Inactive

1. Why is this solicitation being released at this time? ANSWER: The VA San Diego Healthcare System has a need for 24/7 Onsite Telephone Operators. 2. Are there any operator or supervisor workstations... 1. Why is this solicitation being released at this time? ANSWER: The VA San Diego Healthcare System has a need for 24/7 Onsite Telephone Operators. 2. Are there any operator or supervisor workstations that have special equipment or software provided by the contractor such as software for the visually impaired? How many workstations have special equipment? ANSWER: Equipment and software are provided by the VA San Diego Healthcare System. We are not allowing software by the contractor to be installed. If there is a special request for those equipment or software, it needs to be clearly stated in the proposal. We currently do not have any workstations that have special equipment. 3. How many of the current operators are full time? ANSWER: VA San Diego Healthcare System has no official full time operators, the Call Center currently utilizes Medical Support Assistants as operators and rotate different Medical Support Assistants for the operator role. 4. How many of the current operators are part time? ANSWER: VA San Diego Healthcare System has no official part-time operators, the Call Center currently utilizes Medical Support Assistants as operators. 5. How many new operators were onboarded in 2021 at San Diego VA Health Care System? ANSWER: None. 6. Are there currently any lead operators in addition to the supervisor? How many lead operators? ANSWER: We currently do not have anyone officially in a lead operator position that are contractors, we have Supervisory Medical Support Assistants that work in the Call Center who supervisor Medical Support Assistants. 7. How many operator positions are currently vacant? ANSWER: We are currently utilizing on average two Medical Support Assistants as operators and we have two Supervisory Medical Support Assistants. Please see SOW for our Contracting needs. 8. What telephony platform does the switchboard team use at the San Diego VA Health Care System? ANSWER: Per SOW, Telephone operators will use M2550 Nortel electronic telephone attendant consoles to process incoming and outgoing telephone calls. All calls will be recorded for quality assurance to ensure they are completed in a timely, courteous and efficient manner. Abandonment rate and average speed to answer are monitored with Cisco Finesse or Jabber software. Contractor employees are required to assist in placing outgoing local and long-distance calls, using the commercial system, to include, U.S. Sprint, AT&T, MCI and any other commercial phone service providers as necessary to conduct the daily activity at Jennifer Moreno VA Medical Center. 9. What challenges are facing the switchboard operations program that the VA would like to see resolved? ANSWER: We need 24/7 Onsite Operator(s) solely designated for Switchboard duties in order to take that workload off our current Medical Support Assistants that are currently doing this. 10. Please reconfirm the due date for this procurement by providing it in response to answers to questions. ANSWER: Due Date is 08/08/2022 4:00PM PDT 11. What is the date by which you will answer these questions? ANSWER: 07/28/2022 12. Why has this bid been released at this time? ANSWER: See #1. 13. Is there a deadline for questions? ANSWER: See Solicitation 36C26222Q0919, Section E.1 - Questions 14. When is the anticipated award date? ANSWER: 09/01/2022 15. When is the contract start date? ANSWER: Contractor will furnish all applicable employee information required within 10 days of contract award. 16. Are bidders permitted to deviate in any way from any manner of quoting fees you may be expecting? For example, if there is a pricing page in the RFP, can bidders submit an alternate fee structure? If there is no pricing page in the RFP, do you have any preference for how bidders should quote fees or can bidders create their own pricing categories? ANSWER: See Solicitation 36C26222Q0919, Section E.1, Addendum to FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors 17. Please describe your level of satisfaction with your current or recent vendor(s) for the same purchasing activity, if applicable. ANSWER: No current contract 18. Has the current contract gone full term? ANSWER: No current contract 19. Have all options to extend the current contract been exercised? ANSWER: No current contract 20. Who is the incumbent, and how long has the incumbent been providing the requested services? ANSWER: No current contract 21. How are fees currently being billed by any incumbent(s), by category, and at what rates? ANSWER: No current contract 22. What estimated or actual dollars were paid last year, last month, or last quarter to any incumbent(s)? ANSWER: No current contract 23. Is previous experience with any specific customer information systems, phone systems, or software required? We will provide training to the Project Manager/Supervisor or if operators all onboard at the same time, we will train as well. In addition, Supervisory Medical Support Assistants are within close proximity to Contracted Operators