Enclosure 2.pdf

Enclosure 2 RFQ # 80GSFC23AA004

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

It is NASA’s intent, by providing the instructions set forth below, to solicit information that will demonstrate the Offeror’s competence to successfully complete the requirements specified in the Statement of Work (SOW), Enclosure 1, Attachment A, and Representative Task Order (RTO), Enclosure 4. Generally, the Offeror’s quotation should:

• Demonstrate understanding of the overall and specific requirements of the proposed

BPA.

• Convey the company’s ability for transforming understanding into accomplishment.

• Present in detail, the plans and methods for so doing.

• Present the prices associated with so doing.

The Government intends to establish a single-award BPA without further communications with Offerors. Consequently, Offerors are highly encouraged to quote their best technical and pricing quotes in their initial submissions. However, the Government reserves the right to communicate with any or all Offerors submitting a technical and price quote, if it is determined advantageous to the Government to do so. An Offeror may be eliminated from consideration without further communication if its technical and/or pricing quotes are not among those Offerors considered most advantageous to the Government based on a best value determination.

(a) COMMUNICATIONS REGARDING THIS RFQ

Any questions or comments regarding this solicitation shall cite the RFQ number and be emailed to the following Government representative:

Name: Cassandra K. Moore, Contracting Officer

E-Mail: cassandra.k.moore@nasa.gov

The Government will answer relevant and appropriate questions regarding this solicitation.

Any Offeror questions should be submitted no later than seven business days before the deadline for receipt of quotations. Telephone questions will not be accepted.

(b) QUOTATION FORMAT AND ORGANIZATION

Only the required minimum amount of information is requested to be provided for proper evaluation. Efforts should be made to keep quotations as brief as possible, concentrating on substantive information essential for a proper evaluation.

By the quotation due date and time specified in Block 8 of the SF 1449, Offerors shall submit their quotation in volumes as specified below:

ENCLOSURE 2 RFQ # 80GSFC23AA004

Volume Component Page Limitations

No. of Copies

Quotation Volume Excluded Electronic copy transmitted via EFSS Box

Technical Volume 8 Pages Electronic copy transmitted via EFSS Box

Price Volume Mixed Electronic copy transmitted via EFSS Box

Pricing Matrix (Attachment B) Excluded RTO Pricing Exhibits (Enclosure 4) Excluded Basis of Estimates (BOEs) 5 Pages for RTO

Past Performance Volume 5 Pages Electronic copy transmitted via EFSS Box

The following are excluded from the Past Performance Volume page limitations:

Cover Page, Indices, List of those sent Past Performance Questionnaires, Customer Evaluations, Termination/ Descope information, and List of Acronyms

Excluded

All Volume pages shall be numbered and identified with the Offeror’s name, RFQ number and date. Subsequent revisions, if requested, shall be similarly identified to show revision number and date. A table of contents shall be provided with figures and tables listed separately.

When page limitations apply to a volume or specific section, a page is defined as one side of a sheet, 8-1/2" x 11", with at least one inch margins on all sides, using not smaller than 12 point type Times New Roman font. Line spacing or the amount of vertical space between lines of text shall not be less than single line (Microsoft Word’s default line spacing).

Character spacing shall be “Normal”, not “Expanded” or “Condensed.” The margins may contain headers and footers, but shall not contain any quotation content to be evaluated.

Information may be submitted on single or double-sided sheets, but shall not exceed the page limitations. The excel exhibits are formatted using 9-12 point type Arial font.

Diagrams, tables, artwork, and photographs may be reduced and, if necessary, run landscape or folded to eliminate oversize pages. Text in Diagrams, schedules, charts, tables, artwork, and photographs shall be no smaller than 10 point. Diagrams, tables, artwork, and photographs shall not be used to circumvent the text size limitations above.

