FINAL_-_RFP_Q A_For_Opinion_Research.docx

SAF/PA

RFP Questions for Solicitation FA7014-15-R-5001

1. Would the government consider revising the Sr. Communications Researcher requirements, substituting air force experience with joint, other service, or civilian experience; and also consider reducing the 15 year of experience minimum to 12?

The PWS Paragraph 4.4.2 has been revised to reflect the Senior Communication Research preferred experience.

2. Is there any incumbent contractor who has performed or is performing the types of research and survey services for the Air Force that are described in the PWS? –

The previous effort was performed by Computer Sciences Corporation under GSA contract number GS08T11BPC0209.

3. Is there a maximum budget amount that would apply to this contract?

See question 13 and 19.

4. On page 27 of the PWS, in subsection 4.4.2, the PWS provides that "The Senior Communication Researcher must have at least 10 years’ experience working with military audiences, five of which must be with the Air Force members." Are the requirements of working specifically with military audiences for 10 years or more and with Air Force members for 5 years or more, prerequisites to award of the contract? Or would relevant experience with other audiences also qualify a small business firm for work under this particular solicitation?.

This is the requirement for the individual holding this position, not for small business itself. Contractor may submit relevant experience of the individual they believe qualifies for this requirement.

5. On the “Attachment_1_Pricing_Worksheet” provided with the RFP, the weighted totals for pricing for focus groups are derived from multi-group lots (48 groups for the Focus Groups CONUS task, 6 for OCONUS and 4 for commercial). For focus group projects, there are project development/preparation charges and post-data-collection analysis and reporting expense that is pretty much stable whether the project consists of two groups or twelve. The pricing worksheet doesn’t indicate how many focus group “projects” we should assume are included in the 48-group “max” order.

See revised Pricing Attachment and PWS Para 4.5.2.1. For the addition of “Topic Planning, Development & Reporting for CONUS/OCONUS/Commercial Focus Groups” deliverable.

6. Are the six OCONUS groups to be considered one project or more than one?

See revised Pricing Attachment and PWS Para 4.5.2.1. For the addition of “Topic Planning, Development & Reporting for CONUS/OCONUS/Commercial Focus Groups” deliverable.

7. The RFP states that the surveys should include “reporting functions built in.” Could the government clarify what functionality it requires access to?

Government does not require access to any “reporting functions,” however it does expect that the contractor will be able to monitor Internet-based surveys to ensure they are working properly. The contractor will provide at a minimum daily updates on the cumulative total of participants that have started and completed the survey. See revised PWS Para 4.2.

8. For the surveys of the general public, what is the desired sample size? (i.e., the number of people the government would like to take the survey).

At a minimum, the sample size for Brief Survey by telephone should be at least 600. For Brief and Intermediate surveys of the public by Web the sample size should be at least 1,000. Contractor is allowed to use and justify different quantities if they have capabilities that justify more or fewer sample size.

9. Can the government please confirm that for the airmen focus groups and in-depth interviews, the government would be conducting all recruiting activities?

See 4.5.2.1 and 4.5.3.1, For airmen focus groups and in-depth interviews, the government is responsible for recruiting participants.

10. The PWS states that a Quality Control Plan must “be submitted to the government within 10 days after the contract start date,” which appears separately from the other PWS tasks. The PWS also refers to a Quality Control Plan in connection to Task 1.

Question: Can the Government please clarify expectations for a Quality Control Plan? Is a draft QCP requested as part of the proposal?

See PWS revision in Para 4.2.1.

11. Reference Attachment 1 Pricing Excel worksheet.

Question: Are the labor hours provided by the government in CLIN 0001 illustrative and can be changed by the Offeror, or are these to remain unchanged for evaluation purposes?

These shall remain unchanged for evaluation purposes.

12. Reference Attachment 1 Pricing Excel worksheet Question: In CLIN 0002, can the government provide Offerors the actual OCONUS locations? Relatedly, are Offerors to include such travel cost in our calculations in CLIN 0002 or are those assumed to be covered in the $50,000.00 travel CLIN 0003?

