Industry_Q A's_14_Apr_16.pdf

The following is a question pertaining to the W9124D‐16‐R‐0006 Solicitation, CLIN 0003, CLIN 1002 and CLIN 2002. These CLINs all require that for evaluation purposes for this proposal submission, the Contractor plug in a dollar amount that is specified within the CLINs context. The question is, does this dollar amount represent a level of effort that is inclusive of those hours provided in Technical Exhibit 3, entitled “Estimated Workload Data”, or does this dollar amount represent a level of effort that is exclusive of those hours provided in Exhibit 3?

A. The provided hours estimated in TE 3 included the government's estimate for RDT&E projects.

The "plug" dollar amount in CLINs 0003, 1002, and 2002 are an estimate for the RDT&E projects.

Offerors were advised to plug the specified dollar amount for evaluation purposes at proposal submission.

Can you please confirm that the technical factor that is being evaluated is strictly on Security, Key Personnel and Staffing? There is no required technical approach that describes the task areas within the PWS? I’m just confirming that outside of staffing that a technical write‐up/approach isn’t required for evaluation.

A. Please review solicitation section, Evaluations Factors for Award. This section includes a description of the Evaluation Criteria. I also encourage you to review solicitation section, Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offers. This section includes a description detail of proposal submission requirements.

1) If a bid is being submitted by an unpopulated Joint Venture (JV), and each of the JV participating companies has a current TS Facility Clearance, is the JV entity required to have in place a Secret Facility Clearance upon contract award?

2) May the unpopulated JV, which will have no employees, and will staff the contract with FTE’s coming from the JV’s participating companies, be allowed to execute this contract using the participating company’s credentials?

3) If the answer to question #2 is “yes”, will the Joint Venture entity be required to obtain a Facility Clearance?

4) If the Joint Venture entity is required to obtain a Facility Clearance, what will be the period of time allotted after contract award to obtain the Facility Clearance from DISCO?

A. The response to your questions is in the solicitation section Evaluation Factors for Award, item D. Please carefully review Subfactor 1: Security Requirements:

"Offerors shall complete DD Form 254 (attached hereto) and submit it along with proof of SECRET security clearance with the proposal. To provide proof of security clearance, offerors can provide a letter from the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) that their SECRET is granted or in lieu of a letter from DISCO, offerors may provide a screen print of their information from the Industrial Security Facilities Database (ISFD). Failure to provide proof of these credentials at the time of proposal submission will be deemed a material nonconformity and may result in the offer not being eligible for award".

We understand that KOMPLETE SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS, INC is the incumbent and was awarded the contract in 2014. Was that an 8(a) set‐aside award at that time?

A. KOMPLETE SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS, INC is the incumbent and the last contract awarded to them in 2016 was an 8(a) set‐aside.

2) We see that both Best Value and LPTA are mentioned in the evaluation section. Since it cannot be both, could you please clarify whether this is a BEST VALUE procurement or LPTA?

A. Please carefully review solicitation section, Evaluation Factors For Award, section A, item 1:

"Award will be made to a single offeror whose proposal conforms to the solicitation requirements, and whose proposal, judged by an overall assessment of the evaluation criteria and other considerations specified in this solicitation, represents the Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable (LPTA) offer".

3) Could you please let us know the number of current contractor staff by labor category?

A. Please review solicitation, Technical Exhibit 4 which provides current distribution of workload and includes an FTE breakdown and Technical Exhibit 5 which provides a detail of minimum personnel functions/qualifications/certifications by labor category.

4) Is the incumbent eligible to compete for this?

A. Please review page 3 of the solicitation for determination of eligibility: ***THIS SOLICITATION IS 100 PERCENT SET‐ASIDE FOR 8(a) SMALL BUSINESS***

Item 2. All contractors wishing to do business with the government shall possess a valid DUNS number and shall be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). Contractors can register online at https://www.sam.gov. Offeror's SAM registration must be active in order to be eligible for award. Proposals containing a name and address (Block 17a of SF1449) different from that registered in SAM may be deemed ineligible for award. You are also encouraged to review solicitation section Evaluation Factors For Award for additional detail of eligibility.

Are there any challenges/pain points faced by the Army on this contract? (Ex: staffing levels, technology innovation, cost, project management, etc...)

A. Please make your question specific to the solicitation. The government is seeking proposals for the requirement description contained in the solicitation.

