ABMCFY26_ESMDeployment Questions and Answers_Aug 24.pdf

RFQ Reference Document Question ABMC Response 1 Is there any incumbent/recompete or this is a brand-new project?

This is a new Freshworks/Freshservice implementation that will replace ABMC's current ManageEngine environment and migrate approved legacy data.

It is not identified as a recompete of an incumbent Freshworks professional-services contract.

2 If yes, could you please provide us with their award number or even if the customer bought similar services in the past.

No incumbent award number applies. The existing environment is ManageEngine; the Part 2 requirement is for deployment, configuration, migration, integration, training, rollout, and sustainment of the newly selected ESM platform.

3 Is Factor 2 limited to contracts held in the offeror's corporate name, or may relevant experience be demonstrated through other means (e.g., proposed personnel, teaming partners, or subcontractors)?

Factor 2 evaluates the offeror's corporate experience and past performance.

Offerors may describe relevant work performed through a teaming arrangement or subcontractor, but must clearly identify the entity that performed the work, its role, and how that experience will be available to this effort.

Proposed-personnel experience is evaluated separately under the Key Personnel subfactor and does not, by itself, replace the required corporate examples.

Questions Due 10AM Eastern, Wednesday August 5, 2026 Freshworks Enterprise Service Management Deployment and Professional Services

4 Are resources from outside of the US permitted to work on the implementation?

Key Personnel performing configuration or administrative work must be based in the United States.

Personnel requiring ABMC system or data access must receive ABMC approval, obtain a favorable Tier 1 adjudication, and use Government-furnished equipment. Other non-access support may be proposed, but the offeror must explain the role and show compliance with all security and access requirements.

5 Most customers prefer to have implementor build 1 or 2 workspaces then take the rest on their own in order to reduce cost. Is that what ABMC would prefer? If so, which workspaces do you want to see on the SOW?

ABMC is not prescribing a fixed one- or two-workspace design. Offerors should propose the workspace/tenant architecture that meets the PWS direction, including ITSM and the departmental workflows for Public Affairs, Human Resources, Historical Services, Operations, Finance, Administration, Collections, and the Appendix A sites. The proposal should explain how the design supports permissions, routing, reporting, maintainability, and phased rollout. ABMC does not intend to build the workspaces with internal staff during this project.

6 Please provide the following responses as they are needed to uderstand the scope of the data migration:

a.What is the name and version of the old system your data is currently in?

b.How many tickets do you anticipate migrating?

c.Are all fields in the tickets required for migration, or only specific ones d.Do you need to migrate attachments, inline images, or linked files?

e.How are ticket relationships managed?

(e.g., parent-child tickets, linked incidents)?

f.Are there any ticket related records (e.g., tasks, approvals) that also need migration?

g.Are there public and private notes as part of the tickets? If yes, should they also be migrated?

h.Do we need to migrate non-discoverable assets from Old System?

i.Are there any relationship between tickets and assets in Old System?

j.What is the expected timeline for this migration?

k.Should the migration be done in phases (e.g., test migration, pilot batch, full migration)?

l.Is there any specific date after which Old System will not be available (end of license

a. The current system is ManageEngine; the specific product/version will be confirmed during discovery.

b. Plan for approximately 15,000 tickets and related records from 2000 to the present.

c. The final required dataset and field mappings will be defined and approved during project meetings.

d. The migration scope includes approved attachments and comments; treatment of inline images or linked files will be confirmed during discovery based on source availability and the approved dataset.

e. Parent-child and linked-ticket relationships must be assessed and mapped where present in the approved source data.

f. Related records in scope include incidents, service requests, changes, problems, assets, users, attachments, comments, knowledge articles, and audit history; tasks and approvals will be included if identified in the approved dataset.

g. Public and private notes/comments will be

7 Please provide more detail on the Public Website Intake Form. What is it? What data passes through it? How is it integrated to current system? Can integration be done via API's or Webhooks? Does it need to be bi-directional? Etc.

