DISA TE MSS Fort Huachuca QA's 10 Feb 11 Rev.doc

DISA T&E MSS Pre-proposal Conference Q & A’s

1. Q – What type of Hardware/servers is allowed on the Network? What Hardware is used?

A – All hardware must be able to support STIG & 8570 requirements.

2. Q – Do the CLIN 001 & 4004 Phase-in/Phase-out periods occur during the 5 year POP or is the total POP 66 months in total?

A – 66 months is the total POP to include a 3 month phase-in and a 3 month phase-out period. Specific dates will be based on award of contract.

3. Q – Is the Phase in a contract level only event or will each active task order have a phase in period? If so will they all be 90 days in duration?

A – Contract CLIN’s in Section B allow for contract level phase-in. Tasks allow for a ramp-up period on a task by task basis.

4. Q – Regarding JPAS, does documentation exist (releasable to bidders) on the operations of JPAS & others task order management and execution (DAI, Procurement Desktop, etc.)?

A – Search the Internet for this information regarding PD2. DAI is under development and has no releasable information. JPAS documentation is not releasable at this time.

5. Q – Please clarify that OCI mitigation plans will not be evaluated at the contract level, i.e. should be avoided

A –The OCI plan will be evaluated at the contract level on a pass/fail basis. Refer to Section L 8.5 for more details.

6. Q – We understand that JITC now uses Office 2007. Is it acceptable to submit our proposals in Office 2007?

A – YES.

7. Q – What are the current active lab tasks?

A- General lab requirements are described in the PWS. However, specific lab requirements are fluid, and will be issued as tasks on the new contract.

8. Q –Can we get copies of JITC marketing brochures for each capability lab?

A – Slides will be provided in the electronic reading room, providing a lab overview.

9. Q – Can you provide a break-out of tests/customary associate by lab?

A – General Information on customer composition is in the command brief. Customers change per tasks due to the fluid nature of the testing environment.

10. Q – What are the procedure/limitations on connecting contractor IT/SW to the government LAN? If approved by non-DISA government activities, do these change procedure/limitations?

A- JITC uses DISANET for Its Administration Network. Any SW requirements must be tested and approved by DISA. Typically, company unique SW requirements must be satisfied by isolated connectivity.

11. Q –Will the JITC/DISA accept classified/FOUO past performance citation?

A – We are not accepting classified past performance evaluations. Past Performance evaluations need to be sanitized.

12. Q – Is there a fixed figure for ODC’s for the Sample Task Orders?

A – Only sample tasks 5 and 6 specify a fixed figure for ODC/s. The remaining sample tasks leave the ODC amount up to the contractor to propose.

13. Q – Is the OCI restriction on all types of the T & E or only on OT&E?

A – It includes OT&E. Other types of Test and Evaluation are dependent on the set of circumstances involved in the requirements. A legal review may be required.

14. Q – Does November mark the beginning or end of phase in?

A – If the contract is awarded in November, it would mark the beginning of phase-in.

15. Q – When will we be posting the briefing?

A – We will post the brief by the afternoon of Wednesday Feb 9th or on February 10th.

16. Q – How will JPAS be changed to reflect changes in labor and materials?

A – We are currently working to develop guidelines and have no information at this time.

17. Q – Will any safety materials (i.e. hardhats, reflective vests) be required for the visit to the Fort Meade location?

A – NO, but construction is still ongoing. Fort Meade is a highly classified location; therefore no electronic devices are allowed on the compound or in any buildings. Sky 7 is similar to the Fort Huachuca location.

18. Q – Will parking arrangements be made for the Fort Meade location during the conference?

A –Parking is on a first come first serve basis and the cost is $20 for 2 hours or more.

19. Q – What about travel to unspecified locations? CONUS, OCONUS?

A – All travel should have locations listed in the sample tasks, as well as locations, with the exception of Sample Task 4. It is the responsibility of the contractor to use the JTR to determine the number of people and number of trips taken. For Sample Task 4, provide your best estimate for a trip to an OCONUS location, 4 CONUS trips- average what it would cost and 26 local trips within the NCR area. Provide an average cost, we need a travel estimate as a placeholder.