1. Is the current development framework: Beehive Framework, NET Beans, Oracle ADF, or SPRING Framework.

A. Currently mixed. Beehive and NET Beans are being phased out. SPRING will continue, Oracle ADF is future platform.

2. Is the plan to move to Oracle ADF for development

A. Yes but will include SPRING as well.

3. If the plan is to move to Oracle ADF, when do you plan on moving to Oracle ADF

A. In progress at this time. Will continue and convert applications as appropriate.

Proposal Format ‐

(b) Page

Limitation

Technical Factor 49 of 112

25 pages (excludes title page, table of contents, glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, staffing tables, and assumptions/exceptions; resumes are not included in the page limitation)

Will the Government clarify if the phasein/out is part of the 25 pages alotted to the technical factor response?

A. The phase‐in plan is not part of the technical factor.

F. Past

Performance. 21 of 112

Past performance ……... Documentation submitted shall include information for at least two contracts performed within the past three years

Will the Government clarify expectation that the minimum number of submissions be from both the prime offeror and our teamming partner?

A. Past performance evaluation will be performed on the (prime) offeror.

Instructions, Conditions and

Notices E.3

"…performing work in support of this contract shall have been granted a

SECRET security clearance…"

Is an Interim Secret clearance acceptable?

A. No. Please review Technical Factor, item 1, "Offeror shall complete DD Form

254 (attached hereto) and submit it along with proof of SECRET security clearance with the proposal. To provide proof of security clearance, offertory can provide a letter from the Defense Industrial

Security Clearance Office

(DISCO) that their SECRET is granted or in lieu of a letter from DISCO, offertory may provide a screen print of their information from the Industrial Security

Facilities Database (ISFD). Failure to provide proof of these credentials at the time of proposal submission will be deemed a material nonconformity and result in the offer or not eligible for award."

Technical Exhibit 5

100 This support requires an IT‐II, NACLC investigation with IAT‐III

Each of the positions have been identified as IAT‐III yet are required to have only Security+ which is an IAT‐II level baseline certification requirement.

IAT‐III baseline certifications myst be

CISA, CISSP (or associate) GCIH, CASP or

GCED. Please clarify if these are IAT‐II or

IAT‐III positions

A. All positions are IAT‐II.

1.6.2

The government will evaluate the contractor’s performance under this contract in accordance with the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP).

Will the government provide the QASP.

A. No. The QASP is based on the items contained the Performance

Requirements Summary (PRS) of the

PWS.

1.6.4 57 "…between the hours of 0600 and 1800 Central Time…"

Will the Government clarify the expectation for staffing? As written, this requirement could be interpreted to mean individuals will be required to be on site 12 hours a day, when the intent is that the contractor will ensure that it maintains adequate staffing during this time period.

A. 0600 to 1800 CST are normal full operating hours. Individuals are not expected to be on board 12 hours. The government does not dictate work‐day hours however an 8‐hour workday is the norm. Individual tasks may or may not require coverage during the full operating hours.

5.1.2.2

73 The contractor's proposal shall include, but is not limited to the following:

Is it the intent of the government to issues TO that are FFP, CPFF, T&M or other? A. RDT&E task orders will be FFP.

5.2.1

74 The current versions in place include 91, 10g and 11g.

Is there intent to migrate to the most current version of Oracle? i.e. 12c

A. Yes, that is the end state of our current effort

5.4

75 Task 3

Task 3 is identified as an RDT&E task and

IAW 5.1.2.1 The government will issue task orders to the contractor for RDT&E projects. If 5.4 Task 3 is an RDT&E task will a separate TO be issued with the corresponding PWS? A. Please review

"PWS 5.1.2.1 RDT&E Task Orders. The government will issue task orders to the contractor for RDT&E projects. Before issuance of a task order, the COR will provide a Performance Work Statement

(PWS) to the contractor and a proposal request for the requested services".

5.4.1

The contractor is required to analyze the existing system, identifying, and extraction of existing Business Rules which are embedded in Oracle Forms, databases, database procedures, and other legacy applications.

Will the government provide the number of Business Rules (or an estimate) in order to provide a basis for the contractor to estimate? Additionally, will the government provide the number of

Oracle Forms, databases, database procedures and other legacy applications wthat will need to be examined?

