ADDENDUM TO 52.212-1_4.15.25.pdf

ADDENDUM TO 52.212-1

ADDENDUM TO FAR PROVISION CLAUSE

52.212-1— INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS—

COMMERCIAL ITEMS

A. Proposal Submittal and Inquiries.

1. The solicitation (up to and including this and any future solicitation amendments, if any) will constitute the Offeror's complete "proposal" for the subject services and shall be submitted NOT LATER THAN Friday, 23 May 2025, at 08:00 AM Central Standard Time (CST).

2. All proposals shall be submitted electronically via email to the attention of:

Contract Specialist: Tarine Garce, Email: tarine.m.grace.civ@army.mil

Contracting Officer: Jared Kiser, Email: jared.l.kiser.civ@army.mil

3. Offerors shall review the solicitation and its amendments (if applicable) and submit only written questions and/or comments with the Subject Line Reference:

Questions/Comments/Exceptions for BRAC Financial Module, W9124J-25-R-A008 All inquiries, questions and or comments shall be directed to the attention of:

Contract Specialist: Tarine Garce, Email: tarine.m.grace.civ@army.mil

Contracting Officer: Jared Kiser, Email: jared.l.kiser.civ@army.mil

The deadline for the submittal of all Questions/Comments/Exceptions is Friday, 9 May 2025, at 08:00 AM Central Standard Time (CST).

B. General Instructions

1. The selection of a source for award purposes will be conducted utilizing Best Value Subjective Trade off source selection in accordance with FAR Part 12, “Acquisition of Commercial Items,” with procedures as delineated in FAR Part 15.3, “Source Selection” as authorized in FAR 12.203 and supplemented by Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), and the Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS). This acquisition is a 100% Small Business Set Aside under NAICS 541513, Computers Facilities Management Services. Only Firms not exceeding the revenue size standard of $37M are eligible to submit an offer. Offers will be evaluated using the criteria under Addendum to FAR Clause 52.212-2, “Evaluation Factors for Award.” Noncompliance with the Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements may hamper the Government’s ability to properly evaluate the proposal and may result in elimination of the proposal from further consideration for contract award.

2. The Offer. The submission of the documentation specified below will constitute the Offeror's acceptance of the terms and conditions of the RFP, the Performance Work Statement and the proposed contract type.

3. It is the Government's intention to award without discussions. Offerors are encouraged to present their best technical proposal and price in their initial proposal submission. However, in accordance with FAR Part 15.306, should discussions become necessary, the Government reserves the right to hold them. If this occurs, a competitive mailto:tarine.m.grace.civ@army.mil mailto:jared.l.kiser.civ@army.mil mailto:tarine.m.grace.civ@army.mil mailto:jared.l.kiser.civ@army.mil range will be determined and offerors notified. If the Contracting Officer determines that the number of proposals that would otherwise be in the competitive range exceeds the number at which an efficient competition can be conducted, the Contracting Officer may limit the number of proposals in the competitive range to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among the most highly rated proposals pursuant to FAR Subpart 15.306(c).

4. Instructions outlined in paragraph C below, prescribe the format for the proposal, and describe the approach for the development and presentation of proposal data.

These instructions are designed to ensure the submission of necessary information to provide for the understanding and comprehensive evaluation of proposals.

5. If an Offeror believes that the requirements in these instructions contain an error, an ambiguity, omission, or are otherwise deemed unsound, the Offeror shall immediately notify the Contracting Officer in writing with supporting rationale. The Offeror is reminded that the Government reserves the right to award this effort based on the initial proposal, as received, without discussion.

6. In accordance with FAR Subpart 4.8, Government Contract Files, the

Government will retain one copy of all unsuccessful proposals. Unless the Offeror requests otherwise, the Government will destroy extra copies of such unsuccessful proposals.

