Attachment 2-E.5 ADDENDUM to FAR 52.212-1 INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS_COMMERCIAL ITEMS.pdf

E.5 ADDENDUM to FAR 52.212-1 INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS—

COMMERCIAL ITEMS

Provisions that are incorporated by reference (by Citation Number, Title, and Date), have the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available.

The following provisions are incorporated into 52.212-1 as an addendum to this solicitation:

E.5.1 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code and Small Business Size Standard

FAR 51.212-1, Section (a) is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

(a) North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and small business size standard. The NAICS code and small business size standard for this acquisition appear on page 2 of the solicitation introduction letter.

E.5.2 Submission of Quotations

FAR 51.212-1, Section (b) is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

(b) Submission of quotes. Submit signed and dated quotes to the office specified in this solicitation at or before the exact time specified in this solicitation. Quotes may be submitted on letterhead stationery, or as otherwise specified in the solicitation

E.5.3 Instructions for Submission of Quotations

Quotations shall be divided into two Volumes: Technical Quotation (Volume I) and Price Quotation (Volume II).

The Technical Quotation will address the quoter’s technical capability to be able to perform services and shall describe all services available in accordance with (IAW) the requirements of Attachment 1-Online Legal Research Services Statement of Work (SOW). The Price Quotation shall address the Price factor using the schedule and CLINs outlined in SECTION B.1 -PRICE/COST SCHEDULE. No cost or pricing information shall be included in the technical volume. Quotation’s volumes shall be organized and divided by the following section:

Table 1 – Quotation Sections

Volume Section Page Limits Volume 1:

Technical Quotation

I – Cover Letter 1 II – Understanding of the need 5 III – Technical / Management Approach 50 IV – Demo & Trial Information N/A V – Past Performance N/A VI – Non-Price Related Exceptions and Assumptions 5

Volume 2:

Price Quotation

I – Pricing Information (base and all options) See SECTION B.1 – PRICE/COST SCHEDULE II – Price Related Exceptions and Assumptions 2

The Government anticipates awarding a Single, Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) type contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible quoter whose quotation conforming to the solicitation and SOW will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

Volume 1: Technical Quotation

Quoters are required to submit a comprehensive and complete technical quotation that demonstrates their capability to meet the requirements described in the attached Statement of Work (SOW). Quoters shall be responsive to all the requirements of this notice, the SOW, and provide sufficient information to allow review of the technical quotation in accordance with the evaluation criteria. The technical quotation is expected to contain written and visual material. It must be succinct, well written and presented in a clear straightforward manner.

The Offeror’s Quote shall demonstrate that the objectives stated in the SOW are understood and offer a logical approach for their achievement. A Quote that only restates the requirements or statements from this RFQ, or just simply states that it is compliant with the RFQ without providing a description of the approaches, techniques, or solutions as implemented to comply with the requirements may be considered unsatisfactory. Offerors merely proposing to provide services in accordance with the solicitation document will not be eligible for award. The Quote shall address all the requirements of the solicitation.

The Technical Quotation will address the quoters written proposal with details of Online Legal Research Services provided to include a complete listing of all access to be made available via the database. Quotation shall be outlined in detail as it relates to number and type of documents available, content provided and cost per user.

FERC seeks unlimited access for 1000 users with the ability to scale number of users in increments of 50.

Additional offerings beyond the West Law Edge Equivalent will be considered by the Government as options for increased services. Quotations shall describe all services available in accordance with (IAW) the requirements of Attachment 1-Online Legal Research Services Statement of Work (SOW) based on the per unit pricing, to include, training, customer service and help desk availability, and process for activating/de-activating accounts.

The Quote shall address all the requirements of the solicitation.

The Technical Quote Volume shall thoroughly describe in narrative form the Quoter’s proposed methodology and shall demonstrate that the Quoter understands the technical requirements of the solicitation.

Volume 1: shall NOT contain any price information; failure to adhere to this rule may result in the quote being deemed non-responsive.

The technical quotation shall be structured as follows:

I - Cover Letter

The quotation shall include a cover letter that is signed and dated by the quoter and identifies the following information on the cover page:

1. The number of this RFQ;

2. Your company name, point of contact information, address, and telephone number;

3. Unique Entity ID, CAGE, DUNS, and TIN numbers;

4. Acknowledgement of any amendments to this RFQ; and

5. A statement that you assent to all terms of this RFQ.

II – Understanding of the Need

In the technical proposal, the Quoter shall reflect their knowledge and understanding of the requirements contained in the RFQ. The Quoter shall explain, in their own words, a detailed understanding of the purpose of this RFQ, shall demonstrate how they will achieve the objectives and tasks defined in the SOW are understood and offer a logical approach for their achievement.

