Attachment_8_-_Responses_to_Vendor_Questions.pdf

Attachment 8 – Vendor Questions and Government Responses

RFP CC15HQR0015

Vendor Questions and Government Responses Regarding the OCC’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for the IBM Notes/Domino Support and Conversion Requirement

Q # RFQ Reference Vendor Question OCC Responses Document or

Appendix Name

Section # Page #

1. RFP F.3 8 Primary place of performance is identified as the OCC headquarters in Washington, DC. Contractor’s experience is that allowing both onsite and offsite support for environment administration and development for older technologies such as Lotus Notes/Domino enables federal agencies to obtain efficiencies and access to resources located across the US with relevant skills without inserting risk into the delivery of services. So long as the contractor is able to meet or exceed acceptable quality levels associated with services, as set forth in Appendix E, QASP, is the OCC open to a staffing model that provides a hybrid of on-site and off-site staff to support the tasks identified in the

PWS?

OCC/ITS common practice requires that key personnel are located on-site. Additionally, during core support hours, deskside service may be required.

2. RFP F.4 8-9 For purposes of staff planning and pricing the FFP components of the solution, can the OCC provide any historical information regarding the need for support outside of normal business hours?

OCC’s Domino environment is a historically stable platform that has not required off-hour support.

However, after patches are applied, availability and verification testing is required approximately once per month (for four hours on Sunday). Some months will require an additional test cycle. Annually, Sunday testing occurs approximately 14 times.

All IBM Domino server patches and upgrades that result in scheduled downtime must take place outside of normal business hours. The last Domino upgrade to 8.5.3 FP6 occurred in November 2014.

3. RFP H.14 26 The RFP states “The Contractor shall ensure that all employees, agents, and subcontractors having unescorted access to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s facilities or access to information systems, security items, or sensitive but unclassified information are United States Citizens or are lawful Permanent Resident Aliens (green card) with at least three or more years of U.S. residency from the date of legal entry in the U.S. Contractors who require privileged IT access shall be U.S. citizens and shall complete the Privileged User training prior to receiving elevated permissions.” Is U.S.

Citizenship required for this contract or can individuals who hold a Green Card also perform on this contract?

All staff who will support the technical tasks of the contract will need privileged access to the OCC network, which requires U.S. citizenship. Personnel supporting administrative tasks, who do not need privileged access to the OCC network, may be either U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

4. PWS Can the OCC indicate the time between announcement of award to the incoming contractor and the expected start date for delivery of services?

The OCC currently cannot provide a specific date for the announcement of award resulting from this RFP.

However, the anticipated start date is 10/01/2015.

5. PWS Task 6 11 and

Once migrated to the target platform (SharePoint, InfoPath, Java, .Net), is the awarded contractor still responsible for operations and maintenance support of the re-platformed application, or will responsibility for support be transferred to another contractor?

Following application migration, the awarded Contractor will be responsible for operations and maintenance support of the re-platformed applications.

6. PWS Task 7 12 Is the Transition Plan to be part of the 20 page Technical Approach?

Yes, the transition plan is included within the Technical Approach’s page limitations. The page limit has been increased to 25 pages, in case a vendor feels the need to utilize the extra pages.

7. PWS How long after award until the incoming contractor It is not feasible for the awardee to be completely is completely responsible for tasks 1-6 in the PWS? responsible for tasks 1-6 on the effective date of the contract. Therefore, the Contractor should propose a transition schedule not to exceed 45 days.

8. PWS Task 7 12 Are there statistics on the number of releases performed annually? What is the OCC’s expectation on in-flight work during transition?

Will there be a “freeze” of releases during the 90-day period?

The Contractor should propose the number of future releases based on the applications to be converted, as listed in the PWS. A ‘freeze’ will not be implemented during the transition, as adaptive or corrective maintenance may be required. However, there is no expectation of ‘new’ development (perfective or conversion) during this period.

9. PWS +

Appendix E

Is there a “burn-in” period for achieving the AQLs beyond the 90-day transition period?

The Contractor is expected to meet the AQLs immediately following the 90-day transition period.

10. RFP Section L, Content of Volume I:

Price Proposal, Item 5

60 Based upon the scope of work described in the PWS, the offeror will be providing services to support environments and applications, not a COTS product; thus, we recommend removing the requirement for VPAT from the requirements for the Price proposal. Rather, the inclusion of Item 4 specific to services seems more appropriate to the nature of this solicitation. Does the OCC concur?

