National Field Solutions-Innovation Centers (NFS-IC) Transition Planning

****Questions and Answers 2 June 2023**** Can the USDA provide the location of the one-on-one in person meeting? We want to ensure that we price accordingly. We do not want to assume that the meeting would be in the National Capital Region (Beltsville, MD or Washington, DC). In person meeting line has been removed from the solicitation. Can the USDA provide more insight regarding the meetings? Will all the virtual meetings take place via the EST zone? Leadership members are spread through the country and all times will need to take place at a reasonable hours. Work days are generally 0800-1700 in their residing time zones. Therefore if meetings are planned in eastern time zone it will need to begin at 1100 ET which will be 0800 PT. End time of meetings will also need to be taken into consideration. 1700 ET will be 1400 PT. Is it possible to plan for a virtual kickoff and schedule the in-person meeting with leadership at the appropriate time later during the contract or is it your expectation that the in-person meeting be the kick-off? There is no in person meeting taking place as part of this contract. A short virtual meeting with the Director of Enterprise could take place before the other virtual meetings with the rest of the directors. This meeting would just be a quick introduction and provide an opportunity for questions about expectations for the rest of the work that will take place. Are both the System Map and Casual Loop Diagram deliverables intended to reflect the current state of operations, and/or should one or both deliverables reflect the future state (post-transition process)? These deliverables are to reflect the future state (post transition process). What does the work for - Optional: Facilitation of Implementation CLIN include? Is this during the Period of Performance or after? The Optional CLIN will have a PoP of 10/01/2023 - 09/30/2024. The work will be to assist with the transition plan that the other line items are developing. Is it possible to please secure an extension on submission of this bid? Yes, a reasonable extension is alright. How many meeting facilitations are anticipated to be needed during this task order? Meetings will be bi-weekly beginning mid June and ending the end of September. Should be about 8 meetings in total. Has any prior work related to - Casual Loop and - Stakeholder Exchange Diagrams occurred? Prior work has been done developing a diagram for Enterprise only. This work will now be developing a plan for 5 departments together. Previous work could be available for review if wanted, but it does not have any basis on this work that is requested in this contract. Could award of this contract in anyway preclude a company's ability to compete for other future Forest Service contract work? I do not see any reason that this contract will impact a company's ability for future work with the Forest Service. Does this work fall under the Chief Information Office or have an IT component? No What is the anticipated duration or level of effort for item 0003 (facilitation of implementation)? PoP of CLIN3 will be 10/01/2023 through 09/30/2024. The work to be preformed will be assisting with the implementation of the developed plans and products from CLIN 1 & 2. This work is variable and can make adjustments as needed while the work is being conducted. The submitted PWS from the contractor and the price quoted will help be taken into consideration. We respectfully request that the response date be extended to Wednesday, June 7, 2023 by 5pm Pacific Time Yes, this extension is acceptable. **** End Questions and Answers**** Five departments under the USDA Forest Service will be transitioning into a joint unit, National Field Solutions - Innovation Centers (NFS-IC). Leadership from Enterprise, Geospatial Technology and Applications Center (GTAC), Geospatial Management Office (GMO), National Technology & Development Center (NTDP), and National Applications Liaison Office (NALO) will be having multiple virtual meetings to coordinate this transition. From these meetings a System Map and Causal Loop diagram will be developed by the contractor to guide the transition. This map and meetings will identify the current relationships of these NFS-IC programs and how they operate within the Forest Service environment. This contract will also assess and determine any opportunities/challenges that will exist at NFS-IC is developed and implemented, along with how current operational environment may adjust based on findings.