Attachment_5_-_EPA_Technical_Instructions_for_SF_330_Digital_Form.pdf

ATTACHMENT 5

EPA Digital SF-330 Technical Instructions

Section 1: Purpose

For the DES MAC solicitation #SOL-HQ-14-00022, EPA has opted to use a digital SF-330 form.

This decision was made for several reasons, including standardization of format and data, consolidation of information into one location, and ease of review, evaluation, and updates on an annual basis. This increased efficiency will in turn mean faster evaluation times and awards for vendors, but these benefits depend on all interested vendors’ usage of the digital form.

In addition to these EPA Technical Instructions related to the digital SF-330 form, vendors should also reference the GSA Instructions for the SF-330 (Attachment 5) while completing the form.

Section 2: Mandatory Use

The digital SF-330 form will use Microsoft Access, a software component of the standard

Microsoft Office suite for PCs. As long as your company has Microsoft Access, no additional download or purchase of any additional software will be required in order to complete the SF

330 submittal process.

Submittals must be in Microsoft Access (.accdb file). Please do not submit your form in any other format – including printing and saving the Access form as a PDF file or creating a submittal in another format and uploading it as an attachment within Access. Submittals outside of the Access digital form will not be accepted.

If you would like to use another program to work on your SF-330 data (i.e., Microsoft Word) you may copy and paste into the Access file, but information must be copied and pasted into the appropriate location. Do not paste multiple items into a single field and also do not refer the reader to another location on the form. In order to be considered during the evaluation process, you must submit the requested information in the appropriate text box.

If you have any technical issues with Microsoft Access and the digital form file, please contact

Nadia Velasco at velasco.nadia@epa.gov.

Section 3: Technical Instructions

After opening the Access file, please save a new version of the file on your computer to work with. Select “File” “Save Database As” “Access Database” “Save As”. If you are prompted to close open objects in Access prior to saving, please click “Yes”. Then rename the file according to the following naming convention: SF330_VendorName_CLIN#. For instance, for firm ABC that was interested in submitting a form for CLIN 1, their file would be

“SF330_ABC_1.accdb”.

After saving the file, you may see a Security Warning; this is normal and you should click the

“Enable Content” button.

After reading the notes on the Home Page of the form and following the above instructions, mailto:velasco.nadia@epa.gov please click the button “Open SF-330 Form and Begin”. The first item on the SF-330 digital form is a CLIN selection dropdown box. Select the CLIN number that corresponds to the

CLIN the SF-330 is in reference to. Please note the CLIN must be selected in the Access file;

indicating the CLIN in the file name and/or email message but not within the digital form is not acceptable. If you would like to submit bids for multiple CLINs, save a new version of the file, rename that file accordingly, and select the appropriate CLIN. Please be careful to ensure that the CLIN selected is correct for each individual file.

After saving the file and selecting the CLIN, you may begin entering data into the form by simply clicking into a text box and either typing directly or copying/pasting text into the text box. In many cases, you may want to include more text than appears visible in the various text boxes. Your responses are not limited to the size of the text boxes shown on the screen and scrollbars will appear within the text boxes as you type. The complete text response will appear on the printing version of the form. Each text box does have a limit of 65,536 characters (which is approximately equivalent to 15 pages) and the system will alert you if you reach the limit for any given text box.

The auto-correct feature may be enabled on your SF-330, depending on the local settings of your computer. It is your responsibility to ensure that all content is presented as intended.

Auto-correct should not change any copy and pasted text. Also, please note that in order to add a blank line in a text box (such as between paragraphs), press Ctrl+Enter.

While each text box allows roughly 15 pages of text, responses to this announcement, including

Part I of the SF-330 but excluding all attachments, shall adhere to the following page limits:

Fifty-five (55) single-sided pages of text for small businesses

Fifty-seven (57) single-sided pages of text for large businesses. The extra 2 pages of text shall be used to address Evaluation Factor 6 only.

This page count should be calculated generated by using the “Close SF-330 and Print Part I” button at the top of the digital form. This page limitation shall include Part I in the page count, but can exclude Part II. There is no page limitation for any individual section or portion of the

SF-330, as long as the total printer version of Part I of the SF-330 does not exceed the above-stated page limit. Submissions must be in Times New Roman, 12 point font. Offerors should verify that the page count of the form is within the stated limitation before submitting the official

SF-330 through FedConnect. There is no page limit for Part II of the SF-330.