7. Pursuant to FAR 9.505, two principles that Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) mitigation is meant to address include: (1) Preventing the existence of conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment and (2) Preventing an unfair competitive advantage. Offerors shall disclose any potential OCI situations to the Contracting Officer as soon as identified and prior to any proposal submission. The disclosure shall include the facts and an analysis of the actual or perceived conflict and a recommended approach to neutralize or mitigate the potential conflict(s). The preferred approach to potential conflicts is to negate/obviate the conflict. Mitigation is considered only if it is not practical to negate/obviate the conflict. The Contracting Officer will promptly respond to resolve any potential conflicts

8. All referenced documents for this solicitation are available on the

FBO website at https://beta.sam.gov/. Potential offerors are encouraged to subscribe for real-time email notifications when information has been posted to the website for this solicitation.

9. Debriefings: The Contracting Officer will promptly notify offerors of any decision to exclude them from the competitive range, whereupon they may request and receive a debriefing in accordance with FAR 15.505. The Contracting Officer will notify offerors who were in the competitive range of the source but were not selected for award in accordance with FAR 15.503(b). The Contracting Officer will notify Offerors who are not selected for award in writing. Upon such notification, unsuccessful offerors may request to receive a debriefing in accordance with the requirements of FAR 15.505 (pre-award) and FAR 15.506 (post-award).

10. Period for Acceptance of Offerors. The offeror agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm for 120 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of offers.

C. Proposal Preparation Instructions

1. The Offeror’s proposal shall consist of four (4) volumes:

Volume I: General Volume II: Technical Capability Volume III: Past Performance Volume IV: Cost/Price

2. Proposal Format

(a) Offerors shall submit an electronic copy of their proposal via e-mail.

3. Exceptions. Offerors are required to meet all solicitation requirements, such as terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements, in addition to those identified as evaluation factors found in Addendum to FAR Clause 52.212-2 Evaluation Factors for Award. Failure to meet any requirement in this solicitation may result in an offer being ineligible for award. Any assumption, exceptions, or deviations must be addressed and communicated to the Contracting Officer prior to the closing date of this solicitation, which is Friday, 23 May 2025, at 08:00 AM Central Standard Time (CST).. If the Offeror finds it necessary to take exception to any of the requirements specified in this solicitation, the Offeror shall clearly identify the applicable exception(s) with a complete explanation of why the exception was taken, what benefit accrues to the Government (if any), and its impact, if any, on the performance, schedule, price, and specific requirements of the solicitation. Each exception shall be specifically related to each paragraph and/or specific part of the solicitation to which the exception is taken. Offerors are cautioned that taking an exception without prior approval from the Contracting Officer may render the offer ineligible for award. All exception(s) shall be submitted electronically in the format below.

Table 1 – Solicitation Exceptions

Solicitation Document

Page/ Paragraph

Requirement/ Portion

Rationale & Impact

PWS, Addendum to FAR Clause 52.212- and 52.212- 2, etc

Applicable Page and Paragraph Numbers

Identify the requirement or portion to which exception is taken.

Describe the rationale and impact of the exception.

c. The proposal shall be organized into four (4) volumes. All text shall be single spaced and black font on white background. Black and white requirement does not apply to graphics, photos, Company stationery and logos. Times New Roman or Arial font required. Text shall be a minimum font size of 12. Cross-references should be utilized to preclude unnecessary duplication of data between sections. Page numbers, headers and footers may be outside the page margins and are not bound by the 12 font size but shall be no smaller than 8-point. Additionally, fonts as small as 8-point can also be used in tables, charts, graphs, and figures as well as used in callout boxes and figure captions. Each paragraph shall be separated by at least one blank line. All text pages shall be oriented in portrait. Landscape orientation is acceptable for tables and/or charts if required to properly present the information. Margins shall be at least 1 inch on the top and bottom and ¾ inch on the sides. The Offeror shall number each page. In the event the Offeror creates an ambiguity in their numbering, the Government may exercise its own discretion in counting pages. The proposal shall not exceed the following page limits:

VOLUME TITLE PAGE LIMITS ELECTRONIC

COPIES

Volume I General None 2 copies (1 copy shall be sanitized)

Volume II Technical Capability 40 pages (excluding resumes)

Volume III Past Performance 20 pages 1 Volume IV Cost/Price None 1

d. Proposal Limitation. If the page limits are exceeded, the pages in excess of the limit shall not be evaluated. The Government will not accept any changes to the Offeror’s proposal after the closing date of the solicitation (see FAR 15.208 for further information regarding late proposals). If discussions are necessary, page limitations may be placed on responses to Evaluation Notices (ENs). The specified page limits for EN responses will be identified in the letters forwarding the ENs to offerors.

