N0018923RZ022 Amendment 01 - NLO RFP.docx

N0018923RZ022

SECTION SF 30 BLOCK 14 CONTINUATION PAGE

SUMMARY OF CHANGES

SECTION A - SOLICITATION/CONTRACT FORM

The following have been added by full text:

Q & A N0018923RZ022 Solicitation Questions and Answers

1. PWS Section 10.0 Personnel requirements includes labor categories. However, Sections L and M do not contain any requirements for bidders to provide information about proposed contractor staff either Key or Non-Key. Please confirm that Key Personnel resumes are not required as part of the non-price proposal.

ANSWER: There is no Key Personnel (resumes) requirement as part of this solicitation.

2. Similar to personnel requirements, Sections L and M contain no requirements for a management plan and contract transition in/transition out. Please confirm that bidders are not required to provide a management plan as part of the non-price proposal.

ANSWER: No management plan is required. All submitted proposals shall address all other aspects of the solicitation.

3. Section L requires the use of 12-pt font and states "The only exceptions to the font size requirement shown above are that the headers and footers, tables and matrices, and the "Past Performance Information Form," including any continuation sheets, may be completed with a point size of 10 or greater." Please confirm that fonts used for graphic illustrations may be completed with a 10 point font.

ANSWER: 10-point font is permissible for graphic illustrations

4. Section L (per reference) requires that bidders price out 12,300 GB of storage, including providing a cost per GB. Can DoN confirm that hosting will be invoiced based on actual data volumes hosted and therefore our proposed cost/GB rate should be cost per GB per month to reflect fluctuations in amount of data hosted? Further, paragraph 7.3.4 of the PWS specifies that some storage can be archived. In addition to the 12,300 GB of active hosting can DoN provide an estimate of the volume of archived hosting that will be required in the base and for each option period and confirm that Archived Material can be priced as a separate CLIN from Active Storage?

ANSWER: CLIN 0004 (Data Hosting) is hereby modified in its description to provide the following monthly estimates:

· Active Hosting: up to 12,300 GB

· Nearline: up to 7,000 GB CLIN pricing shall also include all costs associated with PWS 7.3.4.

5. The referenced section indicates the ratio of 0% On-Site (Contractor facility) and 100% Off-Site (Government facility) labor places of performances for all labor categories. However, Sections 9.1 and 9.2 of the PWS indicate that a substantial portion of the work will be performed at the Contractor's site location in the Washington, DC area. Can DoN confirm our assumption that offerors are required to price each labor category with the RFP specified as 100% On-site (Contractor facility) and 0% Off-site (Government facility)?

ANSWER: All RFP sections including this ratio have been revised. For the purpose of cost proposals, please use the following ratio: 85% (contractor’s facility); and 15% (Government/NLO’s spaces).

SECTION B - SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES

CLIN 0004

The CLIN extended description has changed from:

Data Hosting up to 12,300 GB in support of CLIN 0001

To:

Active Hosting: up to 12,300 GB in support of CLIN 0001 Nearline: up to 7,000 GB in support of CLIN 0001 - CLIN shall also include all costs associated with PWS 7.3.4

SECTION L - INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS AND NOTICES TO BIDDERS

The following have been modified:

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS (BEST VALUE/TRADE-OFF)

I. GENERAL

In addition to instructions to offerors contained elsewhere in this solicitation, the following instructions are provided.

Initial proposals and any modifications thereto are to be submitted to the Contracting Office on or before the closing date and time cited elsewhere in the solicitation. All proposals shall be submitted electronically via email as email attachments to the solicitation points of contact, Shane MacWilliams shane.j.macwilliams.civ@us.navy.mil and Mark Damanskis at mark.d.damanskis.civ@us.navy.mil. Any other method of delivery (e.g., hard copy, CD, thumb drive, portal, emailed hyperlink, hand-carried, faxed, through NECO, etc.) will NOT be accepted. Proposals shall be received no later than the DATE and TIME FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS specified elsewhere in the solicitation. Proposals shall comply with the detailed instructions for the format and content of the proposals contained herein; proposals that do not comply may be considered unacceptable and may render the proposal ineligible for award. All electronic files and versions of proposals shall be submitted in Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office Suite (Excel) formats and be in an unlocked and searchable format. The offeror shall be responsible for ensuring that its submissions are virus free.

NOTE: Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation shall be valid for a minimum of 180 days from the solicitation closing date.

Offerors shall submit their proposal in two (2) separate e-mail attachments labelled accordingly as follows:

Volume I Non-Price Proposal

Volume II Price/Cost Proposal

In addition, offers shall include the following in Volume II:

Solicitation cover sheet with appropriate blocks completed by the offeror.

