Question_and_Answers_73551018R0014_071918.pdf

AMENDMENT 0002

Question and Answers 73551018R0014

1.QUESTION:

I wanted to clarify the due dates for the SBA OII Solicitation Number: 73351018R0014.

ANSWER:

Proposals are due on 7/30/18, at 1:00 pm MDT.

2. QUESTION:

FBO says that questions are due on 7/16, and that the proposal is due on 7/30.

ANSWER:

Amendment 0001 corrected this.

3. QUESTION:

Is this a new requirement or is there an incumbent vendor? If available, can you please send along the incumbent contract number?

ANSWER:

There is not an incumbent, this is a new requirement.

4. QUESTION

The SOO references maintaining an existing system (SBIC Web). It is unclear what this level of effort would be given the transition in documentation. Can this cost be separate from the COTS solution?

ANSWER:

As part of you pricing solution

5. QUESTION

Does the SBA anticipate the COTS solution to have a customized portal?

ANSWER: Yes, there will be areas where customization will be necessary (reports, analysis, etc.). The COTS solution should allow for portal customization based on user and/or process.

6. QUESTION

Will the COTS solution require any OCIO approvals?

ANSWER: Assessment and Authorization (A&A) Activities, Paragraph 5. and the Security and Privacy Requirement Paragraph 3-page 101 list the requirements for any new IT system and the regulations to meet the Federal Government IT requirements.

7. QUESTION

Have any vendors presented their COTS solutions for this requirement?

ANSWER: SBA conducted market research prior to issuing the solicitation.

8. QUESTION

Section 1.2 Anticipated Award Type: Does SBA intend to award this contract as a single task order or a BPA (see Section 3.3.1 (b) reference to task orders).

ANSWER:

See Amendment 0002.

9. QUESTIONS:

Is there an incumbent for this effort? if so, please identify.

ANSWER:

See answer to Question # 3

10. QUESTION

Has OII performed any business process reengineering (BPR) or business process improvement (BPI) for this initiative? If so, please identify the contractor and share major findings/recommendations.

ANSWER: This question does not relate to the solicitation. The statement of work provides all necessary information.

11. QUESTION

Has OII performed an analysis of alternatives (AoA) to guide this initiative? If so, what technologies were recommended?

ANSWER: This question is not relevant to the solicitation.

12. QUESTION

Has OII otherwise explored through market research or demonstrations technologies suitable to support this initiative? If so, please share the identified technologies.

ANSWER: This question is not relevant to the solicitation.

13. QUESTION

Section 4.27 (page 51) - What is the limit to people considered “key personnel”? There will be many people included throughout this process.

ANSWER: There is not a limit.

14. QUESTIONS

Section 4.28 (page 52) - Do we need to receive a DUNS number to proceed? What is the best way to obtain?

ANSWER:

A DUNS number is need prior to any award. See link at https://fedgov.dnb.com/webform.

15. QUESTION

Section 5.1 (page 53) & Section 5.7 (page 54) -

In 5.1 it says the e-mail subject line for submission should be “Proposal Submission for OII SBIC Technology Improvement Project.”

ANSWER:

This has been corrected per Amendment 0002.

16. QUESTION

In 5.7 it says the e-mail subject line for submission should be “Proposal Submission for Solicitation 73351018R0014”.

ANSWER

This has been corrected per Amendment 0002.

17. QUESTION

Which is the correct one? Are there multiple submissions that should be taking place?

ANSWER

No. These are just different instructions which should be the same.

18. QUESTIONS

Section 5.8.2.1 (page 56) - For all of the technical requirements there is a bullet point list. Should we simply answer YES or NO if we meet these requirements? Is a further explanation expected?

ANSWER:

Offerors should provide enough detail and explanation so that a selection panel may evaluate whether the offeror’s solution meets the technical requirements. See paragraph 5.8.1.

19. QUESTIONS:

System Requirements Does SBA require a platform that operates within the Agency provided IaaS environment or will they be open to a Salesforce based solution since Salesforce is already in use at

SBA?

ANSWER: Yes, the Agency requires an IaaS environment.

20. QUESTION

https://fedgov.dnb.com/webform

5.8.2.1. Factor 1 Technical and Management Approach One of the bulleted requirements states:

“Cloud-based deployment (AWS or Azure)”. Can SBA please clarify if only AWS or Azure based solutions would be acceptable?

ANSWER: AWS and/or Azure Based solutions are the only ones that can be used for Cloud-Based development for the platform.

21. QUESTION

For example: Listed is “Configurable dashboards” and Portfolio management”. What type of explanation is expected regarding these features?

