A06GSA04QTCA102Q As.docx

RFP # GSA04QTCA102; Amendment 06 Industry Questions/Requests and GSA Responses:

Note: Q: = Question R: = Request Re: = Reference

General:

1. Q: Can you confirm the following address for the hard copy proposal delivery of GSA GRITS by 4:30PM Local Time on June 21st?

GSA Response: Confirmed as follows: Offerors are required to mail complete hardcopy proposals to the Contracting Officer, only, at the following address:

General Services Administration, Region 4 Federal Acquisition Service, Network Services (4QTCA) 401 West Peachtree Street, Suite 2700 Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Attn: Ruben Mendez, Contracting Officer

2. Q: Is there any set asides on the RFP?

GSA Response: No.

3. Q: If there are services we cannot bid at this time, but would like to have them added in the future, is that possible and if yes, how long would that process take?

GSA Response: Please reference Question # 32 of Amendment 01 and GSA’s response. The Government has no predetermined timeframe for these types of processes. Factors such as complexity of the request, volume of additions, justifications, modifications, clarifications, levels of review/approvals, etc., impact timelines.

4. Re: Amendment 01 of solicitation. Q: …question 20. Does this mean that if you cannot provide services in all LATA’s that you cannot compete?

GSA Response: No, it is Offeror’s choice on how may CLINs to propose on or before the due date. See Section C.1 Scope, Minimum requirements, of Amendment 05.

5. R: Request that the Service Contract Act be removed from this solicitation because we don’t believe it applies in this case…

GSA Response: The SCA applies to the solicitation based on the requirements in Section C that express for support services such as management services, maintenance of services, and cable/wire installation and maintenance services. Consequently, GSA has identified the classes of service employees expected to be employed under contract (See Section I, FAR clause 52.222-42, page 82 of this solicitation). Below is FAR subpart 22.1003-5, examples of contract services that are covered under the Act and that relate to this solicitation:

FAR 22.1003-5, some examples of contracts covered. The following examples, while not definitive or exclusive, illustrate some of the types of services that have been found to be covered by the Act (see 29 CFR 4.130 for additional examples): ... h) Some support services at installations, including grounds maintenance and landscaping. (j) Electronic equipment maintenance and operation and engineering support services. (k) Maintenance and repair of all types of equipment, for example, aircraft, engines, electrical motors, vehicles, and electronic, office and related business and construction equipment...l)Operation, maintenance, or logistics support of a Federal facility.

6. R: Please clarify that the GOVT is expecting only the CLINs provided to be priced and the associated CPE that vendors must provide to make the service function, is to be included in the MRC rates provided by vendors.

GSA Response: Offerors shall propose pricing that supports their unique solution(s) for meeting the solicitation requirements within the CLIN(s) chosen. See Section B.3, Data Other Than Certified Cost or Pricing Data, of Amendment 05 of this solicitation. Also, see Section B.2., All-Inclusive Pricing, of this solicitation.

7. R: Please clarify that the GOVT is not requesting separate CLIN pricing for Customer Premise Equipment (routers, PBX Cards, Key systems, switches or other data or voice CPE like a PBX for installation on site).

GSA Response: Offerors shall propose pricing that supports their unique solution(s) for meeting the solicitation requirements within the CLIN(s) chosen. See Section B.3, Data Other Than Certified Cost or Pricing Data, of Amendment 05 of this solicitation. Also, see Section B.2., All-Inclusive Pricing, of this solicitation.

8. R: Please clarify that equipment that is necessary to insure feature functionality of a service CLIN is part of the MRC charge. For example, for voice mail or other Centrex features, any equipment or added switch capacity, voice cards, required in the Central Office Switch/PBX to insure voice mail meets the functionality is not to be priced for the GOVT requested services in the RFP.

GSA Response: See Section B.2., All-Inclusive Pricing, of this solicitation.

9. Q: If the GOVT is requesting the vendor to provide equipment, does GSA or GSA Customer Agencies hold the ownership title on the equipment that is provided as a bundled service/CPE solution?

