Questions_and_Responses_-_Set_1.pdf

Questions and Responses - Set 1

DATE QUESTION GOVT RESPONSE

17-Jun-19

On page 6 of 9 of the Attachment_08_-_Addendum_to_52-212-1 document, the instructions state that: Further, the offeror will send to each identified Agency’s POC from RFP Attachment 01 – Past Performance Information, RFP Attachment 02 – Past

Performance Questionnaire. "Would the government be willing to accept CPARS as a substitute for the Past Performance Questionnaire?"

The Government is Not willing to accept CPARS as a substitute for the Past

Performance Questionnaire.

17-Jun-19

The statement in Synopsis that reads, All questions must be submitted no later than five (5) calendar days before the posted closing date of this solicitation. "Will there not be a Q&A period in June 2019?"

The Government will receive questions both in June and July up to NLT 5 calendar days before the posted closing date.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 08 Addendum to 52-212-1 Instructions to Offerors, Subfactor 4

Corporate Experience: Prime Contractors must supply at least one relevant work experience completed by the Prime Contractor either as a Prime Contractor or

Subcontractor.

“If the Prime contractor is a Joint Venture, is it acceptable for the referenced

Corporate Experience example to be from any member of the Joint Venture?”

Yes

17-Jun-19

Attachment 08 Addendum to 52-212-1 Instructions to Offerors, Volume 3 Past

Performance

“Will the Government accept copies of CPARS versus having our customers fill out the Past Performance Questionnaire?”

The Government is Not willing to accept CPARS as a substitute for the Past

Performance Questionnaire.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 08 Addendum to 52-212-1 Instructions to Offerors, Subfactor 1 Staffing and Skillset Management Plan: Loss Rate. The offeror shall numerically describe (as a percentage) the acceptable loss rate/quarter (where quarter is defined as the period spanned by three (3) months). This number will be calculated as follows:

Number of contract personnel lost for any reason in the quarter / number of total contract personnel working on the contract during the quarter.

“We understand the methodology to use when calculating the loss rate, what contract are we to reference when calculating the loss rate? Are we to use any contract of our choosing to calculate our loss rate?”

The contractor is projecting the loss rate they will support on the ISSS contract. The contractor may utilize any method to arrive at this projected number up to and including current contracts. Note that whatever figure is presented in the solicitation response will be the number which is entered into the successful offeror's service summary for quality purposes.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 03 Professional Compensation Plan Model worksheet states to include

Fringe Rate %. “What is consider in the Fringe Rate? Does this one rate include

G&A, Overhead, and Profit along with Fringe rate or do we only insert the Fringe rate? If inserting only the Fringe Rate, how do we account for the additional Indirect rates to provide our Fully Burdened rate?”

This sheet is not intended to reflect your fully burdened rate for pricing purposes. It is to evaluate whether professional employees are being compensated in accordance with FAR 52.222-46. Thus, the intent of

Attachment 03 is to capture compensation rates (direct labor and fringe benefits).

17-Jun-19

Attachment 03 Professional Compensation Plan Model worksheet: “Do we need to include all labor categories listed in the PWS in the attachment or do we only include the 5 labor categories listed in the attachment? ”

Only include the 5 labor categories in the attachment per Tab 1

Instructions.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 10 Floor Base Hourly Rate Worksheet instructions item #4 reference qualifications listed in Exhibit 1 PWS. We have been unable to locate the Labor

Category Descriptions or qualifications. “Can the Government please provide the

Experience, Education, and Certifications for all labor categories to ensure offerors can conduct a valid cross walk of labor categories in Salary.Com?”

The Government will not be providing the Experience, Education and

Certifications apart from what is currently listed in the PWS for labor categories. It is up to the offeror to propose appropriate labor mix and cross reference that solution to Salary.com.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 03 Professional Compensation Plan Model worksheet instructions ask us to provide recent surveys and/or studies from professional, public, or private organizations (e.g. Watson & Wyatt, ERI, BLS, etc.). Instructions to Offerors state our backup documents are to come from Salary.com specifically at a National Level with no other delimiters selected. “Can the Government verify which statistical data we are to use as our submitted backup documents?”

