OFF47 RFR QA 2.1.19.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 16 KB Posted
- Solicitation number
- BD-19-1080-OSD03-SRC3-29155
- Issued by
- Suffolk County, Massachusetts
About this file
This document is a Request for Response (RFR) for the State of Massachusetts' contract opportunity OFF47 for Office Supplies, Recycled Paper, and Envelopes. The contract is estimated to be valued at $60 million over a 5-year period and will commence on April 1, 2019, overlapping with the expiring OFF36 contract. The RFR covers three main categories: Category 1 for office supplies, Category 2 for recycled paper, and Category 3 for recycled envelopes. Category 1 bidders are limited to supplying specific quantities of recycled paper and envelopes. The RFR provides a market basket spreadsheet with the top 500 items, and bidders must submit pricing based on this list. Responses are due on February 15, 2019.
Pricing for Category 1 office supplies is fixed for 24 months, while Category 2 pricing will be reviewed 12 months after contract commencement. The RFR also includes provisions for dock delivery discounts, cost promotions, and industry cost adjustments. Bidders must provide financial stability information and integrate their product offerings with the COMMBUYS procurement system. The Commonwealth is aware of industry changes, such as paper mill closures, that may impact pricing and is willing to consider appropriate adjustments for Category 2 items.
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Sheet1
| Question # | Date | User | Subject | Question | Answer |
| 1 | 1/23/19 | Tom Eagan Office Depot | Excel Spreadsheet | I need to be able to copy and paste the items list. I cannot do that, or even copy the full sheet or specific columns. The sheets are showing as protected and need password. | Attachment A Market Basket Spread sheet updated 1.31.19 |
| 2 | 1/23/19 | Tom Eagan Office Depot | Excel Spreadsheet | Duplicate Question number 1 | See answer in #1 |
| 3 | 1/28/19 | Bill Domack/GA Blanco | Market Basket Items | Can you provide the usage for the previous year on the Market Basket items? | Please see the attached spreadsheet of top 500 OFF36 Market Basket items. |
| 4 | 1/28/19 | Marc Corn/Staples | Usage, sole source, off contract discount | Can you provide all items usage for the full year 2018 for total spend? | Please see the attached spreadsheet of top 500 OFF36 Market Basket items. |
| 5 | 1/28/19 | Marc Corn/Staples | Usage, sole source, off contract discount | Is there any kind of margin floor applicable to the noncore discount off price? | Please refer to OFF47 RFR, Section E. |
| 6 | 1/28/19 | Marc Corn/Staples | Usage, sole source, off contract discount | Will the award be a single source award. | Please refer to OFF47 RFR, Section A. |
| 7 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Cat. 1, pag. 6 Limited quantity sales on recycled paper & unprinted envelopes | This reasoning is not clear, can you please explain why the State is placing a quanity limitation on vendor sales? | Cat. 1 vendors are limited to supplying no more than 39 cases of recycled paper and more than 5 cases of recycle envelopes, for any order above those limits, a Cat. 2 or Cat. 3 vendor must be used. |
| 8 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Category 3, Recycled Plain/Printed Envelopes: quotes for specialty envelopes for all not mentioned. | How can a quote be issued for what's NOT MENTIONED?" Are you asking for: "All Other Specialty Custom Envelopes at a specific price point/discount? | Vendors must provide quotes for specialty custom envelopes. "Not Mentioned" language will be deleted from RFR in amendment 2.1.19. |
| 9 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Category 3, USPS regulation changes | USPS regulations/rates are public information. Not all envelopes are used in mailings. Industry specifications are based on multiple criterium with one being the USPS. Why are bidders "must" be responsible? | Bidders are not responsible. See pg. 7 amendment of OFF47 RFR, Section B. |
| 10 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Pg 12 §D & Pg 21 Performance Specifications and Dock Delivery Discounts. | If FOB Destination as inside delivery is required then why is a discount for Dock Delivery where the shipment is ONLY delivered to the dock? | Dock Delivery Discount is offered for entities which do request dock delivery. |
| 11 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Pg 18 §E Compensation Structure/Pricing. All category prices must be fixed for 24 months. | What if there is an overall industry cost increase >12 months can industry information, data or letter be submitted as justification for a price change request? | Fixed for 24 months pertain only to Category 1. |
| 12 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Pg 18 §E: "desirable ...to offer cost promotions at a min twice per year. | How can it be fair to score now for what will or might be done later? Wouldn't there already be sales for a non compliant vendor leaving suspension as the only remedy, but another bidder could have lost an award due to this type of scoring? | There is no scoring on $ave$mart promotions. |
| 13 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Pg 18 §E, Prices fixed for 24 months | This year will see a longtime provider of paper stock, Georgia Pacific, close their doors and reduce the number of paper mills. The net result will be a reduced output of paper and an increase in wholesale prices. How will OSD address such adversity in paper supply management with this manufacturer going out of business? | OSD is aware of current industry changes. Fixed pricing for 24 months refers to Cat. 1 bidders only. |
| 14 | 1/28/19 | William Funk/SMF Associates | Estimated Contract Start Date. | The RFR Estimated Calendar Dates and RFR text identifies the estimated start date for OFF47 as April 1, 2019 with the current SWC OFF36 expiring June 30, 2019. Will there be an overlap of the two SWC's or will OSD terminate OFF36 on March 31st? | There is an expected overlap between OFF36 and OFF47. |
| 15 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Contract Start Date | Page 1 of RFR document states that current OFF36 terminates on 6/30/19 while on Page 2 the estimated start date of OFF47 is 4/1/19. Will this contract commence on 4/1/19 or 7/1/19? | The estimated contract start date is April 1, 2019. |
| 16 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Estimated Contract Value | Just to clarify, is the FIVE year value of the contract (FY14 through 18) estimated to be $60M for all three categories (office supplies, paper, and envelopes)? | Yes, the total contract valued is estimated at 60M. |
