1_MarketResearchQuestions.doc

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

21ST SPACE WING (AFSPACECOM)

22 January 2008

MEMORANDUM FOR INTERESTED PARTIES

FROM:

21 CONS/LGCCB

SUBJECT: Market Research Questions for Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) Advisory & Assistance

Services (A&AS) and Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) 1.

Please provide your Central Contractor Registration (CCR) number or Commercial And Government Entity (CAGE) code number, a brief description of your company’s business size and status (i.e., HUBZone, woman/veteran/service disabled veteran/native American/minority-owned); and a point of contact (POC) name, telephone number and e-mail address.

2.

Market research questions:

a.

Is the work associated with this contract considered “commercial” as defined at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101? Please provide your rationale.

b.

Following contract award, what transition period is would be adequate prior to start of work?

c.

If contractor performance under this contract must occur in contractor facilities vice government facilities, what impact would this have on your proposal and subsequent contract performance?

d.

What is your anticipated use, if any, of service employees that would require inclusion of the Service Contract Act (SCA) in this contract vice professional employees?

e.

What are risk areas associated with this effort? How should they be mitigated?

f.

Should cross-teaming be prohibited? If not, what are the standards against which organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) opportunities and mitigation plans should be evaluated? Please provide any recommended language the Government might use to address OCIs.

g.

In your opinion, is there any work performed under the current contract (see paragraph 4 below) that could only be accomplished by one contractor?

h.

Because performance-based work statements are difficult to create for advisory and assistance work, what appropriate thresholds, measures, or metrics should be included in the performance work statement (PWS)?

i.

Contract type and service requirements:

(1) Is an indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) task order contract appropriate or are there better alternatives?

(2) Would pre-qualified Blanket Purchase Agreements awarded based on GSA contracts and rates be a viable option? From your perspective, what are the pros and cons?

(3) Are there specific contracts types that may result in a “no-bid” decision by your company?

(4) What information and workload data is necessary to adequately scope an advisory and assistance requirement as a firm fixed-price effort in a task order environment?

(5) Is industry more likely to include additional costs for unknowns in a fixed price as opposed to a cost type contract? Would a firm fixed price contract for advisory and assistance services result in higher proposal prices than a cost type contract? Please explain.

(6) What contract incentives or combination of incentives should be considered and why? Would your company prefer a fixed, incentive, or award fee environment and why? If award or incentive fee, what objectively measured evaluation criteria would be appropriate, especially for advisory and assistance services? Are incentive fees based on cost savings appropriate for an advisory and assistance services environment? Would this in any way impact the quality of service provided?

(7) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.504(c)(2)(i) provides that multiple awards shall be made for indefinite-quantity advisory and assistance services contracts exceeding three years and $11.5 million. If an IDIQ contract is solicited, given a $400 million ceiling over five years, how may awards would be appropriate? Should awardees be required to provide proposals for every competed task order?

j.

Source selection method and evaluation criteria:

(1) What source selection method—performance price tradeoff (PPT) or full tradeoff—is appropriate and why?

(2) What evaluation criteria is appropriate and why? (Please be as specific as possible.)

(3) Can AFSPC’s personnel needs and concerns be adequately assessed in the past-performance arena alone as a PPT?

(4) How should cost be evaluated during the source selection evaluation phase?

(5) Should sample task orders, awardable task orders, or no task orders be issued as part of the request for proposal (RFP)?

(6) What is the appropriate proposal page limitation (assuming a reasonable font) for the technical section?

(7) How many past performance references are adequate? Given that number, what is the appropriate proposal page limitation (assuming a reasonable font)?

(8) If past performance is evaluated prior to award of an IDIQ contract, would it be reasonable to compete most task orders as Lowest-Priced Technically Acceptable (LPTA)?

k. North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) code. NAICS code 541712, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences, (small business size standard of 1,000 employees) has been determined appropriate for this acquisition and FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting, applies wherein at least 50 percent of the work must be performed by the small business prime contractor alone. If your company qualifies as a small business as defined under this NAICS code, please respond to these additional questions.

(1) Can your company provide a team composed of a sufficient number of large and small subcontractors to perform this contract in an efficient, cost effective manner while meeting contract requirements? Please explain.

(2) Is your company capable of providing qualified and experienced personnel at appropriate security levels? Please explain.

(3) Is your company capable of providing a team composition that can support the entire scope of this contract effort with sufficient depth to perform a variety of tasks of varying complexity across HQ AFSPC’s many directorates and missions while performing at least 50 percent of the work? Please explain.

(4) Does your company currently have a DCAA approved accounting system? How much experience has your company had with management of cost-type contracts? If your company is considering priming this contract and is required to perform at least 50 percent of the work, how would work beyond in-house capabilities be handled?

(5) What is your current available credit line (dollar amount)?

l. Please provide any other applicable comments or recommendations not addressed in the foregoing.

3. The Government is requesting you be succinct and limit your response to 10 single-sided pages. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this notice or any follow-up information requests is voluntary and shall be treated as confidential. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with this or future requests. Please submit your response electronically (virus scanned) via e-mail by 1 February 2008 to: jeane.steed@peterson.af.mil and sandra.lynch-maldanado@peterson.af.mil. We appreciate your participation and input.

4. Also, the performance work statements, dollar value, and incumbent information for task orders awarded under the previous contract are available at the Federal Technical Data Solutions (FedTeDS) website (https://www.fedteds.gov) for your information. You will need your company’s Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Marketing Partner Identification Number (MPIN), your company’s Data Universal Numbering System (Dun & Bradstreet) (DUNS) number or CAGE Code, telephone number, and e-mail address to gain access to the FedTeDS site.

//signed//

JEANE E. STEED

Contracting Officer Golden Legacy, Boundless Future . . .Your Nation’s Air Force

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