Attachment 6 70CTD024Q00000027 RFQ Instructions and Eval for Award.pdf

ATTACHMENT 6 – RFQ INSTRUCTIONS AND EVALUATION

FOR AWARD

Points of Contact (POC)

All correspondence in conjunction with this RFQ shall be directed to the Government Contracting Officer (CO) and Contract Specialist (CS) identified below:

Contracting Officer: Isaac Raymondi E-mail address: Isaac.Raymondi@ice.dhs.gov

Contract Specialist: Jenna Wiley E-mail address: Jenna.Wiley@ice.dhs.gov

Quotation Preparation A Single Award BPA competition will be conducted pursuant to FAR Part 12 & 13. FAR Parts 8, 14, 15 & 16 do not apply to this procurement. This BPA will establish firm-fixed priced VTC packages/solutions to be issued under BPA calls.

A two-phase down select strategy will be used for this procurement. The intent of the down-select is to minimize development and other costs for those Quoters with little to no chance of receiving an award.

Quoters who are advised not to proceed may elect to continue their participation in the procurement.

Quoters shall submit Phase 1: Management Approach Submission via email to the CS and CO no later than 4:00 PM Eastern Time on 07/18/2024.

The Phase 1 submission shall consist of: (1) Signed RFQ Form SF18 certifying that the Quoter has read and agrees to comply with all the conditions and instructions provided in this RFQ document, and all amendments issued; (2) Management Approach submission.

After the Government completes evaluation of Factor 1, Quoters will receive an advisory notification via e-mail from the Contracting Officer. This notification will advise the Quoters of the Government’s advisory recommendation to proceed or not to proceed with Phase II submission. Quoters who are rated most highly for Factor 1 will be advised to proceed to Phase II of the quote submission process. Quoters who were not among the most highly rated will be advised that they are unlikely to be viable competitors, along with the general basis for the Government’s advisory recommendation. The intent of this advice is to minimize quote development costs for those Quoters with little to no chance of receiving an award.

Quoters should note that Phase I evaluation factor is more important than Phase II evaluation factors.

The Government intends to provide no more than three (3) Quoters with an advisory notification to proceed. However, the Government’s advice will be a recommendation only, and those Quoters who are advised not to proceed may elect to continue their participation in the procurement.

Failure to participate in Phase I of the procurement precludes further consideration of a Quoter. Phase II submissions will not be accepted from Quoters who have not submitted Phase I quotes by the due date and time stated in this solicitation. For those Quoters that are rated most highly and advised to proceed to Phase II of the quote submission process, the Contracting Officer will include the Phase II submission instructions on the advisory notification, including the due date for the Phase II submission. The Government recommends Quoters to begin preparation of Phase II quotes only after receipt of the Phase 1 advisory down-select notice. The down-select notifications will include further information, but the Government intends to allow Quoters 48-72 hours to decide whether it wishes to proceed with a Phase II submission.

Phase 2 submission shall consist of: (1) Signed RFQ Form SF18 certifying that the Quoter has read and agrees to comply with all the conditions and instructions provided in this RFQ document, and all amendments issued; (2) Corporate Experience submission; (3) Past Performance submission; (4) Pricing Schedule submission.

Any quotation that is non-compliant with any requested submission requirements of this RFQ may immediately be removed from further consideration.

Volume / Phase Title

Factor Format and Page Limits

Volume 1:

Phase 1

SF18 Form Quote Documentation Adobe PDF

Management Approach Factor 1 Microsoft Word; Shall not exceed 7 pages.

Advisory Notice

Volume 2:

Phase 2

SF18 Form Quote Documentation Adobe PDF

Corporate Experience Factor 2 Microsoft Word: Shall not exceed 5 pages.

Past Performance Factor 3 Microsoft Word; Shall not exceed 5 pages.

Price Factor 4 Attachment (3) Excel

Pricing Schedule

All technical factors are weighted in order of importance, with Factor 1 (Management Approach) being more important than Factor 2 (Corporate Experience), Factor 3 (Past Performance), and Factor 4 (Price).

When combined, Factors 1, 2, and 3 are more important than Factor 4. Award shall be made to the Quoter whose quotation is determined to be the best value to the Government based on a tradeoff process among the Technical and Price Factors.

For the purposes of this RFQ, “best value” is defined as the procurement process resulting in the most advantageous acquisition decision for the Government and is performed through an evaluation of quotes and trade-off analysis among all the evaluation factors. The Government may elect to award to other than the lowest priced quote, based on the results of the tradeoff analysis between non-price and price factors.

