PreProposalQuestionsandAnswersDURINGFINAL.pdf

N02-CO-82402-92

“Computer and Statistical Support Services at the NCI-Frederick”

N02-CO-82403-96

“Scientific Library Services at the NCI-Frederick”

Pre-Proposal Conference

September 25th, 2007

Questions & Answers from Session During the Conference

Questions and Answers:

1. Question about the personnel at the Library: Will there be an opportunity for us to see resumes? What are your indications for staffing? Are you looking totally for new staff?

There is no need to submit resumes for existing staff. We already know about their training and education. We have already provided job titles and descriptions. Their salaries are built into the pricing sheets. During these re-competitions, we try to make it seem as painless as possible for the employees involved, which is why for example we require that their vacation and sick leave balances be carried over and that their benefits not be substantially altered. There is no need to contact them.

2. Following up on that question: Is the assumption that the current employees are all good?

Yes.

3. Is there a list of their names?

No. You don’t need their names.

4. So you are looking for all the existing incumbent staff to be maintained on this?

Under a base proposal, existing staff are to be retained for only the first 90 days (Section L. 1. h.). After the 90 day period you may replace them with new staff at your discretion. The only new person you are going to add is the key person.

If you want to change the non-key staff at the outset, either in configuration, numbers, and/or by direct replacements with new employees then you are in effect proposing an alternate proposal. But, in order to have your alternate proposal considered, you must submit a base proposal. In order to fully evaluate your new non-key staff, we would need their resumes and letters of commitment.

5. When did this bid for the computer show up on the Web? Do you know?

It showed up on the afternoon of September 13th 2007.

6. This bid only has four pages for Statement of Work out of the 78 pages. Also the same company has been winning for all the time for the last few times, are you happy with same?

The length of the Statement of Work is appropriate for this type of contract given the resources both human and physical that will be provided. The incumbents have done outstanding work. We award contracts to firms with the highest rated proposals.

7. Since this is the fifth go-around in small business, have you had new awardees each time or the incumbent been subsequent?

The present computer contractor is Data Management Services, Inc. (DMS).

They received their first award in 1987 and the follow-on awards in 1994 and 2001. Information Management Services, Inc. received the first Computer and Statistical Services Contract in 1982. DMS was awarded the Scientific Library Contract in 1982, 1987, and 1994. They exceeded the small business size standard for library services at the time the Library contract was to be renewed in 2001. Wilson Information Services Corporation received the 2001 award.

8. On the level-of-effort in the proposal, it has categories for professional and other professional. Can you explain the difference? Also it states labor years exclude subcontractor labor years. I am not quite sure what is meant by that.

In the base proposal, all labor is assumed to be performed by the prime Contractor. Subcontract labor when fully burdened by fringe, G&A, and fee and then combined with the prime contract labor costs would exceed the amount for labor in the pricing sheets. In addition, this would also alter the specified labor mix and thus this approach would constitute an alternate proposal. So as far as the difference between professionals and other professionals, the question appears to be focused towards Article F.3.

LEVEL OF EFFORT and the Pricing Sheets. The Pricing Sheets contain 3 categories, Key, Professional (other than Key) and Administrative. These positions are clearly broken out in the Labor Mix chart of the Pricing Sheets.

The tables in F.3. LEVEL OF EFFORT are boilerplate tables that will be updated via this amendment to remove “Other Personnel” and make the tables consistent with the pricing sheets.

9. Can I follow up on your answer on the first part? As a small business set-aside it’s only required that the prime have 51 percent or 50 plus? If the cost is no different, but, it provides access to other resources, is there an objection under the base proposal for the hours to be provided by the prime with the sub?

Even if the cost were not different, the labor mix will be altered and thus this would be considered an alternate proposal. You are not prohibited from proposing with a subcontractor but, in order for this alternate proposal to be considered you must also propose without one for your mandatory base proposal.

10. For the base proposal, you are looking for one Contractor, no

Subcontractor?

There are no subcontractor costs built into the pricing sheets.

11. Has there ever been a subcontract in the library or has it always been one?

We have never had a subcontractor provide part of the level of effort.

12. What is included in the other direct costs?

The Scientific Library directly subscribes to 570 journals and works with the NIH Library to provide access to 5,300 journals that the NIH Library subscribes to.

ODCs for the Library for Year 1 include:

Books $62,920

Subscriptions $1,660,366

Sales tax $83,418

Administrative travel $24,050

Training $15,652

Tuition Assistance $8,320

Subcontracts $29,702

Recruitment $3,120

Freight $52

Printing & reproduction $2,912

Computer Searches $55,380

Dues $2,080

Employee Incentive $14,195

Miscellaneous $208

Materials and Supplies $21,736

Capital Equipment $47,840

Copyright royalties $31,200

Shared services (Publications) $1,560

Shared services (Work orders) $1,144

Microfilm maintenance contract $20,000

Software maintenance $30,740

Mail chargeback $1,352

Property chargeback $338

Computer software & supplies $26,832

13. Are facilities and supplies provided?

Your facility is the physical space that is provided for your operations here at NCI-Frederick. Another thing I am not sure all of you understand is that we have a larger contractor here, the one who you will order your supplies and services through. They will actually pay for them for you out of their special bank account. You don’t use your own corporate funds to pay for materials/supplies. You use your corporate funds for payroll and fringe benefits costs.

14. So why is it that other direct costs are included for the Library if those costs are not paid for by the contractor?

These items and services are ordered and invoiced by the Library Contractor. They are responsible for ordering the correct books, magazines, and other needed materials and services. The funds used to pay the vendors for these costs are paid out a special bank account maintained by our Operations and Technical Support Contractor, SAIC-Frederick, Inc.

