SANITIZED_Master_Hemi_dRFP_CRM_31.08.2023.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 107 KB Posted
- Solicitation number
- FA881923R1000DRAFT
About this file
This draft request for proposal (RFP) solicits professional services for the Space Systems Command's Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power/Battle Management Command Control and Communications (Hemisphere) effort. Key details include the solicitation of advisory and assistance services across the acquisition lifecycle, including program management, engineering, test and evaluation, and logistics support. The RFP establishes evaluation criteria for technical qualifications, staffing capabilities, quality assurance plans, and transition plans. It requires offerors to demonstrate recruitment of 10 cleared employees meeting defined skill requirements. The RFP also addresses small business participation goals of 35% of total contract value to be allocated across prime and subcontractor performance. The Department of the Air Force Space Command Space and Missile Systems Center is listed as the issuing agency.
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Instructions Please use this CRM to provide comments, questions, and suggestions on any of the provided draft RFP documents. Please use the CRM tab to provide all responses to all documentation.
Comments and Government responses will be posted for all Industry to view following resolution.
Column A - Document - Provide which draft RFP document you are making a comment against.
Column B - Page/Tab - Provide the page number for Word documents or tab label for Excel documents Column C - Line#/Cell - Provide the line number for Word documents or cell for Excel documents Column D - Text - Provide the applicable text taken from the draft RFP document Column E - Comments - Provide all comments, questions, and suggestions Column F - Rationale - Provide any rationale/reasoning for the comment or suggested change
CRM
| Document | Page/Tab | Line/Cell | Text | Comment | Rationale | Government Response & Rationale | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 16 | 9 | Under SSC organizational conflict of interest policy, without prior approval or a waiver from the Contracting Deputy Director, in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 9.503, Waiver, a contractor cannot simultaneously be a scientific, engineering, technical assistance (SETA) and/or System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) support contractor while also performing Advisory and Assistance (A&AS) services at SSC. Therefore, all Offerors, as well as proposed subcontractors and consultants, must affirm whether they (its organizations and individual team members) are acting as SETA or SE&I at SSC through an active contract or subcontract. | Who/How is a contractor deemed to be a "SETA" for OCI concerns with this contract? A&AS includes scientific and technical support as well as other lifecycle support functions. I've never seen a stand-alone "SETA" contract at SMC or SSC. Does this stipulation specifically apply to "SETA" work on SDACP offices only? Is OCI managed at the pool-level as well the TO level? | Definition of what constitutes a SETA | The Government has updated the language to reflect current SSC OCI procedures and removed the SETA verbiage. The contractor shall comply with the requirements of Section L Paragraph 4.3.4 an the clauses incorporated into the model contract. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 14 | 22 | The small business percentage, known as the minimum quantitate requirement (MQR), is based on the total contract price. A MQR of 35% or better of the total contract value must be allocated to small business (including small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone) small business, veteran-owned small business, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business) for each task order. Small business primes may take credit for their performance in calculating the 35% or better participation. | This statement seems to conflict with Section M, pg 6 line 20 with regards to the percentage of small business participation which states 15%. Are these levels assessed at the TO level except the small business set asides? It is unclear how this can be assessed at a pool level based on a pool ceiling that doesn't identify the small business set aside level. Will compliance be assessed each year for the TOs awarded? | Conflicts with section L | Small business percentage is 35%. Section M will be updated. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section M, FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 6 | 20 | The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s Small Business Participation Plan in accordance with FAR 15.304 and DFARS 215.304, as supplemented. The requirement is met when the Offeror’s proposal has met the small business subcontracting goal of at least 15% of the total proposed cost. | This sub-contracting goal is incorrect, should reflect 35% to be consistent with statement in Section L, pg 14 line 22. | Conflicts with section M | Small business percentage is 35%. Section M will be updated. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), | |||||||
| Section K, FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 15 | N/A | (ii) It [ ] is, [ ] is not a joint venture that complies with the requirements of 13 CFR part 127, and the representation in paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this provision is accurate for each WOSB concern eligible under the WOSB Program participating in the joint venture. [The offeror shall enter the name or names of the WOSB concern eligible under the WOSB Program and other small businesses that are participating in the joint venture: _ _ _ _ _ _ _.] Each WOSB concern eligible under the WOSB Program participating in the joint venture shall submit a separate signed copy of the WOSB representation. | With the exceptions of Women-owned small business, economically disadvantaged women-owned small business, and HUBZone small businesses are there particular joint ventures that are permitted in response to the HEMIsphere dRFP? | Which Joint Ventures are acceptable to the government | The Government is not restricting joint ventures. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP) |
Hemisphere Section L
| FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 13 | 13 | The personnel whose resumes are submitted must currently be on staff at the Offeror’s company to |
| ensure that the Offeror can hire cleared individuals with the requisite skillsets and clearances. The offeror must submit proof of employment. If the offeror cannot meet the capability gate by demonstrating that they have the ten (10) cleared employees meeting the Staffing Matrix requirements, the Government will cease further evaluation of the Offeror’s proposal and will no longer be considered for award | Do these 10 positions also have to demonstrate specific areas of interest in the PWS? Is there a breakout of the number of personnel by skillsets for the expected Task Orders listed? | This could enhance the competition for specific task orders. | There are not specific areas within the PWS that need to be demonstrated. The 10 positions must meet the requirements listed in the Gov Ref Sample Staffing Matrix for one specific tab. Each tab represents specific skillsets/areas of interest. |
The number of personnel per task order can be found in the Gov Ref Staffing Matrix. The task orders will be broken out by Gov organization, not by skillsets. Each tab represents a contemplated task order.
Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP) Hemisphere Section L
| FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 5 | 4 | This requirement is solicited full and open, under NAICS 541330. IAW FAR 19.502-4, Partial Set Asides of |
| Multiple Award Contracts, a portion of the requirement will be set-aside for small business at the task order level; further set asides IAW FAR 19.000(a)(3) may be set aside at the task order level for other socio-economic small business set asides IAW agency procedures and the Hemisphere Ordering Guide. | Which Task Orders will be set-aside for small businesses? | It will help provide viable small business primes if there is a better understanding of the number and size of TOs that will be set a-side. | The Government anticipates there to be two full and open competed task orders: SZA+SZE and SZY. All others are planned to be set aside for small business. |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP) |
Hemisphere Ordering Guide
| FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 3 | 31 | Orders shall be issued in a hybrid contract type manner. Labor Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) will be issued on either a Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) Level of Effort (LOE) or Cost-Plus-Fixed Fee (CPFF) basis. The CLIN Structure on each order will strictly follow the CLIN structure outlined in the IDIQ contract, with CLINs broken out in one (1) year increments (one (1) year base, four (4) option years). | Which Task Orders are expected to be FFP only, CPFF, only or a mix of FFP and CPFF? | Contract planning | The Government anticipates that in some task orders, the Government will allow offerors to propose either FFP LOE or CPFF. |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP) |
Hemisphere Section L FA8819-23-R-1000 pg 14 6 The Offeror shall provide a narrative describing their proposed event and task-based plan to staff up to 100 FTE within a 90 day period, to include security and building access. The narrative shall include significant accomplishments, accomplishment criteria, risks, and risk mitigation plans, and associated completion dates.
| The Offeror shall describe how they will interact with the incumbent contractor to ensure adequate transition. | Who are the current incumbent contractors for the existing TOs? Are the incumbents current activities consistent with the TO's listed in the FOPR? | Incumbents to assess transition plan | There are multiple incumbents currently providing the work as part of stand alone contracts. The scope of the all the work currently being done is captured in the Hemisphere effort, however, it is not currently broken out as laid out in the proposed task order structure. |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP) |
Hemisphere Section L
| FA8819-23-R-1000 | pg 4 | 32 | The Government intends to award a multiple award IDIQ contract in accordance with these ITO all qualifying offerors, subject to availability of funds. In order to be considered a “qualifying offer,” the |
| offeror must meet or exceed the delineated requirements of the solicitation, with the Government determining: | When will the first 10 Task Orders be competed and awarded after the pool contracts are awarded? What is the target amount of awardees (if any) for the initial IDIQ? How many additional Task Orders are being considered for HEMIsphere beyond the first 10 TOs? | Timing of Task Order awards | We expect to award the basic IDIQ in January 2024, solicit for the first task orders directly afterwards (EOM January), and award those task orders in April. There is not a target amount of awardees; we are awarding to all technically qualified offerors. At this time, we are not considering additional task orders. |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP) |
Hemisphere Section L FA8819-23-R-1000 pg 11 16 Teaming arrangements, subcontract, affiliate/sister companies/entities are not restricted. Offerors submitting a proposal as the prime Offerors in response to this solicitation are permitted to submit separate proposals under which they would be a subcontractor, or a team member to another prime.
