07 Jan 2011 - Questions Answers 422 - 433.doc

07 JANUARY 2011

QUESTIONS/ANSWERS

RELEASE #6

Question #422 thru 433 QUESTION #422: Reference the incidental equipment called out in paragraphs 3.2.k and 6.2.1.b(4). In order for offerors to include costs for the incidental equipment required in support of Request Fulfillment in proposed pricing, the Government will have to provide significant additional information regarding what types of equipment are anticipated/required, the quantities of the items required, the projected schedule for equipment requirements, etc. Because some of the incidental equipment items will represent a significant cost (e.g., customer-facing cards such as T-1 router interface cards, GBICs, test equipment) the total cost of these items could be a significant factor in the cost evaluation.

As the requirement is currently written, only the current incumbent contractor would have sufficient information to estimate quantity and types of equipment required to meet performance thresholds. This situation appears to provide the current incumbent with a significant and unfair advantage in this area.

We recommend that the Government define the incidental equipment items as cost reimbursement items under the GSM-O contract and establish a Government-provided “plug number” for use by all offerors in the cost/price portion of the GSM-O proposal. Providing a “plug number” establishes a fair and equitable basis for proposal cost/price evaluation. Treating the incidental items as cost reimbursable items under the GSM-O contract further ensures that the Government only pays for specific items required during program execution.

ANSWER #422: The PWS has been revised and no longer uses the terms incidental or major item. Items having unit cost over $10,000 will be ordered and provided by the Government; the Contractor will be responsible for ordering and providing all other materials and equipment. An updated directory titled “Maint_Completion_Forms” that contains all maintenance actions for the past year will be provided on the next version of the SECRET level restricted CD. This file, and the excel spreadsheet titled “Items under maintenance agreement_05202010” should provide the offeror enough information to submit a cost estimate.

QUESTION #423: Reference CD-ROM: The CD-ROM contains one month of Corrective Maintenance Completion Reports (CMCRs) history data (June 2010). Please provide CMCR data for the past 24 months so that a more accurate maintenance history can be developed. If 24 months is not available, please provide as much data as possible.

ANSWER #423: An updated directory titled “Maint_Completion_Forms” that contains all maintenance actions for the past year will be provided on the next version of the SECRET level restricted CD.

QUESTION #424: Reference: OSS Program Plan; Paragraph 2.4.3.5, pages 2-37. Reference DISN OSS Program Plan, Section 2.4.3.5 “Warehouse Management System”.

a. The text states that “As of August 2005, DISA has five warehouses”. Please provide a description of their current usage; please provide the current addresses of their locations.

b. The text states “7 maintenance forward storage areas”. Please provide a description of their current usage; please provide the current addresses of their locations.

c. The text states that "The DISN warehouse tracks equipment by serialized and non-serialized numbered items. There are approximately 355,000 items in the inventory".

* Please provide a listing of this inventory

* Is the existing spare and repair parts referred to in the answer to Question #142 and #275 contained in this inventory?

ANSWER #424: Sec L Instructions, per Q&A item #296, require the offeror to assume, for proposal purposes only, that all required parts, (that would be in a Bill Of Materials (BOM) in execution ) will be provided by the offeror (i.e. that warehouse parts are not available).

For post-award execution, the government is interested in an approach to spares and logistics that is not biased by the existing systems. In execution, if a bill of materials contains an item that could come from a Government asset, the Government will decide whether to provide the item as GFE or to require the Contractor to purchase/provide it.

S30. Per the PWS: The duties of the GSM contractors shall be performed at Contractor Facilities (CF) and Government Facilities (GF), including but not limited to the following locations: Scott AFB (IL); Stuttgart, GE; Honolulu, HI; Tampa, FL; Manama Bahrain; Skyline 7 (DISA building), Arlington VA; and 701 S. Courthouse Road (DISA building) Arlington VA. Request that the Government provide a complete listing of GSM-O locations requiring resident personnel in addition to those listed above (DISN locations requiring only potential field install/break/fix support may be omitted).

QUESTION #425: Per the PWS: The duties of the GSM contractors shall be performed at Contractor Facilities (CF) and Government Facilities (GF), including but not limited to the following locations: Scott AFB (IL); Stuttgart, GE; Honolulu, HI; Tampa, FL; Manama Bahrain; Skyline 7 (DISA building), Arlington VA; and 701 S. Courthouse Road (DISA building) Arlington VA. Request that the Government provide a complete listing of GSM-O locations requiring resident personnel in addition to those listed above (DISN locations requiring only potential field install/break/fix support may be omitted).

ANSWER #425: Task Order 01, paragraph 9A has been revised to reflect the complete list of resident work locations.

QUESTION #426: We welcome the industry site visit to the GNSC. We believe it is the Government’s best interest to ensure that industry has a complete picture of the DISN OA&M environment, and that this visit supports that objective. Since the GSM-O tasks are performed across multiple sites, we request additional site visits to the DCCC and the TNC in Europe to fully satisfy objective.

