BSM_RFP_Q A2.docx

USDA Business Services Management Version 2.0

42. QUESTION: What data goes in the REFERENCES column on the Validation and Evaluation forms?

GOVERNEMENT RESPONSE: Reference information related to the verbiage noted.

43. QUESTION: Sections 12.3 and 12.5 are duplicates. Is the correct text for one of these Sections missing from the RFP?

GOVERNEMENT RESPONSE: RFP has been corrected.

44. QUESTION: RFP Reference: Section 7.2.1 Minimum: Will the first Delivery Order use the full $1,700,000 funding?

GOVERNEMENT RESPONSE: Not necessarily.

45. QUESTION: Will the first Delivery Order be awarded for the solution proposed in Contractor’s response to the Case Study?

GOVERNEMENT RESPONSE: Only in that the Basis of Award includes an evaluation. The Case Study will be evaluated both technically and price-wise. However, it is fictitious and provides requirements of other potential customers.

46. QUESTION: Are Contractors required to complete columns 21, 22, 23, and 24 on the SF 1449??

GOVERNEMENT RESPONSE: No.

47. QUESTION: Please confirm the Government will pay in full, and at the start of the first year, for the full three/five year period of Extended Warranty/Maintenance service when ordering from an Extended Warranty/Maintenance CLIN. The OEM pricing is based on the number of years covered by the initial payment, not by the total duration of the extended warranty/maintenance period.

GOVERNEMENT RESPONSE: Yes, the price of an extended warranty is paid up-front, but funding obligations must comply (Continuing Resolution, Anti-Deficiency Act, etc).

48. QUESTION: Section 3.1.5.9 Disaster Recovery Plan. Is the SaaS provider’s disaster recovery plan document included in the Contractor’s initial proposal submission, or with subsequent Delivery Order proposals for a SaaS-Based Solution?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: It shall be included in the technical proposal. Refer to 3.1.5.5, 3.1.5.9, 5.1.3.10, 11.2, 11.6, 11.8, and 12.

49. QUESTION: : Will all the Labor Category and other Item CLINs required to respond to the Case Study become part of the contract at award?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Yes.

50. QUESTION: Are Contractors required to apply a Unit of 100 Named Users to any Product-Based Product CLINs, SaaS-Based solution Product CLINs, and those CLINs added in the 5001-6000 series to meet the requirements of the Case Study?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Yes.

51. QUESTION: Please provide a hypothetical example of a Product-Based or SaaS-Based Item Contractors would propose in the 5001-6000 CLIN series that would not be included in CLINs 0001-1000 or CLINs 4001-5000. While numerous Labor Category CLINs can be required in 5001-6000 to supplement CLIN 3001, we are struggling to identify any scenarios where a license or subscription is required for the Case Study but is not required to address the requirements in Section 3 of the RFP.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: An example may include Enterprise Architect/Engineer, Technical Writer and Technical Editor to complete the TRB package submission.

52. QUESTION: BSM Evaluation Standards, Factor (2) Evaluation Criteria: Price Proposal. What is the description for the Rating B and the Rating A for the Price Proposal?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: There are none. If one reads referenced standard only the rating of ‘C’ is referenced. Therefore, the rating for Factor 2 is a ‘C’ or ‘F’, reference Table 3.

53. QUESTION: Attachment 2 NFC Case Study and Attachment 3 TRB Package. Is the Contractor required to include a TRB Package with their proposal submission on 09/23/2013? Or is the TRB Package a deliverable after award of Delivery Order 1?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: The Offeror provides a TRB package for the preliminary design with the technical proposal. A Delivery Order will provide specific requirements to which the contractor will provide a proposal/Quote.

54. QUESTION: What is the period for acceptance of offers?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: If the question means, for how long should the proposal in response to the solicitation be valid, none is identified. However, if discussions are required, updated proposal are requested/permitted, the period from the proposal submission to the time of Contract award is dependent on a lot of factors. This is not for a quote, but for a contract. One would think that an Offeror would not eliminate them from competition by providing a validity date that expires prior to contract award.

55. QUESTION: The current version does not mention any page limits, but the previous version limits the technical response to a total of 35 pages. Is there a total page limit on the past performances? Please provide some guidance on page limits GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: The explicit number of pages has been deleted to ensure the Offerors have sufficient opportunity to address the requirements of the RFP and the strengths of the proposed solution.

56. QUESTION: The previous version requires three hard copies, but current version does not mention anything about hard copies. Do you need hard copies as part our submission? If yes, where should we send them and by when GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Hard copies are not required.

57. QUESTION: Is the Government defining how many "100 named user packages" it desires with this number (e.g. 5,600 named users in Row 4 of the file, based on cells D4 and C4 )?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Yes.

58. QUESTION: May these quantities be updated and/or changed based on the proposed solution(s)?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: It depends. Refer to Section 11.2.

59. QUESTION: In the file "BSM_Pricing_Model.xls" the Government has a notation at the bottom that the "SaaS based solution priced per GB has a ratio of 1 GB to 5 named users - 1:5". Would the Government please clarify if it is seeking to evaluate only those SaaS solutions which are priced on a per-Gigabyte basis?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: No. The Government is providing a ‘Unit’ that can be priced to complete the proposed solution in case the “100 named users” Unit is insufficient. Our research identifies that there is a ratio of 1:5, where 1 is one GB and the 5 is five named users.