| Subcontractors are permitted to support multiple primes | What are the government's thought concerning exclusive teaming agreements? Does the government believe that exclusive teaming agreements will restrict competition? | Promoting more competition | The Government is not putting restrictions on teaming agreements. | ||||
| Section L | 16 | 7 thru 23 | “a contractor cannot simultaneously be a scientific, engineering, technical assistance (SETA) and/or Systems Engineering and Integration (Sic) (SE&I) support contractor while also performing Advisory and Assistance (A&AS) services at SSC | Section L, Paragraph 4.3.4 on Page 16, Lines 7-23, states that “a contractor cannot simultaneously be a scientific, engineering, technical assistance (SETA) and/or Systems Engineering and Integration (Sic) (SE&I) support contractor while also performing Advisory and Assistance (A&AS) services at SSC.” However, the preceding and following paragraphs then describe the process for OCI mitigation plans and checklists. The paragraphs imply that a contractor actually can perform both SETA/SE&I and A&AS within SSC as long as there is an approved OCI mitigation plan. | One statement says you cannot provide both services at SSC, then other paragraphs provide guidance on OCI mitigation plans so that a contractor can provide both services (SETA and A&AS) at SSC. | See response provided in Row 2 | |
| a. Does OCI apply at the HEMISPHERE IDIQ level, or will it be considered at the Task Order level? | See above | OCI applies to both the IDIQ and task order levels. | |||||
| b. Does the OCI considerations apply across every organization within SSC or does it specifically apply to organizations within SSC/SZ and SSC/BC? i.e. can the Prime contractor provide SETA or SE&I support to SSC organizations other than SSC/SZ and SSC/BC without an OCI issue? | See above | Since some of the mission areas within SZ/BC relate closely to other SSC programs, the OCI considerations will apply across all of SSC. | |||||
| Section L | 10 | 9 thru 24 | …pictures or graphics and shall use single-line spacing and be no smaller than 11-point font, Times New Roman. | Would the government consider allowing 10-point font in charts and graphs? | Charts and graphs utilize smaller text font to not interfere with the graphics | Language updated to accommodate 10-point font | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | 14 | 22 | The small business percentage, known as the minimum quantitate requirement (MQR), is based on the total contract price. A MQR of 35% or better of the total contract value must be allocated to small business (including small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone) small business, veteran-owned small business, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business) for each task order. Small business primes may take credit for their performance in calculating the 35% or better participation. | This requirement appears to be inconsistent with Section M, pg 6, line 20 (35% vs 15%) | Is SB participation 15% or 35% of proposed cost? | See response provided in Row 4 | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | 6 | 20 | The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s Small Business Participation Plan in accordance with FAR 15.304 and DFARS 215.304, as supplemented. The requirement is met when the Offeror’s proposal has met the small business subcontracting goal of at least 15% of the total proposed cost. | This requirement appears to be inconsistent with Section L, pg 14, line 22 (35% vs 15%) | Is SB participation 15% or 35% of proposed cost? | See response provided in Row 3 | |
| L1.+DRAFT+Sample+Gov+Ref+Staffing+Matrix | Tab1 | Column J | minimum knowledge and experience | Minimum knowledge and experience is too specific for general labor. | Many of these positions have several minimum experience and knowledge requirements. Experience is generally associated with the labor category (i.e. engineering) and has an accompanying degree requirement. Often, degrees can be substituted for experience. These requirements look as if they are reflective of one person's resumé which is only effective if you want to hire the incumbent and eliminate competition. Adding too many requirements to non-key labor reduces the labor pool substantially. Row 8 has 14 different requirements for experience. There is likely less than five people on the open market with this specific skill set which increases cost to the Government. | Requirements were solicited from requirements owners based on their needs and we do not think they are too restrictive. Current needs/skillsets were used to project future requirements. Requirements owners wish to at least maintain current capabilities. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | 11 | 16 | Teaming arrangements, subcontract, affiliate/sister companies/entities are not restricted. Offerors submitting a proposal as the prime Offerors in response to this solicitation are permitted to submit | ||||
| separate proposals under which they would be a subcontractor, or a team member to another prime. Subcontractors are permitted to support multiple primes | This paragraph conflicts with Factor 2 (F2): subfactor 1 (SF1): Small Business Participation Plan | It appears that large Primes will need a Small Business Participation Plan to qualify as a Prime for the base IDIQ or risk being deemed unacceptable. How can a large prime be on several teams when it is required to complete F2 SF1 for the base IDIQ? | Hemisphere will have a small business participation requirement of 35% that will need to be met by all offerors, large and small. Large offerors will need to subcontract to achieve the goal. | ||||
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | 11 | 22 | The Offeror shall provide an organization chart that show prime, 22 subcontractors, and includes personnel key to the success of the Hemisphere effort, delineating clear 23 lines of authority across each of the entities or divisions. The Offeror shall provide a separate 24 organization chart the depicts how the Offeror’s program fits within the company, clearly identifies the 25 entire chain of command from the Offeror’s Chief Executive officer to the Program Manager, and 26 include key names, titles, division names, and location. The Offeror will clearly identify personnel likely 27 to charge time to multiple Space Systems Command programs. | Requirement is unclear and not possible without more information from the Government | Industry requires workload data for all TOs under this IDIQ in order to provide an org chart of this magnitude. A more reasonable request would be to simply ask for an existing org chart for the company for the business unit(s) which anticipate participation on TOs. It is fair to ask for updated org charts in subsequent TO proposals but this is extreme for the base IDIQ. | The Government is requesting an org chart for the business unit(s) which anticipate participation on task orders. The Contractor org chart should display how the company will support at the basic IDIQ level, not at the task order level. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | 14 | 4 | The Offeror shall provide a narrative identifying the products, work in process, and legacy tools that 4 need to be transitioned. | This requirement limits competition as only the incumbent understands current workload data. | Recommend providing workflow data or description of tools and work in progress upon which a transition plan can be formulated. | The Government is looking for the Contractor's plans and processes on how these items will be identified and how the Contractor will work with the incumbent to ensure no gap in work processes. The Government will revise text for clarity. | |
| Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), Hemisphere Section L, FA8819-23-R-1000 | 14 | 31 | Enforceable commitments to use such firms. Enforceable commitments are more convincing than 31 non-enforceable ones (e.g. fully executed teaming agreement, planned purchase order, signed 32 letters of commitment, etc.). The offeror shall provide enforceable commitment(s) which support 33 the Offeror’s 35% or better participation (Note: this information will not be incorporated into the 34 resultant contract). | This requirement does not seem valid for the base IDIQ. | As a large prime, each TO will be opportunity specific and likely have a separate team. We cannot execute a TA for the base IDIQ to show 35% commitments if there are no accompanying TOs on which to bid. This would result in an unacceptable rating for F2 SF1 | The Government will move this requirement to the task order level. | |
| L1.+DRAFT+Sample+Gov+Ref+Staffing+Matrix | Tab1 | Column G | Labor Category | Please provide labor category definitions | We do not know what a "GS-12" or "CG-13" labor category is. Please provide descriptions. | The Government will remove the labor category column from the Staffing Matrices as they are not value added. | |
| L1.+DRAFT+Sample+Gov+Ref+Staffing+Matrix | Tab1 | Column D | Type | These "levels" appear to be Government Civilian certifications. | Industry is not hiring Government Civilians and needs to know what are the equivalent industry certifications needed for the position (e.g. PMP, CISSP, etc.…) | The "levels" do not correspond to Government civilians, but more so to the seniority of the position. If specific certifications are needed, they are listed under Minimum Education/ Training/ Certification (column P). | |
| L2.+Hemisphere+Resume+Template | 1 | 4 | Security Clearance | Security clearance levels are non-standard | Usually security requirements for staffing positions are either Secret or TS with SCI eligibility. If someone is on a contract and switches to a newly awarded HEMIsphere TO, they will likely be read-out and read back in which means they lose their SCI momentarily but are still SCI eligible. Stating someone is current SCI only indicates they are read-in for their current position (not the one they are being hired for) | Corrected | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 6 | 6 | Contractor shall fill staffing positions in accordance with task order requirements. | After this sentence, recommend adding the line, "Where applicable, the Contractor shall fill staffing positions with personnel who have experience with commercial best practices from Fortune 100 companies (e.g., managing acquisition cost, schedule, and performance matters)." | Leveraging best-in-class private sector commercial experience is critical to ensuring acquisition programs deliver in a timely and cost-effective manner the most value to the warfighter over the total life cycle. Explicitly stipulating that the proposed contractor companies and individuals bring acquisition experience, as demonstrated through past performances and references, with Fortune 100 companies ensure this crucial perspective is brought to USSF. | The Government believes adding the suggested verbiage would restrict competition. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 9 | 12 | 4. Advisory and Assistance Services | As an overall general comment for the Advisory and Assistance Services section, we recommend further detailing out how the Contractor provides strategy and implementation support across the total life cycle of acquisition and sustainment. Examples of this could include: |
-Providing strategic guidance including acquisition program design -Identifying and championing Space Systems Commands' highest value priorities -Enabling and accelerating standup of governance bodies, transformation roadmaps, and deliverables -Navigating leadership stakeholders and serving as a thought partner -Creating transparency, ownership, and alignment across all stakeholders to deliver Space Systems Command's mission -Pressure testing OEM recommendations against business objectives and external best practices -Driving design and execution of solutions to ensure scope, approach, and objectives support advancing broader Space Systems Commands goals while properly accounting for strategic tradeoffs For large programs of similar complexity, the value delivered by a strategic partner Contractor includes:
-Ensuring value-focused delivery by acting as a strategy advisory and enablement force to the USSF and SSC leadership -Ensuring successful delivery, change management, scope, cost, schedule, and standards adherence by primarily focusing on program and technical oversight including independent verification and validation of program and technical products, and Quality Assurance (QA)
| -Rapid alignment and orchestration of decision making and critical implementation processes across all governance and stakeholder entities, as well as vendors | The Government intended the PWS to be fairly broad to capture the wide array of services Hemisphere will provide. | ||||
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 9 | 12 | 4. Advisory and Assistance Services | Recommend adding an entirely new area in scope of work called "Digital Acquisition and Engineering." The text could read as follows: |
"4.11. Digital Acquisition and Engineering
4.11.1. The Contractor shall advise and assist digital engineering initiatives for acquisition, sustainment and launch. The Contractor shall elucidate the current digital landscape and identify gaps in digital acquisition and engineering strategy, build out the inventory of tasks and initiatives needed to support SSC's future endeavors, and customize the inventory data structure to account for USSF and SSC requirements.
4.11.2. The Contractor shall assist in developing an integrated digital roadmap using proven playbooks that provide an executable path to reach SSC’s digital acquisition and engineering objectives. This includes clear, measurable milestones with sufficient detail to track progress of activities toward support of larger goals/objectives for digital acquisition and engineering.