to allow quick responses to questions during the 7a.m 5p.m timeframe that the Call Center is open. However, below are the personnel qualifications per the SOW. PERSONNEL QUALIFICATIONS: a) Project Manager Qualifications: Project Manager must have at least two years telephone operating experience, of which one year involved substantial responsibility for placing a variety of special calls (e.g. conference calls, collect calls, appointment calls) over varied circuits or routings or performing information operator work which required a knowledge of organization. The Project Manager must have one or more year of experience in the supervision, organization, and training of staff. The Project Manager must be experienced in maintaining discipline, devising work methods and assignments, establishing performance requirements, and in arranging work schedules to conform to peak telephone requirements for adequate service. b) Telephone Operator Qualifications: Telephone operator must be able to assume the responsibility for placing a variety of special long-distance calls (e.g. conference calls, collect calls, appointment calls) over varied circuits or routings, or performing information operator work, which requires a knowledge of the organizational units and major functions of a large multi-division organization. Operators must have the ability to meet and deal with people from a variety of backgrounds with varying levels of understanding, work under pressure and stressful conditions, and adapt to changing work conditions. PM must not allow new personnel to perform duties alone until he/she has received at least two full, 7-days a week, On-The-Job Training (OJT) on each tour of duty. 24. What is the minimum required total call capacity? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 Total calls received 16,022 25. What is the minimum simultaneous inbound call capacity? ANSWER: We do not have this information at this time. 26. What is the maximum wait time? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 02:25 20:00 minutes, varies depending on the day and how many operators are on. 27. What is the maximum hold time? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 02:00 minutes. 28. What percentage of inbound calls must be answered by a live operator? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 - 100% of operator calls must be answered. For this time period 77% were answered. 29. What percentage of calls must be resolved without a transfer, second call, or a return call? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 - <1% 30. What is the maximum percentage of calls that can be terminated by the caller without resolution? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 - <1% 31. Is there a minimum or maximum number of operators and supervisors? ANSWER: No, however, based on the Medical Support Assistants that we are currently using as operators and the volume of calls, we have the need for the follow. Hours of work are as follows: Supervisor: 40 hours per week Monday Friday: Morning Shift (7:00 a.m. 3:30 p.m.) 3 2 Operators plus 1 supervisor Overlap Shift (3:00 p.m. 11:30 p.m.) 1 Operator Evening Shift (4:00 p.m. 12:30 a.m.) 1 Operator Midnight Shift (12:00 a.m. 8:30 a.m.) 1 Operator Lunch 30 minutes Saturday & Sunday: Saturday - Morning Shift (7:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m.) 2 Operators, Saturday only Evening Shift (3:30 p.m. Midnight) 1 Operator Night Shift (11:30 8:00 a.m.) 1 Operator Lunch 30 minutes Sunday - Morning Shift (7:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m.) 1 Operator Evening Shift (3:30 p.m. Midnight) 1 Operator Night Shift (11:30 8:00 a.m.) 1 Operator Lunch 30 minutes 32. What are the required language options? ANSWER: English only. We have interpreter line available. 33. What is the required degree of dedication for the call center? ANSWER: Unsure the intent of this question and therefore cannot answer it. 34. What is the required degree of dedication for the operators? ANSWER: Unsure the intent of this question and therefore cannot answer it. 35. Are callers required or allowed to connect with a message verification system or pre-recorded message before connecting to a live operator, or must a live operator be the initial contact? ANSWER: Callers are connected to a pre-recorded message before reaching a live operator. 36. What are the recording requirements for inbound and outbound phone calls and how long must recordings be maintained? ANSWER: All calls are recorded. 37. What are the recording and storage requirements for non-phone communications? ANSWER: We do not have this information at this time. 38. What information is to be included in call logs? ANSWER: We do not have this information at this time. 39. What was your average monthly call volume over the past year? ANSWER: 20,000 40. What is the current number of seats for operators and supervisors at your existing call center? ANSWER: Currently we have on average two Medical Support Assistant being used as operators and two supervisors who manage the Call Center and the operators. Operator is a duty that is embedded with call center. 