To clarity, we have added Salary.com to the list of example sources. The offeror is not limited to those examples.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 04 Total Evaluated Price Worksheet states an FTE equates to 1880 hours, however in the Attachment 10 Floor Base Hourly Rates worksheet the Hourly

Base Rate from Salary.com is being calculated using 1792 hours. “Should the hours in Attachment 10 be based on 1880 hours?”

The Government will issue an amended Attachment 10 to reflect an 1880 hour base for consistency in the pricing worksheets.

17-Jun-19

Attachment 10 Floor Base Hourly Rate worksheet requires a proposed base hourly rate. “Are we to use a specific region to develop these rates or do we follow price instructions which direct us to use Salary.com which is to be set at the National

Level?”

The Government has changed the Instructions to clarify the Salary.com

National Rate should be utilized.

17-Jun-19 Attachment 7 Scenario PWS lists certifications for specific labor categories. “Are these the labor categories required to support the work outlined in the scenario?”

The PWS states "where required" indicating that some or all of these labor categories may be required. The offeror may assume that if they utilize one of the listed labor categories then the corresponding experience, education and certification would be expected.

17-Jun-19 “Are there any font size restrictions for tables and graphics?”

The Government has reviewed this request and determined that Times

New

Roman, 12 pt. font should be utilized throughout the document, including tables and figures.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 08 Instructions and Notices to Offerors, Page 5. "Does the Prime Contractor have to have ONE relevant experience per each PWS task (2.1 to 2.6)? or can the Prime Contractor have ONE relevant experience for one PWS task and the remaining team (e.g. subs) can have relevant experience for the remaining PWS tasks?"

It is acceptable for the Prime contractor to have one relevant experience for one task, and the remaining team can have relevant experience for the remaining tasks.

18-Jun-19 Attachment 02 Past Performance Questionnaire, Page 1. "When are PPQs due by?"

It's currently written as XX for the date in June.

Questionnaires are due 15 July 2019. Attachment 02 has been updated to reflect this date.

18-Jun-19 Attachment 08 Instructions and Notices to Offerors, Page 3. "Can the Government indicate what "appropriate blocks" needs to be completed by the offeror? (e.g. 17a, 17b, 30a, 30b, 30c etc.)"

Yes, those are the blocks that should be completed. The Government has changed to (i.e. 17a, 17b, 30a, 30b, 30c)

18-Jun-19 Attachment 08 Instructions and Notices to Offerors, Page 2 and 3. "What is section h and i reserved for? will it include the methodology instructions again for the conformance review checklist- attachment 05 inclusion into the volumes?"

Those sections were reserved to maintain consistency within the document. There are no plans to use those sections.

18-Jun-19

FA703719RA001_Draft, Page 5. The requirements paragraph states "...Initially, the contract will cover these tasks Langley AFB, Warner-Robins AFB, Tyndall AFB, and

Davis-Monthan AFB but may change as the mission grows." Should this say locations instead of tasks? Also, San Antonio, TX is not listed, but seems to be the main location."

Solicitation will be changed to read "Initially, the contract will cover these tasks at JBSA-Lackland, Langley AFB, Robins AFB, Tyndall AFB, and Davis-Monthan AFB but may change as the mission grows."

18-Jun-19 Attachment 01 – Past Performance Information (Para 1). "By competing and signing this attachment…" has a typo. Should this be "By completing and signing…"?

Yes. Attachment 01 has been administrately correct.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 01 – Past Performance Information (Para 1). "The offeror shall submit this sheet as part of the offeror." Should this be "The offeror shall submit this sheet as part of the offer."?

Yes. Attachment 01 has been administrately correct.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 02 – Past Performance Questionnaire. Last line of instructions states

"Responses are requested no later than XX June 2019." When are these responses due from the responder to the government?

Questionnaires are due 15 July 2019. Attachment 02 has been updated to reflect this date.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 02 – Past Performance Questionnaire (footer). Both pages of this document say "Page 1 of 1" in the footer. Should this be "Page 1 of 2" and "Page 2 of 2"?

Yes. Attachment 02 has been administrately correct.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 03 - Professional Comp Plan Model. There are only five (5) Government

Labor Category(ies) listed in Column A. "Are these the only labor categories to which an offeror is expected to Map its labor categories?"

