RFQ 75N97020Q00040MS Amendment 1.pdf

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP): Amendment No. 01

RFQ NO.: RFQ

TITLE: Collection, Maintenance and Reformatting Contract

DATE RFP ISSUED: 07/29/2020

DATE AMENDMENT NO. 1 ISSUED: 08/13/2020

CONTACT PERSON: Markita Simmonds, Contract Specialist

Office of Acquisitions National Library of Medicine 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 105 Bethesda, MD 20892-5488

PROPOSAL RECEIPT DATE: Monday, August 24, 2020, no later than 10:00 AM ET

To all Vendors: The purpose of this Amendment is to respond to questions:

1. Ref: SOW, Section III, Page 13 o Statement: Based on the Key Personnel table provided, it is unclear the total number of personnel that the government considers ‘Key Personnel.’

o Will the government please confirm that they consider four (4) of the personnel ‘Key Personnel’, with one each in the following labor categories; Project Manager, Professional Librarian, Library Technician, Library Clerk.

The Key Personnel are the Project Manager and Professional Librarian(s).

o Would the Government confirm that only the Project Manager and Professional Librarian categories are key personnel, and resumes are required only for these positions?

Resumes shall be submitted for the Project Manager and Professional Librarian(s).

o Is Government requiring industry to submit resumes for all positions we are proposing or may resume submissions be limited to senior positions (i.e. Project Manager, Professional Librarian)?

Resumes shall be submitted for the Project Manager and Professional Librarian(s).

2. Ref: RFQ, Section E.3, Page 13 o “The Offeror shall provide a point of contact (name and telephone number), for each key personnel proposed and for each contracted project listed, who can attest to past performance.”

o Question: Is it the government’s intention that they will contact all proposed Key-personnel to attest to their personal capabilities/experience? Or, is the government requesting the contact information of Key Personnel that were associated with the contracted project listed as a past performance citation of the offeror?

The Government may conduct reference checks for proposed key personnel using the point of contract information provided for past performance.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine (NLM) Phone: 301-496-6546 Office of Acquisitions Fax: 301-402-0642 8600 Rockville Pike, Building 38A http://www.nih.gov Bethesda, MD 20894 http://www.nlm.nih.gov http://www.nlm.nih.gov/

3. Ref: RFQ, Section A.12, Proposal Preparation o Please confirm Key Personnel resumes are not included in the 25-page length requirement.

Resumes shall be excluded from the 25-page count limit.

o Would the government allow for a one-page contingent offer letter addendum to be attached to resumes of submitted staff who are not current employees? The Government will allow for a one-page contingent offer letter addendum to be attached to resumes of submitted staff that are not current employees. This shall be excluded from the resume 2-page limit.

4. Ref: RFP, Section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing, Page 2 o Question: Will the government please confirm that Activity 3 and Activity 4 are not intended to be accomplished by personnel already accounted for in the provided FTE counts? If these tasks are accomplished by personnel other than already accounted for, will the government please provide historical level of effort typical of supporting the Activity 3 and Activity 4 requirement?

The hours for Activities 3 and 4 are not accounted for within the hours provided for other activities. These activities are fixed unit price activities. Staff numbers vary; recent levels include 4.5 FTEs for Activity 3 and 2.25 FTEs for Activity 4.

o Question: Will the government please confirm that Activity 6 – Pages Digitization is not intended to be accomplished by the personnel (3 FTEs) accounted for in the remainder of Activity 6? Further. If these tasks are accomplished by personnel other than those 3 FTEs already accounted for, will the government please provide historical level of effort typical of supporting this requirement?

Activity 6 - Pages Digitized is not accounted for within the 3 FTE referred to in the other parts of Activity 6. Activity 6 - Pages Digitized is a fixed unit price activity. Staff numbers vary; recent levels include 9 FTE for Activity 6 – Pages Digitized.

o Question: Can the government provide the number and type of GFE scanners that are available for the task 6 activities.

A total of six (6) scanners are available for use for this activity. The scanner types include Zeutschel OS 14000 A1, Cobra A-1 V-Scan, and CopiBook V book scanner.

5. Ref: RFP, Section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing, Page 2 o Does the gov't define 1 FTE = 1782 hours or is the 1782 hours specified in the RFQ section A.8

Labor Categories/Pricing table for evaluation purposes only.

1,782 hours is an estimate of the total hours worked annually by FTE staff for this contract; it is not intended as a definition.

o How was the 1782 at number derived as it seems low, as a usual Government man year is 1920 or 1880. The company typically uses 1880 hours per year as equivalent to one FTE.