OCONUS location may be any OCONUS military base that has airmen stationed there. Travel costs for OCONUS locations should be covered in CLIN 0003.

13. Reference Attachment 1 Pricing Excel worksheet and Section 4.2.1. Surge Capacity.

Question: In CLIN 0002 of Attachment 1, cell E14 entitled “Max.”, is this the same as Surge Capacity as per Section 4.2.1?

No. The maximum is the maximum of any of the individual survey items that could be ordered in a given contract year. This is how the Government will calculate the ceiling for CLIN 0002. However the government will not order the maximum across all the categories. Instead, the surge quantities provided in 4.2.1 are provided as a reference for the maximum “level of effort expected from the contractor in terms of cost and manpower across all the deliverable”.

14. Also, someone on the technical side needs to determine if the deliverables cited in Section 2.0, subsection 2.1 agree with CLIN 0002 of the Attachment 1 Pricing Excel worksheet. If the answer is no, then that will also be a question for the government.

Per the amended Paragraph 2.1, the contractor is no longer requested to provide a fee schedule for an Extensive survey of the General public. Attachment 1 provides the minimum deliverables that the contractor should provide costs for.

15. Reference Section (m) (4). Section (4) states that “Price will be submitted in the format of Table B for each option year. Identify each labor categories title.”

Question: Is Table B the continuation sheets of SF1449?

FAR 52.212.1(m) has been corrected.

16. Reference Section (m) (5). Related to the above question, Section (5) contains Table A with a footnote that says “The Offeror shall complete the pricing template as attached to ensure the integrity of the formulas in the excel sheet remain intact….’

Question: Are Offerors to submit both Table B and the Attachment 1 - Pricing Worksheet?

FAR 52.212.1(m) has been corrected.

17. Reference Section 7.0 Travel states that “It is assumed the contractor has included travel costs for two separate survey out-briefs in the estimated costs for the contract deliverables”. But in the Attachment 1 – Pricing Worksheet, the government has provided a travel budget of $50,000.00 for each year.

Questions: Are Offerors to price the travel costs for the two separate survey out-briefs in addition to the $50,000.00, or are those cost included in the $50,000.00?

For each survey, the contractor is required to attend, in-person, at two meetings or out-briefings at two separate dates. All other meetings associated with the survey may be attended virtually or via teleconference. The costs to meet these requirements for meetings, should be included in the cost for the deliverable. If directed by the government, additional travel cost will fall under the Travel CLIN 3. See revised PWS paragraphs 7.0 and 4.5.1.1.4.1.

18. For focus groups, are associated travel costs to be included in the price, or billed separately?

Travel costs should be included as part of Travel CLIN 3.

19. How does Surge Capability in Section 4.2.1 tie to pricing?

The Surge capability provides the contractor an idea of the maximum level of effort the government expects from the contractor in a given year. Even at the surge or maximum capacity of the contract, the government does not expect to order the maximum of each of the deliverables. Each deliverable should be priced according the amount of labor (etc.) it takes to produce it.

20. Transition Plan. While the Section M evaluation criteria do not emphasize delivery of a transition plan, the PWS refers to a transition plan submitted as part of the proposal. Can the government please confirm that it requests a transition plan as part of the proposal? Can this be included as an appendix to the 15-page technical volume?

See PWS revision for Paragraph 9.0. Phase in will occur between the government and the contractor. A Phase-in plan is not required.

21. Would the government consider an extension to the response due date?

With questions being due by the 25th, we are concerned with the amount of time to react between receipt of answers and the current proposal due date of 3/30.

See revised due on SF 1449.

22. In reviewing the budget template, we see three potential interpretations for what the hours represent: 1) the hours are arbitrary examples, 2) the hours represent the sum total of all hours for this RFP, or 3) they represent the recommended hours for the 3 labor categories included in the template with the understanding that other personnel would also be involved in completing the tasks. Can the government clarify which is the correct interpretation?

