AMD 3 Q A 2 CT1950-09.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice

UNICOR

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Clothing & Textiles 400 1st Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20534

Q&A # 2 for CT1950-09 August 31, 2009

Q1) When we submit the bid to you, do you want the web site up and running at this time? In the supplementary pages in Statement of work, line item 4, that you want an estimated time of when this site will be up and running if awarded the bid. January meeting notes state, that as part of the process of winning the bid, Unicor wanted to look and try each web site live and see how user friendly they were. Then, is it my understanding that at the time the bids are due, 12/4/09, we need to have an estimated date of when the site will be up and running, but the site does not have to be operational for us to win the bid. Is this correct? You want a detailed management plan on how this site is going to work as well as the other requirements you are asking for.

A1) If your company has a webs site already, then, the web site needs to be ready for testing for Unicor to evaluate your company's ability to build and maintain such web site, however, it does not need to include all of the potential database or all the possible functions we will need. All Unicor is looking for, is your ability to build a website from which our factories are able to order online. At the solicitation closing date, the web site should contain the very basic functions. Then, if you are awarded the contract, Unicor will determine a due date when the web site should be fully functioning to our entire needs.

If your company does not have a web site at all, Unicor will not force the company to invest in a new web site prior to award. In such instance, Unicor will require a detailed development plan that will include a detailed time frame and process agenda on the way the company is planning on launching the website.

Q2) If you indeed have to do multi awards, won't it be better to consider one professional company to design and maintain the web site for this whole project? This way you are only paying one development cost as well as one maintenance cost from year to year. Another benefit of this would be, if you do multi awards, you could very well end up with 3 or 4 totally different style web designs. This could be very confusing to each factory manager. If one professional company develops this, it would be uniform throughout the system, no matter who wins the bids. Of course winning the bids would still be based on the other criteria you have stated. Each winner would be the only ones that would have access to this web site through password protected security.

A2) Currently, we still want each of the awrdees to be responsible for their own web site.

Nonetheless, if we recognize in the future that creating a different way will be easier for all involved, we might change the process. However, at the moment, this presents the best value for Unicor. I believe our factories are going to be able to handle the different web sites, mainly because the differences are not going to be so drastic as one might think. There are certain web site design standards that most companies choose to follow and we anticipate such a scenario here.