Only include the 5 labor categories in the attachment per Tab 1

Instructions.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 03 - Professional Comp Plan Model. There is a broken link in this workbook pointing to

"\\comfort\stflansb$\Users\1388070788A\Desktop\Instructions.xlsx"

When opening Attachment 03, you can select "Don't Update" in the Excel

Pop Up Window.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 03 - Professional Comp Plan Model (Comp Plan Model Tab). Column D for Total Compensation Rate appears to include the base salary plus the value of the fringe benefits offered by the Offeror. "In what way will this information be used for evaluation purposes?"

This information will be used to evaluate price realism per FAR 52.222-46

Professional Employees.

18-Jun-19

Exhibit 1 - PWS (pg. 42-43). 4.19.1.4 states "The contractor shall be prepared to transition the work load to the newly-selected contractor at the end of the fifteen

(15) business day phase-out period, which will occur at the end of the period of performance of the contractual effort." Please clarify the time period during which

Phase In/Out will occur for this IDIQ and first task order. "Will the incoming contractor have 30 calendar days or 30 work days (PWS 4.19.1.1)? Will the current incumbent be available and participate for only fifteen (15) business days during their "phase-out" period?"

The contractor shall have 30 calendar days prior to the contract start date for phase-in. A change will be made to the PWS to clarify. Phase out will be as stated: fifteen (15) business days.

The current contractor will be on-site until all of their task orders are completed. They do not have language in their contract which defines a phase-out period.

Exhibit 2 - Fully Burdened Rates by Region. Within the six regions listed, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island are not include. "Should they be? If so, in which region(s)?"

The Government will modify Exhibit 02 and add Connecticut and Rhode

Island to Region 3.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 06 and Attachment 02. Attachment 02 identifies 6 Regions and the states within each of the 6 regions.

Attachment 06 provides a sample of Salary.com.

Question: There are essentially 2 options on Salary.com when pinpointing salary rates geographically: by specific city/state or by no disclosure of city/state. Because each of the 6 Regions covers more than a specific city/state; how does government prefer contractors identify geographic location in their salary.com sheets? Will the

Government provide search criteria in order to ensure numbers are compared like for like? E.g., zip code 78226 for location, general (though not complete or exhaustive) list of standard LCATs.

Salary.com is not used for attachment 02. Attachment 10 utilizes

Salary.com and uses a national average and not a specific location within a region.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 08; (E) Subfactor 5 – Scenario Response, Bullet 2. Requirement states: "A proposed staffing plan, including the number and job categories of those to be hired (do not include pricing)." Scenario Appendix B provides 24 labor categories. Are the labor categories provided the ones government has determined appropriate for the response and contractors need to provide Government with a staffing solution on required FTE count? Or are these labor categories notional and not to be assumed as a requirement to satisfy the Scenario?

The provided Labor Categories are notional and may be used if deemed appropriate by the offeror.

Attachment 08; (3) Volume III – Past Performance (i) General and (iii)(B) &

Attachment 09; (4) Factor 2, (v) Recency. Attachment 08; (3) Volume III – Past

Performance (i) General and (iii)(B)

Government states: "The offeror shall submit Present and Past Performance

Information for itself and any joint venture member, as well as each proposed critical subcontractor in accordance with the format contained in the “Past

Performance Information” (See RFP Attachment 01 – Past Performance Information) and the following paragraphs. A critical subcontractor is defined as an entity

(subcontractor and/or teaming contractor), other than the offeror itself that will perform twenty five percent (25%) or more of the proposed effort based on the total proposed price/cost;"

Attachment 09; (4) Factor 2, (v) Recency

Government states: "Submit no more than five contracts for prime contractor and five contracts for each significant subcontractor or partner."

Question: To clarify, is it Government’s intention to allow up 20 past performance 1-page citations? This assumes a team comprised of all small businesses; Prime and up to 3 critical team partners.

Question: Is it Government’s intent to recluse past performance citations from non-critical teammates? Question: Is there a limit on the number of past performance statements that may be submitted?

Answer #1: The Government will allow up to five references for each significant subcontractor or partner. Note that Attachment 08 (3) (i) as contractor who will perform twenty five percent (25%) or more of the proposed effort based on the total proposed price/cost; or that will perform aspects of the effort the offeror considers critical to overall successful performance. Using this definition, a significant subcontractor could be doing less than 25% of the work if they are performing a critical task. Depending on the arrangement among partners, ventures, and subcontractors, the offeror could have five (5) past performance statements for each member who falls into these parameters. It is conceivable that depending on the teaming arrangement, 20 past performance 1-page citations could be allowed.

