Evaluation Criteria_narrative~7.docx

BD-25-1084-POLCL-FIMAY-116872

SP26-MSPCL-OAT-2

EVALUATION CRITERIA

An evaluation committee will be assigned to analyze the merits of all proposals submitted by the due date and time.

INTRODUCTION

Bidders must submit responses that meet all required (technical and business) specifications and procedures as specified in the RFR. Any response determined by the Strategic Sourcing Team (“SST”) to be non-responsive to any required specification of this RFR may be found at the team’s discretion, non-responsive without further evaluation.

REQUIREMENTS

Bidder must be able to provide all commodities and services as requested in this RFR. Failure to provide all commodities and services will result in the disqualification of a vendor. All business specifications are required and should be addressed in writing by all bidders.

A “required” specification is one that must be met in order for a proposal to be considered responsive. Any proposal which fails to meet a required specification of this RFR will be considered non-responsive and disqualified unless the evaluation team, in its discretion, determines that the non-compliance is inadvertent, insubstantial, can be corrected, or that an alternative proposed by the bidder is an acceptable substitute. In these cases, the evaluation team may allow the bidder to make minor corrections to their technical and business proposal. All corrections must be made within three (3) business days of notification or as otherwise specified by the SST. No corrections to price offered will be allowed unless corrections are allowed for all bidders.

ALTERNATIVES

A bidder may determine that it cannot respond to a required equipment or specification but believes it can offer equivalent performance by some other means. Such a bidder must explicitly identify the required specification to which it cannot respond in its response; state that it cannot meet the required specification and that it is proposing an alternative; and provide a thorough description of how the proposed alternative achieves the equivalent performance.

CLARIFICATION AND CORRECTION OF RESPONSES

The Strategic Sourcing Team is not required to seek clarification and/or correction of responses. The bidder, therefore, should be as clear and unambiguous as possible in all its responses to the RFR.

If clarification or correction is required, the Strategic Sourcing Team may request either oral or written clarification, or correction from an individual named in the bidder’s response as authorized by the bidder. Bidder’s response must be received within three (3) business days of notification, or as otherwise specified by the SST.

The Strategic Sourcing Team may allow for clarification or correction on matters that can be corrected without prejudice to other bidders. No correction or clarification to prices, terms and conditions, or the submission of supplemental information prejudicial to the interests of other bidders or to fair competition shall be permitted.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The evaluation criteria are designed to select the proposal that offers the “Best Value” to the Massachusetts State Police and Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “Best Value” is all encompassing, and includes many variables, such as best quality economic value, timely performance, and quality of services, among other factors. Only responsive proposals that meet all required specifications and procedures, as outlined in the RFR and above, will be evaluated, ranked, and scored by the Strategic Sourcing Team according to the evaluation criteria.

The bidder receiving the greatest number of total points may be awarded the contract, if it meets the “Best Value” objective of the Department. The SST reserves the option to consider additional factors, beyond raw scores, in determining which proposal constitutes “Best Value” to the Department. Execution of this contract requires bidders signing the Commonwealth Standard Contract Form (“SCF”) of which the Commonwealth Terms and Conditions are incorporated by reference, and any other required state forms and final negotiations (as applicable).

The final evaluation criteria scoring will be posted on COMMBUYS after award and execution of contract.

EVALUATION AND SCORING:

The Strategic Sourcing Team will determine if the response submitted is responsive to this RFR and all of its specifications. The following is the sequential evaluation process of the responses.

Fiscal Terms / Pricing.…. 30 PTS Bidders’ responses will be evaluated to ensure compliance with required specifications and procedures. All bidders meeting specifications and procedural requirements will then be ranked according to the pricing offered. The bidder offering the best price will be given the full 30 points. Each subsequent score may be reduced by the percentage that their pricing differs from the best pricing offered. If unique elements of bids make equivalent pricing comparisons difficult or impossible, the SST may apply alternative methodologies and processes to evaluate and rank bidders according to price. The SST reserves the option to apply alternative methods to score price.

NOTE: COST FACTOR CONSIDERATION

A bidder must consider all costs in providing its proposal. The Strategic Sourcing Team will assume that all standard business expenses that the bidder incurred in connection with meeting all required specifications and procedures are factored into the bid.

Experience / Contractor Qualifications.......50 PTS

Bidders' responses will be evaluated to ensure compliance with the required specifications in the RFR. All bidders meeting specification requirements will be scored on their experience and qualifications as outline in the RFR. Experience delivering programs and services to any public service, criminal justice, or law enforcement agencies will be considered.

Completeness of Response………10 PTS

Bidder’s will be scored in terms of compliance with the required forms and attachments. Bidder’s who are missing forms or attachments in the bid package or whose response lacks completeness may be deducted points in this section.

Business References……...10 PTS

Bidders’ responses will be evaluated to ensure compliance with required specifications and procedures. All bidders meeting specification and procedural requirements will be scored on references.

Each qualifying reference (up to three) provided by the Bidder will be contacted. Based upon the responses received the SST will score the reference section.

It is the Bidder’s responsibility to ensure that any reference provided in its response be aware that they may be contacted by the MSP regarding the services provided by the Bidder. If the MSP is unable to contact references, after making reasonable efforts to do so, it will discontinue efforts. The MSP is not responsible for “negotiating” a response from a reference provided by a Bidder.

Total: ________________________________________________________100 PTS

Supplier Diversity Plan (SDP)

Note to Bidders: A Supplier Diversity Plan is required for a large contract defined as greater than $250,000 in annual spend by a department. Moreover, for contracts where this applies, a department is required to evaluate a bidder’s SDP at a minimum weight of 25% of the overall evaluation criteria. However, the Department estimates that this contract will be less than $250,000 in annual value and is therefore a small procurement. As a small procurement, a Supplier Diversity Plan is not mandatory. A Supplier Diversity Plan is not required in small procurement RFRs. Therefore, SDP shall not apply to this procurement.

Small Business Purchasing Program (SBPP) Note to Bidders: The SST has estimated the total contract annual spend to be less than $250,000. Accordingly, the SST will consider award preference to responding SBPP certified small businesses. However, in the determination of the SST, if no certified SBPP participating business meet the “best value” evaluation criteria, the SST may award to non-SBPP participants.

TOTALING OF POINTS

The Strategic Souring Team will add together the points awarded for each section evaluated and make its final recommendation. The bidder(s) offering the overall “Best Value” to the Massachusetts State Police and/or Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be awarded the contract.

ADDED VALUE

The Strategic Sourcing Team reserves the right to award additional points to any and all bidders who demonstrate an item of added value. This may be an item that was addressed by the team in the RFR, or an item offered by the bidder. The team reserves the right to award a range of 3 to 5 additional points for each item of “added value”.

BEST AND FINAL OFFER

The Strategic Sourcing Team reserves the right to request best and final offers from one or more bidders. Best and final offers will be exercised should the Strategic Sourcing Team deem it is in the best interest of the Department of State Police and/or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in order to obtain the best value.

The SST, at its discretion, may evaluate the BAFO submission as an addition to the scoring evaluation received by the bidder for its original submission, and may evaluate one or more components of the BAFO at its discretion, or may incorporate an evaluation process based entirely on the BAFO.

BIDDER NOTIFICATION OF AWARD

Written notification will be sent to the awarded bidder(s). A letter will also be sent to each responding bidder who submitted a proposal but was not awarded a contract.

STRATEGIC SOURCING TEAM

The Strategic Sourcing Team may consist of 1 or more members of the Department of State Police and/ or individuals from outside agencies with the required skills and knowledge to assist in the evaluation of responses.