Attachment 4.docx

Attachment 4 – Reference Questionnaire

(Sample Cover Letter for Company Letterhead)

Dear Sir or Madam:

The Social Security Administration is soliciting proposals for the acquisition of Geographic Information System (GIS) development and support services to meet its geospatial support for disaster planning, emergency management, and security oversight. We plan to submit a response to this acquisition and have designated you as one of our references. We request your assistance in this process by asking you to complete the attached questionnaire with regard to your evaluation of our experience and past performance.

By submitting this information, you are assisting the Federal Government in determining which Contractor is offering the best value. Please submit your responses to the following address:

ATTN: Christopher Mettee Social Security Administration

1st Floor, Rear Entrance Baltimore, MD 21244-1811

Or electronically to Christopher.Mettee@ssa.gov

Or by Facsimile to 410-965-9560

The Government must receive responses by Close of Business, August 17, 2012. We appreciate your timeliness in this matter.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely, (Company) Attachment 4 - Reference Questionnaire (Experience) Date:_____________

Reference for (Prime)_________________________ (Sub) ________________________

Company:______________________________________________

Contact Name:___________________ Contact Phone:__________________________

1. What is your involvement with the contract? What type of organization are you with? Please provide brief explanation.

a. Contracts/Purchasing? b. Program Office?

a. Federal Government? b. State/Local Government?

c. For Profit Organization? d. Non-profit Organization?

2. What type of service did the Contractor provide for your organization?

3. What was the geographic scope of the contract?

4. What is the number of locations supported under the contract?

5. Did the Contractor develop a GIS application that meets Federal Geospatial Data Committee (FGDC) and National Spatial Data Infrastructure guidelines? Is your GIS platform a scalable enterprise? If yes, how many users currently utilize the application?

6. Did the Contractor provide an agnostic GIS platform to your organization and does the platform leverage new web enabled technologies? Is the system both Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and FGDC complaint?

7. Did the Contractor implement changes in your Information Technology architecture that were consistent with your IT security requirements? Did the changes require new hardware and software to implement, and was the equipment identified in the project budget previously?

8. Did the Contractor sufficiently document changes for your IT environment security model that fully satisfied organizational policies and industry best practice guidelines?

9. Did the Contractor documentation for the GIS platform meet the System Development Life Cycle requirements for security control assessments with complete and accurate application Security Assessment Reports in accordance with NIST guidelines?

10. Did the Contractor develop for GIS and mapping for portable devices and smartphone technologies? If yes please indicate the device type and do you plan to continue development for this platform?

11. Did the Contractor implement new hardware into your IT architecture to support specific types of GIS capabilities (e.g. geo-parsing or imagery storage appliances)?

Attachment 4 - Reference Questionnaire (Past Performance – Part I)

Please answer the following questions regarding the Contractor’s past performance.

1. Did the Contractor perform satisfactorily, or in accordance with the scope of the contract?

2. Did the Contractor/Subcontractor provide service in accordance with the scope of the contract within a reasonable timeline?

3. If a problem arose, did the contractor/subcontractor take the necessary steps to resolve the problem as quickly as possible in accordance with the contract terms and conditions?

4. What are the Contractor’s strengths?

5. What are the Contractor’s weaknesses?

6. Would you do business with this company again? Why?

Attachment 4 - Reference Questionnaire (Past Performance – Part II)

Instructions: Please rate the Contractor on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest ranking and 1 being the lowest. Consider the following scale when rating the identified factors:

Excellent (8 to 10 Points) – Performance met all contract requirements and exceeded many to the customer’s benefit. Problems, if applicable, were negligible and were resolved in a timely, highly effective manner.

Good (6 to 7 Points) – Performance met all contract requirements and exceeded some to the customer’s benefit. There were a few minor problems which the Contractor resolved in a timely, effective manner.

Neutral (5 Points) – When there is no record of past performance or the record is inconclusive.

Fair (3 to 4 Points) – Performance met contract requirements. There were some problems and corrective actions taken by the Contractor were satisfactory.

Poor (1 to 2 Points) – Performance did not meet most contractual requirements. There were serious problems and the Contractor’s corrective actions were ineffective.

Please enter a numeric value in the space provided for each item or N/A if you consider it not applicable.

Quality of Product and Service

1. The Contractor’s deliverables met contractual requirements. Score____

2. The Contractor was able to always satisfactorily resolve identified issues with required deliverables by telephone or providing onsite support. Score____

3. The Contractor recommended and demonstrated ability to apply improvements to the customer’s geographic information system that elevated the level of proactive capability to respond to disaster planning, and emergencies in real-time. Score____

Schedule

4. The Contractor appropriately protected GIS datasets (based on sensitivity) and sensitive information. Score____

5. The Contractor delivered at the time and place defined in the contract. Score____

6. The Contractor submitted deliverables in the prescribed format and media, demonstrating version control and comment resolution. Score____

7. The Contractor remained on schedule and met contractual milestones. Score____

Cost Control

8. The Contractor’s invoices requested funds consistent with work performed, and did not exceed awarded funding ceiling. Score____

9. The Contractor’s travel expenses did not exceed those permissible under the contract. Score____

10. Costs incurred by the Contractor for services delivered were reasonable. Score____

11. Applied skill set, labor categories, and number of resources needed by Contractor to support GIS development cycles and support services were appropriate. Score____

Business Relations

12. The relationship between customer organization and contractor was positive. Score____

13. The Contractor demonstrated effective communication, and met with customer to incorporate feedback into deliverables. Score____

14. The Contractor regularly interacted with customer organization to identify issues and raise awareness of task status. Score____

15. The Contractor collaborated with customer organization, providing solutions to resolve issues that threatened to negatively affect the tasks. Score____

Management of Key Personnel

16. The Contractor provided its personnel with a full understanding of the customer operating environment and programming expertise to satisfy GIS development and security requirements for a multi-user enterprise environment. Score____

17. Whenever key personnel changes occurred, the Contractor’s replacements possessed necessary qualifications satisfying contract requirements, and contractor integrated new staff into project team in fashion that allowed seamless continuation of schedule. Score____

18. The Contractor’s staff possessed industry recognized professional geospatial programming knowledge, and customer published policies. Score____

19. Customer satisfaction with Contractor’s ability to follow the security procedures of the contract. Score____

Overall Rating

20. Overall customer satisfaction with contractor’s performance. Score____

If you provided the Contractor with a high or low rating, please provide any comments relative to the prime contractor or its subcontractors relative to its performance under your contract.