Title pages, tabs, and tables of contents are excluded from the page counts specified the table above (as well as other documents specified in table above). In addition, the Price Volume of your quotation is not page limited except for the page limit for the Basis of Estimate (BOE) section specified in the table above. However, this volume is to be strictly limited to pricing information. Information that can be construed as belonging in one of the other volumes of the quotation will be so construed and counted against that volume's page limitation. Pages submitted in excess of the limitations specified in this provision will not be evaluated by the Government and will be returned to the Offeror in accordance with NFS 1815.204-70(b).

One electronic copy of the Offeror’s quotation shall be submitted in Microsoft Office Word (compatible with Word 2010) or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) (compatible with version X). While the RFQ provides the RTO Pricing Exhibits in PDF format, Offerors shall submit all RTO Pricing Exhibits in Microsoft Office Excel format (compatible with Excel 2010) and the exhibits shall contain all formulas. Instructions for converting from PDF format to Excel can be found in RFQ Enclosure 6. DO NOT password protect any portion of your electronic submission.

Electronic files of all Volumes shall be on virus free with and label indicating: (1) the name of the Offeror, (2) the RFQ number, (3) the format and software versions used, (4) a list of the files contained and (5) date of the information. The Offeror must certify that the electronic medium is virus free.

(c) QUOTATION VOLUME

The Offeror shall complete SF1449 Blocks 12 (if applicable), 17, and 30 and the indicated Offeror required fill-ins in the BPA clauses and attachments. The signed SF 1449 and the BPA/attachment pages with the required fill-ins must be submitted with the quotation (the balance of the RFQ need not be returned unless the Offeror has made changes to other pages that will constitute part of the quote). By signing and submitting the SF 1449, the Offeror has read, understands, and agrees to the BPA terms and conditions of the RFQ unless otherwise noted when the quotation is submitted.

The Offeror shall also provide the following information:

• A statement that the Offeror agrees to hold the prices quoted in response to this RFQ firm for 120 calendar days from the date specified in the RFQ for receipt of offers.

• Identify any prompt payment discounts being offered.

• The names, phone numbers, and email addresses of persons to be contacted for clarification of questions of a technical nature and business nature.

• Identify any consultants and/or subcontractors used in writing this quotation (if any) and the extent to which their services will be available in the subsequent performance of this effort.

• If proposing a Contractor Team Arrangement (CTA) to satisfy the requirements of this order, a copy of the agreement must be provided.

• If applicable, list all specific exception(s), deviation(s), or conditional assumption(s) to the terms, conditions, and requirements of this RFQ (such as Statement of Work, RTOs, BPA terms and conditions, and Quotation Instructions). This list must include all exception(s), deviation(s) and/or conditional assumptions along with an explanation for each.

(d) TECHNICAL VOLUME

The Technical Volume should be specific, detailed, and provide all the information requested by these instructions. This volume must demonstrate that the Offeror understands the requirements and has the ability to meet the requirements. General statements such as the "requirements are understood" or "standard procedures will be employed" are not adequate.

Also, restatement or paraphrasing of the requirements should be avoided. Information previously submitted, if any, will not be considered unless it is resubmitted as part of the quotation. It must not be incorporated by reference.

The Offeror shall describe its technical approach to meeting the following critical requirements of the Statement of Work (Attachment A) in enough detail to clearly and fully demonstrate that the Offeror understands the requirements and the inherent problems associated with the objectives of this procurement:

The Offeror shall provide a description of the process for reading the data from the tapes.

Specifically, address any processes for delivery with anomalous issues, such as, problems of old media, including, but not limited to, sticky tapes and dry-rotted plastic hubs, including capability to bake the tapes to remove excess moisture.

The Offeror shall provide a description of the transcribed data format, specifically addressing the conversion of 7-track tape formats into 8-bit byte data formats.

The Offeror shall provide a description of the transcribed data format, specifically addressing the conversion of 9-bit track tape formats into 8-bit byte data formats.

The Offeror shall provide a description of the process for reading the reel media at reduced speeds to reduce stress and friction.

The Offeror shall provide a description of the process for handling media tracking issues, such as those resulting from degraded signal strength or alignment issues.