Please continute to fill out the VPAT as per OCC Clause 1052.239-8001. Vendors need only to complete this survey to the best of their ability (and certify via the included attestation). Vendors may denote any of their comments/assumptions on the VPAT and/or IT Accessibility Questionnaire on their responses.

11. RFP Section L, Content of Volume II;

Technical Proposal, Item 2

61 As currently stated, the completed past performance surveys from offeror clients are due on the same date as the offeror’s proposal, specifically July 8, 2015. In light of the upcoming holiday and the fact that many of the OCC’s government colleagues will be out of office on vacation in the coming week, will the OCC please extend due date of completed past performance surveys from its government colleagues to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, July 13, 2015?

The due date for completed past performance surveys has been extended to July 20, 2015 at 9:00 AM EST.

12. RFP 9 16 How many of the 3 required Past Performances are mandatory for the prime contractor? How many can be teammates?

Vendors may have served as either the prime contractor or as a teammate. Regardless of whether a vendor served as either a prime contractor or as a teammate, it is in the best interest of the vendor to delineate what roles/functions the vendor performed and describe how the work performed is related to the requirements outlined in the Government’s solicitation.

13. RFP and PWS RFP Section

F.4; PWS

Section 9

RFP

page 8;

PWS

While the RFP states business hours of coverage required as 8:30 – 5:00, the PWS states 8:00 – 5:00.

Can the OCC please clarify the beginning time for normal business hours?

The RFP has been updated to reflect the same time frame stated in the PWS—8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST.

14. PWS and Appendix A Domino Applications

Task 6 PWS of 19

Does the OCC have a timeframe in mind for migrating the portfolio of applications identified in Appendix A to the target platforms?

The target timeframe for converting the applications in Appendix A is 18 months after the 90-day transition period.

15. PWS Task 6 11 of 19 Has the OCC already invested in tools to support migration of Lotus Notes to SharePoint, or is the OCC looking for recommendations from the contractor community?

The OCC has not invested in migration tools. Please note that all OCC Domino applications are custom applications that are not based on IBM Domino COTS templates.

16. PWS Task 1 6 and 7 of 19

Can the OCC share information regarding the number of Domino servers and databases currently supported as well as load/traffic data for those servers?

The OCC has a production environment with three

(3) virtual Windows 2008 R2 servers, each running two partitioned instances of Domino. The OCC development environment consists of three (3) virtual Windows 2008 R2 servers, two of which are running two partitioned instances of Domino. The third development server is reserved for sandbox development.

17. PWS Task 1 6 and 7 of 19

How many Domino Servers are set up between OCC headquarters in Washington DC and the Ashburn VA location that houses all Lotus Domino applications? For administration purposes, are all applications replicated across all servers and accessible from both OCC locations?

All servers referenced in the response to Question 16 and their resident applications are virtual and housed at the Ashburn, Virginia, data center. Each production instance of Domino is unique. No replication is configured.

18. PWS Task 1 6 and 7 of 19

Is there a monitoring system already in place for server monitoring? If so, can the OCC please provide information on the tool, including version.

The OCC currently uses SolarWinds and NetIQ for server monitoring. Monitoring is performed by the OCC’s Network Operations Center (NOC).

19. PWS Task 1, Document ation Activities

7 of 19 Is there a current system in place for documentation as described in the requirement?

OCC Domino/Notes Documentation is stored in Notes Storage Files (NSFs) on the Domino platform and on Notes/Domino team network shares.

20. General Can the OCC share the total number of applications to be supported upon award?

Please see Appendix A for the list of applications.

21. General What technology does the OCC use for email? If Lotus Notes, is there a plan to migrate to another technology and, if so, are there expectations for the involvement of the Lotus Notes/Domino contractor?

The OCC uses Microsoft Exchange/Outlook for email.

22. Appendix A Domino Applicatio ns spreadshee t

Applications are categorized by a complexity range from 1-5. Please provide a description of the basis for those rankings (e.g., anticipated hours to complete migration, client versus web application, complexity of application design, size of user community).

These complexity ratings are subjective but relative within the environment. Applications were rated by considering factors including, but not limited to, the following: number of users, programming language, lookups, Notrix SQL integration, Cascading Style Sheets, workflow and approval functions, and the number of fields/amount of data.

23. Appendix A Domino non-SP Conversio n tab

Row 8, column E indicates a target of “.Net or NSA”. Please clarify “NSA”.

