Update Answers to Vendor Questions VISN 1 Talent Management System Technical Maintenance

REPLIES TO VENDOR QUESTIONS

RFQ VA241-16-Q-0585

VISN 1 Talent Management System Technical Maintenance



3. a. (3) The contractor shall support Tier 1 help desk activity for VISN 1 level personnel and its medical facilities and work with the national TMS Help Desk staff to resolve any technical issues that arise.

Are all 8 individual facilities going require their own domain hosting, and associated support?

Yes, contractor will be required to assist and support all 8 facilities as needed, as well as conduct trainings for individual facility TMS domain managers.

3. a. (4) a master inventory of all VISN level mandatory training shall be maintained by the contractor for use by the VISN Designated Learning Officer (DLO). The provider shall satisfy reporting requirements to the VISN and national levels.

This is a run reports as "need be" and changes every quarter and year depending on National requirements for training. National reporting could request reports for domain summary or custom user item status reports depending on the national requirement for staff trained.

3. B. Content Development and Maintenance: New e-Learning courses shall be developed by the contractor

How many courses would want developed? Or how many hours of development do you require? Initially, we are requesting 150 hours of content development. However, each year will have its own specific parameters for the VISN 1 TMS community.

3.b - Please provide any detail available on the new e-Learning courses to be developed by the contractor, including anticipated total seat hours and interactivity level.

This is a new requirement for us so all our numbers are estimates. However, we anticipate 36 plus ELearning courses per year and a total of over 1,000 seat hours for the year. Regarding interactivity, we would like level IV. We went off the Department of Defense definition of ELearning interactivity training which states "Level IV: Real-time Interaction - Real-time interaction creates a training session that involves a life-like set of complex cues and responses in this last level. The learner is engaged in a simulation that exactly mirrors the work situation". All courses require 501 compliance.

3.b - Please provide any detail available on the courses to be updated and maintained by the contractor, including anticipated total seat hours, interactivity level, and anticipated percent of change annually.

We anticipate over 1,000 hours per year combined for VISN 1 employees, Level IV Interactivity, and the flexability to change learnings at the needs of the client (DVA).



How many FTEs are currently completing this work?

One

Historically, how many help desk tickets are processed per year?

Around 20 per month so 240 per year give or take.

How many training items are currently in the master inventory list?

54 V01 Master Items are in the master inventory list.

Historically, how many mandatory training items require re-certification each year?

Approximately 10 mandatory trainings require recertification per year.

How many new eLearning courses are expected each year?

We anticipate 36 eLearning's per year but would like the ability to add more if necessary. Also, we would like the vendor to be able to add video content.

Of the new courses, how many will require certification actions?

All of them will need to be 501 compliant and we want the ability to make all courses developed by the vendor to require certification actions IF necessary.

For this requirement, is the primary Talent Management System called out the VALU system, or are you using another learning management system that you are referring to as a TMS in general terms?

Yes, it is the VALU system.

STATEMENT OF WORK

Talent Management System (TMS) Support Services

VA241-16-Q=0585



1. Scope: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Network VISN 1 is seeking a contractor to provide coordination of technical aspects of the VISN 1 Talent Management System for a base year and four possible option years. CONTRACTOR REGISTERED AS VOSB OR SDVOSB (www.vip.vetbiz.gov) WILL BE GIVEN ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATION. (See Basis for Award).

2. Background: The VISN 1 TMS is a state-of-the-art online training and employee development system that allows current VA employees to search and register for courses from an extensive online course catalog and track professional development through a single, integrated database.

3. Description: The contractor shall support the coordination, technical training aspects, and implementation of TMS. The activities to be supported include access and management of all online educational programs, development and maintenance of the strategic infrastructure to support TMS across VISN 1, management of mandatory training at the VISN level and the development and support of eLearning courses hosted on the VISN 1 TMS server. This activity includes the administration of the VISN domain, as well at each medical facility within the VISN's level of responsibilities including management of user records, employee mandatory training and alignment of learning with organizational goals and objectives.

Services shall be provided by contractor personnel trained and familiar with TMS who will be operating from a remote location. TMS training will be made available to the provider by the VA to ensure that the support personnel are aware of all unique, VA specific TMS features. Teleconference and web-meeting technologies shall be utilized to support meetings with personnel within the organization.

The contractor shall complete TMS training, Information Security Training and stay current on TMS features and functionality. Access to TMS, processing of security paperwork, training and other steps necessary to enable the provider to access TMS shall not be unreasonably withheld by the VA. If VISN 1 and its medical facilities require access to VA System, contractor personnel assigned to monitor and maintain the TMS domain shall obtain security background checks prior to receiving authorization to the VA System. It will be the responsibility of the Contracting Officer's Representative to obtain the necessary approval from the Information Security Officer (ISO) and to begin the process for the background checks in accordance with VA Directive 6500, Information Security Program.

