Loren Data's SAM Daily™

SAMDAILY.US - ISSUE OF AUGUST 20, 2023 SAM #7936
SOLICITATION NOTICE

D -- FY 24 Service - Buf/Bat Guest Wi-Fi - Base + 4 OY

Notice Date

8/18/2023 7:02:38 AM
 

Notice Type

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
 

Contracting Office

242-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 02 (36C242) ALBANY NY 12208 USA
 

ZIP Code

12208
 

Solicitation Number

36C24223Q0931
 

Response Due

8/25/2023 9:00:00 AM
 

Archive Date

09/01/2023
 

Point of Contact

Nathan Northrup, Contract Officer, Phone: 607-664-7533
 

E-Mail Address

Nathan.Northrup@va.gov
(Nathan.Northrup@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

SBA Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)
 

Awardee

null
 

Description

The purpose of this amendment is to answer vendor questions, revise Scope of Work (SOW), revise pricing worksheet, and extend the close date of Combined Synopsis/Solicitation 36C24223Q0931 to allow for vendors to review this amendment. Quote submissions shall now be submitted on or before Friday, August 25th, 2023, 12:00pm EST. A vendor question identified a needed change to the SOW; Section B.3.2 (A.) shall now read Contractor shall provide one hundred (100) gigabytes (GB) of wireless internet service bandwidth at the Buffalo VAMC and fifty (50) GB at the Batavia VAMC, with capability to expand bandwidth in the future. This amendment provides revisions of the SOW and the pricing worksheet. Please see file revisions attached Final SOW 2 and 36C24223Q0931 Pricing Worksheet 2 . Pricing at Section 14.A of combined synopsis/solicitation shall be submitted on this 2nd version of the pricing worksheet. Please see combined vendor questions below and Government answers in red. Vendor 1 Who is the incumbent? Provided post-award, see SOW section B.3.2.D What are the working hours? 7:00am to 3:30pm, see SOW section B.3.5.A.2 Will a staging area be provided where we can store and configure equipment? Yes Will the new system (switches and access points) be installed in parallel with existing equipment? If that is what is required for minimal disruption, then yes. Will the cutover to the new system be by access point or will the old system be shut down entirely and new system brought up? This should be part of your proposal; it is on the new vendor to work with the existing one. Are there existing DIA circuits going into Buffalo and Batavia? If yes, will they be reused for the new system, or will new DIA circuits need to be ordered? If new circuits need to be ordered, the incumbent may have an advantage because new circuits normally take 6 months, and if the activation date is 10/01/2023, a new circuit may not be able to be delivered in time. Would an extension be granted on the activation date? The existing DIA circuits are going to be reused. Is there existing dark fiber from Buffalo to Batavia? If yes, can we connect both sites together and operate from one DIA circuit? If no dark fiber, is it possible to connect both sites through a point-to-point radio circuit? There is no current connection from Buffalo to Batavia s Patient Wi-fi, If you feel you need to connect both sites through a point-to-point radio circuit to accomplish what is laid out in the SOW then include that in your proposal. This Wi-Fi is a standalone system from anything else in the hospital. Is battery backup required for any mission critical devices? No How many hours must equipment remain online during power outage? N/A Do we have to monitor and upgrade the existing network to Cisco devices? The monitoring will be done through the existing Meraki system, if you deem an upgrade is necessary, please include that in the bid proposal. Is it one-to-one replacement of existing Wi-Fi network and no RF design request? The network is not changing. By what type of cabling is the existing Wi-Fi network supported? CAT5e or CAT6 run? CAT6 For next gen Wi-Fi it is recommended to upgrade to CAT6A cable run, so if cabling is not CAT6A will we need to install new cabling? No Do we have to propose upgrading the core router? No What is the existing router information to understand if it will support a 50G internet circuit or do we have to propose upgrading router? That will be disclosed post-award. Is the request for a 50G internet circuit only to support public Wi-Fi or are there other areas for the future expansion? Just public Wi-Fi Does the VA have an existing content filtering solution in place? If not, do we need to include this with our proposal? This is handled by the Meraki MX devices using the Meraki Advanced Security license. Can we take ownership of the existing circuit until we can have our own new circuit delivered? That would be up to you and the incumbent. What is the existing router model? That will be disclosed post-award. Do we have to propose upgrading the router? No Would this new router be required to be in place before 10/01/2023? N/A If we do not have to replace router, would we assume ownership? No If a user cannot access the internet because of a down AP, who dispatches to repair/replace the AP? As per Section B.3.3 in the SOW Contractor shall notify COR within one (1) hour of any known system disruption sand immediately upon system restoration. Are heat maps available for the intended coverage areas? If not, can we create our own? Yes, post-award. Vendor 2 What devices do the current circuits terminate on and are they managed by the current internet providers? That can be disclosed post-award and Yes, but they will not be going forward. May we have a deadline extension (from Wednesday, August 16th) to five VA time to review and answer questions submitted post-walkthrough as well as allow industry to respond accordingly? Amendment 