41. What is the current average wait time for phone calls? ANSWER: We do not have this information at this time. 42. What is the current average handle time for phone calls and other types of communications? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 01:00 minute. 43. What is the current average after-call work time for operators? ANSWER: Based on time period 7/1/22-7/28/2022 15 seconds. 44. Over the past year, what is the percentage of calls received in English versus non-English? ANSWER: <1% were non-English. 45. Over the past year, what percentage of calls received were in Spanish? ANSWER: <1% were in Spanish. 46. What time of day, days of the week, or times of the year do calls typically peak? ANSWER: Usually Mondays and Tuesdays between 0700-1630 47. Do you know how many operators you need and for how long? ANSWER: The contract will be a base year plus 4 option years. Period of Performance will begin 09/01/2022. See answer to question 31 and the Statement of Work for how many operators are needed.

Inactive

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE (SSN) ISSUED SOLELY FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION. DISCLAIMER This SSN is issued solely for information and planning... THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE (SSN) ISSUED SOLELY FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION. DISCLAIMER This SSN is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this SSN that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. IAW FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this SSN. SOURCES SOUGHT DESCRIPTION The purpose of this notice is to gain knowledge of potential qualified sources and their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 561421 Telephone Answering Services for On-site Switchboard Services. The small business size standard is $16.5M. Responses to this notice will be used by the Government to make appropriate acquisition decisions. After review of the responses to this notice, a solicitation announcement may be published. Responses to this notice are not considered adequate responses for a solicitation announcement. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VISN 22 Network Contracting Office 22, is seeking capable sources that are classified and registered in www.vip.vetbiz.gov as either Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) or Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSB) that can provide on-site Switchboard Services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including all City, State, and Federal Holidays. The anticipated period of performance is a 12-months Base Period and four 12-months Option Periods. The information identified above is intended to be descriptive, not restrictive and to indicate the quality of the supplies/services that will be satisfactory. It is the responsibility of the interested source to demonstrate to the government that the interested parties can provide the supplies/services that fulfill the required specifications. Other interested and capable businesses of providing the services described in this notice, shall provide the information indicated below. Response to this notice should include business name, address, point of contact, size of business pursuant to the following questions: Identification of business size status, Cage Code, and SAM ID. Please indicate the size standard and representation of your business, such as but not limited to: Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB), Hubzone, Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB), Large Business, etc.). Indication of which NAICS code(s) your business usually performs under Government contracts. Proof of experience and capability to provide the service indicated on this notice. If you intend to sub-contract any work, what portion of the total cost will be self-performed/will be performed by your organization? Please provide estimated detailed percentage breakdowns related to sub-contracted work and completion of job. Does your business have an FSS contract with GSA or the VA or are you a contract holder with NASA SEWP or any other federal contract? If so, please provide the contract number. If you are an FSS GSA/VA or NASA SEWP contract holder or other federal contract holder, are the services you are providing information for available on your schedule/contract? General pricing of your service is encouraged. Pricing will be used for the purpose of market research only. It will not be used to evaluate for any type of award. Please review the attached Performance Work Statement (PWS) and provide feedback or suggestions. If none, please reply as N/A. Responses to this notice shall be submitted via email to Ms. Tammy Perrine, Contracting Specialist, tammy.perrine@va.gov. Telephone responses will not be accepted. Responses must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. AZ time on 25 May 2022. If a solicitation is issued it shall be announced at a later date, and all interested parties must respond to that solicitation announcement separately from the responses to this notice. Responses to this notice are not a request to be added to a prospective bidders list or to receive a copy of the solicitation.