RFP_Proposal_Instructions.pdf

A. ADDENDA to FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items (Feb 2012)

1. PROCUREMENT TIMELINE:

Request for Proposal (RFP) Released: 08/30/2017 Technical & Business Proposals due: 09/06/2017

2. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

SOLICITATION TECHNICAL INQUIRIES AND QUESTIONS

The Government’s responses to the questions will be posted to FBO.gov. Please be advised that the Government reserves the right to transmit those questions and answers of a common interest to all prospective Offerors.

SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDE

Only proposals submitted by small businesses (certified as a small businesses under NAICS 541511 at the time of proposal submission) will be accepted by the Government. Any proposal that is submitted by a contractor that is not a certified small business will not be considered for award. The Contracting Officer will rely on the Small Business status contained in the System for Award Management (SAM) for size status under NAICS 541511.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Proposals must be submitted electronically via email to Patrick Forgione at Patrick.Forgione1@cms.hhs.gov and cc to Lyandra Emmanuel at Lyandra.Emmanuel@cms.hhs.gov, on or before the RFP closing date of September 6, 2017 at 10:00am Eastern Standard Time. Offeror’s proposal MUST state the CMS solicitation number in the proposal submission.

FORMATTING

Page size 8.5 by 11 inches with 1 inch margins. Paragraphs single spaced. Minimum font size/style 10 point Times New Roman font for Text, 9 point font in the Arial family for Tables, and 8 point font in the Arial family for Graphics. Tables and graphics may be landscape; all other text must be portrait.

If the offeror uses a different format (font size, margin, etc.), the government reserves the right to adjust the proposal to fit the parameters of the format as stated in the RFP, and if this results in the proposal exceeding the page limitations in any one area, the government will not consider those excess pages.

The submission will consist of two (2) parts: Technical and Cost/Price proposal

SECTION I - TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

The following information provides instructions for submitting a written technical proposal for the award of a Task Order to purchase, install and configure hardware and software to create a test ESS network.

CMS is looking to enhance the ESS in such a way that configuration changes can be made and tested before committing them to the current ESS production system.

Proposals that simply repeat the requirements or state “we will conform to the requirements as stated” are not acceptable and will be considered non-responsive.

Please follow the format outlined below and tab and label each section including the title.

mailto:Patrick.Forgione1@cms.hhs.gov mailto:Lyandra.Emmanuel@cms.hhs.gov

1. Technical Proposal shall be comprised of the following elements (Please note, page limits are specified for each element listed below):

A. Table of Contents (no page limit): The Offeror shall include a Table of Contents that identifies and clearly labels the various sections of the technical proposal.

B. Executive Summary (1 page limit): The Offeror may include a standard executive summary limited to one page.

C. Technical Approach (10 page limit):

Technical Approach: The Contractor shall demonstrate a thorough understanding of the requirements and objectives in the Statement of Work.

The contractor demonstrate the ability to purchase, deliver, install and configure hardware and software of the type and quantities outlined in Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C in the Statement of Work.

D. Past Performance (no page limit)

a. Definitions:

Relevant – Relevant past performance information is described in FAR 42.1501, General. For the purposes of this solicitation, ‘relevant’ is also past performance information which is similar in size, scope and complexity to this contract.

Significant Subcontractor – A subcontractor performing major or critical aspects of the requirements relevant to the prospective contract.

b. Instructions:

The Offeror and all its significant subcontractor(s) identified in the proposal are required to provide a summary to disclose all of the following for the past performance information with a period of performance end date within the past 3 years of the date of this solicitation:

1. All CMS contracts/task orders greater than the simplified acquisition threshold.

2. All relevant contracts/orders entered into with:

• Other Federal Government Agencies,

• State Agencies,

• Local Governments, and

• Commercial Customers

The Offeror’s and proposed significant subcontractor(s) summary shall provide the following information.

