07-12-2016_Pre-proposal_Conference_(both_sessions).pdf

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

ALLIANT 2 SMALL BUSINESS PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE

Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

1 PARTICIPANTS:

2 Welcome:

3 DEAN COLE

Business Management Specialist, ITS

GWAC Success and Overview:

MICHAEL McFARLAND

6 Director of Acquisition Operations, ITS

7 GWAC Program:

8 CASEY KELLEY

Acting GWAC Program Director & A2/A2SB Project

9 Manager, ITS

10 A2SB RFP Overview:

11 GREG BYRD

Alliant 2 Small Business Procuring Contracting

12 Officer

14 * * * * *

1 P R O C E E D I N G S

2 (8:02 a.m.)

3 MR. COLE: We just got the thumbs up

4 from out front. It looks like the line is

5 dwindling down, so we'll go ahead and get started.

6 We've got a lot of stuff to cover and only a few

7 hours to do it in.

8 But thanks for showing up. I know it's

9 not easy to get here, and then it's even harder to

10 get in the building, so we do appreciate your

11 being here.

12 The seats, I mean, the registration

13 filled up, but I'm still seeing a few empty seats.

14 Hopefully, we will have some people wandering in a

15 little bit later.

16 Now, just some administrative stuff to

17 cover. You know, we're scheduled for four hours, 18 so if you need a break, out the room, turn right, 19 right again, go down about 20 feet, and there's

20 restrooms down the hall.

21 We do have, I do want to bring to

22 everybody's attention that we do have a certified

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1 court reporter here taking transcript of today's

2 session, and that session will be made available

3 on FedBizOops a few days after we wrap up the

4 event and we get the transcript and post it.

5 I'll just go ahead and introduce the

6 group that came with me from Kansas City. By the

7 way, I'm Dean Cole. I'm the Business Management

8 Specialist out of The Small Business GWAC Division

9 at Kansas City, Missouri. We run the VETS

10 contract, 8(a) Stars 2 contract, and Alliance

11 Small Business.

12 We're currently evaluating the VETS 2

13 GWAC. As you know, the RFP (inaudible) for A2SB

14 or you wouldn't be here. And we're also doing the

15 on-ramp evaluations for Stars 2, so we're quite

16 busy, but we wanted to make sure that we got out

17 and had a chance to talk to everybody regarding

18 the A2SB Proposal.

19 With me today, we've got Matt Verhulst.

20 He's the Director of GWAC Acquisitions. Greg Byrd

21 will be talking to you a little bit later. He's

22 going to be covering the meat and potatoes of the

1 pre-proposal conference.

2 As you can see, the agenda is up on

3 screen. So we do have a couple of guest speakers.

4 I'll introduce them as they come up, but I just

5 want to make sure I cover everything here.

6 Oh, yeah. You guys when you checked in, 7 you received index cards. That's for the question

8 and answer session. I don't know if they told you

9 outside, I'm sure they probably mentioned it, but

10 we don't have mics out here, and in the interest

11 of time, and making sure we get every question in

12 our hands, we ask that everybody write their

13 questions down on the index cards. We'll be

14 having folks wander around picking those up

15 throughout the presentation, or you can just wait

16 until we, we will have a break a little bit later

17 on. You may hold off until Greg does his part

18 because he'll probably answer a lot of the

19 questions you have.

20 But go ahead. You know, if you're like

21 me and I forget things if I don't write them down

22 right away, so it might not be a bad idea to at

1 least jot them down.

2 I think I pretty much covered the agenda

3 and everything I'm going to cover, so without

4 further ado, I want to bring up the Director of

5 Acquisitions Operations, Michael McFarland. He's

6 going to say a few words about our GWAC successes

7 over the years.

8 Thank you very much. Michael.

9 (Applause)

10 MR. McFARLAND: Thank you, and welcome

11 to the Alliant 2 Small Business Pre-Proposal

12 Conference.

13 Alliant Small Business is and continues

14 to be one of GSA's premiere small business

15 information technology vehicles. We're proud that

16 Alliant Small Business suppliers are providing

17 flexible access to customized IT solutions

18 throughout the government.

19 Alliant Small Business allows for

20 long-term planning for large-scale program

21 requirements due to its long -- thank you, Paul --

22 due to its long period of performance and

1 multi-year options.

2 Alliant Small Business solutions

3 encompass all components of an integrated IT

4 solution, including new technologies.

5 The GSA Small Business GWAC Center

6 currently operates three contracts with

7 specialized socioeconomic designations. As Dean

8 indicated, we are under recompetition or open

9 season for all of them at once. So we're very

10 busy right now.

11 Each contract is designed to provide a

12 streamlined method for agencies to utilize highly

13 qualified small businesses to meet their IT needs

14 while achieving their agency socioeconomic

15 contracting goals.

16 Premier among our small business GWACs

17 is Alliant Small Business. The Alliant Small

18 Business GWAC focuses on providing government

19 contract opportunities to a wide range of

20 highly-qualified small businesses.

21 This small business contract provides

22 flexible access to customized IT solutions from a

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1 diverse pool of nearly 50 industry partners. With

2 availability through 2024, Alliant Small Business

3 allows for long-term planning of large-scale

4 program requirements while strengthening

5 opportunities for small businesses.

6 In FY15 alone, Alliant Small Business

7 received 90 task orders, and over 1.2 billion in

8 obligations, which was an increase of 8 percent

9 over the previous year.