If the provided summary reference tables at the top of Sections E & F and the bottom of

Section G do not display the entered information, please click in the empty space just to the right of the form. This will also ensure that the drop-down fields at the bottom of Section F and the top of Section G display the appropriate information.

SF 330 Form Attachments

In addition to the 55 page limit for Part I of the SF-330 for small businesses, and the 57 page limit for large businesses, there is the following page limit for attachments:

10 pages of attachments for small businesses.

11 pages for attachments for large businesses. The additional page shall be used to address Evaluation Factor 6 only.

There are four places for attachments within the revised version of the digital form:

1. At the top of Part I – for a title page, table of contents, attachments table of contents, and other non-content type attachments, such as disclosure / proprietary statements. If a vendor chooses to attach a disclosure or proprietary statement, note that a text box exists at the top of each section allowing you to indicate if the disclosure statement particularly applies. If so, please check that box and EPA will heed your wishes. NOTE: These attachments will not be included in the technical evaluation and therefore will not count towards the offeror’s 10 or

11 page limit, as applicable, for attachments.

2. Part I, Section D – for an organizational chart. This is the only required attachment on the form; in accordance with the OMB Standard Form 330 instructions.

3. On each example project page in Section F – for documents to supplement the project description. Up to five example projects are allowed, and each project allows for a supporting attachment, but is not required.

4. At the top of Section H – for documents to supplement responses within Section H.

Offerors may include any type of information in their attachments that they feel is important to support their SF-330 submittal, such as photographs, graphs, tables, design drawings, charts, maps, etc. However, offerors are reminded that the attachments should supplement their text within the form, not take the place of text descriptions within the digital form itself. Content located within attachments will not be searchable within the Access SF-330 database. All question responses must be answered within the relative text box on the form itself. Please limit your attachments to an average size of 750KB.

A wide range of attachment types will be allowed, including MS Word, PDF, image files (e.g., JPEG, PNG, etc). However, EPA will not accept MS Excel file attachments, as they cannot be easily translated into an objective page count. Please PDF or use some other file type to upload MS Excel type tables or other information. Attachment files that can be easily printed and sized as a standard letter sized page are strongly encouraged, such as PDFs and MS Word documents.

A page is defined as an 8.5”x11” document. So, for example, an 11”x17” attachment is allowed, but will count as two pages. No half page increments, or any other fractions of a page, will be allowed.

If a half a page attachment is uploaded, it will be counted as a full page. Image files will be printed at 150 DPI, and will be converted to an equivalent ‘page count’ based on that ratio. In order to avoid confusion about how an image will print, attachment files that can be easily printed and sized as a standard letter sized page are strongly encouraged, such as PDFs and MS Word documents.

Attachments will not generate automatically in the printer version of the form (located by clicking on the ‘Close and Print’ button at the top of the form) so that offerors are afforded the maximum control over how attachments appear for EPA’s review. Attachments can therefore be printed by clicking on the attachment (i.e., paperclip) icons within the form and selecting ‘Open’ and then printing the attachment within the appropriate program (e.g., a Word document attachment will open in Word and be printed as a typical Word document would be printed). If the offeror wishes to print their complete submittal for their records, including attachments, they should open each attachment file and print it separately.

EPA will review the actual attachments included in the file against the attachment table of contents

(see example below) submitted by each offeror. If the total attachments actually included with the file exceed the 10 page limit, EPA will disregard any page after the 10th page, and will not evaluate those pages. Please note, EPA will print and consider attachments in the order that they are located in the digital form, beginning with the org chart attachment in Part I, Section D, and ending with any attachments uploaded in Section H. For offerors that are large businesses, the same process will be followed after the 11th page.

The attachment table of contents should be uploaded as an attachment to the SF-330, along with the other non-content type attachments (e.g., title page, etc) at the top of Part I of the form. This will not count towards the 10 page attachment limit for small businesses, or the 11 page attachment limit for large businesses.

Example Attachment Table of Contents / Summary – For Illustration Purposes Only. Offerors may submit their attachment table of contents in any format appropriate.