Solicitation pricing pages completed by the offeror

Acknowledgement of solicitation amendments pursuant to FAR 52.212-1 (if not previously acknowledged).

Representations and Certifications completed by the offeror in accordance with instructions contained elsewhere in this solicitation. If the offeror has completed all of the representations and certifications required by this solicitation in SAM (www.sam.gov) in accordance with FAR 52.212-3, then the offeror need not submit the hardcopy Representations and Certifications.

The offeror’s Small Business Subcontracting Plan (this Plan not required for Small Business offerors).

The completion and submission of the above items will constitute an offer (proposal) and will be considered the offeror’s unconditional assent to the terms and conditions of this solicitation and any attachments and/or exhibits hereto. Offerors shall respond to all requirements of the solicitation document. Offerors are cautioned not to alter the solicitation. Any affirmative exception to the material terms and conditions of the solicitation will render the offer ineligible for award. Alternate proposals are not authorized.

Potential offerors are encouraged to carefully review all solicitation requirements and, if they have questions concerning the solicitation, should submit one (1) consolidated list of question(s) concerning the solicitation via email to shane.j.macwilliams.civ@us.navy.mil and mark.d.damanskis.civ@us.navy.mil no later than 12 January 2023 at 1500 Eastern Time (ET) for the submission of questions. Questions should be submitted as early as feasible prior to the above date and time; questions received later may be answered at the discretion of the Navy.

In the event any person who is not a bona fide employee of the offeror participated in the creation, formulation, or writing of any portion of the proposal, a certificate to this effect shall be included in Volume II of the proposal which shall be signed by an officer of the offeror. Such certificate shall identify the name of the person who is not a bona fide employee, that person’s employment capacity, the name of the person’s firm, the relationship of that firm to the offeror, and the portion of the proposal in which the person participated.

Volume I – Non-Price Proposal:

This volume shall address Performance Approach, Past Performance, and Socio-Economic Plan and include all information required for proposal evaluation.

This volume of the proposal shall exclude any reference to the price aspects of the proposal.

Each page of each copy should include the following legend:

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104

Volume II – Price/Cost Proposal:

This volume shall include the completed solicitation pricing pages and a complete and detailed price/cost breakdown with all supporting information. Each page of each copy should include the following legend:

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104

II. REQUIREMENTS FOR PROPOSAL CONTENT

(1) Do not include CLASSIFIED data in your proposal.

(2) Introduction and Purpose - This section specifies the format that offerors should use in proposals submitted in response to this solicitation. The intent is not to restrict the offerors in the manner in which they will perform their work but rather to ensure a certain degree of uniformity in the format of the proposals for evaluation purposes.

(3) Each volume should contain the following items in addition to the other information required by this solicitation:

DUNS and CAGE of offeror

Table of Contents: The table of contents should provide detail sufficient to allow the important elements to be easily located.

(4) Requirements for Style: Each offeror shall submit a proposal that clearly and concisely sets forth the contractor’s response to the requirements of the solicitation. Unnecessary elaboration or other presentations beyond that sufficient to present a complete and effective proposal are not desired and may be construed as an indication of the offeror’s lack of cost consciousness. Elaborate artwork, expensive paper or bindings, and expensive visual or other presentation aids are neither necessary nor desired. The proposal shall contain all the pertinent information in sufficient detail in the one area of the proposal where it contributes most critically to the discussion. When necessary, the offeror shall refer to the initial discussion and identify its location within its proposal.

(5) Page Limitations

Volume I, “Non-Price Proposal,” is limited to a maximum of TWENTY-THREE (23) pages in length inclusive of any charts, diagrams, and/or other graphics. Each “page” is defined as one sheet, 8 ½” x 11”, with at least one inch margins on all sides, using a font with a point size of 12 or greater (e.g., "Times New Roman" style with 12-point font). Lines shall, at a minimum, be single-spaced with Microsoft Word Normal character spacing. Pages shall be consecutively numbered. Multiple pages, double pages, two-sided pages, or foldouts will count as an equivalent number of 8 ½" x 11" pages. The cover sheet and table of contents (not to exceed one (1) page per volume) will not count toward the page limit. The only exceptions to the font size requirement shown above are that the headers and footers, tables and matrices, and the "Past Performance Information Form," including any continuation sheets, may be completed with a point size of 10 or greater. Pages submitted in excess of the page limitations described above will not be evaluated. The Navy may exercise discretion in determining which specific pages are considered to be in excess of the page limitations.