10 Alliant Small Business has been a

11 remarkable success for agencies, for you, our

12 industry partners, and for GSA. Alliant Small

13 Business has quickly become one of the most

14 successful small business GWACs in the government.

15 For six-and-a-half years of Alliant

16 Small Business, 30 or more federal agencies have

17 awarded nearly 5 billion in task orders. Alliant

18 Small Business has taught us the importance of

19 partnerships, education, and training for both our

20 agency customers, and our industry partners, and

21 customer service in developing and delivering

22 successful contract vehicles.

1 The Navy selected Alliant, Alliant Small

2 Business as a mandatory use contracts for IT

3 services, which is just one example of how

4 agencies value the Alliant portfolio of contracts.

5 As a pre-computed vehicle, Alliant Small

6 Business is streamlining the acquisition process

7 for many government agencies. And through this

8 streamlining, agencies save taxpayer dollars, and

9 they can more quickly and efficiently procure

10 needed IT solutions.

11 One thing that has always impressed me

12 since I've gotten here about the Alliant Small

13 Business, and the GWAC Program here at GSA in

14 general, is the amount of collaboration that goes

15 on between all the parties.

16 Success on projects through Alliant

17 Small Business is a three-part partnership - GSA, 18 procuring agencies, and the companies performing

19 the work under the Alliant task orders.

20 The GSA GWAC Program operates using

21 three C's for success: Communication, 22 collaboration, and competition. We will continue

1 this for Alliant 2, and Alliant 2 Small Business.

2 The relationships we've built with our

3 government and industry partners have been, and

4 will continue to be, critical to the program's

5 success.

6 I want to thank you for everything all

7 of you have done for both Alliant Small Business, 8 and to help us with this new GWAC, Alliant 2 Small

9 Business.

10 Now, the GSA GWAC Program, leader in

11 government- wide acquisition contracts, having

12 established one of the very first GWACs in the

13 government, the answer contract in 1999, in

14 creating more GWACs than any other federal agency

15 has developed the Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small

16 Business solicitations, which were the sequel, the

17 very prominent and successful Alliant Small

18 Business GWACs.

19 ITS couldn't be more excited about the

20 future of our GWAC Program. Alliant 2 and Alliant

21 2 Small Business have been developed to continue

22 to provide support to federal agencies that have

1 mission critical complex IT service requirements, 2 especially for long-term programs.

3 Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small Business

4 presolicitation phase has raised the bar in

5 transparency and collaborative processes involving

6 both federal agency and industry partners.

7 The Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small

8 Business team performed thorough market research, 9 and laid significant groundwork in the preplanning

10 phase with efforts including an interact group

11 with more than 7,000 members, a publicly- reviewed

12 business case on OMB MAX, meetings with the

13 Coalition for Government Procurement, FSEA

14 (inaudible) Northern Virginia

15 Chapter, the Alliance for Public

16 Sector, Defense Procurement and

17 Acquisition Policy, the Office of

18 Federal Procurement Policy, Small

19 Business Administration, U.S.

20 Department of State, and ACT-IAC.

21 We've had numerous presentations through

22 interested agencies. We have a customer working

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1 group of 30 members from 11 agencies. We have an

2 industry working group with more than 500

3 participants. We've put out two RFIs for industry

4 comments through FedBizOops.

5 We've had two industry days with more

6 than 500 attendees. We've had face-to-face, 7 one-on-one meetings between industry and Alliant

8 2, Alliant 2 Small Business staff with more than

9 350 registrants.

10 The collaborative input and feedback

11 toward the development of Alliant 2 and Alliant 2

12 Small Business this past year has been a major

13 contribution to what we believe is an outstanding

14 final product. Notable enhancements between

15 Alliant and Alliant Small Business, and Alliant 2, 16 Alliant 2 Small Business include scope

17 improvements, standardized information technology, 18 service labor categories, new cyber security

19 standards which are a focus of our administrator, 20 and OMB, new environmental standards, increasing

21 competition for orders which provide savings for

22 agencies, and more opportunities for our industry

1 partners, and the incorporation of required DFARS

2 clauses and provisions into the master contract so

3 that they automatically flow down to task orders

4 issued by DOD agencies.

5 We recognize your contributions and your

6 providing insights to the changes we've made since

7 the first draft RFPs. I'm confident that you will

8 be pleased with the final product and the role

9 you've each played in it.

10 We at GSA cannot overemphasize how the

11 collaboration within GSA with our customer

12 agencies, and with our industry partners while

13 doing market research, and in planning future

14 solicitations and innovations is key to being sure

15 what we want to do is vetted, is on the right

16 track, and considers all viewpoints.

17 The Alliant 2, Alliant 2 Small Business

18 collaborative process is the lodestar by which ITS

19 is guiding the development of our other contract

20 offerings. ITS is committed to keep our

21 contracts, including Alliant 2 Small Business, 22 with sharing, growing, and evolving in the new

1 marketplace.

2 And now, I'd like to turn you over to

3 Casey Kelley, the Director of the GWAC Program at

4 ITS. Thank you.

5 (Applause)

6 MR. KELLEY: Good morning everybody. My

7 name is Casey Kelley. I'm the current acting

8 Director for the GWAC Program for (inaudible) GSA.

9 Part of that I was the Enterprise GWAC Division

10 Director in San Diego, and also the Program

11 Manager for Alliant, the current Alliant contract.

12 So since then, I've been the program

13 manager for the Alliant 2, Alliant 2 Small

14 Business GWACs, and have worked with this team

15 that has gotten us to this stage today.