| 17 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1B Cost Sheets | Would a bidder's printed proprietary catalog be considered an acceptable "publicly accessible dated source" for purposes of bidder's basing their off core discounting and pricing? | Yes. |
| 18 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1B Cost Sheets, continued | If bidder's printed proprietary catalog IS acceptable, is a hard copy or electronic copy thus a required submission with bidder's response? If not, please defined what would be considered an acceptable "publicly accessible dated source". | Electronic copy of catalog. |
| 19 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Evaluation Components (RFR Page 24) | Are the components listed in subsection 3 (Evaluation Components) on RFR Page 24 listed in order of the weight that each component carries? | No. |
| 20 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Financial Stability (RFR Page 11) | The RFR requires that bidders submit a DUNS report as part of their submission. Dun & Bradstreet has multiple reports that are available; is there a specific report by name that the Commonwealth from bidders with regards to DUNS? | D&B Business Credit Report. |
| 21 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Integration for Contracted Vendors with COMMBUYS | Will all awarded contractors be required to integrate their full product offering resulting from any award on COMMBUYS as a punchout catalog or otherwise, or will accepting orders via their own websites be all that will be required? | Yes, punchout access will be through COMMBUYS to vendors' websites. |
| 22 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1A Market Basket Excel File | We notice that data for some data but not all in entered by the State for Column G (Unit of Measure). Insofar as this is a filed in which bidders can input information, would it be OK if we overrode data in some cases that the State has already filled in to provide DETAILED UOM information, or would the State prefer that we only fill in boxes that are currently empty? | Bidder can edit the UOM. |
| 23 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1A Market Basket Excel File "Submitted Source" | Is the "Submitted Source" (Column B) requirement the same as it is with regards to bidder's off core pricing/discounting? If so, Would a bidder's printed proprietary catalog be considered an acceptable "publicly accessible dated source" for purpose of completing the file? | Yes. |
| 24 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1A Paper Items | We are noticing several paper items (such as lines 256 through 273, 392 through 395, and 955) that are covered by Category B. On that basis, were these items included in error or intended to be covered by the RFR Page 6 provision that "Category 1 contractors are allowed to only sell limited quantities of recycled copy paper"? | Category 1, Section B of RFR details limits. |
| 25 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1A Paper Items | As a simple FYI for the State, please note that line 955 (UNV21200) is not a recycled sheet. | This item is being removed from the Market Basket. |
| 26 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 2 Paper | Would the Commonwealth accept a bid for some tabs in their entirity but not all tabs for that category? | Category 1 bidders are limited to the amount of recycled paper and recycled envelopes they can supply. |
| 27 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1A Paper Items | As a simple FYI for the State, please note that line 392 (HAM162024) is not a recycled sheet. | This item is being removed from the Market Basket. |
| 28 | 1/29/19 | Andrew Adinolfi/W.B.Mason | Category 1 Office Supplies Cost Sheets | For the purposes of substitutions, is Universal brand considered a brand name market basket item or a private brand market basket item? | Brand name. |
| 29 | 1/29/19 | John Sullivan/Veritiv Operating Company f/k/a xpedx | price protection | Will the state entertain pricing that can change (up or down) with the market? If that is the case we can offer a much better cost | As stated in the RFR, pricing for Category 2 will be reviewed 12 months after the OFF47 contract commences. |
| 30 | 1/29/19 | John Sullivan/Veritiv Operating Company f/k/a xpedx | spend on recyled paper | what % of the spend is on recycled paper? | Other than speciality paper orders, all paper purchased by the Commonwealth must have recycled content. |
| 31 | 1/29/19 | Bill Domack/GA Blanco | Tariffs | E1 stipulates category 1A bid is fixed price for 2 year term; many items in the category, including Market basket items, have been recently effected by tariffs with an additional 15% pending that will take effect in March if a federal trade agreement isn?t reached. Given this is the SST willing to allow pricing adjustments for this situation; allowing bidders to put they best price on the bid? | As stated in the RFR, Category 1 pricing is fixed for 24 months from the date the contract commences. |
| 32 | 1/29/19 | Bill Domack/GA Blanco | Minimum Order | Are bidders allowed to set a reasonable minimum order for for Category 1 orders? | Minimum order for printed envelopes is one carton. |
| 33 | 1/29/19 | Tom Eagan Office Depot | 2-year price lock | The Office Supply industry has changed significantly over the past few years with paper manufacturers closing mills, international tariffs, and consolidation where a distributer was approved to purchase a wholesaler. Based on the volatility in the market would the state accept less than a 2 year price lock? | As stated in the RFR, pricing for Category 2 will be reviewed 12 months after the OFF47 contract commences. |
| 34 | 1/29/19 | Tom Eagan Office Depot | Accepting like items for like | We stock national brand items that are in some cases different than the items in your pricing file. Will you accept our national brand items as like for like exact match and private brand items for private items? An example is you request Avery 3 ring binders, we have an equivalent national brand that we can provide as the exact match and insert an additional alternate that would be an equivalent private brand alternative. | Yes, please see alternate items section in Attachment A Market Basket Cost Sheet. |
| 35 | 1/29/19 | Tom Eagan Office Depot | Usage report | Can you provide a usage report for the items in Attachment A OFF47cat.1? | Please see attached spreadsheet OFF47 top 500 Market Basket items FY17. |
| 36 | 1/29/19 | Tom Eagan Office Depot | Current pricing | Can you provide your current prices for the items in Attachment A OFF47 cat.1? | Please see attached W.B.Mason Price File for OFF36. |
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