Inactive

Description: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 12.6, Streamlined Procedures for Evalu... Description: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 12.6, Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested, and a written solicitation document will not be issued. This solicitation is issued as an RFQ. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC 2020-08. This solicitation is set-aside for Full and Open competition The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 519130, with a size standard of 1000 Employees. The FSC/PSC is R605. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires a web based, full text, electronic journal collection subscription that will be made available throughout the VHA healthcare system. All interested companies shall provide quotations for the following brand name journals: Sage Health Sciences Collection Sage Journal of Social Work Sage Research on Social Work Practice Authentication shall be through IP address validation on an enterprise basis, eliminating the need for users to enter identification, username and/or password. The contractor shall provide an unrestricted number of simultaneous with immediate access from any web-enabled computer within VHA. It is required that all authorized remote users with VPN access have access to the product. The contract period of performance is 9/30/2020 thru 9/29/2021. Place of Performance/Place of Delivery: Address: 820 South Damen Ave., Rm 5260 Postal Code: 60612 Country: UNITED STATES The full text of FAR provisions or clauses may be accessed electronically at http://acquisition.gov/comp/far/index.html. The following solicitation provisions apply to this acquisition: FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors Commercial Items (JUNE 2020) FAR 52.212-3, Offerors Representations and Certifications Commercial Items www.sam.gov registration is required to be complete at time of submission of response. Offerors must complete annual representations and certifications electronically via the System for Award Management (SAM) website located at https://www.sam.gov/portal in accordance with FAR 52.212-3, Offerors Representations and Certifications Commercial Items. If paragraph (j) of the provision is applicable, a written submission is required. The following contract clauses apply to this acquisition: FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions Commercial Items (OCT 2018) The following clauses are included as addenda to FAR 52.212-4: FAR 52.232-40 Providing Accelerated Payments to Small Businesses to Subcontractors (DEC 2013) VAAR 852.203-70 Commercial Advertising (JAN 2008) VAAR 852.232-72 Electronic Submission of Payment Requests (NOV 2012) VAAR 852.237-70 Contractor Responsibilities (APR 1984) FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders (JULY 2020) The following subparagraphs of FAR 52.212-5 are applicable: FAR 52.204-10 Reporting Executive Compensation & First-Tier Subcontract Awards (JUNE 2020) FAR 52.209-6 Protecting the Government s Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment (JUNE 2020) FAR 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services (NOV 1999) FAR 52.219-28 Post Award Small Business Program Representation (MAY 2020) FAR 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity (SEP 2016) FAR 52.222-36 Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (JUNE 2020) FAR 52.222-50 Combating Trafficking in Persons (JAN 2019) FAR 52.223-18 Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (JUNE 2020) FAR 52.225-13 Restriction on Certain Foreign Purchases (JUN 2008) FAR 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer Systems for Award Management (OCTOBER 2018) FAR 52.222-41 Service Contract Labor Standards (MAY 2014) FAR 52.222-42 Statement of Equivalent Rates for Federal Hires (MAY 2014) FAR 52.222-55 Minimum Wages Under Executive Order 13658 (DEC 2015) FAR 52.222-62 Paid Sick Leave Under Executive Order 13706 (JAN 2017) FAR 52.219-9 Small Business Subcontracting Plan (JUNE 2020) BASIS FOR AWARD: Award will be made to the lowest priced, technically acceptable quote. To receive consideration for award, a rating of Acceptable must be achieved for the Technical Factor. EVALUATION APPROACH:  All quotes shall be subject to evaluation by a team of Government personnel. The Government intends to award without discussions based upon the initial evaluation of quotes. All Offerors are advised that, in the interest of efficiency, the Government reserves the right to conduct the evaluation in the most effective manner. Specifically, the Government may first evaluate the total proposed price of all Offerors. Thereafter, the Government will evaluate the technical quote of the lowest priced Offeror only. If the lowest priced Offeror s technical quote is determined to be rated as Acceptable, the Government may make award to that Offeror without further evaluation of the remaining Offerors technical quotes. If the lowest priced Offeror s technical quote is determined to be rated as Unacceptable, then the Government may evaluate the next lowest priced technical quote, and so forth and so on, until the Government reaches the lowest priced technical quote that is determined to be rated as Acceptable. However, the Government reserves the right to evaluate all Offerors technical quotes should it desire to conduct discussions, or otherwise determine it to be in the Government s best interest. The quote will be evaluated strictly in accordance with its written content. Quotes which merely restate the requirement or state that the requirement will be met, without providing supporting rationale, are not sufficient. Offerors who fail to meet the minimum requirements of the solicitation will be rated Unacceptable and thus, ineligible for award. 