ANSWER #426: The only portion of the DCCC that is within scope of GSM-O is the helpdesk portion PWS, 6.2.2a. The rest is considered out of scope. None of their help desk specific tools were briefed at the CONUS site visit. All TNCs are similar but lesser in scale in terms of work volume. All TNCs are similar in function and toolset usage as those briefed at the site visit.

QUESTION #427: The scope of Task Order 1 includes all the requirements of PWS 6.2.2, 6.2.4, and 6.2.6 except "repair/maintenance actions". Paragraph 5c and Q&A #145 indicate that "the portions of the PWS cited have not been separated out into “Non-Maintenance Work” and “Maintenance Work” because the flow of trouble management and operational support needs to be integrated as described in the PWS". We assume the Government's intent is for the GSM-O contractor to provide support to the DGS contractor for GSM-O Task Order 1 requirements 6.2.2(4)-(7), 6.2.4(1)-(5), and 6.2.6(1)-(6) prior to the start of Task Order 2, and then assume a lead role (under TO 2) after that. If this is the case, we request that the Government further clarify and define the scope of this support work within Task Order 1. This will ensure consistent support to the DISN and achieve the Government's necessary objective of integrating "the flow of trouble management and operational support" during this time period. One approach would be to specifically identify GSM-O sub-requirements of PWS 6.2.2(4)-(7), 6.2.4(1)-(5), and 6.2.6(1)-(6) within Task Order 1.

ANSWER #427: The situation pertains to repair (PWS 6.2.2), Operations center support (PWS 6.2.4), or maintenance (PWS 6.2.6) of infrastructure that is covered by an existing Warranty/Maintenance Agreement (believed to be a large percentage of the total). The DGS contractor is the party to and manages those Agreements and will continue to do so probably thru 03 Jan 2013. During that time, when the GSM-O Contractor identifies the need for action covered by an Agreement, it notifies to the Government that DGS-managed support (via an Agreement) is needed. Subsequent repair or maintenance work is then done according to the applicable Agreement, and the GSM-O Contractor continues to monitor overall status. The Government acts as de facto integrator because each prime contract (DGS and GSM-O) is with the Government; each Contractor has an indirect responsibility to coordinate with the other but without directive control.

A mapping of PWS responsibilities to clarify the use of Maintenance Agreement capabilities is as follows:

a. The GSM-O contractor is solely responsible for activities of these PWS paragraphs: 6.2.4(1), 6.2.2(2), 6.2.2(3), 6.2.2(5), 6.2.2(7), 6.2.4(2), 6.2.4(3), 6.2.4(4), 6.2.4(5), 6.2.4(6), 6.2.4(7), 6.2.6(1), 6.2.6(6), 6.2.6(7).

b. The DGS contractor is solely responsible for Agreement-enabled activities of these PWS paragraphs: none.

c. The following activities are performed by either DGS or by GSM-O depending on the application of the terms of the Agreement: 6.2.2(4), 6.2.2(6), 6.2.4(1), 6.2.6(2), 6.2.6(3), 6.2.6(4), 6.2.6(5), QUESTION #428: Please provide historical data showing the number of inbound calls to the Help Desk (DCCC) for the last 12-24 months according to time of day. Please also provide the average inbound call duration and call distribution over this time period.

ANSWER #428: An updated file titled “DCCC Call Center Metrics” will be provided on the next version of the SECRET level restricted CD. This file contains numbers of inbound and outbound calls and escalation points, but not time of day or distribution.

QUESTION #429: Please provide historical data showing the number of outbound calls to the Help Desk (DCCC) for the last 12-24 months according to time of day. Please also provide the average outbound call duration and call distribution over this time period.

ANSWER #429: An updated file titled “DCCC Call Center Metrics” will be provided on the next version of the SECRET level restricted CD. This file contains numbers of inbound and outbound calls and escalation points, but not time of day or distribution.

QUESTION #430: Please provide historical data showing the number of DCCC customer contacts escalated per month and by service for the last 12-24 months.

ANSWER #430: An updated file titled “DCCC Call Center Metrics” will be provided on the next version of the SECRET level restricted CD. This file contains numbers of inbound and outbound calls and escalation points, but not time of day or distribution.

QUESTION #431: What is the ConOps to support surge requirements?

ANSWER #431: There is no ConOps (per se) to handle surge requirements. The term surge is used in the PWS in the context of PWS 6.3.

QUESTION #432: Reference PWS 6.2.5 performance management. How is customer operational impact determined during a system/network outage?

ANSWER #432: In the context of incident analysis PWS 6.2.5 (5)-Incident Analysis, Customer Impact is determined by the Ticketing System, the Reporting System and the Configuration Management system. In the ticketing system (GTMS) there is a specific field for customer impact.

QUESTION #433: The scope of PWS Para 6.2.5 as described in the (Site Visit) briefing appeared to focus on the IP services and IP networks only. Are other services/networks also covered by this section, (e.g., ATM, etc) and if so, which tools are used, what inputs/outputs exist, etc.

ANSWER #433: The scope of PWS applies to IP as well as other (e.g. ATM) capabilities. See GFI CDs. Refer to site visit briefing slides and scripts for description of tools being used.