to gather is what Phase I labor categories (i.e., labor mix) and number of hours (level of effort) do offerors anticipate using for the initial task order. The rates from Phase I Factor 2 will be applied to this labor categories and hourly build up, which will determine the firm, fixed price for the initial task order.

Question 2: CBP is seeking the total number of hours each labor category will contribute to the task overall. CBP is not seeking detail down to the SOW task level.

Question 3: The Government will use the information presented during the oral presentation to evaluate confidence in the offerors technical approach to the initial task order. Separately, the Government will use the written submission to develop the firm, fixed price for the initial task order.

SOW for RAM/WSM 11 7 PERSONNEL AND WORK HOURS 7.1 WORK HOURS The SOW states, “The Contractor shall typically work eight hours a day, 5 days a week, but may be required to work beyond this typical schedule. Contractor personnel shall observe a consistent tour of duty of 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday. Any alterations to the work schedule shall be negotiated with the PMs.” Question 1: Yes.

Question 2: Yes.

It is in the Government’s best interest to allow certain employees to work in a partial capacity (e.g., 50% capacity versus 100%). This supports retention of contractor employees, and also enables the contractor to more easily manage cost and provide surge needs for certain tasks and at different phases of task order execution. Further, SMEs will never be supporting a project at 40 hours per week however, their value is extremely high for just a few hours of contributions at certain points throughout the life of the project.

Question 1: Will the government confirm that it will accept Labor Mixes that offer employees at less than 40 hours per week as part of its LOE and labor mix approach?

Question 2: Offerors are allowed to use tools outside of PowerPoint for the technical demonstration. There is no limit on the tool, so long as it can be viewed through Teams.

Question 3: The 60-minute presentation time is the offerors to determine how to split amongst the Phase II factors being presented. Therefore, CBP has no preference so long as it is contained within the presentation time.

Question 4: No submission for the technical demonstration component of the oral presentation is necessary. The Goverment will evaluate, as part of its confidence rating for the Phase II factors, based on the information presented during the oral presentation and not on the submissions (not including biographical statements or Factor 5)

Question 2: Can CBP confirm whether or not CBP desires a technical demonstration outside of the Orals PowerPoint slides? If so, what tool(s) are the offerors permitted to use?

Question 3: If CBP desires a technical demonstration outside of the Orals PowerPoint slide, at what point during the orals would CBP prefer the technical demonstration. If there are any other preferences regarding the technical demonstration, please provide them to the offerors.

Question 4: We understand that CBP requires all documents as part of the formal submission to be submitted in PDF format, excluding price. If CBP desires a technical demonstration outside of the Orals PowerPoint slide, does CBP want the offerors to submit a separate file of the dashboard in PDF form? If so, please confirm there are no page limitation requirements.

CBP will evaluate the proposed labor mix and level of effort in terms of reasonableness. A standalone price reasonableness determination will be made for the initial task order based on the following: If the hourly rates under Factor 2 have been determined reasonable, and the labor mix and level of effort are determined reasonable, the result is a fair and reasonable price."

Section 3.3.A.4 describes the format and audienceof communications work products and provides several possible examples. Some products are required ad hoc in response to requests for information submitted to the agency, which can very in size and complexity, but generally limitted to zero to two a month. Other products, such as the RAM Congressional Report, are defined deliverables in the SOW. Messages, talking points, frequently asked questions, and certain briefing and communication materials are likely to not be frequenlty reoccuring and probably requiring only relatively minor modifications based on audience once produced.

Section 3.3.D.1. The number of training documents is a reflection of the offeror's technical approach. The training documents may need to be tailored to specific audiences based on the contractor's expertise and experience, the number of which would be dependant on that analysis. To meet the requirmenets, the contractor likely will need to produce at least one training document or a set of several document covering all aspects of the mainenance, use, and updating procedures for the models and separate "user-guide"-like materials for audiences with a more narrow use case for the model .

The CBP Trade Mission Resource Allocation Model (RAM) (previously called the Resource Optimization Model (ROM)) is required by the SAFE Port Act, and is submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means every two years. The RAM functions as both a resource to support CBP’s congressional reporting requirements as well as a decisional tool for executive stakeholders in the trade and revenue mission of the organization. The model is not tied to a specific budget formulation cycle and does not reflect CBP or U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding priorities. Rather, the model is a tool that provides information on predicted staffing levels – based on specific input criteria – to carry out trade and revenue mission operations (as compared to other missions, like the passenger mission) The RAM staffing projections are a starting point for predicting future staffing levels and is intended to be used in combination with more targeted position-specific staffing models to fully understand future staffing needs for the trade revenue positions. The RAM provides staffing projections five fiscal years out for the approximately 20 trade and revenue positions within CBP. A majority of the positions reside within the Office of Trade (OT) and the Office of Field Operations (OFO), though some are found within other program offices as well. For example, the positions include: Office of Finance Financial Systems Specialists, Job Series 0501; OFO Import Specialists, Job Series 1889; Operations Support, Chemist, Job series 1320; OT Customs Auditor, Job Series 0511; and OT International Trade Specialist, Job Series 1101; and several others. The RAM takes into account output from OFO’s CBP Officer Workload Staffing Model (WSM), the Agriculture Specialist Resource Allocation Model (AgRAM), the Mission Operational Support Resource Allocation Model (MOSRAM), and other CBP models.

The impetus for OT Workload Staffing Model came from the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2021, and OT’s intent is to better understand how to appropriately resource the varied and complex Trade mission and have a clear understanding of how changes in personnel, equipment, and other assets are expected to impact mission performance. Prior to 2022, most functions in OT were not formally covered by an existing WSM. The WSMis intended to provide OT staffing profiles that can meet acceptable level of performance given current and future workload drivers and assess Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and position capacity for various sub-unit levels in the organization for staffing and long-range strategic planning. The WSM is an essential tool for advocating for additional resources to support the trade mission. The WSM has varied inputs, including from employee timekeeping systems.