RFI Questions and Responses - OCPO BPA.pdf

RFI Questions – Responses OCPO BPA

Question No.

Document Page Section Text Questions/Comments Response

1. RFI Is there an incumbent on this contract? If so, please provide the incumbent name, current contract number, Period of performance, value of the contract.

If new, then please provide the estimated level of efforts?

2032H5-23-F- 00449 Anika Systems Incorporated 8/1/23 – 7/31/24

2032H5-23-C- 00042 Think Tek LLC 7/21/23 – 7/20/24

2032H8-23-C- 00027 Summome Native Ventres LLC 9/18/23 – 9/17/24

2032H8-22-F- 00222 Acquisition Solutions Eagles

LLC 9/29/22 –

9/28/24

2032H18-23-C- PCI Government Services LLC 2/15/23 – 2/14/25

2. RFI Can we showcase our experience, approach, and resource expertise in lieu of past performance?

The IRS is looking for capability statements to determine an acquisition strategy.

3. RFI Would you be open to a concise overview of our innovative services and solutions, which have the potential to significantly reduce project costs by up to 50%?

The contractor has 10 pages for a response; however, the IRS is interested in innovation.

4. RFI Section 2 – Relevant Contracts

Do we understand correctly that you expect relevant information for one contract for each of the 10 service areas (if applicable)?

Contractors can provide examples for one or all the service categories, if applicable.

5. RFI Section 2 – Relevant Contracts The “relevant information” instructions limit the response for each contract to 1 page maximum.

Does this restriction mean that the maximum number of pages for the Section 2 response is 10 pages (1 page per service area contract example)?

The restriction is 10 pages in total.

The vendor doesn’t have to provide an example in each service area (see Amended RFI).

Responses are only needed for the service areas that vendor is interested in bidding on.

6. RFI Section 2 – Relevant Contracts

The instructions state, “Respondents shall only provide one (1) example for each of the ten (10) service areas.”

Do we understand correctly that one contract could be used as an example for more than one of the 10 service areas?

Yes

7. RFI When will the RFP be released?

This notice is for market research only. This research may or may not result in a future

RFP.

8. RFI Section 2 – Relevant Contracts

Relevant capabilities It states” Respondents shall submit information on their most relevant contract to each of the ten (10) service areas listed above from within the past five (5) years.

Respondents shall only provide one (1) example for each of the ten (10) service areas. Respondents do not have to respond to each service category, only the ones they have relevant past performance experience.

We wanted to clarify if the government wants Respondents to provide only one relevant contract per service area, or can respondents use the same relevant contract as an example multiple times for each service area?

For example, if a Respondent has multiple service areas that are covered by one contract, can the respondent use the contract for each of those service areas as different examples?

Contractors can provide examples for one or all the service categories.

Contracts performed as a Prime Contractor will be considered more relevant than contracts performed as a sub-contractor.”

9. RFI Are you open to selecting multiple vendors to fulfill all 10 requirements or would you be open to a small business that could fulfill part of the 10?

This is market research, not an RFP. The IRS is currently exploring a multiple award BPA strategy. A contractor would not need to provide all 10 task areas.

10. RFI Can you share some insight into existing comms & industry engagement program and

The IRS Industry Engagement Team is developing. The focus is to build collaborative relationships between vendors and IRS program and procurement personnel. In addition, we assist in planning and developing vendor engagements.

11. RFI What peer agencies might you be looking to emulate when it comms to procurement comms & industry engagement?

We are always looking to improve procurement comms & industry engagement.

However, we have not identified any specific agencies currently to emulate.

12. RFI How many teams or departments beyond OCPO should the vendor(s) expect to work with?

This contract supports the OCPO. The support services in this BPA will be leverage in meeting OCPO’s mission, “Deliver top-quality acquisition services to ensure effective tax administration.”

13. RFI How many people would be involved in approving concepts and content for comms, and what are their roles?

This depends on the requirements of each call order;

mainly limited to front office staff.

14. RFI What goals are serving as your north star for the comms and industry engagement work?

The objective is to strengthen engagement between industry partners and IRS stakeholders while removing barriers from having healthy dialogue to foster better communications with the vendor community. Also, to promote collaboration with stakeholders that seek to support the IRS mission through federal contracting opportunities and expand current vendor base.

15. RFI How important is it to grow your reach, and recruit new audience members?

The IRS is committed to providing opportunities to new vendors.

16. RFI What is the existing cadence for outbound communications to entities and individuals interested in doing business with the IRS?

Our current Industry Engagement Team responds to general inquiries/emails on average one business day.

Follow-up action is taken to find the right internal contact based upon the inquiry in which the team member will then continue to work with the vendor until an appropriate contact or resolution is found.

17. RFI How are you currently capturing new audiences?

By using a wide variety of industry engagement activities.

18. RFI What tools are currently in place or being evaluated to support and measure comms and industry engagement?

a. CRM (Salesforce, Pegasystems, etc)

b. Communications platform

(GovDelivery, Constant Contact)

c. Event registration platform, virtual or in-person (Cvent, Eventbrite)

d. Survey / Experience tools (Medallia, Qualtrics, Microsoft)

e. Social platforms/accounts

f. Data Analytics / measurement tools

We currently use Microsoft Office applications to support industry engagements, on the spot polls and to send out surveys to measure communications and engagements.

There are two tools currently in use. One is Verint and the other is Qualtrics. We will be transitioning all the surveys currently on Verint to Qualtrics.

GovDelivery is used to measure communications.

19. What contract type is being contemplated for these requirements, i.e., FFP, CPFF, CFAF, etc.?

This is Market Research. The contract type may include a mix of FFP and LH depending on the call orders.

20. RFI Does the government intend to use a best value evaluation approach, or lowest price, technically acceptable approach?

Government anticipates using trade off.