D--Questions and Answers from IMCS III Industry Day held 2 July 2013.

The puprose of this notice is to post the Q&As from IMCS III Industry Day held 2 July 2013. TECHNICAL QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES 1. Will task order requirements contain all available site information prior to release? Answer: Yes, a DD254 will list the security requirements for that specific site. 2. The requirement doesn't appear to include performing digging permits/cable locate. Will this be a requirement under IMCS III? Answer: Yes, if it is not located on the main (PWS), it will be listed in depth for each task order. The question over arches quote mark legal quote mark and will be defined better at the time of solicitation. 3. Will site visits be allowed during the issuance of task orders (after award of IMCSIII)? Answer: Site visits or pre solicitation will occur quote mark that quote mark day for pre solicitation. 4. Motorola requires a maintenance contract similar to Avaya's in order to obtain patches, update, etc. For sites that will be including Motorola land mobile radio systems, will the Government be providing the maintenance contract or will the contractor be required to purchase one on the customer's behalf? Answer: Yes, but it can go either way. Some sites require customers to pay and others include the price in the task orders. PWS or task order will inform industry which way it will go. 5. Can the Army identify which parts of the PWS will be subject to the Davis-Bacon Act? Answer: Two specific parts will include the Davis-Bacon Act: Special Projects and 3rd party damages. 6. Does the Government intend to require all 7th SC(T) NECs to use the IMCS III vehicle to meet their C4IM requirements? Answer: Yes; IAW with AR25-1 NECs must go through NETCOM for telecommunications plant infrastructure support. The IMCS III contract IDIQ is the contract vehicle NETCOM will utilize to support 7th Sig Brigade NECs. 7. Will the SLA/requirements for service support be determined by the IMCS III PM or the individual NECs? Answer: Installation task order requirements are identified by the individual NEC directorates. 8. What is the relationship of the NEC service Desk to the Army CONUS Service Desk? Is it a NEC decision or IMCS III PM decision? Answer: There is no relationship between the NEC service Desk and the Army CONUS Service Desk for this program. The IMCS III contract is not an enterprise level contract and only supports the individual installations. 9. Will the Government purchase equipment direct from the manufactures quote mark Motorola and Harris quote mark for LMR, microwave & Fiber equipment? Answer: It is unknown how the Army PM purchases equipment for LMR, microwave and fiber: what is known is the IMCS III contract is an O&M services contract and is not a purchasing vehicle (there will be no purchasing of any systems equipment on this contract or installation task orders under this contract). This contract is strictly for O&M support and not for the procurement of equipment. 10. Will there be a matrix that shows security/or certification requirements by work-site? Answer: Each individual task order PWS will have a matrix breakdown for security and certification requirements by position for that particular installation. 11. Will attachment 1 be provided in final RFP? Answer: Yes. 12 Can the Government define what is meant by Unified Communications under the IMCS III? The draft talks about VoIP but doesn't specifically address UC. Answer: Unified Capabilities are defined as the seamless integration of voice, video, and data applications services delivered ubiquitously across a secure and highly available Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure to provide increased mission effectiveness to the warfighter. UC integrate standards-based communication and collaboration services including, but not limited to, messaging, voice, data, video, and web conferencing. 13. Does the Government intend for Offeror to propose and price a Government defined sea of Labor Categories? Answer: The Government intends the Offeror to propose labor categories necessary to meet the needs and demands of O&M responsibilities identified in each installation task order. 14. It appears that the Government is increasing the scope of the IMCS III, however the current DPWS does not reflect current Army IT priorities that will affect the Army installations and the ability for the contract to be a quote mark one stop Shop quote mark for NECs, DOIMs/CIOs. Does the Government intend to expand the scope to include CIO/G6 priorities such as: Network normalization, Data Center Consolidation, Identity and Cross Management, Cyber/Data Security IA, Enterprise Services, Touch Content Management and Governance? Answer: No; the IMCS III contract is not an enterprise level contract and only supports the local installation level/NECs C4IM requirements. 15. With the requirement to support 90% LMR and propriety Motorola and Harris equipment; is a Tier II/III support agreement with these two vendors mandatory. If so, to prevent an unfair advantage with potential submitters, can the Government provide details and or POC for existing Government contract with Harris and Motorola. Answer: Each individual installation decides how the proprietary Tier II/III support agreements are procured. There is not one particular POC available for Harris or Motorola. Some NEC directorates have stand alone Tier II/III support agreements in place while others identify the need for the support agreement to be in place as part of the task order requirements. For O&M of intellectual propriety property, support agreements must be in place with either Harris or Motorola depending on which equipment is supported at an installation. 