AG-3144-I-17-0008_OCIO_Enterprise_Electronic_Fax_Questions-Answers.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

OCIO ENTERPRISE ELECTRONIC FAX

QUESTIONS /ANSWERS

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1. Question: Is this their request based on just price?

Answer: The RFI is requesting an estimate of the costs associated with procuring, developing and deploying the solution proposed.

2. Question: Would USDA be doing business directly with the USDA or will be going thru a reseller?

Answer: Prospective respondents may come directly from a provider and/or a reseller.

3. Question: How much does financial stability, network and security have to with the final decision?

Answer: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP)/Request for Quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFP/RFQ in the future. There is currently no solicitation for this effort. In the event a solicitation is released, the government’s requirements along with evaluation criteria will be provided in the solicitation.

4. Question: When will this be implemented?

Answer: In the event a solution is implemented, USDA’s target timeframe to award a contract is in the second quarter (January through March) of Fiscal Year 2017.

5. Question: Is this being used a leverage for their current vendor?

Answer: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning. There is currently no solicitation for this effort. In the event a solicitation is released to industry, the government’s requirements along with evaluation criteria will be provided in the solicitation.

6. Question: Vendor(s) provide a hosted fax solution and are not FedRAMP Compliant.

Vendor(s) do offer an on premise fax solution that would meet the requirements but would have to be hosted by the USDA in their data centers. Is this an option?

Answer: As addressed in the RFI, USDA’s present electronic fax capability is an enterprise solution. This enterprise solution serves multiple agencies, and many of these agencies have their own unique infrastructure and network. There is no single USDA infrastructure or network. This RFI is part of USDAS’s information and planning purposes, and welcome industry feedback to the RFI.

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7. Question: Who are USDA’s carriers?

Answer: All of USDA’s numbers come from the current contract holder, Tactical Digital who in turn receives the numbers from OpenText™. It’s the government’s understanding that in turn, OpenText™ receives their numbers from Level (3) Communications. It’s the government’s understanding that there are individual carriers associated with these numbers.

8. Question: How many of USDA fax numbers are toll free vs. local fax numbers?

Answer: USDA has 104 toll numbers and 4654 toll free numbers.

9. Question: Does USDA utilize multiple carriers across your 4,780 fax numbers?

Answer: All of USDA’s fax numbers come from OpenText ™. It’s the government’s understanding that in turn, OpenText™ receives their numbers from Level (3) Communications. USDA is unable to determine the originating carrier for each number.

10. Question: Could USDA list the names of your carriers and the approximate number of fax numbers associated with each?

Answer: All of the government’s fax numbers come from OpenText™. It’s the government’s understanding that in turn, OpenText™ receives their numbers from Level (3) Communications. USDA is unable to determine the originating carrier for each number.

11. Question: Could USDA tell vendors how many of your fax numbers are local DID’s?

Answer: USDA currently has 104 toll numbers and 4654 toll free numbers.

12. Question: Could USDA provide us with the number of Toll Free DID’s?

Answer: USDA currently has 104 toll numbers and 4654 toll free numbers.

13. Question: When would you like to have a new solution in production?

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14. Question: Will USDA allow the vendors to meet with the fax project team in order to answer questions and provide a user experience and admin demo of the service including reporting and administration in order to work together to provide a custom solution for

OCC?

Answer: In the event a solution is implemented, the government will meet with the winning vendor in a Kick Off meeting and follow-up meetings to implement the solution.

15. Question: What month do you expect to execute contracts?

16. Question: Does USDA have what we call outbound only users. Users who do not have their own dedicated fax number but have the need to send OB faxes from their device? If yes, how many would need this capability?

Answer: Of the approximately 4,780 accounts, 15 are outbound only accounts.

17. Question: What is your timeline to select a vendor?