The labor hours represent the total number of hours to conduct Task 1, Program Management, and Task 3 Research support. Hours necessary to complete deliverables (task 2) should be factored into their price, which may include additional personnel.

23. For price planning purposes, can the government provide more specificity around the level of work that will be undertaken under this contract? As a small business we would benefit from knowing the true level of effort for this project as opposed to the potential minimum and maximum effort. Historically, under this contract, what has been the number of surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups conducted per year?

The base quantity of deliverables identified in the Pricing Attachment reflects the anticipated true level of effort for this requirement.

24. Can the government confirm that prices for CLIN 2 should include both labor and ODCs?

Confirmed. All costs associated with the development of a deliverable should be rolled into the Fixed Price amount entered into the Pricing Attachment.

25. Can the government confirm that the offeror should not alter the $50,000 per year travel expenses amount?

Confirmed.

26. Research with the general public requires approval from OMB. Will the contractor or the government be responsible for the preparation of materials related to obtaining OMB approval? Does the government have an existing generic clearance to conduct focus groups and surveys with the general public? If the contractor is responsible for obtaining OMB approval, what timeline should we assume?

The government will be the lead for obtaining OMB approval, if required, with support from the contractor. SAF/PA currently does NOT have an existing generic clearance to conduct focus groups and surveys with the general public.

27. For the surveys of the general public, should we assume a representative sample is required? How large a sample is desired for the public surveys, and what recruitment method is being used by the incumbent to obtain survey responses from the public (e.g., does the contractor send postal invitations, email invitations, or other methods to solicit participation?)

At a minimum, the sample size for Brief Survey by telephone should be at least 600. For Brief and Intermediate surveys of the public by Web the sample size should be at least 1,000. Contractor is allowed to use and justify different quantities if they have capabilities that justify more or fewer sample size. There is currently no incumbent and the recruitment method that was used is not known. Surveys of the public have not been done recently by SAF/PA, and none are currently planned. However, SAF/PA wants to have the ability to be able to conduct surveys of the public in the future, if the need arises.

28. The mode and sequence of invitations to recruit the public’s participation in AF surveys will affect the cost of the project. To ensure that we make accurate assumptions for our pricing volume, would the government provide an example schedule for the invitations expected to be used to recruit the for the general public surveys, and include the number of contact attempts, and the mode or modes desired? For example, “1 postal mailing, followed by 2 email reminders, followed by a phone call to non-responders.”

The government wants the contractor to assume a reasonable schedule for invitations to the general public. “1 postal mailing, followed by 2 email reminders, followed by a phone call to non-responders” is reasonable.

29. Which vendor currently supports the maintenance and recruitment of the “standing panel of Airmen who volunteer across the Total Force” which is referenced in 4.5.1.2.2. ICAG surveys.?

No vendor. The government, SAF/PA maintains and recruit the panel.

30. On page 30, the AF states that “SAF/PA will handle a majority of the effort with recruiting and managing the panel.” This statement suggest that at least some of the activities of recruiting and maintenance will be the contractor’s responsibility. Please provide more details on what is expected under this contract in regards to tasks related to the recruitment/management of the panel.

The contractor will be required to maintain a copy of the ICAG panel to include demographic information on the panel and upon request will provide analysis of the demographics of the panel. Contractor may also assist in messages to the panel, to include instructions for accessing websites for surveys.

31. On page 26 the AF describes how “Support shall also include performing research on previous surveys, survey topics, and results of previous surveys. The contractor shall also support the maintenance and demographic analysis of any population pool that SAF/PA maintains to support surveys, to include the ICAG.” Can the government provide an estimated level of effort for these secondary analyses?

Governments estimate for all Task 3 Research support is on the pricing worksheet under CLIN 0001, SME: 480 Hours and Communication Researcher 240 hours. The government does not have a separate estimate for the secondary analyses in the question.