16. What is the combined total number of personnel on the current 31 task orders on IMCS II? Answer: This information is irrelevant to the IMCS III contract solicitation and will not be made available. 17. Will IMCS III contact vehicle eventually replace the individual NEC C4IM Services Contracts being used at the various NECs? (Consolidation of contracts?) Answer: The IMCS III contract does give NECs leverage to consolidate a large number of services under one task order however this contract vehicle is not an enterprise level contract and is not intended to replace all other contract vehicles available to the NECs. The intent of this contract is to use it for as many local communications services as possible. 18. Will responsive Small Businesses who do not currently hold Top Secret Facility Clearances be sponsored by NETCOM for upgrade to TS? Answer: No 19. Is one task order issued to cover all requirements for a base or will there be multiple task orders at a base? Answer: Task order requirements are identified by each installation NEC directorate; for this program, it is one task order per installation. 20. Third Party Damage: Is there a mandatory response time for repair? ie: cut cables. Answer: Response times are identified in each individual installation task order. 21. Could you please elaborate on the overlap in scope between the IMCS III contract and the ITES-3S contract and the ITS/SB contract? Can the NECs compete C4IM baseline services under any of these 3 vehicles? Answer: ITES-3S and ITS/SB are not NETCOM contracts; of the three, the only NETCOM contract is the IMCS III. In accordance with AR 25-1, paragraph 6-4c(2), page 40, quote mark NECs will obtain operation and maintenance (O&M) for installation telephone plants through NETCOM. quote mark It is up to the individual NEC directorates as to whether they use the IMCS III contract for all the C4IM baseline services they support. 22. Significant emphasis is placed on IAT and CE certs, yet there is very little scope requirements that would require these DoD 8570 certs. Can the Government clarify their intent and comment on whether the scope of the IMCS III will be increased to be in line with the Army (DoD IT priorities) and pain points at the post, camps and stations? Answer: The IMCS III IAT and CE certs required on individual installation task orders will be in accordance with Army policy and established guidelines as outlined in DoD 8570. 23. Given the requirements of the PWS, what metrics, service catalog items and tools will the Government use to measure 99.99% availability. Answer: Reliability and availability of systems is identified in references listed in the PWS as they pertain to installation systems and equipment. Also, installation task orders will outline the regulatory guidance for the systems and equipment outlined in attachment 1 of the installation task order PWS. 24. Will contractors be required to maintain an office local to Ft. Huachuca? Answer: No 25. What is the anticipated length of time that IDIQ winners will have for a TO response? Answer: Approximately two weeks 26. There are several references to multiple sites in the draft PWS. How many locations will be covered under this contract? Are any locations not located in the lower 48 states? Answer: There is no way to determine how many sites will be covered under this contract but we are anticipating 103. New sites are steadily being added to the program. 27. Is OCONUS travel anticipated? How much? What would be the destination/purpose? (Support?) Answer: This contract is for CONUS operations only and there will not be any OCONUS travel. 28. PWS C.1.2.5: Besides MS CE certifications, what other CE certifications are anticipated, required? Answer: MS, CE certifications are basic certifications across the program however there may be some others identified for individual installation task orders. This information will be available in each task order PWS. 29. PWS C.1.3: Outside of the 10 federal holidays, what holidays are recognized? Answer: Federal holidays are the only recognized holidays for this program. 30. PWS C.1.3: Reference is made to a CBA, can the current CBAs being utilized be provided? Answer: No, if an installation has a CBA associated with labor that information it is made available during the solicitation of the individual task orders. 31. PWS C.1.4: Will the material to be provided in this paragraph be on a cost reimbursable basis? What are the historical cost estimates for the materials being referenced? How much material much be maintained in an on-hand or bench-stock status? Answer: Materials are anticipated to be cost reimbursable. It is impossible to provide historical cost estimates because each installation has different costs for materials for customer requirements. This information is made available during the solicitation of each individual task order. 