Appendix A has been updated to remove NSA.

24. Appendix A Converted to SharePoint tab

In the “Converted to SharePoint” tab, OCC lists 6 applications that have converted to SharePoint.

Were other technologies also used (e.g., InfoPath) as part of the final to-be solution for these conversions?

InfoPath was used for form input for the conversions listed.

25. Appendix A Converted to SharePoint tab

Are the 6 applications listed in the “Converted to SharePoint” tab also part of the support required under this solicitation (specifically Task 3 Tier 2 and Tier 3 Support, and Task 5 Development and Maintenance Support)?

Yes

26. Appendix A Converted Offeror assumes that another contractor is The Contractor will not be responsible for the to SharePoint tab responsible for SharePoint administration and upgrade tasks; please confirm.

administration or upgrade of OCC SharePoint environment.

27. Appendix A General Are there any Lotus/Domino applications that the OCC intends to remain “intact” on the current platform, or have all Lotus/Domino applications across the OCC been targeted for conversion?

The OCC expects all Domino applications to be converted to SharePoint or other technology. The Domino environment will be completely retired.

28. Appendix A What is the responsibility of the vendor for the maintenance and support of the applications listed in the Domino Application list? What are the requirements for retirement for those applications designated as such in this portfolio?

Contractor will be responsible for all support and maintenance of both Domino applications, as well as past/future SharePoint conversions for the life of the contract.

The retirement process includes, but is not limited to, documenting technical and functional requirements, obtaining approvals from stakeholders, determining the retention profile with concurrence from OCC Records Management, and following the Request for Change (RFC) process to remove the application from production.

29. Appendix B Are there additional statistics that show the Severity of the incidents received by this Program?

Approximately 80% of reported incidents are normal/medium severity issues with a resolution level of effort of less than 4 hours, 5% are high severity/criticality with 24 hour effort, and 15% low severity with minimal level of effort.

30. Appendix B What is the difference between Service Requests and Lotus Tasks?

Lotus Notes tasks are primarily system-generated actions requiring administration intervention (e.g., adding new users). Service Requests are end-user-generated actions (e.g., grant/revoke application access, name changes, password changes, or general questions) that are not associated with a work stoppage.

31. Appendix E Exhibit 1 6-7 Can the OCC indicate whether the current Lotus Notes environment meets the Acceptable Quality

The environment currently meets all AQLs listed in the QASP.

Levels set forth in the QASP?

32. PWS Task 3 9 of 19 Is the awarded contractor expected to provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 support for applications that have been converted from Notes to SharePoint, Java, or .Net as conversions are completed? If so, for what timeframe (life of the contract or for a period post-conversion before support is moved to another team)?

The Contractor will be responsible for all support and maintenance of both Domino applications, as well as past/future conversions, for the life of the contract.

Conversion platforms include, but are not limited to, SharePoint, Java, and .Net.

33. PWS General Please indicate the version of SharePoint that is the target for conversion and where hosted (e.g., hosted within the OCC data center or SharePoint online)?

Additionally, does OCC envision any upgrade to a different SharePoint version during the period of performance of this contract?

OCC SharePoint environment is currently SharePoint 2010, hosted within the OCC data center. An upgrade to SharePoint 2013 is currently in the user acceptance phase.

34. PWS Tasks 1-5 6-11 of

Are specialized Lotus/Domino tools provided by OCC to assist with issue resolution and administration of Lotus/Domino applications -- for example, TeamStudio: Analyzer, Configurator, Upgrade Filters?

The Contractor will utilize the IBM Notes/Domino client, Domino Adminitrator, and Domino Developer consoles for issue resolution and administration.

35. PWS Task 4 9 and

Is there a current set of Enterprise testing regression test scripts in place? Will the awarded contractor be responsible for adding to these scripts or creating new scripts from scratch?

Testing scripts for both platform and applications currently exist. The Contractor will be responsible for maintenance and revisions to scripts based on platform or application changes.

36. General Is the OCC open to extending the proposal due date from July 8th to a date no less than 5 business days from the time that the OCC issues answers to industry questions?

The proposal due date has been extended to July 20, 2015 at 9:00 AM EST.

37. General Can the Government indicate the current number of contractor staff supporting this program?

The OCC is unable to provide the exact number of contractor staff the incumbent vendor is providing for the current IBM Notes contract.