70 -- Blanket Purchase Agreements for Information Technology Products

SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION NUMBER: PROC0400151 - AMENDMENT NO. 4. This combined synopsis/solicitation is amended to include the following Questions and Answers regarding this synopsis/solicitation: Question No. 1. Does the page count of 20 include: - Cover Letter - Reps. and Certs. - Pricing Information. Answer: The 20 page limit does not include the: Cover letter, Representations and Certifications (52.212.3) and the examples pages for the 10 largest sales. Any lists, including brochures or catalogs, describing products which the company may offer to comply with Factor (1) ability to provide a vast array of computer hardware and software products, is included in the 20-page limit and will count toward the 20 page limit. Cover letter or Introduction letter is not included in the 20-page limit and will not be considered a part of the proposal; therefore it will not be evaluated. Question No. 2. Does the completed 52.212-3 (Offeror Representations and Certifications) (13 pages long) count towards the 20 page limit? Also, the PO's tied to the top ten largest deals in amendment 03, question 7...they don't count towards the page limit, correct? Answer: No, 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications, does not count toward 20 page limit. No, the copies for the 10 largest sales do not count toward the 20-page limit. (See No. 1 above). Question No. 3. This references Schedule 70. We are considered a small business under 500 employees on our GSA schedule. Is our GSA Schedule certification the determining factor for us to qualify.... Answer: No, the GSA certification is not the determining factor to qualify. This acquisition lists Schedule 70, General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software, and Services, only as an example of types of Information Technology (IT) products found under this schedule, which the USPTO may acquire under the awarded Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs). The NAICS for this requirement is 443120. The small business size is 500 employees. Companies will determine their existing business size at the present time according to the criteria of the NAICS 443120. Question No. 4. You state that all you will be buying is peripherals. Yet on your sample product listing you show Sun product as well as servers. Can you clarify this please? Answer: The USPTO is seeking a one-stop shopping vehicle, which offers a wide array of computer hardware and software products to include computer hardware, software, and licenses and maintenance like those that are found under Schedule 70, General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software, and Services. Servers are one of the many commercial items included under Schedule 70, which may be purchased. See the synopsis/solicitation at FedBizopps or the USPTO website: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/comp/proc/itbpareq/itbpahom.htm for additional information. Question No. 5. The proposal is supposed to be 20 pages. Are the reps and certs in addition to the 20 pgs, or do they count as part of the 20? Answer: See Answer No. 1 and No. 2 above. Question No. 6. Does the table of contents and introduction letter count as part of the 20 pages? Answer: No, the table of contents does not count as part of the 20 pages. For introduction letter, see Answer No. 1 above. Question No. 7. Can you please clarify the due date of the above mentioned RFP? The General Information section of the FED BizOpps advertisement states a due date of May 10th, however the last paragraph of the advertisement states a due date of May 6th, please advise us as to the correct due date. Answer: Amendment No. 1 to the combined synopsis/solicitation PROC0400151 clarifies that the closing date for the receipt of proposals is 1:00 pm (EST), May 10, 2004. Question No. 8.- Can you clarify whether the 20 page count limit is inclusive or exclusive of pricing tables? Answer: See Answer No. 1 and Answer No. 2 above. Question No. 9. May we be allowed extra pages in our submittal for the supporting documentation for the Federal sales examples? With 10 examples in a spreadsheet, and meeting the requirement to provide copies of purchase orders and invoices supporting those examples - we would likely exceed the limits of 10 pages for pricing/20 pages totals for our response. Answer: See answer No. 1 and Answer No. 2 above. Question No. 10. - May I confirm that the required certifications and representations would be considered an attachment, and not be required to conform to the page limitations of our response? Answer: See Answer No. 1 and Answer No. 2 above. Question No. 11. - To qualify, does the contractor need to have established relationships with 3 current customers with each customer having sales over $100,000 a year (i.e., more than $300,000 total a year) or the 3 combined customers having sales exceeding $100,000 a year? Answer: The requirement is in conjunction with - Past Performance, one of the evaluation factors. The