Attachment 0003-JAIC Data BPA-Instructions-Evaluation.docx

JAIC Data BPA Solicitation PANROC-21-P-0000 001481 Section L&M

18 DEC 2020

SECTION L: INSTRUCTIONS TO PREPARE SUBMISSIONS

1. Submission Information Submissions to this solicitation shall be received no later than 12:00 p.m. Central Time (CT), XX March 2021. Submissions received after this time will not be considered. All submissions shall be submitted via email to the addresses below:

Mark Martinez, Contracting Officer Army Contracting Command - Rock Island (ACC-RI) Mark.martinez2.civ@mail.mil Meagan Cagle, Contract Specialist

ACC-RI

meagan.b.cagle.civ@mail.mil

2. Questions All questions related to the solicitation shall be submitted via e-mail to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist listed above. The subject of the e-mail must be titled: Questions re: Solicitation PANROC-21-P-0000 001481.

All questions must be submitted in writing via e-mail not later than 12:00 p.m. Central Time (CT), XX February 2021. For any questions received after this date and time, the Government reserves the right not to respond. Questions should be written in a manner that enables clear understanding of the Offeror’s questions or concerns. Statements expressing opinions, sentiments, or conjectures are not considered valid inquiries and will not receive a response. Further, Offerors are reminded that the Government will not address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision.”

Offerors must cite the relevant solicitation section, attachment (if applicable), page number, and paragraph. Offerors shall submit questions in a Microsoft (MS) Excel (compatible with MS Excel 2013) file attachment.

All answers to questions or requests for clarifications will be provided as soon as possible. Answers to questions may require a formal Amendment to this solicitation. If the Government issues an Amendment to the solicitation, Offerors must acknowledge the Amendment(s) within the timeframe specified in the Amendment, to be considered responsive to the solicitation.

Government responses to all questions will be provided to all Offerors.

3. Instructions to Offerors These instructions are a guide for preparing a submission to the solicitation. These instructions describe the type and extent of information required, and emphasize the significant areas to be addressed in the submission. Offerors shall examine this solicitation in its entirety and ensure that its offer is complete and contains all necessary information and documentation required as instructed by this solicitation.

The information requested and the manner of submission is essential to permit prompt evaluation of all submissions on a fair and uniform basis.

3.1 General

In order to be eligible for a BPA, Offerors must provide a submission consisting of the following four sections:

Section Item Associated Attachment (if applicable)

1 Cover Letter N/A 2 JAIC BPA Questionnaire 1 3 Support Documentation per JAIC BPA Questionnaire N/A 4 Signed and Completed SF1449 N/A

a. Submissions must be complete, clear, coherent, and prepared in sufficient detail for effective evaluation. Submissions shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of Contractor experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror’s submission.

b. Any part of the Offeror’s proposal that it considers proprietary shall be marked as so.

c. All information submitted in response to this solicitation shall be formatted as described below in “3.2 Specific Instructions by Section.”

d. Each Offeror shall submit only one proposal. Offers shall not contain classified data. Alternate proposals will not be accepted. The use of hyperlinks in offer documents submitted in response to this solicitation is prohibited.

3.2 Specific Instructions by Section

Section 1: Cover Letter. The Cover Letter shall be limited to two (2) 8.5x11 inch pages, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font with each page numbered. The Cover Letter shall be submitted in PDF, entitled: Section 1 Offeror Name Cover Letter. The Cover Letter shall include the following information:

1) Solicitation number

2) A statement that the proposal is valid for 120 days after submission date of proposal

3) Contractor name

4) DUNS number

5) CAGE code

6) Teaming arrangements and/or subcontractors name

7) Business size and socioeconomic status of prime and any teaming arrangements (if applicable)*

8) Complete business mailing address

9) Point(s) of Contact (POC) designated to represent the Offeror in this acquisition (Name, title, e-mail address, and phone number)

10) Date and signature from the POC authorized to enter into an agreement with the Government

11) Acknowledgement of any Amendment to this solicitation, to include signed copies attached to the Cover Letter (Will not count against the two-page limit.)

12) Acknowledgement of any representations and certifications required (Will not count against the two-page limit.)

*Note: The business size and socioeconomic status of each teaming partner in the cover letter shall be identified based upon self-certification at the time of solicitation closing. The Contracting Officer will compare the self-certification against the designation within System for Award Management (SAM). In the event of a conflict, the Contracting Officer may refer any final Small Business determinations to the Small Business Administration. If the size status listed in the Offeror’s submission is different from the size status in SAM, this difference should be explained in narrative form. Call Order Contracting Officers may, at their discretion, allow recertification for individual Call Orders but are under no obligation to do so.

Section 2: Completed JAIC Data BPA Questionnaire. The JAIC Data BPA Questionnaire shall be completed on the document provided as Attachment 1 with this solicitation. It shall be submitted as a word document, entitled: Section 2 Offeror Name JAIC BPA Questionnaire. The format shall not be altered.

Section 3: Support Documentation Per JAIC Data BPA Questionnaire. The requested documentation, by question, in the JAIC Data BPA Questionnaire shall be submitted as a single PDF, entitled: Section 3 Offeror Name Support Documentation. Each support document within this PDF shall have a Cover Page stating the name of the support document, and the question number it supports. The Cover Page of each support document shall be limited to one (1) 8.5x11 inch page, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font. The support document itself can be provided in its current format, if already produced. Otherwise, it shall be provided using 8.5x11 inch page, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font.