• Customer or Agency,

• Contract number (if applicable),

• Point of Contact (Contracting Officer or other for Commercial Contract),

• Approximate total contract value,

• Contract period of performance, by base and option year(s),

• Description of contracted services/supplies, and

• Relevant (Y/N) o If the past performance is relevant, how the disclosed contract is’s past performance information relevant to the subject solicitation.

• Additional Info: If performance was documented as less than satisfactory, the Offeror shall provide a summary of the identified issues, steps taken to resolve the problem and processes in place to improve future performance.

The below table should be used when providing a summary of the past performance information:

Customer (Agency)

Contract # POC Total Contract

Value

Period of Performance

Description of Services/Supplies

Relevant (Y/N)

Additional Info

Offerors and proposed significant subcontractors without relevant Federal government past performance experience may ask customers to submit no more than three (3) Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) for the same or similar work directly to the Contracting Officer. It is the responsibility of the Offeror to ensure timely return of any/all PPQs to the Contracting Officer in accordance with the proposal due date and time established within this solicitation. Contracts may include those entered into with the State/Local Governments and/or commercial customers.

E. Section 508 Product Accessibility Template (PAT) (no page limit)

The Offerors must demonstrate their compliance with the applicable Section 508 standards. This includes submitting the completed HHS Section 508 Evaluation Template; Information about Section 508 is available at http://www.section508.gov/

HHS Section 508 Product Assessment Template will be evaluated to determine whether the Offeror is capable of meeting the section 508 compliance requirements. The Offerors must demonstrate their compliance with the applicable Section 508 standards. This includes submitting the completed HHS Section 508 Evaluation Template; Information about Section 508 is available at http://www.section508.gov/

SECTION II – BUSINESS PROPOSAL (no page limit) The price quote shall include the following:

• Firm, fixed price for hardware, software and support services

• Assumptions, conditions, and exceptions

The Government anticipates Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) award. Refer to Statement of Work for Period of Performance for each task. Offerors will provide supporting documentation to back up the pricing proposed by providing a detailed breakdown of each item in Appendix A, B and C in addition to the support services. Please provide the labor categories, labor hours, and labor rates for the support services.

Submit all (if any) assumptions, conditions, or exceptions with the statement of work. If not noted in this section of your business proposal, it will be assumed that the Offeror proposes no assumptions for award, and agrees to comply with all of the terms and conditions as set forth herein. It is not the responsibility of the Government to seek out and identify assumptions, conditions, or exceptions buried within the Offeror’s business proposal.

Organizational Conflict of Interest To the extent that the Offerors (including proposed subcontractors) identify any pre-award organizational or personal business, investment or other interest that could give rise to an Organizational/Personal Conflict of Interest (hereinafter collectively or individually referred to as COI) on the contract resulting from this solicitation, the Offerors (including proposed subcontractors) shall explain the actions it intends to use to address such COIs, e.g., by submitting a mitigation plan and/or accepting a limitation on future contracting. Discretion rests with the Contracting Officer to determine whether a COI exists and whether it has been adequately addressed.

A. EVALUATION CRITERIA

The Government will select the offer based upon an assessment of the offeror’s technical and business proposals that, in the Government’s estimation, provides the best value (i.e., is most advantageous to the Government; technical, cost/price and other factors considered). The Government seeks to award this task order to the offeror(s) who gives the Government the greatest confidence that it will best meet or exceed the requirements for a fair and reasonable price. The Government will use a tradeoff process to determine which offeror provides the best overall value to the Government. The “Tradeoff Process” could involve awards to other than the lowest priced offerors or to other than the offerors with the highest ranked technical proposal. CMS considers the non-cost evaluation factors (Technical Factors), when combined, to be significantly more important than price. However, as the degree of technical equality increases between proposals, price will become more important. The Government reserves the right to perform price analysis to determine if the offeror’s quote demonstrates an understanding of the requirement and/or risk of poor performance.