(e) Page limits include all appendices, charts, graphs, diagrams, tables, photographs, drawings, and other information provided in the proposal.

(f) Page Limit does not include covers for volumes, table of contents, glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, indices, title pages, cross reference indices, and section dividers/tables if they are inserted solely to provide ease to the reader in locating parts/sections of the proposal. Pages will be counted if they contain any other information, i.e. diagrams, extraneous data, etc. Pages marked “This page intentionally left blank” will not be counted.

(g) What counts as a page? A page shall be an 8 ½ X 11” sheet of paper.

When both sides of a sheet display printed material, it shall be counted as two pages.

Letter size and spacing requirements for illustrations and tables can be at the discretion of the offeror but must be easily readable. Fold-outs will be counted as the appropriate number of pages based on an 8 ½” X 11” sheet of paper. Margins shall be at least 1 inch on the top and bottom and 3/4 inch on the side. The Offeror shall number each page in order to eliminate any confusion.

In the event offeror creates an ambiguity in their numbering of pages, the Government may exercise its own discretion in counting pages.

(h) Indexing. Each volume shall contain a detailed table of contents to delineate the subparagraphs within that volume. Tab indexing shall be used to identify sections

(i) Glossary of Abbreviations and Acronyms. Each volume shall contain a glossary of all abbreviations and acronyms used, with a definition for each.

(j) Digital (Electronic) Copy. One electronic copy must be submitted via email. The digital copy shall be submitted using any Microsoft (MS) Office Suite 2003 through 2013 Word, PowerPoint or Excel format. With the exception of letters and signature pages, if submitting a copy in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document File (PDF) format, the document must be searchable. Electronic copies that are not searchable will not be accepted and the proposal may be rejected as non-responsive. All price breakdown information to aid in the cost/price evaluation shall be submitted in MS Office Excel format and viewable in MS Excel 2013. Offerors shall ensure electronic copies are virus-free. Sound or video (e.g. wav, mpeg, etc.) files shall not be embedded into the proposal files. The use of hyperlinks is prohibited. The file name shall be “Company Name, Volume Name, Initial Proposal”. Proprietary information shall be clearly marked. Files shall not contain classified data.

(k) The Government will not accept any changes to the contractor’s proposal after the closing date of the solicitation. See FAR 15.208 for further information regarding late proposals. If discussions become necessary, page limitations may be placed on responses to Evaluation Notices (ENs). The specified page limits for EN responses will be identified in the documentation forwarding the EN(s) to the offeror.

(l) Unacceptable Content. Failure to follow the proposal preparation instructions may cause the proposal to be deemed unacceptable by the Government.

4. Proposal Content:

(a) Volume I – General. The General volume shall contain the completed

SF 1449, Solicitation, Offer and Award, Solicitation/Contract, Supplies or Services and Prices, Contract Administration Data, Representations, Certifications and Other Statements of Offerors. Each offeror shall complete the indicated solicitation sections, fill-in blocks, and signatures. An authorized official of the firm shall sign the SF 1449 and all certifications requiring original signature in a PDF file. Electronic signatures are authorized.

This volume must include all Representations, Certifications, and Other Statements of Offerors not included in the System for Award Management (SAM) record. All final monetary extensions shall be in whole dollars only. Failure to follow the below Contract Proposal preparation instructions may cause your proposal to be deemed unacceptable by the Government. The General Volume shall be organized as follows and contain the identified information.

TAB A, Exceptions/Assumptions (if required) - Identification and explanation of any Contracting Officer approved exceptions or deviations. Additionally, any assumptions used in the proposal preparation must be identified.

