Attachment_1-Media_Management_and_Monitoring.docx

ATTACHMENT 1

ATTACHMENT 1

SECTION B – SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES

SERVICES

The contractor shall provide all supervision, personnel, equipment and other items and/or services necessary to provide media management and monitoring support services for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as set forth in Section C – Statement of Work (SOW).

PRICES OF SERVICES UNDER THE CONTRACT

The NTSB anticipates awarding one (1) firm-fixed price type contract for a 12-month base period and up to four 12-month option periods as provided in Section B for a total performance period of up to five (5) years. Services shall be performed at the contractor’s facility.

Period of Performance: 07/21/2018 – 07/20/2019 Description: Review Attachments 1 and 2, 3, and 4 which are attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

Period of Performance: 07/21/2019 – 07/20/2020 Description: Review Attachments 1 and 2, 3, and 4 which are attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

Period of Performance: 07/21/2020 – 07/20/2021 Description: Review Attachments 1 and 2, 3, and 4 which are attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

Period of Performance: 07/21/2021 – 07/20/2022 Description: Review Attachments 1 and 2, 3, and 4 which are attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

Period of Performance: 07/21/2022 – 07/20/2023 Description: Review Attachments 1 and 2, 3, and 4 which are attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

TOTAL ESTIMATED CONTRACT VALUE

Total Estimated Base Year Price

Total Estimated Option Year 1 Price

Total Estimated Option Year 2 Price

Total Estimated Option Year 3 Price

Total Estimated Option Year 4 Price

Total Estimated Contract Value (Base Year plus 4 Option Years)

[END OF SECTION]

SECTION C – STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW)

MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND

MONITORING SUPPORT SERVICES

BACKGROUND

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in the other modes of transportation -- highway, marine, railroad, and pipeline -- and issuing safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents.

The Media Relations Division (SRC-10) of the Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications (SRC) is responsible for all facets of media relations supporting NTSB operations, initiatives and strategic organizational goals. Effective media relations requires several tools including; (1) A news release dissemination platform, (2) A media contacts management system, (3) A news clips service, (4) mainstream media monitoring (across broadcast and cable television, daily, weekly and monthly print media, online media, news bloggers and news radio) and media analytics (data that describes/quantifies media coverage and the condition of the information environment), and (5) user support to include training on use of the contractor’s supplied tools. These five (5) tools are the minimum necessary for SRC-10 to maintain situational awareness of the condition of the information environment, enabling staff to provide sound media relations counsel to our customers, and provide media relations services required by NTSB customers (board members, office directors, senior leaders, investigators in charge, etc.). These tools are critical to SRC-10’s ability to accomplish its mission – to tell the NTSB story and build understanding of, and support for, the NTSB mission through outreach to the public via the media. As such, SRC-10 has a requirement for an outsourced, subscription based, enterprise solution to its media relations support needs.

In the age of digital information, SRC-10 public affairs practitioners must be perceived as the best, most credible and responsive source of information about the NTSB, if they are to build support for an understanding of the NTSB and its mission. Whether engaged in day-to-day operations or an accident investigation launch, SRC-10 public affairs practitioners need modern and sophisticated tools to effectively communicate in the digital environment and to understand what is being said about the NTSB, who is saying it, who is talking about the agency, how people are being influenced, how quickly information is being shared, and how they can best engage in the narrative.

Acquisition of a service that provides the five (5) critical tools allows SRC-10 to continue its move from output-based measures (numbers of releases, events, photos, videos), to outcome-based measures (earned media by subject, by channel, by geography, by target audience, levels of engagement, influencers, trending stories, topic trends, etc.) In addition, a daily news briefing/news clips product, that is curated, summarized and analyzed by humans familiar with the NTSB’s mission and its work, best meets the critical information needs of the agency’s senior leadership.

In summary, acquisition of an enterprise media relations support tool provides SRC-10 the means to provide the level of customer service necessary to support the world’s premiere accident investigation agency.

