SAQMMA15R0443-A002_QandA.pdf

Questions and Answers for SAQMMA15R0443

1. Q: The RFP establishes the due date as 9/10/15. The FBO website however references the due date as 9/17/15. Please confirm the due date of the RFP.

A: Proposals are due at 3 PM EST on 9/17/2015.

2. Q: Can the government clarify the due date for this proposal? The listing on FedBizOpps lists the due date and time as 3 PM EST on September 17, 2015. The SF1449 lists the due date and time as 3 PM EST on September 10, 2015.

A: Proposals are due at 3 PM EST on 9/17/2015.

3. Q: The majority, if not all, of deliverables required by the RFP are able to be delivered electronically. As a point of clarification regarding Section 1.7 in the RFP, is electronic delivery acceptable for other deliverables that can be delivered electronically?

A: All deliverables can be submitted electronically for government approval.

4. Q: FAR 52.216-18(c) requires delivery of orders by mail unless orders issued orally, by facsimile, or by electronic commerce methods if authorized in the Schedule. For the efficiency of ordering and performance of orders, will the Government confirm that the Schedule will authorize these other methods?

A: The above FAR will be adhered to whenever possible. However, a verbal commitment by the government may be made informing contractor of intent to issue a delivery order.

5. Q: It appears that the text of 52.204-14 (full text) has been included in the RFP (page 25 of

47) in error. FAR 52.204-15 is applicable to ID/IQ contracts and appears to be correctly identified for inclusion in Section 2, Contract Clauses (as part of FAR 52.212-5). If the clause is not being removed, please clarify if and how FAR 52.204-14 will apply to the resulting award.

A: 52.204-14 deleted from Solicitation.

6. Q: Section 6.3 Key Personnel in Attachment A (the PWS) conflicts with Section 1.11 of the RFP: Section 6.3 states that the Contractor shall submit to the COR all proposed substitutions at least 30 days in advance, while Section 1.11 states that notice is required 45 days in advance. Please confirm that the 30-day notice in 6.3 applies, and that the 30-day (or 45-day) notification requirement does not apply in the event substitution is necessary due to sudden illness, death, or termination of employment?

A: A 30-day notice will be sufficient.

7. Q: Please confirm that the instructions on pages 31 and 32 are in lieu of the requirements of 52.212-1 or please clarify which requirements from 52.212-1 are superseded by the instructions on pages 31 and 32.

A: The instructions on pages 31 and 32 are the addendum to the requirements of 52.212-1. 52.212-1 updated to include Addendum.

8. Q: Regarding RFP Section 52.212-1, please distinguish between “Platform” and “Software as a Service” (SaaS).

A: Platform as a service as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, Special Publication 800-145) The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider.3 The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment. Whereas Software as a Service is defined as the capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user specific application configuration settings (NIST, Special Publication 800-145).

9. Q: Regarding RFP Section 52.212-1, please clarify the scope of the Service Level Agreement that the offeror needs to include in its response? Is this just related to SaaS licensing, or does this also include implementation services for the MeterNet Data Analytics solution?

A: Service Level Agreement scope should include how the contractor will manage SaaS and PaaS offerings. Licensing is just one aspect of how this section will be evaluated.

10. Q: Regarding RFP Section 52.212-1, do the labor categories and hours that the offeror includes in its Technical Volume need to match the labor categories and hours provided by the Department in Appendix B? Are offerors allowed to change the “Estimated Quantity” labor hours pre-populated in the document?

A: The labor categories and hours need to match Appendix B. Offerors are allowed to modify but the evaluation criteria is based on pre-populated labor categories and hours in Appendix B.

11. Q: It appears that the evaluation criteria do not align with the requirements of the solicitation. For example, (1) evaluation Factor #2 refers to “management.” Does this refer to the offeror’s proposed project management structure, or “energy management” capabilities, as defined in Section 2.1 of the PWS? (2) evaluation Factor #3 refers to “service agreements.” To what service agreements does this Factor refer? (3) evaluation Factor #4 refers to “training” but there is no training obligation in the PWS. Please provide additional detail regarding each of its five evaluation factors and/or point to the components of Attachment A to which each factor refers.

