Outbound Technical Questions

Outbound Technical Questions

1. In reference to the SOW section 6 Contractor Requirements, what is the maximum number of image capacity needed on a daily basis? There is no maximum daily capacity, workload is dependent on disaster activity. Review of Disaster Size and Impact scenarios provide historical data from 2008. Please note level of disaster activity will directly impact daily image requirement.

a. During a surge conditions? Same as above.

2. What is the average number of images per day? The number of images per day varies as it is dependent on disaster activity. Please review Disaster Size and Impact scenarios for reference examples.

a. During surge conditions? Same as above.

3. Would FEMA consider permit mail instead of Meter mail depending on the technical response?

At this time, FEMA uses only Meter mail.

4. Please expand upon the 48 turnaround time expectations in the event of a surge at varying levels. The service level remains the same in the event of surge; mail must be printed within 48 hours of its addition to the mail queue.

5. What is FEMA’s expectation of participation in the initial security setup?

a. Personnel perspective?

b. Physical security perspective?

The contractor is required to comply 100% of the time with both physical and personnel security requirements. During initial set-up, contractor will work closely with FEMA Personnel and Physical Security POCs to ensure all requirements are met.

6. Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) questions: IMB use to be determined.

a. What is the expectation of FEMA for the Intelligent Mail Barcode?

b. Will the IMB be incorporated into the mail stream before the print stream is delivered to the mail house: (or will the IMB be generated by the mail house?

c. Will the IMB be used for tracking inbound and outbound mail?

d. Will FEMA leverage the IMB as a "Full service" or "Basic service" option?

e. Will FEMA obtain the "mailer ID" or will the mail processor obtain the "mailer ID"?

7. Does FEMA require written consent / confirmation of change of address from the applicant or is verbal verification acceptable? FEMA addresses this issue through internal processes, outbound mail contractor is not impacted.

8. Please describe the process of how the "Mail Utility" creates the correspondence / documents? By utilizing the Mail Utility application, the outbound mail contractor sends a pre-defined query of letters/documents to be printed. The application then sends database queries to retrieve the requested documents and sends them to the printer.

What format (AFP, RTF, etc.) are the correspondence / documents? Current format is RTF.

What is the volume / speed / frequency of creating correspondence / documents with Mail Utility (per hour, week, or month)? Dependent on disaster activity. Please review Disaster Size and Impact scenarios for reference examples.

9. Section 3, What are the three scenarios we are to address In our Technical Proposals? Disaster Size and Impact Scenarios are now posted.

10. Section 6, How many envelopes do these volumes represent or how many inserts are expected per outgoing mail image? Envelope storage requirement represents volume to support continued outbound mail production without break in service. Number of inserts are dependent on the letter type.

11. Section 6, How many pallets of government furnished supplies are expected to be warehoused? This varies depending on the supply quantities recommended by the oversight office for a specific disaster season.

12. Section 6, what is the NEMIS Mail Utility queue. Software program used by FEMA where generated letters needing to be printed are in queue.

13. Are there some months when the processing volumes may be considerably less than 1,000,000 images? That is possible as processing volume is directly impacted by disaster activity, however the contractor must be prepared to meet service level requirements at all times.

14. Are employees required to be DSS cleared and if yes what is the minimum level?

Contracted employees are required to be e-Qip (electronic questionnaire for investigations processing) cleared at the Public Trust level.

15. Reporting Requirements: can these reports be generated from the GFE software or is the Contractor to develop these reports during transition? The contractor will develop all required reports.

16. Please provide a full listing of all GFE including make and model number. Not Available as this is dependent on each contractor resource.

17. Is the Contractor responsible for maintenance costs on GFE or will the Government secure maintenance contracts that the Contractor will use for ensuring proper operation of the GFE at all times? The government is responsible for non-negligent maintenance cost associated with GFE.

18. Are sample letters and sizes of each insert available? PDF scans are fine for examples.

Can be available. Also please refer to Disaster Size and Impact scenarios.

19. Do the documents to be printed come to the Contractor as a PDF, ready to print or is variable data received or pulled from GFE system, with identifiers to indicate which letter template is to be used? The documents are sent as a windows print job, currently using a Xerox postscript print driver. The documents are not pdf documents. Different letter types are formatted using different templates.

20. How many correspondence documents are used (in other words how many different documents are possible for production)? There are many different correspondence documents sent to applicants. Please see Disaster Size and Impact scenarios.

21. What is the monthly work volume for periods during which there is no declared disaster? Figure cannot be provided as volume varies.