Attachment File Name and Type

Location in digital SF- 330 Form (Section)

Recommended location in printed SF-330 form

Description Page Equivalent (1 page =8.5x11”)

Title Page and Table of Contents, Word

Top of Part I Before first page Company ABC’s SF-330 title page and table of contents

N/A (not to be included in page limit)

Org Chart, PPT Section D After page 3 Organizational Chart for Company ABC

1 page (8.5x11”)

Project 1 Graphics, PDF

Section F, Example Project 1

After page 25 Graphic representation of Project 1, including 3 pictures and 2 graphs

1 page (8.5x11”)

Project 2 Drawings, PDF

Section F, Example Project 2

After page 28 Design drawing illustrating Project 2 approach

2 pages (11x17”)

Project 3 Graphics, PDF

Section F, Example Project 3

After page 30 Graphic representation of Project 3, including 3 pictures and 2 graphs

1 page (8.5x11”)

Project 4 Graphics, PDF

Section F, Example Project 4

After page 35 Graphic representation of Project 4, including 3 pictures and 2 graphs

1 page (8.5x11”)

Project 5 Graphics, PDF

Section F, Example Project 5

After page 40 Graphic representation of Project 5, including 5 pictures and 4 graphs

2 pages (2 page PDF 8.5x11” each page)

Green Remediation Example Graphics, PDF

Section H After page 50 Examples of green remediation techniques used on past projects, including 3 pictures and 3 graphs

1 page (8.5x11”)

Subcontracting Approach, Word

Section H After page 55 Graph of historic subcontracting utilization

1 page (8.5x11”)

TOTAL PAGES: (must be less than 10 page equivalents) 10 pages

The submission of the SF-330 through FedConnect is to be made as a Microsoft Access

(.accdb file). A hard copy or PDF copy of the printed form will not be accepted.

The Access digital form is divided up into pages just like the current PDF form. To move from one page to another, simply navigate using the tab controls across the top of the form.

Several sections allow you to enter information on multiple items (i.e., multiple proposed team members, multiple key personnel, etc.). In these sections, there are navigation buttons to add a new item, delete an item, or move among the items you have entered. Please note that adding a new item does not overwrite the current item; it just creates an additional item. If you want to delete an item you have previously entered, you must either click the delete button or overwrite it by typing in new information.

If you would like to check your page count and/or print a copy of your submission for your records, please click the “Close SF-330 and Print” buttons at the top of the page as opposed to using the “File” “Print” functionality built into Access.

Please note, there are two separate print buttons, one for Part I and one for Part II. This will create a printer-friendly version that is formatted for printing purposes. Please use this button every time you would like to print the form; do not use the “File” “Print” functionality built into Access.

Section by Section Instructions:

1. Part I

Select the CLIN and at the top of the page.

Section A. The information in this section will be pre-populated. Please contact EPA with any questions or if you feel that the pre-populated info is incorrect for any reason.

Section B. Enter information as requested on the SF-330.

Section C. You will be limited to up to 15 total proposed team members. As you enter information into the provided row, a new row will appear below, up to 15 time. Note that once a new row has been edited it cannot be deleted from the print-version of the form. A new row that has not been edited will not display in the print version. Please use caution when entering new records to avoid a blank row.

Section D. Double click the box to upload an attachment for your organization design.

Section E. You will be limited to 10 total key personnel resumes and each resume will be limited to 5 relevant projects. Use the navigation buttons to add a new resume (up to

10), delete a resume, or navigate among the resumes you have added to view or edit information. A table will appear at the top for Section E listing the resumes you have entered within the form. This table is for your reference only and will not appear on the printing version of the form. This table cannot be used to navigate between entries, please use the arrows found below the table for this purpose. It is ultimately the responsibility of the offeror to ensure the correct resumes are included in each SF-330 submission; do not rely solely on this quick reference table to validate that resumes are complete and saved in the final submittal version.

Each resume will begin on a new page in the printing version of the report;

offerors should take this into consideration when accounting for their ultimate page count.

Section F. You will be limited to 5 total past project examples. Use the navigation buttons to add a new past project (up to 5), delete a project, or navigate among the projects you have added to view or edit information. A table will appear at the top for

Section F listing the projects you have entered within the form. This table is for your reference only and will not appear on the printing version of the form. This table cannot be used to navigate between entries, please use the arrows found below the table for this purpose. It is ultimately the responsibility of the offeror to ensure the correct projects are included in each SF-330 submission; do not rely solely on this quick reference table to validate that example projects are complete and saved in the final submittal version. Each example project will begin on a new page in the printing version of the report; offerors should take this into consideration when accounting for their ultimate page count.

o As a reminder, the description field is not limited to the size of the text box shown on the screen; a scroll bar will appear as you type to allow you and any other readers to review text.

o You can also add attachments to support the description of each example project. These attachments will be counted toward your total attachment limit of 10 pages, or 11 pages, depending on your small business size status. Be sure to upload any supporting attachments into the appropriate location (e.g., on the relevant Example Project page); attachments will be evaluated based on where they are located in the digital form.

