SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- New Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for CIO-SP2i and IW2nd
- Notice Date
- 5/29/2008
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Administration, 6011 Executive Blvd, Rm 538, Rockville, Maryland, 20892-7663
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7663
- Solicitation Number
- CIO-SPNEW
- Archive Date
- 6/17/2008
- Point of Contact
- Wanda F Russell,, Phone: 301-402-3085, John Q Chiu,, Phone: 301-594-0814
- E-Mail Address
-
wr9i@nih.gov, chiuj@mail.nih.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This notification modification provides answers to questions received in response to the Request for Information (RFI), following the guidance therein. The date for receipt of responses to this RFI remains unchanged at 9:00am EST, June 2, 2008. NITAAC would like to take this opportunity to express its appreciation for the interest shown in this requirement and the responses provided. 1. Question: When does the government anticipate acquisition planning to take place regarding CIO-SPNEW? Answer: The acquisition planning is already taking place through the use of this RFI. After evaluating responses to the RFI, the government will develop a business case to the Office of Management and Budget. Upon approval, the government intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) at that time. 2. Question: When does the government anticipate issuing an RFP? The RFI indicates a potential RFP release date of June 2008 for CIO-SP3. Can the government confirm this approximate date? Answer: The government intends to issue an RFP as soon as possible, pending government approvals; however, the government will invest the time necessary to create an RFP that meets the needs of the customers, anticipate new technology over the next ten years, provide a quick and easy to use contracting vehicle for customers, provide fair opportunity to industry, and promote maximum participation of small and small disadvantaged business. 3. Question: Has any press release been made to advertise the RFI to the public? Answer: No. 4. Question: Can the GWAC be written as a hybrid contract to go beyond only IT? Answer: No. 5. Question: What are the Clinger-Cohen restrictions on the contract? Answer: The contract scope must be information technology and designed to serve the needs of federal agencies. 6. Question: Has a final decision been made about combining CIO-SP2i and IW2nd? Answer: No. The government is looking to industry for pros and cons regarding the combination of these two GWACs. Please refer to question 5.1.1: 5.1.1 Currently, NIH is obtaining these services under two separate GWACs, the CIO-SP2i and IW2nd. Considering how imaging is being integrated throughout other IT systems, NIH is planning on combining these two contracts into one. Please describe any advantages or disadvantages and whether imaging should be a separate functional area in the contract or integrated with the other functional areas. 7. Question: What influence, if any, will the RFI responses have on the RFP release and the ultimate award of CIO-SPNEW? For example, will RFI responses be scored in any manner? Answer: Responses to RFIs have no bearing on the evaluation of any individual future proposal responses to the planned RFI. Responses will not be scored, but will provide input into the RFP planning process. 8. Question: Will RFI responses be utilized or considered as part of a down-select process? Answer: No. 9. Question: Is there an industry day coming? Answer: There is no industry day planned in relation to the RFI. 10. Question: Can the government please provide specifics for what the RFP process will involve? Answer: The government will follow the normal process provided for in the Federal Acquisition Regulation. As stated in the RFI, the government will use the response from the RFI in helping develop the Statement of Work and acquisition strategy. 11. Question: The existing CIO-SP2i contract is a Task Order service contract and the existing IW2nd contract includes Task Orders and Solutions and Services as well as Delivery Orders for products. If it is the government's intention to combine these two contracts into one, does the government envision that the contract will have both Task Orders and Delivery Orders? Answer: The government is considering various options as to the structure if these two contracts are combined and welcomes any suggestions. 12. Question: If the new contract will have both Task Orders and Delivery Orders, will the products be segregated as a separate CLIN or Task Area? Answer: The government is considering various options and welcomes any suggestions. 13. Question: Would primes all be required to bid products on the contract? Answer: This decision will be made after consideration of all options. 14. Question: Can the government describe the process for issuing orders under the new contracts? Answer: This is still to be determined. Any suggested refinements to the procedures currently used for the CIO-SP2i and the IW2nd GWACS would be welcome at this point. 15. Question: Would the government identify advantages in using the GWAC over GSA ordering, open market commercial contracts, or other mechanisms available for ordering these services? Answer: a. Empowers government health providers and CIOs by offering a choice from a large number of pre-qualified vendors b. Reduces costs by streamlining and automating the acquisition of health IT c. Range of contract types and order terms to best suit customer unique needs d. Broad IT scope, but with a focus on supporting research and health missions within the federal government. e. Effective management controls. 