60. QUESTION: In Section 3.1.5, the Government refers to the SaaS pricing to be annually per Gigabyte, will the Government consider other options procured on a consumption basis (e.g. named user license).

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Refer to Q&A 59.

61. QUESTION: In the RFP Part 3, the page following the “As-Is Environment Components” is missing. Would the Government either provide the missing page, or advise if the page was not included intentionally.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: There is no missing page, but an incompatibility of our acquisition system and MS Word. AS IS environment is identified in the attachments.

62. QUESTION: In the RFP Part 3, the discussion stating “Provide a narrative of how the proposed Engineering Change Proposal…” begins on Page 2; would the Government clarify whether there is a Page 1, and if so, please provide it.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Refer to Q&A 61.

63. QUESTION: Can you please identify what is a "named user" and what tasks you expect them to be able to conduct in the tool given the quantity USDA NFC wants to purchase GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: The term “named-user” is a term of the art in IT and computer science.

64. QUESTION Can the Government please clarify the expected period of performance start date? The SF1449 states 9/30/13 while SOW section 6.1 states 9/23/13 GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: The referenced information will be modified in the contract at award.

65. QUESTION: Does the Government expect to make a single or multiple award?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Single award.

66. QUESTION: Will the awardee be afforded a transition period to stand up the new service? If so, how long is that period expected to be?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: This would be negotiated per Delivery Order.

67. QUESTION: Will the awardee be afforded the opportunity to assess the existing state (processes and system) prior to the transition period beginning??

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: This would be negotiated per Delivery Order. NFC’s requirements, which will be described in a RFQ, are such that at least for earlier procurements there would be a Delivery Order award for analysis to determine the specifics of the proposed solution to the Delivery.

68. QUESTION: What is the number of anticipated concurrent users be supported throughout the period of performance of the contract.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: The Government’s best estimates are in the pricing model.

69. QUESTION: What is the number and type of systems and data integrations that are required at solution standup? Would the scope and level of effort for these integrations be captured in a delivery order post award?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Yes, refer to Q&A 67.

70. QUESTION: Is there an existing body of reporting requirements that must be handled at initiation and if so what are they and how are they currently generated?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: This would be identified in the SOW in a RFQ and the contractor’s responding proposal for the Delivery Order.

71. Is this a base IDIQ contract with a few winners that will compete for the work per task order?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: No, it is an ID/IQ contract with one Contractor, the prime Contractor. No additional competition is required. USDA activities/agencies can use this contract without any more competition.

72. QUESTION: What is USDA’s plan to implement the chosen BSM solution? Should the price of these implementation services be included in the quote?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: This is negotiated per Delivery Order.

73. QUESTION: Can the vendor assume that the award will be for either product-based or SaaS, or is this something that will be determined on a per Delivery Order (DO) basis?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Per Delivery Order.

74. QUESTION: For the SaaS option, will secure WAN/VPN access be required between the hosting provider and government facilities?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Yes.

75. QUESTION: Is there an existing body of reporting requirements that must be handled at initiation and if so what are they and how are they currently generated?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: This would be identified in the SOW as part of the RFQ and the contractor’s responding quote/proposal for the Delivery Order.

76. QUESTION: Are performance or load testing tools available to NFC to assist with the implementation of the BSM solution? Should they be included in solution offering?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: The Offerors may assume they are Government Furnished Equipment. If this becomes problematic post-award, the Contractor and Government can negotiate a bilateral mode to include them using the Technical Insertion provisions.

77. QUESTION: You indicate pricing is to be based on 100 users. In the first row of the spreadsheet you then show a quantity of 56. Are you looking for a total of 5600 users or are you looking for 56 users in year 1?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Total of an estimated 5600 named-users the first contract year.

78. QUESTION It appears that the maintenance periods and all items in the spreadsheet, including any optional suggested products add into the subtotal at the bottom. Did you mean for all items to feed into a subtotal?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: Yes.

79. QUESTION Please clarify the pricing table. In Column "C" you have a quantity of named users equalling 100. In column D you have a quantity of 56. Does this mean USDA NFC will be purchasing 5600 named users in the base year?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: This is a math model used for pricing evaluation. USDA's best estimates are in the math/pricing model.

80. QUESTION: Will the government consider segregating the Case Study pricing into two sections in the pricing model: one section to document the Solution-Based price proposal; and a second section to document the SaaS-Based price proposal? This would allow the Offeror to differentiate the labor categories and level of effort required to implement each of the solutions GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: They are in the pricing model.

81. QUESTION: Do we need to include labor hours (database engineers, BSM consultant, etc..) for every option year? We believe we will implement the case study within one year at NFC. The procurement of additional licenses by NFC or anyone else in the option years does not require any additional labor, because they have no impact on the implementation. The only other scenario could be, another entirely separate instance, being stood up for another agency within USDA sometime during the option years?

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: the potential Offeror is advised to complete the math/pricing model as identified by the Government vice how the potential Offeror would like the math/pricing model to be.

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