Attachment 6 HW Question Answer Responses Amd 7.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 27 KB Posted
- Attached to
- Forensics Hardware Federal contract opportunity
- Solicitation number
- 70US0924R70094621
About this file
This document is a Question and Answer Matrix related to a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Forensics Hardware, Solicitation Number 70US0924R70094621, issued by the United States Secret Service (USSS) National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI). The RFP is for a single-award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to acquire commercial forensic hardware, brand name or equal, on an as-needed basis over a 5-year ordering period. The RFP is set aside for small businesses under NAICS code 423430 - IT Peripheral Equipment with a 250-employee size standard. The RFP includes specifications for various hardware items such as Dell and FCI workstations, Synology NAS, and monitors. The Q&A matrix addresses questions related to product substitutions, shipping requirements, payment terms, and NAICS code considerations. The government has provided clarifications on these topics and indicated it has sought a non-manufacturer rule waiver to facilitate small business participation.
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Sheet1 United States Secret Service (USSS), Forensics Hardware (Brand Name or Equal), RFP 70US0924R70094621, Question and Answer Matrix
| Question Number | Attachment | Section | Paragraph | Page Number | Offerors Questions and Comments | Government Response | |
| 1 | While the document does not explicitly mandate that all items must be included, the evaluation criteria strongly imply that a complete proposal covering all listed items is necessary for consideration. I want to confirm whether we need to be able to procure every line item at the quantities outlined should the client request it. | To be evaluated and considered for award, Offerors must provide a technical proposal and pricing inclusive of all line items within the RFP. This is a single award IDIQ inclusive of all items. | |||||
| 2 | Interested Parties Letter | 2 | 2 | 1 | The letter states; "This effort will be competed as a small business set-aside on sam.gov and the winning offeror will be selected as detailed in the Basis of Award section of Attachment 5. The government will award a single IDIQ contract as a result of this solicitation." Does the Government anticipate awarding a single IDIQ with multiple awardees? | The government will be conducting a single award to a single vendor. | |
| 3 | Attachment 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Attachment 1, The statement of requirements (SOR), was not provided on SAM.gov, is it available through another source? Will the Government make the SOR available? | SOR was posted in Amendment 1 to the sam.gov posting | |
| 4 | Attachment 4 | Business and Price Evaluation | 4 | 2 | The requirement states the offerors need to complete all of the provisions in Attachment 2. If we have these completed on SAM.gov, are we able to provide those in place of Attachment 2? | Yes, see paragraph 11 of the interested offeror letter, it states "The Offeror shall provide any fill-ins completed along with other documentation required by any clause or provision of the solicitation or provide documentation that Reps and Certs are completed in SAM.gov." Please make sure all clauses are addressed. | |
| 5 | Interested Parties | 2 | 1 | This section states "This effort will be competed as a small business set-aside on sam.gov ..." | |||
| As a small business, logistically this is all manageable, I am unable to identify any payment terms in any of the Attachments. Are advance payments an option? If not, what are the anticipated payment terms? As this is a hardware only RFP. | Payment Terms are Net 30. No advance payment authorized. | ||||||
| 6 | 1 | 4 | 4.2 (b) | 8 | This section states "Hardware shall not be shipped until complete. To do otherwise, requires written approval …" | ||
| Orders may come from multiple vendors, is this section (4.2 (b)) suggesting that all components from multiple vendors or distributors should be consolidated and shipped together as a complete order. | Each line item must be shipped full and complete containing full functionality within the line item; shipments can come direct from the OEM or distributor must they must ship a complete order (ie, if 50 laptops are ordered all 50 must be shipped at once and not in multiple shipments) | ||||||
| 7 | 1 | 4 | 4.2 (b) | 8 | Is it permissible to ship items directly to the specified address, provided that shipping information is supplied for each shipment from each vendor or distributor? | Yes, items can ship directly to the specified address assuming the order is complete. | |
| 8 | 1 | 3 | T.5 | 4 | Item Title "Synology DS1823xs with drives" |
The description states "Synology DS1823xs with drives," but the manufacturer sells the drives separately under different part numbers. They must be ordered independently. Is it expected that the bidder procure the equipment, open packages, and populate drive DS1823xs+ drive bays with the 8 drives(HAT5300-4T)?
or, is it expect to be separate orders, to which the shipments will be direct from the vendor or distributor and it is the Departments responsibility to populate the drive bays?
