questions.doc

Questions and Answers– SSA-RFP-13-1014

1. Can the subcontractor (a large business) be the one to be the NCOA Link Licensee as well as performing the processing if the Small business is the Prime Contractor?

No. The Small business Administration has limitations on large business involvement in Small Business Contract Awards. A small business must perform at least 51% of the work awarded under a set-aside contract. This means that all subcontracted work in total may not exceed 49% of the work under the prime contract.

The Small business would also have to be the NCOA Link Licensee at the time of contract award (not in the process of obtaining it.)

2. Can the work be done at the Contractor’s Facility? Is this a requirement for new services? If not, who is the current incumbent, the value, the contract vehicle and the current incumbent eligible to bid on this project?

Yes, the work can be done at the Contractor’s Facility. This is a re-competition of a contract that is already in place. The incumbent is Lorton Data. The amount of the contract can be done if you send in a FOIA request. Yes, the current incumbent is eligible to bid on this project.

3. On page 94 of the RFP in the paragraph on Technical Acceptability reference is made to ...(See C-4 in the contract and also Attachment G-4, Data Transmission/Connectivity Requirements document)... Should not the references be Section B-4 in the RFP and Attachment D-4 in the RFP?

It was on page 97 and Yes, that is correct. The correction has been made.

4. On page 15, Section B -- SOW, Paragraph 2.0, subparagraph 3, shouldn't the references to Section C-4 and C-5, and Section C-6, be Section B-4 and B-5 and Section B-6?

Yes, that is correct. The correction has been made.

5. Page 76 of the RFP – “An offeror shall complete only paragraph (b) of this provision if the offeror has completed the annual representations and certifications electronically….”Will a copy of the offerors SAM profile be sufficient?

Yes, your Reps and Certs that are in SAM is sufficient.

6. Page 92 of the RFP “Submission of Offers”…The general instructions requests offers to be submitted in electronic and hard copy form with a due date of October 15, 2012.

That was an error. The due date for Offers is Monday, December 10, 2012. The correction was made.

7. Page 39 of the RFP – Order Limitations (Oct 1995) What is the number of days that together call for quantities exceeding the limitation will be included in the contract?

7 days.

8. Do we submit the proposal via e-mail only as stated on page 2 or both e-mail and regular mail as stated on page 90?

Submitting via email is fine.

9. The USPS requires a license for the use of NCOA Link. There are only six (6) licensing categories, Interface Developer, Interface Distributor, Full Service Provider (FSP), Limited Service Provider (LSP), End User Mailer (EUM) and NCOA Link MPE Solution. SSA stated that they are requiring three (3) years of COA data. The NCOA Link licenses are defined as - Full Service Provider – 48 months, Limited Service Provider 18 months or End User -18 months. Which NCOA Link license category is SSA looking to purchase? Which category is SSA currently licensed for today? Is SSA looking for the Contractor to purchase the license on behalf of SSA?

SSA is not looking for the contractor to purchase a NCOA license in its' behalf, but for the contractor to already be a licensed Full Service Provider.

10. Does SSA have a preference to the hardware and operating system (Opens Systems vs. Mainframe MVS/OS390) that the NCOA Link software solution is deployed on? And can we leverage SSA existing Server/mainframe Environment deployed at SSA? Is the IBM z/OS operating on z196 Series Hardware the only hardware the NCOA Link Solution allowed to run on?

SSA only requires that the United States Postal Service has licensed the vendor to use the NCOA Link software.

11. Best practices is to run the NCOA Link solution on everything mailing, not just the MBR once every 95 day. As part of the best practices, NCOA Link could be integrated to support the current SSA mailings, such as notices and statements, to help address potential returned mail. Is SSA interested in bringing in a solution that can support the best practices for NCOA and not just the minimum USPS requirements?

This purpose of this contract is only to have a NCOA licensed contractor run the MBR through the NCOA Link software four times per year. In some cases SSA’s print/mail contractors run the notice addresses through the NCOA process as part of the mailing process.

12. Does SSA have defined SLA for the quarterly processing of the MBR and the 60 plus million records? What is the length of time SSA requires the quarterly processing to take?

The following requirement is in Section 2.0 of the RFP; “The contractor will complete the updates and provide acceptable deliverables to SSA no later than five workdays following receipt from SSA of the MBR files or at a time set by mutual agreement between the contractor and SSA.”

13. Does SSA have the capability today to do LACS with Finalist, why is SSA asking for potential functionality?

Yes, SSA currently uses LACS with Finalist. LACS processing is mentioned in the RFP only as an additional resource if the need arises.

14. Is SSA interested in a SAS model for NCOA Link Solution or would SSA prefer a behind the firewall solution?

This purpose of this contract is to have a NCOA licensed contractor run the MBR through the NCOA Link software four times per year. SSA will transmit the MBR addresses to the licensed for processing.

15. Page 15, 3.0 (4) I was under the impression that the USPS no longer used NIXIE but we could emulate this function, would this be a requirement?

NIXIE Codes are no longer needed.

16. Page 18, 5.0 (FTMS) The Tibco software is available, can I assume that it would be a requirement that we that is Backgrounds USA, Inc. have a copy of the Platform Server or just Server.

Tibco’s Managed File Transfer – Platform Server (formerly CyberFusion) is the preferred product.

17. Page 18 Personal Computer NT am I to assume that more current operating systems support by NIST are also ok as long as Tibco is supported?

Yes, more current operating systems are supported as long as Tibco is supported on that operating system.

18. Page 18 when will the IP migration be complete?

The IP migration is complete and we can support Cyberfusion connections to our mainframe with just IP connectivity.

19. Page 19 is this communications protocol still enforce with the IP solution? It looks like we would have to provide an interface machine?

With the IP solution, Cyberfusion communications would be just TCP/IP, not SNA. We would either create an Internet VPN to a customer or configure a dedicated circuit to their site. In either case, we would exchange the IP addresses of the Cyberfusion hosts on both sides and configure the appropriate network connectivity to allow data transfers to occur.

20. In preparing our proposal for RFP 13-1014 for NOCA processing, I note on page 97 under Technical Acceptability:

“Phase 1 – Offeror shall submit written proof that they are currently USPS Authorized NOCA Link licensee and have an acceptable contractor’s connectivity platform.”

We have the technological savviness to work with such systems (NCOA Link), have handled such volumes for other clients such as ____ and ___ and are willing to make the $6,000+ investment, yet as a small business, we are very conscientious about how we invest our money.

My question to you is:

1. Is already having said link a pre-qualifier?

SSA is limiting this contract only to currently USPS licensed NCOA contractors.