SCOPE OF WORK

SRC-10 seeks a firm fixed-price, web-based, subscription service compatible with the NTSB standard windows-based workstation as well as Android and iOS mobile devices that meets applicable Federal and NTSB security protocols, that provides:

1. A news release dissemination system

2. A media contacts management system

3. Human Curated and Summarized Daily Newsclips

4. Media Monitoring & Analytics

5. User Support

1. News Release Dissemination System: The contractor shall provide a news release distribution system that allows for targeted engagement of media using distribution lists managed by the SRC-10 staff within the platform. The platform shall allow for development of a news release template featuring formatting and branding as desired by the NTSB. The system must accommodate multi-media releases that include digital video and imagery. The NTSB requires a system that allows for an unlimited number of news releases per contract period. The news release system must be able to access and use distribution lists created by NTSB users in the media contacts management system. The system shall allow for an unlimited number of addressees for a news release. The contractor shall analyze the results of issued news releases to determine the “bounce back” rate to identify out-of-date contacts and eliminate or update outdated contact information. The system shall provide the NTSB with readership statistics for each release issued detailing; (a) which addressees opened the release, (b) date and time the release was read, (c) open rate, (d) click to open rate and (e) unsubscribe rate. The contractor shall allow NTSB users the ability to update contacts on-demand when NTSB users receive updated contact information not yet publicly available. The system must provide an archive of issued releases allowing for search and retrieval of issued releases throughout the duration of the contract.

2. Media Contacts Management System: The contractor shall provide a media contacts management system that allows NTSB users to develop and maintain an unlimited number of news release distribution lists created from contacts contained in the contractor’s database and from contacts added by NTSB users. The created distribution lists must be exportable for use in the news release dissemination system and other common applications such as Microsoft Excel and Outlook. The contractor’s contact management system shall allow NTSB users to search the database for top influencers and top journalists using a keyword search of published articles, in addition to searches by contact name, outlet name, “beat”, location or type (newspaper, magazine, online, radio, TV) of outlet. The contractor’s media contacts database must include robust niche (relative to NTSB mission and issue) publication points of contact in addition to mainstream media and digital journalists. The contractor’s database must have both national and international contacts. The NTSB expects a contacts database to have more than 300,000 valid U.S. contacts and more than 500,000 internationally.

The system shall allow NTSB users to create and save notes to document and archive previous engagements with specific journalists or outlets. The contractor shall allow NTSB users the ability to update contacts on-demand when NTSB users receive updated contact information not yet publicly available.

3. News Clips Service: The contractor shall provide a daily (Monday - Friday) curated and summarized news clips product, created by an analyst or team of analysts, that accurately captures, summarizes and curates the breadth of earned national and international media coverage of NTSB activities, and, transportation issues relevant to the agency’s lines of business. The newsclips product will be delivered by email to NTSB employee subscribers (up to 435 people) by 0700 eastern. Production of the daily news summaries must utilize human analysts/editors to find, review, and summarize articles and broadcast coverage from all major daily newspapers (including premium paid access content) national, local and cable television, news weeklies, magazines and trade journals, internet sites, and blogs. The critical information requirements of senior leadership and key personnel within the NTSB are best met through receipt of an expert-edited, daily news briefing, that integrates important elements of news stories (from broadcast, print and online sources) across the nation, rather than full-text articles or automated news gathering processes. Search terms used to gather relevant content must be customizable to the NTSB, and easily changed/updated throughout the life of the contract. The contractor must have access to more than 50,000 traditional sources of news from U.S. and international outlets. The contractor shall provide a newsfeed for use on the NTSB’s intranet site that is customizable to NTSB specifications and seamlessly integrates with the NTSB’s intranet site’s platform. The contractor shall provide a daily news clips product featuring the NTSB branding and categories of content established by the NTSB (e.g., aviation investigations, maritime investigations, Most Wanted List, PIREP Forum, Legislation, Policy, etc.). The contractor shall work in partnership with NTSB users to develop appropriate keyword searches designed to capture the maximum amount of coverage about issues identified by NTSB users. The news clip product shall allow recipients to view broadcast, online, and cable news clips by clicking an icon or link, the video content must be in a format compatible with the NTSB standard workstation and NTSB issued mobile devices. The news clip product must be archivable and retrievable by NTSB users. NTSB users require the ability to add, delete or edit keywords at any time during the contract period. The contractor is responsible for the storage, access to and backup of archived materials. The contractor must provide international media in an English language format for the clips and must, at a minimum, be able to translate media in and out of 10 languages and monitor media in more than 50 countries. The contractor must provide the means to create keyword searches in foreign languages and characters to facilitate robust collection of relevant articles.

