Attachment 6 Mandatory Technical Proposal Response.docx

Attachment 6 – Mandatory Technical Proposal Response

Instructions Offerors must respond to all questions in this document as detailed in Section 4 of the ITN. All questions are mandatory unless identified as “Optional” and will be evaluated unless identified as “Information Only”. Failure to respond to a mandatory question may result in a Proposal being deemed non-responsive and receiving no further consideration. Failure to respond to an optional question will result in a score of “0” for that question. Be sure to comply with the page limits and all formatting requirements described in the ITN and in this form.

General Formatting Requirements: Your response must be formatted as follows:

Font: Calibri Font Size: 11 Margins: Standard 1 inch (all margins) Spacing: Single-spaced

Page Limits: The questions below have maximum page limit requirements. Offerors shall NOT exceed the maximum page limits. Note, the page limit applies to the front side of a page only (for example, ‘1 Page’ implies that the Offeror can only provide a response on one side of a piece of paper).

Any response that does not meet these formatting requirements will be converted into the required formatting to ensure that it still meets the page limit. If a response exceeds the page limit, the additional text will be removed or redacted before being provided to evaluators; only the text within the page limit will be evaluated.

Images: Responses may include images for illustrative purposes (e.g. figures, graphics, pictures, graphs) that may include fonts that do not meet the general formatting requirements above. All substantive information, including text within tables created as part of the response, must meet the formatting requirements.

No Links or Attachments: Offerors must not include website links or imbedded documents in the response. The State will not consider information outside of, or imbedded in, the Proposal response. Offerors are also not permitted to provide additional documentation through separate attachments that will exceed the question page limit.

Failure to follow these formatting requirements may result in a Proposal being deemed non-responsive. The ITN Lead reserves the right, but is not required, to make adjustments to the Proposal to ensure that the documents meet these requirements. For example, if a submitted document exceeds the page limit, the ITN Lead will remove the extra pages before providing them to the evaluators. The ITN will also review the Proposal to ensure that are no names in the proposal (to maintain anonymity). The ITN Lead will delete, blackout, or redact any names to keep the proposal anonymous. However, if the ITN is unable to catch these mistakes before the proposal is sent to the evaluators, the document will be given a ‘0’ score regardless of evaluator score. Therefore, it is crucial that the Offeror follows all formatting instructions.

Experience & Qualifications

1. (Page Limit: 2 pages) Provide the qualifications and experience of your company and any subcontractors that will be performing the intrastate outbound freight services. Discuss factors such as:

· Experience with statewide freight contracts

· Experience managing contracts with distances and delivery locations similar to the services detailed in this ITN

· Experience delivering alcohol or other controlled freight

Approach & Methodology

2. (Page limit: 3 pages, excluding the transition plan) Provide a brief description of the general approach (major activities or tasks), which will be utilized to successfully deliver the services. Provide sufficient information to demonstrate your understanding of the requirements and plan for meeting these requirements. Provide a transition plan that shows the major tasks, deliverables, and milestones required to transition services. The transition plan may be attached separately and will not count toward the page limit.

Obstacles, Challenges, & Risks

3. (Page limit: 3 pages) Identify and address issues, concerns, challenges, obstacles, or risks that may impact the successful delivery of this project, using the format below (you may include as many as you wish, within the page limit). The Offeror should list and prioritize these items that are unique and applicable to this project; this includes areas that may cause cost/price increases or may be a source of dissatisfaction for the State or its stakeholders. The Offeror should rely on and use their past experience and knowledge of completing similar projects to identify these potential risks, issues, or challenges.

