Microsoft Enterprise Agreement

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with FAR Subpart 12.6. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a paper solicitation will not be issued. The combined synopsis/solicitation number is RRB13Q006 and is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ), with incorporated provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-66. The period of performance is one initial year and two option years. This requirement is being synopsized under the North American Industry Classification System code 423430 - Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers. This acquisition is limited to authorized resellers of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. I.INTRODUCTION. A. Agency Information - The U. S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an independent agency in the executive branch of the Federal government. The RRB's primary function is to administer comprehensive retirement/survivor and unemployment/sickness insurance benefit programs for railroad workers and their families under the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. The RRB also administers aspects of the Medicare program and has administrative responsibilities under the Social Security Act and Internal Revenue Code. In fiscal year 2012, the RRB paid retirement-survivor benefits of some $11.3 billion to about 573,000 beneficiaries. The RRB also paid net unemployment-sickness benefits of $89 million.The RRB currently employs approximately 900 employees who work in its Chicago, Illinois headquarters and in 53 field offices across the country in localities easily accessible by large numbers of railroad workers. B. Objective - The RRB is seeking price quotes in order to enter into a Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement as specified in Section III of the solicitation from Certified Microsoft resellers that can provide the Enterprise Agreement (EA). The RRB is seeking to obtain proposals from Microsoft Certified Partners for a MSEA with Software Assurance for a period of one year beginning on June 30, 2013 with two one year option periods. The RRB is seeking to procure the MSEA on or before June 30, 2013. Offerors shall submit price and technical proposal for the EA by 2:00pm CST, on May 6, 2013. Price and technical proposals may be submitted electronically to contact@example.gov. Offerors may send questions regarding this RFQ to contact@example.gov by 1:00PM on April 26th, 2013. II. PRICE SCHEDULE OF SERVICES AND CONTRACTOR INFORMATION (See Attached Solicitation for Price Schedule Information). III. STATEMENT OF WORK. A. Overview: The RRB currently has a contract with a Microsoft Business Partner for a Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement with Software Assurance based on the number of devices at the RRB. The contract for the MSEA expires at COB on June 29, 2013. B.Microsoft Certifications/Competencies: All offerors responding to this RFQ must be Microsoft Certified Partners in order to be considered for contract award. Offerors that are Certified as Gold Microsoft Partners in both Volume Licensing and Software Asset Management are considered value added by the RRB. C. Inventory of Products: The RRB's Current MSEA includes the Microsoft license products listed in Attachment 1 under the sections entitled "Enterprise Products" and "Additional Products". This Attachment also includes a list of Optional Microsoft License products. The Optional Products are based on user CALs rather than device CALs. Offerors shall provide a Primary Price Offer for the "Enterprise Products" and "Additional Products" listed in Attachment 1 and an Alternate Price Offer for the "Optional Products" and "Additional Products" listed on the Attachment 1 in order to be considered responsive to this RFQ. D. MSEA and Software Assurance Requirements: The RRB requires the MSEA to include the following features: 1. The MSEA must allow the RRB to increase the total license counts for the products listed above throughout the term of the contract. 2. The Software Assurance Benefits must reflect those currently identified by Microsoft's Entitlement Summary for Enterprise Agreements. Those shall include at a minimum online training, employee home use program, Microsoft Partner planning days, etc. E. Customer Service Requirements: In addition to the Software Assurance Benefits provided by Microsoft to the RRB under the MSEA, the RRB requires the Contractor to provide the customer services specified below to the RRB under the MSEA contract: 1. Planning and Analytics Services: The RRB requires the Contractor to provide planning and analysis services to assess the RRB's readiness to migrate to new software versions, to evaluate and plan for software migrations or migrations to a public or private cloud in the future. 2. The RRB requires the Contractor to be responsive to the RRB's requests for Licensing support or general inquiries during the MSEA Contract. The RRB requires the Contractor to respond to the RRB inquiries with an acknowledgement of the licensing support request via email within one business day of receipt of the request. The Contractor shall provide the support requested within 2 business days of the receipt of the request. 3. Annual Reconciliations: The Contractor shall conduct annual reconciliations with the RRB, four months prior to the anniversary date of the Contract that adjust the license quantity and extended price of any given line item and the annual agreement amount. 4. The Contractor shall provide quarterly reports to provide comprehensive capabilities that help identify and address potential problems and provide proof of license compliance in the event of audits. 5. The Contractor shall provide licensing support, either by telephone, online or both. 6. The Contractor shall provide Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center Training annually at a minimum. 7. The Contractor shall provide the RRB with any updates to Microsoft's MSEA & Software Assurance Contract and Benefits as well as any updates to the Contractor's contract with Microsoft. 8. The Contractor shall provide the RRB with proactive notification and impact analysis to changes in Microsoft product licensing models and product use rights in a timeframe suitable for RRB to make informed decisions on its licensing. This timeframe will be a minimum of 90 days prior to Microsoft's customer decision due date. F. Deliverables: The Contractor shall provide the RRB with the following Deliverables under the MSEA contract: 1. The Contractor shall provide the RRB with the applicable Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement product key(s) and Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement certification within thirty days (30) days of the award of a contract or order. 2. A copy of the Contractor's agreement with Microsoft showing terms and conditions applicable to the MSEA. 3. The Contractor shall provide both Microsoft Volume Licensing Center and contractor software asset management web site training within 30 days of the award of the contract and annual refresher training thereafter. 