4. Media Monitoring & Analytics: SRC-10 requires a media monitoring and analytics tool that analyzes articles captured using keywords submitted by NTSB users and in concert with the contractor’s support team. NTSB users require historical media data from which to benchmark as part of the communication research and planning processes. The contractor shall be able to provide quantifiable data, for keywords, topics or issues submitted by NTSB users, dating back to calendar year 2016. NTSB users require the ability to create breakdowns of the data (historical and current) by topic or keyword, and to develop graphic representations of the data including spread of coverage by geography, volume, growth, sentiment, key messages, key themes or by source or outlet. The contractor shall provide NTSB users with a “reporting dashboard” that is customizable by users and includes graphic representation of data, and the raw data, as selected by NTSB users. This dashboard must be easily exported into other office software such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and others. NTSB users shall be able to create archive folders to store, tag and organize an unlimited number of articles and reports. NTSB users require an unlimited number of search criteria and keywords for use in obtaining relevant articles.

5. User Support: The contractor shall provide NTSB users with a team of consultants to facilitate the establishment of all searches in the system, development of search terms based upon critical information requirements of senior leadership for use in creating the daily news clips, create customized reports, create customized templates, disseminate news to NTSB staff and provide ongoing consulting and unlimited training and support for NTSB users for the entirety of the subscription. Consultants must be, at a minimum, available from 0900 – 1800, Monday through Friday. The contractor must provide a 24-hour/7 days per week Online Help Desk for NTSB users. Customer support for NTSB users shall also include user guides (online and printable), online demos of all tools in the system, on site and virtual trainings and a FAQ section.

DELIVERABLES

1. The NTSB requires seven (7) seats for the system, with a capability to have at least 4 users logged in at the same time.

2. Onsite training, for use of the system, shall, at a minimum, be conducted within 30 days of the award of the contract.

3. The Media Relations Division Chief, Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications Director and Deputy Director, and Media Relations staff will determine the acceptability of services and products provided by the contractor, including user support and news clips service. The NTSB’s Executive Officer and board member special assistants will also help determine acceptability of the news clips service.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The contract will begin on or around July 21, 2018 and will be valid for 12 months. The NTSB seeks four (4) subsequent option periods of one (1) year each, for a potential total period of performance of up to five (5) years.

QUALIFICATIONS

The contractor shall have substantial experience in providing the five (5) tools described herein to federal government agencies that generate significant amounts of earned media coverage and significant social media engagement.

SECTION 508 COMPLIANCE

Review Attachment 4 which is attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

OTHER GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

The contractor is responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable federal and NTSB security protocols, compatibility with NTSB web browsers and compatibility with NTSB issued mobile devices.

CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE (COR)

To be provided after award

SECTION L – PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

GENERAL INFORMATION

The NTSB solicits your proposal for media management and monitoring support services. This Request for Proposal (RFP) will result in the award of one (1) firm fixed-price type contract for one (1) base year with four (4) option years.

NOTICE AND INSTRUCTION TO CONTRACTORS

Offerors are required to meet all the requirements of the solicitation, including but not limited to instructions, conditions/notices, and requirements in the SOW. Proposals should address each factor(s) as described below. Proposals that fail to address the essential requirements of this solicitation or are unrealistic in terms of technical content, schedule commitment, or price will be deemed to have an inherent lack of technical competence or indicative of a failure to comprehend the requirements, or the complexity and risks associated with the requirements. Stating that the proposal meets the requirements of the solicitation is not sufficient. The Government may reject any proposal that is so lacking in competence or in understanding the requirements that without a major reformation of the proposal it is not adequate for evaluation purposes. Alternate/conditional proposals may result in a proposal being rejected as non-responsive. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions. Offerors are cautioned that they must submit a best offer with the initial proposal.

In responding to this solicitation, contractors shall submit a contract proposal in three (3) separate parts: Technical Capability, Past Performance, and Price.

PART I TECHNICAL CAPABILITY

The technical proposal shall include the following sections:

1. Executive Summary An Executive Summary of the contractor’s proposal is required. This summary will not be evaluated but will be used to gain an understanding of the overall proposal contents. It should identify and highlight significant features of the proposal and include the salient points contained in the various volumes and chapters. Each contractor should include a General Information section in the Executive Summary that addresses the following: 1) company name and address, 2) Company Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), 3), Dun and Bradstreet’s number, and 4) CAGE code.

