5600 Fishers Lane, Room 13A-19 Rockville, MD 20857

D -- PRODUCTIVITY TRAINING COURSES SOL 99-OA-038SRB DUE 051099 POC Sarah Bueter (301) 443-5352; fax (301) 443-5462 E-MAIL: Point of Contact via email, sbueter@hrsa.gov. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items (Productivity Training for HRSA employees) prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation number is 99-OA-038SRB and is being issued as a Request for Proposals. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-10. The provisions at 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors Commercial; 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions Commercial items; 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders Commercial Items; 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services; 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract; and 52.217-5, Evaluation of Options apply to this acquisition. Offerors are hereby advised to include a completed copyof the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications Commercial Items, with their offer. Period of Performance will be 12 months from the Effective Date of Contract (EDOC) with 3 one-year option periods. Offers are due May 10, 1999 no later than 4:00 pm EST to HRSA/OA/DGPM/OA Attn: Sarah Bueter, 5600 Fishers Lane Rm 13A-27, Rockville MD 20857. It is preferred that you send an electronic version (in Word 97 or compatible format) to sbueter@hrsa.gov. A. Statement of Work: 1.0 Training shall be provided for HRSA employees at contractor-provided facilities as close as possible (preferably walking distance) to the following locations: JFK Federal Building, Boston, MA 02203; 26 Federal Building New York City, NY 10278; 150 S Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106; 61 Forsyth St, SW, Atlanta, GA 30303; 105 West Adams St, Chicago, IL 60603; 1301 Young St, Dallas, TX 75202; 601 E 12 St, Kansas City, MO 64106; 1961 Stout St, Denver, CO 80294; 50 UN Plaza San Francisco, CA 94102; and 2201 Sixth Ave, Seattle, WA 98121. 2.0 The following courses represent the scope of the training to be offered: Windows 95/98 Introduction, Windows 95/98 Intermediate, Word 97 Introduction, Word 97 Intermediate, Word 97 Advanced, Excel 97 Introduction, Excel 97 Intermediate, Excel 97 Advanced, Access 97 Introduction, Access 97 Intermediate, Access 97 Advanced, Power Point 97 Introduction, Power Point 97 Intermediate, Power Point 97 Advanced, Microsoft Internet Explorer Introduction, Netscape Introduction, Microsoft Office Integrated Functions, Microsoft Exchange Introduction, and cc:Mail Introduction. Note 1: The versions of the software listed above are expected to change over the course of this contract, however the overall categories (word processing, electronic mail, etc) will remain the same. The contractor shall be required to conduct courses in the latest versions of these software packages as requested by the Project Officer. The contractor will be given a minimum of 45 days to prepare for software packagesother than those listed above. 3.0 Vouchers shall be supplied to HRSA by the Contractor (up to the number provided for each of the years of the contract shown below), and these vouchers may be redeemed by individual HRSA employees for instruction in one of the contractor's ongoing public courses. Where space and scheduling permit, multiple vouchers may be aggregated and the Contractor shall provide a class for HRSA employees only (HRSA-only Classes). Nine vouchers shall provide exclusive HRSA training in a 10-seat classroom no matter how many HRSA attendees there are, up to the normal capacity of the classroom. 4.0 Each class shall include at least 6 hours of instruction from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with one hour for lunch and morning and afternoon breaks. 5.0 The training shall include a variety of teaching techniques including, lecture, demonstration, discussion, trainee exercises, and handouts. 6.0 The Contractor shall at a minimum provide for each course being held: Training facilities, including: Training room; Computers (one per classroom seat) loaded with the software to be taught; Other audio and video accessories and materials as are needed; Trainer's manuals; Participant handouts, and workbooks as required -- The Contractor shall provide each student with a manual which includes the material covered in the class. 7.0 The contractor shall supply 1,032 training vouchers. The Contractor shall invoice only for those vouchers provided within the scope of this contract. The Contractor shall not invoice for vouchers not provided within the specified period of time. 8.0 Upon agreement of the Contractor and HRSA, specific classes may be designed for the needs of HRSA employees. The Contractor will assemble the curriculum for these classes with the assistance and approval of the HRSA Project Officer (PO). These classes shall be offered to HRSA employees as HRSA-only Classes, unless incorporated into the regular public curriculum of the Contractor. 9.0 Once scheduled for a public class, a HRSA employee may reschedule or withdraw from the class with 2 days notice to the Contractor. 10.0 The Contractor shall provide the PO with a monthly report of training activity for each location. The exact format of the report shall be agreed upon by the PO and the Contractor. 11.0 The Contractor shall provide staff which possess the necessary expertise and experience to successfully conduct these training classes in accordance with established commercial practices. B. SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES: Meet with Project Officer (PO) within 7 days of EDOC; Present training manuals to the PO for Approval Within 14 days of EDOC; Provide hands-on classroom instruction to HRSA employees As Required; Provide a Monthly Report by location to the PO to include: Voucher utilization, Courses taken with student name and date; Printouts of student evaluations; other reports that may be required to show voucher utilization, etc. C. PROPOSALS. All offerors shall submit both a price and technical proposal in accordance with the following guidelines: 1. General Instructions 1.a The evaluation of proposals will be based on the demonstrated capabilities of the prospective contractors in relation to the requirements of the tasks set forth in the RFQ. The merits of each proposal will be considered carefully. Proposals must be organized using the headings of the criteria listed below. 1.b No cost or pricing data shall be included in Technical Proposal. Conversely, no technical or management information shall be contained in the cost proposal except for basic cross referencing purposes. However, resource information may be contained in the technical proposal so that your understanding of the scope of the work may be evaluated. It must disclose your technical approach in sufficient detail to provide a clear and concise presentation that includes, but is not limited to, the requirements of the technical proposal instructions. 