Section G. After completing sections E & F, your entries from those sections will pre-populate in Section G.

o Select each individual and their role from the drop downs on the left side of the page so that each person is listed, but only listed once.

o Reference the table at the bottom of the page to identify which example project correlates with which project ‘number’ in the table. Then select the corresponding checkboxes to indicate which key personnel participated on which example project, referring to the number assigned to each project at the bottom of the page. Note that the example projects must be numbered 1 through

5. The project number is assigned in Part I, Section F, box 20. It is your responsibility to ensure that each project is numbered appropriately.

o If you go back to section E and F and change any entries, please return to section G and make any necessary updates to ensure that your information is accurate.

Sections H and I.

o Section H is intended to collect the information you would like to present regarding the specific evaluation factors. Please note again that your responses are not limited to the size of the text box shown on the screen.

o An optional field has been provided for any information you would like to present prior to the discussion of the evaluation factors.

o Please type your name and check the box at the bottom of the page to verify as an e-signature.

2. Part II

Please submit one form for each specific branch office seeking work under the CLIN in question. If you need to submit multiple Part II forms, use the navigation buttons to add a new form, delete a form, or move among the forms you have entered to view or edit information.

Field 1. The solicitation number will be pre-populated. Please contact EPA with any questions or if you feel the pre-populated info is incorrect for any reason.

Fields 2a – 8c. Enter information as requested on the SF-330.

Field 9. The Function Codes / Disciplines provided in the SF-330 standard instructions will appear in a drop down menu for each of the 20 items. Please select those that apply to the branch in question (up to 20) by scrolling though the menu and clicking on the appropriate item to highlight it. After selecting the Function Codes / Disciplines, please fill in the appropriate number of employees for each.

Field 10. The Profile Codes / Experience Categories provided in the SF-330 standard instructions will appear in a drop down menu for each of the 20 items. Please select those that apply to the branch in question (up to 20) by scrolling though the menu and clicking on the appropriate item to highlight it. After selecting the Profile Codes / Experience

Categories, please and fill in the appropriate revenue index number from the drop down menu.

Field 11. Enter information as requested on the SF-330.

Field 12. Please type your name and check the box to verify as an e-signature.

Section 4: Submitting the SF-330 Digital File

Before submitting your file, please double check the following:

a. All information is entered in the appropriate text boxes

b. The file is saved as “SF330_VendorName_CLIN #”

c. You have one file per CLIN and the relevant CLIN is selected within the file

Upload the submission as a Microsoft Access (.accdb file) through FedConnect to EPA, including the digital Access SF-330 form as an attachment. Attachments of other file types (PDF, Word, etc) in the FedConnect submittal will not be reviewed as part of the SF-330 evaluation process.

How to upload the SF-330 via FedConnect

1. Locate the DES opportunity on FedConnect

a. Registered FedConnect users: sign-in at fedconnect.net, select “all auctions & opportunities”, and search for the reference number “SOL-HQ-14-00022”

b. New FedConnect users: register for a free account at fedconnect.net and then proceed as above

2. Register to receive notifications – on the DES opportunity page, select the green button in the center “Register to Receive Notifications”

3. Use the message center to reply to the notice – in the Inbox that appears in the center of the screen, click “New” to begin a submission

a. Similar to an email, you may fill in a subject line and attach files to your submission

b. If you are submitting SF-330’s for multiple CLIN’s, you may attach multiple Access files to your FedConnect submission – please ensure that the total file size of the attached files remains within the 100MB FedConnect limit

i. If the 100MB total attachment limit requires it, you may split up submissions as needed into multiple FedConnect messages

ii. Select the “Attach File” button, then “Choose File”, select the SF-330 file from your computer, click “Open”, and then click the “Upload” button

iii. FedConnect should then show the attached file name once the file has been uploaded. Repeat as necessary to attach all desired SF-330 forms.

c. The subject line should read “VendorName CLIN Number(s)” (indicating which

CLIN # SF-330’s have been attached)

d. To submit your SF-330(s) to EPA, click “send”

e. You may save your submission for later by selecting “save” – you can then find your pending submission in the “Drafts” section of the opportunity’s message center

4. EPA will confirm receipt of your submission within 1 business days

NOTE: You may choose to submit a blank or sample SF-330 through the FedConnect system to test the electronic submittal system. These SF-330s will not be evaluated in any way.