32. PWS C.1.6.1: Will a list of equipment available (model and numbers) be provided prior to a task order? What is the current age and state of GFE equipment that will be provided to the contractor? Will equipment purchased as a replacement be on a cost reimbursable basis? Answer: The issuing of any Government Furnished Property/Equipment (GFP/GFE) will be specified at the Task Order level. There is no telling how old or new the equipment will be from site to site. Contractors are responsible for providing tools and test equipment and if a piece of GFE is not available that does not exempt the contractor from having adequate equipment to conduct O&M responsibilities. Any equipment the contractor purchases is a cost to the contractor; the Government does not intend Contractor Acquired Property to be part of the resulting contract. Should the contractor be required to replace a piece of Government Furnished Property- upon approval of the COR- then the contractor will be reimbursed. The Government reserves the right to determine if they will or will not replace a piece of GFE if it is unserviceable. 33. PWS C.1.6.2: What is the average backlog time for TMDE provided as GFE to be calibrated by the Government? How many pieces of TMDE will the Government be providing? Are there multiples of each TMDE provided as GFE or will most provided TMDE items be singular in nature? Answer: The majority of GFE provided (if any) is only one of each item. There is no way to determine how much TMDE is available for contractor use from site to site. Some sites have no TMDE for contractor use. There is no way to determine the backlog time for TMDE; this information is not available at this time. 34. PWS C.1.8.3: This seems to contradict PWS C.1.4 in that we are to provide materials to perform the contract. Can the Government confirm that all Computing Systems or devices needed to perform this contract will be provided as GFE? Answer: Computing systems and printers are available to perform the O&M responsibilities outlined in individual task orders. Per DFARS PGI 245.102-70 property such as computers, telephones and chairs that is incidental to the place of performance, such as when the contract requires contractor personnel to be located on a Government site or installation, are not considered GFP. Paragraph C.1.8.3 references equipment that is contractor owned. 35. PWS C.1.8.3: What items (i.e. software, hardware, peripheral, etc.) that are currently being used to perform the contract are Contractor owned and thus would require a replacement upon award to another contractor? Answer: This information in not readily available at this time. 36. PWS C.1.9.4: What are the historical surge requirements? If surge requirements are needed, what are the timelines required to have additional personnel certified, cleared, and at a duty location? Answer: Surge requirements are identified on quote mark EACH quote mark individual task order. All information related to the surge is identified separately for each surge requirement. 37. Since purchasing and maintenance of benchstock is part of the PWS, will asset management be part of the required duties? (Other than the GFE identified) Answer: The Contractor is expected to have accurate accountability and management of all supplies, equipment, and materials required for contract performance. 38. C.2.14 Tools and Test, Measurement, and Diagnostics Equipment (TMDE): Are there a specific set of tools or is there a list of approved/recommended products the contractor must use? If so, will the government provide this list? Answer: The Contractor is responsible for providing tools and test equipment capable of meeting the O&M requirements outlined in the individual installation task order. The equipment should be state of the art and meet industrial standards for O&M support. Paragraph C.2.14 states: quote mark Tools and Test, Measurement, and Diagnostics Equipment (TMDE). The Contractor shall provide quote mark state-of-the-art quote mark tools and test equipment to support the requirements identified. The Contractor shall ensure all Contractor-owned, Government owned, or leased test equipment is calibrated in accordance with TB 43-180 Calibration and Repair Requirements for the Maintenance of Army Material and/or manufacturers' specifications. 39. General; C.2.4.2; C.2.4.3 - Help Desk Services Support: For help desk services, for cost-effective and customer focused service delivery, will Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL v3) practices be required to ensure alignment with business needs? Answer: Each individual installation task order PWS will identify all Information Technology Infrastructure practices necessary to meet the needs and demands of the requirements. We have made changes within the PWS to address ITIL practices. 40. Attachment 2; Program/Project Manager: Will any requirements and certifications be specified for the position of Program/Project Manager at the base IMCS III contract level or be further defined on a task order by task order basis? Answer: This will be defined at the task order level. 41. Will a full equipment list for the purposes of assuring training and certification be released as part of the IMCS III solicitation or be identified on each individual task order? Answer: This will be defined at the task order level. 