Solicitation_Questions_and_Answers.pdf

General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service

Technology Transformation Services 1800 F St NW | Washington, DC | 20405

Talent Team Recruiting Support BPA

Questions and Answers Solicitation Number

QP0023233

Procurement History Q: Is it a new rfp or repeat?

A: The subject solicitation is for a new requirement.

Q: Is there a current contract(s) in place?

A: There is no existing contract for these services

Q: Is there an incumbent or is this a new requirement?

A: There is no incumbent.

Q: If there is an incumbent what’s the old contract number, dollar value, and period of performance?

A: Not Applicable

Q: If yes, Also how many requirements have been placed through this contract in the last 1-3 years.

A: Not Applicable

Q: What is the current contract value or funding threshold for orders?

A: Not Applicable

Q: Is this an extension of the contract(s)?

A: There is no existing contract for these services

Solicitation Response Time Q: Can you please extend proposal due date to give vendors reasonable time to submit a good response?

A: Based on feedback from industry gathered during the market research phase and the level of information being requested, the Government believes the current solicitation period is reasonable.

Solicitation Attachments Q: There is no ‘link’ to the RFQ Response Form. How do we get a Response Form?

A: The hyperlink for the RFQ Response Form is https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexlmHSbhnP43-ii5zDNQU4E5zO91g4Cn Aq7-ByAWmBg_nxTQ/viewform. This hyperlink is provided under the “List of Attachments” Section (Request for Quotation, Page 5) as Attachment 3, as well as in Section 2.1 Quotations Instructions.

If any Quoter experiences technical difficulty in submitting their quotation through the Google Form, they should submit their quotation directly to the Contracting Officer via email. Please see Amendment 0001 for specific instructions.

Q: Attachment 3 - RFQ Response Form, appears to be a link to a google docs template or landing page.

A: If any Quoter experiences technical difficulty in submitting their quotation through the Google Form, they should submit their quotation directly to the Contracting Officer via email. Please see Amendment 0001 for specific instructions.

Q: Can files be uploaded to the RFQ Response form as they are completed, or must we wait until all narratives are available for upload?

A: Each vendor should upload and submit one quotation response.

Q: What if a customer does not or is unable to use Google Docs?

A: If any Quoter experiences technical difficulty in submitting their quotation through the Google Form, they should submit their quotation directly to the Contracting Officer via email. Please see Amendment 0001 for specific instructions.

Q: Attachment 4 - Past Performance Questionnaire, What if a customer does not or is unable to use Google Docs?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexlmHSbhnP43-ii5zDNQU4E5zO91g4CnAq7-ByAWmBg_nxTQ/viewform https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexlmHSbhnP43-ii5zDNQU4E5zO91g4CnAq7-ByAWmBg_nxTQ/viewform

A: If any reference has technical difficulty submitting their reference through the google form, an email should be sent to the Contracting Officer, including both the Quoter Point of Contact and the Reference Point of Contact explaining the difficulty being experienced. In these cases, the Government will contact the reference directly to collect the requested information.

Blanket Purchase Agreement Attachments Q: Attachment X (BPA.pdf - Section 9.0 Clauses): What is the wait/response time for gaining permission/access to this link?

A: This file is uploaded as a PDF to the FBO posting as “Attachment 1b - BPA Clauses.pdf”

Quotation Submission General Q: Page 5-6, 2.2.1 Technical Quotation, Factors 1 and 2 include the following documents: Narrative, Guarantee, Resumes, and Past Experience. Can the cover page, table of contents, and Acronyms/Abbreviations be excluded from the page count?

A: Cover Pages, Tables of Contents, and Acronyms/Abbreviations Keys are not required to be submitted with the Quotation, however if Quoters believe they will add value by making the documents more readily identifiable, easier to navigate, and/or provide clarity to quotation reviewers during their evaluation, then these types of documents may be included and will not count toward the overall page counts.

Technical Factor 1: Technical Approach Technical Approach Narrative Q: Is the total response for the technical approach 5 pages include past performance?

or is it 5 pages for the technical approach and 5 pages for past performance?

A: Responses for Factor 1 Technical Approach, are to be submitted as three separate attachments as follows:

● Technical Approach Narrative: Limit 5 pages.

● Candidate Guarantee: No page limit.

● Resumes: Limit 3 pages per resume, no limit on the number of resumes included

Responses for Factor 2 Past Experience and Performance, are to be submitted as a single document with a limit of 5 pages.