A. The very nature of this task is to identify and extract business rules. These are ESTIMATES:

‐ Legacy Applications: 30

‐ Known business rules: 2,000

‐ Oracle Forms: 110

‐ Databases: 45 unique

‐ Database procdures: 148

‐ Database Function: 59

‐ Database Trigger: 244

5.4.2 75 Analyze existing IT systems.

See previous question (5.4.1)

A. See previous answer (5.4.1)

5.5 76 Task 4

Same question as Task 3 regarding RDT&E.

A. Same response to Task 3.

5.5.2

76 Analyze existing IT and business processes…

Will the government provide the number of existing IT and business processes that require human interaction?

A. Currently known documented: 1,155.

5.5.3

76 Analyze and identify existing discrete services

Will the government provide the number of discrete services?

A. The Government will provide process flow models at contract award which depict the interactions. Number of discrete services unknown.

5.6 77 Task 5

Same question as Task 3 regarding RDT&E.

A. Same response to Task 3.

5.7 77 Task 6

Same question as Task 3 regarding RDT&E.

A. Same response to Task 3.

5.7.1

78 review and verify existing Use Cases working

Will the government identify the number of use cases?

A. Use Case Models: 30

Technical Exhibit 1 various Requests for support are fulfilled 95% of the time within 2 hours of the USME

Just a comment: This performance threshold seems a bit nonsensical. Does this mean that the contractor will start working on the request within two hours, will identify who will support the request within two hours? What if the resource that is to perform the request is working another higher priority request? What if the request comes in at 1800 hours?

A. Each threshold must be viewed in context of itself alone. Support response is 2 hours. Requests outside of normal work hours will be dealt with on next business day.

PWS SECTION 1.3 55 Application composed of OracleForms/Reports /Discoveror

Is it a Custom application built using

Oracle Forms, Reports and Discoverer or

COTS Packaged application. If it is COTS package what modules are implemented?

If it is custom application then can we get a small description of the application(s).

number of Forms , Reports and Discoverer

Reports in use on behalf of this application(s)

A. This is a custom application developed on the Oravle Forms platform and served on Oracle Application Server. There are approximately 110 forms.

PWS SECTION 1.3 55 Application componnets inventory

Number of Application components

‐ PL/SQL packages , procedures

‐ Tables, Triggers

‐ workflow components

‐ Java Components

‐VB

‐C++

PWS SECTION 1.3 55 Oracle Real Applications Clustor (RAC)

What version of the RAC?

A. RAC is being phased out, and the requirement is obsolete.

PWS SECTION 1.3

section 5.4 55, 75 Oracle Business Rules Engine, BPEL‐ Fusion Middleware

What version number of Fusion

Middleware in USMEPCOM Development

Environment?

A. 11g

PWS SECTION 1.3

section 5.4 55 Oracle Business Rules Engine, BPEL‐ Fusion Middleware

Architecting the installing the Fusion

Middleware(FMW) infrastructure is not part of this project scope ‐ right assumption?

A. Fusion Middleware is a huge suite of applications provided by Oracle. The foundation platform that the Business

Rules Engine is to be installed upon will be available, however, installation and configuration of the BRE is responsibility of the contractor.

Will an amendment be released with all question/answers ?

A. Yes, Q&A's will be released after the Q&A period ends on 12 April and soon as its available.

PWS SECTION 1.3

section 5.4 55 Oracle Business Rules Engine, BPEL‐ Fusion Middleware

Any of the middleware components were built using BRE and BPEL? If so How many components were deployed? Can they share the architecture?

A. No. BRE, BPEL have not been deployed.

PWS SECTION 1.3

section 5.4 55 Oracle Business Rules Engine, BPEL‐ Fusion Middleware

BPEL is intended for building Workflow components. Are you open to use BPM too?

A. YES, we are licensed for Oracle Unified

Business Process Management Suite

PWS SECTION 1.3

section 5.4 55 Oracle Business Rules Engine, BPEL‐ Fusion Middleware

Software will be provided by USMEPCOM project ‐ good assumption?

A. This is correct.

Service Contract

Act 104 Service Contract Act/Wage Determination

Understanding this is an LPTA acquisition can the Government confirm that their expectation is that offerors will bid using the wage determination rates provided for highly technical Software Sustainment and Development work? A. Please review the Wage Determination item 1)

Computer Employees under the SCA at section 8(b); wage determination is included in the solicitation. Also, please review solicitation FAR clause 52.222‐46.

