DEC 2024 EQ Consolidation - RFO.pdf

RFO 36A79725Q0003

REQUEST FOR OFFERS (RFO) NUMBER: 36A79725Q0003

JUN 2024 Equipment Only Consolidation

This Consolidation is being solicited pursuant to FAR 16.505 – Ordering.

The Government intends to evaluate offers and award orders without discussions with offerors.

Therefore, the offeror’s initial offer should contain the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary. If discussions are determined necessary by the CO, the government will hold discussions only with the offerors whose offer conformed with the solicitation’s instructions and was deemed acceptable with regards to all non-price factors (i.e. Availability of Required Features and Availability of Service). The Government reserves the right to seek additional discounts and better terms and conditions from offerors during discussions. The Government may reject any or all offers if such action is in the public interest.

Failure to comply with the following instructions may result in the vendor’s offer being determined unacceptable; therefore, ineligible for an award.

0.0 Revisions

1.0 General Information

1.1 This Request for Offers ( (RFO) is only open to companies that have a current contract for the equipment types listed herein with the VA National Acquisition Center, High Tech Medical Equipment Branch or with the Defense Logistics Agency, Troop Support (DLA-TS, formerly DSCP) under which the VA National Acquisition Center has been given ordering authority.

1.2 Competition will be limited to current contract holders. In order to have a valid offer for this Consolidation, the vendor MUST have a current contract vehicle at the time of its offer submission AND at the time of the delivery order award. If the vendor’s contract expires after submitting its offer; the vendor will NOT be awarded a delivery order.

1.3 Please note that those vendors who are not on contract on the day offers are due will have their responses rejected and returned without consideration per the instructions given.

1.4 Offers containing items that have been proposed as additions to the vendor’s respective contract but have not been implemented by issuance of a contract modification, will be considered ineligible for award and rejected. Therefore, items offered in vendor’s responses to this RFO must currently be awarded on the current HTME Contract at the time of offer submission (Reference Contract Section XIII (b)).

However, items shown as incidentals per Part II of the Contract Scope, are acceptable, this includes accessories (e.g. trailers, repair parts). All items offered as incidentals must comply with the terms and conditions of the contract. The Contracting Officer has wide discretion in accepting or rejecting proposed incidental items and must be able to determine the offered pricing fair and reasonable. “Future Items” (such as hardware or software that is still in development, testing, or prototype) are not acceptable.

1.5 All purchases shall be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable contract.

1.6 DEC 2024 Equipment Only Consolidation:

1.6.1 02-19-2025 at 11:59 PM CST – Cutoff for Vendor Questions; email questions to Mr. Hermann Degbegni at Hermann.Degbegni@va.gov

1.6.2 04-09-2025 at 11:59 PM CST – Vendor Offers due to NAC, HTME Ordering Division

1.6.3 08-12-2025 at 11:59 PM CST – Goal to Award Delivery Orders

2.0 Offers

2.1 HIGH TECH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT (HTME):

2.1.1 A purchase description and corresponding Purchase Order (PO) number is provided for each Requirement.

2.1.2. All resultant delivery orders issued through this RFO are subject to the terms and conditions of the base contract. In the event of conflict between a delivery order and the contract, the base contract shall control.

2.1.3 In consideration of the acquisition strategy utilized for this procurement, wherein a high volume of offers - are anticipated for evaluation and award, vendors shall honor their offers prices) for an acceptance period of no less than 180 days from the closing date of this solicitation.

2.1.4 Vendors shall provide offers for their new equipment that meets or exceeds the technical and functional requirements of the requirements/purchase description. Any offer failing to meet all technical, functional, and other solicitation requirements may be deemed unacceptable and ineligible for award.

2.1.5 Alternate offers are allowed for each requirement.

2.1.6 Vendors are required to show individual product pricing for each product within its offer. Offers that only reflect a bottom-line price for a system, with no individual product prices, will be considered unacceptable and rejected.

2.1.7 If a requirements or purchase description states the item is an “upgrade”, assume that it is a “forklift upgrade”, i.e. the entire system is being replaced. In these instances, the items being replaced are to be used as a trade-in.

