Instructions to Offerors.pdf

Instructions to Offerors:

The following instructions are for the preparation and submission of proposals to the PAEI solicitation. The purpose of this section is to establish requirements for the format and content of proposals so that proposals contain all essential information and can be evaluated equitably.

Contractor’s are instructed to read the entire solicitation document, including all attachments prior to submitting questions and/or preparing their offer. Proposals that fail to provide information in the format requested may be found unresponsive and may be rejected without further consideration if the Contracting Officer (KO) determines that a significant revision or addendum to the proposal would be required to permit further evaluation.

Proposal Content: Information contained in each attachment shall be complete to the extent that evaluation of each may be accomplished independently of, and concurrently with, evaluation of the other. Your responses must demonstrate that both your firm and personnel can successfully complete this requirement within the outlined parameters.

Attachment # Title 1 Business Coversheet 2 Prior Demonstrated Experience 3 Proposal, including Performance Work Statement (PWS)

Attachment 1: Business Coversheet. The Contractor must submit a coversheet, in PDF format, with the following information:

a) Proposal number

b) Contractor name and mailing address

c) CAGE code, Unique SAM ID, and TIN

d) Contractor POC, phone number, and email address

e) Signature of authorized Contractor representative

f) Acceptance of DCSA terms and conditions

g) Attestation to FAR provision 52.204-24

Attachment 2: Prior Demonstrated Experience. The Contractor shall identify up to (3) previous or current contracts that are most similar in size, scope, and complexity to the work of this acquisition in order to demonstrate its experience in performing this work. This should be the Contractor’s own experience as a prime or subcontractor; experience from a proposed subcontractor shall not be submitted. Proposal shall identify the contract number, total contract value, agency that awarded the contract, and awarding Contracting Officer. The Contractor shall describe how each contract is similar to (and dissimilar to) this work, and shall provide sufficient information related to past or current efforts in sufficient detail to allow the government to assess the contractor’s ability to satisfy the performance requirements of the SOO. The sum total of quoter’s (3) submitted demonstrated experiences must be of at a value commiserate with or above the anticipated value of this requirement.

Attachment 3: Proposal. The Contractor shall submit a proposal that addresses all key elements of the Statement of Objectives (SOO) and how the Contractor plans to fulfill each Government requirement. This proposal must include a Performance Work Statement (PWS) based on the SOO.

The submitted proposal package must cite each point in the SOO when said point is addressed in the documentation. This submitted proposal will be utilized in evaluating responsiveness, responsibility, technical capability, and pricing of the contractor. Pricing shall be submitted as Firm

Fixed Price (FFP) for a Base Year of (1) 12-month period, followed by (4) 12-month Option Periods. Each period of performance allows for a maximum of 3,000 PAEI searches.

Submission: Proposals and questions must be submitted electronically to KO Michael Woolsey, michael.g.woolsey2.civ@mail.mil and CS Heather Grod, heather.r.grod.civ@mail.mil

RFP Issue Date: 05 August 2024 RFP Questions Due: 19 August 2024 Proposal Due Date: 04 September 2024, by 1200 EST

Evaluation Factors:

The Government will make up to (2) awards resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror(s) whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

Proposals will be evaluated utilizing Comparative Analysis. Under Comparative Analysis, no ratings will be assigned. The Government will compare one offeror to another, factor by factor, and then overall at the end. The Government will select the Contractor’s submitted proposal that is best suited to meet the needs of the Government and provides best value based on the evaluation factors when taking price into consideration. The Government will review the proposals utilizing the established evaluation factors and may award to the quoter with other-than the lowest overall price if it is determined to be in the best interest of the Government.

In the event that more than (3) proposals are received, the Government reserves the right to establish a competitive range and only provide a comparative analysis for the (3) proposals that appear to be the best value for the Government.

The following factors and key elements are provided as the Comparative Analysis Evaluation Factors:

1. Past Performance:

a. Reference(s) from current and/or past customers

b. Demonstrated past performance to execute the same or similar services within the past (3) years.

