FENS Knowledge Services Network (KSN) and AcquServe Electronic User Access Instructions

1. This announcement provides instructions to those interested parties that intend to be FENS Prime Offerors only. Intended FENS Prime Offerors are invited to register and establish electronic portals, or sites, through which the FAA will conduct information exchanges during the FENS acquisition. Offerors must establish two portals: the FENS KSN (KSN) portal for submission of their Non-Price Volumes and all Communications and the AcquServe portal for submission of their Price Proposal. The KSN and AcquServe sites will be confidential with access thereto limited to the Offeror's designated personnel, the Contracting Officer, and evaluation team members as necessary. 2. Commencing with release of the Final SIR, the Offerors KSN will be the sole means for communications between the Offeror and the Government relating to the FENS acquisition. 3. Early establishment of the FENS Prime Offeror's KSN and AcquServe sites will help ensure sufficient-time to set up and test the portals prior to actual submission of proposals. The FAA requests that interested Offerors register within 3 weeks from the date of this announcement. Failure to register will not preclude registration later; however, Offerors must be successfully registered to submit a proposal. Each application for registration will be reviewed and approved at the sole discretion of the FAA. Registration by Non-Prime Offerors is not necessary and such applications will not be approved. 4. KSN registration: The non-price proposal volumes submitted in response to the FENS SIR must be delivered via an Offeror-specific KSN site. Each FENS Prime Offeror must register for their unique KSN using instructions contained at the following uniform resource locator (URL): https://tinyurl.com/sxxotp4. Each Offeror is limited to a maximum of three (3) KSN users. 5. Upon commencing registration, a system generated confirmation of the KSN request will be emailed to the Offeror. Offerors will also be notified via e-mail when its specific KSN Site has been established. If an e-mail notification is not received after three (3) business days from the request, the Offeror must resubmit its request and notify the Contracting Officer (CO), Dennis Scanlon, at [email protected]. 6. Non-Price Proposals –The non-price proposal volumes that must be submitted via KSN are as follows: Volume Number, Volume Title I - Technical/Management, II - Past Performance, IV - Small Business, Subcontracting Plan, V – Miscellaneous. 7. AcquServe Registration. FENS Prime Offerors must use the FENS AcquServe portal to submit their Price Proposal (Volume III). FENS AcquServe provides electronic access through a secure website to allow intended FENS Prime Offerors to complete all required information and submit price proposals (including all attachments) offered in response to the SIR. The FENS AcquServe portal will also provide access to reference/information tables associated with the price evaluation tool. The FENS AcquServe portal is accessed via an internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome). If using Explorer, Version IE11 or newer is required. In order to submit their Price Proposal (Volume III), Offerors must obtain and use a Department of Defense (DoD) External Certification Authority (ECA) certificate to access FENS AcquServe. Individual users requiring access to AcquServe must have an ECA certificate. No other type of certificate is acceptable. If a user already has a valid ECA certificate, it may be used to access FENS AcquServe. ECA certificates must be purchased from IdenTrust or Operational Research Consultants (ORC). Instructions for obtaining the ECA certificate and using it to gain access to FENS AcquServe included in Attachment A, AcquServe User Access Instructions. 8. Full instructions for submission of proposals will be included in the FENS SIR. For information purposes, the FAA will not accept any FENS proposal submission made via facsimile, electronic mail, or any other means. The exception to this instruction is submission of the Past Performance Surveys, which must be submitted to the CO via e-mail. If complete proposal submissions are not received by the specified closing date and time through the FENS KSN and AcquServe sites, it may not be evaluated. 9. You may submit questions regarding this notice to the CO via [email protected].