Candidate Guarantee Q: Can you provide a little more information if what kind of guarantee you’re looking for here?

A: The Government seeks the details of Quoters’ commercially available Candidate Guarantees, so that it can be incorporated into and utilized as necessary throughout the life of the resulting Blanket Purchase Agreements with the awardees.

Q: What warranty do you expect?

A: The Government does not seek any specific terms or conditions of a Quoter’s Candidate Guarantee. Instead the Government seeks the details of Quoters’ commercially available Candidate Guarantees, to be incorporated into the resulting Blanket Purchase Agreements.

Q: Is there a page limit for the Candidate Guarantee?

A: No

Resumes Q: Is there a certain number of key personnel expected to be proposed?

A: The Government recognizes that the means and methods for providing the required services can vary widely across the industry. With this in mind, there are no set expectations for what a Quoter’s staffing plan should look like. When determining which Key Personnel to identify in their Technical Approach responses, Quoters are encouraged to review Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 4.4.1 Key Personnel, which states “The Government considers Key Personnel to include all Contractor team members (e.g. firm employees, independent Contractors, subcontractor employees, etc.) necessary to demonstrate the Contractor’s technical capability to deliver the requirements of this Agreement and it’s subsequent Call Orders. Designation as Key Personnel is not tied to any specific labor category, function, or level, and is at the sole discretion of the Contractor.“

Q: Will there be a limit of key personnel to be submitted?

A: There is no limit to the number of Key Personnel resumes that may be submitted, however the RFQ Response Form is currently set to limit submission of a single file containing all the Quoter’s resumes and the file size is currently set to 10 MB. If you anticipate your file size to exceed this limit, please contact the Contracting Officer immediately.

Q: Resumes included are for the recruiters completing the work versus representative technical resumes, correct?

A: Correct. Through this technical factor, the Government seeks to understand each Quoter’s technical approach and establish a level of confidence for the feasibility of the Quoter approach to accomplish all tasks and ensure the delivery of quality personnel.

The Government does not wish to see resumes for sample or representative candidates.

Q: Are the resumes needed for the 5 positions? or the resumes of the contractor's PM and Account managers who will be working on the requirements?

A: Resumes provided should be for the Quoter’s Key Personnel that will be providing the recruiting support services described in Section 3.0 Requirements, of Blanket Purchase Agreement. Resumes should not be provided for the positions specifically described in Section 3.1 Statement of Need of the Blanket Purchase Agreement.

These positions are provided as a sample list of positions that the Government may seek to source through the Blanket Purchase Agreement vehicle after award. Resumes for these positions will only be requested at the Call Order level.

Q: In section 2.2.1. Technical Questions. Is the request for resumes of Key Personnel for our team members who will supporting this contract?

A: Yes.

Technical Factor 2: Past Experience and Performance General Q: Page-6, 2.2.1 Technical Quotation, Factor 2: Past Experience and Performance. last paragraph. Since Past Performance Questionnaires - must be received by GSA (FAS), directly from the Agency(s) of its origin on/or before the proposal submission date of 8/26/19 (4:00pm). Given that this request has a very short runway and is the period when significant amount of federal workers take their summer vacations, would the Government consider an extension for the Questionnaires’ delivery date?

A: The Past Performance Reference Questionnaire response deadline is being extended to Monday, September 2, 2019. Please see this change in Amendment 0001

Q: Is the total response for the technical approach 5 pages include past performance?

or is it 5 pages for the technical approach and 5 pages for past performance?

A: Responses for Factor 1 Technical Approach, are to be submitted as three separate attachments as follows:

● Technical Approach Narrative: Limit 5 pages.

● Candidate Guarantee: No page limit.

● Resumes: Limit 3 pages per resume, no limit on the number of resumes included

Responses for Factor 2 Past Experience and Performance, are to be submitted as a single document with a limit of 5 pages.

Past Experience Q: Can we include current recruiting initiatives in our experience narratives?

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 2.2.2. Factor 2:

Past Experience and Performance (last bullet point, Page 6), “Examples shall either be currently underway or have been completed within 3 years of the due date for quotations.” When selecting current recruiting initiatives as reference projects, Quoters are reminded that past performance information is required for these reference projects as well, so they should be far enough into performance that the client organization can provide meaningful reference information.

Past Performance Q: We respectfully request that the government allow relevant Past Performance that was completed within the last five years with at least three years of performance.

A: Given the nature of the work, the Government believes that work that is currently underway or has been completed within 3 years of the solicitation closing is a sufficiently large enough time frame for evaluating Quoters’ past experience and performance.