TAB B, Solicitation, Offer and Award - Offerors shall include a cover letter providing the name, title, and telephone number of the company/division point(s) of contact regarding decisions made with respect to your proposal and who can obligate your company contractually. Also, identify those individuals authorized to negotiate with the Government. The Proposal must be fully completed to include completing the “Offer” section (page 1 of the SF1449) and Section B - Supplies or Services and Prices Contract Line Items. Offerors are cautioned that the Offer must contain an original signature in the “Name and Title of Person Authorized to Sign Offer - Signature” block (block 17). This must be an electronically signed PDF copy or be manually signed and scanned to PDF. Offerors shall acknowledge any amendments to the RFP in accordance with FAR clause 52.215-1(b), Instruction to Offerors - Competitive Acquisition, and FAR 52.212-1 and FAR 52.212-2 of the RFP.

TAB C, Section B (Supplies or Services and Prices/Costs) - Section B shall be submitted fully completed and error free. It shall contain the offeror’s prices for the established Contract Line Items Numbers (CLINS).

TAB D, Representation, Certifications, and Other Statements of

Offerors – If not included in SAM or elsewhere in the proposal, offerors must complete FAR provisions 52.204-8, Annual Representations and Certifications; 52.219-1, Small Business Program Representations (Alt I), 52.222-22, Previous Contracts and Compliance Reports; 52.209-7, Information Regarding Responsibility Matters, and DFARS provision 252.204-7007, Alternate A, Annual Representations and Certifications. Offerors shall ensure that these provisions are thoroughly completed with all blocks in each certification/representation completed truthfully, accurately, and completely.

TAB E, In the event the Offeror is a joint venture, the Offeror shall provide a copy of the JVA signed by all partners. The JVA shall specify the rights and responsibilities of each partner and shall identify the managing partner. In addition, the Offeror shall provide a summary narrative that specifically delineates what each partner will do in regard to performing the contract. The responsibilities of the managing partner are significantly more important than the responsibilities of all other partners combined.

In the event the Offeror will be subcontracting with another or multiple businesses, the Offeror shall certify that at least 50 percent of the cost of the contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the Small Business in accordance with FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting.

(b) Volume II—Technical Volume:

(1) The Technical Volume shall be clear, concise, and include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims in the Offeror’s proposal. Legibility, clarity and coherence are very important. Your responses will be evaluated against the Technical factors defined in Addendum to FAR Clause 52.212-2, “Evaluation Factors for Award.” The proposal should not simply rephrase or restate the Government’s requirements, but rather shall provide convincing rationale to address how the Offeror intends to meet these requirements. Statements that the Offeror understands, can, or will comply with the PWS (including referenced publications technical data, etc.);

statements paraphrasing the PWS or parts thereof (including applicable publications, technical data, etc.); and phrases such as “standard procedures will be employed” or “well known techniques will be used,” etc., will be considered unacceptable. Offerors shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities and experience, and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror’s proposal. Elaborate brochures or documentation, detailed art work, or other embellishments are unnecessary and are not desired.

(2) The Technical Volume shall, at a minimum, be prepared in a form consistent with the Performance Work Statement and the evaluation criteria for award set forth in Addendum to FAR Clause 52.212-2, “Evaluation Factors for Award.” of this solicitation. The section shall be prepared in an orderly format and in sufficient detail to enable the Government to make a thorough evaluation of the Offeror’s technical competence and ability to comply with the contract task requirements specified in the PWS.

The Offeror shall address as specifically as possible the actual methodology used for accomplishing the PWS tasks. Any assumptions, exceptions or deviations must be addressed and communicated to the Contracting Officer no later than instructed above. The volume shall be organized according to the following general outline:

-Table of Contents -Technical Volume -Resumes

Factor 1: Technical Capability:

a. Section 1- Technical Experience (Subfactor 1). At a minimum, the proposal shall clearly describe, demonstrate and address each of the following specified requirements:

i. Demonstrate technical and functional knowledge related to the tasks listed in the PWS Part 5.

ii. Provide relevant experience and knowledge of Microsoft Azure cloud environment, Windows 2012 datacenter, SQL server 2014, IIS 8.5 for the IaaS environment, the Azure app and the Azure SQL services from Microsoft Azure (used for PaaS environment).

b. Section 2 - Staffing Plan/ Personnel Qualifications and

Experience. (Subfactor 2). Within this Subfactor, the narrative shall include:

i. the resume for the key personnel, which is Program Manager (PM) . The resume for the PM shall have necessary background, skills, capabilities, education requirements and technical experience that meet the standards outlined in the PWS paragraph 1.6.18.