III – Technical / Management Approach

Quoter shall provide sufficient detail to demonstrate a clear understanding of the SOW. The Quoter should provide evidence of sufficient planning to show the services will be accomplished as required in the SOW. The quoter shall provide a comprehensive and complete written technical/management approach. The technical/management approach shall demonstrate the quoter's understanding of the requirement and describe the methodology by which the quoter will successfully accomplish the requirements stated in the SOW.

This section shall describe the offeror’s Technical/Management approach to meet the requirements of the solicitation and must thoroughly describe every technical solution element proposed by the Offeror. The approach narrative must be sufficiently specific, detailed, and complete to clearly and fully demonstrate the techniques and procedures the offeror will employ to meet all of the requirements of the solicitation. As part of the Technical / Management approach offerors should provide a thorough plan of action with regards to the transition period and clearly detail how the transition will be conducted.

The technical/management approach shall, at a minimum, include the following:

• Access to an online legal research library for up to 1000 FERC users with Unlimited Simultaneous Usage.

• This online legal library should have a variety of legal databases including, but not limited to:

o FERC Specific materials: All published FERC Orders and Opinions, Erratum on FERC Orders, Federal Power Commission Orders, FERC Practice and Procedure Manual, other FERC related Tools and Resources such as FERC News and FERC Gas Report.

o Administrative Decisions.

o Public Records o Federal and State Cases o Statutes and Regulations o Federal and State Legislative History o Analytical Reference Materials comparable to the brand name products AmJur and CJS.

o Federal treatises comparable to the brand name product Wright & Miller Federal Practice and

Procedure. This treatise should be organized by federal rule or the rule of evidence and be frequently used by a variety of parties such as the courts and law firms.

o Litigation Materials: Briefs; Trial Court Filings; Trial Court Orders; Arbitration Awards; Docket Sheets;

and Expert Materials o Access to Wolters Kluwer’s CCH catalogue of FERC Orders and Opinions and FERC Stats. & Regs. This content needs to searchable and contain original CCH pagination.

• The list below provides an overview of functions that the legal research library should provide. It is understood that some proposed features might vary, but all the functions listed below should support the user by providing clear, complete, relevant, and accurate research results:

o The ability to organize their individual research. This should include the ability to: sign up for alerts;

bookmark resources and organize these locations into groups; save research to folders as well as organize, search, sort, and filter these folders; share folders; highlight and annotate documents; copy with reference; and print, email and download documents o Predictive intuitive language searches that produce search results which return a high rate of relevant documents while being clear, accurate, and include FERC materials.

o Content that is organized so the user can quickly and easily navigate between topics and filter search results. The process of refining searches should follow a smooth and logical pattern that quickly gets the user to relevant results. Examples of this type of organization might include:

The ability to open multiple documents with one click so the user can view at their research side by side.

The advance search feature in a database includes search fields that are straight forward and applicable to the database being search rather than a set of generic fields.

After a search is performed, the ability to edit and refine your advance search without having to start that search over from the beginning again.

A variety of ways to sort search results including relevance, date, must cited, most used, court level, and term frequency.

• A variety of features that assist users in finding cases that are related to their research. These might include but are not limited to:

o Documents that are curated in a user-friendly manner and assist the user in finding relevant research.

For example:

Tabs at the top of the page that open further content related to each document in an inclusive way.

These tabs should include case history, negative treatment, citing references, and table of authorities.

These tabs should contain corresponding information such as the depth of treatment and which headnotes contain the points of law discussed.

Visual history showing the timeline of how a case moves through the courts.

o Organization system comparable to the brand name product, West Key Numbering System. This system should identify legal issues in published opinions, assign a topic, and classify them. The user should then be able to use this classification system to navigate from topic to topic and refine broad topics into more specific ones. This system should be applied across the legal research platform so users can quickly and efficiently find related research.

o Clear, accurate, and useful headnotes that will assist the user in quickly obtaining a high rate of relevant research. These headnotes should contain content that accurately describes the case while proving analysis of the material, includes the use of legal synonyms and terms of art. This is to ensure that relevant cases are not missed if the exact term or phrase isn’t used, and relate back to a classification system similar to the brand name product, West Key Numbering System.

o Ability to highlight passages of text within a document and quickly check them to locate additional relevant cases.

