Expert Management Consulting Services

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items 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 is being issued as Request for Quotations (RFQ) NIHLM2015392. The resultant order will be a labor hour type contract. In accordance with FAR Parts 12 and 13, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine (NLM) intends to procure expert management consulting services. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541611- Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services. This acquisition is a Small Business Set-Aside. Background The overall objective of the NIH Business System (NBS) is to facilitate the scientific mission of the NIH and provide an administrative/scientific system that is cost effective and provides accurate and timely information. The scope of the NBS includes these business or "functional" areas: acquisition, travel, service and supply fund, management fund, supply, research and development contracting, property, and financial management. The NBS is designed, developed and tested as a fully integrated facility that supports these functional areas and interfaces with other major NIH and Departmental systems. "Best practices" i.e., those business processes determined to be most effective in the business community, were identified for the administrative areas at the NIH. Implementation will require configuration or changes to the upgraded system that will adopt and integrate these best practices. Functional teams under the direction of a NIH Program Director have been established to oversee this effort. Functional teams will engage in a variety of duties including the design and configuration of the system, establishing workflow for the business processes, maximizing inherent functionality available in the Oracle e-Business Suite Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) application, defining system interfaces, and participation in pre-deployment and deployment activities. Purpose and Objectives The Contract shall provide expert management consulting services related to training issues and other activities of NBS and the NIH community stakeholders. General Contractor Tasks Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall provide expert technical consulting services to the NBS. These services relate specifically to training issues and activities of NBS and the NIH community of stakeholders affected. The Contractor shall collaborate with the NBS Program Director, NIH Deputy Director for Management, the NBS Project Management Team (PMT), the system integrator, the IV&V contractor and the functional team members as well as other NIH stakeholders deemed appropriate by the NIH Program Director or Deputy Director for Management to ensure the success of the NBS upgrade to Oracle R12.2.3. The Contractor shall provide overall program and business management assistance to the NBS Program Management Office. These services include: planning; organizing and coordinating assigned projects and activities for the NBS. Specific tasks include, but are not limited to, assistance on the following: Developing and maintaining the balanced scorecard evaluation approach, with specific attention to the project monitoring level, for the NBS implementation phase. Developing and implementing a monitoring and review methodology specifically checking the System Integrator's adherence to the Project Plan, the proposed budget, and overall schedule. This methodology shall incorporate "earned value" calculations. Maintaining and monitoring a tracking chart that follows the schedule of NBS activities to be accomplished prior to the start of activities of the functional work teams. Performing policy and issue analyses for the NBS Project on a myriad of topics as identified by the NBS Program Director or Deputy Director for Management that could potentially be affected by the NBS Upgrade effort. Following these analyses, the Contractor shall develop appropriate policy documents/memoranda/reports/presentations for NBS and/or DDM review. Contract Deliverables Deliverables include but are not limited to: Regular written and/or verbal analyses and reports to the NBS Project Director, the Deputy Director for Management, NIH and as requested by the Director and Deputy Director, NIH. Monthly reports on all activities performed during the previous month. Reports as specified by the NBS Program Director in conjunction with the activities outlined above. The contractor shall review and report on integrated testing, i.e., the process of testing the integration of the modules that comprise a particular function and the integration of those functions with other NBS functions to carry out and perform activities that are consistent with NIH policies and guidance. Reporting requirements Monthly Progress Report-The Contractor shall provide monthly reports about the project's progress. These monthly progress reports shall be electronically submitted to the NLM designated COR via email by the 5th day of the following month. The monthly progress report should be a brief overview that outlines all progress in the past thirty (30) days and outlines anticipated progress during the next thirty (30) days. If the Contractor prepares a paper for refereed academic meetings or journals based on materials developed in conjunction with the contract, the Contractor is expected to cite the NLM contract. All instruments, publications, and presentations should be section 508 complaint. The Contractor shall deposit any future publications resulting from this work in PubMed Central (PMC) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/. Period of Performance: The period of performance shall be a base period of one year with two (2) additional 12 month option periods. Travel Use of contract funds for travel is prohibited. TECHNICAL EVALUATION FACTORS Technical factors are of paramount consideration in the award of the purchase order; however, price is also important to the overall award decision. All evaluation factors other than price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost. The Government can make tradeoffs among price and technical factors in determining which Offeror provides the best value by awarding to other than the lowest price Offeror or other than the highest technically rated Offeror. Offeror's are advised that an award will be made to that Offeror whose quote provides the best overall value to the Government. Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 100 Points) In determining which quote represents the best value and results in the lowest overall price alternative (considering price, special features, administrative costs, etc.) to meet the Government's needs, the Government shall evaluate quotes using the following technical evaluation criteria, which are listed in the order of relative importance with weights assigned for evaluation processes: Personnel (40 Points) Key Personnel- 25 Points The Government will evaluate the resumes submitted for each of the proposed Key Personnel. The Government will evaluate the demonstrated experience, education, and training of each key person proposed to determine the breadth, depth, and quality of relevant experience, results and effectiveness of their work in achieving goals in performance of projects of similar size and complexity to this requirement. Key personnel should clearly demonstrate experience performed under projects similar in function, scope, and complexity. Technical Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Certifications - 15 Points The Offeror will be evaluated on its demonstrated the ability to provide personnel with the skills necessary to perform the work as described within this Statement of work. These skills are inclusive of the Oracle R12 e-business suite. Technical Solution (30 Points) The Offeror will be evaluated on how well the technical proposal meets the NBS project objectives and addresses its approach to perform expert management consulting activities. This includes such items as planning the activities of its team(s), scheduling, organizing, and effective utilization of resources, controlling the execution of assigned activities, tasks, sub-tasks, monitoring progress, status reporting, assisting in resolving critical issues, and mitigating risks, Experience should clearly provide evidence and demonstrate work performed under projects similar in function, scope, and complexity as stated in the NBS Expert Management Consulting Support requirement. Management (15 Points) Cost Management -10 Points The Government will evaluate the contractor on their demonstrated ability to contain costs. This includes the effective use of labor categories and skill sets to accomplish tasks, minimizing overhead and management costs, and recommending and using tools or processes that would enable the project team to work in the most efficient manner. Service Level Quality Assurance- 5 Points The Government will evaluate the Offeror's technical approach as it relates to the Offeror's demonstrated ability to deliver quality support services. This means service support that meets best industry practices that meets with industry standard quality with a minimal level of defects. The Government will evaluate management plans that establish processes and methods to ensure the delivery of quality levels of service. The Government will evaluate the Offeror's Corporate Quality Assurance Plan for soundness of company policies and procedures for planning, implementing, and assessing the effectiveness of its project team. Past Performance (15 Points) Past Performance and Experience- 10 points The relevant past performance and experience of the Offeror and any proposed teaming partners will be evaluated to assess the Offeror's approach to recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining a fully qualified workforce, while minimizing turnover. The evaluation of this factor will include an evaluation of the quality of the Offeror's past products and services, its timeliness of performance, success in controlling costs, and the experience of its personnel. The Government prefers an Offeror who shows a trend of successful past performance and experience in: recruiting, hiring, and training staff, and managing service support activities. The evaluation shall include an assessment of the Offerors ability to successfully manage complex, time sensitive operations. Customer Satisfaction- 5 points A determination of customer satisfaction based upon information received from the Offeror's past customers. Questionnaires (template attached) should be returned by the Offeror's customers directly to Reginald Brown at reginald.brown3@nih.gov by the due date stated in the Past Performance Questionnaire. FEDERAL ACQUISITION REQULATION (FAR) CLAUSES The following provisions and clauses apply to this acquisition and are incorporated by reference. Full text may be found at https://www.acquisition.gov/Far FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items FAR 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items FAR 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items FAR 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes and Executive orders FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data - General All interested parties shall submit electronic responses to Reginald Brown at reginald.brown3@nih.gov. Responses must be received no later than 12:00 P.M. EST on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, and shall not exceed 10 single-sided pages in length, exclusive of the cover page and letter, table of contents, appendices, and resumes. Please reference solicitation number RFQ-NIHLM2015392 on all correspondence to this notice. Inquiries regarding this notice shall be submitted electronically to reginald.brown3@nih.gov and shall be received by 3 PM EST on Friday, May 22, 2015. The proposal submitted in response to this RFQ shall be prepared in two (2) parts and be clearly identified as a "Technical Proposal" and "Business Proposal." Proposals shall be in sufficient detail to permit proper evaluation, negotiation and/or acceptance thereof. The technical proposal must not contain reference to price; however, resource information (such as data concerning labor hours and categories, materials, subcontracts, etc.) must be contained in the technical proposal so that the Contractor's understanding of the Statement of Work may be evaluated. In order to receive an award, Contractors must have valid registration and certification in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) through the System of Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.