Q: Will Past Performance References submitted by subcontractors or Teaming Partner carry the same weight as that of the Prime Contractor?

A: Past experience and performance references for a project performed by the Quoter or for a project that involved the Quoter with either the proposed teaming partner or subcontractor will be rated more favorably than references for projects that were performed by the proposed subcontractor or teaming partner individually.

Q: Will you take references from non-contracting officers? Can we get references for clients we have done recruiting for?

A: When collecting reference feedback, the Government is most concerned with communicating with a point of contact that can speak directly to the vendor’s performance and provide a meaningful assessment in the requested areas. With this in mind, Quoters should request that their reference clients have a person knowledgeable of their experience working with the Quoter fill out the questionnaire.

Recruiting Support Statistics Q: Can you define the formulas for the metrics below. Also, I would ask the people show their math.

A:

● Candidate turn-over rates = total number of candidates who screen for a role to number of candidates who withdraw from process

● Candidate identification rates = total number of candidates sourced to total number of viable candidates

● Conversion ratios = number of sourced to number of hired

● Time to source = number of days from job creation through candidate pool generated

● Time to screen = number of days from sourcing candidate through completion of interviews

● The percentage of their business that is recruiting technical talent including design and engineering = total number of roles annually worked on to total number of technical roles

Q: For the recruiting support statistics required under Factor 2 (pg 6) does the government require a certain formula be used? does the government prefer. For example, the formula used to calculate our candidate rate of retention of 95% is as follows: total number of employees currently working for our firm (83), less the number of employees hired over the past 12 months (25), divided by the number of employees working for the firm 12 months ago (61). This approach reflects a true formula for retention versus an arbitrary number/guess.

A: Please see the formula provided in response to the question above.

Price Quotation Q: Are you guys only looking for a direct hire fee-based pricing proposal or would you be open to a time and materials recruiting contract?

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 2.2.2. Price Quotation, “Quoters are instructed to propose a Firm Fixed Price percentage rate.”

Q: Solicitation: Attachment 1a – Blanket Purchase Agreement, Page 3, Section 3.1 “The TTS Talent Team requires approximately three contractors to identify appropriate candidates for a variety of Information Technology positions such as:

● DevOps/Security Engineer

● Application Engineer

● Visual Designer

● Site Reliability Engineer

● Customer Experience Specialist”

Q1: For BPA pricing, please confirm that the only labor categories requiring prices are the following:

● DevOps/Security Engineer

● Application Engineer

● Visual Designer

● Site Reliability Engineer

● Customer Experience Specialist A: The Government is not seeking labor pricing for the positions referenced in Section

3.1 of the Blanket Purchase Agreement (Attachment 1a). These positions are provided as a sample of the types of positions that the BPA awardees will be tasked with proposing candidates for future Government vacancies as needs are identified through the issuance of Call Order solicitations. As stated in the Request for Quotation, Section 2.2.2 Price Quotation, “Quoters are instructed to propose a Firm Fixed Price percentage rate. This rate will be applied to the salary for positions competed as call orders.” This quoted percentage rate will be the maximum rate applied at the Call Order level to compensate Call Order Awardees for successfully completing the requirements for that Call Order as defined therein.

Q2: If there are labor categories to be priced other than those listed in Attachment 1a – Blanket Purchase Agreement, Page 3, Section 3.1, please provide those.

A: Please see the response to the question above.

Conflict of Interest Statement Q: If an offeror has no past, present, or planned Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI), does the Government require anything other than completion of and signature on the provided statement?

A: If a Quoter does not have any known potential OCI, then they may either complete, sign, and return the provided Organizational Conflict of Interest statement (provided as Attachment 5 within FBO.gov solicitation posting), or they may draft their own statement to that effect. Additional documentation is only necessary if there is a known potential OCI.

Blanket Purchase Agreement Requirements Q: Will there be any SES recruiting opportunities?

A: Not via this vehicle. As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 3.1 Statement of Need, positions sourced through this vehicle will be limited to Excepted Service positions within General Schedule (GS) 14 and 15 levels.

Q: Is there a range say from GS 10 to GS 15 for candidates?

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 3.1 Statement of Need, positions sourced through this vehicle will be limited to Excepted Service positions within General Schedule (GS) 14 and 15 levels.

Q: Does the Government know where the candidates will be expected to perform the work (for site specific locations)? Is this a nationwide recruiting effort?

