Horizon Customer Engagement and Digital Services Oversight - Question and Answers.pdf

Horizon - Customer Engagement and Digital Services Oversight Q&A

1. Will the contract have optional CLINs or / and escalation clause? The solicitation states that the number of customers will grow over the course of the contract lifecycle. If the workload doubles will the overall contract total be increased?

The Government is seeking innovative industry solutions during this Call for Solutions and is open to including optional Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) to accommodate anticipated growth. Offerors are encouraged to propose scalable solutions and pricing structures that effectively account for the increasing customer base and workload over the contract lifecycle. Additionally, based on the circumstances, requests for equitable adjustment (REAs) and bilateral negotiations may be utilized.

2. For any cloud hosted solution, please confirm will ECMA pay the hosting cost?

The Government will cover the cost of any solution accepted by the Government.

3. "Provide training and user education on services" is listed as a requirement but is this training on Commercial Cloud services to Tenants or training ECMA staff on the systems and services provided as part of the solution?

Training is intended to educate Army tenants on how to use ECMA services as well as the processes and procedures employed by ECMA.

4. Given that the scope includes SETA-type functions such as developing and executing spend plans, budgets, and forecasts, and conducting acquisition activities as well as PPBE tasks, would the Government consider removing this scope and recompeting it under a separate SETA contract to avoid creating an unfair competitive advantage for contractors who currently perform this work and have access to procurement-sensitive information not available to other offerors?

No SETA functions are included within the scope of this contract. Any contractors exposed to proprietary data must be covered under an individual non-disclosure agreement barring the sharing of any sensitive information.

5. Is the response limited to six or eight pages?

Solution Briefs shall not exceed six (6) written pages using 12-point Times New Roman font.

6. Could the government define service area from "Create SLA and KPI standards for all service areas?"

Service areas requiring SLAs and KPIs will be further defined during implementation of the solution, but the Offeror is free to recommend some in the proposal.

7. Could the Government please clarify whether "develop and execute spend plans, budgets, and forecasts" is referring solely to ECMA's cloud spend? Limiting this scope to cloud spend only would reduce OCI risk for the contractor, minimize the Government's exposure to protest vulnerability, and ensure the work remains within the technical boundaries of the contract rather than encroaching on broader acquisition and financial advisory functions more appropriately performed under a dedicated SETA vehicle.

Development of "spend plans, budgets, and forecasts" under this solicitation is limited to ECMA provided services and driving costs therein.

8. Could the government please clarify if COTS and LC/NC product licenses will be paid for and provided by the government?

ECMA expects responses to this solution to bring forward innovative and modern solutions that do not require substantive additional development or engineering. As stated in Question #2, any accepted solution cost will be covered by the Government.

9. Can the Government confirm whether the 8 pages referenced includes the Title Page and Intellectual Property Statement Solution Briefs shall not exceed six (6) written pages using 12-point Times New Roman font. The Title Page and Intellectual Property Statement do not count against the page limit.

10. Can the Government clarify whether past performance writeups fall outside the six-page limit, and consider allowing offerors to submit these writeups as an appendix so the evaluation team receives complete information without consuming the narrative page count?

Past Performance is excluded from the six-page limit. It can be submitted as an appendix and is limited to one (1) page per past performance; three (3) pages total for all past performances.

11. Can the Government provide a list of the current technologies used across each of the capability areas (Customer Engagement, Strategy and Governance, and

Business and Finance), and confirm whether the Government plans to maintain these tools or evaluate alternative solutions, so offerors can align proposed capabilities to the existing environment if necessary?

The Government seeks novel and modern solutions for our needs. The Offeror shall presume no existing solution fully meets our needs. Final solution selection will be completed collaboratively between the vendor and the Government using all available information.