ii. Provide a proposed Staffing Plan to include resumes, certifications, and signed contingent offer letters of employment for all personnel proposed, to include certifications associated with the following database and applications: Microsoft Azure cloud environment, Windows 2012 datacenter, SQL server 2014, IIS 8.5 for the IaaS environment, the Azure app and the Azure SQL services from Microsoft Azure ( used for PaaS environment), DoD approved 8570 Baseline Certification, IA Technical Level II (GSEC or Security+ CE or SSCP or CCNA-Security) and CE/OS Certificate,

iii. estimated hours of the proposed personnel to adequately minimize risk and successfully complete the requirements of the PWS.

iv. a practical staffing approach that can be implemented and demonstrates the Offeror 's ability to be fully staffed within 30-day phase-in period.

v. The proposal shall identify the Contractor to Sub-Contractor arrangement (if one exists) proposed to accomplish the tasks in the PWS. If all work is completed by the Contractor, the proposal shall state it. The Offeror shall certify that at least 50 percent of the cost of the contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the Small Business in accordance with FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting.

c. Section 3- Management Control/ Quality Control Plan (Subfactor

The proposal shall include a narrative explaining in detail the Offeror’s quality control approach and processes that clearly demonstrate their understanding of the requirements and how they plan to ensure an effective and appropriate quality control program for timely and continuous delivery of products and services outlined in the PWS Technical Exhibit 1, Performance Requirements Summary (PRS) and Technical Exhibit 2, Deliverables Schedule.

(c) Volume III - Past Performance (Factor 2): The Past Performance evaluation will be accomplished by reviewing aspects of an Offeror's recent and relevant Past Performance, focusing on and targeting performance, which is relevant to the effort as it directly relates to the work being procured under this solicitation and as defined in Addendum to FAR Provision 52.212-2. The Offeror shall submit the following information for no more than ten recent and relevant contracts within the past five years. This volume shall not exceed 20 pages. Offerors shall submit information regarding Government contracts for the prime offeror, teaming or joint-venture partner currently in performance or which performance was completed during the past five years from the proposal due date.

Recent performance is defined as projects completed within the past five (5) years, from the proposal due date. Relevant performance is defined as work completed on projects of similar in size, scope, and complexity as those described in this Solicitation.

(1) The Offeror shall include documentation regarding their relevant past performance as it directly relates to the work being procured under this solicitation. The Offeror SHALL NOT go back any farther than 5 years for the submitted data. The past performance data shall document a successful history of past contract performance.

(2) In conducting the Past Performance evaluation, the Government reserves the right to use both the information provided in the offeror’s Past Performance Volume and information obtained from other sources, such as the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) or similar systems, DCMA and commercial sources.

(3) Offerors are reminded that both independent data and data provided by offerors in their proposals may be used by the Government to evaluate offeror past performance. However, the burden of providing thorough, complete, and current past performance information as requested in this paragraph remains with the offerors.

Proposals that do not contain the information requested by this paragraph risk rejection or a less than acceptable performance rating by the Government. In the case of an offeror without any relevant past performance history, Offeror’s without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information will not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance and, as a result, will receive an “Neutral Confidence” rating for the Past Performance factor. A strong record of relevant present and past performance may be considered more advantageous to the Government than a “Neutral Confidence” rating.

(4) All past performance comments received will be taken into account and could affect the overall rating. The overall past performance evaluation is a subjective decision based on the whole of all data received. Offerors with no past performance may provide the equivalent information on company officials and/or personnel proposed for this action. If the offeror has no relevant past performance, they will be rated as “Neutral Confidence” rating.

(5) Submission Requirements. The offeror shall submit a Past Performance

Volume containing the following:

• Table of Contents

• Summary Page: list of the contracts in the Past Performance

Volume

• Consent Letters executed by each subcontractor, teaming partner, and/or joint venture partner, authorizing the release of past performance information so the offeror can respond to such information. A sample consent letter is attached as Attachment 1).