20. Q – Do you anticipate seeing companies on multiple teams?

A – Yes. We set goals in Section L encouraging people to meet those DISA goals. We are looking for teams to partner with each other and then they will be evaluated as a team for whatever arrangements have been set up. Further, it is acceptable for a subcontractor to be teamed with multiple-primes.

21. Q – What is DITCO’s preferred approach to conflict of interest?

A – The DOD approach we follow is avoidance. Organizational conflicts of interests are scrutinized and mitigation plans are not the preference.

22. Q – What other guidance would you give on conflict of interest?

A – It is a business decision. We can review a contractor mitigation plan, but some situations cannot be mitigated.

23. Q – If you have different divisions in a company building a product, will it be acceptable for another division in that company to release a similar product?

A –No, this would be viewed as a perceived conflict of interest.

24. Q – Will specific directions be provided for a rallying point or location for the Fort Meade and IH locations?

A – Yes, further information will be provided and posted on the JITC webpage. Specific gate information was provided to you in the mass email.

25. Q – Is the time frame for site visits at IH and Fort Meade on the 17th sufficient?

A – We are allotting about 2 hours and believe that is more than sufficient to transfer from 1 location to the next and include a lunch break as well.

26. Q – Can we have 2 representatives go to Fort Huachuca, 2 different representatives go to IH and then 2 other people go to Sky 7 and Fort Meade?

A – Yes, as long as no more than 2 individuals attend each location. Sky 7 is more of an operations lab location; whereas Fort Meade is the operations that it is migrating to.

27. Q – Do you see any real advantage for the companies to visit IH, Fort Meade and Sky 7, if we have already attended Fort Huachuca?

A – Yes it can be helpful. Although the briefings and slides will be the same, Fort Huachuca is a tactical environment; whereas Sky 7 is more of engineering environment and Fort Meade is more of a testing environment.

28. Q – “Is it acceptable to put the tabular data required for each past performance citation into a table with 8-point font?”

A – L 2.2.1.1 (b) states “For tables, charts, graphs and figures, the text shall be no smaller than 8 point size.” However, in L 2.2.1.1(a), instructions state that “font type/text size shall be…no less than 12 point size.” L 6.1 instructs that Past Performance information be submitted in accordance with the format in Attachment 2, which is a form. The Government does not intend a form to be considered a table, chart, graph or figure. The Government requires use of the form for uniform submission of Past Performance data. Therefore, the past performance data required in Attachment 2 shall be submitted in that form for each contract/citation in font no less than 12 point size.

29. Q- “What are the test tools that support distributed testing in regard to:

· Test situational awareness

· Data time stamp and synchronization

· Data Collection How is data aggregated into a single picture for analysis?”

A– JITC uses varied test tools in support of distributed testing. Data is aggregated in a variety of methods. It will be up to each vendor to provide their approach for supporting distributed testing tools and data aggregation methods.

30. Q- “Does JITC have SOPs for the O&M (processes, procedures, configuration management) of its labs? Will they be available to bidders?”

A – Yes, JITC does have SOPs for the labs, but these are not appropriate for public release.

31. Q- “Does JITC maintain a repository or knowledge management area for applicable standards, policies, templates, forms, and other information? Is it available to the bidders? What is it? (SharePoint)” A – On the JITC Website, there is a section for “New at JITC”. In this section, there is a link called “DISA T&E MSS Reading Room”, which contains reference documents for the contract recompete effort.

32. Q- “Does JITC use test networks other than the DREN and S-DREN for testing? Can you identify the major networks?”

A – Yes, there are many test networks across the DoD which JITC may utilize for testing. Other major test networks are the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network (CFBLNet) and the Defense Information System Network-Leading Edge Services (DISN-LES).