16. Question: Would the award strategy allow for a stable of contractors where government customers have the option to limit proposals to small businesses, service disabled veteran owned small business, etc.? Answer: NITAAC is exploring options to promote small and small disadvantaged businesses including the potential for systematic task order set asides for small and disadvantaged businesses. The RFI is also seeking ideas from industry and from the government as to the best ways of maximizing small and small disadvantaged business participation. 17. Question: What will the invoice payment process be for NIH buyers? Answer: This is still to be determined but will be consistent with the new NIH business system guidelines. 18. Question: What steps are in place to ensure timely payments? Answer: This is still to be determined but will be consistent with the new NIH business system guidelines. 19. Question: Is a potential vendor excluded from receiving the RFP if they don't submit an RFI? Answer: No. Response to the RFI is strictly optional and voluntary. 20. Question: Is a potential vendor excluded from receiving the answers to the questions if they don't submit a response to the RFI? Answer: No. 21. Question: Are there any page limitations? Answer: There is no page limitation to responses to the RFI. 22. Question: Will contractor questions be released so that all interested offerors can review them? Answer: Questions received in response to the RFI and follow the guidelines therein are being released. 23. Question: In Section 5 - Directed Topics for Reponses, the RFI states, "The government requests vendors respond to the RFI in the order specified in the sections below." None of these sections cover Section 2 - Scope. Because a contractor intends to demonstrate its qualifications in one or more of the "Scope" areas in Section 2, should the contractor include its "Scope" responses after the Section 5 responses, or should the contractor include its "Scope' responses according to the instructions in Section 4 that state, "A statement of qualifications for the firm including a brief description of the firm's quality control processes for deliverables"? Answer: The RFI does not require an extensive demonstration of the contractor's qualifications for the scope areas described. It is only asking for a general description of corporate capabilities, which should be addressed as a response to topic number 3, statement of qualifications. 24. Question: Is the government requesting information in regards to available technology under each Task Area or is it simply requesting contractors to provide responses to Sections 5.1 - 5.6.4.? Answer: The focus of this RFI is to solicit feedback from customers and contractors on the questions is Sections 5.1 - 5.6.4. A general description of a firm's available technology can be included as a response to topic 3, statement of qualifications. This information would be helpful to the evaluation of a response to this RFI, but is not required. 25. Question: Can the government provide clarification on the term "partial qualification"? Paragraph 5.1.9., the government states, "in the interest of attracting capable contractors who specialize in areas of interest to NIH, contractors may be qualified on a subset of the 10 task areas. What does the government envision as the advantages and disadvantages of partial qualification?" Is the government requesting commentary on structuring the vehicle such that vendors bid and subsequently be awarded specific task areas, or that vendors bid and subsequently awarded access to the vehicle based on qualification against a subset of the task areas - however - the vendors are still able to bid tasks across all functional areas, or is the government requesting commentary on both scenarios? Answer: The government's intention is to qualify contractors by task area. There will be contractors that qualify in all task areas, and there may be contractors that qualify in only one or several of the task areas. Depending on the specific needs of the customer, qualified contractors would choose whether to pursue the individual task orders. 26. Question: Regarding Section 5.5., Security 5.5.2. Please clarify the question, "What risks exist and what mitigation steps can be taken?" What risks exist where and for what, e.g., organization/infrastructure/technology)? Answer: For health IT, there could be specific risks involved in protecting privacy information, etc. The government is interested in feedback regarding new risks being encountered in this field and the steps taken to mitigate these risks. 27. Question: In sections 5.2. and 5.4., the RFI refers to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA). Will the CIO-SP solicitation specify use of the Federal Healthcare Architecture (FHA)? Answer: The government is interested in encouraging use of FHA. To what extent FHA is covered in the contract vice an individual task order is an item to be determined. 28. Question: The Department of Health and Human Services has mandated the Troux Metis EA tool for department-wide use. Will the NIH, through the CIO-SP vehicle, be open to use of other EA products and tools? Answer: EA products and tool requirements would be provided within the scope of specific individual task orders, and not mandated as part of the GWAC contract scope. Other agencies may use this contract for enterprise architecture efforts that involve the use of EA tools other than Metis. 