DESS RFP AMD 0005 QA FINAL 20120711.pdf

RFP # HC1047-12-R-4013

Amendment 0005 Questions & Answers

Question

Technical / Management

Questions / Comments RFP Reference Government Response

RFP

Change

Require d (Y/N)

Location of

Change

T-001

Based on Amendment 5 the estimated FTE was provided for Attachment 4, Sample Task Order 4 -

Application Management in question T-007.

What is the similar estimates on FTE for the other

Sample Tasks?

Attachment 4, Sample Task Order

# 4

The Government previously provided historical FTE data for Sample Task Orders

0002, 0003, 0005 and 0006 with RFP

Amendment 0003 (issued 21 Jun 12).

No N/A

T-002

For Part B, C, and D, the RFP stated that the

“Overall Page Limit for Entire

Technical/Management Volume is 100 pages.

Allocation of Pages Per Subfactor is at the

Offeror’s Discretion.”

In the DISA DESS_Question_Answer_-

_FINAL_2012_06_19_1700.pdf, the answer to

Question K042 is “85 pages total”. Would the

Government please clarify this discrepancy? For

Volume II, is the overall page limit 100 pages or

85 pages?

RFP L.5.1, Section

L.5.1. Proposal

Organization, Page

36 of 56, Table 5.1.

The page limitations cited in the revised

RFP Section L.5.1 are accurate, the Overall

Page Limit for the Entire Technical/

Management Volume is 100 pages.

Allocation of Pages per Subfactor is at the

Offeror’s Discretion.

T-003

The Government stated that “The performance period for each task order will be specified within the order and may extend one year beyond the expiration date of this contract”.

In Attachment 14b, the Government only asked for the On-site/Off-site rates for Base Year, Option Year 1 through Option Year 4, and 6 mos.

Ext of Services. Since the task order may extend one year beyond the expiration date of the contract, should we also provide Rates for the year after Option Year 4?

RFP Section F.3

Period of

Performance, Page

18 of 56, Paragraph b.

No. To clarify, the Period of Performance for Task Orders awarded off the ID/IQ vehicle may continue performance up to one year beyond the expiration date of the

ID/IQ vehicle. The ceiling rates of the final option period of the basic ID/IQ contract would apply as the task order would be issued and the period of performance would commence prior to the expiration of the basic contract.

No N/A

T-004

The RFP stated that “$750 per month (for not meeting AQL); escalating by $750 per month for each successive month the SLA is not met.

For the escalation, is there a”re-set” of the

Remedy payment escalator by quarter or by year

(either fiscal or calendar)?

If we miss the SLA in Jan and March (where we met the SLA in Feb), is the escalation $750 since we didn’t miss the SLA in successive months?

Is there a cap or maximum on Remedy Payments by Quarter or Year?

Task Order #1, Appendix B –

Service Level

Agreements (SLA)

Remedy penalties are specific to each SLA and assessed monthly, escalating by the stated amount for each successive month the AQL for the SLA is not met.

There is no “reset” or cap/maximum of remedies by quarter or by year. Any

“reset” would be realized by meeting the

SLA in a given month. Using the example given, if the contractor failed to meet the

SLA in Jan, then the remedy would be $750.

If they failed to meet the SLA in Feb, then the remedy would escalate to $1,500. If they met the SLA in Mar but failed to meet the SLA again in Apr, then the remedy would be $750 for Apr.

T-005

Can we propose a level of effort which meets the

PWS requirements as stated, but targets additional payments for efforts required that are not documented in the PWS? For example, we propose to support XX,XXX Service Desk calls per month and/or per year. This number is slightly above the documented requirements. However, for calls which exceed the baseline by more than x%, are we able to gamer additional payment at a pre-determined rate for the calls over the baseline threshold? This is to handle the types of surge that may be expected based on a tech refresh, enterprise e-mail or other unforeseen increases in the requirement.