| Note: Part Numbers in reference: DS1823xs+, HAT5300-4T | It is expected that the drives be installed in the Synology prior to shipment. They should not be shipped separately. There shall be no effort on the governments part to assemble any items. | |||||
| 9 | 3 | CLIN 5 | Item Description states "Synology DS1823xs with 8, 4TB disks" | |||
| See above question. | See question directly above. | |||||
| 10 | 1 | 3 | T.8 | 6 | Item Title "FCI NVME 10GbE NAS (Asustor Flashstor 6 Pro)" | |
| Is this specifying that the Asustor item needs to be procured through FCI, as their NAS product? Or can this item be procured through other sources? | This item can be procured through other sources | |||||
| 11 | 1 | 3 | T.8 | 6 | Item Title "FCI NVME 10GbE NAS (Asustor Flashstor 6 Pro)" | |
| The description and spec '6x M.2 NVMe Slots' imply the Flashstor 6 (PN: FS6706T), where as all other specifications listed in this table are the specs for the Flashstore 12 (PN: FS6712X) | This should be the Flashstor 12 | |||||
| 12 | 3 | CLIN 8 | Item Description "Asustor Flashstor 6 Pro" |
This is not a current product. The current product from the manufacturer, Asustor, is the Flashstor 6 (FS6706T) and the Flashstor 12 Pro (FS6712X).
| Please clarify the desired product and specification. | Please quote the Flashstor 12 Pro (FS6712X) | ||||||
| 13 | 4 | 1 | b | 1 | Document states "(b) All Provisions contained within RFP Attachment 2, that require fill-in, shall be provided." | ||
| Do the FAR provisions that are filled out and updated on sam.gov need to be added in their entirety to the Proposal? | Any provision / clause that is filled out and current on sam.gov does not need to be provided - vendor shall direct our attention to sam.gov for them. All others outisde sam.gov shall be filled-in and provided within your submission. | ||||||
| 14 | 4 | 1 | c | 1 | Document states "(c) Fill In FAR 52.209-5, 52.209-7, 52.209-11 to support the government’s responsibility evaluation. This section shall be contained in the Business Volume of the Proposal." | ||
| Do the FAR provisions (FAR 52.209-5, FAR 52.209-11) that are filled out and updated on sam.gov need to be added in their entirety to the Proposal? | No, see question directly above for details. | ||||||
| 15 | na | A Small Business follow up question -- Will the agency provide a Letter of Commitment, Funding Certifiaction, Task Order Authorization, or other form of certification or statement guaranteeing commitment to purchase and availible funds, that we, as a purchaser, can share with Vendors and Distrbutors, that may assist with more flexible payment terms with Vendors and Distributors? | See the ordering process within Section 5 of the Statement of Work/Statement of Requirements and the ordering procedures in Attachment 2. The vendor will receive a signed delivery order prior to performing any work on the contract. The government anticipates placing 3-4 orders per year and the projected annual quantities are contained within Attachment 3. | ||||
| 16 | 3 | All sheets | With the Item description column locked, if an alternate piece of hardware is being quoted with better pricing then the brand name, how do we indicate what the alternate item is? | The "or equal" shall be listed within the technical proposal (bill of materials). If the "or equal" is determined acceptable, at time of award, the government will update the line item description accordingly. | |||
| 17 | 1 | 2,4 | Section 2 para 1 an 2; Section 4.2 (c ) | pg 1, 8 | SOR states in Section 2 "The contractor shall deliver the following commercial forensic hardware products, brand name or equal, to the NCFI located in Hoover, Alabama" and "Please see the table below for more detailed specifications. Each piece of hardware shall contain the required, brand name or equal items (as appropriate) as listed within the tables in Section 3 of this document. If substitutes are offered, the contractor shall notify the government by providing manufacturer specification sheet(s) for government evaluation and agreement the “or equal” offered is equivalent to the brand name items requested (see paragraph 4.2 for further details regarding this process)." BUT in SOR Section 4.2 (c) it states "No substitutions are allowed without written approval from the COR." How do we get the COR's approval with in the proposal process? | See the question/reponse directly above.This approval will come in the form of the government evaluating technical proposals and determining them either acceptable and eligible for award or unacceptable and not eligible for award. Or vendors can list "or equal" questions using the Q/A Matrix and the Government will provide comment and publish the question and response to all bidders on sam.gov (question 19 below is an example of this). Please note: The paragraphs pointed to in this question are for changes that occur after award and the paragraphs in Section 2 and 4.2 have been revised for some further clarity. The Question window will be re-opened and closed at 5 pm EST on 7/8/2024. | |
| 18 | 1 | 4 | 4.2 | pg 7 | SOR states in Section 4.2 "The contractor shall be responsible for off and on loading equipment and materials." What is meant by this statement, is this physical process or paperwork process? If a physical process, what is the expectation? | The contractor should schedule deliveries using appropriate delivery methods. If shipping freight, the delivery truck should have a lift gate or be able to back up to a loading dock and unload with a pallet jack. Delivery should not arrrive in a manner that requires NCFI staff to unload a delivery vehicle. | |
| 19 | 1 | 3. Requirements: Products/Services | 4 FCI Forensic Workstation (assume quantity of 1 unless otherwise specified) | 4 | For the workstations, an RX 6900 is listed for the video card. We have worked with NCFI to change that over to a 4070 Ti due to certain utilization limits. Is that change still desired or would they prefer to go back to the 6900? | The 4070 Ti is an acceptable replacement for the 6900 and we will accept either GPU in the forensic workstations. | |
| 20 | Solicitation | n/a | n/a | n/a | RFQ Statement: "This procurement is a Small Business Set-Aside." |
Question: Will the government seek an Individual Waiver to the Nonmanufacturer Rule?
