National Library of Medicine Internet Monitoring Services (Small Business Set-Aside)

Below are questions asked about the SOW and the answers to these questions: 1. In the Statement of Work, section 5, there is a varying number of web sites to monitor, quality of NLM streaming media, and hardware appliances required. Since this is a fixed price proposal, how do we reconcile a fixed price with a varying number of items? Our pricing is based upon each of these items being known/fixed. For pricing purposes, should we provide a minimum cost for the minimum number of each item, as well as a maximum cost for the maximum of each item, or can you propose a different alternative? The statement of work specifies the number of initial quantities for each of our requirements. 2. Will the offerer or NLM be responsible for setting up the appliances at each location? Hardware appliances will be installed by NLM. They should be built and configured before being shipped. Not all locations allow for remote access. 3. Should the offerer propose a travel budget or can the government propose a reasonable Other Direct Costs amount that would cover any travel costs? If the offerer needs to propose a travel budget, please provide a list of each location where the appliances will be installed as well as any other locations where we would need to travel (as well as the number of times). There should not be any required travel costs involved. Appliances will be shipped to location and installed by the government. 4. Who will setup the network monitoring services - the offerer or the government? The government should have the ability to configure which applications will be monitored (based on the contracted number of health checks). 5. Is there any requirement to train government staff in using any of the items listed in the RFP? Initial training should be offered to the government to assist in setting up the required scripts. 6. How many applications are on each server that in each location will be monitored by the appliances? Are they in the same or different locations as the appliances will be installed? Each appliance will monitor the same applications. Once a script is configured it should be applied to all appliances. 7. Please identify the media file types and desired media player formats that are desired for testing. To support future applications, they should be able to support various formats that can accommodate public users. 8. The Government has requested that "a real embedded Internet Explorer Browser with caching simulate a real world scenario of a user returning to a monitored site". With actual usage demonstrating that approximately 99% of the users are new users and given the added cost and complexity to satisfy the requirement for 1% of the returning user population, is the requirement for a returning user an absolute requirement? We need to be able to demonstrate new users as well as returning users and their environment. 9. Will the Government furnish network access at the Government Place of Performance in order access the internet? Yes, for private checks we will be providing the internet connections at various locations. 10. Will the Government require testing different facets of the web site or is testing the home page only acceptable? This should be controlled by the government to accommodate various applications embedded within various web applications. 11. Will the Government please identify the specified threshold for webpage download times? Thresholds various based on business requirements and should be controlled by the government through user controls (I.e. Web access to make changes to checks).