GSA Response: If and when acquired, it will be Government-owned property.

10. Q: If the GOVT is requesting the vendor to provide equipment, will GSA consider a solution that does not bundle telecommunications services with common CPE equipment, which requires GSA and GSA Customer Agencies to purchase CPE to accommodate offered services?

GSA Response: In response to this solicitation, GSA will consider all solutions received subject to review, evaluation, and acceptance.

11. Q: Does the minimum requirement for Data Services include Internet Access at speeds in the table? Or would basic Point to Point capability meet the minimum requirements?

GSA Response: In response to this solicitation, GSA will consider all solutions received subject to review, evaluation, and acceptance.

12. Q: Can CLINs (Specific Service Category within Specific LATAs) be bid on for services/LATAs that are not available at the time of the RFP response due date?

GSA Response: Offerors are encouraged to propose as many CLINs as possible and have the capability of providing the required services within the CLINs chosen (proposed) at time of initial proposal.

13. Q: Can CLINs be bid on if services will not be available by the contract award date?

GSA Response: Offerors are encouraged to propose as many CLINs as possible and have the capability of providing the required services within the CLINs chosen (proposed) at time of initial proposal.

14. Q: Is the contractor liable for CLINs it was awarded but cannot deliver within a timely manner? If so what is the extent of the liability?

GSA Response: See Sections C.16, Contractor Critical Requirements Matrix (Performance-Based) and F.2, Performance Standards for Installations, Moves, Adds, Changes, and Maintenance Services of this solicitation.

15. Q: Can a new CLIN be added to a contractor when a new service is made available? Or does a contractor need to have at least one product within a CLIN to be awarded a specific CLIN, and would be permitted only to add additional services to CLINs it was initially awarded?

GSA Response: A contractor must be able to provide at least one (1) of the minimum requirements in some area of any given LATA being the choice of the Offeror to be awarded a specific CLIN (See Section C.1, Scope, Minimum requirements, of Amendment 05 of this solicitation), and would be permitted to incorporate new, improved or additional services to CLINs it was initially awarded (please reference Question # 32 of Amendment 01 and GSA’s response).

16. Q: Are Federal Agencies required to obtain telecommunications services from the GSA GRITSII contract? Or can they also obtain services from services providers outside of the contract?

GSA Response: GRITS II is under non-mandatory status for use by Federal Agencies.

17. Q: Is the government requiring contractors to offer Centrex type features on Business lines (B1s) per Attachment J.1?

GSA Response: Offerors shall provide the same and/or alternative features listed in Attachment J.1 of this solicitation for use with voice services based upon offeror plant capabilities.

18. Q: Please confirm that the Government is requesting off the shelf, commericial services for this RFP.

GSA Response: The solicitation is requesting proposals for services within the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 517110 being the choice of the Offeror.

19a. Q: Please clarify the Toll requirement of this RFP. Is the vendor to provide Toll (Local Long Distance, Local Intralata Long Distance, and InterLata Long Distance) as part of this solution?

GSA Response: A Government need, operational mission, emergency, or casual dialing may result in toll calls being generated. The requirement under this solicitation is for Offerors to collect data and invoice for these types of toll traffic. This solicitation should not be construed to include Local Long Distance, Local Intralata Long Distance, and InterLata Long Distance as a requirement.

19b. Q: Hasn’t GSA already awarded and mandated Toll services to another carrier under Networx Universal Contract?

GSA Response: A Government need, operational mission, emergency, or casual dialing may result in toll calls being generated. The requirement under this solicitation is for Offerors to collect data and invoice for these types of toll traffic. This solicitation should not be construed to include Local Long Distance, Local Intralata Long Distance, and InterLata Long Distance as a requirement.

19c. Q: It that is not the case, is it mandated for Toll Services to be offered or just Local ILEC traditional voice services?