16 So I was flattered when Greg and Matt

17 asked me to come and say a few words. So those of

18 you who know me know I can talk, so I committed

19 that I would only talk for less than five minutes.

20 I brought it down a little, some notes what I

21 wanted to say yesterday morning at the airport, 22 and so I want to just speak from this which I

1 traditionally don't do. I much prefer speaking

2 extemporaneously, but I guess I'm, through me what

3 you'll see, hopefully see is the conduit that I

4 present the passion to the team that represents

5 the GWAC Program, both contracting and

6 programming.

7 So with that, I just want to share my

8 words here. So, first, I want to thank industry

9 for their participation today and for attending.

10 I want to thank Michael and GSA leadership for

11 their support, specifically, Tom Sharpe, Kevin

12 Youl-Page, Mary Davie, Kay Ealy, Bill Zelinski, 13 Michael McFarland, Maynard Crumm, and Randy

14 Burleson. That's the leadership that has

15 supported us to get to this point here today.

16 A special thanks to John Cavadias, and

17 Greg Byrd, the procuring contracting officers, for

18 their leadership. If not for their leadership, 19 you don't have the collaboration, the transparency

20 that you've seen through this process to date.

21 And, finally, a special thanks to all

22 A2, Alliant 2, Alliant 2 Small Business team

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1 members who I'm not going to list, but you know

2 who they are, and the impact that they've had to

3 this, this whole acquisition to this, for this

4 process.

5 There's a saying in business, in

6 investing that goes something like this. Past

7 performance is no indicator of future success.

8 That may be if there is no coincidence why there

9 are so many people here today and tomorrow, and

10 also on the virtual call that this team has set up

11 for next Monday.

12 The expectation for Alliant 2, Alliant 2

13 Small Business to be as successful, if not more

14 successful, than the current Alliant, Alliant

15 Small Business GWACs, which have done $34 billion

16 to date by over 60 agencies combined are high, and

17 that they should be.

18 Those expectations were high when this

19 team began market research in the acquisition

20 planning process over three years ago. And this

21 team has delivered in creating what I believe

22 personally is an even better contract from the

1 current Alliant, Alliant Small Business contracts, 2 and that's saying a lot because there was a lot of

3 blood, sweat, and tears in those contracts for any

4 of you incumbent small businesses out there on

5 those know firsthand.

6 The team didn't construct, 7 quote/unquote, construct, this contract, Alliant 2

8 Small Business, or Alliant 2. What they did was

9 they created these contracts. And it's very

10 important to know the difference between those two

11 words, create and construct.

12 When you create something, your love for

13 what you are doing begins at inception, and it's

14 constant throughout. Whereas, when you construct

15 something, your love is contingent upon what that

16 final outcome is.

17 This culture within the GSA GWAC

18 organization is one of creativity, passion, and

19 excellence. Everyone here loves the mission of

20 the GSA GWAC organization, and the opportunity to

21 make a difference by serving our country, by

22 helping all agencies acquire the greatest IT

1 service solutions better, faster, and cheaper.

2 It is that came passion that leads to an

3 acquisition process in customer service that is

4 unprecedented in terms of engaging with customers

5 and industry to create an excellent product in the

6 end.

7 As Michael alluded to, internet posts, 8 RFIs, draft RFPs, industry days, face-to-face, 9 one-on-ones, and now having these pre-proposal

10 conferences have all resulted in a very thoughtful

11 final product that has taken into consideration

12 input and feedback from thousands of questions of

13 which all were considered, and more than some even

14 implemented.

15 I personally have never been more proud

16 of working with such a fine group of men and women

17 who are all committed to excellence and making a

18 difference. Knowing myself firsthand how

19 successful Alliant, Alliance Small Business have

20 done after a rocky start seven-and-a-half years

21 ago, with nowhere near the collaboration with

22 industry that we've seen today under these two

1 contracts, nor the collaboration with government, 2 and knowing how committed our team is to

3 continuing improving our performance, I have zero

4 doubt that Alliant 2, Alliant 2 Small Business

5 will even be more successful than the current

6 Alliant, Alliant Small Business GWACs.

7 Yes, it is true that past performance is

8 no indicator of future success. However, I have

9 no doubt that Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small

10 Business will be successful.

11 I personally wish each of you could

12 decide to compete on this GWAC here, or on the

13 unrestricted Alliant 2 GWAC. I wish each of you

14 to join us for this journey, and the best of luck, 15 and I look forward to working with those of you

16 who are successful in helping you best meet the

17 needs of our customers working together for the

18 next several years.

19 So as I said, I hate reading. It's

20 really not my style. You out there in this

21 audience, you're the difference makers. At the

22 end of the day, it's you that are delivering the

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1 solutions to our customers that we're trying to

2 attract.

3 Hopefully, what we've put together to

4 date is something that you'll respect and honor, 5 the effort that's been put into it, and I'm hoping

6 those of you who are successful, those 80-plus

7 primes, plus ties continue that same passion that

8 the current incumbents under Alliant 2, I'm sorry, 9 that the current incumbents under Alliant Small

10 Business have performed to day to help us continue

11 that same legacy that we started seven-and-a-half

12 years ago. So thank you.

13 (Applause)

14 MR. BYRD:: : Yeah, I don't want to

15 drink your water. Good morning, everyone. Well, 16 this portion -- I'm actually going to only be

17 spending about 30 minutes, and what I'm going to

18 focus on in that 30 minutes is probably what's

19 most interesting to you guys is I am going to

20 concentrate on Section L and the proposal

21 requirements.

