PRESOL | D | Provide web-based account management services to add, change, and delete accounts/ points of service and payment information online for telephone and utility invoices and to run standard and ad hoc reports.

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 FBO #2488
SOLICITATION NOTICE

D -- Provide web-based account management services to add, change, and delete accounts/ points of service and payment information online for telephone and utility invoices and to run standard and ad hoc reports.

Notice Date: 9/16/2008
Notice Type: Modification/Amendment
NAICS: 541512 — Computer Systems Design Services
Contracting Office: Department of Agriculture, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, National Finance Center, Contracting Support Team, 13800 Old Gentilly Road, Bldg. 350, P.O. Box 29900, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70129
ZIP Code: 70129
Solicitation Number: AG-7245-S-08-0064
Response Due: 9/29/2009 2:00:00 PM
Archive Date: 10/14/2009
Point of Contact: Charlotte Dejan,, Phone: 504-426-0280, Deidre V Phillips,, Phone: 504-426-0274
E-Mail Address: charlotte.dejan@usda.gov, deidre.phillips@usda.gov
Small Business Set-Aside: N/A
Description: The above mentioned solicitation is hereby amended to provide answers to questions that have been submitted and to include proposal instructions. Controller Operations Division September 9, 2008 Answers to Questions Solicitation AG-7245-S-08-0064 1. Question: (p 50, Sect. 6.2.7) - Is the bidder responsible for providing the labor to input non-EDI or web-based invoices (paper, hand-written, CD, etc.) into the system? Answer: No 2. Question :( p 52, Sect. 6.2.12) - Does this requirement refer to the ability to verify the status of individual invoices? Are there other "management questions" that are not addressed by the system reports? Answer: Part 1, Yes, COD is requesting the ability to determine the "status" (Paid, Invoice received, etc.) of an invoice or account at any given time within the invoicing processing time. Part 2, No 3. Question: (p 53, Sect. 6.2.15) - (Clarification: the SOW appears to be for the purchase of software, not for document retention and shredding. Is the bidder expected to provide these services?) Answer: No 4. Question: (p 53, Sect. 6.2.18) - (Clarification: the SOW appears to be for the purchase of software, not for the actual payment of invoices. If the bidders are not making the payments, why would they provide their approach? Answer: Not a requirement, should be removed 5. Question: (p 61, Sect. 13.0) - (Clarification: the SOW appears to be for the purchase of software, why would the bidder need to provide "Physical Security" for the system? Answer: USDA requires Certification and Accreditation (C&A) of all software that is implemented. In some instances vendors perform a certification; however, NFC must perform C&A in order to be granted an Authorization to Operate (ATO). Not sure about physical security by a vendor. NFC has the necessary physical security in place to authorized personnel only. If a vendor were to be part of the implementation there is oversight by the NFC government personnel to assure the implementation is in accordance with USDA and NFC policy. 6. Question: (p 77, Sect H.16) - Do the CISA and CISM certifications meet the "Global Information Assurance Certification for Secured Software Programming or equivalent" requirement? Answer: Those individual certifications are being debated by the USDA CIO and agency CIOs. The USDA CIO/CFO issued a policy memoranda that required software be developed (COTS or GOTS) meet specified requirements for secure coding. The memo also states that authorized tools are to be used; however, they have failed to provide a listing of authorized tools. The memo specifies the requirement for a "secure coding" certification individual be part of the development and testing of software. The GIAC only has one or two certifications for specific languages; however, the USDA has many languages that GIAC has no certification. This issue has not been resolved by USDA. 7. Question: 4.0 page 49 will the government host the software/solution on a government site or is the government opens to using the software as a service with hosting provided by the contractor? Answer: The software will be hosted at a government site. 8. Question: 6.2.18 page 53 we understand that the A-76 competition will require the contractor to pay invoices but in this RFP, we expect USDA to pay invoices and that a process for payment is not required. Please confirm. Answer: That is correct 9. Question: 8.0 pages 55 please provide the interface requirements and specifications for the two interfaces, FFIS and CPAIS. Answer: We are requesting a two-way interface to FFIS. The two-way interface will provide transactions to the financial system and the financial system returning verification of payment. CPAIS will be a one-way interface that will receive transactions from the new software package. After the award is made to the bidder the specific requirements will be given. 10. Question: 9.3 page 57 this training requirement is unbounded and we cannot bid this work without a specific understanding of the amount of work required. Please provide bounds for the number of classes to be trained, the number of people and the locations. Answer: Not a requirement, should be removed 11. Question: 15.3.3 page 62 this is a fixed price bid and contractors are not required to provide labor rates for fixed price work. Additionally, the bid schedule does not provide a place to provide rates. Please modify the bid schedule if the government would also like to get rates for Time and Material rates in addition to the fixed price work. Answer: Not a requirement, should be removed 12. Question: 6.0 page 75 Is it acceptable that contractor staff are legally able to work in the US or do they all have to be US citizens? Answer: They must be a US citizen 13. Question: Will the government consider extending the due date to provide time for bidders to adequately respond to this RFP? Answer: No 14. Question: Does this contract require support of the legacy COBOL system, or is that covered by another contract? Answer: No 15. Question: Are their prescribed technologies to be used by the contractor (ie Java, Oracle, etc), or are the technologies to be used left to the discretion of the contractor as part of the proposal? Answer: There has not been any specific technologies defined. I think this is due the issue addressed in 2 above. 