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HSHQDC-15-R-00148
Amendment 1: Questions and Answers
DRAFT SOLICITATION QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
| 1 | |
| Could you provide a sample of some of the 50,000 sources, and the deposition of the source types (blogs, forums, news, social media, etc)? | |
| http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/ |
http://bioprepwatch.com/ http://www.who.int/feeds/entity/csr/don/en/rss.xml http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php http://www.promedmail.org/ http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/ http://resiliencesystem.org/ http://outbreaks.globalincidentmap.com/home.php https://flutrackers.com/forum/ http://empres-i.fao.org/eipws3g/#h=1 http://www.oie.int/wahis_2/public/wahid.php/Diseaseinformation/WI http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/category/33/food-safety/ http://www.thejakartapost.com/ http://allafrica.com/
| 2 |
| What’s the difference between “indexed every 12 hours, at a minimum” and “update content on an hourly basis, at a minimum”? Depending on the meaning, this could greatly change the scope of effort. |
| Each source must be indexed (i.e., information collected from a source) every 12 hours, minimum. It is assumed that not all sources will be indexed at the same time, therefore, content for the feed from all sources collectively should be updated at least hourly |
| 3 |
| The SOW notes that no development should be required and that data must be provided 2 weeks from DOA; What is the planned award date. |
| The planned award date is no later than September 30, 2015. |
| 4 |
| “Contractor shall implement ad-hoc requests […] within 48 hours of request.” Please confirm this if 48 business hours. |
| This is 48 hours, or 2 days, total – not limited to business hours. When a novel disease emerges, it is important for NBIC to be able to modify its search quickly to support its biosurveillance mission. As an example, before the emergence of human cases of H7N9 influenza in China in 2013, “H7N9” was not a disease of interest. It was important to be able to quickly adapt to include “H7N9” related content. |
| 5 |
| "Contract shall provide a written or oral response to the Government within 2 hours of receipt of a technical problem/concern." Please confirm this is 2 business hours. |
| Yes, this is 2 business hours. |
| 6 |
| Will NBIC provide the list of 50,000 independently published on line data sources for the contractor to search? |
| The SOW states the requirement that “Data feed is available for immediate delivery without development (i.e., Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 or higher).” The contractor must provide access to a minimum of 50,000 independent sources as part of immediate delivery. The feed should supply sources providing global coverage of available open source information primarily reflecting indigenous news media outlets. NBIC guidance will subsequently help refine the source list, as necessary. |
| 7 |
| In support of the automated system 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 days per year coverage, will the Government accept Analyst coverage during normal business hours and persistent monitoring by a technology with alert systems for remainder of the day? |
| This solicitation is for an automated real-time feed to be delivered 24/7/365. The quality of the feed should be consistent throughout the entire day. |
| 8 |
| To meet the requirements for translation within 2 hours, will the Government accept machine translation of identified documents? |
| Yes, machine translation is acceptable. |
| 9 |
| Please describe in further detail the requirement for how the Government would like the specific data items to be conveyed as to format, frequency and time of day? |
| The Government requires receipt of the data feed via SecureRSS, structured so as to contain the metadata listed in the SOW requirements: |
· Filters, tags, and curates information prior to delivery so that at minimum, a short synopsis of information contained in a single article, along with a link to the original web-hosted article is made available.
· Convey structured, event-based information including, but not limited to the specific disease/agent, location, time stamp of the original publication, and details and/or significance of the event derived from the reporting source For frequency/time of day, the answer to Question 2 above applies: “Each source must be indexed (i.e., information collected from a source) every 12 hours, minimum. It is assumed that not all sources will be indexed at the same time, therefore, content for the feed from all sources collectively should be updated at least hourly”
| 10 |
| Does the Government require direct licensed “hands-on” access to the system or just access to the data generated by the system? |
| The Government requires access to the data generated by the system. |
| 11 |
| It is understood that the Government will receive data generated by the system for use as it desires. The requirement for Government Purpose Rights suggests that the Government expects contract funds to be applied to the development of the system. Please explain the applicability of Government Purpose Rights in relation to a fully developed system that a Contractor may utilize? |
| The Government Purpose Rights clause has been removed from the SOW. Please data rights clauses included in the RFP. |
| 12 |
| Will the contract type be Time and Materials or Firm Fixed Price? |
| Firm Fixed Price. |
| 13 |
| As this procurement appears to be well suited for small business, does the Government plan on making this a small business set aside? |
| No. |
OFFICIAL SOLITATION QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
| 14 |
| As there are different Place of Performance requirements stated in both the RFP and SOW please clarify the difference in Section F of the RFP (states – various locations throughout the continental United States) from paragraph 4.2 of the SOW (contractor’s offsite location(s))? |
| The Place of Performance is the contractor’s offsite location. The RFP has been revised accordingly. |
| 15 |
| As there are different invoice requirements stated in both the RFP, Section G and SOW, paragraph 4.5, it appears that the RFP is the most specific and maintains precedence over the SOW invoice requirements. Please confirm. |
| The invoicing instructions are now consistent in both the RFP and the SOW. |
| 16 |
| FAR 52.212-1(a), North American Industry Classification (NAICS) code and small business size standard on page 40 of 48 of the RFP states that the small business size standard appears in Block 10 of the SF1449 however, there is no SF1449 provided with the solicitation. It also states a size limitation of 500 employees if the offeror is not the manufacturer. |
a. The answer to question number 13 from the draft solicitation states that this is not a small business set-aside, please clarify.
b. Please provide an SF1449, or if not required, please provide further instructions.
The NAICS code for this requirement is listed in the FBO posting. In addition, it has also been included on page 1 of the RFP: “518210 -- Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services.”
a. In reference Page 40 of 48: This is not a small business set aside. However, the language you’re referring to in 52.212-1(a) is standard commercial clause language. Even though this is not a set-aside, the government requires this information for reporting purposes, allowing us to monitor our small business goals throughout the year. For every contractor that submits a proposal, we check your Reps and Certs to see if your company qualifies as a small business under the respective NAICS code for that solicitation. The Agency will still receive credit for awarding to a small business, regardless of whether or not the requirement is a small business set-aside.
b. An SF 1449 will not be provided.
| 17 |
| FAR 52.212-1(c), Period for acceptance of offers states a 30 calendar day price validity period and 52.212-1, Addendum to Instructions to Offerrors – Commercial Items on page 44 of 48 states a minimum of 120 calendar day price validity period. Please clarify. |
| “52.212-1(c) states, “The offeror agrees to hold the prices in its offer firm for 30 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of offers, unless another time period is specified in an addendum to the solicitation.” |
The minimum is 120 calendar days as stated in the addendum.
| 18 |
| Are any of the specified sources, such as trade media, subject matter expert sites, or independently published online data sources depending upon user credentials to access? Specifically, do they require a username/login or some other form of electronic credentials? |
| No - the requirement is for information from open, publicly available sites/sources. |
| 19 |
| Are any of the aforementioned sources considered external data? As in, are they downloaded and intended to be searched in an offline location (shared folder, etc.)? |
| No – the requirement is for online data sources. |