22 But before I get started, there is, I'm

1 going to give an opening statement, and I'm going

2 to just read it verbatim.

3 Today, in response to questions, I will

4 be speaking -- and I don't have my reading

5 glasses. Left them in the hotel. I will be

6 speaking about the A2SB RFP. If there is a

7 difference between what is said today and the

8 written language of the RFP, the written language

9 of the RFP governs.

10 Only an RFP amendment posted on

11 FedBizOops can change the RFP.

12 Now I'm very pleased to be visiting with

13 you today at this pre-proposal conference -- I'm

14 so sorry. As has been illustrated by previous

15 speakers, GSA has been successfully and

16 thoughtfully partnering with industry on GWACs and

17 A2SB in leading the way with the future for

18 federal information technology acquisition.

19 As the procuring contracting officer for

20 A2SB, what I want to accomplish today is to share

21 an overview of the RFP structure, to reply to some

22 of the questions asked today and were sent to

1 A2SB@gsa.gov, and to also reply to some of the

2 questions that will be submitted on index cards

3 here in this meeting.

4 Regarding questions and responses, 5 please recall that GSA reserves the right to

6 publicly discuss, and publish, or simply consider

7 questions and comments regarding the RFP.

8 That said, in the time available today, 9 it is not possible to address every question

10 asked, but I will touch on some that have been

11 asked frequently or stand out.

12 You can expect one or more rounds of

13 questions and responses to be published on

14 FedBizOops, including those that are covered

15 today. Please remember, the A2SB procuring

16 contracting officer is the sole point of contact

17 for the procurement, and can be reached at

18 A2SB@gsa.gov. Boy, that was painful.

19 So, as I said earlier, I can't walk

20 around because I got to stay in front of this

21 microphone. But as I said earlier, I'm going to

22 be focusing on Section L. A little bit of Section

1 M at the end, but mostly on L.

2 So as far as the A2SB contract is

3 concerned, or the solicitation, it is a multiple

4 award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity

5 contract for IT services, and IT services- based

6 solutions. It is a total small business

7 set-aside. The NIACS code is 541512, and the

8 associated small business side standard is 27.5

9 million.

10 Now, what I would like to say about that

11 is that this is -- what I'm going to do throughout

12 this is I'm going to weave answers to questions

13 that I have gotten already since the issuance of

14 the RFP. So I'll do it conversationally as I'm

15 giving this presentation.

16 And here is one of the questions

17 actually. As far as the NIACS code is concerned, 18 you know, we have, there were huge changes between

19 the draft RFPs and the final RFP. Probably one of

20 the biggest changes in that is because of the NDAA

21 of 2016 allowing for a contract teaming

22 arrangements, and the members of those teams

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1 whether JVs, or prime, and a team of

2 subcontractors to be able to use their individual

3 experience for members of the joint venture, or

4 the prime and team of subcontractors.

5 As you know, each one of those members

6 of those CTAs have to be small businesses, and the

7 NAICS code that counts to those small businesses

8 is 54152. So you can't use other NAICS codes that

9 the contract is not using to determine whether

10 they're a small business.

11 For instance, employee counts, other

12 NAICS codes that use employee accounts, they have

13 to be small under the NAICS under the contract.

14 It is a base period of five years, one

15 five-year option, so it'd be a, the code, the

16 total term of the contract will be ten years. It

17 is worldwide geographic scope, and allows for all

18 contract types, which as you see in the

19 evaluations because of the types of contracts, 20 especially our experience on Alliant Small

21 Business, you know, you'll see some emphasis on

22 some types of contracts, especially cost

1 reimbursement contracts, primarily because upwards

2 of more than 30 percent of our task order awards

3 on Alliant Small Business have been cost

4 reimbursement contracting. And that is

5 by-the-book cost reimbursement contracting. It

6 doesn't include time and materials, or labor hour, 7 any of that.

8 So if we go to the next slide. All

9 right. There you will see the proposal format as

10 it's laid out in the RFP. What I would like to

11 say first is that you will see in the RFP that we

12 expect all of this to come into one package

13 actually on one CD, all seven volumes.

14 There is one exception that we've made

15 to this that you can't have separate CDs in the

16 proposal. The only exception to this is, as we'll

17 get into later with responsibility, is the fact

18 that GSA Form 527, that form can actually be

19 submitted by CTA partners whether, either JV or

20 subcontractors to a prime. They can be sealed in

21 individual envelopes in the proposal by

22 themselves. Actually, the prime contractor

1 doesn't have to even see them.

2 But having said that, we will not accept

3 them separately. They have to be part of the

4 offeror's proposal. In other words, they can't be

5 sent in separately.

6 All right. Okay. First, I'm going to

7 go, the way that I'm going to do this is I'm to

8 just go through each volume just to kind of hit

9 some of the highlights, hopefully answer some of

10 the questions.

11 The first one on there is the Standard

12 Form 33. I'm sure all of you guys saw that there

13 was a mistake on that 33. It was the due date.

14 It said August the 22nd. That is not the due

15 date. The due date is August the 29th at 4:00

16 p.m. Central Time.

17 Just immediately after that was posted, 18 I saw that, and I subsequently uploaded to

19 FedBizOpps the corrected Standard From 33. So in

20 the announcement, look for the corrected 33 on

21 there that has the due date for the solicitation.