16. Question: If some or all of the software technologies to be used are already in place, what are they? Answer: Not aware that USDA specifies software technologies for interfaces. This is usually determined at the specific agency and its customers it supports. 17. Question: Will the USDA continue to perform the task of scanning the incoming invoices or is the vendor expected to pick up this function? Answer: See response to question 1 18. Question: Is it the intention of the COD to continue to process the invoices in-house and just purchase the software to facilitate the processing needs with an improved system? Answer: Yes 19. Question: Does the COD envision outsourcing the processing of invoices to a vendor? Answer: No 20. Question: Will the initial scope of this implementation include the integration to FFIS or the new system underway with FMMI? Answer: Yes, FFIS 21. Question: Is there a requirement for OCR technology to process the paper and scanned invoices? Answer: Yes 22. Question: Please further define the requirement for integration to the FFIS / FMMI / CPAIS System: - What are the required input/output data elements? - What format is the data expected to be in (flat VSAM file, Web Service, etc...)? - What frequency will be required (daily, monthly). - What program language is the target integration system written in? Answer : After the award is made to the bidder the specific requirements will be given. 23. Question: Can you further define what "constructed asset level" means in terms of implications of how data will be presented for processing? Answer: Not a requirement, should be removed Question: Is there a requirement for OCR technology to process the paper and scanned invoices? Answer: Not a requirement, should be removed 24. Question: Please clarify point 6.2.18 specifically, who is responsible for payment to the utility and telecom suppliers? Answer: Refer to question 8 25. Question: Please clarify point 7.1 - Report development. What type of AdHoc reporting will be needed? Does the USDA utilize a report generation tool (i.e. SAS, Cognos)? Answer: Refer to Section 7.0 Report Development within RFP 26. Question : Is there a requirement that the vendor store hard copies of all invoices for 90 days then shred? Answer: Refer to question 3 27. Question: Is this request for the software and implementation of the software and A-76 Utility and Telecommunications Invoice Processing Services Solicitation currently announced under Solicitation Number AG-3142-S-08-0007 document for the processing of the invoices? What is the relationship of these two solicitations and is there a way to bid on both combined? Answer: These are two separate requirements 28. Question: 6.2.3 - For EDI are you looking for a recreation of the individual bill in place of an image or an image of the EDI file? Answer: Yes, a modified EDI image 29. Question: Will the vendor be making the payments to the utilities? Answer: Refer to question 8 30. Question: Can the RFP response be sent via email? Answer: No 31. Question: The RFP does not specify a page limit to the response. Will the government be providing a limit or target guidelines? Answer: See Amendment 32. Question: Section 6.2.18 has a requirement that "The offeror should provide their approach for paying the utility and telecommunications suppliers." Should the offeror anticipate a future requirement that the solution provider would be responsible for paying the invoices, then the reimbursed by the government for these payments? Answer: Refer to the response to question 8 33. Question: Does the client provide the accounting management service expertise or are you looking for a vendor that provides that service? Answer: No 34. Question: Is there on-site administrators available to avoid any on-site visits by vendor? Answer: Yes 35. Question: Is there a scope of work (SOW) available to understand more detailed requirements? Answer: Refer to Appendix "2" within the RFP PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PROPOSALS The proposal will be used to make an evaluation and arrive at a determination as to whether the proposal will meet the requirements of the Government. Therefore, the proposal must present sufficient information to reflect a thorough understanding of the requirements and a detailed, description of the techniques, procedures and program for achieving the objectives of the specifications/statement of work. Proposals which merely paraphrase the requirements of the Government's specifications/statement of work, or use such phrases as "will comply" or "standard techniques will be employed" will be considered unacceptable and will not be considered further. As a minimum, the proposal must clearly provide the following: Technical Submission: Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation shall be furnished in the following format with the numbers of copies as specified.. (a) The proposal submission must include a technical proposal and cost/price proposal. Each of the parts shall be separate and complete so that evaluation of one may be accomplished independently from evaluation of the other. (b) Offerors shall submit their proposal(s) in the following format and the quantities specified: (1) Original plus four (4) hard copies of the completed, signed offer (2) Original plus four (4) hard copies of the technical proposal (3) Original plus four (4) hard