4.11.3. The Contractor shall define and test the industry engagement strategy for digital acquisition and engineering to drive uptake of digital engineering across the ecosystem. This requires using proven frameworks and toolkits to prioritize a full set of partners based on their relevance to USSF and SSC priorities and mission requirements; understand and define partner priorities and incentives relative to SSC digital engineering; and determine objectives for priority partner relationships over multiple time horizons.
| 4.11.4. The Contractor shall advise and assist with the application and implementation of digital acquisition and engineering methodologies and tools to SSC programs. The Contractor shall have extensive experience in solution evaluation, program management services, digital and data strategy formulation, roadmap design, change management program design and implementation." | Optimizing USSF's digital engineering ecosystem around best-practices across the system life cycle is essential to enabling rapid acquisition, parallel industry development, and high-rate production. This allows USSF to accelerate development and deployment of innovations to field, therefore ensuring the warfighter keeps pace with significant and growing threats from geostrategic rivals | The Government will add suggested scope to PWS. | |||||
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 9 | 17 - 18 | The Contractor shall advise and assist the Government on cost, schedule, and performance matters. | Recommend replacing sentence with, "The Contractor shall advise and assist the Government on cost, schedule, and performance matters (e.g., providing benchmarks from industry best-in-class when appropriate)." | Leveraging best-in-class private sector commercial experience is critical to ensuring acquisition programs deliver in a timely and cost-effective manner the most value to the warfighter over the total life cycle. Explicitly stipulating that the proposed contractor companies and individuals bring acquisition experience, as demonstrated through past performances and references, with Fortune 100 companies ensure this crucial perspective is brought to USSF. | The Government believes the current verbiage is sufficient to meet needs. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 9 | 31 - 32 | The Contractor shall identify areas of improvement, including acquisition process improvements. | Recommend expanding section with the following, "The Contractor shall identify areas of improvement, including acquisition process improvements, by leveraging proven acquisition support frameworks and toolkits that have been successfully implemented in public and private sector context. This involves using market data to reveal supplier economics based on internal and external benchmarking and supplier analytics; building leverage plan to drive different behaviors from suppliers based on detailed understanding of supplier incentives and sources of profit; creating plan to achieve long-run targets while maximizing near-term impact by phasing deployment of leverage and building on negotiation experience, scalable RFP templates, and scenario wargaming." | Proven acquisitions support frameworks / toolkits ensure acquisition programs maximize value across the total life cycle and result in material cost savings for the government while still meeting performance and schedule requirements. | The Government wants to keep the requirement general to provide maximum flexibility. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 9 | 37 - 39 | The Contractor shall develop, maintain, and update credible, defensible, and replicable cost estimates for all programs in the Division's portfolio in any phase of the acquisition life cycle as well as perform earned value management analysis and schedule analysis. | Suggest replacing with the following, "The Contractor shall develop, maintain, and update credible, defensible, and replicable cost estimates for all programs in the Division's portfolio in any phase of the acquisition life cycle, benchmarking to commercial best practice where applicable. The Contractor will also perform earned value management analysis and schedule analysis. | Leveraging, best-in-class private sector commercial experience is critical to ensuring acquisition programs deliver in a timely and cost-effective manner the most value to the warfighter over the total life cycle. Explicitly stipulating that the proposed contractor companies and individuals bring acquisition experience, as demonstrated through past performances and references, with Fortune 100 companies ensure this crucial perspective is brought to USSF. | The Government believes adding the suggested verbiage would restrict competition. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 10 | 3 - 5 | The Contractor shall maintain awareness of current program schedule, monitor acquisition implementation, report requirement shortfalls, and provide a program assessment based on the identified risks. | After this sentence, recommend adding, " The Contractor will establish a Transformation Management Office (TMO) to successfully deliver and sustain program efforts. The TMO will ensure connectivity between the business users of the solution and the designers of the technical solution, drive the change management needed for adoption of new solutions, develop metrics to measure performance against requirements, define and manage service level agreements (SLAs), and track the business value of the technical program." | A TMO ensures program activities are tightly coordinated and executed. To successfully deliver acquisition and sustainment programs across the total life cycle, we recommend requiring the Contractor to establish a TMO to enable successful adoption of technical solutions. | The Government does not intend to have a separate management team/office for this function. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 11 | 2 - 4 | The Contractor shall provide recommendations regarding cyber activities, including techniques, packets, and mission partner responsibilities. | Recommend replacing with the following, "The Contractor shall provide recommendations regarding cyber activities, (e.g., techniques, packets, and mission partner responsibilities) drawing upon experience with commercial best practices." | Leveraging best-in-class private sector commercial experience is critical to ensuring acquisition programs deliver in a timely and cost-effective manner the most value to the warfighter over the total life cycle. Explicitly stipulating that the proposed contractor companies and individuals bring cyber security experience, as demonstrated through past performances and references, with Fortune 100 companies ensure this crucial perspective is brought to USSF. | The Government believes the current verbiage is sufficient to meet needs. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 11 | 12 | Executive Acquisition | Recommend renaming to "Executive Support" to align closer with proposed activities | Section 4.1 seems to focus more on acquisition while section 4.3 seems to focus more on functions related to ensuring executives are well-placed to strategically plan and execute acquisition programs across the total life cycle. | Section 4.3 does include acquisition-type functions. The Government will revise name to Executive Acquisition and Support. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 11 | 12 | Executive Acquisition | Recommend adding another bullet to this section that specifically focuses on change management. We suggest the following text, "The Contractor shall assist and advise change management initiatives across the program. The Contractor shall develop a change management strategy that drives adoption, define objectives with measurable targets, develop initiatives to achieve those objectives, and create a roadmap for subsequent tasks (e.g., stakeholder engagement)." | Given the scale, complexity, and scope of Hemisphere, we recommend weighting in the RFP the associated change management needed to drive adoption of the solution consistent with how leading commercial organizations successfully navigate these transformations. Without the selected contractor engaging with USSF leadership, warfighters, and other stakeholders to define these upfront change management needs, USSF risks solutions which do not address the core needs of its critical stakeholders. We recommend making change management explicit as a required area of focus in RFP. | The Government does not believe change management requires specific focus in this effort. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 12 | 13 - 16 | The Contractor shall assist Government Contracting Officers and contract specialists in executing various contracting actions, to include advising on requests for proposals, technical evaluations, contract administration, and contract execution to the extent that such activities are not inherently governmental | Recommend replacing with the following, "The Contractor shall assist Government Contracting Officers and contract specialists in executing various contracting actions, to include advising on requests for proposals, technical evaluations, contract negotiation, contract administration, and contract execution to the extent that such activities are not inherently governmental." | We recommend the Government explicitly include negotiation support as a service to be provided by the contractor. A key aspect of a successful acquisition effort is capturing identified savings during the negotiation process. The contractor should have experience and be able to provide negotiation support. | The Government will add in negotiation language. | |
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 12 | 24 - 27 | 4.7.1. The Contractor shall advise and assist the Government on test and operations. The Contractor shall provide advisory and assistance support on test documents, planning, events, requirements, and data for Developmental and Operational Testing. The Contractor shall coordinate system level test integration and activities, as appropriate. | Recommend the last sentence be reworded to the following. "The Contractor shall coordinate system level test integration and activities, and, as appropriate, implement a digital-first test and evaluation approach for both design optimization and early deficiency detection." | Approximately 70% of Aerospace & Defense (A&D) capabilities under development are currently being delayed, at an average of about one year. Nearly half of that time is attributed to test and evaluation (T&E), with the most significant delays occurring from the time a production decision is made to initial deployment. Not only are new A&D capabilities frequently delayed, but they also take nearly two times longer to field than comparable capabilities in other industries. Businesses across industries that | ||
| have implemented a digital-first T&E approach typically realizing cost savings of 20%–30%. | Digital-first T&E will be at the discretion of the program office and requiring that is not in the scope of this effort. | ||||||
| J1. DRAFT Hemisphere PWS | 13 | 26 - 27 | The Contractor shall advise and assist with conceptual launch vehicle comparisons, selection recommendations, and early integration support. | Recommend replacing with the following, "The Contractor shall advise and assist with conceptual launch vehicle comparisons, selection recommendations, and early integration support leveraging proven decision making frameworks and tools." | Leveraging best-in-class private sector commercial experience is critical to ensuring acquisition programs deliver in a timely and cost-effective manner the most value to the warfighter over the total life cycle. Explicitly stipulating that the proposed contractor companies and individuals bring acquisition experience, as demonstrated through past performances and references, with Fortune 100 companies ensure this crucial perspective is brought to USSF. | The Government believes the current verbiage is sufficient to meet needs. | |
| Section L | 12 | 3 | The Offeror shall make a clear statement that the offer is valid for 270 calendar days from the proposal due date | Considering the current tight labor market and salary inflation, 270 days is a long time to lock prices. What is the expected timeline to evaluate TO proposals? | For price and staffing reasonableness, we recommend TO proposal evaluations to be no more than 90 days. | The Government will revise the number of days to 180 days in both Section L and the Ordering Guide. | |