The Offeror shall provide a description of the .csv (comma separated value) inventory file of the individual file marks recovered from each tape to clearly identify the beginning and end of individual files on the media, number of records per file, number of bytes per record, and end of tape marker.

The Offeror must provide a description for the final disposal of the tapes. At a minimum, this shall include removal of all labels and rendering the media unreadable.

As part of this RFQ, the Offeror shall respond to how they would approach the one Representative Task Order (RTO) included in Enclosure 4. THE OFFEROR SHALL NOT

PERFORM ANY ACTUAL WORK OR PRODUCE ANY DELIVERABLES ON THE

RTOs IN RESPONSE TO THIS RFQ! The one RTO included in Enclosure 4 are for evaluation purposes, which may or may not be issued during the BPA effective ordering period. The RTO provides the Offeror with the opportunity to demonstrate, in detail, their understanding of the requirements and to illustrate their processes that would typically be used to accomplish the task orders.

For the RTO, the Offeror shall provide a written task plan that such include: (a) the technical and management approach for accomplishing the task, which must be specific, detailed, and complete to demonstrate a clear and full understanding of the requirements, which includes tracking task progress; (b) a detailed schedule which includes the flow of activities from start to completion; (c) the identification of any risk factors inherent in the work or unique to the Offeror’s proposed approach; (d) the approach for managing and/or mitigating all identified risks; (e) the staffing plan and skill mix to include direct labor categories (from Attachment B) and projected hours required to accomplish each RTO along with rationale for the appropriateness of the staffing plan and skill mix, and (f) any other information required to determine the adequacy and reasonableness of the Offeror’s task plan. Any assumptions made in preparing a response to the RTO must be clearly stated in the RTO task plan. There must be consistency between the RTO task plan and the Basis of Estimate submitted under the Price Volume.

The Offeror shall describe its procedures for determining the applicability of subcontracting, if any, managing subcontracts, and approach for addressing any problems that arise as a result of poor and/or non-performance of subcontracted effort.

The Offeror shall describe its process for responding in a timely manner and effectively to requests for task plans in accordance with the Task Ordering Procedure clause of this BPA, to include the Offeror’s plans for organizing, assigning staff, tracking, and managing task orders from task initiation to completion, subcontracting, schedule and price.

The Offeror shall describe its management approach and ability to deal with problems, coordination of workflow, and assure overall control of the effort. The Offeror shall explain its approach to employ and maintain a technically trained and experienced workforce to satisfy the BPA requirements. The Offeror shall identify the type of personnel/skill level that are currently available and your approach to bring on more personnel, if needed.

The Offeror shall describe the risk management techniques that will be used to identify risks that could negatively impact task order performance and develop realistic work around or mitigation steps to eliminate or reduce risk to an acceptable level. General areas of possible risk that are of concern to NASA and of which pertain to this BPA are: technical, schedule and price. The Offeror’s discussion of a risk factor should provide the Offeror’s approach to managing the risk, the probability of the risk, impact and severity, time frame, and risk acceptance or mitigation.

(e) PRICE VOLUME

Attachment B, Direct Labor Rates Matrix: The Offeror shall complete Enclosure 1, Attachment B, Pricing Matrix, of the model BPA. The Offeror’s media type, price per unit, volume discount and total price of Attachment B must reflect those anticipated to perform the requirements of the Statement of Work and Representative Task Order. The Offeror shall propose media type, price per unit and volume discounts by BPA contract year. In accordance with FAR 13.303, NASA is seeking maximum discounts from Offerors. The media type, price per unit and volume discounts shall be used to calculate and negotiate the firm fixed price of all task orders issued under this BPA. During BPA performance, the Offeror will be permitted to quote prices per unit lower than are listed in Attachment B;

however, for purposes of this RFQ, the Offeror shall use the prices per unit in Attachment B for pricing the RTO in response to this RFQ. For costing purposes assume 10% of the tapes will require special handling due to degradation.

Representative Task Order (RTO): The Offeror shall complete the pricing exhibit in Enclosure 4 RTO Pricing Exhibit. The Offeror shall price the RTO using the media type, price per unit and volume discount proposed in Enclosure 1, Attachment B, Pricing Matrix.

