Bidders Questions and Answers.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 18 KB Posted
- Attached to
- Enterprise Temporary Help Services
- Contract number
- PRF71
- Issued by
- Massachusetts
About this file
This document is a Bidders Questions and Answers spreadsheet for a Massachusetts Statewide Managed Service Provider (MSP) contract for temporary staffing services. The procurement involves multiple potential vendors, including 22nd Century Technologies, The Resource Connection, CQ Personnel, InGenesis, and Kforce Inc., who submitted questions during the bidding process. The contract is being managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, specifically the Office of Strategic Development (OSD), and is a replacement for the previous PRF57 contract that has expired.
The contract seeks to establish an MSP for temporary help services across various job categories, including administrative support, customer service, data entry, receptionist, paralegal, and accounting support roles. The total annual spend across these categories is approximately $7 million, with an average assignment length of 3-4 months. Pricing will involve both markup rates and maximum ceiling pay rates, with fixed pricing for the initial contract term. The evaluation criteria include factors such as business qualifications, database and technology capabilities, references, emergency response, pricing, and Small Diverse Business (SDP) participation. The expected start date for the new MSP contract is March 1, 2020, with a vendor-neutral model that allows pre-registered staffing agencies to participate.
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Sheet2
Question # Created Date User Created Question Subject Question Answer
| 2 | 1/6/20 | Jackie McDonough/Kforce Inc | Bid for Temporary Staff | Hello there, Is this bid only for RFP to become the MSP? Or is this for individual sub-vendor for temporary staffing support? | This bid is to award the MSP only |
| 3 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Certificate of Non-Collusion | As listed in the "Bidders Submission Checklist", certificated of non-collusion is to be submitted as a part of bid. We are not able to find it. Please specify the page number and attachment name. | This has been posted as a separate attachment to the Bid under the name "Certificate of Non-Collusion" |
| 4 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Business Reference Form | Confirm if there is a reference form/PPQ which needs to be provided with submission. Are vendors required to submit the references as per the format in "SECTION 6. REFERENCES AND REFERENCE INFORMATION AND/OR REQUIRMENTS"? | This has been posted as a separate attachment to the Bid under the name "Business Reference" |
| 5 | 1/7/20 | Janet Santa Anna/The Resource Connection, Inc. | Geographic Service and Delivery Areas | Section 10 - Page 8. of the RFR Response Form includes CT,ME.NH, RI and VT. Do you anticipate needing temporary help in those states? | These State names were inadvertently included. This is a Statewide Contract for the state of Massachusetts. Please see list of eligible entities in Section 14 of the RFR. Other states may chose to use this contract if they chose to. The RFR Section 10 will be amended to remove the direct reference to the states of CT, ME, NH, RI and VT. |
| 6 | 1/7/20 | Janet Santa Anna/The Resource Connection, Inc. | Geographic Service and Delivery Areas | Section 10 - Page 8. of the RFR Response Form includes CT,ME.NH, RI and VT. Do you anticipate needing temporary help in those states? | see answer to question 5 |
| 7 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Cost | Please clarify what should be included in ?cost fixed fee?? | "Cost Fixed " reference in Appendix 9 refers to the fixed dollar amount for the indicated service. |
| 8 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Cost | Since the candidate pay rates may vary as per the skills and job position, a ?Fixed Dollar Amount? cannot be provided in the ?Appendix 9 Cost Tables?. Can we only provide the Cost Percentage? | Please see amendment to Section 9 of the RFR Response form and Appendix 10 of the RFR to include explanation language on what is required in the cost tables. |
| 9 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Evaluation criteria | As discussed over the call, there would an evaluation criterion consisting of many factors such as Customer service, KPIs, Technical tool capability, Cost, etc. What is the weightage of each factor? | Bidders Qualification 10 points Business Capacity & Qualifications 20 points Database and Technology 25 points References 5 points Emergency Response 4 points Pricing/Compensation 20 points SDP 10 points EPP Plan 1 point Prompt Pay Discount 5 points |
| 10 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Penalty | What are the penalties which will be imposed on the MSP if unable meeting with the KPIs regarding Response Time, Resume submittal time, fill rate, etc. Specify for each please. | Penalties will depend on overall vendor performance pursuant to the established KPIs, but could include suspension from new work, suspension from contract participation, or termination |
| 11 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | PRF57 | Who were the service providers on previous program, i.e. PRF57? | Please refer to The Contract User Guide for PRF57 at the following link for further details: https://www.mass.gov/doc/prf57/download |
