FBO_BBG50-R-17-0044_BPA_Questions_and_Answers_6_22_17_FINAL.pdf

Questions and Answers

Regarding BG50-R-17-0044

Question 1.

Will the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) allow a question and answer period at the start of each new phase of the solicitation or will all questions submitted by the May 31 deadline constitute a complete compilation of questions?

Answer:

All questions submitted by May 31, 2017 will be posted on FBO and a determination will be made on an as need basis for additional Questions and Answers process prior to selecting successful Offerors. We do, however, anticipate providing additional information to businesses selected to participate in Phase Two and we likewise anticipate allowing a short time to submit questions concerning the new information and how that information may relate to previously released information.

Question 2.

Phase One (1) Assessment Questions—Does the BBG have a page limitation for Question 1?

Answer:

There is no page limitation for Question 1 but the total size of all attachments must not exceed

25MB. Note that offerors are only required to cite relevant studies, not to include lengthy explanations. Please see the 2nd paragraph of G.6 titled “Submission of Proposal (Phase Two)” in the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation.

Question 3.

Can Offerors assume that the final proposal to be submitted in Phase Two will include parts of earlier submissions or is the intention that the final deliverable will contain only new material not previously submitted?

Answer:

Offerors can reference specific parts of submissions for Phase One in Phase Two as well as submitting additional materials.

Question 4.

Does the BBG anticipate the release of a separate RFP to perform additional data quality control

(including recodes) and to maintain a master survey questionnaire? If the BBG intends to issue a separate RFP for these components, can any non-Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) holder apply, including any firm that was not shortlisted for award of the BPA?

Answer:

The BBG will release a separate RFP to perform additional data quality control (including recodes) and to maintain a master survey questionnaire. Any non-Blanket Purchase Agreement

(BPA) holder can submit a proposal under the separate RFP including any firm that was not selected for award of the BPA. BBG intends to issue an additional solicitation for quantitative analysis.

Question 5.

Will the BBG permit teaming arrangements on certain task orders?

Answer:

Yes. The BBG understands the need for teaming arrangements and subcontracts. Each Task O will be awarded to a single entity that holds a BPA, however. This entity may enter into teaming arrangements or subcontracts as necessary to complete the tasks set forth in the Task Order but will remain responsible for performing all the work included in the Task Order.

Question 6.

Given that the work streams are unknown at this stage, does the BBG require contractors to name subcontractors or can we submit a list of potential subcontractors? While we recognize there is no requirement for exclusivity agreements with subcontractors, it is difficult to pull names from the database when the requirements of the work are unknown. To what degree do the BBG require absolute clarity on subcontractors we may use?

Answer:

For Phase One, no subcontractor names are required. Phase Two will include specific sample

Task Orders with specific tasks for which Offerors may wish to name subcontractors it intends to use for these specific sample Task Orders. There is no requirement to list subcontractors or provide “absolute clarity on subcontractors” that may perform the actual work. Although we would expect subcontractors names if the bidder is relying on a subcontractor to meet solicitation requirements.

Question 7.

Should we assume that the BBG wishes to retain adherence to the Fly America Act as much as is possible? This question may be more specific to later phases where pricing is concerned, but is being asked in case this is a one-off Q&A opportunity.

Answer:

No, although Fly America does not apply, we have a preference for U.S. flyers to fly American.

Question 8.

Pricing on individual tasks. Will rate cards be required for sample task pricing or is this a requirement of the final submission only?

Answer 8:

No rate cards will be required for the sample Call Order pricing.

Question 9.

Task Area 1: Omnibus Surveys—Will the BBG consider an alternative task order payment schedule to accommodate small businesses that work with local subcontractors who would not have the financial capacity to carry 80% of the cost until deliverables are accepted at the end. For smaller organizations and non-profits, this would exclude our ability to compete.

Answer 9:

No.

Question 10.

How many vendors is the BBG considering for award of the BPA?

Answer 10. The BBG does not have an upper limit. The ultimate number of awards will depend on the number of qualified submissions.

Question 11.

How many large and small businesses does the BBG anticipate awarding the BPA?

The BBG does not have a fixed number in mind, but anticipates that it will award BPAs to a mix of large and small businesses.

Question 12.

Will contracts only be awarded to US-headquartered research consultancies?

Answer:

No.

Question 13.

Only a few global research consultancies have official offices in these markets and most work with local vendors as subcontractors particularly across the breadth of countries being considered. Will there be any evaluation criteria rating bidders for working with subcontractors/vendors in these markets? If so, what will that look like?

Answer:

Each sample Task Order submission will be evaluated holistically, i.e. if subcontractors are used, the evaluation will consider both the main bidder’s and the subcontractor’s experience and proposed procedures to meet the Task Order’s requirements.

Question 14.

What is the page limitation for responses due June 5?

Answer:

There is no page limitation for the complete submission package for Phase One but there is a size limitation to the attachment of 25 MB, but answers to assessment questions 2 and 3 are limited to one page per question. See #1.