In addition to completing the RTO Pricing Exhibit in Enclosure 4 the Offeror shall provide a Basis of Estimate (BOE) for the RTO that shall give the Government insight into the methodologies used by the Offeror in estimating/proposing the price per unit required for successful performance of the RTO. The Offeror’s BOE shall address the following:

• Direct Labor – Provide the estimating thought processes, assumptions, methodologies and rationale used in selecting the direct labor categories and quantities of direct labor hours.

• Other Direct Costs (ODCs) – For subcontracts, provide description and necessity of items, quantity required, unit prices, and total price. For travel, specify Origin/Destination, Purpose, Number of Trips, Destination, Number of People, Number of Days, Per Diem, Airfare, Car Rental and Miscellaneous Expenses.

• Indirect Rates Applied to certain ODCs – Provide information about any indirect rates that are applied to certain other direct costs, if applicable, including the base of application of any applied rate(s), a description of the purpose of the indirect rate(s), and supporting information for the reasonableness of the rate(s) proposed (including audit history).

(f) PAST PERFORMANCE VOLUME

GSFC 52.215-230 Past Performance Volume. (MAR 2020)

An Offeror’s past performance record indicates the relevant quantitative and qualitative aspects of performing services or delivering products similar in size and content to the requirements of this acquisition.

The Offeror shall provide, at a minimum, the following information in support of its proposal to facilitate the evaluation of the Offeror’s past performance as related to the requirements of the proposed contract.

(a) INFORMATION FROM THE OFFEROR

Prime Offerors shall furnish the information requested below for all of your most recent contracts (completed and ongoing) for similar efforts with a minimum average annual cost/fee incurred of $12,500 that your company has had within the last 3 years of the RFQ release date.

For the purposes of the Past Performance Volume, a proposed significant subcontractor is defined as any proposed subcontractor that is estimated to meet/exceed an average annual cost/fee of $5,000. Note, the definition of significant subcontractor for the past performance evaluation may be different than for the cost evaluation. The Offeror shall provide the information requested below for any significant subcontractor(s) for those similar efforts within the last 3 years of the RFQ release date with a minimum average annual cost/fee incurred of at least 25% of the estimated average annual dollar value of the proposed significant subcontract.

For example (note, these example numbers may not relate to this specific procurement), if a procurement is valued at an average annual value of $50M and a proposed significant subcontractor for the effort has a proposed average annual cost/fee of $16M, the Offeror shall provide relevant current/past contract references that have a minimum average annual cost/fee incurred at/above $4M (25% of $16M) for that significant subcontractor.

If a prime Offeror or significant subcontractor is submitting past performance data on a current/past contract vehicle that includes multiple tasks, orders, etc., all effort under that contract vehicle may be consolidated for the purposes of meeting the average annual cost/fee incurred in the instructions above and for the purpose of evaluating contract relevance for the proposed requirement.

The Offeror shall provide an estimated value and percentage of work to be performed on this contract by the Prime Offeror and each significant subcontractor. Indicate the primary functions to be performed by the Prime Offeror and each proposed significant subcontractor.

Indicate which contracts are most related (i.e. similar in size and content) and how they are related to the proposed effort, as well as which contracts were performed by the division of your company (if applicable) that will perform the proposed contract/subcontract.

If applicable, Offerors may provide the experience or past performance of a parent or affiliated or predecessor company to an Offeror (including Joint Venture prime partner companies and/or a parent or affiliated company that is being otherwise proposed as a subcontractor on this effort) where the firm’s proposal demonstrates that the resources of the parent or affiliate or predecessor will affect the performance of the Offeror. The Offeror shall demonstrate that the resources of the parent or affiliate or predecessor company (its workforce, management, facilities or other resources) shall be provided or relied upon for contract performance such that the parent or affiliate or predecessor will have meaningful involvement in contract performance.