The Public Website Intake Form is an external-facing form on an ABMC public website that creates and routes a record in the ESM platform.

CLIN 0001 requires one integration for one of www.abmc.gov, wwiiregistry.abmc.gov, weremember.abmc.gov, or wepreserve.abmc.gov; CLIN 0002 requires two additional public-form integrations.

The configuration must include approved field mapping, routing, CAPTCHA, confirmation messages, validation, and approved file handling. The current integration method is not prescribed.

Offerors should propose a secure, platform-supported approach, including API or webhook use where appropriate. The baseline requirement is inbound record creation and status processing within the platform; bi-directional integration is not required unless ABMC approves it during design.

8 PWS Evaluation Criteria The PWS does not state a set-aside to my knowledge. Is this RFQ set aside for small-business, SDVOSB, socioeconomic category, or is it full and open to all contractors seeking?

The RFQ is a full-and-open acquisition. The SAM.gov notice does not establish a small-business, SDVOSB, or other socioeconomic set-aside requirement.

9 RFQ package Please confirm the RFQ solicitation required submission method/portal, as this was not included in the Part 2 PWS document.

Submit quotes by email to youngj.ctr@abmc.gov and nerenga@abmc.gov, as instructed in the SAM.gov notice.

10 Corporate Experience and Past PerformanceFor the three required Corporate Experience examples, must past work be specifically on the Freshworks/Freshservice platform, or will analogous ITSM/ESM platform implementation experience ( ServiceNow, ManageEngine, other ITSM tools) be considered relevant to this RFQ?

Freshworks/Freshservice-specific experience is relevant but is not stated as an exclusive requirement.

ABMC will consider analogous recent ESM/ITSM implementation experience, including migration, multi-department workflows, multi-site or multi-country deployment, Microsoft 365/Entra ID integration, reporting, training, and sustainment. Offerors should explain the relevance and transferability of each example to this requirement.

11 Proposal Format The Proposal Format section does not specify page limits for Volume I (Technical) or Volume II (Price). Please confirm whether a page limit applies, and if so, whether covers, table of contents, and resumes count toward it.

No page limit is specified for Volume I or Volume II. Offerors should submit concise proposals containing all information required by the Proposal Format section.

Covers, tables of contents, and resumes are not subject to a separate page-count rule because no page limit has been established.

12 Key Personnel, Item 2 PWS-3 states Key Personnel performing configuration work shall be "based in the United States", please confirm whether this requires U.S. citizenship status or refers only to physical work location, regardless of citizenship.

The requirement refers to physical work location, not U.S. citizenship. Key Personnel performing configuration or administrative work must be based in the United States.

Any person requiring ABMC system or data access must also receive ABMC access approval, obtain a favorable Tier 1 adjudication, and use Government-furnished equipment.

13 Security and Compliance Requirements, Item 7Please confirm the sponsoring/adjudicating authority for the required Tier 1 favorable adjudication and the typical processing timeline, as this affects the CLIN 0001 implementation schedule.

ABMC will sponsor and process the required Tier 1 investigation/adjudication through its applicable personnel-security and access procedures after award. ABMC cannot guarantee a specific processing duration. The Contractor should account for access lead time in its schedule; personnel may begin work that does not require ABMC system access before access approval.

14 Acquisition and Platform AssumptionsIf Part 1 (software license) and Part 2 (professional services) are awarded to different vendors, will ABMC establish a specific coordination mechanism or SLA between the two contractors, or is coordination the Part 2 Contractor's sole responsibility?

If Part 1 and Part 2 are awarded to different vendors, the Part 2 Contractor is responsible for coordinating with the Part 1 license provider.

The PWS does not establish a separate inter-contractor SLA. ABMC will provide approvals, approved access and data, validation, and acceptance decisions. If the Part 1 award delays Part 2 performance, ABMC may address the schedule through a written contract modification.