Question 15.

What will be the page limitation for Phase Two responses?

Answer:

There is no page limitation for the complete submission package for Phase II as yet, but there are page limitations for responses to individual sample Tasks Orders (2 pages per sample Task

Order.) Total submission length will depend on how many Task Areas the bidders submits bids for.

Question 16.

Will there be a Q&A period for those companies that make it to Phase Two consideration?

Answer: Yes.

Question 17.

Will there be any evaluation criteria (positive or negative) for past experience that supports government clients (US or other) over commercials clients?

Answer:

No.

Question 18.

How many vendors is the BBG considering for award of the BPA?

Answer:

The BBG does not have an upper limit. The ultimate number of awards will depend on the number of qualified submissions.

Question19.

How many large and small businesses does the BBG anticipate awarding the BPA?

Answer:

The BBG does not have a fixed number in mind, but anticipates that it will award BPAs to a mix of large and small businesses.

Question 20.

Will contracts only be awarded to US-headquartered research consultancies?

Answer:

No.

Question 21.

Only a few global research consultancies have official offices in these markets and most work with local vendors as subcontractors particularly across the breadth of countries being considered. Will there be any evaluation criteria rating bidders for working with subcontractors/vendors in these markets? If so, what will that look what is the page limitation for responses due June 5?

Answer: Each sample Task Order submission will be evaluated holistically, i.e. if subcontractors are used, the evaluation will consider both the main bidder’s and the subcontractor’s experience and proposed procedures to meet the Task Order’s requirements.

22. Can BBG clarify the estimated funding level of this BPA? Is it $7M over a 5-year period, or approximately $1.4M per year, to cover approximately 20 BBG surveys per year?

Answer:

We estimate not exceeding a cumulative amount of $7 million over the 5-year period of the

BPA.

Question 23. Can BBG provide an example of a typical “BBG survey” in one of the target markets? And which task would such a survey fall under?

Answer:

References to “BBG surveys” can be ignored. BBG surveys will be solicited under a separate solicitation.

Question 24.

Can BBG clarify the scope and scale of qualitative studies under Task Area 2?

The scope and scale will become evident when the sample Task Orders are released.

Question 25.

Does BBG prefer to have a Washington, DC-based client service team?

The BBG does not have any preference.

Question 26.

In Phase Two, does BBG anticipate that successful vendors or teams should be able to respond to all 5 task order areas?

Answer:

No. The BBG does not anticipate that successful vendors or teams will necessarily respond to all

5 Task Areas. A successful bidder could respond to as little as a single Task Area.

Question 27.

How many vendors does BBG anticipate awarding to within each Task Area? Will there be a short list of firms for each Task Area, or overall for the entire BPA?

Answer:

The BBG does have a limit. There will be a short list of firms for each Task Area. Ultimately, it is possible that the BPA contains, for example, 4 companies for Task Area 1,and 12 companies for Task Area 2 etc.

Question 28.

Can bidders team during Phase One, but then decide to split up based on the specific requirements of and feedback received before Phase Two?

Answer:

Teams can submit Phase One proposals. The team members can structure their teams as best suits them. BBG will award to the entity the team members use to submit their Phase 1 proposal.

Only that entity will be eligible to compete in Phase Two however, BBG may well condition its award in Phase One or Two on assurances concerning responsibility that other team members will perform as represented in the proposal. But BBG will not award any BPA to more than one entity that alone will be responsible for performance of all the work.

Question 29.

I have an additional question regarding the BPA for (Marketing Research and Public Opinion

Polling). Our organization has a diverse advisory board, which includes representatives of

BBG. Would this disqualify our organization from being awarded?

Answer:

Thank you for bring this to our attention. FAR Subpart 9.5 provides guidance on potential organizational conflicts of interest. FAR Subparts 3.6 and 3.11 provides guidance on personal conflicts of interest. You have not provided enough detail to evaluate and answer this complex issue and in any event a Contracting Officer might be unable to resolve questions under the ethical rules that are subject to an ethics official’s oversight and may apply to BBG employees or representatives serving on your advisory board. Your own ethics rules should also be consulted.

Question 30.

Additionally, if we file with a partner organization, do we need to form a single legal entity? The partner company is based in the UK with offices in the U.S.

Answer:

No, but if you plan to submit a proposal as a partnership, please make sure the partnership has a

DUNS number and is registered in SAM. Normally, however, we see proposals submitted by existing entities that may be partners, in a very broad and inexact sense, or team members as used in FAR 9.601(2) that use the existing entity to compete for an award..

Question 31.

Do we send one submission for all five task orders and then we are allowed to apply to any of the five? Or do we need to “apply” for specific task orders during Phase One?

Answer:

For Phase One, there is only a single submission. For Phase Two, there will be separate submissions for each Task Area the Offeror wishes to submit a proposal on.

Question 32.