22 The document, probably, the most

1 important document for us to see is the Document

2 Verification and Self-Scoring Worksheet. I think

3 it's J.P-1. The one thing I want to highlight

4 there is that we not only want as part of the

5 package the Excel spreadsheet of the J.P-1 as part

6 of the CD, but we also want to see one hard copy

7 of it on paper, and it can be just in the package.

8 That's the first thing that we're going to look at

9 as you'll see when we talk about in Section M of

10 how this is actually going to be evaluated.

11 The first thing we're actually going to

12 pull out of the package before we look at anything

13 is we're going to look at that paper score sheet

14 to see what your score is on that, and then we're

15 going to start lining them up from top to bottom, 16 so make sure it matches.

17 The next thing on there is the

18 meaningful relationship commitment letters. It

19 could apply to small business, but it's mostly

20 probably going to be applying to A2. The one way

21 that I could see it applying to small businesses

22 especially would be the ANCs. That's a

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1 possibility. But what that is, is that, if an

2 offeror is using resources of another part of the

3 organization whether it's a subsidiary, a

4 division, if they're going to be using resources

5 of that other part of the organization, that's

6 what required in that is the meaningful

7 relationship commitment letters, and the RFP

8 actually spells out what those should be.

9 And as I mentioned earlier, the

10 contractor teaming arrangements, the two types of

11 CTAs that are now allowed on the contract would be

12 a partnership, or a joint venture. You'll

13 remember in the previous iterations of the first

14 couple of drafts, it had to be existing.

15 Well, that's because of the NDAA 2016.

16 That's not the case anymore. They can be new JVs, 17 and they can be new prime contractors proposing

18 with a team of subcontractors.

19 There is, as far as CTAs, there is

20 another one. This has caused a little bit of

21 confusion and asked a number of questions about

22 it. And that's the third one, the claiming prime

1 contractor relevant experience from an existing or

2 previous joint venture or a partnership. What

3 that means, and I think that the RFP is actually

4 clear on it, is that a prime contractor that's not

5 part of the JV, that's just offering as

6 themselves, they can use experience where they

7 performed as a member of a joint venture, and

8 that's only if they were the only contractor that

9 performed under that specific work for that joint

10 venture.

11 There's some verification requirements.

12 There's a document that majority of the members of

13 the JVs sign off on and say, yes, this contractor

14 performed 100 percent of the work under this work

15 for the JV.

16 So that's one. That's the, that's also

17 the only exception to the prime contract rule that

18 we have, and I'll get into that just a little bit

19 later.

20 And then the other ones are just, you

21 can just read them for yourself up there. I'm not

22 really going to, I haven't had any questions on

1 them. It's just the Professional Employee

2 Compensation Plan, Uncompensated Overtime Policy, 3 and the reps and certs.

4 One thing I will say about the reps and

5 certs is that if you're offering as a CTA, whether

6 a prime with subs, or a joint venture, all the

7 members of that CTA are going to have to submit

8 their representations or certifications, which is

9 pretty clear in the RFP.

10 Okay. Moving on to the relevant

11 experience in Volume 2. We have our relevant

12 experience, as you noticed, broken up into two

13 different types of relevant experience. The

14 primary one is the PSC experience, the product

15 service code, product and service code experience.

16 The other one is the leading edge technologies

17 experience.

18 Our primary one is the PSC though. As

19 far as your PSC experience, you can only use a

20 project one time in PSC. You can't use it for

21 multiple PSCs. Okay. And that PSC work has to be

22 ongoing or completed within five years, and it has

1 to have at least one year of performance on it.

2 There are some exceptions to the

3 one-year performance. If there's an interim or a

4 final CPARS, it can be accepted. If there's a

5 completed award fee determination, it can be

6 accepted if it's less than a year.

7 And the last one, if the period of

8 performance is less than a year, and the project

9 is completed. Now, the value of projects under

10 the PSC has to be at least $1 million. You'll

11 see, there is a pretty good explanation of how you

12 determine the value of the project in the RFP that

13 I'm really not going to elaborate on. I haven't

14 had that many questions about it.

15 As far as the PSCs are concerned, we

16 expect the contractors to use their reasonable

17 discretion when they're determining whether or not

18 a project would meet a particular PSC in the RFP.

19 You know, our primary verification is FPDS- NG, 20 which actually uses the PSC code, but just because

21 it's not listed on the FPDS with that PSC code

22 doesn't mean that the, that PSC, that type of work

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1 wasn't integral to the project.

2 That's the key, is that it has to be

3 integral to the project, and we had two separate

4 verifications for the PSC. If -- I'm trying to

5 make sure that I don't miss some of these

6 questions that's have been asked.

7 Our primary way of verifying the

8 information for the PSC, especially for, even for

9 the extra points on the PSC, because each of those

10 points can be found on an FPDS-NG report, that is

11 our primary way. If FPDS-NG report exists, and

12 it's complete, and verifies all of it, that is our

13 primary verification, and we're going to take that

14 at face value. The only things that you submit in

15 those instances is the FPDS report itself. We

16 still require a copy of the statement of work

17 under that, and we, anytime we require a statement

18 of work, and this is going to apply to both PSC

19 and LETs, if we require a statement of work, we're

20 asking you to highlight those areas where that, 21 with emphasis on that PSS, and, actually, when I

22 get into the LETs too, are where that LET is being

1 performed. And we also want even if FPTS-NG

2 verifies everything, we want you to fill out the

3 J.P-2 Form, the PSC template.

4 Okay. If the FPDS-NG is not available, 5 that doesn't mean that you can't use that, that

6 project for that PSC. It just has to go through

7 some other verification requirements. Not only do

8 you have to send in the Form J.P- 2, but you have

9 to also, we also are requiring that a contracting

10 officer, a warranted contracting officer, signs

11 off on it, and says, yes, that was a part of this

12 project.

