Attachment 5 PROS VI Industry Day Questions and Answers.pdf

Virtual Industry Day Questions and Answers, Attachment 5

1. Are the Industry Day briefing and slides available for review?

Yes, they are now available on the beta.sam.gov site. You can also, at any time, click back on the live broadcast using the link provided to join the Industry Day meeting. You’ll be able to replay the entire broadcast.

2. Will PROS V run concurrently with PROS VI? If so, wouldn’t PROS V and PROS VI be competing against each other?

No, there will not be an overlap between PROS contracts. There will be a transition period that we have not fully defined yet. That will not result in competition between PROS V and PROS VI for new requisitions. There will also be a PROS V closeout period that will be five years, which will not impact the

PROS VI contract.

3. What is AFSAC On-Line (AOL)? Does AFSAC On-Line do reporting for PROS?

AOL is a platform that holds various applications and is able to generate reports for PROS. Please see attachment #4 for a demonstration of AFSAC On-Line.

4. Has the government decided on an acquisition strategy yet?

Our acquisition strategy hasn’t been determined yet. At this time, we are still conducting market research and coordinating with the Small Business Office for

AFLCMC. The combination of the RFI and the Industry Day will help us better determine what is needed for the acquisition. An acquisition strategy will be contemplated before competition is opened.

5. What organization is the paying office for supply, maintenance, and task order invoices?

The paying office for the current contract is DFAS located in Columbus, Ohio. It may not be the same office for future contracts, but more information on that will be available during the acquisition process.

6. What is the RFI number that has been briefed during Industry Day?

FA8630-20-R-4000

7. Do the normal SDVOSB set-asides apply to FMS sales?

Yes and that would speak to the full and open or small business acquisition strategy decision that was addressed in Question #3.

8. Would you please restate/post the acquisition schedule to include the award date?

The schedule is listed below. For more information, please review the briefing and slides from the Industry Day, which is posted on the beta.sam.gov website.

a. The draft RFP date is 19 November 2020

b. The formal RFP release date is 3 March 2021

c. The proposals are due 4 April 2021

d. The contract award is scheduled for 2 November 2021

9. Did the results of the RFI facilitate the decision for a full and open competition?

We are still in the market research phase. We will be able to make a final determination after coordinating with our Small Business Office and compile the market research report utilizing the Request for Information (RFI), the responses to the Sources Sought posting, and the Q&A sessions.

10. Please confirm that this is a single award IDIQ contract and is not a multiple award contract with several companies being awarded the work? Also, confirm that the scope of effort for the sole awardee will encompass supply, maintenance and task order type requisition.

Yes, this is anticipated to be a single award IDIQ contract and, as briefed, this will encompass supply requisitions, maintenance requisitions, and task orders. To be a multiple award IDIQ would literally mean the government would have to be involved on every requisition. Currently, with the historical data being 27,000+ requisitions a year that would require a contract action for each and every action..

11. Would this wide-ranging FMS support not be better served by a multiple award contract

(MAC), where requisitions of parts, maintenance/repair, and varied task orders might be better covered by a diverse pool of contractors, versus a sole source?

Similar to Question #10, the same barrier would exist for a MAC and is the rationale for being a single award IDIQ for the first five generations of PROS.

12. Will the USG allow for an electronic interface with USG system and contractor procurement ERP system? If so, will it have both import/export capability?

Currently under PROS V, we do not have that electronic interface between government and contractor systems; however, that is something that we will explore for PROS VI.

13. Additive Manufacturing is evolving quickly. How will PROS address technology advancement of part producibility?

The Government is very interested in the fact that there is the evolution of technology for additive manufacturing reverse engineering capabilities, especially in relationship with this contract. Obsolescence deterrence would provide the ability to support our foreign partners’ legacy systems. The requirements for testing is identified in the First Article Testing clauses FAR 52.209-3 for contractor testing and FAR 52.209-4 for Government testing. Applicability of the clauses may allow companies that have sold the same part through reverse engineering and additive manufacturing to the Government prior to receive waiver or exemption from first article testing requirement on similar parts that have been sold to the Government. In summary, the Government is absolutely interested in what industry can help bring as a solution to be able to streamline in support of our foreign military partners for PROS VI. It highlights an area of growth.

