REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Department of Veterans Affairs Region 3 Pager Services TAC-15-16039 THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This request is for planning purposes only, and does not constitute a Request for Proposal, a Solicitation, a Request for Quote or, an indication that the Government will award a contract for the items contained in this RFI. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government does not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with submission of the information being requested or, reimburse expenses incurred for responses to this RFI. Companies are encouraged to respond if they have the capability and/or capacity to provide the items identified below. Respondents are requested to identify their name and business size and any additional information applicable to this RFI. Submissions are due NO LATER THAN July 2, 2014 at 3:00 P.M. EST to
[email protected]. Please provide any questions about the requirement to
[email protected] no later than June 26, 2014. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Region 3 has a requirement to lease pager services. The lease shall include devices, service plans, and additional services described in the attached documents. The scope of the work shall also include VA personnel access to a web-based portal for moves, adds, and changes. The Contractor shall also provide training, maintenance, and shipping and return support. In addition, the Contractor shall be required to support the maintenance and the installation and/or removal of two-way local pager consoles and/or transmitters and related equipment at VHA Region 3 locations. Please see attached DRAFT Performance Work Statement and applicable DRAFT Attachments for additional details. The Government is requesting that interested Offerors provide responses to the following questions with their response to this RFI: 1. Does the PWS provide the adequate details to provide a Firm-Fixed Price proposal? If not please indicate which areas of the requirement are unclear. 2. If a Firm-Fixed Price Contract is not favorable, indicate what type of contract would best meet these requirements, and why. 3. Please see the Attachment A "Paging Services" please indicate if your company can provide the services listed (a formal quote is not required at this time) in each line of the table. If you have alternative or comparable services, please list and explain in your narrative indicating which item you are explaining. 4. Please see Attachment B "Locations" please indicate which locations your company can service. Also, list any deficient areas in which services are in-process or planned and the expected timeframes for coverage in those areas. 5. Please indicate if your company will partner with other companies to provide full service coverage. Explain how you will do this. 6. If your firm intends to utilize a service provider as a subcontractor, please indicate if you can register the Department of Veterans affairs as the "customer of record" with the service provider so moves, adds, changes, and deletions can be accomplished through the service providers web-based portals. This is needed to mitigate privacy issues and provide for Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) for some pagers. 7. Please explain if audit trails are available to VA to ensure that pagers were sent, the times they were sent, and if they were received and what time they were received. Explain in detail other reports that can be obtained. 8. Please indicate if number portability is applicable to your pagers in the event of a non-incumbent award. 9. Please explain how you would enhance long-range pager services to local campus paging modalities to allow both on-net and off-net paging. Explain any burden on the government to do so. 10. Please provide an example of the types of pagers and their functionalities you would suggest in a large enterprise devoted to medical care and the support of the Department of Defense in event of emergency situations such as local disasters or terrorist activities. 11. Explain if pagers are a better choice for critical messaging over dedicated networks versus paging over other technologies like cellular networks. Also, explain why the technologies of the devices themselves are different. Please direct any questions or concerns to Matthew Newell
[email protected] 732-795-1095