2 extended the deadline to Wednesday, August 23rd, and this amendment (3) provides final extension to Friday, August 25th. Vendor 3 Regarding the equipment, specifically, we need to know if the existing router for the service handoff will remain intact? Also, does the SOW include providing a new router? Yes, and no the VA will maintain ownership of the router. Can you provide additional details about the Meraki set-up? Specifically, we are interested in the router or controller, including it s firmware version and network topology. This information will aid us in understanding the captive portal page implementation. These are updated by the Meraki Cloud automatically. Currently, they are running MX 18.107.2 and their licenses expire 1/13/24. Could you inform us how many IPv4 addresses will be required for the 50G and 10G connections? The incumbent has this information, we can work on getting this information and will be available post-award. For the 50G and 10G connections, is this share business-class internet service or DIA (Dedicated Internet Access) commercial symmetrical circuit required? DIA Based on the site-visit and SOW, we want to confirm that the project s requirements are limited to setting up a captive portal page, providing internet and handoff to the Meraki set-up for the Buffalo VAMC and Batavia VAMC and no other services needed, such as Wi-Fi system management and maintenance? That is correct. Could you provide information about the handoff signal and link speed for the ISP router to the Meraki network? We assume it s 100G SFP+ via fiber for the Buffalo VAMC and 10G SFP+ via fiber for the Batavia VAMC. Will the SFP+ modules provided, or do we need to supply them for the handoff if this is the case? 100 Mbps at both sites. Is TAA compliant required for the router and SFP+ modules? Yes Will there be an extension after the Q&A period once our inquiries have been addressed? Amendment 2 extended the deadline to Wednesday, August 23rd, and this amendment (3) provides final extension to Friday, August 25th. Vendor 4 Will the Government please clarify what is meant by ""provide public security for the guest internet access"" (SOW section B.3.3.C)? A firewall shall be setup to ensure the security of the user. Will the Government please clarify what is meant by ""private security for the vendor provided equipment (SOW section B.3.3.C)? A firewall shall be setup to ensure the security of any vendor provided equipment. Per the solicitation Contractor shall provide three (3) relevant references, from similar commercial window cleaning/maintenance jobs, that may be contacted by the Contract Officer. Will the Government please confirm this should be corrected to reflect similar Wi-Fi jobs? Correct, please disregard window cleaning/maintenance in section 14(C) of solicitation and submit references pertaining to similar Wi-Fi jobs. Many companies are structured with multiple divisions or multiple legal entities that individually perform Prime contracts but fall under a broader corporate umbrella. Recognizing that such corporate structures exist across the industry, the procurement rules and numerous GAO decisions have made clear that procuring agencies may evaluate and credit an offeror with the past performance and corporate experience of affiliate companies where the Offeror s proposal demonstrates that the resources of the affiliate (e.g., workforce, management, facilities, or other resources) will be meaningfully contributed to contract performance. Please reference Decision File B-418486; B-418486.2; B-418486.3 (Inquiries, Inc., May 27, 2020) where the GAO states, An agency properly may attribute the experience or past performance of a parent or affiliated company to an offeror where the firm s proposal demonstrates that the resources of the parent or affiliate will affect the performance of the offeror The relevant consideration is whether the resources of the parent or affiliated company--its workforce, management, facilities or other resources--will be provided or relied upon for contract performance such that the parent or affiliate will have meaningful involvement in contract performance. Would the Government please confirm that Offerors may cite the past performance and experience of an affiliate company's Prime contract so long as the Offeror demonstrates how the resources of the affiliate will meaningfully contribute to the performance of the opportunity? If question 1 is confirmed, will the Government please also confirm that affiliate past performance information will count towards the relevant references allowed for the Offeror? You may submit this information as part of your package and the Government will take into consideration during its comparative evaluation stage of the procurement. Will the Government please confirm whether relevant references in past performance responses from an Offeror's proposed subcontractor(s) can be submitted and that such submissions will be evaluated equally to those past performance responses submitted by an Offeror acting as the prime contractor? You may submit this information as part of your package and the Government will take into consideration during its comparative evaluation stage of the procurement. Vendor 5 Section B.3.2 - A - States the government wants the contractor to provide 50GB of internet service to the Buffalo VAMC and 10GB to the Batavia VAMC. Typically, VA guest Wi-Fi services use internet services that are 50 - 200 MB.  Please confirm 50 and 10 Gigabytes of internet services. The SOW and line-items are being changed to reflect new requirement of 100gb service to the Buffalo VAMC and 50gb service to the Batavia VAMC. Section B.3.3 - A  States ""Contractor shall Monitor  the Wi-Fi network with the current Cisco Meraki system...."".  