2. Technical Capability This section describes the contractor’s overall understanding of the requirements, including the soundness, appropriateness, and reasonableness of the overall approach to performing media management and monitoring support services. This portion of the proposal includes the following sub-factors:

2. Technical Approach: A contractor’s technical approach describes the degree to which the contractor’s technical and management capability satisfies all five (5) media management and monitoring support services requirements in the SOW and demonstrates that the contractor has a clear understanding and knowledge of the requirements in the SOW and how to achieve them in a logical, feasible, and technically effective manner. In addition, the contractor’s technical approach shall address the following requirements:

0. Newsclips: A panel of Office Directors, Deputy Directors and senior leadership will, in consultation with the Chief of Media Relations, compare sample news clips packages to determine the capability of contractors to meet the critical information requirements of the NTSB’s senior leadership. Contractors shall prepare two (2) examples, from two (2) separate days of their envisioned news clips package. The following minimum requirements should be incorporated in the sample product:

0. News Categories:

0. Active Investigations – This section provides a summary of media coverage for accidents where the NTSB is currently on scene.

0. Aviation – News about NTSB aviation safety activities. News captured in 1.a shall not be replicated in this section.

0. Highway –News about NTSB highway safety activities. News captured in 1.a shall not be replicated in this section.

0. Rail, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials – News about NTSB RPH activities. News captured in 1.a shall not be replicated in this section.

0. Marine Safety – News about NTSB marine safety activities. News captured in 1.a shall not be replicated in this section.

0. NTSB Senior Leadership – News about/mentions of NTSB senior leaders (Board Members, Office Directors, Managing Director) News captured in other sections should not appear here.

0. General Transportation News – News about transportation industry that is of general interest to the NTSB. This may include topics such as federal regulatory activity, new technologies, or issues of relevance to the NTSB and transportation safety.

0. Legislative News – News about Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and other oversight or appropriations committee’s that affect the NTSB.

0. The submitted samples should be devoid of the contractor’s branding, to ensure an impartial evaluation. Any contractor branding will be redacted prior to the technical review.

0. The submitted samples should be routed in the format and manner in which the service would deliver daily clips. The samples should be delivered to bryan.moy@ntsb.gov.

0. Other Services under the SOW: Contractors should be prepared to provide a demonstration of the other services detailed in the SOW. Demos shall not exceed 30 minutes in duration. Performa, generic online video/slide demonstrations are acceptable in lieu of hosted demos. It is anticipated that demonstrations shall occur on or around the week of June 4, 2018.

2. Federal Government Experience: Contractors shall provide at least three (3) examples demonstrating experience in curating and summarizing daily media coverage for agencies generating significant amounts of earned media coverage in performing media management and monitoring support services similar in scope to this requirement. The contractor must describe the scope, magnitude, and complexity of prior and ongoing experience similar to the stated requirements, over the past three (3) years and provide references for each. Indicate the recipient of the service(s), when the service(s) was provided, and the type of service(s) provided, including the scope of the work and deliverables that were provided. Contracts listed must include those entered into with the Federal Government.

Include the following information for each contract:

(1) Customer Name and Address

(2) Contract Number

(3) Contract Award Date and Completion Date

(4) Contract Type

(5) Total Contract Period of Performance and Dollar Value

(6) Contracting Office Points of Contact (name and telephone number)

(7) Technical Office Points of Contact (name and telephone numbers)

(8) Brief Description of Services Provided

There is no limit on the number of pages for Part I – Technical Capability.

PART II PAST PERFORMANCE

Contractors shall ask their references provided under Technical sub-factor b, Federal Government Experience to complete the Past Performance Questionnaire (Attachment 2) and submit it directly to Bryan J. Moy via email at bryan.moy@ntsb.gov or via fax: (240) 752-6262. It is the contractor’s responsibility to ensure that Past Performance Questionnaires are completed timely and submitted by customer references, and that correct names, addresses and phone numbers are provided in the responses for each reference. A contractor will not be penalized in the evaluation with an unfavorable rating for the failure of its past performance references to complete and submit the Past Performance Questionnaires. The Government may contact contractors’ customer references or use other references/information to verify past performance.

There is no limit on the number of pages for Part II - Past Performance.

PART III PRICE

The price proposal shall consist of a firm fixed yearly price to provide the support services described in the SOW for a base year with four option years. Contractors shall complete the tables in Section B-2 of the solicitation and submit it with their proposal. Prices will be evaluated but not scored. Prices will be evaluated by adding together the base year price and all option year prices.

There is no limit on the number of pages for Part III - Price.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Your proposal must be received no later than 4:00 p.m., Eastern Time (ET), on May 29, 2018. LATE PROPOSALS MAY NOT BE CONSIDERED in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision 52.212-1.

Offers shall be transmitted via email to:

The maximum file size that the NTSB email server can accept per email, including attachments, is 15 megabytes (MB). Therefore, the contractor may send each proposal part in a separate email, if the combined file size of the entire proposal will exceed 15MB.

