Instructions_to_Offerors_v2.pdf

1.0 Program Structure and Objectives

This effort is a competitive source selection for commercial services as described in the Performance Work Statement (PWS), titled 2019 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE WARRIOR

GAMES UNITED STATES SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (USSOCOM)

This acquisition will utilize Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection procedures in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.101‐2.

Technical tradeoffs will not be made and no additional credit will be given for exceeding acceptability. To assure timely and equitable evaluation of proposals, offerors must follow the instructions contained herein. Offerors are required to meet all solicitation requirements, including terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements, in addition to those identified as evaluation factors or subfactors. Only one (1) proposal may be submitted by each offeror in response to this requirement. Offerors must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and must provide complete supporting rationale. The response shall consist of three (2) separate volumes;

Volume I ‐ Price, and Volume II – Technical Acceptability. Non‐conformance with the instructions provided in this ITO may result in an unfavorable proposal evaluation. This acquisition may result in a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Contract for services with an estimated performance period up to 3 months (May through July 2019). However, the Government reserves the right to award additional contracts if deemed to be in the Government’s best interest.

The Government intends to select one contractor for the award of this solicitation. However, the Government reserves the right to award no contract at all, depending on the quality of quotations(s) submitted and the availability of funds.

Notice to Offerors: Funds are not presently available for this effort. No award will be made under this solicitation until funds are available. In the event the Government cancels this solicitation, the Government has no obligation to reimburse an offeror for any costs.

2.0 General Instructions and Information

2.1 Initial Instructions:

(a) The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award a contract without exchanges with offerors. Therefore, the Offeror’s initial proposal should contain the Offeror’s best terms from a technical and price standpoint. The Government reserves the right to conduct exchanges with the offeror if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be in the best interests of the Government. The purpose of these instructions is to prescribe the format of proposals and describe the approach for the development and presentation of proposal data.

They are designed to ensure the essential information required for evaluation of proposals is submitted. Offerors are cautioned to follow the detailed instructions fully and carefully, as the Government intends to make an award based on initial offers received without exchanges.

(a) The Offeror's proposal must include all data and information requested by this ITO and must be submitted in accordance with these instructions. The Offeror shall be compliant with the requirements as stated in this solicitation. The proposal shall be clear, concise, and shall include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims. The proposal should not simply rephrase or restate the Government's requirements but rather shall provide convincing rationale to address how the Offeror intends to meet these requirements. Offerors shall assume the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities, capabilities, and experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror's proposal. Unnecessarily elaborate brochures or other presentations beyond those sufficient to present a complete effective response to the solicitation are not desired. The offeror shall use a common paragraph numbering system among the tasking statements in any proposed work breakdown structure, schedule, plan and other related proposal documents in accordance with the PWS. The common paragraph numbering system is based on the PWS.

Please refer to Annex 1, Cross Reference Matrix.

2.2 Submission, Modification, and Withdrawal of Proposals:

Proposals and modifications to proposals shall be submitted via electronic mail to the KO located at: gregory.metty@socom.mil

2.3 Electronic Copies of Proposal. Text and graphics portions of the electronic copies shall be in a format readable by Microsoft (MS) Word 2013 and/or Adobe Acrobat XI Pro. Visual presentation material shall be readable by MS Office 2013. The Offeror must ensure that the submission is readable, in the format specified in the solicitation, and has been verified free of computer viruses. Prior to any evaluation, the Government will check all files for viruses and ensure that all information is readable. In the event that any files are corrupted or unreadable, the Government may request the Offeror to resubmit the electronic media.

2.4 Proposal Validity. The proposal acceptance period is valid through this date 31 May 2019.

2.5 Considerations of Alternate Proposals. Proposals that do not address requirements within the Government PWS will be considered alternate proposals. Alternate proposals will not be considered.

2.6 Oral Presentations. Oral presentations will not be permitted.

2.7 Points of Contact. The Contracting Officer (KO), Mr. Gregory Metty, is the sole point of contact for this acquisition. All questions or concerns should be e‐mailed to the KO by 2:00 PM Eastern Time on XX March 2019. The contracting officer may be reached via e‐mail at gregory.metty@socom.mil or phone number 813‐826‐2032.