• Contract Description:

(a) Contract Number and if applicable, Task or Delivery Order

Number(s)

(b) Contract Type (specific type such as Fixed-Price, Cost-

Reimbursement, Time & Materials, etc.). For Indefinite-Delivery contracts, indicate the specific type (Requirements, Definite- Quantity, or Indefinite-Quantity) and secondary contract type (Fixed-Price, Cost-Reimbursement, Time & Materials, etc.)

(c) Contractor place of performance, Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code and Data Universal Number System (DUNS) Number. If the work was performed as a subcontractor, also provide the name of the prime contractor and Point of Contact (POC) within the prime contractor organization (name, current address, email address, and telephone numbers).

(d) Awarded price/cost

(e) Final or projected final price/cost

(f) Original delivery schedule, including dates of start and completion of work

(g) Final (or projected final) delivery schedule, including dates of start and completion of work.

(h) Government contract administration activity and the

Administrative Contracting Officer's name, current email address, and telephone numbers

(i) Government’s technical representative/Contracting Officer’s Representative name, current email address, and telephone numbers

• Contract Narrative: Offerors shall provide a specific narrative explanation of each contract listed in Section 1, Contract Descriptions, describing the objectives achieved and detailing how the effort is relevant to the requirements of this solicitation.

d. Volume IV – Cost/Price (Factor 3) Price will not be scored or rated. The Price volume shall consist of all information required to support proposed price. The Price volume should be based on the period of performance as follows: one (1) months of phase-in, eleven (11) months of Base year, twelve(12) month Option year I, twelve (12) month Option Year II, twelve (12) month Option Year III and twelve (12) month Option Year IV. The offeror shall ensure that the information submitted in this volume is consistent with and fully supports the amounts set forth in the Standard Form (SF) 1449, and is consistent with the technical capability, Volume II.

(1) The offeror shall complete Attachment 2 “CLIN Pricing ” Failure to complete Attachment

2 may deem an offeror to be noncompliant. All information relating to the proposed price must be included in electronic format. Electronic versions of the Price proposal shall be submitted by an e-mail in a format compatible with Microsoft Office as further delineated below, and files should not be read only or password protected. All Excel formulas, lookup tables, and links should be intact, and no links should exist to files not included with the submission. Excel workbooks should not contain hidden spreadsheets. PDF or flat files will not be considered adequate. Failure to comply with these formatting requirements may result in rejection of your proposal.

(2) Certified cost or pricing data is not anticipated for the award of this contract since adequate competition is anticipated; however, the Government reserves the right to request such information should it become necessary consistent with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 15.4, Contract Pricing.

(3) The volume shall be organized as follows and contain the identified information: Blocks

19-24 of the SF 1449 shall be submitted fully completed and error free and shall contain the offeror’s total price for each established Contract Line Items (CLINS). All final monetary extensions shall be in whole dollars only.

ADDENDUM TO 52.212-2

ADDENDUM TO FAR PROVISION 52.212-2 “EVALUATION - COMMERCIAL ITEMS”

A. BASIS FOR AWARD

1. This is a best value (Lowest Price Technically Acceptable) source selection conducted in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.3, Source Selection, as supplemented by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), and the Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS). Award will be made to a single offeror who is deemed responsible in accordance with the FAR, whose proposal conforms to the solicitation requirements, and whose proposal, judged by an overall assessment of the evaluation criteria and other considerations specified in this solicitation, represents the Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable offer.

Any questions received after the deadline of Friday, 9 May 2025, at 08:00 AM Central Standard Time (CST) outlined in Addendum to FAR Provision 52.212-1, will NOT be addressed/ evaluated.

2. As a basis for award, trade-offs between price and non-price factors are not permitted. Unreasonably proposed prices may be grounds for eliminating a proposal from competition.

Award will be made on the basis of the technically acceptable proposal with the lowest price (LPTA).

The Government will evaluate the offerors’ technical proposal to determine whether it satisfies the minimum for successful contract performance. In order to be considered for award, offeror’s technical proposal must be an “acceptable” rating in every non-priced factor.

The Government will evaluate proposed prices for price reasonableness. Proposed prices evaluated as unreasonable may be grounds for eliminating an offer from competition. Price analysis techniques will be used to determine the total evaluated price to support the selection of the lowest price technically acceptable offeror.