Task Order #1, Appendix B –

Service Level

Agreements (SLA)

Refer to FAR 16.202-1, a firm-fixed-price contract provides for a price that is not subject to any adjustment on the basis of the contractor’s cost experience in performing the contract. This contract type places upon the contractor maximum risk and full responsibility for all costs and resulting profit or loss.

T-006

The maximum Performance Incentive Fee available is 5% of the Total Labor Cost for each

Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) for the Task

Order.

Since there is a 5% maximum “incentive” fee available for payment to the Prime, will the

Government cap the Remedy payments to no more than 5% as well?

Task Order #1, Attachment 1, Appendix D, Section IV.

Incentive/Remedy

Evaluation Areas, Criteria, and

Ratings, Page D-3

Refer to T-004. No N/A

T-007

The answer to Question K-146 was “Refer to K-

053 and T-104”. The answer to K-053 was

“Attachment 15 identifies those labor categories that are deemed key personnel for all Task

Orders. However, additional key personnel may be determined by the Government based upon review of the Contractor’s technical/management proposal. See DARS

52.237-9000 for additional information.”

The answers above still didn’t answer whether

Resumes are required for key personnel or not.

Would the Government please clarify?

Q&A, Question K-

146, Page 92 of 92

Resumes are not required for the basic contract award(s) or Task Order 0001.

T-008

The answer to this question was “Refer to

L.5.3.6.2. The requirement is for the Offeror to provide the ‘specification page/paragraph number’. Do we need to number each paragraph within our proposal?

Q&A, Question K-

102, Page 84 of 92

No. The Offeror is not required to number each paragraph; however, the Offeror should ensure that their cross-referencing methodology does not impair clarity.

No

N/A

T-009

Section H.2 specifies the areas to which the

Essential Contractor Services apply however, it includes Task Area 3 Service Desk, Task Area 4, Information Assurance Incident and Problems and Task Area 7 Enterprise Solution Engineering and Deployment. These tasks do not match up to the Sample Tasks in the solicitation. Please clarify what task areas require essential contractor services.

H.2.a. – Mission

Essential Personnel

Section H.2.a - Mission Essential Personnel provides the task areas of the contract-level PWS that would be considered mission essential in the event of unforeseen conditions or contingencies.

Any subsequent task order which includes these task areas would be subject to the provisions of Section H.2.

T-010

For the Program Manager Labor Category, would you allow us to substitute years of experience and a PMP certification for a Master's Degree?

Attachment 15, DESS Labor

Categories

No. No N/A

Question

Cost / Price

Questions / Comments RFP Reference Government Response

RFP

Change

Require d (Y/N)

Location of

Change

C-001

The answer to question C-009 from the

Amendment 0003 Questions & Answers indicates that Task Orders are to be priced to WBS level 3.

Instructions in Attachment 14c state that a separate spreadsheet tab should be added for each WBS level 3 element for each year. As an example, if the third level WBS is aligned to the third level activities defined in PWS Section 6 for

Sample Task 0004, there are 65 third level elements. In this case, the spreadsheet for TO

0004 would have at least 390 (65x6) individual tabs to provide pricing for the 6 performance periods. Is this interpretation correct? May offerors consolidate information at a fewer number of tabs (e.g., at the second level of the

WBS) while still preserving all the detailed information?

Attachment 14c

The Offeror’s interpretation is correct.

However, while generally a separate tab is required for each individual level three subtask, we find Offeror’s suggestion of consolidation at level two for Sample Task

0004 is reasonable considering the inordinate number of subtasks.

Offeror is reminded that the sanitized cost proposal is a critical component of technical analysis, and should contain sufficient detail to enable Government to understand and evaluate the Offeror’s approach.

The Government’s provided templates are models. Offerors should use reasonable judgment in the design of proposal submissions. Offeror’s excel workbooks and worksheets shall contain all formulas and are not hard numbered, and provide a level of detail sufficient to enable Government to perform cost realism analysis.

