DHA Industry Partnership Network (IPN) Special Notice TITLE: Increasing speed and ease of cost estimates of Category Q - Medical Service requirements. INTRODUCTION: The independent Government cost estimate (IGCE) is gathered by acquisition staff during the requirements development stage of the acquisition process, per DODI 5000.74. The contracting office may then use the same or a refined IGCE to determine whether proposed prices are fair and reasonable. The DHA is interested in improving the process used in our cost estimates. AUTHORITY: The DHA Component Acquisition Executive J-4 is issuing this notice for the purpose of Market Research as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201 and FAR 10.002. GENERAL IPN PURPOSE: The DHA IPN Program, within the Component Acquisition Executive (CAE) (J-4) Directorate at the DHA, intends to use industry responses and communications from this notice as market research for subsequent acquisition strategies. DHA seeks information on availabilities, capabilities, and other pertinent marketplace data to strengthen the DHA's understanding of the current and future marketplace to enhance its ability to obtain quality services economically and to efficiently and lawfully establish potential vendor source files, listings and requirements. The DHA will not award any contracts under this notice. DHA'S SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM AND MARKET RESEARCH NEED: The DHA is interested in understanding how it might employ a tool and or an approach to develop estimated contract costs for Category Q (Medical) requirements that are to be aggregated across a particular geographic area or market.. The inputs to the process are factors such as labor category, position description, geographic location, experience, and required certifications for all category Q (Medical) type requirements. The output is expected to be the overall contract costs (Government cost estimate) with potential breakouts that would include items such as lowest and highest hourly wages, taxes, insurance, other fringe, general and administration (G & A), and profit by specific geographic areas such as a DoD installation or the closest city. Input and output list are examples and not exhaustive lists. OTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS: Contractors that already provide DHA with Category Q Services (e.g. MQS contract holders) shall consider and address potential Organizational Conflicts of Interest in their response. CAPABILITY STATEMENT/INFORMATION SOUGHT: DHA is seeking a 3 to 5 page submission that provides specific information regarding this RFI. Contractors interested in responding to this RFI shall provide the Government with the following types of information: • Explains inputs and outputs available to the government. (e.g. inputs - labor category, position description, additional board certifications, licensing requirements, full-time, part-time, etc.; outputs - fully burdened annual salary, hourly salaries, individual cost breakouts such as G&A, profit, etc.) • Explains the resources used to compile estimates and how the data is kept up-to-date. • Provides pros and cons of existing user interface with respect Government access and licensing. • Provides the Government with information regarding the confidence factor. • Explains how the government would access the information and rights that we will have with the data produced. • Addresses potential Conflict of Interest concerns if the responder wishes to compete for future DHA Q contracts. A high level concept is acceptable at this point. DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES: THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. This notice constitutes solely a market research effort as described under FAR 10.002. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a potential contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use results of the communications with industry for any purpose consistent with, and not otherwise prohibited by FAR Part 10. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, in no case shall responses to this notice be considered either a response to a solicitation or a submission of an unsolicited proposal, as defined by FAR 2.101. CONFIDENTIALITY: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. Industry responses will be shared with DHA staff for the purpose of market research. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s) NEXT STEPS: Submittals should be emailed to the Government's IPN team on or before May 30, 2018. All responses will be reviewed and assessed by DHA staff. Several contractors may subsequently be invited to present additional details about the submittals at a one-on-one meeting with the Government on 12 June 2018 in the Washington DC area. The POC identified on your submission will be notified about this meeting via email. Contractor's responses that fail to address the capability statement and sources sought will not be reviewed by the Government. We greatly appreciate your time and look forward to learning more about your cost estimating tool. Each of the responses will be maintained by DHA as a source of market research information. PRIMARY POINTS OF CONTACT: Submit RFI response and/or questions to DHA IPN Team email:
[email protected]