Answers to Questions.pdf

Answers to Questions:

1. Whether companies from Outside Canada can apply for this? Yes (like,from India or USA)

2. Whether we need to come over there for meetings? Meeting will be held virtually

3. Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside Canada? Yes (like, from India or USA)

4. Can we submit the proposals via email? Yes – see RFQ specs

• How Many FEC Users require access to the Vendor’s platform (i.e.: 5 Users)?

Up to three users from the FEC’s Press Office will need to access the vendor’s platform in order to disseminate the daily newsletter.

• In addition to Editorial news content and social media, does the FEC require the ability to monitor and track live TV and Radio clips?

We don’t need to track live clips but previously recorded clips will be important to capture.

• Is there a need to monitor and track Podcast coverage?

Yes, this would be helpful.

• In regard to the daily newsletter (specifically 3.1), is the FEC looking for the Vendor to provide a human curated and reviewed deliverable or is the FEC looking for a platform to assist FEC users in selecting and distributing the best news coverage of the day?

The latter. FEC Press Office staff will curate and review news coverage before it is disseminated to the agency each morning.

• Does the FEC require access to a media database for building media lists and distributing press advisories?

No.

• While we understand that the FEC requires the ability to monitor social media, does the FEC also require the ability to integrate owned social media channels for scheduling and management of social media content?

No.

• In addition to the email newsletter deliverable, does the FEC require the ability to stream news content internally in near-real-time?

No.

• Does the FEC require the ability to configure ad-hoc searches on topics at any point in time?

Yes.

• Given the diverse nature of the US population, does the FEC require the ability to track and capture multilingual content (including non-latin characters)?

No.

• Does the FEC require a mobile app for all of its authorized users of the Vendor’s platform?

This is not a requirement.

• Is there a requirement to track for coverage prior the period of performance? If so, how many years of retroactive news data is required?

No.

• In regards to 3.2, can the FEC confirm if it requires an unlimited number of saved keyword searches?

While we often perform ad hoc searches, our main saved keyword searches number around two dozen.

We would like the option to expand this number if need be but we don’t anticipate a large volume of saved keyword searches.

• Does the FEC require that the Newsletter template be branded to match internal FEC fonts, colors, and formatting requirements?

This is not a requirement, but we would prefer a newsletter that incorporates the FEC logo, colors, and formatting.

In an effort to provide competitive pricing and include volume discounting, can the Government provide the number of users by contract year?

For each contract year, up to three users from the FEC’s Press Office will need to access the vendor’s platform in order to disseminate the daily newsletter to up to 340 agency staff members.

• Are the required services currently being provided by an existing contractor / technical solution? Is this requirement a re-competition of an existing contract? If yes, will the Government identify the incumbent contractor?

The required services are currently being providing by an existing contractor, but the vendor notified the agency that it will no longer be supporting the application in the future. This application is Bloomberg Convergence.

• Is the Government interested in receiving proposals which include professional services as part of the proposed solution? These services may include social media analysts / specialists or subject matter experts to assist the Press Office in reviewing and analyzing each periodically compiled report prior to dissemination to relevant FEC stakeholders?

No.

• Can the Government quantify the number of employees, within the Press Office, who will require access to the selected system on a daily basis? This informs licensing cost estimation.

disseminate the daily newsletter to up to 340 agency staff members.

• Will staff outside of the FEC’s Press Office require access to the selected system? This informs licensing cost estimation.

• Does the Government anticipate individual users requiring different levels of access to the selected system / solution? For example, does the Government anticipate the need for a class of users with “super user” or “administrative” privileges and a class of users with more limited system rights?

compile, review, and disseminate the daily newsletter to up to 340 agency staff members.

• Will each member of the Press Office have the ability to directly contact the selected contractor’s customer service team? Or, will requests for support be routed to the selected contractor by a single designated contact within the FEC Press Office (i.e. COTR, Project Manager, etc.)?

We don’t have a preference.

• Can the FEC clarify their intent (or policy) related to accessing material / content behind paywalls? Does the FEC intend to provide credentials for material / content only available behind paywalls? Does the Government require the selected system to have “built-in”, or “subscribed” access to content behind paywalls? If yes, is the Government able to identify a list of “paywall-ed” content for which access will be either required or desired?

The FEC has separate subscriptions to outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Business Insider, Bloomberg Government, and Wall Street Journal. The FEC has been able to access content via news monitoring vendors that are licensed to provide content from behind the paywalls of some media outlets.