Answer #2: For Past Performance evaluation purposes, the Government will be considering those businesses which fall into the significant subcontractor or partner category as defined within the solicitation.

Answer #3: The number of past performance statements are only limited by the number of significant subcontractors or partners.

18-Jun-19

PWS. The BASE Contract does not account/state number of overall systems/enclaves/applications, their complexity, etc. that fall under the purview of this contract. "Does the Government simply require a notional LCAT and brief job description without a number of hours/FTEs attached to our proposals? If this is not the case, would the Government provide better insight into the current environment to enable bidders to provide a realistic response in terms of skill sets, experience levels, numbers of personnel, and specificity on existing and desired/needed cybersecurity, analytic, data mining, systems engineering, etc. tools?"

For purposes of the base IDIQ, all offerors should refer to Appendix C -

Support Services Data: Forecasted Level of Effort in the development of all offer support documents. Specific details concerning the "level of effort" will be discussed with the successful offeror during task order development. The Government will not be providing better insight into the current environment.

PWS. The PWS says “CONUS and OCONUS sites [durations range from 2 days to 3 weeks]” as a geographical work location. However the pricing Excel files list 6 regions all CONUS. "Shouldn’t there be more regions covering OCONUS locations? Given that exhibits related to TDY/potential PCS to the Republic of Korea only, should offerors assume that ROK would be the only OCONUS location involved?"

The OCONUS location(s) are considered temporary duty stations.

Contractor employees who work in OCONUS locations would fall within one of the six locations listed on Exhibit 02 - Fully Burdened Rates by

Region. As an example, if an employee was located in San Antonio TX and may have the opportunity to perform work in Korea, during Task Order negotiations, the labor rate for that individual will be calculated based on the Region 1 tab of Exhibit 02. There is no extra compensation for performing work in Korean for the time mentioned above.

18-Jun-19 PWS. "Are any of the OCONUS locations in hazardous areas and if so, how should offerors account for danger pay?"

There are no hazardous locations, OCONUS or CONUS

18-Jun-19

Attachment 03 - Professional Compensation Plan Model. The Professional

Compensation Plan Excel table includes a column for Fringe %. Since there is only one column and Fringe is generally proprietary to each company, is the thinking here that we would just include the Fringe percentage for the prime contractor, and not for any subcontractors? Similarly the Compensation Plan Narrative would only describe the majority prime contractor’s plan, benefit details, etc.?

The purpose of Attachment 03 - Professional Compensation Plan Model is to compare similar professional categories across all offerors. Whether the information is proprietary or not, the offeror must submit a fringe rate for each of the listed job categories. The Compensation Plan Narrative would describe the plan, benefit, details etc. for those labor categories identified within the attachment.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 03 - Professional Compensation Plan Model. The Professional

Compensation Plan includes a column for “Government Labor Category”, but since the offeror is responsible for identifying the labor categories, we assume we should duplicate the contractor labor category in the Government Labor Category field?

Please advise if this is not the government's intent.

The purpose of Attachment 03 - Professional Compensation Plan Model is to compare similar professional categories across all offerors. The offerors will keep the labor categories populating the column

"Government Labor Category" and place in the adjacent column the labor categories that they notionally would utilize to mirror the Government's identified labor categories. Again, this document is placed within the solicitation to address the Professional Compensation requirement as found in FAR.

18-Jun-19

Attachment 03 - Professional Compensation Plan Model. Each region has a disparity in the cost of living. For example, in Region 1, the salaries required to hire an employee at Randolph AFB (Randolph, TX) is significantly different than the cost required to hire a person in New Mexico. "Therefore, is the Government’s intent to have a ‘weighted’ average rate for each region, based on the anticipated number of employees in each area? A ‘straight average’ across different states may not represent a fair/representative cost for the actual salary requirements.?"

The Government understands that even within a region, the cost to hire an employee may vary. The Government is seeking a single rate for each defined region which will become the basis of any negotiated task order.

It is a business judgement by each offeror how they will handle the methodology to arrive at that number.

