QUESTIONS_AND_ANSWERS_Rev1_dt_08_14_2015.pdf

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Solicitation No. TFSAFSA15CI0029 – On-Line Director’s Training

08/14/2015 Revision 1

1. QUESTION: How much time does FMS expect its Directors to devote to this program each week? How much time does FMS expect its Directors to devote to this program in total?

ANSWER: Approximately 1 to 1.5 hours during the weekly discussion plus the necessary time to complete reading assignments and other assignments for the training.

2. QUESTION: Given that there are 140 Directors, does the agency have a preference for how the “weekly discussion of the course” should be structured?

ANSWER: Each vendor is responsible to provide their own training approach.

3. QUESTION: The RFP states that the program should cover the “right mix of operational, people, and organizational topics.” How does FMS define “operational”?

ANSWER:

Fiscal Service considers the following items as operational:

• Planning and Focus on Process

• Organizing and Controlling

• Measuring and Daily Problem Solving

4. QUESTION: Will the online course be housed on the FMS server or on the contractor’s server?

ANSWER: The Contractor's.

5. QUESTION: What leadership challenges is FMS wanting to address with this course?

ANSWER: To provide the Directors with the tools to develop leaders within the organization.

6. QUESTION: Has FMS previously hired a contractor to develop an online training course? If so, what was the topic of that online course and the name of that contractor?

ANSWER: No, Fiscal Service has not previously hired a contractor for the Director online training course.

7. QUESTION: Does FMS have firewalls or other technical limitations or barriers that might prevent Directors from accessing the online course?

ANSWER: Yes, but Fiscal Service will ensure the online training course will be available to all participants.

8. QUESTION: In Volume III, the pricing proposal, the only instruction is to include CLIN 0001 and 0002. Does this mean that a breakdown of costs is not required in Volume III? Even if not required, is a breakdown of costs preferred?

ANSWER: Yes, please provide a breakdown of your costs in Volume III.

9. QUESTION: The RFP states that the online course should “foster measurable improvement of the leadership performance of the Directors.” Is a formal assessment of trainee performance a requirement of the contract?

ANSWER: Random monitoring and assessment shall be performed by the Director's manager.

10. QUESTION: Can the kickoff meeting be virtual since no travel funds are allowed?

ANSWER: Yes. If decided in the Kick-Off Meeting travel costs are necessary, then we will provide a formal modification at that time.

11. QUESTION: On p. 20 of the RFP, the instructions for Volume 1 state that an acknowledgement of RFP amendments (with reference to amendment numbers) must be included. Are there any amendment numbers in this RFP?

ANSWER: None at this time.

12. QUESTION: We assume that “proposed invoicing terms” means the number and/or dates of invoices for payment—is that correct? How do “payment terms” differ from that? Is “payment terms” like direct deposit?

ANSWER: Payment Terms are just a way of identifying what your invoice submittal should state as it related to the Purchase Order. This helps in the process of your invoice and reduces the chances of rejection.

13. QUESTION: Is there a page limit to any of the volumes?

ANSWER: None, however please be reasonable as it relates directly to the Statement of Work.

14. QUESTION: What grade level are the directors?

ANSWER: GS-15.

15. QUESTION: What formal leadership assessments have the directors already completed?

ANSWER: Each Director may have had leadership assessments completed in their current or previous position; however, Fiscal Service has not completed formal leadership assessments on the directors as a whole.

16. QUESTION: What formal leadership development have the directors already completed?

ANSWER: Each Director may have had leadership assessments completed in their current or previous position; however, Fiscal Service has not completed formal leadership assessments on the directors as a whole.

17. QUESTION: What leadership development needs have already been identified and by what means have they been identified?

ANSWER: The online leadership training will focus primarily on operational, people, and organizational topics.

18. QUESTION: Does the FMS/FS currently utilize OPM’s ECQs and Fundamental Competencies in assessment of these directors? If not, why not?

ANSWER: Fiscal Services uses the ECQs on all SES Candidates and selectees.

19. QUESTION: Does the FMS/FS currently utilize the results of OPM’s Financial Management Competency Study in the assessment of these directors? If not, why not?

ANSWER: Yes, for financial management positions.

20. QUESTION: Is it expected that all course work completed by the Directors will be done individually and at the time and place most convenient for them, with the exception of the weekly discussion?

ANSWER: Yes, however, there may be times that areas of the course work will be discussed and completed during the weekly discussion.

21. QUESTION: Is there an incumbent who provides this or similar training for Treasury Fiscal Service?

ANSWER: No.

22. QUESTION: Will the training require development of self-paced online web-based training?

ANSWER: No.

23. QUESTIONS: Will the online training take place in a live format with an instructor, who presents live to the students?

ANSWER: No, the training will be on line and teleconference.

24. QUESTION: Will the training take place in an asynchronous (non-live) discussion group format?

ANSWER: No.

25. QUESTION: Do you require the training to take place in a webinar/live online service such as WebEx, GoTo Meeting or Adobe Connect?

ANSWER: Yes.

26. QUESTION: If this will be live synchronous sessions, how many sessions are required and what are required session durations?