The contractor will not be allowed access to the TMS Profile Maintenance database where employee sensitive records are stored. Sensitive records include social security number, date of birth, service computation date, salary, and any other personal information pertaining to staff who utilizes the TMS system, unless authorized by the Contracting Officer in writing.

a. Support Activity: The contractor shall assume and be responsible for the primary roles defined within TMS including Domain Manager, Learning Manager, Item Manager, Assignment Profile Manager, and Report Manager and other technical roles that may be defined as TMS implementation evolves within the VA.

(1) Through these roles, the contractor shall create and manage items, including content objects, documents, etc., in the VISN level domain and place items in catalogs or curricula while ensuring web-based content is correctly interfaced to the TMS. The contractor shall define, create and maintain the profiles used to identify groups of users and assignment of appropriate Items and Curricula to users. The contractor shall be responsible for running VISN level TMS reports. Full implementation of TMS at the VISN shall be supported by the contractor through the training and consultation provided to facility level Domain Managers.



(2) The contractor shall participate and support a subcommittee of facility level TMS Domain Managers and its projects. The goal is to ensure adequate communication about TMS operating system, national TMS content changes, and VISN specific courses and curriculums to support the VISN strategic plan TMS operations.



(3) The contractor shall support Tier 1 help desk activity for VISN 1 level personnel and its medical facilities and work with the national TMS Help Desk staff to resolve any technical issues that arise.



(4) A master inventory of all VISN level mandatory training shall be maintained by the contractor for use by the VISN Designated Learning Officer (DLO). The provider shall satisfy reporting requirements to the VISN and national levels. The contractor shall ensure that TMS training category item numbers are established for all training.



(5) All VISN level mandatory training requests and annual re-certification of VISN level mandatory training topics shall be coordinated and managed by the contractor. Research shall be performed on sources of mandatory training as well as to keep up to date source justifications for mandatory trainings.

b. Content Development and Maintenance: New e-Learning courses shall be developed by the contractor and hosted on TMS VISN level server and each of its medical facilities as listed herein and will conform to VHA 508 standards. The contractor shall consult with subject matter experts in design and content of TMS courses. The contractor shall load courses into the VISN TMS server space and ensure that each course functions appropriately. The training courses' content, annual re-certification, updates and changes shall be performed as necessary by the contractor.

c. Performance Assessment: The VISN 1 DLO will monitor and assess the performance of the contractor on an ongoing basis, providing specific feedback as needed. A formal review will be held quarterly to calibrate performance, resolve problems and to assure that the contractor is meeting the expectation of VISN 1 and also to assure the support activity remains within the scope and level of effort defined in the service agreement.

4. VA Responsibility: The VISN DLO will retain the responsibility to make changes to accounts through Profile Maintenance such as merging user accounts, manually adding new TMS users or correcting user accounts. Profile Maintenance is a separate database from the TMS Domain.

5. Contractor Capability Requirements:

" Have the capability to provide Talent Management System (TMS) web-based learning expertise and implementation experience

" Have the capability to develop new e-Learning courses that conform to VHA 508 standards

" Have the capability to customize, publicize, test and deploy TMS courseware for VISN use.

" Offerors must provide documentation of having up-to-date knowledge of the VA TMS Operating system.

" Offerors must have at least 3 years documented successful experience working with TMS at multiple hospital & VISN levels.

" Offerors must provide for review 3-5 recent, current modules they've created similar to the development required in TMS.

6. Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan Proposal

Contractor will prepare a draft Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) using attached QASP Template and submit before contract award date.





C & A requirements do not apply and a Security Accreditation Package is not required.

Previous notice had erroneous closing date of 8/22. The correct information is:

Questions must be submitted to Johanne.Menard@va.gov no later than 1:00 pm, 8/22/16.

The deadline for submitting quotes is 1:00 pm, 8/26/16.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Network VISN 1 is seeking a contractor to provide coordination of technical aspects of the VISN 1 Talent Management System for a base year and four possible option years. CONTRACTOR MUST BE REGISTERED VOSB OR SDVOSB (www.vip.vetbiz.gov).

The VISN 1 TMS is a state-of-the-art online training and employee development system that allows current VA employees to search and register for courses from an extensive online course catalog and track professional development through a single, integrated database in accordance with Statement of Work from RFQ VA241-16-Q-0585.