Evaluation Criteria~6.docx

BD-26-1084-POLCA-CARS1-121912

SP26-TTS-X66

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

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 may 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.

ALTERNATIVES

A bidder may determine that it cannot respond to required equipment 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 entities. 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 these evaluation criteria.

The bidder receiving the greatest number of total points will 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 proposals constitute “Best Value” to the Department. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Standard Terms and Conditions are incorporated by reference with Bidder’s signing of the Standard Contract form.

The evaluation criteria 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.

PRICING.…. 30 PTS

Bidders’ responses will be evaluated to ensure compliance with required specifications and procedures. All bidders meeting specification 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 will be reduced by the percentage that their pricing differs from the best pricing offered.

Example, the best price offered is $100. This bidder will receive 30 points. If the second-best price offered is $120. This bidder will receive 25 points.

If a bidder offers a prompt payment discount, their price quoted will be reduced by the prompt payment offered before being ranked.

If unique elements of bids make equivalent pricing comparisons difficult or impossible, the Strategic Sourcing Team may apply additional alternative processes to evaluate and rank bidders according to price

NOTE: COST FACTOR CONSIDERATION

A bidder must consider any and 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……30 PTS

Bidders' responses will be evaluated to ensure compliance with required specifications. All bidders meeting specification requirements will be scored on their experience. Bidders who have experience of up to ten years in the field will receive 15 points. Bidders who have more than 10 years’ experience will receive up to 30 points.

PROMPT PAYMENT DISCOUNT.…..15 PTS

Bidders offering a prompt payment discount will receive up to 15 points. The bidder offering the highest percentage will receive the most points and each subsequent score will receive the percentage that their discount differs from the best percentage offered.

CERTIFIED SMALL BUSINESS PURCHASING PROGRAM……..10 PTS

This is a small procurement targeted to verified small businesses participating in the Commonwealth’s Small Business Purchasing Program (SBPP). Bidders certified with the Small Business Purchasing Program will be awarded 10 points.

BUSINESS REFERENCES……..15 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) will be contacted. Based upon the responses received the evaluator will score the reference as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

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.

TOTALING OF POINTS

The Strategic Sourcing 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.

Maximum points available: 100

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 up to 3 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.

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.

THE 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.