Attachment II - Instructions and Evaluation.pdf

Attachment II

NB192020-24-01588

Boulder Gases

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Addendum to 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors –Commercial Items.

The offeror shall include a technical and pricing portion of the submittal for this acquisition. The technical portion of the response shall consist of the offeror addressing each of the factors described below. The offeror shall indicate the company's capabilities and the means to be used to satisfy the requirements of the Statement of Work. The pricing portion of the response shall consist of a breakdown of the pricing described below.

Once the solicitation is closed, the Government intends to award a contract without further communication with respective Offerors. The Government, however, reserves the right to conduct negotiations if deemed in its best interest.

Offer Volume Requirements:

NIST requires one (1) submission via email.

NIST requires two (2) separate volumes for this requirement:

Volume 1 – Technical Offer -

Consists of the actual offer in response to technical capability, product quality, and the offerors tracking system in accordance with their ability to enter a contract to perform the desired work. The proposal shall not merely offer to perform work in accordance with the statement of work but shall outline the actual work proposed as specifically as practical. The statement of work reflects the objective of the program under consideration; therefore, repeating the statement of work without enough elaboration will not be acceptable. The Technical Capability portion of the proposal is limited to 30 single-sided pages (or 15 double-sided pages.) in no smaller than 11 font.

Volume 2 – Price List - Response to price. The offeror shall fill out a fully completed price list (Attachment IV)

Evaluation Criteria:

1. TECHNICAL CAPABILITY: This factor examines the offeror’s demonstrated capability to meet the requirements of the SOW. At a minimum, technical capability will include technical approach, delivery times, quality control, tracking system and IT security. The narrative may include diagrams or charts to explain the process.

Technical Approach:

Required Submittals:

The offeror shall provide a narrative description of the offeror’s technical approach to fulfilling the requirements of the SOW from receipt of gas orders from the government to delivery of the products in a timely manner compressed gases and for specialty gases. The narrative shall identify any factors that may impact the delivery timeline. The narrative shall address the overall approach to maintenance services including, but not limited to the offeror’s decision points in determining when maintenance services are necessary and will be recommended, a clear and concise description of how each maintenance service will be performed and the timeline for completion of each service. The narrative shall address whether the offeror removes the contents of a cylinder or fills on top existing gases when the

Page | 2 fill process is executed. The narrative shall address the technical approach for each of the two categories of gases:

1. Compressed gases.

2. Specialty gases.

Delivery Times:

Submittal Requirements:

The offeror shall submit the gas list (Attachment IV) and clearly identify the delivery times for each specialty gas. (Do not include pricing on the list). Proposed delivery times should balance speed (lowest number of days) with quality and realism.

Plan of Approach to Quality Control:

The narrative shall address the offeror’s plan of approach to ensuring quality control throughout the process from receipt of orders to delivery of gases, for both in-house and specialty, including the quality control process when filling a cylinder.

Tracking System:

A description of the proposed tracking system. The description must clearly describe the offeror’s established tracking system and how it is currently utilized.

A description of the online ordering process.

A description of the system’s ability to maintain all data fields and data input.

A description of the system’s ability to provide tracking of cylinders from NIST to the Contractor’s site and return and maintain the service history of each cylinder.

A description of the system’s ability to perform required reporting.

Confirm delivery of the flat file requirement.

A description of the approach that will be taken to establish NIST as a user of the Contractor’s tracking system and the timeline associated with the approach.

The processes and procedures with respect to security and maintenance of the tracking system.

A list of proposed equipment that will be delivered for use with the tracking system.

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IT Security Requirement:

The Contractor shall submit documentation demonstrating they have FedRAMP authorization or an Authorization to Operate (ATO) letter issued by a Federal Government agency as evidence that they have been assessed and authorized. If using an ATO letter, that letter shall clearly state the impact level (e.g., moderate or high) at which the Contractor has been assessed and authorized.

2. Past Performance Submit no more than three (3) Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQ) (RFP Attachment V) relating to work performed similar to that of this requirement. Similar is defined as a long-term (at least 2 years) agreement to deliver gases, maintain equipment (cylinders, etc.), and a tracking system. The Offeror should provide completed PPQs in the technical submission. If the Offeror is unable to obtain a completed PPQ from a client before the solicitation closing date, the Offeror should complete and submit with the submission the first page of the PPQ, which will provide contract and client information. The Government may make reasonable attempts to contact the client noted for that effort to obtain the PPQ information. However, Offerors should follow-up with clients/references to help ensure timely submittal of questionnaires. If the client requests, questionnaires may be submitted directly to the Government’s point of contact, Julie Morris; julie.morris@nist.gov.

In the event the offeror has completed CPARS (Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System) evaluations for projects they wish to submit for past performance, they may submit a copy of the CPARS evaluation instead of the PPQ.

Offerors may also address any adverse past performance issues. Explanations shall not exceed two

(2) double-sided pages (or four (4) single-sided pages) in total.

The Government reserves the right to contact references for verification or additional information.

The Government’s inability to contact any of the Offeror’s references or the references unwillingness to provide the information requested may affect the Government’s evaluation of this factor.

Performance award or additional information submitted may be considered.