2.1.8 The “Information” folder should include the following information (one submission per equipment type is sufficient, see section 7.3.3 for examples on naming the files):

a. Completed pre-procurement assessment form (6550 Appendix A)

b. Product brochures

c. Typical drawings (pdf version of the CAD drawings)

d. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certif ication mailto:Hermann.Degbegni@va.gov

e. Completed Manufacture Disclosure Statement for Medical Device Security (MDS2) form.

f. Operating System (OS) Support Plans for Unsupported Operating Systems

g. In accordance with VA DIRECTIVE 6550 published June 3, 2019, “Procurement of systems with unsupported operating systems is prohibited. Unsupported operating systems are OSs that are not supported by the manufacturer and have reached the end of the OS lifecycle as published by the OS manufacturer (i.e. no further security patches will be released for the OS by the manufacturer after the OS end-of-life nor will be available by other methods such as extended warranty purchases from the OS manufacturer).”

h. If the proposed medical device or medical system (as defined by 6550) includes an unsupported OS, the vendor shall provide a support plan for the device or system with its response.

i. The OS support plan should include:

j. Purchase of extended warranty from the OS manufacturer

k. Upgrade path to a supported OS.

l. Evidence of pending contract modification to add to price list (e.g., e-mail correspondence submitted to cognizant contracting officer)

m. Other relevant evidence furnished by the vendor for consideration.

n. Supporting information, to include vendor’s support structure during and after the warranty period.

o. Online or telephonic applications support and availability.

p. Onsite, in-person support and availability.

q. Timeframes for fulfillment of replacement parts/components and repairs not expressly stated in the warranty.

r. Technical specification sheets, to include dimensions and weight of the system.

s. Technical training - Biomedical: information to include detailed information about the curriculum and length of the biomedical technical training required for each equipment type. Although the NAC will not award this training along with the equipment, it is imperative that the customer is informed that this training is available. Vendors must demonstrate that they can provide any required off -site training, therefore off -site training should be offered as an option item to be exercised at the discretion of the government. Off-site training will be purchased at the time of need via a modification (if the original order remains open) or via a separate order. No travel expenses for any VA employees will be included in any HTME equipment or training order and the government will not award such line items with descriptions containing cancellation fees.

The above information should be provided for all equipment types being proposed by a vendor in this Consolidation. One submission per equipment type is sufficient.

2.1.9 All offered products and services must be within scope of the government’s requirements. Items that are outside of scope shall not be proposed in the vendor’s response, to include out of scope items offered at no cost to the government. The contracting officer shall determine if the offered items are within scope. Any item determined to not be within scope of the government’s requirements may be removed from the vendor’s response, or the response may be returned/rejected in its entirety.

3.0 Multi-Unit Discounts

3.1 In addition to individual line-item pricing, Vendors will provide a range of multi-unit discounts.

3.2 Multi-unit discounts shall be nationwide and based on the total number of line items purchased from this RFO.

3.3 Multi-unit discounts shall be applied by equipment modality for the entire consolidation.

3.4 Specific line items will not be singled out or specified as a condition of providing multi-unit discounts.

3.5 The vendor must clearly identify the amount of the additional discount and the basis for calculating that discount, such that the VA can independently calculate the final prices of all equipment.

3.6 Discounts may be offered from net line-item pricing or from list price; vendor must clearly identify whether the discount is to be applied to list or net prices.

3.7 Vendors shall submit their multi-unit discounts in the following format:

Multi-unit Discount Structure Example

(Based on total number of awards)

Total Number of Awards for

Consolidation

Modalit y

Additiona l

Discount

2 - 10 X-RAY 3%

11 - 25 X-RAY 4%

26 - 40 X-RAY 5%

41 - 70 X-RAY 6%

71 - 100 X-RAY 7%

101 - 125 X-RAY 8%

4.0 Schedule of Requirements

4.1 THE OBLIGATION / PURCHASE ORDER (PO) NUMBERS WILL BE USED AS THE

GOVERNMENT’S REQUIREMENTS NUMBERS

4.1.1 Requirements are shown in the attached spreadsheet entitled “Schedule of Requirements”. Each requirement is solicited as a standalone opportunity to be awarded as one (1) delivery order.

4.1.2 Offered equipment shall be equivalent in technology/functionality to the requirements or purchase descriptions contained in the applicable attachments.

4.1.3 The attachment number of the requirements will match the corresponding PO number from the “Schedule of Requirements”. Offers for alternate offers must be included on the same requirement number of the “Schedule of

Requirements” as the original offer (e.g. labeled as “405B34567 – White River Junction, Model XYZ, Vendor XYZ_1Offer Alt 1”, “405B34567 – White River Junction, Model XYZ, Vendor XYZ_1Offer Alt 2”, etc.) Vendors shall NOT insert (or delete) requirements from the “Schedule of Requirements” spreadsheet.

