RFP 9Q0TDBNS200 Q and A rev3.pdf

RFP 9Q0TDBNS200

Local Services Acquisition (LSA) for the State of California

Revision 3 09/09/2010

I. Vendor Questions and Government Answers

The following are answers to vendor questions that were received as of September 09, 2010.

This is a cumulative list of all questions and answers to date.

Item

Number

Question

Answer

1 I noticed you have tentatively set

August 25, 2010, as a pre-proposal conference for the new LSA. Will you be able to firm this soon so travel plans can be completed?

The pre-proposal conference has been rescheduled and will be held on

Wednesday, September 1, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM local time.

2 Have you confirmed the pre proposal conference date of August 25 and at what time of the day do you anticipate starting the meeting?

Please see #1 above.

3 Has there been a firm date established for the pre-proposal conference to discuss solicitation number

9Q0TDBNS200?

Please see #1 above.

4 Can you please advise who are the current contract holders of the LSA contract for California? I would like to obtain that information and clarify if a conference is scheduled for the 25 th of

August.

The contract holders for the current local dial tone contract for the State of California are:

Cox Business Services, SBC Global Services Inc. dba

AT&T Global Services, and

Verizon Federal Inc.

5 Has the solicitation (9Q0TDBNS200) for the Local Services Acquisition

(LSA) for the State of California been posted yet? If so, where can I find the documents for the solicitation?

The solicitation is being posted on

August 17, 2010, and is available on the Federal Business Opportunities website at https://www.fbo.gov/. All documents are posted under the solicitation number.

6 I was wondering if there is a WORD version of the subject RFP that could be posted for vendors to respond.

A WORD version of the RFP is not available for posting. Although the

.pdf files can be converted to text files, offerors are urged to refrain from responding by restating portions of the RFP in their proposals.

7 Certain transport circuits (See CLIN

A071) between locations that are off our network present difficulties in pricing as the price will be determined by several factors including cost to

Offerors shall provide pricing for services that they currently provide to commercial customers. For items not listed in the Government-provided price schedules, offerors build to the sites, underlying carrier costs and distance between sites.

Taking these factors into consideration will the government accept a response of ICB (Individual Case Basis) for transport circuits and then ask for individual bids from the various contract awardees?

can add new items. All items proposed by offerors must be priced or shown as $0.00. Any items proposed under an ICB cannot be accepted because the Government is prohibited from accepting unpriced items under contract.

8 If each vendor must provide pricing for the transport circuits will the vendor be expected to honor that price even though the variables described above make providing the circuit unprofitable? Or can the vendor no bid due to unprofitability?

Yes, this contract is intended to be a fixed price contract for the base and all option periods. Offerors should offer pricing for items that they currently provide to their commercial customers at established prices.

9 CLECs are sometimes dependent on other carriers to provide circuits in order to fulfill their customer‟s request for service. In this instance a 5 business day installation timeframe is not possible. Would the government be willing to allow more time for installation of services that are off network for the provider?

Yes, during the ordering process, the

Government will consider quotes with longer delivery schedules if the due date for completion of work can be met and the price is favorable to the Government.

10 When there is more than one awardee on a contract how does the government determine which vendor provides the various services?

Please refer to Section G, G.2

(particularly G.2.2) for a description of the Government‟s ordering process.

11 Can you please let me know if GSA will provide a bridge #?

The audio bridge number is 415-

744-8822. It will be available throughout the preproposal conference. No password is needed.

There is a limited number of ports.

Those wishing to use the audio bridge should send me the names, titles and contact information of attendees so I can ensure there is an adequate number of ports.

12 Is a complete list of TNs available? A complete list of TNs is not available at this time.

13 Is there a maximum value for these services or will the value be based on offers received?

The maximum value is $110 million for all awarded contracts.

14 Is there a Project Manager for this requirement?

The GSA project managers are Elena

Fung and David Bischof. Please refer to Section L, L.4, of the RFP.

15 Will a recording of the conference be available afterwards?

No, a recording of the conference is not available.

16 A.5 Proposals are to be submitted to the address in Block 8 on SF33. Please confirm proposals are to be submitted to address in Block 7 since Block 8 is blank.

If Block 8 is blank, then use the address in Block 7.

17 B.1.1 “This contract specifically excludes reimbursement to the

Contractor for travel and other direct costs.” This statement appears to contradict H.17, Other Direct Costs

(ODC). Please confirm that Other

Direct Costs (ODC) as defined in H.17 are reimbursable.

If non-contract items are included in a Contractor‟s quote pursuant to

G.2.1 of the RFP and those non-contract items are consistent with the description in H.17, they are reimbursable. B.1.1 will be amended to alleviate the conflicting text.