2.8 Communications. Exchanges of source selection information between Government and offerors will be controlled by the KO. Email may be used to transmit such information to offerors only if the email can be sent and includes “Source Selection Information – See FAR

2.101 & 3.104” in the Subject line. The offeror is responsible for ensuring the information is appropriately protected regardless of the transmission method.

2.9 Discrepancies Errors, and Omissions. If an offeror believes that the requirements in these instructions lack clarity or contain an error, omission, or are otherwise unsound, the offeror shall immediately notify the KO in writing with supporting rationale as well as the remedies the offeror is asking the KO to consider as related to the omission or error. Notifications of any RFP amendments will be posted to www.fedbizops.gov. The RFP amendments will be posted to the bidder’s library. The offeror is reminded that the Government reserves the right to award this effort based on the initial proposal, as received, without discussion. This reservation includes matters of additional or substitute pages of the initial proposal.

2.10 Amendments to Solicitation. If this RFP is amended, all terms and conditions that are not amended remain unchanged and in full force and effect. Offerors shall acknowledge receipt of any amendment to this request by the date and time specified in the amendment(s) by signing and returning the front page of each amendment.

2.11 System for Award Management (SAM). Offerors will not be eligible to receive a contract award from a Department of Defense (DoD) activity unless they are registered in SAM. Offerors must be registered in the SAM Database prior to award of any contract. Firms must register on a one‐ time basis and annually confirm accuracy and completeness of registration information. On‐ line registration and instructions can be accessed at https://www.sam.gov/index.html.

2.12 Representations and Certifications. IAW FAR 52.204‐08, offeror shall submit completed representations, certifications, acknowledgments and statements and comply with the System for Award Management (SAM).

2.13 Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI). The Government has identified an Organizational Conflict of Interest. No Offerors who are partners or subsidiaries of Joe Lewis Corporation may submit bids. Any business entity teaming with Joe Lewis Corp in the past are required to identify any actual or potential Conflict of Interest in their proposals, and may be required to submit a mitigation plan during the proposal period. The successful Offeror shall prepare an OCI mitigation plan, if required. Mitigation Plans, if required, will be evaluated IAW FAR 9.5.

3.0 Specific Instructions

3.1 The Offeror shall prepare the proposal as set forth in the Proposal Organization Table below.

The titles and contents of the volumes shall be as defined in the table, all of which shall be within the required page limits and with the number of copies as specified.

VOLUME/STEP ITO

PARAGRAPH

ELEC. COPIES PAGE LIMIT

Price ‐ Volume I

4.1.5

5 Pages

Technical Acceptability ‐ Volume

II

5.0

1 10 Pages including all attachments

[TBD]

Plus 2 pages per resume for up to 3 key

3.2 Page Limitations. Page limitations shall be treated as maximums. If exceeded, the excess pages will not be read or considered in the evaluation of the proposal. Each page shall be counted except the following; any Cover Sheets, Table of Contents, Cross‐Reference Matrix (CRM), security control artifacts, Tabs, Glossaries of terms/abbreviations/acronyms and matrices.

Resumes consisting of 2 pages each for no more than 3 key personnel will not be counted against the total.

3.3 Page Size and Format. A page is defined as each face of a sheet of paper containing information. When both sides of a sheet display printed material, it shall be counted as two pages. Page size shall be 8½ x 11 inches. Pages shall be single‐spaced and typed, except for displays and the reproduced sections of the solicitation document. The font shall be Times New Roman and no less than 12 point in size. Use at least 1 inch margins on the top and bottom. Pages shall be numbered sequentially by volume. When text is included within displays, it may be no smaller than 8 point, but must be clearly legible without magnification, as determined solely by the KO. The size of these displays shall not exceed the page size as defined above.

3.4 Title Page (not included in the page count). Each volume must include a title page. The title pages must show:

3. Solicitation Number

4. Name, address, telephone numbers and e‐mail address of the Offeror (only one copy for all required volumes)

5. Cage/DUNS

6. Acknowledgement of any amendments as an attachment

3.5 Cross‐Referencing. Offeror shall complete the CRM at Section J, Attachment 4 of this ITO. The CRM for the technical volume shall show traceability between the contract references and the technical volumes. The CRM for the past performance volume shall show traceability between the Past Performance Narratives (PPNs) and the sub‐factors. The CRM shall identify the contract references being used for both the technical and past performance volumes. The contracts referenced for the technical volume shall be used and identified in the past performance volume.