32. The AF indicates that “qualification summaries” provided in response to subfactor-2 of the technical evaluation criteria are not included in the page limitation. Are personnel resumes or an acceptable format for the qualification summaries?

Personnel resumes are acceptable, just make sure it is clear that they meet position requirements.

33. Can the AF confirm that the submission is due via email and not printed response? Submissions are due via email per the RFP page 7 Clause 52.212-1.

34. Can the AF clarify whether the “brief survey,” “stand alone survey,” “web based tracking survey of USAF communications panel (monthly)” and “ICAG surveys” refer to the same or different activities? It is unclear whether these are synonymous based on the various references in the PWS and the budget template.

“Stand alone survey” is the broad category of surveys. “brief survey” refers to survey that takes ~5 minutes to take. “web based tracking survey of USAF communications panel (monthly)” and “ICAG surveys” are the same thing, and are surveys that take ~5 minutes to take and are sent to a standing panel of airmen.

35. Can the AF clarify whether the specifications of the “stand alone survey” (i.e., a random sample of Airmen (2,000-7,500 respondents)) apply to the brief survey, intermediate survey, and/or the extensive survey?

This specification applies to the brief, intermediate and the extensive survey.

36. In the PWS the AF specified focus groups with Airmen and with the US public. In the budget template the AF specifies CONUS and OCONUS focus groups as well as focus groups at commercial facilities. In order to complete the pricing worksheet as outlined, can the AF clarify which focus groups- Airmen or US Public- will be conducted at which locations?

CONUS and OCONUS Focus groups are with airmen. They are conducted at government furnished facilities. Surveys of the public are conducted at commercial facilities.

37. In the PWS, the AF specified in-depth interviews with both Airmen and the US Public. In the budget template the AF specified in-depth interviews via telephone and in-person. In order to complete the pricing worksheet as outlined, the desired mode- telephone or in-person for each audience? For the in-person interviews, can the AF clarify whether these will be conducted CONUS or OCONUS?

In-depth interviews can be either with members of the public or with airmen, and they can be conducted by phone or in-person. CONUS or OCONUS Travel costs are to be included in CLIN 3.

38. Does the AF already have OMB clearance to conduct surveys with the general public? If no, can the AF estimate how much labor will be required by the contractor to help them prepare the OMB clearance package?

SAF/PA does not already have an OMB clearance to conduct surveys with public and does not have an estimate of how much labor will be required. Contractor should make a reasonable estimate of the labor for the cost of the deliverable. Additional CLIN 2 labor may be leveraged to meet this and other requirements at the governments direction.

39. The PWS specifies that the response must be written in Times New Roman, size 12. Does this type font and size also apply to tables within the proposal, or can we use a smaller font size (e.g. we've gone down to font size 9 for tables before).

When necessary to allow tables to fit on one sheet of paper, font size may go down to size 9. These should only be tables the provide information on costs for deliverables.

40. 4.2. Task 2 mentions that "research shall yield valid, reliable indicators of communication effectiveness and audience impact, leading to functional accountability and indicators for improvement." What does the government mean by "functional accountability and indicators for improvement?”

4.2 Has been edited to state: “This research shall yield valid, reliable indicators of communication effectiveness and audience impact, leading to topic specific findings, recommendations and indicators for future surveys or assessments.”

41. What is the anticipated start date of the project?

As soon as the contract is awarded

42. In 4.4.2 the PWS states that "The Senior Communication Researcher must have at least 10 years experience working with military audiences, five of which must be with the Air Force members.” Based on the scope of work, it seems like a senior researcher with experience surveying other branches of service, and not just the Air Force, would also be qualified. If the government limits key personnel to someone with at least 5 years of experience surveying Air Force members specifically, this reduces the talent pool to a very small group of people, possibly only to incumbents, which could potentially limit a true and fair competition among qualified contractors . Can the government respond to this concern?

Addressed in earlier question. Air Force Experience for this position is now preferred.