Each item should be described in non-technical terms and should contain enough information to describe to an evaluator why the item is a valid risk/concern. The Offeror should also explain how it will avoid or minimize the risks from occurring. If the Offeror has a unique method to minimize the issue/risk/concern, the Offeror should explain it in non-technical terms. This Submittal Form provides an opportunity for the Offeror to differentiate its capabilities based on its ability to visualize, understand, and minimize risk to the State and the risk to a successful outcome of the service. The Offeror can address:

· Controllable Items: This includes risks, activities, or tasks that are controllable by the Offeror, or by entities/individuals that are contracted to by the Offeror. This includes things that are part of the technical scope of what the Offeror is being hired to do. This may also include risks that have already been minimized before the project begins due to the Offeror’s expertise (i.e. risks that are no longer risks due to the Offeror’s expertise in delivering this type of project). All controllable risks and strategies to mitigate them must be included in the Offeror’s base proposal cost and schedule (if there are any impacts at all).

· Non-Controllable Items: This includes risks, activities, or tasks that are not controllable by the Offeror. This may include risks, issues, challenges, or obstacles attributed by the State, Members, risks that are caused by other agencies, or completely uncontrollable risks. These can also be areas/risks that can contribute to contingency. Although these risks may not be controlled by the Offeror, the Offeror should identify a strategy that can be followed or used to mitigate these risks. All non-controllable risks and strategies to mitigate them must not be included in the Offeror’s base proposal cost or schedule.

Provide a brief description of the item (background of how the concern/issue may impact the project or service if it occurs), and a strategy to prevent/minimize the issue/concern from occurring, or strategy to minimize the impact of the risk if it does occur. The figure below provides an example of how this information can be submitted.

Item #1:

Strategy:

Item #2:

Strategy:

Item #3:

Strategy:

Impacts To Desired Outcomes Respond to each of the following questions, proving a detailed description of how the offered solution will meet ISLD’s desired outcomes, with emphasis on what makes the offer the best solution for the state. The Offeror should identify any added value or innovation that the Offeror is proposing as it applies to these desired outcomes. The Offeror should utilize any past performance results (from other similar efforts), which illustrate the value that the Offeror provided (in relationship to these goals). NOTE: Each question includes bullet points to provide examples of the type of information Offerors may want to include. These bullet points are not mandatory or exhaustive—Offerors should answer with the information they believe best explains the value of their offered solution.

4. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe how you will ensure reliability in the pickup and delivery schedule. Include information such as:

· What tools, strategies, policies, etc. will you deploy to support reliability?

· What success have you had in maintaining reliable schedules for customers of similar size/scope?

· What staffing practices (e.g., recruitment, retention, incentives, etc.) will you employ to ensure that there are always sufficient staff available to complete scheduled deliveries?

5. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe how you will maximize delivery route efficiency. Include information such as:

· What strategies, policies, etc. will you deploy to support efficiency?

· Do you have examples of increasing delivery route efficiency with other customers?

· Are you proposing backhauling or other strategies to maximize the value to the state?

6. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe how you will maximize efficiency during pickup and delivery. Include information such as:

· What equipment, tools, strategies, etc. will you deploy to maximize efficiency when picking up and delivering inventory?

· What strategies will you deploy to minimize the time required for administrative tasks (e.g., paperwork)?

7. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe how you will ensure one hundred percent (100%) accuracy of order deliveries, including the ability to verify deliveries for ISLD. Include information such as:

· What methods will be used to ensure accurate delivery?

· What technology will be used to validate delivery accuracy?

· Will trailers be sealed? If not, what alternative method will be used to safeguard inventory?

8. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe how you will ensure minimal loss (including breakage, loss, theft, etc.) of inventory. (NOTE: Contract shall be responsible for the cost of any losses as detailed in the Scope of Work; however, ISLD still has an interest in minimizing loss). Include information such as:

· What tools, equipment, strategies, policies, etc. will you deploy to minimize loss?

9. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe how you propose to measure performance during the term of the Contract. Include information such as:

· What metrics/key performance indicators (KPIs) would you propose to measure?

· Do you have examples of success achieved from specific KPIs?

10. (Page limit: 2 pages) Describe any value-add services you are offering (in addition to the required fright services). How will the value-add services increase efficiency and/or reduce costs? If you are not offering any value-add services, would you consider adding services such as warehouse operations management in the future?