(Use Past Performance Information Form attached to the solicitation) Socio-Economic Plan 2 pages

Volume II, “Price/Cost Proposal,” is not page limited. However, the price proposal is to be strictly limited to price information (and the completed solicitation documentation).

III. PROPOSAL CONTENT

(1) Volume I – Non-price Proposal

Each page of each copy of Volume I should include the following legend:

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104

The Non-Price proposal consists of the following evaluation factors: Performance Approach, Past Performance, and Socio Economic Plan, with Past Performance and Performance Approach being of equal importance, and the Socio-Economic Plan significantly less important than the other factors.

The Non-price evaluation factors are listed below:

(a) Performance Approach

The offeror shall provide a Performance Approach that will successfully accomplish the requirements of the solicitation, including the PWS tasks. The offeror shall address the following six areas in detail. Specifically, the offeror’s responses shall include its approach to accomplishing the tasks in accordance with PWS requirements, identifying the necessary labor and non-labor resources it will leverage to be successful, and shall include any other information the offeror considers relevant. The offeror shall also identify how its approach would vary, if at all, depending on whether the matter at issue is a contracts case, an environmental case, or a Civilian Personnel law case.

1. Document Collection, Production, and Scanning: The offeror will be expected to assist the Navy trial teams to respond to document production requests. The Navy’s documents and personnel are located at various locations within the continental United States as well as overseas. The offeror shall describe its approach to formulating a discovery plan to collect copies of hard copy documents, as well as electronic files and numerous e-mails. Documents and e-mails may be maintained on the desktop computers of Navy personnel who were associated with various contracts, or on their assigned external hard drives. The offeror shall describe its approach to scanning, preserving and hosting documents that will be required to be produced in response to production requests. In the event that potentially relevant documents and emails have been deleted from desktop computers, or are unable to be accessed on an external hard drives, the offeror shall describe its approach to advising on how to handle the Navy’s discovery obligations as to these documents and e-mails. This includes addressing e-mails that may have been lost during the recent transition to Flankspeed Teams.

2. Privilege Review: Our trial teams must review government documents for Attorney-Client Privilege and Attorney Work Product before producing them to the other side. The offeror shall provide its approach to addressing a privilege review conducted solely by contractor personnel, and/or a recommendation for a privilege review conducted jointly by contractor personnel and the Navy attorneys assigned to the case.

3. Discovery Response and Deposition Support: Our trial teams must evaluate highly voluminous document production responses quickly and efficiently, in order to prepare for depositions and to support any dispositive motions. The offeror shall detail its approach to ensuring that any potentially harmful documents are provided to the trial teams in order to be reviewed by the appropriate Navy witnesses. Additionally, the offeror shall detail its approach to ensuring that the most pertinent documents to support the Navy’s motions practice (e.g. motion for summary judgment) are identified, prioritized and attached as exhibits to any resulting motion.

The offeror shall also provide its approach to identifying the most appropriate witnesses for depositions and shall detail how they will ensure that witnesses are asked questions about the most probative documents. The offeror’s approach shall provide detailed information regarding how its deposition support team will prepare notebooks, information, input for questions, and discovery areas.

4. Expert Support: The offerors must work in close collaboration with the Navy’s expert firms, to ensure that the Navy’s experts are granted access to all the databases required to support their work on cases; while simultaneously ensuring that experts do not have access to databases and documents that are not pertinent to the matter they are supporting. The offeror’s proposal shall provide a plan to meet these objectives and describe internal controls.

5. Trial Support: The offeror will provide all facilities and equipment needed to support our trial teams, whether they are engaged in virtual or live hearings. Trials may last weeks to months at a time. The offeror will provide dedicated personnel to assist during trial. Trial support personnel will be required to make specific recommendations regarding approaches to trial presentations. The offeror shall detail its approach to ensuring that the most pertinent documents to support the Navy’s motions practice (e.g. motion for summary judgment) are identified, prioritized and attached as exhibits to any resulting motion. Additionally, the offeror shall detail its plan to ensure success with trial presentation support, to include electronic and media support. The offeror must also describe its plan to address, troubleshoot and overcome any intermittent connectivity challenges in both virtual and live hearings (where electronic exhibits are to be presented).

6. DoD Provisional Authority: In accordance with the PWS, the offeror shall maintain a DoD Provisional Authority (PA) at Cloud Impact (IL) 4 or higher, and any cloud services needed to fulfill the requirements of this contract will be PA (IL) 4 compliant. The offeror shall demonstrate in its Performance Approach that it possesses a DoD PA at (IL) 4 or higher, and describe how it will ensure that any cloud services needed to fulfil the requirements of this contract will be PA (IL) 4 compliant.