The offeror shall include a CRM in the Technical (Volume II) and Past Performance (Volume III) volumes that shall mirror each other.

3.6 Indexing. Each volume shall contain a more detailed table of contents to delineate the subparagraphs within that volume. Tab indexing shall be used to identify sections.

3.7 Glossary of Abbreviations and Acronyms – Each volume shall contain a glossary of all abbreviations and acronyms used, with an explanation for each. Glossaries do not count against the page limitations for to and consistent with the terms and conditions of the solicitation or may result in being rejected as non‐ responsive and not being evaluated.

4.0 Instructions for Proposal Volume Requirements

4.1 General Instructions Price (Volume I). The primary purpose of the price proposal volume is to provide the KO and the team evaluators an understanding of how the price proposal was developed. The price evaluation criteria will be: (1) Reasonableness and (2) Balance, as defined in evaluation section of this document.

4.1.1 The Government requires data in order to properly assess the reasonableness and balance of the offeror’s proposal’s cost/price. Compliance with these requirements is mandatory and failure to comply may result in rejection of the offeror’s proposal. Offers should be sufficiently detailed to demonstrate their cost reasonableness and realism.

4.1.2 Pricing Information Requirements. IAW FAR 15.402, 15.403‐1(b) and 15.403‐3(a), “information other than cost or pricing data” may be required to support price reasonableness. If, after receipt of proposals, the CO determines that there is insufficient information available to determine the reasonableness of the proposed pricing, the offeror may be required to submit additional information other than cost or pricing data. If during the source selection process the KO determines that adequate competition no longer exists, then cost and pricing data may be required.

4.1.3 Pricing Assumptions. Summarize all significant pricing assumptions, scope limitations and/or qualifications of the Price proposal.

4.1.4 Price Information. Information beyond that required by this instruction shall not be submitted unless you consider it essential to document or support your price position. All information relating to the proposed prices/rates, including all required supporting documentation must be included in the section of the proposal designated as the Price volume. Under no circumstances shall this information and documentation be included elsewhere in the proposal. All dollar amounts provided shall be rounded to the nearest dollar.

4.1.5 The Price Volume shall be organized as follows:

a. Section 1 – Table of Contents

b. Section 2 – Cost and Pricing Schedule

4.1.6 Supporting Fixed‐Price Data. Price proposals must adhere to the pricing structure established in the CLIN(s) of the solicitation. Each Offeror’s price proposal must be based on the Offeror’s own technical proposal, the Government’s specifications, and other contractual requirements. If the prices to be used are based on a published price list or catalog, the Offeror shall so state, and provide a copy of the document with the price proposal. If the prices are to be based on established market price, not otherwise published, or if prices are applicable only to the proposed contract, the Offeror shall so state.

a. Pricing shall be completed by the Offeror in accordance with the following:

i. Proposed prices shall be provided reflecting the established CLINs.

CLIN 0001 Firm Fixed Price, Event Management CLIN 0002 OPTION Firm Fixed Price Venue Agreement

ii. All prices contained in the pricing schedule reflect total compensation for the services detailed therein and are fully inclusive of all costs including labor (workers, management, aids, assistants, and operators), overhead, and general and administrative (G&A) expenses, and profit.

iii. Price proposals shall be evaluated for the presence of “unbalanced pricing” based on a contractor’s attempt to “buy in” to the acquisition. The Contracting Officer will perform a price proposal analysis to determine balanced pricing. The Contracting Officer reserves the right to reject an offer if it is determined that the lack of balanced pricing poses an unacceptable risk to the Government in accordance with FAR Part 15.404‐1(g).

c. The Government expects that this contract will be awarded based upon adequate price competition.

4.2 General Instructions Technical Acceptability (Volume II).

4.2.1 General: The Technical Acceptability Volume should be clear, specific, complete, and include sufficient detail for effective evaluation. Legibility, clarity and coherence are very important. Your responses will be evaluated against the technical subfactors defined in this document. Using the instructions provided below, provide as specifically as possible the actual methodology you would use for accomplishing/satisfying these subfactors. There will be no reference to rates or price in this volume. Offerors shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of their experience and certifications, and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the offeror’s proposal. All the requirements specified in the solicitation are mandatory. By the offeror’s proposal submission, the offeror is representing that the company will perform ALL the requirements specified in the solicitation (including PWS); it is not necessary or desirable to tell us so in the proposal. It is necessary, however, to describe how you will accomplish/satisfy each subfactor requirement and specifically how that capability will be used for this effort.