15 PWS-CLIN 0002, Scope Item 3 Given the approximately six-month target for CLINs 0001-0003 across 29 overseas sites (Appendix A), will ABMC consider a phased or prioritized site-onboarding schedule as part of the technical evaluation, or is full onboarding of all Appendix A sites mandatory within CLIN 0002?

A phased or prioritized onboarding sequence may be proposed and implementation CLINs may overlap with ABMC approval.

However, the baseline requirement is to onboard all Appendix A sites under CLIN 0002 unless ABMC approves specific exceptions or deferrals in writing.

The proposed schedule must support the approximately six-month of work implementation period (not including holidays) for CLINs 0001-0003 and will be evaluated for realism.

16 PWS-CLIN 0005, Optional Task Based EnhancementsFor the CLIN 0005 labor categories and hourly rates, will ABMC provide a standard labor category list or template for offerors to price against, or should offerors propose their own labor category structure?

ABMC will not provide a mandatory labor-category template for CLIN 0005. Offerors should propose appropriate labor categories and hourly rates for potential future enhancement work.

Please do not include task pricing for CLIN 0005 at proposal submission; it remains an unpriced placeholder unless activated in writing by the Contracting Officer.

17 Acquisition and Platform AssumptionsABMC states it "will identify the selected platform, edition, and licensed modules before Part 2 performance begins." Please confirm the expected timing of that identification relative to the Part 2 proposal due date, as it affects the specificity of the proposed technical approach.

ABMC will identify the selected platform, edition, and licensed modules before Part 2 performance begins, but does not commit in the PWS to doing so before the Part 2 proposal due date.

Offerors should state reasonable platform assumptions, dependencies, and exclusions in their proposals. Any material post-award change to scope, schedule, configuration, or cost must be addressed through written Contracting Officer direction or contract modification; no adjustment is automatic.

18 CLIN 0004: Operations and Maintenance

Is there an estimated number of hours annually for O&M CLIN?

ABMC is not establishing a fixed annual hour quantity for CLIN 0004.

For pricing, offerors shall use the PWS workload assumption of approximately three to five support days per month and approximately three to five support tickets per month during standard business hours.

CLIN 0004 is firm fixed price and does not include after-hours (Eastern Time Zone) emergency support.

19 Acquisition and Platform Adjustment

The PWS states ABMC will identify the selected platform, edition, and licensed modules before Part 2 performance begins, but pricing is due beforehand. Will ABMC identify the edition and module set prior to proposal due date, or confirm that offerors may state an assumed edition as a pricing assumption with equitable adjustment if the awarded edition differs materially?

ABMC will identify the selected platform, edition, and licensed modules before Part 2 performance begins, but does not commit to doing so before the Part 2 proposal due date.

Offerors should state reasonable platform assumptions, dependencies, and exclusions in their proposals. Any material post-award change to scope, schedule, configuration, or cost must be addressed through written Contracting Officer direction or contract modification; no adjustment is automatic.

20 CLIN 0004: Operations and Maintenance

Will CLIN 0004 O&M Hours begin immediately upon contract award? Or after implementation CLINs have been completed?

CLIN 0004 operations and maintenance begins after CLIN 0003 is completed and ABMC issues the applicable Notice to Proceed. It does not begin immediately upon contract award unless ABMC has completed or otherwise authorized the implementation transition.

21 Volume II: Price Proposal "Does ABMC require specific labor categories for CLIN 0005 rates, or may offerors propose their own? Should rates be provided for all option periods?"

ABMC does not require a mandatory labor-category structure for CLIN 0005. Offerors may propose appropriate labor categories and hourly rates and should provide rates for the base period and each applicable option period.

Please do not propose task pricing for CLIN 0005 at proposal submission; the CLIN remains an unpriced placeholder unless activated in writing by the Contracting Officer.

22 1: Background: Statement of Need "Freshworks deployment shall support ABMC’s enterprise service management (ESM) objectives, including…public intake…" Is the expectation external users will have access to the Freshworks product?

