QuestionsandAnswersPostedtoFedbizopps011707.doc

Government Responses to Questions submitted on the AT21 draft RFP January 17, 2007 Q194. Do you have a desired/preferred approach to the training?

Government Response: The offeror shall propose the methods of training provided. The Government envisions, but does not require, initial training to be classroom-based and additional individual, user-based training for the Government to use as part of future user orientations.

Q195. PWS requires the contractor provide space for Government personnel in our facility? How many people is the contractor expected to supply space for?

Government Response: One permanent space and up to four part-time spaces.

Q196. If overlapping phases – would you entertain the thought of having the products procured in a separate procurement?

Government Response: The Government determined that purchasing and configuring these tools in a single contract reduces program risk and improves the end-to-end system engineering and integration.

Q197. How much prep time will the contractor have to set up the day of demo? What is the expected duration of the demo?

Government Response: The Government anticipates allowing the contractor one day prior to the demo for set-up. The demonstration is not fully defined at this time; however, the Government anticipates the demo will take up to 8 hours. Requirements for the demonstration will be fully defined in Section L and M of the RFP.

Q198. What is the Governments expectation of the contractor’s participation in defining detailed requirements before implementation?

Government Response: Contractor will be an integral part of the CDD requirements flow down to an actionable level. The IT tools set should be part of the proposal.

Q199: Base fee currently allowed is 0%. Any discussion of creating some base fee for this effort?

Government Response: No. Base fee will not be allowed.

Q200. Reference Section C, Page 49, Paragraph 1 and Section M, Page 106, Paragraph b. (4) Please clarify the Travel CLINs defined in Section C which states travel is Cost Reimbursable, with the definitions in Section M which uses the term “fixed-price per transaction”. Please clarify the use of “fixed price per transaction for evaluation of the Travel CLINs.

Government Response: Travel will be paid on a cost reimbursable basis. See the updated PWS and Section M for details.

Q201. Will there be requirements beyond operational that need to be demonstrated?

Government Response: The demonstration will only include requirements that have been identified in the final RFP but will focus on business process and IT tools.

Q202. Will there be orals presentations in addition to the demos?

Government Response: The demonstrations will include time allotted to describe the IT suite, a short user tutorial, and explanation of how the offeror approached the scenario.

Q203. How would you expect vendors to describe their ability to accelerate in their proposal?

Government Response: Address how you would handle the staffing challenges. Describe technical challenges as well as areas of increased cost and/or cost efficiencies.

Q204. Is there a role for the contractor beyond JDDOC implementation?

Government Response: The CDD identifies requirements beyond JDDOC implementation.

Q205. Any expectation that the work would have to be done in the Scott AFB area?

Government Response: Business process reengineering and change management will require almost daily interaction between the contractor and the Government—most or all of these team members spending the majority of their time at Scott AFB. The IT tools development team is not required to be in the Scott AFB area.

Q206. Will USTRANSCOM make all requirements documentation, performance results, analysis materials, findings, reports and business rules available from the AT21 ACTD to all interested bidders?

Government Response: The Government will release as much documentation from the ACTD as possible, subject to legal and security restrictions.

Q207. Can USTRANSCOM please provide all potential bidders with the current "as-is" processes to better facilitate the bidders to provide a solutions blueprint for the AT21 program?

Government Response: The information that is currently available will be provided with the RFP release, subject to legal and security restrictions.

Q208. Can USTRANSCOM please provide all bidders with a copy of the USTRANSCOM and the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) military utility assessment (MUA) that was conducted for the AT21 program during October and November 2004?

Government Response: The Government will release as much documentation from the ACTD as possible, subject to legal and security restrictions.

Q209. Can USTRANSCOM please provide any and all published documentation, findings and results of the Focus Warfighter Initiative efforts to potential bidders for AT21?

Government Response: The information that is currently available will be provided with the RFP release, subject to legal and security restrictions.

Q210. What study, assessment or methodology did USTRANSCOM base the expected 30% increased staff efficiency projections on, and will it make those findings available to all potential bidders for the AT21 program?

Government Response: The ACTD Military Utility Assessment contains this information and will be released with the RFP, subject to legal and security restrictions.

Q211. The other area we spoke about in our 1-1 was the demonstration requirements. We talked about your requirements for the demonstration to be a horizontal demo where you required the vendors to show the complete end to end solution. Our recommendation along the demo is that you press for all respondents to show this end to end solution atop a live software (no screen shot) capability. We don't believe you can accurately evaluate respondents without ensuring they are demonstrating their true capabilities without giving them this requirement.

Government Response: Agreed. During the demonstration, the Government will introduce additional data to ensure that the bidders are using live tools and not screen shots. See final RFP release, Section M.

Q212. The center of gravity of AT 21 is decision support. Best practices in decision support routinely include discussions of HMI and MMI as integral elements of progressing organizations in both mission effectiveness and efficiency. We did not find any large discussion of HMI or MMI in the PWS or the CDD. How do you see the division of outputs/products between Human-to-Machine Interface (HMI) and Machine-to-Machine (MMI) products and capabilities?

Government Response: This will be part of the system design recommended by the contractor.

Q213. The CLIN structure appears to indicate that in many instances both a base fee and possible award fee would be applicable. It is identified in the award fee plan that the maximum award fee available in an award fee period is 10% of the Development. Is that intended to mean maximum available award fee pool will be 10%? Also was wondering if you have an expected value on what base fee would be for each increment? We have seen these anywhere from 3%-7% of the line item cost.

Government Response: The base fee will be 0%. All profit (fee) will be tied to the contractor’s ability to deliver capability. The Government is targeting an award fee of 10% but will consider a higher proposed award fee on a Best Value basis.

Q214. Section C of the RFP indicates in paragraph 4.12 an OCI consideration to be handled in accordance with FAR 9.5 on future work with the Government. This is a fairly broad statement. Will this OCI restriction apply to all branches of the Government? Will the contractor be allowed to bid on future work that is related if the contractor can demonstrate in an OCI mitigation plan that a satisfactory fire wall is in place so as to not have provided the contractor with and unfair advantage?

Government Response: The OCI restriction is limited to activities and agencies specific to the capabilities provided in AT21. The selected contractor may attempt to bid on related activities if an approved OCI mitigation plan is in place, but this can always be challenged by protest from another company.

Q215. Increment I-III System Attribute, Technical, and Performance, CDD section 6.0 (Table 5, Table 6, etc.):

Q215a. Does AT21 need to achieve these metric values by the end of each Increment or at the end of Increment III?

Government Response: Each metric identified for a specific increment should be met by the end of that increment.

Q215b. Request the Government share the existing values of these metrics and how these metrics are being captured today? This will allow the contractor to gauge the performance improvement requirements needed to achieve targeted thresholds and objectives.

Government Response: The Government is in the beginning stage of capturing these metrics today. Threshold and objective measures were based on commercial industry standards.

Q215c. Is the Government open to the contractor recommending variations to these metrics? Some of the metrics appear to conflict or have operational scenarios/exceptions that will prevent them from being achieved. For example in Table 9, the planned capability about advanced notice for cargo & pax arrival has for air = 7 days and sea = 30 days. What happens if the plan is not done and tendered [and therefore operationalized] that far out. This is will happen. An air shipment may be planned on day 6 [out from delivery], loaded and put in air on day 5 [out from the delivery]. This would violate the 7 day rule. Similar scenarios would be applicable to surface as well.

Government Response: Yes.

Q216. Will there be a technology overview session at the demo?

Government Response: Yes. This will be included as part of the demonstration. See answer to question 197.