| 12 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | PRF57 | To offer you a competitive pricing structure, we would like to know current rates, markup to the Commonwealth. | Please refer to the Master Blanket Purchase Order for PRF57 found on COMMBUYS.com for this information. This may be found here: https://www.commbuys.com/bso/external/bidDetail.sdo?docId=BD-14-1080-OSD01-OSD10-00000000366&external=true&parentUrl=bid |
| 13 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | PRF57 | Apart from end of tenure, is there any other reason to release this solicitation? Are there any pain points? | The current contract has expired and there are no further options to renew. We are therefore engaging in this procurement process for contract replacement |
| 14 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | PRF57 | How many consultants converted from a temp status to become your employees in previous program? | Total temporary to staff conversions was 286 for the period (9.1.14-1.5.2020) |
| 15 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Employee benefits | Other than specified benefits and insurance, ?Appendix 6?, are there any employee benefits and health insurance that Commonwealth oblige the vendors to pay its workers? | In addition to the requirements of the RFR, the Commonwealth requires its vendors to compensate their employees in accordance with all state and federal laws |
| 16 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Employee benefits | Please provide the health and insurance plan provided by the current vendor? | The Commonwealth does not have this information to share |
| 17 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | PRF57 | Please provide the evaluation/scoring sheet of previous contract. | For public records request, please send your request to: OSD-DL-RAO@Mass.Gov |
| 18 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Standard Contract Form | Please confirm which fields should be filled by the CONTRACTOR in ?Standard Contract Form?? There is lot of information which is unknown at this time or to be filled by the ?DEPARTMENT?. | The Standard Contract Form was provided in this RFR for your information only. Do not complete and submit as a part of the bid package. Please see section AC pages 36-37 of the RFR |
| 19 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | SDP participation | Is there a minimum goal of SDP participation to get 10% weightage? | This is a competitive procurement and vendors will be scored based on the competitiveness of their reponses, including SDP commitments |
| 20 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | APPENDIX 10 | Are hourly rates are to be provided by the bidders? | Yes, see Appendix 10 of the RFR and clarifications provided in the cost tables of Section 9 of the Bidders Response Sheet |
| 21 | 1/9/20 | Joni Lee Rossi/CQ Personnel, Inc. d/b/a Back Bay Staffing Group | MSP- What is the Definition of Pre-Registered Staffing Agencies in regard to MSP?FR Page 7 | How does a MA certified woman owned business register with the Commonwealth as a "pre-registered staffing agency? There was a mention on the Bidder's Conference call regarding "sending the documentation". Will this documentation be on Comm-buys, and if not, where? | The pre-registration will be done with the awarded bidder/MSP, not the Commonwealth. This process will be determined during the contract implemntation process. . Without knowing the system that will be awarded, we are unable to provide further details as to that process at this time. |
| 22 | 1/9/20 | Joni Lee Rossi/CQ Personnel, Inc. d/b/a Back Bay Staffing Group | MSP - what is the due date,to pre-register as a staffing agency with the MSP? | What is the date that pre-registered staffing agencies may begin working with the Commonwealth through the MSP? | This date will be determined during the contract implementation phase, once the MSP is up and running and the process of pre-registration is completed. The expected start date for the MSP is March 1, 2020 |
| 23 | 1/9/20 | Joni Lee Rossi/CQ Personnel, Inc. d/b/a Back Bay Staffing Group | MSP- What is the Definition of Pre-Registered Staffing Agencies in regard to MSP?FR Page 7 | How does a MA certified woman owned business register with the Commonwealth as a "pre-registered staffing agency? There was a mention on the Bidder's Conference call regarding "sending the documentation". Will this documentation be on Comm-buys, and if not, where? | See response to question 21 |
| 24 | 1/9/20 | Joni Lee Rossi/CQ Personnel, Inc. d/b/a Back Bay Staffing Group | MSP - what is the due date,to pre-register as a staffing agency with the MSP? | What is the date that pre-registered staffing agencies may begin working with the Commonwealth through the MSP? | See response to question 22 |
| 25 | 1/9/20 | Janet Santa Anna/The Resource Connection, Inc. | W4 Employees | Would all temporary employees need to be W4 employees? Employees of a staffing company? | This RFR is for temporary help services, so labor providers are expected to be employees of a staffing company or individual providers of temporary labor |
| 26 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | Assignment | - Please provide the average historical length of assignment for each of the main service category positions. | The average length of assignment is between 3 and 4 months in general and in each of the main service categories |