The total of 1,782 hours is an estimate based on analysis of total current contract hours worked.

o Should we price Base Year and All Option Years for the same hours and units specified under Section A.8? Pricing for the option years should use the same hours and units specified under Section A.8 with two exceptions: reduce Activity 3–Shelving by 13% annually and reduce Activity 3–Retrieving by 10% annually.

o If we are to price based on the units specified in the RFQ section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing table, in the case of retrieving where 37,000 items are specified, should we price for the same 37,000 items in option years or reduce it by 10% in option years based on the discussion in the SOW page 9? Reduce Activity 3 – Retrieving by 10% annually.

o SOW Activity 6 descriptions provides that "The unit price for reformatted pages includes scanning source materials, processing images and metadata, and performing QA/QC on images and metadata. The other activities supporting reformatting will be billed for at an hourly rate.

For the base year of the contract, the anticipated level of effort required for this activity is nine

(9) to twelve (12) full-time Library Technicians." Under RFQ section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing, Activity 6 provides only 1 FTE for HMD and 2 FTEs for BJD, a total of 3. Are the three FTE the estimated LOE to conduct the full work of task 6? Please clarify the pricing instructions for activity 6.

Activity 6 Reformatting – Pages Digitized is to be charged at a firm-fixed price rate per page digitized. The current level of effort for Reformatting – Pages Digitized is nine (9) FTE, distinct from the three (3) FTE referred to under Activity 6 HMD and BJD.

o If the Table provided in section 8 is for hours, Would the government please provide the historical staffing for the following FFP tasks.

Task 3 Shelving – 143,000 hours - Retrieving – 37,000 hours -

Task 4 Binding – 5,500 hours -

Task 6 Reformatting – 548,000 hours -

The numbers provided for Activity 3 Shelving and Retrieving, Activity 4 Binding Preparation, and Activity 6 Reformatting – Pages Digitized are units not hours.

6. Ref: RFP, Section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing, Page 2 and SOW Activity Description There are discrepancies between the quantity provided in RFP Section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing Table and the SOW.

o Please clarify that the Column labeled "Hours" is actually indicating "Quantity" to price for FFP activity.

The numbers provided for Activity 3 Shelving and Retrieving, Activity 4 Binding Preparation, and Activity 6 Reformatting – Pages Digitized are units not hours.

o Should we price the hours and units specified in the RFQ section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing table or should the hours and units be based on information provided in the SOW?

Activity 3 Shelving and Retrieving, Activity 4 Binding Preparation, and Activity 6 Reformatting – Pages Digitized should be priced per unit.

o Is the FTE levels and number of units (i.e., shelving, retrieving, etc) mentioned in the SOW for informational purposes only but pricing provided should be based on the RFQ section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing table? Yes o If we are to price based on the units specified in the RFQ section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing table, in the case of shelving where 143,000 items are specified, should we price for the same 143,000 items in option years or reduce it by 13% in option years based on the discussion in the SOW page 8, Activity 3? Yes; reduce by 13% each option year.

7. Ref: SOW, various sections o Question: will the government confirm that when they use the term “each work day” that they are referring to one (1) work day, for 1 individual (approximately 8 hours)

“Each work day” refers to one (1) work day of approximately 8 hours. The numbers referenced for “each work day” are cumulative totals.

8. Ref: RFP, Section E.2 Management Approach and Personnel; RFP, Section E.3 Past Performance &

Corporate Capability o Question: The 5th bullet of RFP Section E.3 states: “The Offeror will be evaluated on their description of how the company will assume responsibility for all work requirements identified in the SOW and appendices. The description must include an effective communications plan with the on-site Project Manager and the NLM COR or designee(s).” However, the requirement to include an effective communications plan is also cited in E.2 Management Approach. Will the government confirm that this is a requirement for Offeror’s to address in the Management Approach section and that it is NOT a requirement to address in the Past Performance & Corporate Capability section?

The communication plan will be evaluated under Management Approach and Personnel, and not in the Past Performance and Corporate sections of the Technical Evaluation Criteria.

9. Ref: RFP, Section E.3 Past Performance & Corporate Capability o Question: Will the government confirm that the Offeror may include Past Performance contract references from a teaming partner/subcontractor?

Confirmed.

10. Ref: RFP, Section 4 Selection of Vendor o Question: Will the government confirm which proposal elements are deemed more important in the best value evaluation?

A final best-value analysis will be performed taking into consideration the results of the technical evaluation, price analysis, and adequate resources to respond to the Government's need. The Government reserves the right to make an award based on the best value to the Government, technical merit, price, and other factors considered. Technical Factors are more important than cost or price. Selection of the vendor to perform this work will be based on the Government's assessment of the best overall value.

11. Ref: RFP, Section E.3 Past Performance & Corporate Capability o Question: Will the government confirm/provide what the Past Performance rating scale is?

The evaluation factors are listed within the section referenced.

12. Ref: RFP, Section B.5 Submission of Quotation/Deadline o Question: Will the government please extend the proposal due date to 8/28, to allow Offerors to incorporate any items or modifications needed, as a result of the responses to Q&A?

The proposal due date will be extended until 8/24/2020 at 10:00am ET

13. Ref: RFQ, Section A.12 Proposal Preparation, C.1 Preparing the Technical Portion of the Quotation Can an Executive Summary be added to the beginning of the technical proposal and, if so, can it be exempt from the 25-page limitation?