4.2.2 Adequate Responses: It is imperative that the offeror fully describe and provide detail as to how the offeror shall meet the subfactor requirements within the required schedule. The proposal will be evaluated to determine whether the Offeror’s methods and approach have completely considered, defined, and satisfied the requirements specified in the PWS. Proposals shall clearly demonstrate and substantiate the offeror’s claims to fulfill the requirement. The absence of substantive information may result in a technically “Unacceptable” proposal. Do not merely direct copy and paste, rephrase or restate the objectives or reformulate the requirements specified in the solicitation.

4.2.3 Technical Approach Factor: The Offeror shall provide a clear and comprehensive technical approach that demonstrates an understanding of all PWS requirements. The Offer’s technical narrative shall include descriptions and explanations of how the requirements for each task will be planned, coordinated and executed. The technical approach must represent an adequate concept which is achievable and executable within the scope of the planned resources (Contractor and Government), proffer, event venues, and the timeline associated with the 2019 Warrior Games.

4.2.3.1 Subfactor 1: Event Management

a. The Offer shall provide a systematic approach detailing an end‐to‐end layout of execution of the Event Management for both Opening Ceremonies and Closing

Ceremonies. The objective is for the Contractor to manage the activities required to execute opening and closing ceremonies in a manner that ensures the events occur on time and are supported in accordance with the plan. Details shall include resources (staff, supplies, services, materials, consumables, tools, , etc.), schedules, and coordination with all Warrior Games stakeholders (Warriors, families, spectators, USSOCOM, venues, contractors, vendors, etc.)

b. The Offeror’s approach shall discuss the implications of executing all events in compliance with American Disability Act (ADA) standards.

c. The Offeror’s approach shall address a clear synchronization of resources, including but not limited to personnel, volunteers, property and equipment (Government and Contractor), event schedules, proffer, joint services (Government and Contractor) ensuring successful execution of all events.

d. The Offer shall provide their approach to support communication and coordination with the Government’s team including but not limited to timely management and communications to ensure rapid and seamless resolution to real‐time issues. In addition, the Offer shall address inclusion of Joe Lewis Company staff in the planning and coordination of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

e. The Offer shall provide their approach to provisioning and executing seamless event logistics, as defined throughout the PWS.

f. The Offer shall address their approach to working with Government provided items (as called out in PWS 5.0),and their approach to communication and coordination with the Government Team to include identifying and resolving conflicts and issues as the lowest level. In addition, the Offer shall detail property accountability of all government provided equipment.

g. The Offer shall include in their approach an adequate transition from Government’s provided items and services addressed in PWS 4.0 to exercising PWS 2.7.6 Option (Venue Management) so that if/when exercised, the change(s) will not cause a slip in schedule or have an adverse impact in any critical event execution.

h. The Offeror’s approach shall address facility and venue related requirements, including but not limited to providing and implementing planning professional grade sound, lighting, design, video, staging, and seating to ensure a quality experience.

i. The Offer shall address event contingency approach for the potential delay or postponement of Opening or Closing Ceremony events.

j. The Offer shall describe their approach to providing a full range of production services to execute the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, including sound, lighting and power management and audio, visual and media services.

k. The Offer shall detail their approach addressing the seating/floor plan, Distinguished Visitor’s lounge and decompression areas.

4.2.3.2 Subfactor 2: Past Experience:

a. Offeror shall describe their past corporate experience (including subcontractors) as it relates to recency, relevancy for the requirements identified in the PWS.

b. The Contractor shall provide resumes of key personnel demonstrating successful experience, knowledge, skills and abilities to execute the Event Management as addressed in the PWS. Subfactor 1 key personnel shall have experience in professional entertainment, event talent management, and experience in execution of prior adaptive sport events, within the last 5 years.

5.0 Evaluation‐Basis for Award

5.1 General Information. This acquisition will utilize the Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable (LPTA) procedure to make a best value award. A decision on the technical acceptability of each offeror’s quotations will be made. For the offeror who is determined to be technically acceptable, award will be made to that vendor with the lowest overall price. While the Government will strive for maximum objectivity, the technical go/no go process, by its nature, is subjective; therefore, professional judgment is implicit throughout the evaluation process.