synopsis/solicitation at 17(viii) requires offerors to submit, among other items, - References from 3 current customers with whose company has had an established relationship for over one year and sales in excess of $100,000 for the year. The requirement is for the offeror to submit 3 references from 3 different customers, whom the offeror has sold over $100,000 a year in sales. Each reference provided should reflect sales of over $100,000 a year with that customer. Question No. 12. - Most authorized dealerships and authorized resellers are required to commit to specific volumes of sales per year. For small businesses to become authorized resellers and dealers for wide array of computer hardware and software products, this would be cost prohibitive for small businesses. Is the prime contractor required to have signed reseller/dealership agreements in order to qualify? Answer: Companies are not required to have signed reseller/dealerships agreements in order to qualify for an award under this BPA; however, if you are awarded an order under the BPA, companies will be required to be an authorized reseller or dealer of products at that time. The USPTO does not intend to award any orders under this BPA for - gray market items. If a company is an authorized dealership or reseller for a product, the company should state this in their proposal under Factor 1 (ability to provide a vast array of computer hardware and software products) in their capabilities statement. Question No. 13. - Does the prime contractor have to provide the 3 current customer references or can the prime contractor and teaming partners combine to satisfy this requirement? Answer: The prime contractor must be able to provide 3 current customer references in order to satisfy this requirement. Question No. 14 - Is the prime contractor required to submit examples of its 10 largest sales or can the prime contractor and teaming partners combine to satisfy this requirement? Answer: The prime contractor is required to submit examples of the Offeror's 10 largest sales occurring in the last two years, which represent the types of IT products that the company has sold. This requirement should not be confused with the submittal of the 3 past performance references (Question No.11) from current customers with whom the company has had sales for $100,000 or more. Question No. 15.- What other IT contracts are in place, whose products could not be procured on this vehicle? (eg workstations, servers, SANS, etc)? Answer: The USPTO has established contracts in place which includes desktops computers, laptops, monitors, printers, and PDAs. Question No. 16. - Offerors are required to submit examples of prices, discounts, or volume discounts for similar types of IT products in conjunction with evaluation factor No. 5 (Price). Offerors are required to submit examples of its 10 largest sales, which represent the types of IT products, that the company has sold to the federal government community in the last two years. Can Offerors submit sales, made to other than to the federal government community, as examples of its 10 largest sales? Answer: Yes, Offerors may expand the scope of its examples to include other than the federal government community. Question No. 17. - 17 (viii) Offerors entire proposal, including catalogs and brochures, shall not exceed 20 pages in length. Currently, your requirement states that there is a 20-page limit. Ten pages are set aside for company capabilities. The remaining ten pages will easily be filled with our product catalog, pricing structure, warranty information, and delivery terms. Can the required Past Performance and Certs and Reqs be an attachment to the submitted proposal? Answer: See Answer No. 1 & 2. Question No. 18. - Ref : 17 (xii) Section 508 Compliance - Since we don't know the specific requirements PTO will have, it is impossible for us to certify 508 compliance as compliancy is specific to individual products. Is this something that would be done on an order-by-order basis after the BPA is issued? Answer: Yes. Although there is a Section 508 certification requirement which applies to this BPA, certification will be required on an order-by-order basis. Question No. 19. - - Re: The Q&A question 1 (Amendment 3). What is the NAICS small business size for this requirement? Answer: The NAICS is 443120 for the requirement listed in synopsis/solicitation PROC0400151. The small business size is 500. - A number of companies are considered small on GSA Schedule but currently have over 500 employees. Most RFP's require the certification of business size at the time of proposal submission. This offeror request the Business size certification be at time of proposal submission. Answer: Amendment 3, Question No. 4 states that this BPA is an award that is being made by the USPTO. This procurement does not have any connection to GSA schedules, other than Schedule 70 is mentioned as an example of products that could be acquired under the USPTO's BPAs. You are correct in that the business size would be determined at the proposal submission.