13 We do allow for a COR. The default is

14 the ordering contracting officer. Not the

15 ordering contracting officer, but the contracting

16 officer, the warranted cognizant contracting

17 officer for that project. That's the default. If

18 they are not available, we will accept a signature

19 from a contracting officer's representative.

20 And I've had a number of questions about

21 what about COTRs. Well, OMB first when they come

22 out with the training and the certification

1 requirements for CORs, it originally was a

2 contracting officer's technical representative.

3 But they kind of made the COTR obsolete when they

4 were revised that memorandum. So it is a

5 contracting officer's representative now. So if

6 it's a COTR, or if it's COR, we would look at that

7 as synonymous. It's as long as they meet the

8 requirements that are in the RFP that the

9 information that we're asking for.

10 Now, of course, you're always going to

11 have to, you're required to submit the statement

12 of work, especially if the FPDS is not complete or

13 it's incomplete and the form.

14 The other thing that I would like to

15 mention is the -- oh, man, just flittered away.

16 Anyways, it'll pop back in my head.

17 Okay. There are some other things.

18 There's additional points that can be for the PSC

19 projects that, as you've seen in Section M, 20 there's additional points to be had.

21 Oh, here's what I was going to say. I

22 knew it'd pop back in my head. The PSC codes, we

1 are not asking you to ask the contracting officer

2 to make any kind of changes in FPDS-NG. That

3 contracting officer has put that PSC code in. We

4 don't expect them to change it. That's why we

5 have other verification routes that you can take

6 if that's not the primary PSC.

7 Now, as far as the others that you can

8 gain points, the first one was the project size

9 and complexity. You get varying points if it's

10 from 2 million up to 5 million, 5 million up to 15

11 million, and greater than 15 million. You can get

12 additional points for projects that meet those

13 criteria.

14 There is another change that was from

15 our draft RFPs. As far as the demonstrating

16 experience with multiple federal government

17 customers, we had switched from a listing that we

18 had in the draft RFPs of the agencies that you

19 could get credit for, and we've just gone to

20 funding agency ID, which is found in FPDS-NG.

21 So it does open up more opportunities to

22 gather those points because there's a lot more

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1 funding agencies than there are in our list. So

2 that was one of the changes that we made from the

3 draft RFPs.

4 The next one is the, a project with cost

5 reimbursement. The cost reimbursement, the one

6 thing that I want to tell you is time and

7 material, and labor hour type contracts

8 ,<inaudible>. This is FAR Part 16 cost

9 reimbursement

10 type contract, and everything that that

11 means. So if you do demonstrate experience in

12 cost reimbursement contracts, and some of the PSCs

13 fall into that category, you will get extra points

14 for that.

15 Fair opportunity task order award

16 against a MA IDIQ contract, this is a 16.505 type

17 of a task order where fair opportunity was

18 provided, and it was competed. If that's the

19 case, then you get the points. It's not a FAR

20 Part 8, and we will not, schedule, competed

21 schedule awards and such we will not accept. It

22 has to be a multiple award, IDIQ contract for you

1 to get those points.

2 The reason for that is, is that's

3 because that's what this contract is. We're

4 looking for experience with contractors that have

5 actually had multiple award IDIQ contracts such as

6 Alliant SB or the other GWACs that are out there.

7 The other thing I'd like to say, for the

8 last three that I mentioned, the fair opportunity

9 task order award against a MA IDIQ, contract

10 project with cost reimbursement, and demonstrating

11 experience with multiple federal government

12 customers, there's only one way to verify that, 13 and that is FPDS-NG. If it cannot be verified by

14 FPDS-NG, you will not get the points for that.

15 The other one is the project in a

16 foreign location. The one thing that I would like

17 to say about -- actually, a couple of things I

18 would like to say about that.

19 The first one is that as the RFP says, a

20 foreign location as defined in our RFP, is that as

21 far as the United States is concerned, it's the 48

22 contiguous states. It's Alaska, it's Hawaii, and

1 it's territories and possessions.

2 For you to get credit for foreign work, 3 it has to be outside of that. So it's outside of

4 USA and all of it's possessions. So that's the

5 one thing.

6 The second thing about the foreign

7 location is that it can be verified by FPDS-NG, 8 but we're not requiring that it be verified by

9 FPDS-NG. If there was a significant piece of that

10 work that was overseas, even though it's coded as

11 primarily in the United States, you can get credit

12 for that. It's just that we have the verification

13 requirements that are in the contract. And part

14 of that has to do with, you know, highlighting

15 statements of work, or whatever, showing that that

16 work being performed overseas.

17 And this work cannot be TDY. It can't

18 be just traveling overseas for a particular

19 project. It has to be boots on the ground, 20 working in those foreign locations on an ongoing

21 basis.

22 In the PSC Code Table, I've gotten a lot

1 of questions about wanting us to elaborate on

2 PSCs, and definitions, and such. We are not going

3 to do that. The RFP states that the Federal

4 Procurement Data System Product and Service Codes

5 Manual is what governs in this. And there's not

6 going to be anymore information than what's in

7 that. That's why I was talking about earlier

8 about using your reasonable discretion about

9 determining whether a PSC would fit in a

10 particular, in a particular relevant experience

11 slot.