The Offeror shall provide the following information on all past/current contract references that meet the above criteria for the Prime Offeror and each significant subcontractor:

Customer's name, E-mail address, and telephone number of both the lead contractual and technical personnel most familiar with the Offeror’s performance record. (Please verify the information provided is current and correct).

Cage Code and/or DUNS Number of the contractor performing the work.

Contract number, type, and total original and present or final contract value.

The current contract expenditures incurred to date, the date in which the expenditures have been incurred through, and the Average Annual Cost/Fee Incurred to Date. For example (note, these example numbers may not relate to this specific procurement):

A current five year contract that you are performing has a total estimated value of $100,000,000. As of the latest cost report which reflected cost/fee through the first 2 years and 4 months of performance, the total amount of cost/fee incurred by the Offeror over the duration of the contract was $43,500,000.

In this example, an Offeror would provide the following:

Current Contract Expenditures incurred to Date: $43,500,000

Date in which Expenditures have been incurred through: Insert Date of cost report that indicated cost/fee total of $43,500,000 after 2 years and 4 months of performance.

Average Annual Cost/Fee Incurred to Date: $18,669,528 ($43,500,000/2.33 years)

Date of contract, place(s) of performance, and delivery dates or period of performance.

Brief description of contract work and comparability to the proposed effort. It is not sufficient to state that it is comparable in magnitude and scope. Rationale must be provided to demonstrate that it is comparable.

Method of acquisition: competitive or noncompetitive.

Nature of award: initial or follow-on. If initial, indicate whether award was preceded by a Government, customer, or Offeror financed study.

Identify and explain major technical problems and how they were overcome. List any major deviations or waivers to technical requirements that were granted by the customer.

Identify and explain completion successes and delays, including adherence to program schedules. Provide an assessment of the performance (technical and schedule) on these past programs and support these assessments with metrics such as award or incentive fees earned.

Cost management history; identify and explain any cost overruns and underruns, and cost incentive history, if applicable.

Average number of personnel on the contract per year and percent turnover of personnel per year.

Recent customer evaluations of past performance including Award Fee Evaluation results, Fee Determination Official letters, Annual Performance Evaluation Forms, etc. (Excluded from the page limitation).

List any contracts terminated (partial or complete) within the past 5 years and basis for termination (convenience or default). Include the contract number, name, address, and telephone number of the terminating officer (please verify telephone numbers). Include contracts that were "descoped" by the customer because of performance or cost problems.

(Excluded from the page limitation).

(b) PRIOR CUSTOMER EVALUATIONS (PAST PERFORMANCE QUESTIONNAIRES)

The offeror and any proposed significant subcontractor(s) [as defined in paragraph (a)] shall provide the questionnaires provided as Enclosure 7 to each of the above references to establish a record of past performance. The Offeror shall instruct each of its references to return the questionnaire directly to the Government Contracting Officer via email. The questionnaire respondent shall be a representative from the technical customer and responsible Contracting Officer with direct knowledge of your firm's performance. If possible, the Offeror and any proposed significant subcontractor(s) shall provide questionnaires to customers from NASA contracts, other Government contracts, and commercial contracts. For proposed significant subcontractor(s), references shall concern only work performed by the subcontractor’s business entity that will perform the work under this contract, if awarded.

The Offeror is responsible for ensuring that the questionnaire is completed and submitted, via email to Cassandra.K.Moore@nasa.gov no later than the closing date of this solicitation designated in Block 9 of the SF 33.

The Offeror shall include a list of those to whom the questionnaires were sent, including name of individual, phone number, organization, and contract number. Offerors shall include in their proposal the written consent of their proposed significant subcontractors to allow the Government to discuss the subcontractors' past performance evaluation with the Offeror.