• Verification of overruled or abrogated cases using a system comparable to the brand name product, West Key Cite. This system should provide the user an accurate, quick, and comprehensive way to check the history and citations for a case to determine if a case is good law. This system should visually alert the user to the status of a case and the depth of treatment.

• The ability to compare previous and current Statutes and Regulations.

• A clear, accurate, and efficient system for researching unreported cases with a Westlaw citation.

• Provide customer access to a 24/7 technical and research support help desk.

• Unlimited training for users. Including access to online videos, guides, and webinars; and ability to schedule online instructor led group trainings and one-on-one instruction.

• Admin Account shall allow for the activation and deactivation of users, organize users by program office, and provide usage reports that contains information on registration status, last logon dates, usage, and contact information.

• Software for 8 users that provides tools for drafting legal documents comparable brand name or equal to Thompson Reuters’ Westlaw Drafting Assistant. It should assist users in preparing and formatting documents by locating authorities, formatting citations, and creating tables of authorities.

IV- Demo Info and Trial Information

This section shall describe the quoter’s “Online Legal Research Services – Demo” to meet the requirements of the solicitation. An initial demonstration of the system and its features, trial period for up to 30 days, and a Question and Answer (Q & A) session during the second half of the trial for will be performed. After which a survey will be conducted to see if the features and databases offered are adequate in meeting their research needs. The data and participant feedback collected in this survey will assist in evaluating the criteria outlined in the Technical Management Approach.

Demo:

• Will be held during the first week of the trial. Tentative dates are October 2, 2023 through October 6, 2023.

• Will include up to 30 trial participants, and FERC contracting staff.

• Should provide an overview of the databases and features outlined in the SOW with a specific emphasis on FERC content.

• Demo may include databases not available through the current plan.

• Preferred Method for the Demonstration is via Microsoft TEAMs.

• FERC Orders and Opinions and FERC Stats. & Regs. through CCH. The demonstrator may offer information about the inclusion of the FERC orders, opinions, statutes, and regulations and include a sample of what the content will look like in lieu of a live demonstration. The quoter will not be assessed favorably or unfavorably on the agency’s evaluation criteria.

Q&A Session:

• Will be held during the last two weeks of the trial. Tentative dates are October 16, 2023 through

October 27, 2023.

• Will include up to 30 trial participants, and FERC contracting staff.

• The purpose of the Q&A Session is to provide a structed place for participants to ask questions and identify potential issues they have encountered during their research.

• Preferred Method for the Q&A Session is via Microsoft TEAMs.

Trial:

• Participants will have the ability to use the system, on their own time, for up to 30 days.

• Tentative Start Date for the trial is Monday, October 2, 2023 and will run through Tuesday, October

31, 2023. We reserve the right to extend the trial if needed.

• Provide training and support to the participants throughout the duration of the trial.

• Trial may include databases not available through the current plan.

• FERC Orders and Opinions and FERC Stats. & Regs. through CCH. The demonstrator may offer information about the inclusion of the FERC orders, opinions, statutes, and regulations and include a sample of what the content will look like in lieu of a live demonstration. The quoter will not be assessed favorably or unfavorably on the agency’s evaluation criteria.

V- Past Performance

Provide examples of similar services performed that is like the work described in the SOW.

FERC may contact the references or other sources (e.g. PPIRS, SEWP Program Performance, etc.) to obtain past performance. FERC will review and take into account any additional past performance information available in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS).

Customer Satisfaction. Level of customer satisfaction with delivering services on projects and contracts of similar size and scope to those sought in this solicitation. Regarding the government’s evaluation of past performance, Quoters should note that in the case of an Offeror without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available, the Quoter will receive a neutral rating.

VI- Non-price Related Exceptions and Assumptions

This section shall clearly describe all non-price related exceptions and assumptions the quoter is taking with respect to the solicitation and its requirements. If the quoter is taking no exceptions or assumptions, the quoter shall clearly state that the quoter takes no non-price related exceptions or assumptions to the solicitation.

Note: The Government reserves the right to determine that a quotation is non-responsive and no longer considered for award if the quote includes any exception or assumption that is unacceptable to the government.

