20Q8029_Amend_2.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE EDUCATION ACTIVITY

COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION

AMENDMENT-2: HE1254-21-Q-8029 Research Technical Data Support Service

The referenced solicitation above is revised to incorporate the responses to the questions received.

Questions from Vendors Response

Is there an incumbent vendor? If so, will the Government provide the name, the contract number, and whether the incumbent can compete for this program?

No, there is not an incumbent.

RE: Task 6 states, “…write efficient and well-documented code using DoDEA- approved tools to transform the data from the Operational Data Store into the Data Warehouse Database in a way that meets reporting requirements (either DoDEA-provided or generated by one of the reporting objectives 2.9 or if paired).” Question: Can the Government confirm that they have licenses for all tools and software necessary to execute this program?

All work will be conducted on government-furnished equipment using government-furnished software as detailed in the PWS.

Would the Government consider extending proposal submission due date to August 9?

The proposal due date has been extended until 9 August 2021 by 4:00 PM EDT.

4 p. 24, SOW - Instructions to Offerors - The deadline for the submission of quotes is 4:00 PM EDT on August 2, 2021. Will the Government grant an extension to this deadline?

The proposal due date has been extended until 9 August 2021 by 4:00 PM EDT.

5 p. 64, SOW - Contract Terms and Conditions, (b)(12) - The RFQ does not note that HUBZone small business concerns will be provided price evaluation preference. Since this is a single award IDIQ and not a multiple

The acquisition is solicited as a 100% small business set aside. The Government intends to award a single award IDIQ contract resulting from this solicitation.

6 p. 73, SOW - 1.3 - Scope of Work - The Government describes the current state of the research infrastructure as being in "early stages of development". Can the Government describe if the Data Systems providing the data (e.g., DAI, MMT, Aspen, etc.) have already been integrated into the

Reporting is currently pulling from the lake in the vast majority of cases and directly from transactional sources in a few other cases.

Reporting is currently limited with <50 total reports, most pulling from the copies of transactional source data in the data lake.

Data Lake, and also if any reporting is already being produced by the system?

7 p. 73, SOW - 1.3 - Scope of Work - With respect to the target research infrastructure, is RAE targeting implementation on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or some other cloud-based or on-premise environment?

The current implementation is on-premise with migration to Azure planned as a part of DoDEA IT’s migration from an on-premise data center to Azure.

8 p. 73, SOW - 1.3 - Scope of Work - While in development or once in production, will the vendor be responsible for the operations and maintenance of the research infrastructure including patching, upgrades to products, certificate management, system scans, and backups?

No, the Information Technology team at DoDEA will be responsible for maintenance and operations. However, sufficient documentation to allow assumption of that responsibility is required in all produced products.

9 p. 74, SOW - 2.1 - Objective #1 - In the previously distributed RFI, Objective 1 focused on Project Management. Why did the Government choose to remove Project Management from the final RFQ?

DoDEA felt that the initial response to the RFI reflected an intent to have contractors fully manage the data warehouse effort in DoDEA.

DoDEA has sufficient project management capacity to manage this effort, however we are seeking expert consultative advice on the architecture through one deliverable, and anticipating that the contractor will contract manage each product produced under this IDIQ contract in coordination with DoDEA. The original intent was only to have a single point of contact for the DoDEA COR to bring any challenges with the primary contractor personnel managing each product as a second tier support in ensuring we are meeting the desired outcomes of each product.

10 p. 74, SOW - 2.1 - Objective #1 - Since Govt removed Project Management, and this will involve managing resources, project planning, project deliverables, and QASP, then how does the Government prefer the vendor to provide our project management approach?

Providing the project management approach in the description of a deliverables approach is an appropriate method. Our goal is to ensure the project management approach is sufficient to manage the contractor created deliverables and integrate with our existing efforts, not to perform overarching management of all aspects of the data warehouse / analysis efforts.

11 p. 74, SOW - 2.1 - Objective #1 - From a pricing perspective, for Project Management activities, does the Government prefer that the cost of Project Management be part of the overhead for each of the quoted CLINS?

Yes for project management, additional project management activities/costs are anticipated to be a part of each workstream and should be included in costs. The government will provide substantial dedicated project management capacity to support this effort as well.

12 p. 83, SOW - 5 – Security - Will the vendor be responsible for leading or supporting information security tasks to develop a

The ATO and system security plan are the responsibility of DoDEA. Implementation of strong security practices in each product produced is expected.

System Security Plan or other artifacts needed to achieve an Authority to Operate?

13 p. 84, SOW - 5.9.4 - The RFQ states that a Facility Clearance is required commensurate with eligibility/access: Secret. One of our teaming partners has the facility clearance to hold clearances. Does the Government desire a copy of the DD254 be included in the proposal submission?

No

14 p. 78, SOW - Objective #2C Tasks 2.4.1 (Supporting Task 2) - Objective #2C Tasks

2.4.1 (Supporting Task 2) mentions the use of Stata as DoDEA specified tool. Would other industry standard analysis tools to supplement Stata be acceptable to use?

Other tools can be appropriate, however in cases where delivery of code to automate statistical analysis it is expected that the code delivered will be in the STATA format and run without requirement for other tools. Extensions to STATA are appropriate, and specialized analysis techniques that require a purpose specific product can be supported.

15 p. 78, SOW - Objective #2C Tasks 2.4.1 (Supporting Task 1) - Objective #2C Tasks

2.4.1 (Supporting Task 1) mentions the analysis of data. Will that data be available to the contractor to analyze on their own systems or does DoDEA require that the analysis be conducted in DoDEA’s systems?

? If contractor can us their own systems, are there any security requirements for those systems. Will those system require an ATO from DoDEA?

All work will be conducted on government-furnished equipment using government-furnished software as detailed in the PWS.

16 p. 73, Technical Data Support for Research Infrastructure (Data Warehouse) - Performance Work Statement mentions the Integrated Project Team (IPT) that is developing DoDEA’s Data Warehouse. Can you provide details on the team, namely number of staff and skills?

The IPT is currently five individuals with expertise in project management, database development, data integration, and reporting.

The IPT regularly works with key their personnel in cybersecurity, operations/development, database administration, and reports to the CIO/Chief of RAE on a bi-weekly basis on status efforts.

17 p. 75, SOW - 2.3 Objective #2B: Research – Survey Design - Objective #2B mentions survey design and building of surveys. Can DoDEA provide more information on how the surveys will be conducted? Will they be administered on-line, on paper, via interviews, or a combination of channels? Additionally, who will administer the surveys - DoDEA staff or other contractors/vendors?

DoDEA currently administers surveys using a cloud-based deployment of NoviSurvey. On occasion DoDEA also performs interviews for survey purposes via Microsoft Teams.

Administration will be completed by DoDEA staff.

18 Is there any way the Q&A and submission dates can be extended?

The question due date has expired and will not be extended. The proposal due date has been extended until 9 August 2021 by 4:00 PM EDT.

All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.