C-002

Every Subcontractor is required to support their costs in similar detail as the Prime. We assume they need to include a labor category cross-matrix (Schedule 14b), and a build-up of all labor rates. Can the build-up be included on Schedule

14b in the columns to the right of each category?, in addition to addressing Parts A through E of

L.6.4.1.5. If a subcontractor is responsible for certain FTE's on Sample TTO's, would they submit a Schedule 14c to the extent of their team participation?

Attachment 14b

Labor rate buildups on Schedule 14b as explained by offeror is acceptable.

Subcontractors proposing costs which meet or exceed the TINA threshold shall provide a Schedule 14c. Subcontractors proposing below the TINA threshold can be summarized on the Prime offeror’s cost proposal worksheet as a Subcontractor line item.

Question

Contractual Questions / Comments RFP Reference Government Response

RFP

Change

Require d (Y/N)

Location of

Change

K-001

Due to the wide-ranging affect of the storm that hit the DC Metro area on 6/29/12 and the resulting extensive damage, we respectfully ask for a DESS Proposal extension to July 27, 2012 from July 23, 2012 so that our team members can focus on their recovery from the storm.

Section A

The Government does not anticipate any further extensions at this time.

K-002

RFP section L.6.2.2 requires “…the rationale for each risk and its rating, including quantitative estimates of the impact on cost, schedule, and performance.” Given our assessment that insufficient information is provided in the RFP and PWS to accurately provide such numerical estimates to any degree of realistic certainty, clarification is requested regarding whether or not a more qualitative estimate is instead intended, especially in regards to cost impact within a FFP contract where the contractor bears the cost risk.

L.6.2.2.2

Quantitative estimates of the impact on cost, schedule, and performance are requested.

K-003 Please clarify an end date for Q&A’s as the last

Q&A document was titled Final.

RFP Amendment

0003 - Questions &

Answers

The reference to “Final” in the header of the questions and the description of the

Q&A document is referring to the “Final

RFP”. It is necessary to deliniate the difference between the Q&A document issued for the “Draft RFP” and the “Final

RFP”.

The Government reserves the right to consider additional questions that have not been previously addressed if the

Government deems a response is necessary in order for Offerors to respond to the RFP.

No N/A

K-004

Please provide a link for the additional attachments e.g. 26, 27, 28, & 29 as they are not on FBO.gov.

RFP

Login is required on FBO to view all controlled unclassified packages and explicit access must be requested.

No N/A

K-005

The Government specified that “All task orders awarded pursuant to this contract, whether awarded on FFP, CPFF, or T&M basis, will use the labor categories set forth in the Labor Rate Table.

This contradicts the requirement in Section b.

Labor Rate Applicability. In Section b, the requirement stated “The labor rates set forth in the contract will be used on FFP and T&M task orders only.” Should these labor rates applicable to CPFF as well?

RFP B.2, Section a.

Labor Rate Table, The labor categories provided in

Attachments 14b and 15 shall be used for all task orders pursuant to this contract regardless of contract type. The labor rate ceilings are only applicable to FFP and T&M task orders.

K-006

Does the government intend for the

Compliance/Cross Reference Matrix to include only the existing four rows as they now appear in the Compliance/Cross Reference Matrix? Or should the Offeror add additional rows to the

Compliance/Cross Reference matrix so that it will be a comprehensive Compliance/Cross Reference

Matrix of the entire proposal and RFP?

L.6.2.2.4 The Compliance/Cross Reference Matrix may be expanded by the Offeror to provide additional specificity.

K-007

If we would like to submit our proposal by hand on Friday the 20th, how would we do so?

L.5.3.10

The Government will extend the delivery window for hand delivery from 1030 - 1159 to 1030 - 1259. The Government will not accept proposals via hand delivery at any other time/date than that which is specified in Section L.

Yes L.5.3.10

K-008

Can the Government clarify the disconnect in

Section M.2.2 which states, “...non-cost factors, when combined are significantly more important than cost/price." The next paragraph states, "...all evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are more important than cost or price."

M.2.2

Verbiage has been corrected to state, “all evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost/price.”

Yes M.2.2