18 B.2.1 Are Contractors limited to the 1-

10 tiers where the contractor commercially provides service?

Yes. If more than 10 tiers are necessary, you may need to use separate price schedules in lieu of tiers and identify each price schedule accordingly.

19 C.1.1, last paragraph “Service locations, as dictated by the dynamics of the Government, may be expanded or reduced over the contract period.”

Please provide an example of how the service location may be expanded and provide an example of how the service location may be reduced.

“Service locations” are Government locations, which change over the life of the contract.

20 C.2.1, first paragraph “The Contractor shall ensure the services provided under this contract do not require the end users to purchase common service premise equipment.”

Please define „common service premise equipment‟.

Please confirm this requirement is not applicable under the following scenarios; 1) an agency changes from

PBX to non-PBX or reverse situation,

2) an agency changes from one provider to another, 3) an agency changes to a newer technology

“Common service premise equipment” includes items such as shelves, cabinets, CSUs, power supplies, and termination blocks.

Except for items under Price

Schedule D, it is not the

Government‟s intent to purchase equipment under this contract.

Therefore, regardless of the situation, the Contractor is responsible for providing all common equipment necessary to deliver the services ordered by the

Government.

21 C.2.7 A Voice Mail access number and

/or "Forward To" number must be

When ordered by the Government, “call forwarding busy” and “ring no provided with Call Forwarding Busy and Ring No Answer features.

Therefore, is it the Government's intent that with each order the Government will provide the "Forward To" number and/or order Voice Mail service? In order for the Message Waiting Indicator feature to be included in the required bundled features, Voice Mail service is required. Is it the Government's intent that Voice Mail service should be included on every new single Centrex line?

answer” calls shall go to the voice mail box identified on the order. If none is available, the Contractor‟s quote and Government‟s order should include adding voice mail. If voice mail is not provided, then the message waiting feature need not be provided.

22 C.2.7 The feature bundle includes Call

Pickup, consisting of two components.

The Call Pickup GROUP component does not apply per station, it applies per group. Would the GSA please clarify and consider removing this from the bundle?

If ordered, “call pickup (group and per station)” applies to the installation of more than one line with features or the addition of one or more lines to an existing group.

23 C.4 Please clarify what equipment installation the GSA wants the vendors to coordinate?

If necessary to deliver service to the

Government, the Contractor must coordinate the installation of its equipment with the GSA or appropriate Government representative at the applicable site.

24 C.5.1 The industry standard for some voice services is CAT3. Where the industry standard does not require

CAT5 cabling, will the government be willing to pay the premium price for

CAT5 cabling?

The type of cabling required by the

Government will be specified on the

Government‟s request for quote and the Contractor shall provide pricing on its price quote (see G.2.1).

25 G.3 Contractor Invoices If the

Government intends to use the

Contractor‟s commercial billing system and invoice process, will this negate the requirement for CLIN structured billing in cases where the commercial biller cannot support?

No. All Contractor invoices must meet the minimum requirements specified in G.3, including all subsections therein. In addition, Amendment 01 to the RFP provides specifications for electronic billing records.

26 J.2 Glossary “Service locations, as dictated by the dynamics of the

Government, may be expanded or reduced over the contract period.”

Please define Service Location.

See Answer #19. There is no change to the Glossary.

27 Attachment J.3 The Government has Attachment J.3 contain sources for indicated there are prices stated for (a)

General Services Administration (GSA) and also for (b) U.S. Department of the

Interior, National Park Service. Vendor is unfamiliar with associated prices and handling fees and is unclear how they apply and when those documents would be needed and who would be charged for the associated costs. Please provide further clarification as to when these charges apply, how they apply, to whom they apply and how they will be charged.

reference documents related to historical buildings. The prices are for copies of those documents.

Please contact the listed entities if you need to acquire documents related to work in historical buildings.

28 J-4 Will the Government clarify what it expects to see in the “proposal reference” column of the Requirements

Matrix? Page number, proposal paragraph number, etc?

It would be beneficial to GSA if each offeror used the matrix to identify at least the volume and page number of its responses to the listed

RFP sections.

29 L.7.2.1 General “Offerors shall submit an original hard copy and an electronic version of all documents on four (4)

CD-ROMs (all documents on each of the four CDs).” This direction appears to conflict with L.7.2.3 where “no reference to price” should be contained with the Technical Proposal. Please clarify.

Pricing should only be provided in

Volume IV. No pricing information is needed in Volume II. All four volumes must be on each of the four

CD‟s.

30 L.7.2.4 Price Proposal V. 111 If providing a price with decimals beyond just two would afford the Government a better price, would the Government consider accepting as compliant? (Ex., usage)

If an offeror is taking exception to the instructions for rounding prices to two decimal places, the exception must be addressed in Volume I in accordance with L.7.2.2, bullet #3.