Service Contract

Act 104 Service Contract Act/Wage Determination

Can the Government confirm that if an offeror bids greater than wage determination that said offeror need not do anything additional to comply with the

Service Contract Act? A. Please review the Wage Determination item 1)

Computer Employees under the SCA at section 8(b); wage determination is included in the solicitation. Also, please review solicitation FAR clause 52.222‐46.

Pricing Tables 4 ‐ 10 CLIN 0003, CLIN 0004, CLIN 1002, CLIN 1003, CLIN 2002 & CLIN 2003

Can the Government please confirm that offerors are to use the Plug numbers provided in each CLIN description on the line within the pricing table? A. Please review specific CLIN description.

Part 3 72 Facilities

Can work be performed at a contractor location?

A. All code and resident SMEs are located on site at USMEPCOM. Work shall be performed on‐site at USMEPCOM.

Would you categorize all of the Task Area requirements as development or as development and architecture work ?

A. Industry Q&A's will be posted as soon as its available. Primarily Development, with some level of architecture.

Is the work under this solicitation a consolidation of several contracts or of just one contract?

A. No.

What is the value of the incumbent contract?

A. $1,510,713

Is there a ceiling value for this new contract?

A. This information is not available.

What are the expectations during the phase in period?

A. Refer to PWS 5.8 Phase‐in Period

1.Solicitation language clearly requires a SECRET clearance for all personnel working on the effort.

However, the DD254 does not state this. A DD254 requiring a SECRET facility clearance will be needed to process clearances after contract award. Does the government intend to change the DD254 at time of award to reflect level facility clearance of SECRET?

A. DD254 states Facility Clearance Required: Secret

2.Labor category descriptions each state "...support requires an IT‐II, NACLC investigation with IAT‐III.

This support requires Cyber Security Baseline certification of at minimum: Security+". IAT II requires Security+ while IAT III requires an additional certification such as CISSP or CASP. Does the government want certification of personnel at IAT II or IAT III?

A. Certification of personnel at IAT II.

Since there isn’t much time between we receive the answers to the questions and final submission date, would it be possible to provide an extension?

A. No. Responses to questions will be provided in sufficient time before proposal due date.

How many contract personnel are currently performing the services listed in the PWS?

A. Refer to Technical Exhibit 4 for historical data

Should the contractor maintain a cleared facility as part of the requirements? We understand that the resources submitted should have Secret Clearance prior to being submitted on this project.

A. Refer to PWS 1.6.7

Will the government sponsor Secret Clearance for some of our well qualified resources who currently do not have any clearance?

A. No

DD Form 254 16.d address is for the offeror or for the government? Do we need to complete section 16?

A. Section 16 will be completed by the government.

Does the agency require the CLIN schedule to be submitted in General Proposal as well as 4 Price Proposal? (Ref: Section D Page 49).

A. Refer to Proposal Preparation Instructions, page 48 for proposal format.

Specific Tasks Section 5.2.1 Subtask 1 mentions using “Oracle 10g or higher” Oracle 10g was released in 2008 (with an updated release in 2010) whereas Oracle 12c was released in 2013. We don’t want to perform expensive upgrades if they are not needed, but we also do not want to optimize a system with a program that is already 8 years old. What is the customer currently using? (Advantage of 12c improved security?)

A. Currently using 9i, 10g, 11g. Moving all to 11g and eventually 12c.

Specific Tasks Section 5.6.2 “development approach shall be documented in the DDD from 5.5.1” Please clarify the reference to section 5.5.1 is correct or if a section is missing.

A. You have misread section 5.6.2, it actually states, “…development approach shall be documented in the DDD from 5.6.1.”, which is correct.

Specific Tasks Section 5.7 What are the current functions of Testing2000? What are some of its system specifications?

A. Section 5.7 is complete in description of functions. The client is currently written C, which runs on a dedicated PC located at a MEPS.

Technical Exhibit 2 What/where are the “References A‐G” that are mentioned in several of the Format boxes?

A. There are no “References A‐G” in Technical Exhibit 2.

Section 1.6.11 Key Personnel Will the Government provide skills and requirements for the IT Manager?

A. Refer to Evaluation Criteria, Factor 1, Subfactor 2

Section 1.6.11 Key Personnel Will the Government please confirm a letter of commitment is required for the IT Manager?

A. Yes

Section 5.9 Phase‐In Period Can the Government confirm there will be a phase‐out plan provided by the incumbents?

A. Phase‐out plans are submitted to the government.