12 Leading edge technology relevant

13 experience. That verification really kind of

14 goes, it's pretty much in line with the

15 verification on the PSC if you don't, if the FPDS

16 is incomplete.

17 As far as the LETs are concerned, once

18 again, it's just like the PSC. It had to have

19 been integral to the performance of the project.

20 Once again just like in PSCs, it can only be used

21 one time in the LETs, but there's, you do have one

22 big advantage. There's only one exception to

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1 being able to use a project twice is that you can

2 use -- in the PSC you can have up to seven

3 projects. It's four in the PSC, the first

4 section, it's two in second section, it's one in

5 the third section. A total of seven projects.

6 You can use each one of those PSCs one time in the

7 LETs, so you could get up to seven instances if it

8 happens to hit one of those LETs. You can get up

9 to seven instances that you can reuse that PSC in

10 the LET, but you can only use it once.

11 Once, again, it's that same verification

12 process that we talked with the PSC - statements

13 of work, highlighted area in the statements of

14 work, award forms. Each one of these requires

15 award form, statements of work, sign-off on the

16 contracting officer, if the contracting officer is

17 not available a COR will work.

18 Okay. And the one area in LETs where

19 you get extra points is the breadth of LETs that

20 you hit. It has to be individual LETs. It can't

21 be multiple, you know, you can have up to three

22 experience citations in each leading edge

1 technology. Multiple within a leading edge

2 technology doesn't count as breadth, but across

3 leading edge technologies does count as breadth.

4 The other thing is that I would say, 5 don't, I wouldn't spend my time when you actually

6 put questions on index cards about typos, or

7 problems like that because I've been made well

8 aware of it.

9 As my colleague on A2 said, they are

10 just what he considered artifacts from all the

11 draft RFPs that we've had, so I tried to catch all

12 of those. Apparently, I didn't catch them all, 13 but I've already got them highlighted. There will

14 be an amendment to actually make those changes.

15 I say that now because I know on the

16 J.P-1 that it's not scoring correctly. It's not

17 adding one of them up. So all of that will be

18 fixed, and it will be coming on an amendment

19 later. And you'll find the descriptions of the

20 LETs as one of our proposal attachments, at J.P-4.

21 Okay. On our past performance, what we

22 require is we require a past performance from each

1 one of the PSC relevant experience that you're

2 actually citing in your proposal.

3 As far as the past performance is

4 concerned, we're going to rely on PPIRS. If a

5 PPIRS's past performance exists, what we require

6 is that the most current one is sent in, and

7 that's really actually it's for the verification

8 for the past performance on that PSC. We do allow

9 -- if a PPIRS report does not exist, then we do

10 allow for you to use a form. It's J.P-5, the past

11 performance template, that you can give to your

12 customer that they can actually fill out and rate.

13 It follows strictly in line with the

14 same rating evaluation factors that is found in

15 PPIRS, and will be used the same way as PPIRS is.

16 Those have to be as part of your, they

17 can't be sent in separately from customers. It

18 has to be part of your package. So you're going

19 to have to send that out to your customer. That

20 customer is going to have to send it back to you, 21 and you're going to have to send it in. We won't

22 accept them, we won't accept anything outside of

1 the proposal that the contractor is supposed to

2 send in.

3 Yeah. And the other, if there is

4 negative past performance, we do allow for you to

5 do a one-page summary on that negative past

6 performance to give your side of it.

7 There was, I know, in the proposal

8 tables in the beginning of it, it was, had

9 mentioned the double-side and stuff, kind of

10 ambiguous about whether it was one page or not.

11 It is one page, and that will be another that will

12 be fixed.

13 I'm actually kind of running out of

14 time, so we'll move on. Okay. On the system

15 certifications and clearances, the one thing that

16 I want to say here is that this is, especially

17 affects those that are offering as a CTA, or

18 whether joint venture with members, or whether a

19 prime and subcontractor. Under these

20 certifications and clearances, they all have to be

21 in the name of the prime contractor. We won't

22 accept certifications from any subcontractors, or

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1 just individual members of a JV.

2 There is one exception. If it's a joint

3 venture, either the JV itself can have the

4 certification, or if each individual member of

5 that joint venture has that certification, it can

6 be used. So that is important.

7 Okay. As far as the cost accounting

8 system and audit information, this is actually a

9 big change from the original Alliant Small

10 Business solicitation. I don't know if any of you

11 guys remember, but that was actually a go-no go.

12 What we have now is just a scoring. It's just

13 additional points if you do have it.

14 But what's required is that the

15 contractor has to have had an accounting system

16 that had been audited and determined adequate for

17 cost reimbursement contracting by DCAA, DCMA, or

18 any other agency or cognizant auditing agency.

19 Typically, as you guys know, it's

20 usually a, it's associated with a cost

21 reimbursement type work, whether it's a task order

22 or a contract. GSA is not going to be sponsoring

1 any of these audits. These audits just have to

2 exist. If they exist and you provide the

3 documentation that we ask for, whether it's a

4 Standard Form 1408, whether it's the audit report

5 itself, anything that shows us unequivocally that

6 your accounting systems have been audited and

7 determined adequate for cost reimbursement

8 contracting, then you will be able to get those

9 points. But it is just points. It doesn't keep

10 anybody from competing. You know, there may be

11 other ways that offerors can gather up points in

12 different areas.