All questions regarding this combined synopsis/solicitation shall be directed to Bryan J. Moy via email at the address listed above. ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 4:00 p.m. EDT ON May 21, 2018.

ELECTRONIC DISSEMINATION OF COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS

Access to this solicitation and amendments will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website: www.fbo.gov. All contractors are cautioned that it is your responsibility to frequently check back to the website to ensure that you have received all issued amendments.

SECTION M – EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

The Government may award one (1) firm fixed-price contract to the responsible contractor whose contract proposal that conforms to the solicitation, will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other non-price factors considered, such that it provides the best value to the Government. Best value is defined as the procurement process that results in the most advantageous acquisition decision for the Government that is performed through an integrated assessment and trade-off analysis between price and non-price factors.

The Government reserves the right to reject any or all contract proposals if such action is in the public interest. Under a best value procurement, the NTSB may reasonably determine that the superior solution/approach merits a higher price and, therefore, represents the best value to the Government or the NTSB may reasonably determine that the contractor with other than the highest rating in non-price factors is the best value. The Government may waive informalities and minor irregularities in contract proposals. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions. Contractors are cautioned that they must submit a best offer with the initial proposal. To receive an award, a contractor must be determined to be responsible.

EVALUATION FACTORS

The following factors will be evaluated by the Government:

The sub-factors under Technical Capability are evaluated adjectively. The Government will evaluate the sub-factors in Part I based on the contractor’s capability and approach to meeting the requirement as stated in the SOW. A contractor’s capability and approach describes the degree to which the contractor’s technical capability satisfies all the requirements in the SOW and demonstrates that the contractor has a clear understanding and knowledge of the SOW requirements and how to achieve them in a logical, feasible, and technically effective manner. Contractors are cautioned that despite the relative weight of the non-price factors, proposals that receive an unacceptable in Part I may be deemed ineligible for award.

Technical Capability will be evaluated by two (2) panels. Panel 1 will evaluate the contractor’s submitted news clips samples. The panel will be comprised of members of the NTSB’s senior leadership and/or their representatives, and the Chief of Media Relations. The panel will evaluate each submission to determine how likely is the product to meet the critical information requirements of the NTSB’s senior leadership, ease of reading, quality of summaries, ease of accessing broadcast clips and online content. Branding of the clips by the vendor is discouraged and any submitted sample featuring contractor branding, will have the branding redacted prior to evaluation by the panel, to help ensure an objective and impartial evaluation of clips products. Panel 2 will evaluate the other four (4) tools detailed in the SOW. Panel 2 will be comprised of the Director, Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications, the Chief of the Media Relations Division, and the Media Relations staff.

Past Performance will be evaluated and will be rated Acceptable or Unacceptable. The Government will assess the relevance, breadth and quality of the contractor’s recent past performance with clients whom have purchased similar services and evaluate the quality of the contractor’s past performance based on the past performance references submitted on behalf of the contractor and/or other information obtained from references provided by the contractor, as well as other relevant past performance information obtained from other sources known to the Government. A contractor without a record of past performance or for whom information on relevant past performance is not available will be evaluated as neutral. Contractors are cautioned that despite the relative weight of the non-price factors, proposals that receive an unacceptable in Part II may be deemed ineligible for award.

The Technical Approach sub-factor is more important than the Federal Government Experience sub-factor within Technical Capability. Technical Capability is of more importance than Past Performance. All evaluation factors other than price, when combined, are significantly more important than price. However, as proposals become more equal in non-price factors, price becomes more important.

Price is not rated adjectively. Price will be evaluated but not scored. For evaluation purposes, prices will be evaluated by adding together the firm-fixed base year price and the four (4) firm-fixed option year prices. Contractors shall complete the tables in Section B-2 of the solicitation and submit it with their proposal. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

Pricing will be evaluated to determine whether the proposed pricing is realistic for the support services being purchased; reflect a clear understanding of the requirements and are consistent with the approach described in the contractor’s technical proposal. As part of its price evaluation, the Government specifically reserves the right to evaluate the risk associated with any pricing schemes.

Price proposals will be evaluated to determine the reasonableness of a contractor’s proposal. Evaluation may include analysis to determine a contractor’s comprehension of the solicitation requirements, as well as, the validity of a contractor’s approach. A price that is found to be unreasonably high or unrealistically low in relation to the proposed support services may result in the proposal receiving a lower rating or a contractor’s proposal may be rejected if the pricing poses an unacceptable risk to the Government.

[END OF SECTION]