15. Is the incumbent allowed to bid (Computer) on this contract, Data Management

Services?

If they are still a small business, the answer is yes.

16. Do (Computer) alternate proposals get equal weight with the base proposals?

They are graded separately. Both base and alternate proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP.

17. Would alternates be seriously considered? I know you have that as an option but the way you set this up, it looks like the base proposals are pretty much the standard way that it has been done. Yet it’s all this innovation that asks for all these new kind of things and if we wanted to bring capabilities, it sounds like base on how you have this laid out, with people, technologies, and subcontractors. It seems to me that the only way you could provide good services is through an alternate proposal. If you would do that, are we going to have an equal playing field there in terms of evaluation?

Yes, it will be seriously evaluated. It is going to get a separate score.

18. Just for verification, on the computer side, the base proposal we are talking about is one person? Why is that, did the contract expire or did that person leave?

Only one key person will be evaluated in a base proposal. The current contract is ending on its scheduled expiration date of September 25, 2008.

19. Do you have some kind of reading room?

We have an electronic version of the reading room which is listed in the RFP.

If you need additional information, you must be specific in your written request.

20. Are you contemplating a pre-award audit of the accounting system?

21. Do the amounts in the pricing sheets include adjustments for inflation/cost-of-living?

Inflation/ cost-of-living adjustments are included in the pricing sheet amounts.

22. On the library services contract – is the Incumbent Contractor eligible to bid? As a small business?

23. Could you elaborate on what kinds of innovation and creativity you are looking for?

The Scientific Library contract and the Computer and Statistical Support contract are supporting the NCI-Frederick which is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). FFRDCs are advantageous to the government as they are called upon to respond rapidly and with flexibility to initiatives that cannot be done as effectively via other government mechanisms. This means that contracts that support the FFRDC must also respond in a similar fashion and this often requires innovation and creativity to do so.

Inclusion of innovation and creativity initiatives MUST be limited to the alternate proposals and not included in the base proposal.

Innovation and creativity, for example, could be demonstrated with regards to the Scientific Library RFP as follows:

• The offeror’s proposed approach to move the Library print collection to a more virtual model including more on-line subscriptions and less print.

• The offeror’s proposed approach for establishing a selection criteria policy for the library books, journals and other reference materials.

• The offeror’s proposed approach for providing training and the development of science related programs for the staff and the public.

• The offeror’s proposed approach to an element of the Statement of Work that the offeror feels has the most potential for additional innovation and creativity.

The following additional information is provided regarding the Library requirement. The Scientific Library directly subscribes to 570 journals and works with the NIH Library to provide access to 5,300 journals that the NIH Library subscribes to. The Library door count in 2007 was 7,311 patrons with an additional 4,328 contacts for reference and research support.

Offerors responding to the Computer and Statistical Support Services RFP could apply innovation and creativity to the following areas:

• The offeror’s proposed approach for monitoring and evaluating new technologies in data processing and identifying innovative, state-of-the-art products and systems; essentially the proposed best practices for technology refreshment.

• The offeror’s proposed approach for the development and implementation of a plan that uses remote access for help-desk calls whenever possible. The approach could include but is not limited to discussion of remote support, support chat, increasing customer satisfaction, tracking service requests, and knowledge management system

• The offeror’s proposed approach for identification of all on-going projects that address customer requests and include a process by which milestones, deadlines for requests could be tracked and how the prioritization of projects/requests could be effectively established.

• The offeror’s proposed approach to an element of the Statement of Work that the offeror feels has the most potential for additional innovation and creativity.

The following additional information is provided regarding the C&SS requirement. There are approximately 5,800 desktops supported by the C&SS contract. About 16% are MAC and 84% are Intel-compatible. Since users share computers in the labs and some users have both platforms, there is no accurate estimate on the percent of users who use each. The average age of the desktops is 4.2 years w/ 39% being greater than 5 years old, 35% being between 2 and 5 years old and 26% being less than 2 years old.

The scientific equipment supported by the C&SS contract is specific to the program areas and requests can be made for IT support and programming assistance on any and all pieces of equipment that have a computer component. The types of equipment support work in areas including but not limited to image analysis, genotyping, sequencing, microarrays, mass spectrometry, chromatography, flow cytometry, and protein technologies.

ODCs for the Computer for Year 1 include:

Training $20,800

Recruiting $2,080

Equipment Repair $3,120

Maintenance and Repair Service $5,200

Subscriptions $3,120

Education Assistance $32,240

Dues $1,040

Books $2,080

Employee Incentive Awards $31,200

Equipment (non-computer) $15,600

Capital Equipment $118,888

Materials and Supplies $93,600

Shared Services (Publications) $13,000

Shared Services (Equipment Maintenance) $40,000

Shared Services (Work Orders) $31,200

Travel $20,800

Other: $3,120

24. Will the questions and answers be e-mailed to us? Are we getting a copy of this DVD that you’re burning?

Questions and the official answers will be included in an amendment to RFP.

The DVD will not be made available.

25. Is there a deadline for sending in additional questions? Or is this going to be it?

With the extension of the proposal submission date to 11/16/07 additional questions shall be submitted no later than November 5, 2007. Please be sure to submit the question(s) in writing via email.

26. Is there any possibility that you can put the DVD in the reading room?

We will not put the DVD in the reading room.

27. Are you going to be posting the list of participants in this conference?

This has been provided in Amendment 2 to the RFP.