4.1.4 The net price offer for a line item, if bought as a single system (the “one-each” price), shall not exceed its contract price.

4.1.5 Trade-in values should be included in the vendor offer and notated on the vendor workup. The trade-in value shall be shown separately from the price of the equipment. The government must determine the trade-in price to be fair and reasonable.

4.2 Vendor Workup Spreadsheets

4.2.1 Vendors will use the attached “Vendor Workup” template to create a “Vendor Workup” spreadsheet for each offer.

4.2.2 Pricing by part number or catalog number for each offer will be shown on a

“Vendor Workup” spreadsheet.

4.2.3 Each “Vendor Workup” spreadsheet will have the same filename as the respective offer but use the .xls or .xlsx filename extension.

4.2.4 Alternative spreadsheets to the “Vendor Workups” will not be considered.

4.2.5 Failure to provide a fully accurate and complete “Vendor Workup” spreadsheet will disqualify your offer from consideration for the requirement.

4.3 Compliance Matrix Spreadsheets

4.3.1 “Compliance Matrix” templates are provided only for the requirements using technical specifications.

4.3.2 Vendors will use the “Compliance Matrix” templates to create a “Compliance matrix” spreadsheet for each offer. The compliance matrix should reference specific areas of an offer or other documentation provided (i.e.

in the “Information” folder) to show how a vendor meets or exceeds a requirement.

4.3.3 Each “Compliance Matrix” spreadsheet will have the same filename as the respective offer but use the .xls or .xlsx filename extension (see section 7.3.3 for examples on naming the file).

offer

4.3.4 Substitute spreadsheets to the “Compliance Matrix” template will not be considered.

4.3.5 Failure to provide a fully accurate and complete “Compliance Matrix” spreadsheet will disqualify your offer from consideration for the requirement.

5.0 Evaluation and Evaluation Factors

5.1 Each requirement identif ied in the Schedule of Requirements will be evaluated independently by the Government’s Technical Evaluation Team.

5.2 The following evaluation factors will be used to rate the proposed equipment:

5.2.1 Availability of Required Features – The vendor will be rated on how well their offered equipment meets the technical and functional requirements outlined in the Equipment Specifications document.

5.2.2 Availability of Service – The vendor will be rated on their availability to provide local technical support (when needed), virtual technical support (telephone assistance, remote diagnostics, etc.), repair parts availability, technical documentation, etc. Specific experience within the VISN regarding overall vendor responsiveness to service and clinical application requests and reliability of service will be considered.

5.3 Evaluation Factor Ratings and Definitions for the HTME:

“Availability of Required Features” and “Availability of Service” will be rated as follows:

Outstanding Proposal meets requirements and indicates an exceptional approach and understanding of the requirements. The proposal contains multiple strengths and no deficiencies.

Good Proposal meets requirements and indicates a thorough approach and understanding of the requirements. Proposal contains at least one strength and no deficiencies.

Acceptable Proposal meets requirements and indicates an adequate approach and understanding of the requirements. Proposal has no strengths that exceed specified performance or capability requirements and has no significant deficiencies.

Marginal Proposal does not clearly meet requirements and has not demonstrated an adequate approach and understanding of the requirements.

Unacceptable Proposal does not meet requirements and contains one or more deficiencies. Proposal is not awardable.

Adjectival Description Definitions:

Considerable Strength: An aspect of an offer that has significant merit or exceeds specifications or capability requirements in a way that will be substantially advantageous to the Government.

Strength: An aspect of an offer that has merit or exceeds specifications or capability requirements in a way that will be advantageous to the Government.

Weakness: A flaw in the offer that increases the risk of unsuccessful performance under the delivery order.

Significant Weakness: A flaw that appreciably increases the risk of unsuccessful performance under the delivery order.

Deficiency: A material failure of an offer to meet a government requirement or a combination of significant weaknesses in an offer that increases the risk of unsuccessful performance to an unacceptable level.

Risk: The potential for unsuccessful performance under the delivery order. The consideration of risk assesses the degree to which an offeror’s proposed approach to achieving the technical requirements may involve risk of disruption of schedule, increased cost or degradation of performance, the need for increased Government oversight, and the likelihood of unsuccessful performance of the system.

6.0 Download Instructions

6.1 Documents identif ied as zip files need to be saved to your local computers prior to opening the file.

6.2 Follow these download instructions:

6.2.1 Click on the document name.

6.2.2 When prompted to open or save, select save.

6.2.3 Browse to the location on your local computer where you wish to save the file.

6.2.4 Change the extension of the file to zip (do this by changing the .doc to a .zip in the filename. You may not need to do this.)