14. Expanding off of the Additive Manufacturing question. What engineering authority would sign a waiver?

The authority is dependent upon the purpose of the waiver and who the engineering authority is for that part.

15. How or when will AFSAC demonstrate the proposed or actual AFSAC Online/Contractor

Work-Bench and describe more fully the interface and data posting expectations?

The live demonstration has been completed and is posted on beta.sam.gov.

16. How are classified and ITAR materials handled under this contract?

Compliance for ITAR materials is a requirement of the supply support, repair support, and task order support. Compliance is a requirement of the prime and the prime’s contract with the qualified vendors.

17. Can you generally speak to the language requirements of the staff working PROS VI? Are all transactions in English?

Yes, English is part of the requirement. PROS VI will be performed in English.

18. Would USG be receptive to utilizing innovative technology solutions to support PROS

VI?

Yes, that’s definitely something the Government is really focusing on during the

PROS VI acquisition to ensure transparency and communications with both the

PMO and the customers.

19. Is the USG planning on doing technical scenarios, as part of the RFP?

Yes, the Government is considering it; however, has not made a final decision.

20. Is there going to be any other additional considerations for conflict of interest for PROS

VI?

Fair competitive advantage will be applied to the acquisition effort and that’s why the Industry Day rules of engagement included Organizational Conflict of Interest to make every interested party aware of their role and the Government’s role to mitigate any potential or perceived conflict of interest.

21. Our company is considering a joint venture with a large company and are wondering if

USG would consider that as a benefit or a proposed risk to the Government?

The decision to propose as a joint venture belongs to the companies and wouldn’t be considered a benefit or a risk to the Government. Industry Day is market research for the Government to help shape the strategy and to provide the interested companies an opportunity to interact and engage with each other. To learn which companies may be interested in proposing as prime contractors, please see the registered participants list.

22. Is PROS V a small business set-aside, like the others have been in the past?

PROS V is not a small business set-aside; it was full and open competition.

Historically, there are small business goals, but that's not a set-aside requirement.

23. With regard to vendors supporting the acquisition, do you have a location where people can comment or give feedback on what they're seeing?

One of the purposes of the Industry Day is to conduct our on-going market research and to receive feedback on any technologies and/or processes. Please see the AFSAC On-Line demo posted to the beta.sam.gov website. Provide any industry best practices for feedback to improve vendor ability to support.

24. Can you confirm the following information: sales are down, USG is not exercising all of the options, and the timeline for the solicitation date has shifted approximately 6 months to the right?

Information regarding the sales may have been pulled from a 3rd party source and is incomplete or incorrect. The PROS annual requisition count are consistent around 27,000+ per year. Additionally, this is not a sustainment contract, so there is variability on this contract. The Industry Day briefing highlighted that there is a high opportunity for both Army and Navy support by a prime contractor, indicating that there is opportunity for growth.

25. One of the questions during the Industry Day asked about a system that our company is unfamiliar with - is that a system that's in development? Is it related to PROS? Is it new for PROS VI?

There are no current development plans. A demo for AFSAC On-Line and

Contractor Work-Bench has been made available by our IT support (see attachment #4). The Contractor Work-Bench that was part of PROS V to level the competitive playing field and to have fair competitive advantages because it's not a contractor-owned system connected to SAMIS. Contractor Work-Bench exports

XML data. Please provide any technology integration capability and feedback to enable live cradle-to-grave transparency.

26. What are important goals and challenges that the Government has for the prime contractor, vendors/suppliers, and other stakeholders? What is USG looking for in terms of key processes and technologies?

Transparency during the entire cradle-to-grave process is an important challenge.

We highlighted some of the objectives for accurate and timely support, communication, and transparency. We are still in the market research phase and want to ensure the key performance metrics are the best indicators that add value supporting our program objectives.