1.c. The proposal must be signed by an official authorized to bind your organization. 1.d No offeror shall submit more than oneproposal. 1.e The Government will evaluate proposals in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in the evaluation criteria outlined below. 1.f It is understood that your proposal will become part of the official contract file. 1.g Understanding of this requirement must be demonstrated by more than a reiteration of the Statement of Work (SOW). Proposals which merely offer to conduct a program in accordance with the requirement of the Government's scope of work shall not be eligible for award. 1.h. The offeror must stipulate that the proposal is predicated upon all the terms and conditions of this RFQ. In addition, the proposal must contain a statement to the effect that it is firm for a period of at least 90 days from the date of receipt by the Government. 1.i. It is HHS policy that contractors provide all equipment and facilities necessary for performance of contracts. 2. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS -- You shall submit an explanation of the proposed technical approach in conjunction with the tasks to be performed in achieving the project objectives. Your technical approach should be in as much detail as you consider necessary to fully explain your proposed technical approach or method. The technical proposal should reflect a clear understanding of the nature of the work being undertaken. All weights assigned to each proposal criteria are listed beside that criteria in parentheses. Specifically, the data and information in the technical proposal should be organized according to the following requirements: 2.a (50 points) Training Facilities. Offerors shall provide locations of the proposed training facilities, showing that they are accessible to the Field Offices (addresses shown above) by public transportation, but preferably within walking distance of the HRSA office. 2.b. (7.5 points) Instructional Experience. The offeror's instructor selection policies should show a high-value on prior successful hands-on type teaching of productivity software courses. Resumes of sample instructors may be provided, along with other materials to show accessibility to or current staffing of instructors with successful hands-on productivity software teaching experience. 2.c. (7.5 points) Software Experience. The technical proposal should show instructors with knowledge of the specific software they would be responsible for teaching. As stated in 2b, resumes or other material showing this capability should be provided. 2.d. (15 points) Materials/Facilities. Offerors shall provide a sample training book/curriculum (for the basic Microsoft Office 97 [Word, Access, Excel] or other materials that will be provided to students. These materials should show a thorough understanding of the application to be taught and shall be useful for reference by students after training is complete. Offerors shall show proposed equipment to be used, showing a minimum of one computer per student. 2.e. (5 points) Guarantee. All offerors shall provide a written guarantee that a course may be retaken at no cost to the Government if the student was not satisfied. Administrative Reports. All offerors shall show qualities of their reporting capability. The proposals should show the ability to provide monthly reports detailing students/course title/location/price. 2.f. (15 points) Past Experience/Capability and Past Performance. All offerors shall submit the following information (for both the offeror and proposed major subcontractors): A list of the last three contracts completed during the last three years and all contracts currently in process under which the offeror has performed tasks that are most similar to the work required under this solicitation and that are representative of the offeror's capability to perform the services described herein. In citing these past contracts, the offeror shall give preference to the Government and then commercial contracts. References other than those identified by the offeror may be contacted by the Government, with the information received and used in the evaluation of the offeror's past performance. The specific information to be provided includes: the work performed, including cross-references of similar projects, identifying personnel proposed to work on this contract, and describing their previous roles and contributions. Special notation should be made of similar or related projects conducted for the Government, including documentation with reference to applicable contract numbers, the respective supervising agencies, time frame, dollar amount, for whom work was performed and phone numbers and dates work was performed. This information will be used both as an evaluation factor and to make a responsibility determination. 3. PRICE PROPOSAL. All offerors shall provide a breakdown of the cost of each class (using proposed class titles above) for each location, and then a total for the full performance period, using the estimated level of training per field office. For a breakdown of the estimated number of users to be trained for each location, offerors are required to submit an email request (NO telephone requests will be honored)to the address above and will receive an electronic version in Word 97 format showing quantities. For a total # of classes for that location, we estimated 3 classes for the base year and 2 classes for each option year, based on an average. For example, Boston will have approximately 22 users. Therefore the total number of classes for Boston will be 66 and 44 for each option year. 4. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS 4.a. Relative Weighting to Cost/Price. It should be noted that technical expertise (including past performance) is significantly more important than cost. If the technical evaluation reveals that two or more offerors are approximately equal in technical ability, then the proposed price of performance will become paramount. 4.b. Selection of Offerors 4.b.1. The acceptability or unacceptability of the technical portion of each contract proposal will be based upon an evaluation by a technical review committee. 4.b.2. The Contracting Officer will, in concert with program staff, decide which proposals are in the competitive range. It is important that your proposal be submitted initially on the most favorable terms from both the technical and cost standpoints. The Government reserves the right to make an award without further discussion of the proposals received, however discussions may be held with all offerors in the competitive range. 4.b.3. The Government reserves the right to make a single award, multiple awards, or no award as a result of this RFP. Posted 04/16/99 (W-SN321277). (0106)

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