A: See Sections 5.2 and 5.3 of Revised PWS.

12. Q: Section 6.1, Data Rights, of the PWS (first sentence) states that “all data and data rights associated with this contract become the property of the U.S. Government in accordance with FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data-General (Dec 2007).” The allocation of rights at (b)(1) grants the Government unlimited license rights in data first produced in performance of the contract. Please confirm or clarify the following:

a. FAR 52.227-14 applies only to non-commercial items, and commercial computer software and commercial technical data will be provided with standard commercial terms in accordance with FAR 12.212 and FAR 12.211.

b. Consistent with FAR 52.227-14(b)(1), the Government is seeking an unlimited license in the data and not an ownership right in the data.

A: Any metered data sent to, or generated by the offeror will become property of DoS.

Offerors intellectual property processes will remain property of offeror.

13. Section 6.1, Data Rights, of the PWS (second sentence) states that the “Government will have exclusive rights over any developed software and applications databases under this contract and subsequent task orders.” Please confirm or clarify the following:

a. By “exclusive rights” the Government means that it will acquire unlimited license rights in accordance with FAR 52.227-14.

b. If commercial item software is used in performance of the PWS and minor modifications, such as configurations, customizations, enhancements or extensions are delivered, those will be licensed under standard commercial terms in accordance with FAR 12.212.

A: Any metered data sent to, or generated by the offeror will become property of DoS.

Offerors intellectual property processes, platform or software will remain property of offeror.

14. Q: Section 1.12, Safeguarding Information, states that “all documents and records

(including photographs) generated during performance of the work under this contract shall be for the sole use of and become the property of the U.S. Government.” This appears to be in conflict with the unlimited license rights that the Government obtains under 52.227- 14(b)(1). Is there a specific set of data or information that the Government seeks to own from this work? Standard commercial terms include use of outputs to improve analytical capabilities. Will the Government permit the use of aggregated, non-identifiable data, for this purpose by the contractor?

A: Any metered data sent to, or generated by the offeror will become property of DoS.

Offerors intellectual property processes, platform or software will remain property of offeror.

15. Q: FAR 52.217-8 provides that rates are adjusted based on revisions to prevailing labor rates. How does this adjustment approach apply to hourly rates that based on pricing in the commercial marketplace for commercial item services?

A: Offeror must determine how to offset any internal rates. Final rate offered to the government must be in line with FAR 52.217-8 guided rates.

16. Q: Regarding RFP Attachment B, Pricing, are offerors able to modify the pricing framework to include international billing rates?

A: No

17. Q: The pricing template provided does not appear to allow offerors to show alternative pricing structures such as tiered volume pricing or multi-year commitment license pricing. How can offerors show these in the business volume proposal so that the Government is aware of additional discounting opportunities? (FAR 52.212-1(b)(6) requires offerors to provide price and discount terms but the template doesn’t appear to have a mechanism for this.)

A: Offer must answer all questions within the RFP but may offer additional proposed alternative pricing structure.

18. Q: Would the Government consider offers of non-refundable services bundles offered at a discount from contract rates that would not be subject to termination for convenience by the Government? If so, how /where should those alternative pricing offers be identified in the proposal?

A: The Government cannot accept non-refundable services bundles.

19. Q: Section 2.1 (first paragraph) of the PWS states that the contractor shall “develop, design and implement” a solution. Please confirm that offerors can alternatively propose existing commercial solutions to meet the PWS requirements in lieu of developing and designing a solution.

A: The offeror can propose a commercial solution to meet the requirement. Please read the evaluation criteria.

52.212-2 Evaluation - Commercial Items (Oct 2014)

(a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:

• Factor 1 - Technical Specifications

• Factor 2 - Management

• Factor 3 - Service Agreements

• Factor 4 - Training

• Factor 5 - Experience/Past Performance

Non-price factors, when combined, are significantly more important than price.