External users may submit requests through approved public-facing intake forms or public requester functionality when required.

ABMC does not anticipate providing external users with agent, administrator, or unrestricted tenant access.

The Contractor shall configure secure public intake, including approved field mapping, routing, CAPTCHA, confirmations, file handling, and role-based access controls.

23 CLIN 0001: ITSM Foundation, Migration, and Initial Workflows

Will ABMC provide an estimated number of service catalog items and distinct workflows required per department, and confirm whether the platform will be configured as a single workspace or multiple workspaces across IT, Public Affairs, HR, Historical Services, Operations, Finance, Administration, and Collections?

ABMC is not prescribing a fixed total number of service catalog items or distinct departmental workflows beyond the baseline processes, departments, sites, and workflow estimates stated in the PWS and Appendix A.

Final counts and detailed requirements will be confirmed during discovery. ABMC is also not prescribing a single- or multiple-workspace architecture; offerors should propose the architecture that best supports permissions, routing, reporting, maintainability, and phased rollout across all named departments and sites. ABMC does not intend to build the workspaces with internal staff during this project.

24 Section 3: Key Personnel Will ABMC identify which PWS activities it associates with the business analyst role, so that offerors can align proposed staffing and resumes to ABMC's expectations?

ABMC does not assign an exclusive list of PWS tasks to the business analyst; offerors should propose a staffing model that covers the full requirement. The business analyst is expected to support discovery and stakeholder sessions, requirements and process analysis, workflow and service-catalog definition, field and data mapping, routing and role design, reporting requirements, test-case and acceptance traceability, documentation, training, and transition activities.

The Contractor remains responsible for performing all required work without shifting execution responsibility to ABMC.

25 CLIN 0004: Operations and Maintenance

How many option years does ABMC anticipate, and should offerors price all option periods at proposal submission?

ABMC anticipates up to four one-year option periods for CLIN 0004 following the one-year base O&M period. Offerors should provide firm-fixed prices for the base O&M period and each option period identified in the RFQ pricing schedule. Exercise of any option is at ABMC's discretion and requires written Contracting Officer action.

26 Security and Compliance Requirements

For integrations with systems outside the ESM platform, including Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune, Exchange shared mailboxes, conditional access policies, and Microsoft Sentinel, will ABMC grant Contractor personnel direct administrative access on Government-furnished equipment, or will ABMC personnel execute configuration changes in those systems at Contractor direction? If ABMC personnel execute the changes, will ABMC confirm this does not constitute reliance on ABMC to configure the platform under Section 4, Item 4?

Contractor personnel may receive approved, least-privilege administrative access on Government-furnished equipment after ABMC access approval and favorable Tier 1 adjudication, but direct administrative access to every connected Microsoft service is not guaranteed.

ABMC will determine the approved access method and may require ABMC administrators to execute changes in Entra ID, Intune, Exchange, conditional access, Sentinel, or other protected systems. Where ABMC personnel execute an approved change, the Contractor remains responsible for the integration design, configuration instructions, documentation, coordination, and testing; this does not shift platform-configuration responsibility to ABMC under Section 4.

27 Acceptance Criteria Acceptance Criteria sections reference Contractor-drafted and ABMC-approved test cases. Will ABMC confirm whether the Contractor executes those test cases with ABMC witnessing and validating results, or whether ABMC personnel execute acceptance testing? Will ABMC confirm that a Contractor-executed system test followed by ABMC-executed user acceptance testing satisfies the testing requirements?

The Contractor shall draft the test cases, obtain ABMC approval, execute required system and integration testing, resolve defects, and document results. ABMC may witness tests, validate results, coordinate user participation, and performs the formal acceptance decision through the COR or Alternate COR.

A Contractor-executed system test followed by ABMC validation or user acceptance testing may satisfy the requirement when the approved test cases and applicable acceptance criteria are met; ABMC participation does not replace the Contractor's obligation to test the platform.