GSA Response: A Government need, operational mission, emergency, or casual dialing may result in toll calls being generated. The requirement under this solicitation is for Offerors to collect data and invoice for these types of toll traffic. This solicitation should not be construed to include Local Long Distance, Local Intralata Long Distance, and InterLata Long Distance as a requirement.

19d. Q: Please clarify the “record” of Toll Calls. Is that literally or simply providing a record of the Call Detail(CDR) for the toll call for billing and reconciliation purposes?

GSA Response: It is to provide a record of Call Detail for billing, reconciliation, and payment.

20. Q: Many times the NRC (Non-Recurring Costs) for a CLIN will require premise cabling…Where in our proposal do we provide the cost detail for structured cabling and in what format?

GSA Response: In Volume II, Price Proposal, Part C, utilizing your own company format. See Section B.3 of Amendment 05 of this solicitation minimum requirement for submittal of Data Other Than Certified Cost and Pricing Data (Nomenclature of products offered, Description of services offered, etc.). Also, See Section L.8.2. which states that all costs to be incurred for services required in this solicitation must be contained in the price proposal. Each price proposal shall contain sufficient information and support to allow determination of price realism. See Section M.4.1 Price Realism – Evaluation of Data Other Than Certified Cost and Pricing Data, of Amendment 05 of this solicitation, on how the Government will evaluate price realism.

21. Re: Section B.2 and C.5 Q: "When required, the contractor shall provide, install and maintain suficient riser cable to the IDF(s) on each building floor…" It is unclear how GSA would like contractors to price this requirement, it appears that this work is to be included in CLIN pricing for all four Categories. As what could be required will vary widely from building to building, will GSA amend the contract that will permit contractor's to perform site surveys and price out cable wire/installation and maintenance on a task order by task order basis?

GSA Response: See Section B.2., All-Inclusive Pricing, of this solicitation.

Also, during the fair opportunity process, Request for Quotes (RFQs) can allow for site surveys, when applicable.

Section B:

22. Q: Please clarify what you mean by “certified costs”?

GSA Response: Pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 2.101, Definitions, “Certified cost or pricing data” means “cost or pricing data” that were required to be submitted in accordance with FAR 15.403-4 and 15.403-5 and have been certified, or is required to be certified, in accordance with 15.406-2. This certification states that, to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief, the cost or pricing data are accurate, complete, and current as of a date certain before contract award. Cost or pricing data are required to be certified in certain procurements (10 U.S.C. 2306a and 41 U.S.C. 254b). For this solicitation (See Section B.3), Offerors are required to submit data other than certified cost or pricing data in order to support the Offeror’s Estimated Total Contract Price [Base Performance Period (48 months) plus Option Performance Periods (36 months per option period].

23. Q: Should the Monthly Recurring Charge (MRC) be all inclusive and with all taxes, fees and surcharges calculated into the total? Or should the MRC be for services only with taxes, fees and surcharges separate?

GSA Response: Data other than certified cost or pricing data shall be all-inclusive (includes the monthly prices of services and other pertinent information to support cost or pricing; See Section B.3 of this solicitation). However, since Offerors are required to submit an itemized list of state and local taxes, if any, for agency review prior to contract award (See Section H.23, Taxes, of this solicitation), the initial proposal should depict the MRC services and separate the other charges that are subject to review. The state and local taxes list shall be submitted in Volume I, Business Proposal (See Section L.8.5, Proposal Preparation Checklist) and shall coincide with the data submitted in Volume III, Part C, Price Proposal.

24. Q: …The minimum requirements have been expanded to include subcategories 1a, 1b, 1c, under Voice. They have also been expanded for Data under 2a, 2b, and 2c. However, the associated pricing spreadsheets in Section B still list the same CLINs with no apparent flexibility to price by sub CLIN as depicted in your Section C clarification… Does GSA plan to send out another amendment and update pricing tables to reflect the amendment changes?