ANSWER: "Configurable dashboards" refers to the ability to modify the interface/portal/dashboard based user and/or process. "Portfolio management" refers to the activities involving the oversight and analysis of portfolios of leverage investments in mezzanine debt, private equity and venture capital funds as well as those funds' investments of loans, debt and equity in small businesses.

22. QUESTION:

Section 5.7.2.2 (page 58) -There is a “past performance questionnaire” that is referred to here. Where can we find this?

ANSWER: There is not a questionnaire for this solicitation. Please provide your references on an spreadsheet. See Amendment 0002 for details.

22. QUESTIONS

Section 5.7.2.5 (page 59) - To determine price, we have a few general questions.

A - Out of the 80 individuals between the 6 sub-offices, how many would be expected to be users?

B - How many would be “full access” users vs. “read-only” (limited) users?

ANSWER: All 80+ users would have user-role and process-based access that includes read-only access of some information.

23. QUESTION

Section 5.7.2.5 (page 60) - It states, “the Offeror shall submit firm fixed prices for all items listed in Section B (including options).” What is Section B?

ANSWER:

This should read Part II. Price Schedule paragraph 2. Amendment 0002 corrects this.

24. QUESTION

Appendix 1 (Page 84) - In regard to security requirements, what needs to be submitted for this initial

RFP?

ANSWER: An ability to handle sensitive information and securely maintain and store associated data accordingly. An ability to pass required clearance checks too.

25. QUESTION

Will the government please clarify how it differentiates between the base COTS software solution and the customizations required for this program?

a. Does the government require that the COTS software vendor offer, support, and maintain a SBA specific version of the software over the life of the contract and beyond?

b. Does the government require on-going version upgrades to the base COTS solution as new versions are released OR will the government choose to stay on the implemented version of the COTS solution for the life of the project? If the former, will the vendor be responsible to maintain upward compatibility of customizations to future releases of the COTS software?

c. Does the government require that the COTS software vendor continue to (1) host, (2) maintain, and (3) support the version of the software implemented by the government regardless of the number of subsequent commercial releases?

ANSWER:

a. Yes, the USG requires the ability to support, and in addition prefers an open innovation source solution. All code utilized and developed will need to be placed in GitHub storage repositories that the agency has set up.

b. An ability to enable Upgraded versions are required. Vendor will be required to assist and ensure upgrades are being met in consultation with agency’s OCIO directive.

c. Yes, that is a possibility.

26. QUESTION

The RFP specifies the solution must support up to 2,500 users. Does the government require each vendor to propose license cost for 2,500 users, to ensure an apples-to-apples cost comparison?

ANSWER: Vendors should specify solutions for the max number of users cited, but also provide any other matrix information based on their usual user guidelines.

27. QUESTION

We understand that the government intends to acquire COTS software, to be customized only to the extent needed. However, there are clearly many unique requirements of federal credit programs in general, and of SBA’s SBIC program, that are federally mandated. A substantive portion of the price for this project will include some customization of commercial software, yet the degree of customization is not specified:

a. How will the government evaluate the total cost of ownership for this solution?

b. How will the government evaluate the relative customization and subsequent maintenance costs of packaged software requiring code changes versus those costs for software built on “no-“, or “low-“ code platforms requiring configuration, rather than code changes, such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365?

c. Will the government consider requiring vendors price a “sample sprint” that specifies a set number of new forms/screens, views, entities, entity fields and related entity fields as a basis for evaluating relative customization costs?

ANSWER:

A. See paragraph 5.7.2.6 in Amendment 0001 Factor 5 – Price submission in which the evaluation of pricing is detailed.

B. This is a Firm Fixed Price contract in which all pricing accordance with Factor 5 evaluation.

C. All price proposals will be reviewed as the final proposal.

28. QUESTION

Will the Government define the difference between “Fund of Fund” systems and other portfolio management systems where multiple portfolios are managed?

ANSWER:

Fund of funds systems are uniquely tailored to the alternative investment industry and managing investments in the limited life investment funds that exist with that industry (e.g. limited life private equity, venture capital, and mezzanine finance funds).

29. QUESTION

The past performance requirements in Evaluation Factor 2 seem overly specific and restrictive, particularly for a small business solicitation.

a. Will the government consider amending the requirements to specify past performance projects completed in the last five (5) years?

b. Will the government consider amending Evaluation Factor 2 to specify “financial portfolio management” projects, rather than only “fund of funds” projects.

ANSWER:

a. Per paragraph 5.7.2.2. Past performance will be reviewed for references from the past 3 years.