Does the government only want the Meraki Firewalls monitored and managed, or do you also want the legacy Cisco equipment/ Wi-Fi solution managed and monitored? The legacy Cisco equipment/wi-fi solution needs to be monitored as well, but the active maintenance on all Government owned equipment will be performed by the VA. Section B.3.3 - B    States that All Maintenance on VA owned hardware shall be performed by the VA.""  Does this include any configuration changes, hardware failures, or licensing that may be needed on existing Cisco APs and controllers, to include the acquisition and application of licensing, etc.?  If not, please describe in detail what is meant by this statement. Yes The hardware attachment shows the wireless controllers are Cisco AIr-CT3504-K9 models. Will the contractor have any responsibility to manage Cisco APs and controllers? If so, do these controllers use Perpetual licensing? If they do not use Perpetual licensing, what version of licensing is used? No What is the current date the licenses expire on the MX84-HW firewalls? Currently, they are running MX 18.107.2 and their licenses expire 1/13/24 It appears as if most of the equipment listed on the Hardware sheet is already or will be End of Life/ Support by the year 2027. Does the VA require contactor to include hardware to replace the existing infrastructure as part of this price quote, or will this be done through future modifications of the contract? No How many calls or issue tickets are currently reported per month on average? That is currently managed by the incumbent and is unknown. Combined Synopsis Page 3-b - states"" contractor shall provide three (3) relevant references from similar commercial window cleaning/maintenance jobs "". We assume that you meant comparable wireless solutions can you confirm? Correct, please disregard window cleaning/maintenance in section 14(C) of solicitation and submit references pertaining to similar Wi-Fi jobs. B.3.2 - A. Please confirm there is an incumbent ISP.  If yes, will the Gov't provide the name of the Provider/Carrier?  Post-award. B.3.2 - D. Is the fiber entrance cable and/or terminating eqpt owned by the Gov't/VA? Is the contractor expected to replace fiber in the event of cuts, etc? It is VA owned and will not require any cutting. B.3.2 - E.  If the existing fiber entrance cable cannot be used to deliver the new internet service, will there be adequate lead time to engineer, furnish, and install a new entrance cable (plus additional associated NET)? It will be used. B.3.3 - B. Is this for the Managed ISP, Guests, Employees, i.e. Help Desk - or - also, on H/W? This is for the help desk to assist users with logging on. B.3.5 - (the second) 1. This item relates, it seems, to B.3.2.D,,,Does the Gov't/VA use/observe/adhere to a Change Mgt process &/or a night &/or weekend Outage window? This item does not seem to correlate to the statement @ the top of the next page (still a part of this item 1., which states ""Work shall take place during normal duty hours: M-F, 7 am-3:30pm."" The work that shall take place during normal duty hours: M-F, 7 am-3:30pm is the installation of new equipment ie; the fiber switch. If something needs to be scheduled for off-duty hours it shall be scheduled with the COR. B.3.6 - A. Will contractor have access to the APs and controllers. No Who is the current ISP? Is the service owned and run by the VA? Post-Award, and no not currently If the internet service cannot be assumed by the new contractor, will the government allow for adequate transition/ install time for a new ISP? Yes, proper extensions can be made. Is there currently only 1 ISP connection at each VA facility that is distributed to other buildings across the VA s guest network, or do other buildings at each campus require their own ISP connection? Each facility (Buffalo & Batavia) will have its own DIA. Vendor 6 Can the Government please clarify the internet circuit speed that is needed? i.e. 100mbps, 300mbps, etc. The SOW and line-items are being changed to reflect new requirement of 100gb service to the Buffalo VAMC and 50gb service to the Batavia VAMC. Can the Government please clarify if the vendor will be responsible for purchasing the renewal of the Meraki license or will the VA be responsible? The vendor will be responsible for the purchasing of the Meraki license. Vendor 7 Given the date of the site visit (8/10) and the time to prepare post-site visit questions and submit, pending Government responses, would the Government please consider extending the proposal due date to 8/30? We need time to complete pricing, and QA will be outstanding it appears, through perhaps Monday or even later. Amendment 2 extended the deadline to Wednesday, August 23rd, and this amendment (3) provides final extension to Friday, August 25th. Will the Government issue an SF 1449 for this solicitation? No, per FAR 13.105(b) and FAR 12.603(b), a combined synopsis/solicitation procedure is being used instead of an SF 1449. Will the Government please provide a site-visit attendee list? The site-visit was mandatory, only vendors who participated will be evaluated. Who is the incumbent Wi-Fi service provider and what is the contract number? Post-Award release What company is the current ISP provider at each location and what are the monthly charges for the last 12 months? Post-award. Regarding FAR 52.222-41, Service Contract Labor Standards, does this mean that labor must be compliant with wage determination requirements? This clause shall not apply as the procurement is covered by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 rather than the Service Contract Labor Standards Act. We noted the Total Small Business