GSA Response: Section B spreadsheets are required to be used for preparing the Estimated Total Contract Price Summary, only. Offerors shall first prepare their own independent estimated pricing spreadsheets that depict all-inclusive unit price items, solutions, sub CLINs, etc. for any given CLIN under any given Category being the choice of the Offeror. After preparing the Offeror’s independent pricing spreadsheets, Offerors shall then use and prepare the Section B spreadsheets to apply estimated total pricing up to the “Estimated Total Contract Price” depicted on page 16 of this solicitation.

25. Re: Section B.7 Q: In order to appropriately respond to the GSA GRITTS ll RFI,(Contractor) is requesting information surrounding Product inventory. Would GSA be able to provide a list of Locations, addresses and types of service residing at each address? For example, can GSA provide the Centrex addresses and stations at each site at the locations where Centrex service is used, the estimated number of PRI in each Lata, and an estimated number of POTS lines as well as DTS service?

GSA Response: IDIQ type of contract estimates for LATA service categories are provided in the Estimated Total LATA Price Summary spreadsheets of Section B.7 and/or in Section H.3, Maximum Order, matrix of this solicitation. Since GSA and this solicitation are under non-mandatory status, GSA will need to obtain customer commitments done at time of Fair Opportunity. Therefore, Government requirements by address and definitive quantities of services (location profiles) will be provided at time of Fair Opportunity.

Section C:

26. Re: Section C.2.3 ACCESS RESTRICTION: Q: Could you provide additional detail that might allow some specifics regarding the requirements…?

GSA Response: Offerors service provisioning solution shall have the ability to examine outbound dialing and direct calls appropriately. i.e. 900 and 976 calls will be identified and routed to and intercept as needed.

27. Re: Section C.2.5.2 VOICE MAIL: Q: …could you please provide some clarification for the “…transfer Mailbox(ability to have voice mail…”

GSA Response: Offerors shall provide multiple numbers with the ability to transfer to the same mailbox.

28. Re: Section C.2.7 NUMBERING PLAN: Q: Could you provide additional details regarding the FTS dialing plan for “on and “off net” operations?

GSA Response: Offerors shall have the capability to provide “on net” (dedicated Government services) and “off net” (commercial services).

29. Re: Section C.2.11 Q: The second requirement in this section speaks to "All data services shall be delivered at 99.999% reliability." Engineering this level of availability, while within offerors capabilities, will be very expensive to GSA. Will GSA consider amending the soliciation to modify this data services requirement, permitting offerors to propose and price two solutions for each LATA - i.e. one for a routine service (99.9)and one for a highly available service (99.999)? To engineer a solution to " five 9s" offerors would require (or have to create) dual entrance facilities to ensure complete physical path separation at every site.

GSA Response: For the purposes of this solicitation, Offerors shall respond with a solution that meets the Government requirement. In addition, Offerors should note the following in Section C.2.19.2: “Offeror shall specify location, speeds, and payload capacities afforded by the contractor plant capabilities. All transmission characteristics, such as latency and capacity shall be described in the Offeror’s proposal.” Offerors may provide any number of solutions to meeting the Government requirement.

30. Re: Section C.2.12 COMPATIBILITY WITH CUSTOMER PREMISE EQUIPMENT (CPE): Q: Please provide additional information/details regarding this last statement “…platform proprietary voice CPE…”

GSA Response: Offerors may propose/provide an alternative CPE to support their unique solution.

31. Re: Section C.2.14 CUSTOMER (AGENCY) ADMINISTRATION TERMINAL(S)(CATS): Q: Could you offer any further detail as to the requirements for this subsection?

GSA Response: Offerors shall provide the Government with the capability of performing voice service administration without the need for hardware wiring or other carrier intervention.

32. Re: Section C.2.15.5 DIRECTORY LISTING IF NO ANSWER: Q: Please clarify if this is a Directory Listing service. Would this be for callers dialing information (i.e. 411) and is prompted by the auto attendant of an alternate number during after-office hours and holidays?

GSA Response: This is a directory listing only.

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