(b) Past Performance

The offeror shall demonstrate relevant past performance or affirmatively state that it possesses no relevant past performance. Relevant past performance is performance under contracts or efforts (within the past five years) that is of similar scope, magnitude, and complexity to that which is described in the solicitation. The Government will evaluate the relevant references submitted under Past Performance factor. Only a single set of up to three references shall be submitted.

The offeror should address its past performance in complying with requirements of the clauses at FAR 52.219-8, "Utilization of Small Business Concerns," and 52.219-9, "Small Business Subcontracting Plan."

(c) Socio-Economic Plan

The offeror shall address the extent of participation of small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, historically black colleges or universities and minority institutions, veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and HUBZone small businesses in performance of any resultant contract. The solicitation, however, does not require participation by such entities. The offeror shall provide targets, expressed as dollars and percentages of total contract value, for small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, historically black colleges or universities and minority institutions, veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and HUBZone small businesses in any of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Major Groups as determined by the Department of Commerce. The targets may provide for participation by a prime contractor, joint venture partner, teaming arrangement member, or subcontractor. Targets will be incorporated into and become part of any resultant contract.

If the offeror fails to provide targets for the contract and/or any of the seven socio-economic factors, the offeror's proposal will be evaluated at zero percent and/or zero dollars for the contract and/or any socio-economic factor for which a target is not provided. However, an offeror that provides no socio-economic plan in response to this factor may be considered ineligible for award.

(2) Volume II – Price/Cost

Each page of each copy of Volume II should include the following legend:

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104

Volume II shall include the completed solicitation documents and a complete and detailed price/cost breakdown with all supporting documentation. An offeror's cost proposal shall be based upon the level of effort, education and minimum experience information described in the solicitation.

The price/cost proposal shall support the Non-price proposal. If the price/cost proposal does not support the Non-price proposal, the offeror’s proposal rating may be downgraded. The price/cost proposal shall include all elements of cost and such other cost information as considered appropriate to support the offeror’s proposal. The cost and pricing information shall be completed in accordance with the following:

(a) Separate cost and pricing information shall be submitted for each time period specified in the pricing pages of the solicitation (base year plus four option years)

(b)

· The direct rates and hours for the labor categories found in Section B, Level of Effort clause, including how they were developed

· The hosting cost per year for 12,300 GB of storage and the cost per GB.

· The fringe and overhead rates, including how they are applied to the direct labor

· G&A rates

· The fixed fee, which should be derived by applying the rate of the fee to only the burdened labor costs, not the Other Direct Costs (ODC’s)/Travel

· The Government provided amount for ODC’s and Travel found below, plus any G&A or material handling fees on ODC’s and Travel, if applicable (as identified in paragraph d below)

(c) For proposal purposes, the following ratios of On-site (Contractor facility) and Off-site (Government facility) labor places of performance are established for all labor categories:

(d) The following amounts (plus applicable G&A and Material Handling) will be utilized by the Government for evaluation purposes only in determining the total evaluated cost of a proposal.

Travel and ODC’s: $70,000 and $50,000 respectively for the base year and each option period.

(i) Travel estimated above is for travel and subsistence associated with performance under any resultant contract which will be reimbursed in accordance with the clause entitled “Reimbursement of Travel Costs.”

(ii) Material estimated above is for incidental material and special materials as defined in the clause entitled, ”Allowability of Material and General Business Expenses” and elsewhere in the solicitation.

(iii) Any offeror having an accounting system which includes, within overhead or G&A, travel and/or material shall specifically state this fact within the price proposal.

(e) Any and all subcontracts identified in the non-price proposal shall be identified and priced in the price/cost proposal. Subcontracts (regardless of dollar value) shall be adequately documented. Subcontractor price/cost breakdowns may be submitted in separate emails.

NOTE: The prime contractor shall provide a list of all its subcontractors, the type of contract it will hold with each subcontractor (i.e. CPFF, FFP, LH, etc.), the value of each subcontract and the cognizant Security Office (name, address, and identification code) for each subcontractor.

The quoter shall demonstrate that, as required by FAR 16-301-3(a)(3), its accounting system is adequate for determining costs applicable to the contract. If the quoter has an accounting system that has been determined by DCAA to be adequate for a cost reimbursement contract, the quoter should provide documentation of DCAA’s determination. If a quoter's accounting system has not been determined, by DCAA, to be adequate for determining costs applicable to cost reimbursement contracts, the quoter will be considered ineligible for contract award.

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