| 27 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | Spend | - Please provide the total annual spend for each of the main service category positions. | Administrative Support including Exec Admin Functions $6,178,932 Customer Service $70,659 Data Entry Operator $237,241 Receptionist $147,460 Paralegal $81,222 Accounting Support $286,239 Clerical Support $38,960 |
| 28 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | Pricing | - Appendix 9 requires markup pricing and Appendix 10 requires fix bill rate pricing on listed position titles. Please provide more details about when each of the pricing methods would be used or which agency would use which type of pricing. | Appendix 9 is asking for the markup rate that will be applied to all job categories at all times. Appendix 10 is asking for the maximum ceiling pay rates for the positions indicated. Both markup and pay rates are required for this evaluation. Please see additional clarification provided in Appendix 10 of the RFR and Section 9 Compensation Structure of the Response Form. |
| 29 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | Pricing | - Would pricing in Appendix 10 be considered fixed during the initial contract term? | Yes |
| 30 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | Pricing | - Would pricing in Appendix 10 be allow for a price increase for the option term? | The agreed prices will be for the life of the contract. Please refer to Section N2 (page 24) paragraph 6. |
| 31 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | References | Please clarify the following conflicting requirements in the RFR: Section D on page 14 of the RFR states that bidders must indicate their three largest customers in the state of Massachusetts. However, the RFR Response Form does not include a section to provide this information and the included reference question does not state that all references must be for Massachusetts-based clients. Are the three references requested in the Response Form required to come from Massachusetts-based companies? | Please see Section C #4 for reference requirements. These do not have to be MA based. |
| 32 | 1/9/20 | Veronica Edwards/InGenesis, Inc | Model | Please define the ?Vendor Neutral? model requested by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Will subsidiaries of the awarded MSP vendor be permitted to participate in the program? | See RFR Section 1 and the Glossary |
Sheet3
Question # Created Date User Created Question Subject Question Proposed Response
| 10 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Penalty | What are the penalties which will be imposed on the MSP if unable meeting with the KPIs regarding Response Time, Resume submittal time, fill rate, etc. Specify for each please. | since we had discussed and agreed to not include the penalties in the RFR, what should my response by to this question? |
| 15 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | Employee benefits | Other than specified benefits and insurance, ?Appendix 6?, are there any employee benefits and health insurance that Commonwealth oblige the vendors to pay its workers? | Should we be discussing/disclosing this to the bidders? |
| 19 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | SDP participation | Is there a minimum goal of SDP participation to get 10% weightage? | We are thinking of using the below weighting scale to score the bidders response for SDP comittment. Please comment if this is appropriate: >10% - 10 points 8-10% 8 points 5-7% 6 points 2-4% 4 points >1<2% 2 points <1>0% 1point |
| 19 | 1/7/20 | Kulpreet Singh/22nd Century Technologies, Inc. | SDP participation | Is there a minimum goal of SDP participation to get 10% weightage? | We are thinking of using the below weighting scale to score the bidders response for SDP comittment. Please comment if this is appropriate: >10% - 10 points 8-10% 8 points 5-7% 6 points 2-4% 4 points >1<2% 2 points <1>0% 1point |
| 23 | 1/9/20 | Joni Lee Rossi/CQ Personnel, Inc. d/b/a Back Bay Staffing Group | MSP- What is the Definition of Pre-Registered Staffing Agencies in regard to MSP?FR Page 7 | How does a MA certified woman owned business register with the Commonwealth as a "pre-registered staffing agency? There was a mention on the Bidder's Conference call regarding "sending the documentation". Will this documentation be on Comm-buys, and if not, where? | This is the proposed response, please comment if it is appropriate: The pre-registration will be done with the awarded bidder, not the Commonwealth. This process will be determined during the contract implemntation process. . Without knowing the system that will be awarded, we are unable to provide further details as to that process at this time. |
| 22 | 1/9/20 | Joni Lee Rossi/CQ Personnel, Inc. d/b/a Back Bay Staffing Group | MSP - what is the due date,to pre-register as a staffing agency with the MSP? | What is the date that pre-registered staffing agencies may begin working with the Commonwealth through the MSP? | This is the proposed response. Please comment if it is appropriate: This date will be determined during the contract implementation phase, once the MSP is up and running and the process of pre-registration will be completed |
| 25 | 1/9/20 | Janet Santa Anna/The Resource Connection, Inc. | W4 Employees | Would all temporary employees need to be W4 employees? Employees of a staffing company? | Not sure how to word this response. Please provide guidance. Labor providers may either be employees of staffingc companies, or they may be individuals who will provide their service to the Commonwealth by way of registering directly with the MSP. |
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