4. The Contractor shall provide quarterly reviews of licensing agreement. G. Period of Performance: The Period of Performance shall be one initial year beginning on June 30, 2013- June 29, 2014 with two (2) available one (1) year option periods. IV. CLAUSES AND PROVISIONS. A. Solicitation Provisions Incorporated by Reference (FEB 1998) FAR 52.252-1. This solicitation incorporates one or more solicitation provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. The offeror is cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the offeror and submitted with its quotation or offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation or offer. Also, the full text of a solicitation provision may be accessed electronically at this/these address(es): https://www.acquisition.gov/Far/ 1. FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions- Commercial Items (FEB 2012); 2. FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors (FEB 2012); 3. FAR52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certification- Commercial Items(DEC 2012); 4. FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation- Commercial Items (JAN 1999). (See Attached Solicitation Document for Full Text Clauses in Sections IV.B-H). V. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS/QUOTATIONS A. The following clause shall be incorporated by reference: Instructions to Offerors- Commercial Items (FEB 2012) FAR 52.212-1. B. Offers are due by 2:00PM CST on May 6, 2013. Electronic versions of quotations/proposals may be submitted to contact@example.gov. Offerors may submit questions regarding the solicitation by e-mail to contact@example.gov by 1:00PM on April 26th, 2013. C. Offerors shall provide the following information in their proposals: 1. The offeror shall submit one (1) signed copy of Standard Form (SF) 1449 with Blocks 12, 17a. and b., and 30a., b., and c. completed. 2. The offeror shall complete Section II - The Price Schedule with prices for all CLINS, and a price breakdown sheet for all products for all years as described in paragraph II.B.2. 3.Contractor's Business information outlined in Section II.C. 4. One (1) electronic copy of the Contractor's Representations and Certifications (See II.D) from site www.orca.gov. 5. Copy of the offeror's GSA Contract if applicable for these services. 6. Description of Services: Offeror's shall submit a detailed description of all the products, services and terms and provisions of the MSEA program as offered to meet the requirements specified in Section III of the solicitation to be provided to the RRB throughout the basic and two option periods. Offerors shall provide an organizational chart and information regarding the key personnel that will provide the requested services to the RRB. Offerors shall submit a copy of their Microsoft Certification/Competency level received from Microsoft. 7. Past Performance References: Offerors shall submit three past performance references for previously performed contracts for Microsoft Enterprise License Agreements. Offerors shall provide the contact name, phone number, email address and brief description of the contract services for each past performance reference. 8. Other information the contractor determines appropriate and relevant to the RRB Acquisition evaluation team. VI. EVALUATION AND AWARD A. Proposals will be first reviewed for content conformance to proposal preparation instructions. Proposals, which are so deficient in this area, as to not warrant further consideration, will be considered nonresponsive and will be rejected. The RRB will notify the offeror as soon as possible. To be considered responsive, the offeror must comply with the format and content specified in Section V, "Submission of Proposals/Quotations". Offerors whose proposals are deemed deficient in this regard may be permitted, at the RRB's discretion, to remedy the deficiency by submitting additional clarifying or supplemental information. B. Responsive proposals will be evaluated to determine the relative technical merit of each response. Accordingly, the objective of this evaluation is to measure the extent to which proposals meet the requirements as stated in the Statement of Work and the required proposal format and content, Section V, "Submission of Proposals/Quotations". C. The Government will evaluate the proposals received and award a contract or Order to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation is the Best Value to the Government with price and other factors listed below considered. The relationship of the evaluated technical factors (1, past performance, 2, value added) to price will be 1:1. Following the evaluation of proposals, the RRB will select the proposal providing the best value to the RRB. 1. Technical Evaluation Calculation of the technical score (100 possible points) will be accomplished by adding the points awarded for each rated area below: a. Past Performance (60 possible points)The RRB will evaluate the Past Performance of each offeror using the risk matrix below: Past Performance Risk Matrix: The following past performance risk ratings will be used to evaluate past performance: (See Attached Solicitation Document for the Past Performance Risk Matrix). Offerors without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available will receive a neutral rating for past performance. The Government reserves the right to obtain information for use in the evaluation of past performance from any and all, including sources outside of the Government. b. Value-Added (40 possible points) RRB will evaluate and assign Value-added points to those offerors that are Certified Microsoft Gold Partners and provide proof of their certification with their proposal submission. RRB will also evaluate any offered additional training or other services that would be advantageous to the RRB under the Agreement. 2. Price Evaluation Calculation of the price score (100 possible points) for each offer will be computed by multiplying the maximum point score available by a fraction representing the ratio of the lowest total evaluated price of all technically acceptable offers received by the Board to the total evaluated price of the offer being evaluated. Offerors' Primary and Alternate Price Offers will be evaluated as separate offers and will be given individual price scores for each offer submitted. The total evaluated price is calculated by adding the sum of all CLINS, including options. The RRB may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the RRB to exercise the option(s).D. The RRB intends to award a contract on the basis of initial offers received, without discussions. Therefore, each initial offer should contain the offeror's best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However the RRB may conduct discussions with those offerors considered to be in the competitive range. E. The RRB anticipates awarding a single contract for the base year with two (2) one (1) year option periods as a result of this solicitation. F. A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer's specified expiration time, the RRB may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award. VII. ATTACHMENTS A. Attachment 1: Microsoft license inventory B. Attachment 2: Certification of EIT Accessibility C. Attachment 3: Notification of PIV Requirements ************************************************************************* Amendment A1 issued 5/2/2013 - Extended due date for offers to 5/10/2013 at 9:00 AM CDT (Chicago local) and made changes to offer submission instructions and attachment 1 - See posted documents.