Recommendation: Solicit this opportunity using NIH CIO-CS contract as an 8(a) set-aside, which is pre-competed with a Nonmanufacturer Rule Waiver in place for the entire contract.
Alternative Recommendation: Seek an Individual Waiver of the Non-Manufacturer Rule from the SBA for the entire contract (not each task order).
| Rationale: The NMR prevents the government from receiving small business credit for any purchase of large-business-manufactured equipment absent the waiver. In short, the government may not purchase any mainstream technology, such as Dell, on any kind of small business set-aside basis if no waiver is obtained. Furthermore, ignoring the NMR at this stage places significant pressure on small businesses to falsely certify themselves as nonmanufacturers under the CFR and SBA rules. In light of this, we encourage you to utilize an existing contract vehicle that already has the individual waiver in place, specifically, NIH CIO-CS. | The government has already sent in a non-manufacturer rule waiver for approval for this IDIQ..We have recently asked for it to be expedited. We appreciate your highlighting an alternative for our consideration however it does not meet our needs. We are writing our own internal IDIQ's to streamline our acquisition process going forward given the large expansion NCFI is undergoing in the next few years. And also to solidify our lessons learned and strengthen our processes within a single reseller to ease ordering and eliminate delivery issues we've experienced over time. It helps when we have a single entity traveling with us on the learning curve, given supply chain issues, etc. | |||||
| 21 | Solicitation | NAICS | n/a | n/a | RFQ Statement: "This procurement is a Small Business Set-Aside. The NAICS code is 423430 –IT Peripheral Equipment and the Small Business Size Standard is 250 employees." |
Question: Will the government consider using an existing contract vehicle with an appropriate NAICS code of 541519 Information Technology Value Added Resellers with a size standard of 150 employees. If not, will the government revise the NAICS code to 541519 ITVAR?
Recommendation: Solicit this opportunity using NIH CIO-CS contract as an 8(a) set-aside. This contract is pre-competed using NAICS 541519 ITVAR. This contract vehicle also has a Nonmanufacturer Rule Waiver in place, which is necessary for this procurement.
| Rationale: From the SBA Table of Size Standards, "Sector 42 NAICS codes shall not be used to classify Government acquisitions for supplies. The applicable manufacturing NAICS code shall be used to classify acquisitions for supplies." In this case, the appropriate NAICS is 541519 ITVAR with size standard of 150 employees. | The title for 541519 is Other Computer Related Services in our contracting writing system and in FPDS is Computer hardware and software. Resellers is contained within this NAICS. We are revising the solicitation to demonstrate the ITVAR exception and the 150-employee size standard applies. The contract, at time of award, will be coded 541519, Other Computer Related Services. | ||||||
| 22 | Attachment 1 | Scope | n/a | 1 | Question: Are the monitors included in the SOW required to be TAA compliant? | Not required to be TAA compliant. | |
| 23 | Attachment 1 | 3. Requirements: Products/Services | 4 FCI Forensic Workstation (assume quantity of 1 unless otherwise specified) | 4 | For the workstations, an RX 6900 is listed for the video card. We have worked with NCFI to change that over to a 4070 Ti due to certain utilization limits. Is that change still desired or would they prefer to go back to the 6900? | The 4070Ti is desired | |
| 24 | Attachment 1 | 3. Requirements: Products/Services | 8 FCI NVME 10GbE NAS (Asustor Flashstor 6 Pro) | 6 | The NVME NAS is listed as the Asustor Flashtor 6 Pro. However, this should be the 12 Pro as the 6 does not have 10 gigabit ethernet. | Flashtor 12 PRO, see revised SOR. | |
| 25 | Will the government please expand on the following spec "Dell Additional Software"? | This is standard manufacturer software that maintains software and firmware updates for the machine, as well as improving machine performance. (e.g., Dell Command Update, Dell Precision Optimizer, Dell Power Manager, etc.) | |||||
| 26 | Will the government accept a solution for CLIN's 1 and 2 without the Foxit PDF not preloaded but with the Licenses sent over electronically ? | This is acceptable. | |||||
| 27 | SAM notice , Amendment #6 | Per Amendment #6 on 7/9/2024, it is stated CLINS 1,2, 3 and 11 will be considered Group A and all other items will be Group B. Would the government be willing to add clins 9 and 10 to Group A? We believe that the government would have the best overall price if the monitors (CLIN 9 and 10) are included with the other Dell (and Apple) branded items in Group A. | Yes, Group A and B have been reconfigured to allow for this. Group A will include 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11 and 12; Group B will include 4, 6, 7, and 8. | ||||
| 28 | Amendment #2 | Requirements: Products/Services | First | 2,3,4 | To allow for fair and open competition will The Government please provide the required functional specs for Clins 1, 2, and 3, as some of the items listed are Dell specific. This will allow the "or Equal" venders to respond accurately. | Full specs are contained within the Statement of Requirements document, as it contains the CPU, Memory, GPU and HDD requirements and more | |
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