| Section M | 5 | 2 | Proposed personnel must currently be on staff at the Offeror’s company to ensure that the Offeror can hire cleared individuals with the requisite skillsets and clearances. | Will the Government accept signed contingent offer letters in lieu of existing staff? | Small businesses do not have the financial resources to carry bench employees. If the Government's intent is to truly give small businesses a fair shot at winning, contingent offer letters (with commitment to begin within 30 days of award) are an acceptable alternative that won't increase staffing and mission risk. | The requirement is misunderstood. The requirement is that the company has ten individuals, of specific skills sets, who have been cleared to specific clearances. Demonstrating the ability to successfully get clearances for ten indivduals is evidence that a company understands and has used the procedures to get individuals cleared. It is also evidence that the company has successfully hired individuals from the specific specialty area that we are seeking. | |
| Section M | 6 | 13 | The requirement is met when the Offeror describes their approach to ensuring a smooth transition of |
services with little to no loss of time and/or productivity. The plan should include obtaining and
| maintaining their personnel security clearances, location/building badge access, and knowledge transfer as needed from the incumbent workforce. The Offeror should also describe what is needed from the Government and when in order to assist with a timely and efficient transition. | How will the Government ensure the outgoing contractor will allow access to a new incoming performer? | Friction in knowledge transfer is a common risk during contract transition. Even the best transition plan will be delayed by protests and unwilling incumbents, especially in classified domains with multiple permissions for different data silos. | The Government intends for there to be some overlap during the transition time between the incumbent and new contractor(s). The Government has insured there is scope on the existing contracts to facilitate transition. | |||
| L1. DRAFT Sample Gov Ref Staffing Matrix | tab 1-3 | How is the Government using the different tabs in source selection? If an offeror chooses tab 3, is that restrictive upon which type of task orders they will be allowed to bid? What is the significance of how the 3 tabs of positions are broken out? Is one tab more important than the other two tabs? | How the tabs will be used/evaluated is unclear. | The tabs will not restrict the type of task order the Contractor can bid on. |
The tabs in the Sample Staffing Matrix are broken out by functional area. The Government recognizes that Contractors may have more functional expertise in one area over another. For purposes of evaluation at the IDIQ level, breaking out requirements in this manner is representative of the future task order competition.
No one tab is more important than the others.
| Section L | page 13 | 4-6 | The Offeror shall provide resumes corresponding to ten (10) of the positions in one of the three tabs of Attachment L1 – Government Reference Staffing Matrix. The Offeror must select only ONE (1) tab from Attachment L1 to provide resumes against. | Tab 2 of attachment L1 (Draft sample Gov Ref Staffing Matrix) does not have 10 positions listed. Please update and provide the 10 labor position for tab 2 or explicitly state less are required. | Provides missing information so an offeror can comply with section L requirements and accurately provide proposal submission. | Corrected |
| Section L | page 13 | 21-26 | In a separate Excel file, the contractor shall submit an employee roster corresponding to the 10 resumes submitted IAW Attachment L1 listing the information required for the Government to verify the employees’ security clearances. The document shall be labelled appropriately as it will contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The document shall list the information required by Table 4.2.4.1.2, in tabular format. | How is the Government going to secure the PII information provided? What specific instructions does an offeror need to follow "document shall be labelled appropriately as it will contain PII"? There is concern that PII information may be accessed by individuals not authorized or required to have access in the conduct of proposal evaluation. | PII information needs to be safeguarded. Other departments and agencies have had offerors upload documents via a more secure network. | Proposals will be submitted via PIEE. PIEE will protect PII. Section L and Ordering Guide will be updated with instructions. |
| Section L | page 13 | 21-26 | In a separate Excel file, the contractor shall submit an employee roster corresponding to the 10 resumes submitted IAW Attachment L1 listing the information required for the Government to verify the employees’ security clearances. The document shall be labelled appropriately as it will contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The document shall list the information required by Table 4.2.4.1.2, in tabular format. | What does SAP briefed (y/n) mean? Is there a specific SAP program being made reference too? What type of information should we reference in order to make a qualified yes or no response? Would the Government please provide an explanation on how an offeror should interpret the requirement in order to properly respond. | SAP briefed (y/n) is not clear. | The Government is removing the resume requirement and employee roster. |
| Section L | page 14 | 4-5 | The Offeror shall provide a narrative identifying the products, work in process, and legacy tools that need to be transitioned. | Would the government please provide a list of these items so that all offerors have the same basis of understanding in order to effectively respond to this requirement? | This requirement clearly favors any incumbent on task(s) as only they would know which products, work in process, and legacy tools that need to be transitioned exist. | See the response provided in Row 21. |
| Section L | page 14 | 4-9 | The Offeror shall provide a proposed Transition and Start-Up Plan detailing how they would staff up to 100 FTE to instantiate Hemisphere capabilities. |
The Offeror shall provide a narrative describing their proposed event and task-based plan to staff up to 100 FTE within a 90 day period, to include security and building access. The narrative shall include significant accomplishments, accomplishment criteria, risks, and risk mitigation plans, and associated 8 completion dates.