The Government intends to evaluate quotations and award a single-award BPA without communications with Quoters. The Quoters should therefore propose their best approach to meeting the requirements of the SOW and solicitation.

The Government will not consider pages submitted in excess of the stated page limitations (listed above), or materials not included in full text within the quote (no links to external information will be reviewed or considered). Page limitations include all text, graphs, pictures, appendices, references, exhibits, etc.

Tabs, index sheets, tables of contents, dividers, and other such aids that are solely used to assist the evaluator in locating information that impart no other information other than the identification of content will not be counted against any page limits stated within this RFQ.

All narrative text contained in the quote response must be formatted to 8 ½ x 11 Microsoft Word pages with margins of at least 1” at the top, bottom, and both sides; using single spaced, Times New Roman12-point font. For charts, tables, exhibits and figures, no less than 8-point Times New Roman font is acceptable. Offerors are cautioned that quotation elements using a font less than 12-point Times New Roman for the narrative and less than 8-point Times New Roman for charts will not be reviewed by the Government.

Quoter Questions/Clarifications

All Quoter questions and clarifications pursuant to this RFQ must be received by the Contract Specialist & Contracting Officer no later than 4:00 PM Eastern Time on 07/10/2024. The Government reserves the right not to provide a response for any Quoters question/clarification received after the date and time stated above. If the Contracting Officer determines that a request cites an issue of significant importance, the Government will provide a written response to all Quoters.

The Government will not provide information in response to telephone calls. Contacting other DHS/ICE personnel regarding this solicitation in an attempt to gain procurement-sensitive information may result in disqualification from the evaluation process. Written responses to all Quoter questions/clarifications will be distributed via amendment to the RFQ and posted on SAM.gov.

Evaluation Disclosure

DHS/ICE’s Video Operation Services Team is comprised of Government and Non-Government personnel. DHS/ICE intends to use Non-Government personnel as advisors only. Non-Government advisors to DHS/ICE will have access to the offerors’ quotes and that submission of a quote will constitute consent to the disclosure of proprietary information to all non-Government participants during the source selection.

Evaluation Factors

The Government will award a BPA resulting from this solicitation to the responsible quoter whose quote conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers and are in descending order of importance:

Phase 1: Factor 1: Management Approach: The Government will evaluate the degree to which the management approach demonstrates a thorough understanding of the requirements. This includes evaluating how the Quoter will manage to perform various VTC installations (possibly simultaneously) in CONUS & OCONUS while ensuring quality and timeliness of its work. The Government will also evaluate how the quoter will staff and/or subcontract work out, in order to meet the requirements.

Phase 2: Factor 2: Corporate Experience: The Government will evaluate the extent to which the Contractor’s (and Subcontractor’s) previous experience with projects of a similar size, scope and complexity demonstrate its capability to successfully perform the requirements of the BPA and its calls.

Phase 2: Factor 3: Past Performance: The quoter's past performance will be evaluated to determine successful performance of contract requirements, quality and timeliness of delivery of goods and services, effective management of subcontractors, cost management, level of communication between the contracting parties, proactive management and customer satisfaction. The Government will evaluate the quality of the quoter’s past performance deemed relevant to the requirements of this RFQ. The Government will use information submitted by the quoter and any other sources of information available to assess past performance.

The Government reserves the right to assess the past performance of proposed subcontractors.

The Government will use its discretion to determine the sources of past performance information used in the evaluation, and the information may be obtained from references provided by the quoter, the agency's knowledge of contractor performance, other government agencies or commercial entities, or past performance databases.

If a quoter does not have a history of relevant past performance, or if past performance information is not available, the quoter will receive a neutral past performance rating.

Phase 2: Factor 4: Price: The price evaluation will determine whether the proposed prices are reasonable in relation to the solicitation requirements.

Evaluation Factor Instructions Factor 1: Management Approach. Within this phase, the Quoter shall discuss their management approach to satisfy the requirements outlined in Attachment 2 – BPA Statement of Work (SOW). The submission must present sufficient information to reflect a thorough understanding of the SOW requirements and a detailed approach on how it will manage to perform various VTC installations possibly simultaneously.