3. Price:

The offeror shall submit a price for each of the gases listed in Attachment IV.

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52.212-2 Evaluation—Commercial Items.

(a) The award will be made to the vendor whose submission represents the best value to the Government. The Government may award to other than the lowest priced Offeror or the highest technically rated Offeror utilizing trade-offs. Pricing will be evaluated separately from technical factors and used as a trade-off. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:

1. TECHNICAL CAPABILITY:

Evaluation of this factor is a subjective evaluation of the offeror’s understanding of the contract requirements (clauses, provisions, and statement of work) and demonstrated ability to successfully complete all the requirements of the statement of work. At a minimum, technical capability will evaluate the offerors technical approach, delivery times, product quality, tracking system and IT security.

Technical Approach: Submittals will be used as a means to subjectively evaluate the offerors demonstrated understanding of the contract requirements (clauses, provisions and statement of work) and demonstrated ability to successfully complete all required tasks, supply all required products and equipment, perform all required maintenance, supply all required cylinder sizes, manufacture, provide testing for and deliver all in-house gases and a wide range of specialty gases, and provide customer service support. Submittals shall be evaluated for compliance with the statement of work and overall feasibility in accomplishing the work. The Government will focus on whether the Offeror has proposed an overall plan, methods, procedures, and resources that can accomplish the requirements of the overall project. The Government preference is for a proposal that demonstrates a high probability of achieving both efficiencies and effectiveness in accomplishing solicitation performance requirements.

Delivery Times:

Submittals will be evaluated in terms of reasonableness and favorableness for timely delivery.

The government will evaluate the delivery times to ensure they are reasonable. This means the time frames proposed are of the fewest days realistically possible. The Government may consider the information in the technical approach narrative to determine the certainty of the proposed timeframes. Shorter delivery times are more favorable.

Plan of Approach Quality Control: Submittals will be used to subjectively evaluate the offeror’s plan of approach to quality control. This will include the manufacturing process for in-house and specialty gases to minimize cross-contamination and meet specifications. The plan of approach will be assessed to determine whether the Contractor remove the contents of a cylinder or fill on top when the fill process is executed, and how does the offeror ensure that the final product will meet all statement of work requirements.

Tracking System: Submittals will be used to subjectively evaluate whether the proposed tracking system meets all requirements of the statement of work. The Government will evaluate:

The online ordering process’s ease of use.

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The system’s ability to maintain all data fields and data input.

The system’s ability to provide tracking of cylinders from NIST to the Contractor’s site and return and maintain the service history of each cylinder.

The system’s ability to perform required reporting.

The system’s ability to provide the flat file requirement.

The approach that will be taken to establish NIST as a user of the Contractor’s tracking system and the timeline associated with the approach will be evaluated to determine and efficient and effective process.

The processes and procedures that demonstrate the offeror’s commitment to the security and maintenance of the tracking system.

The equipment that will be delivered for use with the tracking system to determine if it will be easily accessible (light weight/won’t take up too much space).

IT Security Requirement: Submittals will be evaluated to ensure the offeror has a current FedRAMP authorization or an Authorization to Operate (ATO) issued by a Federal Government agency as evidence that they have been assessed and authorized.

2. PAST PERFORMANCE:

This subjective evaluation focuses on how well the Offeror performed on similar work currently documented in known sources. More emphasis will be placed on more similar work. In addition to the above, the Government reserves the right to obtain information for use in the evaluation of past performance from all sources including sources outside of the Government. Other sources may include, but are not limited to, past performance information retrieved through the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) using all CAGE/UEI numbers of Contractors who are part of a partnership or joint venture identified in the Offeror’s proposal, inquiries of owner representative(s), Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), and any other known sources not provided by the Offeror.

The Government will consider the recency and relevance of the information, the source of the information, context of the data, and general trends in the Contractor’s performance. This evaluation is separate and distinct from the Contracting Officer’s responsibility determination.

The assessment of the Offeror’s past performance will be used as a means of evaluating the Offeror’s probability to successfully meet the requirements of the solicitation.

Offerors lacking similar past performance history will not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably in past performance and will receive a Neutral rating.

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3. PRICE

The price proposals will be evaluated to determine the reasonableness of the overall price and the individual product pricing. The government will perform an analysis of all item pricing.

Analysis will be performed by one or more of the following techniques to ensure a fair and reasonable price.

(i) Comparison of proposed prices received in response to the RFQ.

(ii) Comparison of proposed prices with the IGCE.

(iii) Comparison of proposed prices with available historical information.

(iv) A price / cost that is found to be either unreasonably high or unrealistically low in relation to the proposed work may be indicative of an inherent lack of understanding of the solicitation requirements and may result in the overall proposal being considered unacceptable.

(v) Any inconsistency, whether real or apparent, between proposed performance and price

/ cost must be clearly explained in the price proposal. For example, if unique and innovative approaches are the basis for an apparently unbalanced / inconsistently priced proposal, the nature of these approaches and their impact on price must be completely documented.

Technical Capability is more important than Past Performance. Technical Capability and Past

Performance, when combined, are more important than price.

(b) 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. If the option prices are significantly unbalanced, the Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

(c) 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 there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

(End of provision)