42. Is it correct that each IMCS III offeror must hold a Top Secret Facility Clearance at the time of proposal submission to be eligible for award? Answer: Yes 43.What lessons learned from the IMCS II contract have been incorporated into the IMCS III contract? Answer: Refer to the Industry Day IMCS slide presentation posted to the FedBizOpps website. 44. What changes does the Army expect to incorporate in the IMCS III draft solicitation base contract & task order acquisition methodologies such as pricing, certifications, etc in comparison to the IMCS II solicitation? How have these changes affected areas such as scope, special projects, or Tier III assistance? Answer: The Army will not make comparisons between IMCS II and IMCS III. IMCS III requirements were developed based on both legacy and new emerging technologies for present and future mission requirements. 45. PWS C.1.6.1: Please clarify, quote mark The contractor shall bear responsibility for maintenance and repair of GFE. quote mark Is this full financial responsibility for maintenance and repair of government equipment, or will the contractor perform the work and charge ODCs? Answer: The contractor shall be responsible to perform the maintenance and repair of GFE. Refer to paragraph C.1.6.2 for financial responsibilities of GFE/TMDE. The paragraph reads: quote mark Any Government-owned TMDE provided to the contractor as GFE will be calibrated by the Government or at Government expense in accordance with applicable DOD calibration schedules. Should a situation arise that would require a piece of Government TMDE undergoing calibration or repair, the contractor shall continue to maintain responsibility for completing the requirement by the identified due date. If GFP is issued and requires repair by the Contractor than that would be a reimbursable cost to the contractor. 46. Are there a specific set of tools or is there a list of approved/recommended products the contractor must use? If so, will the government provide this list? Answer: Refer to paragraph C.1.4.1 of the PWS it reads as follows: The Contractor shall ensure that a Government Certification of Networthiness (CoN) is available for all Contractor purchased software and/or IT equipment that will be installed or integrated into existing government IT systems and networks. The Contractor shall first check the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) web site at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/grouppage/16220 for a list of systems, COTS, GOTS, or equipment with current, valid CoNs. The Contractor must be registered in AKO by the COR for access. If a CoN is not available, the Contractor shall fill out and submit the applicable Networthiness Checklist to the COR. State quote mark Not applicable - quote mark contractor purchase quote mark in response to quote mark Is this available through the Army Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS)? if not, attach waiver. quote mark CONTRACTING QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES 47. What are the anticipated contract types for task orders? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates IMCS III to be a Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) contract with some Cost Reimbursable CLINs. Task Order contract type will be consistent with the IDIQ contract type. 48. What is the pricing/acquisition strategy - Best value, CPFF, etc? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates IMCS III to be a competitive Best Value Trade-off with Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) and some Cost Reimbursable CLINs. 49. What is the anticipated period of performance for IMCS III? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates a Period of Performance of a 12-month Base Period with four, one-year option periods for IMCS III. 50. Will teaming be open and allowed at the task order level or must all agreements be established at the time of IMCS III Competition? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, teaming agreements should be legally binding at proposal submission. 51. What corporate certifications will be required for award? Answer: Interested Offerors should propose those corporate certifications they feel are applicable to the IMCS III RFP requirements, terms, and conditions. 52. What type of pricing information will be required for proposal submission? Answer: Pricing information for proposal submission will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 53. Will past performance be evaluated for only the prime contractor or for the prime contractor team? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates requiring Past Performance information for the Prime Offeror and subcontractors performing at least 10% of total contract value. 54.Will there be oral presentations? Answer: No. 55. How much time will be provided in order to respond to the RFP? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates a 30-day response period. 56. What is the anticipated length of time for the RFP response? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates a 30-day response period. 