The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award a minimum of one (1) contract without discussions with offerors. Therefore, the offeror’s initial proposal should contain its best terms from a technical and price standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to make clarifications, request revised offers, or hold discussions, if later determined by Contracting Officer to be necessary. The Government may reject any or all offers if such actions are in the public interest and/or waive informalities and minor irregularities in the submitted offers.

B. FACTORS AND SUB-FACTORS TO BE EVALUATED

1. Evaluation criteria consist of three (3) evaluation factors. The proposals will be evaluated under the following evaluation factors:

Factor 1: Technical Capability

Subfactor 1: Technical Experience Subfactor 2: Staffing Plan/ Personnel Qualifications and Experience.

Subfactor 3: Management Control/ Quality Control Plan

Factor 2: Past Performance

Factor 3: Price

The Technical Capability factor will receive one overall adjectival rating for the Management Approach and

Staffing Approach located in Table 1. The Past Performance factor will receive one overall adjectival rating located in Table 2.

2. The Offeror’s past performance will be evaluated utilizing an acceptable or unacceptable evaluation methodology. In order to be considered for award, an offeror shall be rated acceptable for the past performance factor.

C. EVALUATION APPROACH

1. Mission Capability (Factor 1) The Government’s technical evaluation team will evaluate Offeror’s responses to determine either technically acceptability or technically unacceptability (price excluded). In order to be considered technically acceptable, Offeror’s response shall demonstrate a clear understanding of the requirement in all areas and a practical/functional technical approach that meets the needs of the PWS. Failure to meet the criteria will render the contractor’s response to be technically unacceptable and will not be considered for award.

The technical proposal shall include, at a minimum, the following information:

a. Subfactor 1- Technical Experience: The Offeror’s technical experience will be evaluated for:

i. demonstrated technical and functional knowledge related to the tasks listed in the PWS Part 5;

ii. Completeness in providing relevant experience and knowledge of Microsoft Azure cloud environment. Windows 2012 datacenter, SQL server 2014, IIS 8.5 for the IaaS environment, the Azure app and the Azure SQL services from Microsoft Azure (used for PaaS environment)

b. Subfactor 2- Staffing Plan/ Personnel Qualifications and Experience. : The Offeror’s staffing plan will be evaluated for:

i. completeness in submitting the resume for the key personnel, which is Program Manager (PM) .

The resume for the PM will be evaluated for necessary background, skills, capabilities, education requirements and technical experience that meet the standards outlined in the PWS paragraph 1.6.18;

ii. completeness of the proposed Staffing Plan for resumes, certifications, and signed contingent offer letters of employment for all personnel proposed, to include certifications associated with the following database and applications: Microsoft Azure cloud environment, Windows 2012 datacenter, SQL server 2014, IIS

8.5 for the IaaS environment, the Azure app and the Azure SQL services from Microsoft Azure ( used for PaaS environment), DoD approved 8570 Baseline Certification, IA Technical Level II (GSEC or Security+ CE or SSCP or CCNA-Security) and CE/OS Certificate.

iii. Completeness in providing estimated hours of the proposed personnel to adequately minimize risk and successfully complete the requirements of the PWS.

iv. practicality of the staffing approach that can be implemented and demonstrates the Offeror's ability to be fully staffed within 30-day phase-in period.

v. completeness in providing the Contractor to Sub-Contractor arrangement (if one exists) proposed to accomplish the tasks in the PWS. If there is no Sub-Contractor, the proposal will be evaluated for stating so.

Additionally, the proposal will be evaluated for certification that at least 50 percent of the cost of the contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the Small Business in accordance with FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting.

c. Subfactor 3 Management Control/ Quality Control Plan : The Government will evaluate:

i. Completeness of the Offeror’s quality control approach and processes that clearly demonstrate their understanding of the requirements and how they plan to ensure an effective and appropriate quality control program for timely and continuous delivery of products and services outlined in the PWS Technical Exhibit 1, Performance Requirements Summary (PRS) and Technical Exhibit 2, Deliverables Schedule.

d. Technical Capability Ratings

Table 1. Technical Capability Ratings.