The Quoter shall discuss any proposed subcontracting or teaming arrangements and the allocation of work between team members. If subcontractors/teaming partners are proposed, the quoter shall provide a list of potential subcontractors/teaming partners and their qualifications that may be used to fulfill the requirements.

The Quoter should also explain in their quote how they will manage, staff & subcontractors and the means that will be used to accomplish the contract requirements.

Factor 2 Corporate Experience. The quoter shall provide a maximum of five (5) recent and relevant Corporate Experience contract examples. If the Quoter plans on utilizing subcontractors to perform the work on the BPA calls, three (3) out of the five (5) examples should be subcontractor experience.

Relevant experience includes the areas listed below:

a). Current/Prior corporate experience in providing Video Teleconference (VTC) Installations and their support provided to their customers as it pertains to the Video Teleconference (VTC) services.

b). Current/Prior corporate experience in partnership with Cisco and or Poly to provide and install VTC equipment to customers.

c). Current/Prior corporate experience in administrative support associated with billing, invoicing, and customer support for simultaneous installations at various sites across the nation.

d). Current/Prior corporate experience in escalation of concerns within the Quoters’s chain of command, communication and problem resolution methodologies associated with the Quoters’s support or with Cisco or Poly resources.

e). Current/Prior corporate experience in supporting multiple calls for VTC services.

The quoter shall include the following information for each example:

(1) The name and contact information of a reference that can substantiate the experience.

(2) Contract Number. Only one contract per example;

(3) Agency that contract was performed for;

(4) Contract Period of Performance (effective date and expiration date);

(5) Contract value;

(6) Contract Type.

Any example that does not comply with the above instructions will not be evaluated.

Corporate experience information may include data on efforts performed by other divisions, corporate management, and major subcontractors and/or teaming partners (defined as supplying 25% or more of the proposed work performed) if such information is relevant to the subject acquisition and will influence the performance of the proposed effort.

Factor 3 Past Performance: The quoter shall provide past performance information for no more than three (3) of the most relevant contracts performed for Federal agencies, state/local governments and/or commercial customers within the last three (3) years from the issue date of this RFQ or currently being performed. Relevant contracts include contracts similar or greater in scope, magnitude, and complexity than the effort described in this RFQ. The Quoter shall provide a Contractor Performance Assessment Report (CPAR) for the referenced project, if one is available. If a CPAR is not available, the Quoter shall submit a Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) signed by the customer reference (see Attachment 7 to this RFQ). PPQs shall not be sent directly to the Contracting Office soliciting this requirement; it is the responsibility of the Quoter to include the completed CPAR and/or PPQ as part of its quote.

Factor 4 Price: The Quoter shall submit a pricing volume that includes the total package prices for delivery, installation, travel (CONUS), configuration, testing, coding, and training of the equipment and government personnel as outlined in the SOW (i.e., inclusive of all costs associated with this effort). The intent of the OCONUS PLUS UP CLINS are to supplement additional travel and shipping expenses related to VTC installations required at OCONUS locations. Provide total price for OCONUS PLUS UP CLINS as well. All CLINS are FIRM-FIXED PRICE. The quoter shall use Attachment 3 – Pricing Schedule for submission of their price proposal.

Ratings

Phase 1: Evaluation of Factor 1 –Management Approach

Quoters participating in Phase 1 shall provide their Management Approach. The evaluation of Phase 1 will utilizing Confidence Ratings.

Ratings Definitions

High Confidence The Government has high confidence that the Quoter understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the BPA calls with little or no Government intervention.

Some Confidence The Government has some confidence that the Quoter understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the BPA calls with some Government intervention.

Low Confidence The Government has low confidence that the Quoter understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, or will be successful in performing the BPA calls even with Government intervention.

Phase 2: Evaluation of Factors 2, 3, & 4.

Quoters participating in Phase 2 shall provide Corporate Experience, Past Performance, and a Pricing Schedule. Any quotation that is non-compliant with any requested submission requirements of this RFQ may immediately be removed from further consideration. The evaluation of Phase 2 will utilize Confidence Ratings to select the responsible quoter whose offer, conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government.

Ratings Definitions

High Confidence The Government has high confidence that the Quoter understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the BPA calls with little or no Government intervention.

Some Confidence The Government has some confidence that the Quoter understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, and will be successful in performing the BPA calls with some Government intervention.

Low Confidence The Government has low confidence that the Quoter understands the requirement, proposes a sound approach, or will be successful in performing the BPA calls even with Government intervention.