An executive summary will be limited to 2 pages. It is exempt from the 25-page limit count.

14. Ref: RFQ, Section C.1 Preparing the Technical Portion of the Quotation Is this a different requirement than the 3 pages set aside for past performance? If it is, can this be included as an appendix and removed from the 25-page limit?

Past performance shall be excluded from the 25-page count limit.

15. Ref: RFQ, Section A.8 Labor Categories/Pricing

For example, Activity 3 Shelving details 143,000. Is it the Governments estimation that it will take 143,000 hours annually to complete Activity 3 Shelving, or is it 143,000 annual items shelved? If it is the latter and we in fact have to submit Firm-Fixed Price rates for Activity 3 Shelving, this does not coincide with SOW Activity 3: Shelving and Retrieval of Collection Items statement, “During the initial twelve-month base period, the contractor may shelve up to 200,000 items”.

The offeror shall submit pricing for 143,000 items. The Government estimates 143,000 items will be shelved during the base year, however, per the statement of work “the contractor may shelve up to 200,000 items.”

16. Ref: RFQ, page 7

Award type is identified to IDIQ with LH and FFUP. Please share an estimated number of orders, the typical order duration, and average order size.

The Government anticipates one (1) to two (2) task orders will be awarded for the base year and subsequent option years for a twelve (12) month period. The size of each order is dependent on the Government’s need and activities proposed for each order.

17. Ref: SOW, page 8 Statement: The SOW on page 8 for Activity 3 mentions that the contractor may shelve approximately 200,000 items in the base year and that the number of items that need to be shelved and re-shelved may decrease by 13% during each of the following option years.

Question: Does that mean Option Year 1 will have 13% less from the Base Year and Option Year 2 will have another 13% less than Option Year 1? Or does that mean both Option Year 1 and Option Year 2 will have approximately 13% less than Base Year?

Historic data suggests that the number of items shelved will decrease by approximately 13% annually each year. This is an estimate; the number of items shelved and retrieved varies.

18. Ref: SOW, page 12 SOW Activity 6 descriptions provides that "The unit price for reformatted pages includes scanning source materials, processing images and metadata, and performing QA/QC on images and metadata.

The other activities supporting reformatting will be billed for at an hourly rate. For the base year of the contract, the anticipated level of effort required for this activity is nine (9) to twelve (12) full-time Library Technicians." This indicates LH. Under RFQ section A.8, the entire Activity 6 was listed under FFP. Please clarify.

Activity 6 Reformatting – Pages Digitized is to be charged at a firm-fixed price unit rate per page digitized. The current level of effort for Reformatting – Pages Digitized is nine (9) FTE, but the offeror may propose a different level of effort. Activity 6 Reformatting – Pages Digitized is distinct from the three (3) FTE referred to under Activity 6 HMD and BJD.

19. Ref: SOW, page 9 Statement: The SOW on page 9 mentions that the contractor may retrieve approximately 40,000 to 80,000 items in the base year and that the number of items items that need to be retrieved may decrease by 10% during each of the following option years.

Question: Does that mean Option Year 1 will have 10% less from the Base Year and Option Year 2 will have another 10% less than Option Year 1? Or does that mean both Option Year 1 and Option Year 2 will have approximately 10% less than Base Year?

Historic data suggests that the number of items retrieved will decrease by approximately 10% annually each year. This is an estimate; the number of items shelved and retrieved varies.

20. With the current COVID-19 environment and recommendations for social distancing, what is the likelihood Government will require Oral Presentations?

The government intends to schedule teleconferences concluding the initial technical evaluation.

Vendors will be able to schedule a meeting time to respond to clarification questions.

21. Given the current working conditions related to the COVID-19. What is the status of the current contract and activities listed in the RFQ – what work is being conducted on and off the government campus.

In the event of an extended Government facilities closure, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, contractor employees may be authorized to telework. During this time contractor staff activities may change to include telework-suitable assignments such as records maintenance or metadata processing.

22. If the current contract work is reduced, does the government have an estimate as to when the work will return to full operations?

No estimate is available.

23. There is no transition period identified in the RFQ. Would the government allow for a 2-week transition period for the new contractor to on-board all staff, and the starting of day-to-day operations?

The Government desires to avoid interruption of services, including during a contract transition. The anticipated award date is 2 weeks prior to the start of the contract. The vendor may use that period for onboarding.

24. This procurement is being conducted under Simplified Acquisition Procedures in accordance with FAR Part 13.5 and Part 19.8. Please confirm if the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) of $250K apply to all orders under this acquisition?

Per FAR 13.5(a) “This subpart authorizes the use of simplified procedures for the acquisition of supplies and services in amounts greater than the simplified acquisition threshold but not exceeding $7 million ($13 million for acquisitions as described in 13.500(c)), including options, if the contracting officer reasonably expects, based on the nature of the supplies or services sought, and on market research, that offers will include only commercial items.”

https://www.acquisition.gov/content/13500-general#i1111260