57. The labor categories for this work appear to be governed by SCA. Please provide the applicable labor categories? Also, will there be any Davis Bacon Act labor categories that apply and if so, please provide those applicable labor categories as well. Answer: This information will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 58. Will there be a minimum dollar amount for task orders on IMCS III? Answer: Minimum dollar amounts for IMCS III will comply with FAR 16.504. 59. What is the anticipated ceiling amount for IMCS III? Answer: This information will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 60. What is the anticipated number of awards under IMCS III? Answer: This information will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 61. Will there be sample task orders and, if so, are these actual task orders that will be awarded? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates that a Sample Task Order will be included as a sub-factor under the Mission Support factor. 62. Will the photos provided in lieu of site visits be available on a website? Answer: Due to security considerations, photos shown at Industry Day cannot be posted to a public website. 63. Will the government provide additional photos if requested by industry? Answer: No additional photos will be available. 64. Will you provide historical data of the contract as part of the Industry Day presentation? Specifically, a historical record of the task orders awarded on IMCS2 and the installation they affected. Answer: No. 65. Will the government review their requirements and the differences between IMCS 2 and IMCS 3 as part of Industry Day? Answer: No. There will not be comparisons between IMCS II and IMCS III. 66. Will the government participate in one-on-one discussions as part of Industry Day? Answer: No. 67. Do you plan to record the industry day event (either video or audio) and make it available to potential bidders? Answer: There will be no audio or video recording of Industry Day. All slide presentations will be made available to Industry via the Federal Business Opportunities website after 8 July 2013. 68. What is the projected number of days the vendor will have to prepare proposals? Answer: 30 day response period is anticipated. 69. Can the govt please provide slides used at industry day? Answer: Yes, slides will be posted after 8 July 2013. For security reasons, pictures will be removed. 70. IMCS II originally had 8 awards. You stated there are now 7. How many awards will there be on IMCS III? Answer: Information will be made available on the solicitation. 71. With the addition of IT related task on IMCS III will some of the existing ITES contract task orders be incorporated into IMCS task orders? Answer: ITES provides for IT services at the Enterprise Level. IMCS III provides O&M of IT and telephone services at the local level. 72. How many sample task orders will be included in the solicitation? Will sample task orders be awarded? Answer: The sample task order will remain a sample task order. 73. What is the anticipated ceiling value of the IMCS III? Answer: The ceiling value will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 74.Will team members teaming agreements be required as part of the proposal submission? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates that offeror proposals should have legally binding teaming agreements for those offerors that form a joint venture/partnership or subcontracting arrangement. 75. Will the Government consider hosting one-on-one meetings @ Ft. Huachuca during the next week or two to allow external industry leaders to provide inputs to improve capabilities for procuring the required services? Answer: The Government is receptive to holding one-on-one meetings with industry. Companies are requested to contact the Contract Specialist of Contracting Officer to arrange a meeting date and time. 76. Will the Government provide a list of Industry day attendees and their contact information to aid in teaming? Answer: The Government does not intend to provide/release a list of Industry Day attendees-either by individual name or company name. 77. Will the Government provide a list of Industry day attendees? Answer: Refer to above response. 78. Will you release a list of Industry Day participants and contact information? Answer: Refer to above response. 79. Can you (will you) provide a list of attendees to Industry Day to include each company's level of interest (i.e. prime or sub)? Answer: Refer to above response. 80. Please publish the attendee list. Answer: Refer to above response. 81.The requirements of the IMCS III program are very similar to work which could be procured under other large ID/IQ contracts such as ITES-2/ITES-3. Is it possible IMCS III task orders may be moved to the ITES contract? Answer: Although it appears that IMCS III requirements are similar to ITES contracts they each provide support at distinctly different levels. IMCS III provides operations and maintenance (O&M) support for the delivery of local telephone and information technology services. ITES provides support at the enterprise level. 82. Will past performance by a prime offeror performed in a subcontractor role be considered for a high confidence rating? i.e equivalent to a prime past performance. Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, past performance will be evaluated on the relevance of recent efforts and the contractor's performance on those efforts per the DOD source selection procedures. 