29. Question: If a company's algorithm is proprietary and as such cannot be FIPS 140-2 validated through NIST for non-classified use, would this situation preclude the company's involvement in this project? Answer: No. However, an agency can require FIPS 140-2 validation in an individual task order. In such a case, the vendor will either have to seek validation or risk having its proposal disqualified during the task order source selection process. 30. Question: Because the security questions in Sections 5.5.1. through 5.5.5. are fairly broad and responses can vary quite widely depending upon specific technologies, will the government please elaborate and provide guidance on the specifics and perspective of the information it is hoping to receive in response to these questions? Answer: The government is looking at this only in broad terms in order to include the necessary requirements in the RFP. 31. Question: There are several questions regarding Section 5.5. Security that are focused on how information is secured and authenticated on a company's database and during transmission (questions 5.5.2. - 5.5.5.). Is the intent of these questions to understand how the contractors' corporate security policies align with HHS/NIH or is HHS/NIH looking for technical alternatives to their own security policies and practices? Answer: The intent of this question is to understand how the contractors' corporate security policies align with HHS/NIH. NITAAC does not intend to consider alternatives to HHS/NIH policies and procedures except possibly when alternatives are specified by a non-HHS/NIH customer. However, the government will consider including in the RFP the ability for HHS/NIH to consider alternatives and under what circumstances. 32. Question: Does NIH anticipate that the contractor will control or take possession of PHI on behalf of the client? Answer: We are not clear what is being asked. 33. Question: Does NIH anticipate that the contractor would become a "business associate" as defined by HIPAA regulations? Answer: If so, the requirement would be included in an individual task order. 34. Question: The difference between Task Area #2 and #3 is not clear. Will the government please provide further guidance on what they expect in each of these areas? Answer: Task Area #2, Outsourcing, supports the management and operations of government business functions, assuming that they are essentially IT functions. For instance, the outsourcing of an IT support call center would be within scope of Task Area #2. Task Area #3, IT Operations and Maintenance, focuses specifically on the maintenance and operations of computer systems. Work under Task Area #3 is not oriented towards the outsourcing of government function that the computer systems provide, but a more limited outsourcing of the labor required to operate and maintain a system that may be housed within a government facility. 35. Question: Under Task 2, would the government provide further clarification as to what is meant by IT Business Functions? Answer: IT business functions include any aspect of a government function, as defined in the Federal Enterprise Architecture Business Reference Model which is performed through the use of information technology. 36. Question: Would the government please provide specific information regarding question 5.5.4., e.g., does this question refer to data and access from laptops, or is the data in an application, or in another location, e.g., an eRoom? Answer: The government is unclear as to this question. 37. Question: Would the government please clarify sections 5.5.1, 5.5.2, and 5.5.3, e.g., can one assume that the government is interested in receiving a recommendation based on task orders performed at the contractor site rather than at the government site? Answer: Task orders performed at the contractor site. 38. Question: How is the Small Business plan looking like? Answer: The government intends to maximize opportunities for small and small disadvantaged businesses in the upcoming GWAC. In finalizing a small business approach to include in the RFP, the government, through this RFI, is looking to industry for ideas on ways to maximize such opportunities for small and small disadvantaged business. Two pertinent questions in the RFI follow: 5.1.3 To maximize opportunities for small (SB) and small disadvantaged business (SDB), NIH is considering the possibility of having a separate bidding category for task orders that are set aside for SB and SDB. Do you think this is a necessary feature to improve opportunities for small businesses? Are there other ways NIH can improve opportunities for SDBs? 5.1.4 How should NIH best incorporate small business into the sourcing strategy that will provide maximum opportunities for the various small business categories, such as woman-owned, service disabled veteran owned, small disadvantaged, HubZone, etc.? 39. Question: Would the government please clarify section 5.1.5? Are you looking for incentives for Large Businesses to meet subcontracting goals, or incentives for Small Disadvantaged Businesses during competition such as a percentage pricing incentive? Answer: NITAAC is seeking recommendations on ways to maximize opportunities for small business and small disadvantaged business, both at the prime contract level and through subcontracting opportunities.
- Web Link
-
FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=2f69d1cd9990c552971aee80993e3dfc&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Place of Performance
- Address: National Insitutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, 6011 Executive Blvd, Ste.503, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, United States
- Zip Code: 20852
- Zip Code: 20852
- Record
- SN01582700-W 20080531/080529221252-2f69d1cd9990c552971aee80993e3dfc (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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