Section 4: Signed and completed SF1449. All information on appropriate clauses as stated in the solicitation shall be filled-in on the SF1449. For any fill-ins that are not applicable, the Offeror must acknowledge by indicating “N/A”. The SF1449 shall be submitted as a PDF, entitled: Section 4 Offeror Name SF1449.

3.3 Additional Information:

The following is included as an addendum to FAR 52.212-4.

AMC-LEVEL PROTEST PROGRAM

If you have complaints about this procurement, it is preferable that you first attempt to resolve those concerns with the responsible Contracting Officer. However, you can also protest to Headquarters, AMC. The HQ, AMC-Level Protest Program is intended to encourage interested parties to seek resolution of their concerns within AMC as an Alternative Dispute Resolution forum, rather than filing a protest with General Accounting Office or other external forum. Contract award or performance is suspended during the protest to the same extent, and within the same time periods, as if filed at the GAO. To be timely, protests must be filed within the periods specified in FAR 33.103. Send protests (other than protests to the Contracting Officer) to:

Headquarters U.S. Army Materiel Command Office of Command Counsel-Deputy Command Counsel 4400 Martin Road Rm: A6SE040.001 Redstone Arsenal, AL 35898-5000 Fax: (256) 450-8840 E-mail: usarmy.redstone.usamc.mbx.protests@mail.mil

The AMC-level protest procedures are found at:

http://www.amc.army.mil/amc/commandcounsel.html

If Internet access is not available, contact the Contracting Officer or HQ, AMC Office of Command Counsel to obtain the AMC-Level Protest Procedures.

SECTION M: EVALUATION METHODOLOGY

1. General

a. The Government intends to execute multiple BPAs resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Offeror(s) whose submission conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government. The Government intends to execute multiple BPAs to the most highly qualified Offerors using a down-select process

b. The Government intends to execute agreements based on initial submissions. It is the Government’s intent to award agreements without exchanges with Offerors; however, exchanges may be required. If exchanges are held, they may be written or oral questions. Initial submissions should contain Offeror’s best terms for this work.

c. Submissions that do not respond to all requirements in the solicitation may be rejected without further evaluation, deliberation, or discussion. The Government may reject any submission that is non-compliant with the solicitation requirements.

d. The Cover Letter (Section 1 of Offeror’s submission) and Signed and Completed SF 1449 (Section 4 of Offeror’s submission) shall be submitted as described in paragraph 3.2 “Specific Instructions by Section.” However, these Sections will not be evaluated. Instead, the Government will complete a compliance review to ensure they are submitted per the solicitation instructions. The JAIC Data BPA Questionnaire and Support Documentation will be evaluated as described below in the BPA Down-Select Process section.

2. BPA Down-Select Process

a. The Government will utilize Offeror’s completed JAIC Data BPA Questionnaire (Section 1 of Offeror’s submission) containing questions focused on Data service support to determine the most highly qualified Offerors for the BPA pools. The BPA pool range is described below in paragraph e. The responses to the questions will be used to assess the Offeror’s capabilities in these areas. It is the responsibility of the Offeror to answer each question in its entirety prior to submission. The burden of proof is the responsibility of the Offeror. The Offeror’s submissions must include examples or additional information (Section 2 of Offeror’s submission), as required by the individual questions. The Government will down select to determine BPA awardees based on Offeror’s responses.

b. To be eligible for the down-select process, Offerors shall submit a completed Questionnaire with responses to all questions. Questions 1-6 are a “gate” which the Offeror must receive an “acceptable,” in order to proceed to the next questions 7-18 and continue to be considered for BPA award. The Government reserves the right to stop the down-select process at any question/gate in the sequence if the Government has met its intended pool of BPAs based on the ranges for specific tasks. If an Offeror receives an “unacceptable” for a question/gate (1-6), the Government will not evaluate further questions and the Offeror will no longer be considered. Additionally, once the intended number of BPAs has been met, any remaining questions subsequent to the question in which the BPA pool was determined, will not be evaluated.

c. Information provided in Questions 1-6 will be evaluated on an “Acceptable” or “Unacceptable” basis as follows:

Acceptable: Meets the requirements of the solicitation. The requested information is provided and substantiates the yes response to the question.

Unacceptable: Does not meet the requirements of the solicitation. (1) The requested information is not provided, and/or (2) the requested information does not substantiate the positive response to the question.

d. The Government will conduct a corporate experience review based on the contract numbers provided for Questions 7-18. The contract numbers will be reviewed to determine if the referenced contracts have comparable scope to what is being asked in the corresponding question. If the Offeror provides no example contract, their corporate experience will be rated as Unacceptable.

Acceptable: Meets the requirements of the solicitation. One, but no more than three example contracts are provided and have comparable scope.

Unacceptable: Does not meet the requirements of the solicitation. No examples contracts are provided, and/or (2) the example contracts do not have comparable scope.

e. Responses may be placed in up to eight pool depending on the information provided in questions 7-18. Those vendors found unqualified or unresponsive in one or more pools may still be considered for other pools. Vendors may be placed in one or more of the below pools based on their response.

Data Ingest, Integration, Architecture, and ETL Data Accessibility and API’s Enterprise Information and Metadata Management Data Quality, Feature Engineering and NLP Synthetic Data Data Anonymization Data Labeling AI Security

Although the Government anticipates 15 to 25 BPAs, the Government reserves the right to make more or less than the intended number of awards, if warranted by the quality and quantity of submissions.