Q A_7-23___091616.pdf

ACCENT Questions Submitted USG Answers

Given that file sizes could otherwise become very large and difficult to submit, will it be sufficient for offerors to submit the cover page and signature page of applicable Teaming Agreements in order to be compliant with the “Teaming Agreements/Organizational Structure” requirements for Section I of the proposal?

See Answer to Question #3 Posted 09/14/16

Will the Government accept Partnership or Reseller Agreements in lieu of Teaming Agreements in order to be compliant with the “Teaming

Agreements/Organizational Structure” requirements for Section I of the proposal?

See Answer to Question #3 Posted 09/14/16

“TOs shall contain a Small Business Participation Evaluation Factor …

Small Business Subcontracting Plan is required by other than small business concerns only.”

This indicates that each TO must have a measurable small business subcontracting component, which may not be practical on each TO, given that TOs can be issued by many organizations with potentially a wide range of requirements. There are no Small Business goals or the requirement for a BOA-level Small Business Subcontracting Plan; will each command be responsible to establish goals for each TOR?

Small Business goals will not be set or evaluated at the BOA level.

The Small Business evaluation will be performed at the TO level and any goals or set asides will take the specific requirements into consideration at that time.

10 Is a separate file required for each section?

No, however separate sections should be clearly marked and page counts followed regardless of the number of electronic files submitted.

Cloud Service Providers like Amazon Web Services and IBM will not sign Teaming Agreements. They will allow authorized system integration partners to propose their products as part of a solution. May we instead provide Memorandums of Agreement or a similar document instead of a Teaming Agreement for our CSPs?

See Answer to Question #3 Posted 09/14/16

#8 Electronic Representations and Certifications signed by a person authorized to enter into the proposed BOA; Section K and Certifications from SAM. Section K has the formatting from the solicitation and takes

8 pages. May we provide the signed copy as an appendix at the end of the response?

Section I of the proposal does not limit the page count as long as the pages submitted are clearly part of the requested information. The

Electronic Representations and Certifications and Section K need to be submitted within the requested section.

Our SAM certifications are over 50 pages. May we provide these certifications as an appendix at the end of the response?

The Electronic Representations and Certifications need to be submitted within the requested section.

May offerors add team members for specific TOs? What will be the process to add team members?

Team members established at the BOA level are key members performing the main capabilities listed and should not change, unless a specific request to replace them is submitted and approved.

Additional team members necessary to execute the TO requirements can be added, however they may be evaluated at the TO level. See the TO evaluation for details.

If an Offeror is not intending to team with another business for this response, is it acceptable not to include teaming agreements in this section and include only the organizational structure?

Yes, however it should be clear in the submission that the offeror intends to self perform all BOA capabilities.

The RFP only sets forth a font size requirement for text.Will the

Government please permit the use of an 8 point font for graphics and tables?

All submissions must follow the requirements listed in the RFP.

Please confirm that a Small Business Subcontracting Plan is not required with our proposal and will be dealt with at the Task Order level.

Small business subcontracting plans are not requested at the BOA level.

Provide organizational Structure and offeror’s teaming agreements to document teams.

Is it OK to add teaming partners (non DoD-PA holders) at the task order level? Or do they all need to be established at the IDIQ level as part of the RFP response?

See Answer to Question # 14 posted with these questions.

For team members that are in the process of upgrading their DoD PA for a higher application impact level or obtaining a DoD PA will it be possible to update the BOA once the process is complete, or is it necessary to wait for an on-board period to update our BOA?

The USG will consider certification or team member changes during the on boarding period at a minimum, annually. However, if new TO requirements are planned to be released we may consider the request more frequently to obtain additional competition on these requirements. If your DOD-PA is upgraded, submit a request with the certifications and it will possibly be considered sooner than the next on boarding period.

RFP Page 56, Section L.3.1 Provisional Authorization Certification requires submission of at least one DoD-Provisional Authorization

Certification.

Does this restrict the bidders in their solution to just those products for which they have PAs or are offerors allowed to bid future products for which they do not have certification at this time?

Offerors will be restricted to the products for which the team has DOD-

PA certifications.

Can the offeror present future cloud solutions today that are pending a

DoD PA Certification Approval with the understanding that no task order can be issued for that offering until a DoD PA Certification is on file?

See Answer to Question # 19 posted with these questions.

We would like to confirm that a company that primarily offers FP and

FFP contracting types will still be allowed to win a prime slot on

ACCENT.

Offerors will not be required to propose on all TO requirements, therefore if a TO requires a contract type that doesn't appeal to an offeror's approach, they are not required to submit. Type of contract preferences are not a limiting factor to getting a BOA.

On page 2 of the RFP it states, "The prime contractor may be a company acting as a Systems Integrator or the Cloud Service Provider

(CSP), as the DoD-Provisional Authorization (PA) holder, itself.

Requirements identified within the PWS apply to all contractor teams. If the requirements are specific to the CSP that is hosting the data, it is the prime contractor's responsibility to ensure the CSP, and any of its team members, meet specific requirements."

Question: Does the Prime contractor need to hold the FedRAMP/DoD

PA?

It is not required that the PRIME hold the DoD-PA, only that a DoD-PA is included as a member of the BOA team.