• Paragraph 3.3 of the PWS indicates the selected system “…should, when possible, be able to provide full-text articles for publications that are behind a paywall for up to 340 FEC staffers.” Should industry interpret this question to mean that the selected system will be accessed by up to 340 FEC staffers? Or, should industry interpret this question to mean that users of the system, within the FEC Press Office, will expect the system to provide these full text summaries in response to their system use and that the dissemination / sharing of this content, to 340 FEC staffers, will be handled by Press Office staff outside of the system itself? This informs licensing cost estimation.

The latter. Up to three users from the FEC’s Press Office will need to access the vendor’s platform in order to compile, review, and disseminate the daily newsletter to up to 340 agency staff members. The FEC has separate subscriptions to outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Business Insider, Bloomberg Government, and Wall Street Journal. The FEC has been able to access content via news monitoring vendors that are licensed to provide content from behind the paywalls of some media outlets.

• In the RFQ, 2nd paragraph on page 2, offerors are instructed to provide, with their proposal, “a sample newsletter (see para 3.5 PWS)”. Para 3.5 of the PWS describes a technical requirement for the system to have the “capability to add news items to a designated newsletter category / section and be able to organize the order of items within a category.” Is the Government able to provide greater clarity with respect to what they desire to see in a “sample newsletter”? What is described in para 3.5 of the PWS is a functional requirement not a description of the Government’s desired newsletter construct or contents.

See sample attachment of what the FEC’s Press Office currently disseminates to its staff.

1. Can the FEC provide an example of the deliverables described in the RFQ?

See sample attachment of what the FEC’s Press Office currently disseminates to its staff.

2. Would the FEC be open to a daily news brief with a custom narrative manually written/curated by the vendor company and its human analyst staff, a compilation of news items with summary excerpts pulled directly from the news articles or something else?

See the attached sample.

3. Does the FEC currently have a vendor providing a similar service? If so, what is the solicitation number, company name, contract value and original period of performance?

The required services are currently being providing by an existing contractor, but the vendor notified the agency that it will no longer be supporting the application in the future. This application is Bloomberg Convergence.

4. What are the main risks or issues that the FEC has faced with past service providers? What are the FEC’s biggest concerns with the execution of this scope of work?

The FEC’s Press Office experienced some technical issues with the current application such as slowness, timing out, and unreliability of receiving timely news alerts. We also experienced difficulties at times with the newsletter being received by agency staff.

5. Can the FEC confirm the expectation that vendors provide full-text news articles in this statement of work? We take copyright licensing very seriously and are unable to share full text in an email or on our platform unless approved by the publisher or provider in our licensing agreements. A lot of tier 1 news outlets protect their content behind pay walls for the same reason and don’t allow the sharing of full text by 3rd parties.

The expectation is that the vendor will provide full-text news articles in the majority of cases and that in the remainder of cases there is a mechanism for incorporating news articles accessed via the FEC’s subscription.

6. Does the FEC currently maintain any online paid subscriptions that would allow them to see news coverage that the vendor links to in the deliverable that may be behind a paywall?

Yes, agency staff have access to some paywall news journals such as the Washington Post, Bloomberg Government, Business Insider, and the New York Times.

7. Does the FEC have a list of Top media outlets that are a must have?

Bloomberg Government, Bloomberg Law. (Business Insider costs $100/year. It’s very affordable compared to the others.)

8. Are there any news outlets or types of news outlets that should be avoided or left out?

9. Please confirm if you would need Broadcast Media monitoring included with Print, online and social media.

Online and social media.

10. Does the FEC currently have a partnership agreement with Dow Jones (including Wall Street Journal) In order to be in legal compliance with Dow Jones, any shared news content including the headline of the article URL, the FEC and the vendor must both have existing partnership agreements with Dow Jones.

No, the FEC does not have a partnership agreement with Dow Jones. We do have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.

11. What are the expectations around real-time alerts, can you elaborate on this workflow?

Similar to how Google Alerts work, we would like to be notified by email within a reasonable time period whenever a new item on the Internet mentions “Federal Election Commission” or the names of the Press Office staff and agency’s commissioners.

12. Can you share a few examples of the keyword searches FEC is currently utilizing?

“campaign finance”

“Federal Election Commission”

“FEC”

“federal employees”