43. Ref. Section 4.4 states: “The contractor’s team may include other personnel not directly specified in this section.” Should the cost of these additional personnel – eg Statistician, Phone Interviewer, Project Administrator, SAS Programmer, etc. be rolled into the deliverables cost as allocated, or should this cost be shown in some other way? (Examples of labor cost that is not directly tied to the CLIN 002 deliverables would be areas such as: Monthly Progress Reporting, Telecon meetings, Planning Meetings, Quarterly Reviews Preparation, Preparation of Briefing Packets, Briefing meetings, Quality Control and Security monitoring, Reformulating Communications Materials for testing, IT Support, Risk Management Metrics/Tracking and Personnel Management. Some of these roles can be handled by the 3 named key personnel, but others would be done by other personnel, or might be part of an overhead allocation, not explicitly tied to any particular CLIN 002 deliverable).

Expected cost of personnel to support deliverables should be rolled into the cost for the deliverables. To include: Telecon meetings, Planning Meetings, Preparation of Briefing Packets, Briefing meetings. CLIN 1 Labor costs should be for Task 1 “Program Management” & Task 3 “Research Support”.

44. If the Communications Researcher meets all the requirements outlined in the RFP except subject matter expertise with Air Force operations and affairs, can the team include a separate Air Force SME having strong knowledge and experience with Air Force operations, standards and policies to fill that requirement?

Air Force Experience for this position is now preferred, though the experience working with military audiences is still required. Including a separate SME with military experience will NOT meet the requirement. The person hired in this position will be the primary point of contact to the government for deliverables, to include senior military leaders. Thus it requires both the technical experience and the experience working with military personnel.

45. What are the assumed sample sizes specified for each of the Brief, Intermediate and Extensive surveys of Airmen?

Per 4.5.1.2.1: “Surveys may range from approximately 2000 - 7500 respondents.”

46. What are the assumed sample sizes specified for each of the Brief (phone and web) and Intermediate web surveys of the Public?

At a minimum, the sample size for Brief Survey by telephone should be at least 600. For Brief and Intermediate surveys of the public by Web the sample size should be at least 1,000. Contractor is allowed to use and justify different quantities if they have capabilities that justify more or fewer sample size. PWS 4.5.1.3 has been updated accordingly.

47. Are web-based surveys of communications panel in the cost sheet the same as the ICAG surveys shown in the PWS, or is this something separate?

They are the same

48. What response rates are expected for the ICAG surveys?

Expected response rate ~70%.

49. To confirm, is the expected quantity of depth interviews for phone and in-person 4 per study?

The expected quantity of in-depth interviews per deliverable is 4, multiple deliverables may be ordered for a given study or topic.

50. For on-base (CONUS, OCONUS) focus groups, is it assumed that the sessions will be audio and video recorded, and transcribed? If so, should the contractor provide a videographer at the site?

Government does not require a Videographer. Any audio and video recording would be for the use of the contractor in developing final product.

51. PWS indicates that the on base focus groups will contain up to 15 Airmen. How many respondents are assumed for the US Public focus groups conducted at a commercial site?

Government estimates sample size of 10, lower or higher number may be used by the contractor in there proposal with justification.

52. Are the OCONUS air bases at which focus groups will be held known or will it be a random or changing rotation of air bases? Can assumed locations be set for the base year and two option years for purposes of determining travel and time estimates?

Determination of OCONUS air bases is TBD (to be determined) based in part on topic and availability. OCONUS location may be any OCONUS military base that has airmen stationed there. Travel costs for OCONUS locations should be covered in CLIN 0003.

53. Is it assumed that the contractor will provide the survey software tool for all web (and CATI phone) surveys, or does the Air Force have a licensed tool that a contractor would need to use for these surveys?

The contractor will provide the survey software tool.

54. Where would 4.5.1.2.1. (Stand-alone surveys) be placed in the cost sheet?

There are four types of stand-alone surveys: Brief, Intermediate, Extensive, and ICAG (“USAF Communication Panel), which are already on the cost sheet. A separate “stand-alone survey” should NOT be added to the cost sheet.