Will the BBG consider providing an extension to the Phase 2 submission deadline? Given the release of the solicitation prior to a major US holiday, and lack of clarity of timing of results for

Phase 1, we respectfully request an extension to enable us to provide BBG a robust technical response.

Answer:

An extension is not possible. Note that there are strict page limitations for responding to the sample task orders in Phase Two.

Question 33.

When will BBG provide a response to the Phase 1 Submission?

The BBG will provide the response within one week of the deadline, i.e. by June 12.

Question 34.

Can BBG Define what type of activity constitutes Task Area 3, Other Analytic Research

Studies? Can BBG provide current or prior examples of such projects?

The BBG will provide a sample Task Order in Phase Two.

Question 35.

According to this solicitation the ordering period of this BPA is 5 years. Is the cumulative value of orders not exceeding $7,000,000 referring to an annual does not exceed $7,000,000.

Answer:

We estimate not exceeding a cumulative amount of $7 million over the 5-year period of the

BPA. Although the Government does not guarantee, nor does it commit itself to placing a minimum amount of orders, the Government estimates that over each year of the ordering period of this BPA, it may place order with a cumulative value that does not exceed $7 M.

Question 36.

Will omnibus surveys in 35 countries replace bespoke nationally representative surveys? Or does

BBG plan to commission nationally representative surveys in addition to omnibus surveys?

Answer:

There will be separate solicitation for “BBG surveys” (nationally representative surveys solely for the BBG). The reference to the 20 BBG surveys in this solicitation document was a mistake.

Question 37.

How many questions will the BBG plan to include in omnibus surveys?

Answer:

The BBG will provide a sample Task Order with the questions to include in the omnibus for

Phase Two.

Question 38.

The RFP notes the GAO's audit requirement that measures be generated by means of bona fide samples (understood as general population probability samples with known sampling error, fixed cluster sizes and design effects). Does the BBG intend to meet these requirements for omnibus work, or to waive these requirements for omnibus research?

Answer:

The requirements for omnibus research will be listed on a sample Task Order provided for Phase

Two.

Question 39.

The solicitation mentions 25 qualitative projects per year. Does this category include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and BBG media user panels?

Answer 39.

Yes. Each project may have multiple components, i.e. panels may span multiple countries, focus group may include multiple rounds etc.

Question 40.

How many BBG media user panel studies will be commissioned per year?

Answer:

The BBG cannot anticipate its research budget for future years, which will determine the number of panel studies required. For FY17, the BBG intends to commission approximately 12 panel studies.

Question 41.

How many non-representative surveys does BBG plan to commission per year? Will these non-representative surveys mostly address RFA’s target populations? What is the anticipated sample size of such studies?

Answer:

Approximately 2. The non-representative studies will mostly address regions where in-person research is impossible, and could include target regions for multiple BBG networks. The sample size of such studies will vary, depending on the difficulty of access of the studied population and the research budget. Sample size is expected to range from approximately 80 to 200.

42. Under “Task Area 5 Online-Audio-Visual Panels,” can you define “large sample online panels?” What is the sample size for such research? Will these online panels include current and potential users of BBG media products?

Answer 42. Large sample would include sample sizes of at least 50, but possibly much higher, up to 500. Panels may be only for current users, only for potential users, only for non-users of

BBG content, or a mix of these groups

43. What kind of online research is envisioned with these panels? Will these be media consumption measurement work, or testing of audio-visual content, or both?

Answer 43. Both

Question 44.

How many online panel studies does BBG anticipate to commission per year and in what markets?

Answer:

The BBG cannot anticipate its research budget for future years, which will determine the number of online panel studies required. For FY17, the BBG intends to commission approximately 2 online panel studies in the MENA region.

45. Will the presence of exclusive subcontract agreements negatively impact the bidder’s scoring or will it have no negative effect?

Answer:

BBG can only encourage contractors and their subcontractors to avoid exclusive teaming agreements. But please keep in mind that such agreements can raise anti-trust issues that could create significant issues. Also no contractor can prohibit a subcontractor from selling directly to the government. So while an Offeror’s agreement prohibiting a subcontractor or team member from competing on other teams will not in itself adversely affect BBG’s evaluation, such an arrangement in combination with other factors might raise the issues alluded to.

Question 46.

Is BBG interested in innovative qualitative methodologies such as participatory FGs, empathic research, mobile qualitative or online focus groups?

Yes, such methodologies may be employed for various Task Areas, most likely for Task Area 3.

Question 47.

I just recently became aware of the BBG's BPA for Research (Solicitation Number: BBG50-17-

R-00044). Can I inquire, Is this solicitation for audience research or something similar to be expected annually or is this a onetime solicitation for a predicted or specified period?

This solicitation is for a period of five years.

48. I see the 5 year term mentioned in section C.1. Does this also mean that subsequent or similar BPA's soliciting audience research should not be expected for five years?

Answer:

Depending on the BBG’s future research needs, additional solicitations for audience research may be made, even during the five year period of this BPA.

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