Volume 2: Price Quotation

The quoter shall submit a price quote that is consistent with the solicitation requirements and the quoter’s technical Quotation. The price Quote shall include no technical information. The technical review team will not have access to price Quotes while performing the technical reviews. Volume 2: shall NOT contain any technical information; failure to adhere to these rules will result in the Quote being deemed Non-Responsive.

The price quotation shall be structured as follows:

I - Price Information

The government anticipates awarding a firm fixed price contract to a single quoter for all the services required by the SOW. The quoter shall provide firm fixed unit prices and extended dollar amounts for each of the CLINS identified in Section B.1 “Price/Cost Schedule” of the solicitation with pricing for the base and each option period. Quoters may add tabs to provide supplemental information and/or an attachment in their pricing submission that provides additional information or detail about their price quote. The Offeror shall provide the pricing in an electronic Excel spreadsheet file.

Offeror’s pricing must reflect a clear understanding of the requirements, must be reasonable for the supplies to be provided, and must be consistent with the technical quotation.

The government has provided the suggested pricing model to support the effort. However, if the vendor does not believe it can achieve the requirements of the SOW, then the vendor may submit the appropriate pricing model that it believes is needed to achieve the results of the scope of work.

II – Price Related Exceptions and Assumptions

This section shall clearly describe all price related exceptions or assumptions the quoter is taking with respect to the solicitation and its requirements. If the quoter is taking no exceptions or assumptions, the quoter shall clearly state that the quoter takes no price related exceptions or assumptions to the solicitation.

Note: The Government reserves the right to determine that a quotation is non-responsive and no longer considered for award if the quotation includes any exception or assumption that is unacceptable to the government.

Additional formatting information

The technical quotation shall be submitted on 8 ½" x 11" pages, using no less than ten (10) point character size and no less than an average of 3/4" around each page for margins. Page numbers shall have no less than a 3/8" margin from the page edge. Tables and figures shall use no smaller than ten (10) point character size and must be clear and readable. Offerors are required to adhere to all the page limitations. Information found on pages that exceed any page limitation will not be considered. All pages in excess of the page limits specified in this solicitation will NOT be evaluated. The quotations shall be readable by the software in use by the Government (i.e., Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat). Quotations submitted in software formats not readable by the Government may be determined to be non-responsive to the solicitation and removed from consideration for award.

Communications regarding this procurement

The point of contact for this procurement is:

Name: Lisa Tillman Title: Contracting Officer Phone: (202) 502-6341 Email: Lisa.Tillman@ferc.gov

In order to maintain the integrity of the competitive process, communications regarding this solicitation shall be with the Contracting Officer only. Communications regarding this solicitation with FERC Staff or anyone other than the assigned Acquisition Services Division (ASD) Contracting Officer is strictly prohibited.

Questions Submissions

Questions should be submitted using the attached questions Excel template. (See Attachment 4 – Questions Template). Questions shall not be provided in PDF documents and shall not be part of any table formatting.

Questions shall be consolidated and responded to all at once; therefore, questions shall be easily copied and pasted to be consolidated, and table formatting and PDF files are not conducive to the consolidation process. Questions shall cite the solicitation section, page, and paragraph number.

Questions regarding this solicitation and its contents shall be submitted in electronic format via email to the Contracting Officer at Lisa.Tillman@ferc.gov no later than 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Monday, August 28, 2023.

Note: The Contracting Officer will not provide responses to questions received after 12:00 PM (EST), August 23, 2023, unless the Contracting Officer determines that the question(s) identifies a significant flaw in the solicitation that must be corrected.

Period of Performance Dates

The government intends to award a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract type with an overall period of performance of one 12-month base period and four 12-month option periods for a total contract life of 60 months.

E.5.4 Quotation Submission

Quoters shall submit signed and dated quotes to the office specified in this solicitation at or before the exact time specified in this solicitation. Quotations shall be submitted in an electronic format (Word, Excel, and PDF) via the email to the Contracting Officer at Lisa.Tillman@ferc.gov no later than 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday, September 14, 2023.

Quoters are solely responsible for all costs related to quotation preparation and submission.

PERIOD FOR ACCEPTANCE OF OFFERS

Period for acceptance of quotes: The quoter agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm for 90 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of quotes.

(End of Addendum to 52.212-1) mailto:Lisa.Tillman@ferc.gov mailto:Lisa.Tillman@ferc.gov mailto:Lisa.Tillman@ferc.gov

E.5.4 Quotation Submission