(End of provision)

Electronic Submission of Proposals – Proposal Marking and Delivery Through NASA’s EFSS Box (NOV 2021)

(a) The offeror shall submit its proposal via NASA’s Enterprise File Sharing and Sync Box (EFSS Box), a FedRAMP Moderate certified platform. Electronic submissions shall not contain hidden formulas, tables, be locked, be password protected, or contain links to data not included in the electronic copy. All electronic submissions should be searchable and should not contain scanned documents, except those documents that must be provided in their native format (e.g., signature pages, prior award fee letters for past performance, DCAA/DCMA approval letters, as applicable). The offeror shall ensure documents are free from viruses and malware, as documents determined by NASA to contain a virus or malware will not be opened or evaluated. Subcontractors may submit their required proposal information separately using the instructions in this provision. The offeror shall ensure subcontractor submissions are made no later than the date and time specified for proposal submission and comply with all solicitation instructions.

(b) Prior to the submission of proposal files, offerors interested in submitting a proposal in response to this solicitation should notify Cassandra K. Moore of their intent to submit a proposal at least 48 hours prior to the intended submission date, at the following email address: Cassandra.K.Moore@nasa.gov. The offeror shall courtesy copy (cc) Alexis N.

Harris at Alexis.N.Harris@nasa.gov on this communication. Offerors, especially those that have not previously submitted a proposal utilizing NASA’s EFSS Box, are encouraged to coordinate the submission of a test file with Cassandra K. Moore several days in advance of the date and time specified for proposal submission in order to allow time to work through any submission issues.

(c) The offeror shall submit all proposal files to:

https://nasagov.app.box.com/f/566231399f424341b63bb37fac7bae19. The Offeror shall follow instructions regarding proposal submission found at https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/other/EFSS-Box-Offeror-Proposal-Submission- Instructions.pdf.

(d) Offerors are encouraged to include all individual proposal files within a single .zip file.

Electronic file names shall be limited to letters, numbers, dashes, and single spaces, with the exception of the period that is required before the file extension (e.g., .zip, .pdf), in order to successfully upload and download files from the EFSS Box system. The offeror shall not use special characters “/” or “\” in file names. The offeror shall sequentially number each file and clearly label the contents of the file and include the name of the offeror and subcontractor name (if applicable) in the individual file name. Examples of acceptable individual file names are as follows (not specific to this solicitation):

For Prime Offeror Submissions:

1 - Prime Offeror name-solicitation number-MS Volume.docx

3. Prime Offeror name - solicitation number - PP Volume.pdf 7-Prime Offeror name - solicitation number Cost-Price Volume.xlsx

For Subcontractor Submissions:

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/other/EFSS-Box-Offeror-Proposal-Submission-Instructions.pdf https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/other/EFSS-Box-Offeror-Proposal-Submission-Instructions.pdf

1 - Prime Offeror name-Subcontractor Name-solicitation number-MS Volume.docx

3. Prime Offeror name –Subcontractor Name - solicitation number - PP Volume.pdf 7-Prime Offeror name – Subcontractor Name - solicitation number Cost-Price

Volume.xlsx

Individual files cannot exceed 150GB per file. Submitted files shall not include password protection. Unless specifically authorized by the solicitation instructions, alternate proposal submissions shall not be submitted.

(e) Immediately after all files have been uploaded and the proposal has been submitted in its entirety, the offeror shall notify Cassandra K. Moore at the following email address:

Cassandra.K.Moore@nasa.gov with a listing of all documents by filename that were submitted via EFSS Box. The offeror shall courtesy copy (cc) Alexis N. Harris at Alexis.N.Harris@nasa.gov on this communication. If any problems are experienced with the EFSS Box system (e.g., login, file transfer), please contact Cassandra K. Moore and a cc copy to Alexis N. Harris via e-mail as soon as possible.

(f) The offeror is responsible for ensuring its proposal reaches the Government office designated in the solicitation by the date and time specified in the solicitation (see FAR 52.215-1(c)(3)). The Government is not responsible for any failure attributable to the transmission or receipt of documents submitted using electronic means, including the missing of any submission requirements and established deadlines. Please note that uploading documents via EFSS Box and the transmission of the files from the offeror to the Government may not be instantaneous. To ensure timely delivery, the offeror is encouraged to submit its proposal at least 24 hours prior to the due date specified in the solicitation. The electronic submission of the proposal shall contain all information required by the solicitation to be determined responsive.

(End of provision)