However, for Prior experience may be submitted for any time frame

b. No

30. QUESTION

Section 5.7.2.2 states that “preference in the rating for this factor may be given to an Offeror who has submitted at least two examples of prior experience with providing a fund of funds system, CRM service, and has worked with private equity limited partners.” However, there is no similar weight given to vendors with past performance supporting federal credit programs and, in particular, SBA credit programs. Given this:

a. Does the government not believe that federal credit program experience and knowledge of SBA business, systems, and processes will be at least equally important to the success of such an important initiative?

b. Will the government consider amending the solicitation to provide equal weight to vendors with federal credit program experience?

ANSWER

a. Please note that that solicitation says “preference ….may be given”. This explanation on the review will not be changed at this time.

b. The evaluation language will not be changed at this time, Technical is significantly more important than price.

31. QUESTION

Will a proposal library with artifacts (i.e., requirements documents, results of demonstrations performed, other market research) related to this project be provided for this solicitation?

ANSWER:

All information necessary to submit an offer is provided in the solicitation.

32. QUESTION

Were any contractors involved in determining requirements or providing other support leading up to this RFP? To ensure fairness in competition, is it safe to assume that those vendors are precluded from being a member of any proposing team based on conflicts of interest?

ANSWER:

SBA will comply with all requirements of FAR part 9 regarding conflicts of interest.

33. QUESTION

The solicitation requires that the system must comply with GDPR requirements? Does the Government anticipate that this system will interface with users from the European Union OR contain data on foreign nationals? If the answer is no, will the Government consider removing this requirement?

ANSWER

The system will contain data on foreign nationals and business entities and may interface with users from the EU.

34. QUESTION

Does the Small Business Administration have COTS software licenses that can be utilized for this project (e.g., Salesforce, Dynamics, Azure, AWS, Power BI, etc.)? If so, please list all licenses and the number of available seats.

ANSWER: All information necessary to submit an offer is provided in the solicitation.

35. QUESTION

Given that answers to questions posed herein and by others might materially change how vendors respond, will the government consider extending the due date for proposals to provide sufficient time to adapt responses based on answers to these questions?

ANSWER: No

36. QUESTION

How many responses to the solicitation does the government anticipate receiving? and how many responses does the government deem sufficient to consider the solicitation competitive?

ANSWER:

This question is not relevant to the solicitation.

36. QUESTION

What companies are the primary incumbents for the current legacy suite of systems and services supporting the requirements wanted by SBA to be transformed through this solicitation?

ANSWER: Please see the answer to question 3.

37. QUESTION

Page 6, paragraph 1.1 - What is the boundary of a “COTS” solution definition for this procurement? Will an existing custom-developed and proven platform/solution be acceptable?

ANSWER: The solicitation requirement is for a COTS product. See the industry standard definition of

COTS.

38. QUESTION

Page 7. Paragraph 2.0 - Please clarify the meaning of CLIN structure rows to be filled in terms of relation between sprint duration and “total weeks” [# of weeks] – NTE [total weeks], use of the 12 months line, and calculation formula for FFP per contract period.

ANSWER:

To determine the understanding of the requirement the SOO is being procured utilizing an Agile approach. The offeror shall provide the number for weeks in a ‘sprint’ and the ‘cost’ per sprint for a total of 12-month period. This should add up to the FFP total price per CLIN and a total overall price

39. QUESTION

Page 7, paragraph 2.0 Are there any T&M priced services (FFP per labor hour) to be included on the performance of this work?

ANSWER: No

40. QUESTION

Page 13., paragraph 3.3. - Are SBIC Web maintenance, Data Migration and Data Integration; Training;

and Support and Maintenance (O&M) services costs to be included on the agile development Price per Iteration quoted?

ANSWER: Data Migration/Integration, Training, O&M are costs to be included; hopefully, broken out in detail from the sprint costs/user costs. In later phases, the SBIC WEB functionality will be subsumed, so the maintenance part goes away and gets rolled in with the platform O&M.

41. QUESTION

Page 19, paragraph 3.5 a)i) - Will the Government accept a fund of funds platform solution that is not based on other than a relational database model for data management?

ANSWER we may review it, but we can't say that it will be acceptable -

42. QUESTION

Page 58, paragraph 5.7.2.2. Given the complexity of the fund of funds integration platform for SBA and the requirement/preference for COTS solution, would the Government relax the restrictions for inclusion of large subcontractor related experience and past performance?

ANSWER

IAW FAR 52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting (Jan 2017) an