27. What is USG seeking as a critical success factor around FMS?

Transparency and communication are priorities for the customers and the PMO.

28. What is a key factor in determining if the USG will execute an option period or not?

The decision to execute any option period has to be in the Government's best interest. Information was briefed during Industry Day explaining that there's a base year effective now through December 2021. The Government has recognized requirements to include cradle-to-grave transparency, refine data deliverables, data requirements that changes the scope for the acquisition. The Government has received feedback from the customer. This is a unique contract with 100+

FMS customers; there is not a customer that is directly involved in the requirement development. The PMO team is charged with looking across the entire spectrum of the FMS customers. The PMO team develops requirements to best support FMS customers and keep their country’s specific information sanitized. We don't share one country's information with another country.

29. Will the contractor be required to manually input data into the AFSAC On-Line

Contractor Work-Bench? If so, what is required to gain access to the Government system and will the USG provide contractors with Government-issued laptops?

There is a demonstration of AFSAC On-Line provided on the beta.sam.gov website. Please see attachment #4. In order to gain system access AOL Contractor

Work-Bench, the contractor would need to submit a form DD2875. The contractor will also need to submit a DD2875 form to access SAMIS, WebSDR, and DAMES messaging. The contractor will not be issued a Government laptop;

however, there’s a RSA token process that will be needed in order to access AOL and SCIP, which does our security. Please provide any technology capability and/or feedback to improve this process.

30. Is there a restriction regarding location of contractor personnel in relation to OCONUS versus CONUS locations?

There is no place of performance that is currently a requirement.

31. If requisition data resides in the AFSAC system, will the contractor be provided with a file to import requisitions into their procurement ERP system for processing?

Yes, that’s done through a batch upload essentially on your end. Currently, we do not have that as a live feed where you can go back and forth with data, so that would be a batch upload.

32. Is there a secure portal that’s going to be required for that or in our connection agreement that would be required to be entered into?

As long as the contractor has a secure connection (i.e. https://), then the contractor will be able to access AFSAC On-Line. We provide XML download capability to be used to update the prime contractor’s system.

33. Is there a security clearance requirement for contractor personnel? If so, what level of clearance?

AFSAC Security requires a favorable T1 investigation and a position of trust. If a contractor’s employee has an existing government security clearance and had been, in some way, employed by the USG within the last two years (i.e. retired from Active Duty), AFSAC Security can use the existing investigation. If it has been over two years since the contractor’s employee had been employed by the

USG, or if there is no T1 investigation on record, AFSAC Security will process the T1 investigation. A security clearance is not required for our current IT systems.

34. During the Industry Day, it was highlighted that there will be commercial procurements on standard and non-standard requests, in support of the PROS contract. Can you confirm that only commercial items and services pursuant to FAR 2.1 will be requested through the contract?

Prime contractors should be prepared for commercial, as well as, non-commercial procurements.

35. Pursuant to the requirement for the contractor to award standard item requests to US Air

Force ESA-approved sources, as documented in SAMIS, how are those vendors identified to the contractor? If they are sole-source, will that be indicated? Would the same process apply for non-standard item requests?

For standard items that do not have a current narrative or have an expired narrative, the PMO contacts Workflow (Item Manager/Engineer) will include a narrative for a particular stock number in the catalogue screen, also known as the

“283 screen”, in SAMIS. Then USG places the narrative into the DCN, which would list ESA-approved vendor(s). Additionally, sole-source procurement and/or maintenance procurement will be indicated in the catalogue. Please refer to the sample PWS paragraph 1.2 and paragraph 2.3 for more information. Lastly, non-standard item requests are placed on the PROS bid board to allow for potential vendors to bid upon. Please refer to the sample PWS 3.2.2.1 – Non-Standard

Items for more information and provide any feedback.

36. Would the contractor be able to utilize their own internal supplier system to choose competition? Specifically, is there a process to allow the prime contractor to add or entertain a potential vendor that’s not already included in the PROS VI vendor pool?

Vendor management is the responsibility of the prime contractor. The

Government does not provide a vendor list to the prime contractor. If potential vendors are interested in bidding or proposing to a PROS requisition, they will need to contact the prime contractor.