A: The Government does not know the exact mix of virtual and site specific positions that will be sourced through this vehicle, however Quoters are directed to Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 3.1 Statement of Need, which states, “Characteristics of positions being filled: - May be virtual or site specific (e.g.

Washington, D.C.). It is anticipated that approximately 60% of the positions will be virtual.”

Q: Do you have a list of position job descriptions?

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 3.1 Statement of Need, the Government anticipates sourcing “a variety of Information Technology positions” through this BPA, “such as: DevOps/Security Engineer, Application Engineer, Visual Designer, Site Reliability Engineer, Customer Experience Specialist.”

Specific performance profiles (TTS’s version of a private sector job description), along with other pertinent information to the recruiting process will be provided at within each Call Order solicitation as described in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 5.8 Government Furnished Information.

Q: Will there be any specific role requirement provided for the five positions, or will it be provided after the award of the BPA? for example; application developer? is there any specific technology that is required - Java, .NET?

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/excepted-service/ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-systems/general-schedule/ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/excepted-service/ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-systems/general-schedule/

A: Specific vacancy requirements to be sourced through the resulting Blanket Purchase Agreements will be identified after award of the Agreements and information provided via Call Order Solicitations to all awardees in accordance with Section 5.2 Ordering Procedures included in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement.

Q: Will this be a direct hire to the GSA ? because the RFQ says place of performance is at contractor's location A: Recruiting Support Services is expected to be performed by the Blanket Purchase Agreement Awardees at their locations. Candidates hired by the Government as a result of Call Order Solicitations will be GSA employees.

Ordering Procedures Q: Will positions come out as individual task orders to all vendors or will certain task orders come out to specific vendors.

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 5.3 Ordering Procedures, “Each position request will be a potential Call Order. In limited circumstances, the Government may elect to combine multiple similar position requests into a single Call Order.

“Each Call Order solicitation will be distributed to all (emphasis added) BPA awardees.”

Q: Will you consider an exclusivity for a requirement? ie a requirement is given to one vendor only?

A: In accordance with Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 5.3 Ordering Procedures, the Government intends to compete all Call Order Solicitations among all of the Blanket Purchase Agreement awardees.

Q: Will there be any limits to resume submittals for individual positions. We are participating in other federal recruiting programs where vendors can only submit one resume per position which we believe hinders the opportunity to bring even more qualified talent into government.

A: At this time, it is the Government’s expectation that we will allow BPA awardees responding in Call Order solicitations to submit multiple resumes for each solicitation.

Should the number of resumes allowed to be submitted in response to a Call Order solicitation be limited, that limitation will be stated within that solicitation.

Q: Once a BPA is awarded will vendors be given an ability to communicate and generate business with federal hiring managers on an on-going basis.

A: The use of this BPA will be limited to the described positions within GSA, FAS, TTS.

Once the BPAs are awarded, awardees will be permitted to communicate with representatives within TTS, however they are cautioned that all requirements will be issued via a written solicitation by an Authorized User on a competitive basis and be evaluated for award based on the evaluation criteria described therein.

Agreement Details Q: When will the period of performance begin?

A: The Period of Performance for the Blanket Purchase Agreement(s) will begin on the date of award of each agreement, which are currently targeted to be made on or near the end of the current fiscal year (2019).

Q: How many positions/orders is the Government anticipating for each year?

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 5.6 Frequency of Ordering, “Orders against the agreement are estimated to occur at least once every 12 months from the date of BPA award, however, additional ordering is expected as TTS team needs arise for recruiting support. There is no maximum to the number of orders that may be placed.

“It shall be noted that BPAs do not promise or guarantee actual orders.”

Q: Is there a budget you all would like to stay below?

A: As stated in Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, Section 4.3 Estimated Quantities - Funded Call Orders, “[t]he Government’s Good Faith Estimate for funded call orders over the life the BPA is between $250,000 to $1,000,000. However, please note, this is not a cost estimate and may be raised without any justification at the discretion of the Contracting Officer. The Government is not obligated to solicit any quotations if a need does not arise, nor is it obligated to award any Call Orders should an appropriate candidate not be identified.

Q: What if a requirement gets filled by the Agency’s internal efforts/referrals? Will the Agency still pay the Contractor if they have spent a lot of time and submitted qualified resumes?

A: As outlined in Section 7.2.1 Invoicing Schedule of Attachment 1a - Blanket Purchase Agreement, the Government will only pay a Contractor if they meet the definition of done defined in the Blanket Purchase Agreement and Call Order Solicitation.