The Government intends to make an award based on the initial quotations. If further questions are required, the contracting officer may contact the offeror or offerors. Award will be made to the responsible offeror whose quotation conforms to all solicitation requirements, such as terms and conditions, representations and certifications, technical requirements, and also provides the best value to the Government based on the results of the evaluation described in paragraph (b) below.

5.2 The LPTA evaluation process will be accomplished as follows: first to evaluate offerors’ prices, and then evaluate the apparent lowest‐priced proposal for technical acceptability under the technical factors. If the lowest‐price offeror is evaluated as unacceptable, the next step is consideration of technical acceptability of the next lowest‐price offeror, continuing this process until a vendor is found technically acceptable.

5.3 Price Volume Evaluation (Volume I): The offeror's Price quotations will be evaluated by CLIN level and the offerors with the lowest overall Price will be ranked accordingly, with the evaluation starting with the lowest priced offer.

(i) Reasonableness: If adequate price competition is not obtained or if price reasonableness cannot be determined using price analysis of Government‐obtained information, additional information in accordance with FAR 15.4 may be required to support the proposed price.

(ii) Balance: In addition, offerors are cautioned against submitting an offer that contains unbalanced pricing. Unbalanced pricing exists when, despite an acceptable total evaluated price, the price of one or more contract line items is significantly overstated or understated as indicated by the application of analysis techniques. The Government will analyze offers to determine whether there are unbalanced separately priced line items.

Prices submitted will be compared and evaluated to assure that a logical progression exists as related to price and quantity changes within each offeror’s response to the pricing structure in the line items. Offers that are determined to be unbalanced may be rejected if the lack of balance poses an unacceptable risk to the Government.

(iii) Total Evaluated Price: Quotations shall be evaluated, for award purposes, based upon the total price proposed for the basic requirements (basic award) and all options and other price‐related issues (examples are transportation costs, small disadvantaged business, or rental value for Government Furnished Property). For CLINs that do not have quantity ranges, the evaluated price will be the unit price proposed multiplied by the specified unit (e.g. 1 LOT). The sum of all the CLINs (with Options) will represent the total evaluated price. Offeror’s are advised that the evaluation of options shall not obligate the government to exercise such options.

5.4 Technical Acceptability Evaluation (Volume II).

Each task will be evaluated to determine the Offeror’s ability to meet task requirements. The Government Technical Team shall evaluate the offeror’s proposal against the requirements to determine whether the proposal is acceptable or unacceptable, using the following descriptions:

5.4.2 Subfactor 2: Past Experience

a. Does the Offeror adequately describe their past corporate experience (including subcontractors) as it relates to recency, relevancy for the requirements identified in the

PWS?

b. Does the Offeror provide resumes of key personnel demonstrating successful experience, knowledge, skills and abilities to execute the Event Management and Production of the 2019 DoD Warrior Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies as addressed in the PWS?

Relevancy will be evaluated as follows:

c. Does the Offeror’s key personnel have experience in professional entertainment event talent management, and experience in execution of similar production events within the last 5 years (must be within the past 5 years for acceptability of recency).

TABLE 1‐ Technical Acceptable/Unacceptable Rating Method

Rating Description

Acceptable The proposal successfully describes and provides sufficient detail as to how the offeror shall meet the subfactor requirements within the required schedule. The proposal’s methods and approach have completely considered, defined, and satisfied the requirements specified in the PWS. The proposal demonstrates and substantiates the offeror’s claims to fulfill the requirement.

Unacceptable Proposal does not meet all the requirements of the solicitation. The proposal is absent of substantive information. The proposal unsuccessfully describes and does not provides sufficient detail as to how the offeror shall meet the subfactor requirements within the required schedule. The proposal’s methods and approach have not completely considered, defined, and satisfied the requirements specified in the PWS. The proposal does not demonstrate and substantiate the offeror’s claims to fulfill the requirement.

TABLE 3 – PAST EXPERIENCE RELEVANCY RATINGS

1.1 The 2019 Warrior Games is operating within a strict, limited budget.

Rating Definition

RELEVANT Present/past experience effort involved similar scope and magnitude of effort and complexities this solicitation requires.

NOT RELEVANT

Present/past experience effort involved little or none of the scope and magnitude of effort and complexities this solicitation requires.