PWS. "Will the contract employees be required to perform work physically within government spaces at Lackland AFB, Texas (AKA, Brighttown AFB, Texas in the scenario), or will the contractor need to be prepared to provide technically capable employees in numerous locations beyond Lackland (Brighttown)?"

The contractor in both the actual PWS and the scenario PWS will be performing work within Government spaces.

18-Jun-19 PWS. "Will the government be providing SCIF spaces for contract employees at all desired locations, or will the contractor need to arrange for/build SCIF space?"

The Government will be providing SCIF spaces for contract employees at all desired locations.

18-Jun-19

Exhibit 01 – PWS, para 1.2.3 and 1.2.4. In the government RFP documents (PWS and

Scenario PWS), no apparent mention is made of the need for cyber planners and/or cyber threat intelligence analysts, red teaming/network hunting skills. These kinds of skill sets would be necessary for the successful conduct of portions of the missions described in the RFP documents. "Does the government have these kinds of skill sets in place, or, IAW these paras, will the contractor need to provide expertise in these areas? Is SCIF space available for such analysts and planners?

What tools does the government have in place for contract cybersecurity analysts and planners?"

The Government will not comment on the "kinds of skill sets in place". It is a business decision as to whether these types of skill sets would be needed based on the PWS. All contractor personnel working on this contracting action will be provided SCIF space. The Government will not comment on the tools it currently employs for contract employees who may or may not be performing cybersecurity analysts and planner functions.

18-Jun-19

Exhibit 01 – PWS, para 2.2 Cybersecurity Process Improvement Support. This section discusses the requirements for cybersecurity processes and process improvements regarding Major Weapon Systems (MWS), network, and ancillary systems and so forth, and migration into the cloud environment. The skill sets necessary to perform cybersecurity support to the integration of new and legacy weapon/ISR systems and platforms, and skills necessary for migration into the cloud and IC ITE environment, require high-level technical, network engineering, cybersecurity (vice IT), supply chain management, and intelligence analysis skills. These kinds of skill sets are not specified in the government’s RFP documentation beyond basic mention as a function to be supported by the contractor. "Do these skill sets exist within government spaces or will contractor bids need to account for all these skill sets?"

The Government will not comment on skill sets which may or may not exist within the Government spaces. It is a business decision of the offeror whether to place these skill sets within their offer in support of the requirements found within the PWS.

18-Jun-19

Exhibit 01 – PWS, para 2.4.3.5/2.4.4.15 and Attachment 07 – Scenario PWS. "Does the government have trainers in technical, process, planning, and/or policy areas? If not, given the government’s indication in the RFP for the need for better cybersecurity, risk management, process improvement, and policy development training, does the government expect the contractor bids to account for separate trainers in these areas, beyond the RFP’s mention of basic cybersecurity trainers for

IC IT security controls?"

The Government will not comment on skill sets which may or may not exist within the Government. The Government expects offerors to prepare offers in accordance with the PWS. It is a business decision of the offeror whether to place these skill sets within their offer in support of the requirements found within the PWS.

Attachment_02_-_Past_Performance_Questionnaire. Under Instructions, it states:

"Responses are requested no later than XX June 2019."

Questionnaires are due 15 July 2019. Attachment 02 has been updated to reflect this date.

18-Jun-19

Attachment_10_-_Floor_Base_Hourly_Rate_Worksheet. Example shows 3.6% escalation in salary per year.

Question: 'Does this indicate that the government expects a 3.6% escalation in fully burdened rates?"

Attachment 10 refers to an unburdened rate and not a "fully burdened rate" as stated in the question. All offerors on the "Escalation of Base

Rates" tab will use the 3.6% escalation rate (do not change this rate) which is used to determine the unburdened rate floor for each successive year.

20-Jun-19

Integrated Defense Security Operations Support Section of Appendix C – Support

Services Data: Forecasted Level of Effort in Exhibit 01 Performance Statement lists forecasted support for the AF IC Security Coordination Center (AF IC SCC) and AF IC

Incident Response Center (AF IC IRC). The table also shows *Incident Response

Infrastructure Support (IRIS) with a listing of labor categories.

“Are these labor categories part of the AF IC IRC support? What does the asterisk notation denote for these categories?”

These labor categories are part of AF IC IRC support. The asterisk served no substantive function, it was a style function only. It has been removed.