31 I got the impression that the pricing that we submit should be our on-net pricing without including costs for having to buy access from other carriers. Is that right?

The Government does not specify on-net or off-net services. The offeror should explain the types of services being proposed in Volume

II (see L.7.2.3). Except for fees and surcharges on Price Schedule E, all proposed prices must firm fixed prices requiring no further adjustment as a result of tariff or other price changes during the contract period.

32 The briefing provided talked about Yes, all carrier switches shall have

NSEP. Does the government expect all carrier switches to have the capability to switch calls with the 700 NPA?

the capability to switch calls with the

700 NPA.

33 Section B.2.1 references tiered pricing.

Does GSA prefer the addition of sub-

CLINs to identify different tiers or a separate pricing table for each tier?

See Answer #18.

34 Section B.2.1 (a) and (b) reference

“identified geographic areas.” Who will identify these geographic areas, GSA or the bidder?

The offeror shall identify the geographic areas in Volume III (see

L.7.2.4.1).

35 Is a list of service addresses available to enable more precise pricing? If not, does GSA have NPA/NXX information?

GSA is providing a list of

NPA/NXXs in Attachment J under

Amendment 01 to the RFP.

36 Will the LSA provide inter-market solutions (i.e., SF to LA) typically considered under Networx?

If offered, GSA will evaluate for technical acceptability.

37 How should contractors represent

EUCL (End User Common Line

Charge), as part of the service charge, or in the Fees and Surcharges section of the pricing tables?

If the EUCL charge is a mandated fee or surcharge, please list it in

Price Schedule E.

38 Why is the contract period, including all options, for five years instead of a longer period such as eight years?

The contract period complies with

GSAM 517.204(a).

39 Can offerors propose ICB (Individual

Case Base) pricing?

All pricing, regardless of basis or methodology, must be clearly shown in dollars and cents.

II. Pre-proposal Conference

A pre-proposal conference was held on September 1, 2010, at the GSA Regional Office in San

Francisco. A list of attendees and copies of the handout are provided either as part of this document or as separate documents.

III. Amendment 01 to the RFP

The RFP is amended as described on the Standard Form 30 and subsequent pages therein. Please ensure your offer includes an acknowledgement of Amendment 01.

IV. Due Date and Time for Receipt of Proposals

There is no change to the October 20, 2010, 2PM local time, due date and time for receipt of proposals.

Pre-proposal Conference on September 1, 2010, from 1 PM to 3 PM

List of Attendees

Name, Title Company

Raymond Hill, Senior Account Executive – Federal Integra Telecom

Valencia Reaves, Director, Civilian Govt tw telecom

Jeffrey Jackson, Director, Operations – SF tw telecom

Matt Clay, City Sales & Marketing Manager, SF tw telecom

Earl Spiegel, Account Manager 3 CBM GOV AT&T

Ellie O‟Dea-Sportelli, Tech SLS CNSLT 3 GOV AT&T

Bailey Hartmeyer, Sales Manager GOV AT&T

Mary Fischer, Dir. Customer Contracts AT&T

Marla Cruse, Sr Market Development Mgr AT&T

Sheila Noonan, Capture Manager AT&T

Mark Matarazzi, Sr Customer Contracts AT&T

Candace Weber, Project Manager AT&T

Chad Wong, Sr Customer Contracts AT&T

Marquetta Brown AT&T

David Sorce, Area Mgr – Customer Service AT&T

Rachel Rybarczyk, Product Manager Cox Business

David Horowitz, Carrier Access Manager Cox Business

Dan Gallagher, President, Government Markets Innovative Government Telecom

Solutions

Mark Steinhorn, Business Solutions Director Innovative Government Telecom

Solutions

Zachary Grant, Director of West Coast Operations MetTel

Polina Gerard, Marketing Manager MetTel

Jerry Wall, Consultant Hogan and Wall Consulting

John O‟Connor Verizon

Jo Ann Lew, Sr. Contracting Officer GSA FAS AOD (9QZA)

Elena Fung, Technology Project Advisor GSA FAS NSD (9QTCA)

David Bischof, Technology Project Advisor GSA FAS NSD (9QTCA)

Erin Conaty, Contract Specialist GSA FAS AOD (9QZA)

Jennifer Forman, Contract Specialist GSA FAS AOD (9QZA)

Tyler Wang, Contract Specialist GSA FAS AOD (9QZA)

Sherwin Jew, Project Integrator GSA, FAS, NSD (9QTCA)

Chris Matthews, Branch Chief GSA FAS AOD (9QZA)

Emma Andreoli, Contract Specialist GSA FAS AOD (9QZA)