6.2.5 Click “Save”.

6.2.6 Open the zip file on your local computer.

7.0 Response Format

7.1 For each line item on which the vendor chooses to make an offer, the following information shall be provided:

7.1.1 Individual configuration offer by line item.

7.1.2 Offers shall include part numbers, expanded descriptions, net pricing for each part number, the total contract list price, and the total net price for each offer.

7.1.3 Pricing at the line-item level is the price the VA will pay if that line item is the only one awarded to the vendor from this RFO.

7.1.4 If the multi-unit discounts are calculated from the contract list price, then the list price of each component must also be shown on the configuration offer.

7.2 For line items that include a trade-in:

7.2.1 Trade-in values must be included in the vendor offer and notated on the vendor workup. The trade-in value shall be shown as discount price, separately from the price of the equipment. The government must determine the proposed trade-in value fair and reasonable.

7.3 Responses shall be provided in the following format (FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH

THIS FORMAT MAY RESULT IN OFFERS BEING REMOVED FROM EVALUATION

AND NOT BEING CONSIDERED FOR AWARD):

7.3.1 The completed Schedule, the description of the multi-unit discount structure, all equipment offers, all vendor workups, and all information requested in 2.8 shall be uploaded to “Box”.

7.3.2 The Vendor Response shall use the folder structure provided via attachment

VENDOR FOLDERS. Vendors can download the attachment ZIP file provided and include their offers in the appropriate folders. More detail on this structure is provided below.

Figure 1 outlines an abbreviated version of the folder hierarch. The full folder hierarchy would include a complete modality and VISN listing. Please do not use any symbols or special characters (i.e. #,$,% etc.) in any folder or file names. The only symbols allowed are the “-“ for use in equipment type folders and “_” for use at the end of the file name – see examples below.

Figure 1: Folder Hierarchy only showing VISN 1

7.3.3 There are two (2) main folders: Information and Offer-Workup-Matrix. Please do not add, edit, or delete any folder or subfolder or change their names. See figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Main Folders

Information folder: Contains subfolders for each equipment type. The equipment type must match the “Schedule of Line Requirements” spreadsheet on SAM. This includes multi-unit discounts, amendment letter and any other information the vendor determines is necessary for the decision-making process. See sections 2.8 for additional required documentation in the “Information” folder.

The name of each document must follow the convention below:

a. 6550 - Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of

Vendor Example: 6550 – XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

b. BROCHURE- Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor

Example: BROCHURE– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

c. DRAWINGS - Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor Example: DRAWINGS– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

d. FIPS140 - Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor

Example: FIPS140– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

e. MDS2- Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of

Vendor Example: MDS2 – XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

f. OS_SUPPORTPLAN - Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor

Example: OR_SUPPORTPLAN– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

g. SUPPORT - Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor Example: SUPPORT– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

h. TECHSPECS- Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor

Example: TECHSPECS– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

i. TECHTRAINING - Equipment Type, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor Example: TECHTRAINING– XR-US, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ

Figure 3: Information folder divided by Equipment Type

Figure 4: Equipment Type folder divided by Model

Figure 5: Naming convention inside information folder

Offer-Workup-Matrix folder: Contains subfolders for each VISN and then a subfolder for each equipment type.

1. Offers - Shall only be provided in a PDF document. The name of each offer must follow the convention below:

Obligation Number – Location of the Medical Center, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor Offer

Current Folder

Examples:

(1) 650B20008 – Providence, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ_1Offer

(2) 650B20008 – Providence, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ_1Offer Alt 1

2. Workups - Shall only be provided in an Excel document. The name of each workup must follow the convention below: Obligation Number – Location of the medical center, Equipment Model Name, Name of Vendor Workup

Examples:

(1) 650B20008 – Providence, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ_2Workup

(2) 650B20008 – Providence, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ_2Workup Alt 1

3. Compliance Matrix* - Shall only be provided in Excel document. The name of each compliance matrix must follow the convention below: Obligation Number – Location of the medical center, Equipment Model Name, Name of Compliance Matrix

Examples:

(1) 650B20008 – Providence, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ_3Matrix

(2) 650B20008 – Providence, Model ABC, Vendor XYZ_3Matrix Alt 1

*Compliance Matrix is required for all requirements

If a vendor wishes to provide alternate offerings, the naming schema for these offers, workups and compliance matrix(s) will be as described above with “Alt 1” added to the end of the document name (e.g. labeled as “405B34567 – White River Junction, Model XYZ, Vendor XYZ_1Offer Alt 1”, “405B34567 – White River Junction, Model XYZ, Vendor XYZ_1Offer Alt 2”, etc.)