copies of the cost/price proposal (4) Original plus four (4) hard copies of the contract documentation (c) Each hard copy volume shall be in a three-ring binder and appropriately tabbed with the identification of the Offeror and Volume Number on the spine of the binder. The original hard copy proposal volumes for technical and cost/price shall be submitted on white paper. Text shall be presented on 8 ½ X 11 inch paper in Times New Roman typeface, no smaller than 12-point pitch (smaller fonts are acceptable for graphics, figures, tables, footnotes and legends). Text shall be double-spaced with 1" margins. Costly, complex presentations are neither required nor desired. (d) The Offeror shall also provide a soft copy of the proposals using electronic media in MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint format, as appropriate, on CD-ROM. Technical Proposal: The technical proposal must not contain reference to cost; however, resource information (such as data concerning materials, subcontracts, etc.) must be contained in the technical proposal so that the contractor's understanding of the statement of work may be evaluated. (a) The Government will evaluate proposals in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in Section M of this RFP. Cost/Price Proposal: It is expected that there will be adequate price competition in accordance with FAR 15.403-1(c); therefore, cost or pricing data should not be required, and information other than cost or pricing data will not be required to evaluate price reasonableness and cost realism. However, if at a later time, it is determined that certification of such data is required, the Contracting Officer reserves the right to require cost or pricing data, additional detailed cost data and audit, and perform a cost analysis in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(c) as determined necessary by the Contracting Officer. Therefore, all Offerors shall provide access to records necessary to permit an adequate evaluation of the proposed cost/price in accordance with FAR 15.403-3 and 15.404-1. (a) All pricing and estimating techniques, cost development and computations must be clearly displayed, and must fully support the proposed costs/prices in such a manner that audit, computation and verification can be readily accomplished and costs/prices can be sufficiently evaluated for price reasonableness and cost realism. Any supporting information which demonstrates the development and computation of costs and rates must be provided in Microsoft Word and Excel, to include all cell formulas, where appropriate, and track to the costs proposed for each CLIN and each period Offeror's shall provide Price Proposal based Section B and one of the two pricing templates in Section J. (b) In accordance with FAR 52.215-1, INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS-COMPETITIVE ACQUISITION (JAN 2004), offers are solicited on an "all or none" basis. Failure to submit offers for all line items listed shall be cause for rejection of the offer. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PROPOSALS The Offeror shall organize its proposal in three volumes on separate CD-ROMs (and in hard copy, in separate binders) for each volume as shown below. Volume I Technical Proposal Volume II Cost/Price Proposal Volume III Contract Documentation Technical Solution Explanations, Assumptions and any Exceptions taken ( If Any) SF 33 Signature Page Personnel Solution Cost/Price Sections G Through K Requirements Management Solution SF 30 Amendments Signature Page Management Plans and Procedures Other documentation Volume I - Technical Proposal: The Technical/Management Proposal shall include the Offeror's proposed Technical, Personnel, and Management Solutions, as well as the proposed Management Plan as explained below. Offerors shall not include any costs/prices in the Technical Proposal. This does not preclude Offerors from describing staffing plans in this volume. Proposal narrative shall not exceed 50 single-sided pages. The page limit does not include: (a) Resumes of Key Personnel and Skills Matrix (Volume I), (b) Management Plans and Procedures (Volume I), and Technical Solution: The Offeror shall develop a Technical Solution for meeting the functional requirements in the SOW including the Offeror's specific and detailed approach for conducting the required effort. The Technical Solution for the Phase-In Period should also be detailed in this area. Personnel Solution: This section shall describe the Offeror's proposed Personnel Solution including the following elements: (a) Key Personnel: Resumes of key personnel including training and experience for proposed positions. (b) Technical Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Certifications: The Offeror's proposed skills matrix shall depict the specific qualifications, knowledge, skills, and certifications for each Key Personnel. Management Solution: Project Management Organization: This section shall describe the Offeror's proposed management structure, the position within the overall corporate organization of the division or group proposed to perform this effort, the level of corporate project oversight planned in terms of authority to make programmatic decisions and to implement solutions, and corporate capabilities. The Offeror shall provide a narrative of its management solution that is supported by the provided plans (See Vol. I) and that includes the following topics: (a) Project Management Approach. A Offeror's Project Management Approach shall demonstrate the completeness and understanding of and approach to accomplishing the complexity and magnitude of service requirements set forth in the performance objectives and standards of the (SOW). (b) Quality Control Management. Quality Control is the self-inspection process that is to be described in all offers and tenders. The Quality Control Plan describes the internal staffing and procedures that the prospective