| Please provide guidance on the significance of 100 FTEs for the transition and start up plan? Will TOs awarded at start up include requirements for 100 FTEs (e.g., work locations, deliverables, support required)? | To gain a better understanding of the requirement. | 100 FTEs represents the approximate size of the two largest task orders. However, to better reflect how the task orders are currently divided, the number is being changed to 50 FTE. The Government wants to ensure the Contractor is able to successfully transition an effort up to this size. | ||||
| section L. | page 14 | 2-3 | The Offeror shall provide a proposed Transition and Start-Up Plan detailing how they would staff up to 100 FTE to instantiate Hemisphere capabilities. | Would the government please clarify the word "instantiate"? | To provide clarity of the requirement. | Start up and execute |
| section M | page 2 | 3-6 | This is a source selection wherein the Government will select all technically qualified offers for the Hemisphere Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award based on an assessment of Technical Risk. This approach allows the Government to establish an IDIQ pool of multiple qualified contractors 5 when awarding individual Task Orders. | How many awards (full and open; SB set aside) does the Government anticipate awarding? From the stated language, it seems that any offeror who meets the criteria of "all technically qualified offers" will be eligible for an award. | Please provide clarification on how many awards the government intends to make. | See the response provided in Row 10. |
| section M | page 2 | 7-16 | The Government intends to award a minimum order to all Offerors who are deemed responsible in accordance with the FAR 9.5, as supplemented and the DoD Source Selection Procedures dated 20 August 2022, who meet the capability gate stated in Technical Subfactor 1: Staffing (reference Section L paragraph 4.2.1 and paragraph 3.1 of these Evaluation Criteria), whose proposals conform to the solicitation’s requirements as delineated in Section L and are determined, based on the evaluation factors and subfactors, to be technically qualified according to the Government. A technically qualified offer is considered one that meets evaluation criteria ratings per Section 2.3. While the Government source selection evaluation team and Source Selection Authority (SSA) will strive for maximum objectivity, the source selection process, by its nature, is subjective and therefore, professional 15 judgment is implicit throughout the entire process. | Would the Government please provide the evaluation criteria ratings that are identified as being located in Section 2.3. | There is no Section 2.3 that identifies the evaluation criteria ratings. | The Government will revise Section M to reference Section 2.1. |
| section m | page 5 | 14-17 | The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s proposed Quality Assurance approach. The requirement is met when the Offeror submits a Quality Assurance Plan that addresses requirements listed in the Hemisphere PWS, Section 5.9.2 Quality Assurance Plan, and all performance requirements listed in the Hemisphere PWS, Section 5.9.5 Performance Requirements Services Summary: | Would the Government please provide guidance, similar to guidance provided for subfactor 1, on when subfactor is considered green. | Lack of clarity in how this section will be evaluated. | The Government will add clarifying language. |
| section M | page 6 | 11-17 | The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s proposed transition and start-up approach. The requirement is met when the Offeror describes their approach to ensuring a smooth transition of services with little to no loss of time and/or productivity. The plan should include obtaining and maintaining their personnel security clearances, location/building badge access, and knowledge transfer as needed from the incumbent workforce. The Offeror should also describe what is needed from the Government and when in order to assist with a timely and efficient transition. | Will the Government please provide clarity on: how the requirement is met when the offeror describes their approach to ensuring a smooth transition of services with little to no loss of time and/or productivity as it pertains to "detailing how they would staff up to 100 FTE to instantiate Hemisphere capabilities", "provide a narrative identifying the products, work in process, and legacy tools that need to be transitioned" | Section L requirements on transition and start up does not correspond with section M | The Government will update to ensure Sections L and M better correspond. |
| section M | page 6 | 14-16 | The plan should include obtaining and maintaining their personnel security clearances, location/building badge access, and knowledge transfer as needed from the incumbent workforce. | Will the Government please provide guidance on location/building badge access? Are the requirements the same for each location for badge access? Will the government provide what knowledge items the current incumbent(s) have that would be required for transfer from incumbent to new performer. | Clarity of requirement so that an offeror proposal can be both compliant and compelling. | Offerors should assume access to LAAFB and Aerospace campus, El Segundo, is required for proposal purposes. Government will add clarifying language to Section M. |
| section M | page 6 | 18-22 | The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s Small Business Participation Plan in accordance with FAR 15.304 and DFARS 215.304, as supplemented. The requirement is met when the Offeror’s proposal has met the small business subcontracting goal of at least 15% of the total proposed cost. | Section L (page 14, lines 22-27) states "The small business percentage, known as the minimum quantitate requirement (MQR), is based on the total contract price. A MQR of 35% or better of the total contract value must be allocated to small business (including small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone) small business, veteran-owned small business, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business) for each task order. Small business primes may take credit for their performance in calculating the 35% or better participation. Section L and Section M requirements/guidance are not in agreement. Which % is correct 15% or 35%? | Clarity of requirement so that an offeror proposal can be both compliant and compelling. | See response provided in Row 4. |
| OG4. DRAFT Hemisphere Pricing Matrix | How is the OG4 pricing matrix to be populated? How will cost be evaluated? | There is no section L or Section M guidance on how cost is to be provided or evaluated. | The Government will not evaluate cost at the IDIQ level. Submittal of the pricing matrix is a requirement stipulated in the ordering guide. | |||
| 02._DRAFT_Hemisphere_Section_L | 5 | 4 | This requirement is solicited full and open, under NAICS 541330. IAW FAR 19.502-4, Partial Set Asides of |
5 Multiple Award Contracts, a portion of the requirement will be set-aside for small business at the task order…
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