Rating Description

Acceptable Proposal clearly meets the minimum requirements of the solicitation.

Unacceptable Proposal does not clearly meet the minimum requirements of the solicitation.

2. Past Performance (Factor 2): The Past Performance evaluation will assess the offeror’s probability of meeting the solicitation’s requirements as indicated by that offeror’s record of past performance. Past Performance is assessed at the factor level after evaluating aspects of the offeror’s recent past performance and focusing on performance that is relevant to the services being procured under this solicitation. Offerors are cautioned that in conducting the performance risk assessment, the Government may use data provided in the offeror’s proposal and data obtained from other sources, such as: the Contract Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) or similar systems, the Defense Contract Management Agency and State Department Watch Lists; and, interviews with Program Managers, Contracting Officers, and Fee Determining Officials.

a. Each offeror will receive a performance confidence assessment rating based on the Offeror’s recent past performance, focusing on performance that is relevant to the Contract requirements.

b. Recency Assessment. An assessment of the past performance information will be made to determine if it is recent. To be recent, the effort must be ongoing or must have been performed during the past five (5) years from the date of issuance of this solicitation. Past performance information that fails this condition will not be evaluated.

c. Relevancy Assessment. To be relevant, the effort must be similar in nature of work, size, and complexity. The Government will conduct an in-depth evaluation of all recent performance information obtained to determine if it is the same or similar in nature, size, and complexity to the services/products being procured under this solicitation. Recent past performance is defined as not more than five (5) years from the RFP release date;

relevant in terms of similar nature of work, size, and complexity to the effort (as compared to NAICS code 541513, Computers Facilities Management Services) required by the RFP.

d. Offerors without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available or so sparse that no meaningful past performance rating can be reasonably assigned, the offeror may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance (see FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv)). Therefore, the Offeror shall be determined to have unknown (or "neutral") past performance. In the context of acceptability/unacceptability, unknown (or "neutral") rating shall be considered "acceptable."

e. Assigning Ratings. The Past Performance Factor will be assigned one of the ratings defined in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Past Performance Evaluation Ratings

Rating Description Acceptable Based on the offeror's performance record, the

Government has a reasonable expectation that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort, or the offeror's performance record is unknown.

Unacceptable Based on the offeror's performance record, the Government does not have a reasonable expectation that the offeror will be able to successfully perform the required effort.

3. Price (Factor 3). The prices proposed in Blocks 19-24 of the SF-1449 will be evaluated for reasonableness and balance in accordance with (IAW) FAR 15.404-1(a) and (b). Through these techniques, the Government will determine whether prices are reasonable, complete, and balanced. As part of price evaluation, the Government will evaluate its option to extend services (see FAR Clause 52.217-8) by adding six (6) months of the offeror's final option year price to the offeror's total price. Offeror shall not submit a price for the potential six month extension of services period. The Government may choose to exercise the Extension of Services at the end of any performance period (base or optional ordering periods), utilizing the rates of that performance period. The evaluation of each twelve-month period shall not obligate the Government to continue the service.

a. Reasonableness: A price is reasonable if, in its nature and amount, it does not exceed that which would be incurred by a prudent person in the conduct of competitive business. The existence of adequate price competition is expected to support a determination of reasonableness. Other price analysis techniques in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b) may be used to further validate price reasonableness. If adequate price competition is not obtained or if price reasonableness cannot be determined using price analysis of Government obtained information, additional information in accordance with FAR 15.402(a) may be required from the Offeror to support the proposed price. Unreasonably high proposed prices may be grounds for eliminating a proposal from competition.

b. Unbalanced Pricing – Offerors are cautioned against submitting an offer that contains unbalanced pricing. Unbalanced pricing exists when, despite an acceptable total evaluated price, the price of one or more contract line items (including Basic and Option Years) is significantly overstated or understated as indicated by the application of cost or price analysis techniques. Offers that are determined to be unbalanced may be rejected if the lack of balance poses an unacceptable risk to the Government.

c. Total Evaluated Price – For evaluation purposes, the Total Evaluated Price

(TEP) will include the prices in the phase-in period, base period, 1st option, 2nd option, 3rd option, 4th option and 1/2 of the 4th option period.