Set Aside, does the Government NOT anticipate two SDVOSB responses? Total Small Business Set-Aside is confirmed. The announcement requires references from similar ""commercial window cleaning/maintenance jobs that may be contacted by the Contract Officer."" If the Contracting Officer considers Q&A nonbinding, we ask that the Government revise the Solicitation. Correct, please disregard window cleaning/maintenance in section 14(C) of solicitation and submit references pertaining to similar Wi-Fi jobs. Does the Government require the Contractor to provide device monitoring to each access point or only to the MDF or IDF? All devices will be monitored through the Meraki system. Will the Government provide all system documentation to include the design, floor plans, previous reports, usernames, and passwords at Award? Yes What is the purpose of the OSHA Certificates given that workplace safety is not necessary for providing ISP services and monitoring equipment? Does the government anticipate any level of construction or work that requires OSHA compliance, and if so please describe? Are OSHA certificates required at submission or at/after Award? A new fiber switch may need to be installed unless you can take over ownership from the incumbent. The Pricing Worksheet reflects the period of performance start date of 10/1/23. The SOW, B.3.2.E states that the service shall be fully operational no later than October 1, 2023. Would the government please confirm or clarify the anticipated start date and when the government needs the service to be transferred and operable by in order to provide the ""detailed plan of internet service changeover transaction/schedule""? The service shall be in operation on 10/01/2023, the award will be made as far in advance as possible. The bandwidth seems high for the number of Access Points at each location; please confirm that Buffalo requires 50GB internet circuit and Batavia requires a 10GB internet circuit delivered by the ISP and not the throughput at the Access Point. Is it possible that the high bandwidth is used for something else, and if so what or is it relevant to this contract? The SOW and line-items are being changed to reflect new requirement of 100gb service to the Buffalo VAMC and 50gb service to the Batavia VAMC. Is there currently Government-owned hardware in place that connects the existing fiber-optic cable to the existing Wi-Fi equipment? The fiber switch is not owned by government but that connects to all government owned equipment. At Batavia, how many unique buildings are included in the Wi-Fi solution? A map will be provided post-award. Can the government provide historical information on trouble tickets related to the wi-fi service? We do not have access to that. What is the ISP Telecom DEMARC location (physical address, building #, and room number)? We need this information for ISP pricing. Buffalo VAMC: 3495 Bailey Ave. Buffalo, NY 14215 Building 1 Room 29A Batavia VAMC: 222 Richmond Ave. Batavia, NY 14020 Building 1 G39 If the Contractor is responsible for the Meraki MX84 LIC-SEC-1YR licenses: What is the current expiration date(s) for the licensing? 1/13/24 Will the Government give Cisco/Meraki permission to release the information on the licensing to all bidders/offerors? Incumbent currently maintains that licensing. What are the two contract numbers for the licenses? If the contract # is not available, what is the annual license cost? Incumbent currently maintains that licensing. If the Contractor is responsible for the support contracts for the Cisco Access Points, Switches, and Controllers at both locations: The contractor is not responsible for the support contracts, just maintaining the licensing for the Meraki. What is the current expiration date(s) for the licensing? 1/13/24 Will the Government will the Government give Cisco permission to release the information on the support contract to all Bidders/Offerors? The incumbent currently maintains that information. What are the two contract numbers? If the contract # is not available, what is the annual cost. The incumbent currently maintains that information. What is the age of installed devices on the network? If the device fails, does the Government provide the replacement or the Contractor? The VA provides replacement. When does the Government expect to issue a Contract or Notice to Proceed based on the quick transition required? As soon as possible Has the Government had any challenges with ISP service delivery or Contractor network monitoring, and if so, what are those challenges? N/A Will the Government or the incumbent be providing all current documentation for the installed/supported system? Government Vendor 8 Cisco has deemed all of the equipment that has been listed as end of life and most of it has already reached its end of service date, is it the VA s intention to continue to operate with this equipment? Yes What provisions are there for this equipment when it fails? The VA will purchase it separately or can issue a contract modification for items associated to the Meraki system. If replacement equipment is being requested, how does the VA want to see this priced out in the pricing sheet? No All other terms and conditions remain the same.
 

Web Link

SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/opp/ebca854f6270430e8c468da265bc5739/view)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Buffalo VA Medical Center 3495 Bailey Avenue and Batavia VA Medical Center 222 Richmond Avenue, Buffalo/Batavia, NY 14215/020, USA

Zip Code: 14215/020

Country: USA
 

Record

SN06796831-F 20230820/230818230053 (samdaily.us)
 

Source

SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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