13 But that's a big deal. Used to you

14 couldn't even, in the old Alliant Small Business, 15 you couldn't even compete, but at least you now

16 can compete if you don't have those, don't have

17 that.

18 The other things, the forward pricing

19 rate agreements, the earned value management

20 systems, acceptable estimating systems, all of

21 those certifications, I mean, for lack of a better

22 term, they just are what they are. I mean, you

1 have the documents that show that you have that

2 certification, and depending on what levels you

3 have, you will get the additional points for

4 having those certifications.

5 You can go to the next one. Okay. This

6 was another area that was kind of born out of the

7 NDAA 2016. As you know, now we're allowing

8 newly-formed joint ventures, newly-formed prime

9 contractors, and a team of subcontractors.

10 But what we've added is an

11 organizational risk assessment within the

12 contract, within the RFP. There's going to be, 13 there will be an amendment to this. It's not a, 14 it possibly could be a significant amendment to

15 some of you, but it's just, it's really going to

16 be a, it's a clarification on our part.

17 What we meant when we wrote it, but it

18 may not be clear, for the purposes of this

19 evaluation factor, a business arrangement is

20 defined as an individual company. If an

21 individual company is proposing as itself, not

22 using subcontractors, not part of a joint venture, 1 then you get the points. There's nothing else you

2 have to do.

3 The other one is a joint venture, or it

4 could be a partnership or a joint venture, or a

5 prime contractor and it's proposed first tier

6 subcontractor team. That is the business

7 arrangement.

8 Okay. Here's what needs to be

9 clarified. Previously performed. There's

10 actually two words in there that have a lot of

11 meaning that just may not on the face of it seem

12 that way. What we mean by previously is previous

13 to the issue of the RFP. That's what previously

14 means, and that amendment will actually clarify

15 that.

16 What we mean by perform is we mean work

17 that is being performed. If a subcontract has

18 simply been signed, but there's been no work

19 performed under that subcontract, then that won't

20 count. So when you see the term, "previously

21 performed," that means previous to the RFP being

22 issued, and, "performed," means performance under

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1 that subcontract.

2 The other thing, many questions about

3 whether the prime contractor that's proposing can, 4 could they have been a subcontract to their

5 subcontractor? And the answer to that is no. It

6 has to be the prime, if it's a prime contractor

7 and a subcontractors, that any work that was done

8 had to have been performed in a prime sub

9 relationship with a prime contractor proposing on

10 the RFP was the prime contractor and that prime

11 sub -- I'm even confusing myself.

12 The prime contractor had to have been

13 the prime contractor in the prime sub relationship

14 if there was a previous relationship there.

15 Okay. A business arrangement is

16 considered to have previously performed if one of

17 the following conditions is met. Of course, an

18 individual company, nothing else needs to be said, 19 they get the points.

20 A joint venture has previously performed

21 work on a contract or an order. That is an

22 existing joint venture that existed prior to

1 issuing the RFP, and that has done work under

2 other contracts successfully.

3 The other one is that as far as the

4 prime and a subcontractor arrangement, a prime

5 subcontractor arrangement would be considered to

6 have previously performed, each proposed

7 subcontractor has previously performed on a

8 contract or order as a subcontractor to the

9 offering prime contractor. If that is the case, 10 then they can actually get the points as far as

11 the organizational risk assessment.

12 Okay. As far as the cost price is

13 concerned, I think it's pretty straight forward.

14 Just remember, I've had a lot of questions about

15 the rates, and not understanding especially that

16 range of rates that we're talking about proposing

17 under, those are direct labor rates. That's what

18 the employee is getting paid. It has no fringe

19 benefits on it. It has no overhead. No G&A.

20 It's just the direct rate that the contractor, I

21 mean, that the employee is being paid. That's

22 what those rates represent.

1 Those rates were, we went through a lot

2 of research in developing those rates. The only

3 thing, just the major things that I'd want to say

4 about that is that you want to be very careful, 5 we're not telling you can't propose outside of

6 those rates, either lower or higher, but we just

7 want to caution you that you do that at your own

8 peril.

9 If you do do that, just make sure that

10 you submit all of the justifications and stuff

11 that we ask you to. If you go beyond, either

12 above or below our rates, we ask that you

13 supplement that with some kind of explanation as

14 to why you did that.

15 The other thing, there's a couple of

16 other things that you would have to explain to us

17 if you do something outside of what we've asked

18 for. We've, actually, set a, it's not a ceiling

19 profit because you can propose whatever profit you

20 want to understanding that these rates only apply

21 to time and material, and labor hour type task

22 orders.

1 We've set a target rate of 7.5 percent.

2 If you propose something higher than that, that

3 would require a justification as to why you did

4 that.

5 The other justification would be is if

6 on the indirect rates, what we're asking you on

7 your indirect rates because part of this cost

8 submittal, this pricing submittal, is a basis of

9 estimates where you give us, you know, how you

10 estimate things, and how you do it with your, you

11 know, your audited rates, and forward pricing

12 rates, and such as that, we ask you to do that

13 same thing when you, actually, put in your

14 overhead rates in the spreadsheet. We would ask

15 that you would explain something that goes outside

16 of your normal business practices as far as using

17 those audited rates.

18 The other thing that I'd like to let you

19 know is that on that spreadsheet, you only put, 20 you're only putting one year's worth of, in there, 21 and you're putting, you're putting your rates for

22 one year, your overhead for that one year, and

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1 it's being extrapolated out.