2. Responsiveness:

a. Proposal addresses all points of the Statement of Objectives (SOO)

i. Each point addressed in the SOO must be cited where it can be found in the submitted proposal.

b. Proposal received IAW instructions NLT the date and time notated in the published solicitation

i. Monday, 02 September 2024, 1200 EST

c. Response includes a full acceptance of Solicitation Terms & Conditions and signature of authorized Contractor representative

3. Responsibility:

a. Contractor, partner, and/or sub-contractor must be entirely US owned

b. Contractor’s ability to ingest requests must be available no later than one (1) day after award is fully executed

c. Contractor must be compliant with all laws, regulations, and policies governing the mailto:michael.g.woolsey2.civ@mail.mil mailto:heather.r.grod.civ@mail.mil collection and assessment of PAEI (e.g., Security Executive Agent Directive (SEAD) 4, SEAD-5 guidelines, etc.)

d. Section 508 compliant

e. Ethical solution to requirement:

i. Contractor shall never create dummy profiles, false personas, or use other mechanisms to obtain information not publicly available

ii. All data is assumed to be highly sensitive, including the raw/derived data, the multimedia, and the collection and analytic configuration. Online persona details are assumed to be highly sensitive and have additional security controls applied. Therefore, additional security measure must be adhered to protect data and users

f. Contractor actively registered in SAM.gov and has a UEI

4. Technical Performance:

a. Platform:

i. Requires platform, application, and method for DCSA analysts to receive Publically Publicly Available Electronic Information (PAEI) on subjects of investigation

ii. Able to scrape social media and bespoke websites on demand, extract rich domain and IP information with historical data, and use facial verification to confirm 1-to-1 image association in near real time

iii. Must have ability to modify query fields

iv. Must provide web-based access and have no additional hardware or software to install and/or will not connect to any DCSA system

v. Must be fully functional and be commercial off the shelf (COTS) capability

1. Able to promptly provide routine and as-needed software updates, fixes, releases, upgrades, security alerts, and critical patch updates

a. Able to provide proof of updates, fixes, releases, upgrades, security alerts, and critical patch updates as applicable via email or online portal in the Contractor’s chosen format

vi. Able to conduct audits of queries conducted by each user of this platform

vii. Able to curate multi-lingual PAEI data, with automated translation functions for a variety of different languages

viii. Provide ability to curate data from multiple PAEI data sources:

1. Foreign and domestic social media platforms, foreign and domestic news publications, public arrest and court records, and deep/dark web sources

ix. All data and online personal details (name, email, and passwords) must be stored with encryption to protect user data

x. All links being accessed under this requirement, by Contractor or DCSA, must be anonymized

xi. Able to query behavioral flags which are aligned with the DCSA adjudicative guidelines and issue criteria

xii. Ability for all DCSA users to have access to search history among all other DCSA users

xiii. Contractor platform must be able to purge queries or reports IAW retention criteria

xiv. Platform will not to be used for Continuous Vetting nor Continuous Evaluation efforts or monitoring

b. Delivery of results:

i. Results shall include posts, videos, images, comments, responses, actions, and more on a wide range of PAEI

ii. Should quickly and clearly prioritize concerning content for review and alert analysts

iii. Provide quote detection, risk detection, similarity detection, and in-image text detection that will pivot and build reports constructed using emotions and sentiment based on anticipated risks

iv. Enable users to read the English language within a web-based platform as well as translate conversations and chat messages into English. Users should be able to view original language content and translated content side-by-side

v. Users should be able to obtain PAEI reports which can then be paired down to relevant information

vi. DCSA user must be able to review the factors contributable to the associated confidence percentage for each reported finding

vii. Contractor will deliver PAEI data results and reports based upon DCSA scheduling, queries, and requests

viii. Contractor will promptly deliver all results beginning on the date of the contract performance and throughout the contract life cycle

ix. Monthly invoice must include detailed list of all queries and results provided to DCSA

x. Platform must include the ability for DCSA users to run ad-hoc reports to capture volume, results, and report driven criteria

c. Call or online support services:

i. Available Monday through Friday from 0800 through 1700 EST

ii. Ability to download a log of the support provided within (1) business day to include at minimum, the following:

1. Date of call or online service

2. Ticket number

3. Summary of issues and mitigations

4. Name of Representative

d. Training:

i. Provide training and reference material to DCSA regarding set-up, functionality, and use of the tool or technical capability

ii. Provide training to DCSA concerning updates or changes to the tool or technical capability in order to allow users to maintain their technical proficiency

iii. Provide training on an ad hoc basis within 48-hours of Government request

e. Active maintenance subscriptions:

i. Contractor will provide licenses or user accounts for initial set up and throughout any subsequent staffing changes

ii. Contractor will process any changes due to departures or changes of duty for existing accounts within 48-hours of notification

iii. Contractor shall provide proof of active subscriptions via email to the COR (name to be provided) with the applicable period of performance not later than 48-hours following award

5. Price:

a. The Government will evaluate the submitted proposals and determine that the price is fair and reasonable.

i. Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

ii. A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.