provider will use to meet the quality, quantity, timeliness, responsiveness, customer satisfaction, and other service delivery requirements in the SOW. This section will demonstrate the Offeror's internal quality control management approach, system, policies, and procedures and how they are based on current industry standard practices. (c) Risk Management. Risk Management demonstrates the Offeror's understanding of the development effort, the transition implementation tasks, the proposed operational environment, and the risk exposure associated with these tasks, as well as the feasibility of its risk mitigation strategies. (d) Subcontract Management. This section shall contain the teaming and subcontracting arrangements depicting the qualifications of teaming partners and subcontractors, their responsibilities, clarity of assignments, and the adequacy of the proposed approaches, processes and responsibilities for teaming partner and subcontractor management with an emphasis on clarity of lines of authority and assignment and reporting procedures. Management Plans and Procedures (a) Phase-In Plan (b) Management Plan (c) Subcontract Plan (d) Quality Control Plan (e) Phase-Out Plan Volume II - Cost/Price Proposal Explanations and Exceptions (a) This section will be used as needed to explain and support the Offeror's Cost/Price Proposal. The Cost/Price Explanation and Exceptions Section shall contain all the narrative explanations used in deriving calculated costs. The narrative shall explain clearly the methodologies, calculations, and assumptions used in developing each cost element. The Offeror shall provide all data required to make assessments of realism, completeness, and reasonableness including but not limited to: (1) Financial statements for the last two years (2) Discussion of financial capacity, working capital and other resources available to perform the contract without assistance from any outside source (3) Provide the name, location, and inter-company pricing policy for other divisions, subsidiaries, parent company, or affiliated companies that will perform work or furnish materials under this contract. (b) The Offeror shall list all exceptions to the solicitation, including exceptions to the terms and conditions and to any requirement including pricing in this section, and/or any proposed changes. At a minimum, responses shall indicate the specific RFP reference (e.g., section/paragraph number of the requirement to which the exception is taken) and the reasons for the exception. If there are no exceptions to the RFP, then the Offeror shall state "none" at this section. Cost/Price The Cost/Price Proposal shall be prepared in accordance with RFP Section B and the instructions in Attachment J.1. The Cost/Price Proposal shall include Firm Fixed Prices for each of the CLINs proposed by the Offeror. The Cost/Price Proposal shall also include Firm Fixed Prices for any items proposed in Tabs 1 and 2 of the Technical/Management Proposal. The Phase-In Period (initial performance period) shall be priced as a separate CLIN. (a) Price shall be evaluated by adding the firm fixed price for the Implementation Phase and Operations & Maintenance Phases while Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) for the Supplemental Services in Section B of the solicitation shall be filled out completely by all Offerors and shall include all unit costs and extended amounts for all CLINS, except for those noted as "Estimated", and for all periods, with all amounts fully supported and detailed in the Cost/Price volume for each CLIN and for each period. Volume III Contract Documentation A signed copy of the SF 1449 Include only those pages in Sections G through K that require any applicable clause fill-ins. NOTE: Section J attachments that require Offeror completion should be included with the respective proposal Volume. Acknowledgement of all SF 30 amendments - only the signature page is required. Any other documentation not included in any other proposal volume. Signed cover letter with a list of assumptions that went into the pricing proposal template 452.215-72 AMENDMENTS TO PROPOSALS (FEB 1988) Any changes to a proposal shall be submitted as change pages to the hard copy, accompanied by a complete electronic resubmission of the affected file(s). Each change page shall be identified by date, by revision number, and by corresponding page number. New/changed information shall be identified by a vertical line in the margin next to the change and/or by using redline and strikeout features. Hard copy change pages shall be submitted on light colored (e.g., light blue, yellow, pink) paper. Subsequent change pages/responses, if any, shall be on different color paper to readily identify the current changes/corrections. 452.204-70 INQUIRIES (FEB 1988) Inquiries and all correspondence concerning this solicitation shall be submitted in writing to the Contracting Officer, no later Friday, September 5, 2008, 3:00pm Central Standard Time (CT). Offerors shall contact only the Contracting Officer issuing the solicitation regarding any aspect of this requirement prior to contract award.
Web Link: FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=06b180022722c152c032683a9e0893a9&tab=core&_cview=1)
Place of Performance: Address: The offeror may perform and develop at its own location; however, some travel will be required with services at the following site:, USDA, OCFO- Controller Operations Division, 13800 Old Gentilly Road, New Orleans, LA 701029, United States; Zip Code: 01029
Record: SN01671733-W 20080918/080916220948-06b180022722c152c032683a9e0893a9 (fbodaily.com)
Source: FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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D -- Provide web-based account management services to add, change, and delete accounts/ points of service and payment information online for telephone and utility invoices and to run standard and ad hoc reports.