ANSWER: Offer weekly discussion of the course with sessions lasting 1 to 1.5 hours.

27: QUESTION: What are the specific objectives of the training? Can you provide required learning objectives?

ANSWER: The objectives is to help the Directors secure the knowledge, skills and abilities of a leadership framework focused on the right mix of operational, people, and organizational topics in order to instill in other leaders within the organization.

28. QUESTION: Are there specific topics to cover in the training?

ANSWER: The online leadership training will focus primarily on operational, people, and organizational topics.

29. QUESTION: How will effectiveness of the training be measured?

ANSWER: Random monitoring and assessment, which shall be performed by the Director's manager.

30. QUESTION: In the Statement of Work, program objective #4 says “Foster measurable improvement of the leadership performance of Directors.” How do you plan to measure this?

ANSWER: Random monitoring and assessment, which shall be performed by the Director's manager.

31. QUESTION: Do you require Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for the participants?

ANSWER: No.

32. QUESTION: Is there a page limit for proposal submissions? If so, how many pages?

ANSWER: See Question #13 above.

33. QUESTION: Are instructor resumes required to be submitted?

ANSWER: Yes, please submit all resumes with your Proposal.

34. QUESTION: If you are unable to provide the answers to these questions until a short time (less than 5 business days) before submissions are due, will you extend the deadline for proposal submissions?

ANSWER: Question to all Answers will be provided on FEDBIZOPS nlt 3:00pm est. This should allow ample time to prepare proposal response to the Solicitation. At this time, no extension will be given, however if multiple requests are received for an extension to the closing date of the solicitation it may be considered.

35. QUESTION: I don’t believe I have Attachment A to the Solicitation which I believe I need to send right away to three references that can comment on my Past Performance. I received the Solicitation file from another organization that believed my company was better suited to your needs and all I received was one PDF file. How do I obtain this Attachment and any additional Attachments I may not have received with the primary file?

ANSWER: Attachment A will be provided if you have in the past conducted business with the

Federal Government and never completed a CPARS past performance report. If you are in the CPARS data base there would be no need to complete Attachment A. If you still would like to complete Attachment A, please send your request directly to the Contracting Officer via email.

36. QUESTION: Do you envision that all 140 Directors will go through the training at the same time and participate in the weekly calls at the same time, or do you envision breaking this group of 140 Directors into smaller groups?

ANSWER: Either scenario mentioned previously may be possible.

37. QUESTION: The initial contract period goes for one year. Do you envision 52 weeks of calls or do you envision spreading out these calls over the year?

ANSWER: We envision monthly calls, but we expect the vendor to offer weekly discussions as part of the SOW under the Purpose and Objectives Section.

38. QUESTION: How long do you envision the weekly calls lasting in hours and/or minutes?

ANSWER: We envision the calls to last approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.

39. QUESTION: Do you envision the kick-off meeting as an in-person meeting or a conference/web-based meeting?

ANSWER: The kick-off meeting could be in person or a conference call.

40. QUESTION: Do you recommend that prospective Contractors sign up now for your Invoice

Processing Platform?

ANSWER: It would be best once an Awardee is notified by the Contracting Officer.

41. QUESTION: Do you recommend that prospective Contractors register now with the SAM database?

ANSWER: Yes, it would be a good idea to register in SAM especially, if you plan on conducting future business with the Federal Government.

42. QUESTION: On Form 1449, what are you looking for the prospective Contractor to complete in

Block 17?

ANSWER: Yes, please complete Block #17.

43. QUESTION: What is the organization currently focused on in leadership development for managers? What programs are you using and what gaps are they not addressing?

ANSWER: The online leadership training will focus primarily on operational, people, and organizational topics. Fiscal Service is currently providing both formal (i.e. service-wide training, online training and leadership programs) and informal (i.e. mentoring and seminars) training; however; there are no opportunities for the 140 Directors to participate in training as a group and learn from each other experiences.

44. QUESTION: Are you looking for a leadership development system out of the box or are you open to working with a vendor to customize a solution to fit your needs?

ANSWER: Each vendor is responsible to provide their own training approach.

45. QUESTION: Are you looking for a platform that can hold eLearning courses, resources like articles and videos, as well as social learning functions like blogs or message boards?

ANSWER: Each vendor is responsible to provide their own training approach.

46. QUESTION: In looking at assessing leadership competencies, would you be open to self-assessments as well as 360 degree assessments from companies like the Leadership Practices Inventory?

ANSWER: Each vendor is responsible to provide their own training and assessment approach.

47. QUESTION: Will the program be voluntary or mandatory?

ANSWER: Mandatory.

48. QUESTION; Are you looking for the weekly discussions to involve all leaders or could we use small cohorts of 7-10 leaders?

ANSWER: It may vary from all leaders to smaller groups.

49. QUESTION: Is it expected that everyone in the program see a boost in his/her performance?

ANSWER: Random monitoring and assessment shall be performed by the Director's manager to measure Leadership improvement of each participant.

50. ANSWER: Will participants be expected to be in all sessions or could they be actively involved in those sessions that are relevant to them?

ANSWER: Participants will be expected to be in all sessions.