Figure 6: Offers/Workup/Matrix folder divided by VISN

Figure 7: VISN 1 subfolder inside the larger Offers folder

Figure 8: Obligation number and naming convention inside equipment type folder

8.0 Response Submission Requirements

RESPONSES SUBMITTED BY CD-ROM, E-MAIL, PAPER, OR FAX WILL NOT BE

ACCEPTED. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THESE REQUIREMENTS MAY RESULT IN

YOUR RESPONSE NOT BEING ACCEPTED OR CONSIDERED FOR AWARD.

8.1 Responses shall be submitted as follows:

8.1.1 Vendor Response documents must be uploaded to Box here.

8.1.1.1 Instructions on how to complete the file upload.

8.1.1.1.1 Open link, select the select Files button, choose the

Vendor Folder file and select open, and finally hit Submit.

8.1.1.1.2 A confirmation should show that it was successful.

https://veteransaffairs.ent.box.com/f/d53c8b4c4ce14cb2870be2f01e6ce679

8.1.2 Vendors shall use the “Vendor Folders” attachment provided and zip the folder to upload it to Box as the firm’s response. Do not upload various file attachments into Box directly. The vendor response shall be uploaded into Box as one ZIP file unless the file size is greater than 2 GB.

8.1.2.1 If your vendor response is greater than 2 GB, you must break out and upload multiple ZIP files to stay within the size limitation.

Complete as few file uploads as possible to provide a fully complete vendor response. Multiple file uploads should be done in a logical manner, with the “Information” and “Offer-Workup-Matrix” folders being provided as separate ZIP file uploads whenever possible.

8.1.2.2 All documents within the ZIP file shall be UNLOCKED, UNPROTECTED and SEARCHABLE for editing to facilitate preparation of orders for award. Acceptable file formats are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Adobe PDF.

8.1.2.3 The name of the ZIP file shall be identical to the awarded contractor name, (e.g., “Company ABC, Inc” not, “ABC Offer”).

8.1.3 An email stating that the submission was made to Box (Can also provide a copy of the successful confirmation notice in the email) must be e-mailed to the NAC Consolidation Contracting Officers at, Hermann.Degbegni@va.gov and Michael.Kuchyak@va.gov.

8.1.3.1 This e-mail will serve as your firm’s formal response to the solicitation. The e-mail must be timestamped no later than the closing date/time of solicitation to be accepted (refer to Section 8.2.1).

8.1.3.2 The vendor response e-mail must be titled as follows:

“Box Vendor Response: MMM YYYY Consolidation/ Contractor Name”

8.1.3.3 Do not delete or modify any files uploaded to Box after submitting your vendor response e-mail. THIS WILL RESULT

IN YOUR RESPONSE NOT BEING ACCEPTED OR

CONSIDERED FOR AWARD.

8.1.3.4 Do not upload any new files to Box after submitting your vendor response e-mail. THIS WILL RESULT IN YOUR

RESPONSE NOT BEING ACCEPTED OR CONSIDERED FOR

AWARD.

mailto:Michael.Kuchyak@va.gov

8.2 Closing Date and Responses

8.2.1 Responses are due to the NAC, HTME Ordering Division no later than:

11:59 PM CST on April 9, 2025.

8.2.2 Responses not received by the closing date and time will be determined late and will not be considered for award.

8.2.3 Responses shall not be submitted prior to five days from the closing date of the solicitation. Responses delivered before will be rejected.

NOTE: RESPONSES SUBMITTED BY CD-ROM, E-MAIL, PAPER, OR FAX

WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

8.3 Inquiries may be sent to:

Mr. Hermann Degbegni, Contracting Officer, Hermann.Degbegni@va.gov

9.0 ENCLOSURES:

9.1 DEC 2024 Equipment Only Consolidation Schedule

9.2 DEC 2024 Equipment Only Consolidation Schedule - Schedule of Line Items

9.3 Specifications/Purchase Descriptions

9.4 Vendor Folders.zip

9.5 Vendor Workup Spreadsheet – 36A79725Q0003

9.6 VA Directive 6550 – New Appendix A – published Jun. 2023

9.7 Memorandum for Training