Technical specification is the most important factor. Management, service agreements, training, and experience/past performance are of equal importance to each other.

(b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

(c) A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer's specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

20. Q: It appears that there is an error in Section 2.1, (second paragraph) of the PWS. Please confirm that one of the objectives of the project is that the offeror (not the Department of State) “will manage all maintenance and system operations for development, QA, and production environments.” Please also confirm that “development” is not required if the offer is implementing an existing commercial solution.

A: Correct. Development is not required; however DoS configuration or customization will be required.

21. Q: Regarding Section 4.0 of the PWS, please confirm that the energy enterprise data and third-party data will be Government-furnished data and that no licenses to use the data will be required with or from any third parties.

A: Correct, The government will furnish all data.

22. Q: Regarding Section 4.1 of the PWS, System Administration, bullet 1, please confirm that the maintaining of daily operation and problem resolution of installed systems applies only to the offeror’s MeterNet Data Analytics software solution? If not, what other installed systems are required to be maintained by the contractor?

A: The daily operations and problem resolution applies to all data under the umbrella of DoS metering program.

23. Q: Section 4.1, 2nd sentence, requires work that does not fall within the standard commercial definition of maintenance and would not be included in standard commercial pricing of a solution. Does the Government anticipate that offerors will provide hourly service pricing for this work?

A: No, this work is a subset of data integration.

24. Q: Regarding Section 4.1, System Administration, bullet 2, of the PWS, please confirm that if the offeror is proposing a commercial item software solution and will not be developing any software for the MeterNet Data Analytics solution, that this requirement is limited to the configuration of the offeror’s product, and excludes software development?

A: Development is not required; however DoS configuration or customization will be required.

25. Q: Regarding Section 4.1, System Administration, of the PWS, bullets 3, 4, 5 and 6 do not appear to be in the scope of the MeterNet Data Analytics solution as defined in Section 2.1, Scope, and might have been included in error. Will the Government delete them or, if applicable, please provide additional explanation regarding how these obligations link to the MeterNet scope in further detail to allow offerors to provide a targeted response to the requirements?

A: Bullets deleted from PWS.

26. Q: Regarding Section 4.1, System Administration, bullet 7, of the PWS, please confirm that the software deficiencies to be identified are related to the Department of State’s systems and are outside of the scope of the MeterNet Data Analytics solution defined in Section 2.0, and that the offeror can propose these services on an hourly basis?

A: No. There is not a requirement for additional hourly services.

27. Q: Similarly, Section 4.2, Configuration Management and some requirements under Section 3.0, Technical Services Required, appear to be beyond the scope identified in Section 2.0 of the PWS. For services that are beyond the Scope in 2.0 but are identified at 3.0 and in 4.2, may offerors identify the services and propose them on an hourly basis?

A: No. There is not a requirement for additional hourly services.

28. Q: Regarding Section 4.1, System Administration, bullet 9, of the PWS, please clarify what accreditation packages may be required, if any?

A: Authorization and Accreditation.

29. Q: Is a response to the QASP at Section 7 of the PWS required, and if so, what type of information is the Government expecting in response?

A: No response required.

30. Q: The PWS (Page 9, para. 2) lists requirements for the proposed solution, including that it “must have been in production for at least three years, and be currently in production servicing multiple facilities, web-based, cloud capable, and at minimum must be FedRAMP, FISMA, ITAR, and FIPS 140.2 approved Software as a Service (SaaS) platform.” Many innovative solutions meet all of the latter requirements, but have not been in production for three or more years, nor have cloud or FedRAMP requirements or capabilities been fully approved and deployed for over 3 years . Would the government consider removing this restriction?

A: No. The below excerpt are the technical requirements and are not negotiable.

3.0 Technical Services Required

Department of State (DoS) requires a web-based energy management analytics software solution to enable energy and facility managers to manage energy consumption across global facilities (offices, warehouses, annexes) as well as provide (production, failover, and test environments) for individual residents with an energy management portal to track usage. The solution must collect, aggregate and analyze existing metered data points.