83. Given the breadth and scope of the contract is it expected that a relevant past performance would need to cover all components within the scope to be given high confidence? i.e. Network Engineering, Operations, LMR, Outside Plant may not fall under one past performance for a small business. Answer: Offerors will have to determine those recent efforts that are most relevant to the OMCS III requirements when submitting their proposals. 84. Will the surge support be a separately priced CLIN/SLIN? Answer: The Government is currently developing the draft solicitation which includes the CLIN structure. 85. The estimated RFP release is late July 2013 and estimated RFP due date is late July 2013 early Aug 2013. Please clarify if there will be 30 days between the release and due date? Answer: To clarify the Government's slide titled quote mark Draft Schedule quote mark presented at Industry Day the estimated RFP release date is late July 2013. The receipt of proposals is estimated in late August -early September, 2013. The acquisition/contract strategy briefing, slide 22, notes that the Government anticipates quote mark that industry will have 30 days from RFP release to submit proposals. quote mark 86. The Contracting presentation indicated the final RFP being released in late July 2013 w/proposals due in late July/early August. We are assuming this is not correctr. Can the gov't provide an estimated period of time between final RFP release and the proposal due dates (i.e. 30 days, 45 days, etc.)? Answer: Refer to above response. 87. What is the anticipated RFP release date? Answer: Refer to above response. 88. Are there a minimum percentage of the task orders teams will be required to respond to? Answer: Minimum and maximum requirements will be provided in the solicitation and per FAR 16.504. Refer to the discussion on fair opportunity at FAR 16.505 regarding consideration on each task order. 89. Will you post briefing slides to FBO or distribute to Industry Day participants? Answer: All slides, minus photographs due to security reasons, presented at Industry Day will be posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website after 8 July 2013. 90. Will the slide decks used for the Industry Day be made available to the Offerors? Answer: Refer to above response. 91. How many past performance citations will be required from the prime& the teammates? Will PP questionnaires be due prior to the proposal submission date? What will the currency requirement for PP citations? Answer: Information regarding specific criteria in the submission of past performance information will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 92. Given the longer acquisition timeline, how current must submitted past performance be? Answer: Information regarding recency of past performance information will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 93. Given that this is a best value tradeoff, can the Government provide some other areas than technical capability that are of interest? For instance how important are IDIO marketing, team construct, etc? Answer: The best value tradeoff will be based on the anticipated non-price factors (mission support and past performance) and the price factor. 94. Is SB certification based on date of offeror's submittal or date of award? The Government is requesting 270 day validity period, almost an entire year. A lot can change in that period of time. Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates that it will require offerors to certify their small business status at time of award. 95. Who /what makes up the source selection authority? Council? Answer: The Source Selection Authority (SSA) is the appointed Government official in charge of selecting a source or sources in a competitive acquisition. The Source Selection Advisory Council (SSAC)is a panel of senior government personnel appointed by the SSA to advise on the conduct of the source selection process. 96. If a joint venture is put in place to bid, and it is non-populated, and therefore the JV itself does not have a security clearance under its CAGE code, as long as all of the members of the JV meet the required security clearance level, is the JV still eligible to bid as a prime? Answer: Prime offerors, joint venture or otherwise, will be required to meet the Government's security requirements in order to successfully perform on the resulting contract. 97. Would the Army consider using CPARs vs. past performance questionnaires? Government customers do not like to fill out questionnaires when they have completed a CARs assessment. Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates the submission of past performance questionnaires (PPQ) to evaluate the past performance factor. The Government intends to use other sources such as CPARs in its past performance evaluation. 98. How many awards do you anticipate? Answer: Anticipated awards for IMCSIII will be made available upon release of the solicitation. 99. Please provide a breakdown showing the number of IMCS II task orders awarded to each contract awardees. Answer: The number of IMCS II task orders awarded may be obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. 100. Will SB requirements be required although it is a SB set aside? Answer: Per the Industry Day presentation, the Government anticipates three factors for proposal evaluation: Mission support (incl...