The Government reserves the right to evaluate proposals and award task orders without discussions with offerors. Therefore, the offeror’s initial proposals should contain the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. The Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if the Contracting Officer later determines them to be necessary.

This procurement is for the award of a single contract, on a competitive basis to an offeror.

Technical Evaluation The Government will evaluate and rate the written proposal using an adjectival rating methodology, with considerations of strengths, weaknesses, deficiencies, and risks. The written technical proposal should provide all information necessary to properly evaluate the proposals in accordance with the evaluation criteria.

Factors Factor 1: Technical Approach Factor 2: Past Performance Factor 3: Price Factor 4: Section 508 Product Accessibility Template (PAT) Factor 5. Organizational Conflict of Interest

A description of each technical evaluation factor for this requirement is listed below.

Factor 1: Technical Approach The Government will evaluate the offeror’s ability to clearly and concisely articulate their technical understanding and staffing approach to meet the Statement of work objective and requirements.

Factor 2: Past Performance The government will evaluate the Offeror’s and proposed significant subcontractor(s) past performance information (See submission for definitions of relevant and significant subcontractor), which is expected to demonstrate the likelihood that the prospective contract will be performed successfully.

The CO reserves the right to limit its review of past performance information to what he/she has been determined to be relevant. The Offeror is advised that the Contracting Officer, using sound business judgment, may consider Federal contract past performance to be more relevant than State Agencies, Local Government or Commercial Customer performance assessments.

In the case of an Offeror without a record of relevant past performance, or for which information on past performance is not available, the Offeror’s Past Performance may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably.

Factor 3: Price - Business Proposal Evaluation CMS will perform price analysis on the Electronic Security System (ESS) System Refresh business proposal. The Government will perform a price analysis to determine if each Offeror’s price is fair and reasonable.

The following factor will be evaluated for acceptability:

Factor 4: Section 508 Product Accessibility Template (PAT) In accordance with the terms of the Provision entitled "Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility (January 2010)" HHSAR Provision No. 339.201-70(a), the Government is seeking to determine that EIT products and services proposed support applicable Section 508 accessibility standards http://www.section508.gov/.

Offerors will be evaluated on the following factors:

1. The submission of the Product Accessibility Template (PAT).

2. Ability to demonstrate compliance with the established EIT accessibility standards.

Factor 5: Organizational Conflict of Interest

1. In the event that Business Ethics, Organizational and Personal Conflicts of Interest (hereinafter collectively or individually referred to as COI) and/or Compliance information is required and/or submitted, it will be reviewed for the apparent successful Offeror, but not receive a score/rating.

Business Ethics, Conflict of Interest and Compliance Submission by Offeror/Contractor, Attachment J.3, and the information contained therein, will be reviewed by the Contracting Officer, in accordance with contract section H.1 and the Evaluation Criteria of this solicitation, in order to make a determination whether the Offeror meets the COI requirements. Additionally, the Contracting Officer may use other information, besides that disclosed by the Offeror, in the Contracting Officer’s evaluation of conflicts of interest.

2. In accordance with FAR 9.504(e), “The contracting officer shall award the contract to the apparent successful Offeror unless a conflict of interest is determined to exist that cannot be avoided, neutralized or mitigated. Before determining to withhold award based on conflict of interest considerations, the contracting officer shall notify the contractor, provide the reasons therefor, and allow the contractor a reasonable opportunity to respond.”

3. The Government will not enter into a contract with an entity that CMS determines has, or has the potential for, an unresolved COI unless CMS determines that it is in the Government’s best interest to do so. If the Contracting Officer finds that it is in the best interest of the United States to award the contract, notwithstanding an unresolved conflict of interest, a request for waiver shall be submitted by the Contracting Officer in accordance with FAR 9.503.

4. In cases where conflicts of interest cannot be avoided, neutralized, or mitigated satisfactorily, or waived when it is in the Government’s best interest to do so, the Contracting Officer shall preclude the Offeror from consideration for contract award.