37. How is the vendor pool for the PROS acquisition chosen?

Please review the sample PWS in the RFI posting. The sample PWS identifies

Competition In Contracting Act of 1984 (CICA) requirements. If a company is addressing a vendor pool, full and open competition and CICA requirements still apply. Therefore, a vendor pool would be required to show competition among the industry for cost, performance, and schedule. Implementation to support

CICA is required.

38. Does the contract allow for Parts Manufactured for Authorization (PMA) parts?

Please refer to the sample PWS, which includes the requirement for OEM traceability. The Certificate of Conformance and/or FAA 8130 are acceptable.

Please provide any additional feedback to improve USG’s market research.

39. Are items required to ship to a USG-designated central location for distribution or will the contractor be required to be the designated shipper of record and responsible for licensing and commercial invoice processing?

If items are coming in from country, they can be shipped directly to vendors without having to be shipped to the prime contractor first. Additionally, when leaving from vendors, they can go directly to freight forwarders and are shipped from there, per country instructions. The sample PWS requires the integration with DCMA Shipping Instructions Requests 2.0.

40. Will there be data entry requirements in both the AFSAC system and the SAMIS for the contractor? If so, can you outline those requirements?

All requisition acknowledgement, requisition status entry, and invoicing is performed by the prime contractor in Contractor Work-Bench. Communication between the prime contractor, customer, and PROS PMO is handled by the PROS

Communication Tool. Data is synced between Contractor Work-Bench, the

PROS Communication tool and SAMIS nightly. For instance, if the prime contractor requires clarification from the customer, they will enter the question in

Contractor Work-Bench. The question will flow through SAMIS into the PROS

Communication Tool, and is available the next morning for the customer to view and provide the answer. The customer’s answer flows back through SAMIS and is available for the prime contractor to view in Contractor Work-Bench the following morning. Any status updates follow the same path and are visible in

SAMIS the next morning. Invoicing the USG is also performed in Contractor

Work-Bench and flows through SAMIS to the appropriate finance systems after the nightly sync. The XML data feed captures all data transactions needed to update prime contractor’s system.

41. Is it possible to include a separate CLIN for companies interested in bidding as part of a joint venture for the PROS VI acquisition?

The business decision to propose as a joint venture relies solely on the potential offerors and their business arrangements for teaming or partnered agreements.

The benefit of Industry Day is for companies to collaborate and utilize the registered participant. Potential companies that would be collaborating with the prime that are interested to support as a vendor are required to maintain strict adherence OCI mitigation plans.

42. There appear to have been changes to the terms and conditions that have created challenges for vendors to bid directly to the Government. Is there an overview of the current terms and conditions that are available for vendors to review?

The standard terms and conditions would be available to the interested vendors and is a requirement of the sample PWS, provided in the RFI.

43. How do the foreign military groups go about selecting groups like PROS, instead of deciding to work with the DLA or GSA? Does PROS have a process or information on how we can learn how you go about acquiring this type of equipment? Is there a great latitude given to foreign militaries as they decide how they will buy the equipment?

PROS is a contracting tool for foreign military partners. Once they have a dedicated LOA for PROS, they are able to place requisitions against the IDIQ contract. The IDIQ contract is required because the customers do not forecast requisitions. Additional information is covered in the PROS VI Industry Day brief, which is available on the beta.sam.gov website.

44. At which point during the acquisition process - between the release of the RFI in

November 2019 and the award of PROS VI in November 2021 - will potential vendors be able to best position themselves to collaborate with potential prime offerors?

This is the market research phase. The Government is still receiving feedback from vendors. Please provide best practices in the industry to assist in the market research by following this opportunity on beta.sam.gov. Vendor support of the acquisition is important to drive competition on performance, cost, and schedule.

The sample PWS identifies a firm requirement for competition amongst vendors.

Full and open competition will provide for growth in the vendor support base and a robust capability. Therefore, increased competition provides the best performance, cost, and schedule to the Government and the FMS end-user.