1.  TECHNICAL EVALUATION APPROACH. The evaluation process will consider whether the quote demonstrates a clear understanding of the technical features involved in meeting the solicitation requirements and whether the Offeror s methods and approach have adequately and completely considered, defined and satisfied the requirements in the Solicitation.            2.  PRICE EVALUATION APPROACH. The Government will evaluate offers by adding the total of all line item prices, including all options. The Total Evaluated Price will be that sum. NOTE: Offeror shall also complete the attached Subcontracting Plan Template and comply with the VA s current subcontracting goals as seen below: The current VA subcontracting goals are based upon total procurement dollars expended and are the suggested minimum goals for VA administered subcontracting plans. Small Business 17.5% Veteran Owned Small Business 7.0% Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business 5.0% Small Disadvantaged Businesses (includes Section 8(a)) 5.0% Woman-Owned Small Business 5.0% Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Zone Small Business 3.0% The Government will select the quote that represents the best benefit to the Government at a price that can be determined reasonable. The Government will evaluate price. To receive an award the offeror must be registered/active with no exclusions in System for Award Management (SAM) database which can be accessed at https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM at submission of proposal. SAM will be checked to verify the proposer s status before evaluations are conducted. This solicitation is for full and open competition. QUOTE SUBMISSION QUOTING CONTRACTORS PREPARATION COSTS: The Contracting Officer is the only individual legally authorized to commit the Government to the expenditure of public funds in connection with this procurement. The RFQ does not commit the Government to pay any costs for the preparation and submission of an offer in response to this RFQ. Communications regarding this RFQ: The due date for communications and questions concerning the RFQ is September 28, 2020 at 11:59 AM EST. Any communications or questions shall be submitted electronically to Lamonte Jones via email at Lamonte.Jones@va.gov. As soon as an Offeror is aware of any problems or ambiguities in interpreting the specifications, terms or conditions, instructions or evaluation criteria of this solicitation, the Contracting Specialist shall be immediately notified. When submitting questions and comments, please refer to the specific text of the RFQ in the following format: Subject: RFQ No.: 36C77620Q0080. Pertinent questions will be answered in the form of an amendment and provided to all Offerors. It is the responsibility of the Offeror to locate the amendment. DUE DATE AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS FOR RFQ: Contractors must complete and return all information prior to the time specified to be considered for award. Quotes, including amendments, received at the issuing office after the closing date and time specified on the cover page of this solicitation will be considered late submissions and handled accordingly. An Offeror s quote shall be submitted electronically via email to Lamonte.Jones@va.gov by the date and time indicated in the solicitation in the file set forth below. The use of hyperlinks in quotes is prohibited. QUOTE FILE. Offeror s responses shall be submitted in accordance with the following instructions: Format. The submission shall be clearly indexed and logically assembled. Each section shall be clearly identified and shall begin at the top of a page. All pages shall be appropriately numbered and identified by the complete company name, date and solicitation number in the header and/or footer. Quote page limitations are applicable to this procurement. The maximum page count for the Offeror s quote shall be 20 pages*. All files will be submitted as either a Microsoft Excel (.XLS) file or an Acrobat (PDF) file or compatible as indicated in the table. Page size shall be no greater than 8 1/2" x 11" with printing on one side, only. The top, bottom, left and right margins shall be a minimum of one inch (1 ) each. Font size shall be no smaller than 12-point. Arial or Times New Roman fonts are required. Characters shall be set at no less than normal spacing and 100% scale. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font size not less than 8-point and may be landscape. Line spacing shall be set at no less than single space. Each paragraph shall be separated by at least one blank line. Page numbers, company logos, and headers and footers may be within the page margins ONLY and are not bound by the 12-point font requirement. Footnotes to text shall not be used. All proprietary information shall be clearly and properly marked. If the Offeror submits annexes, documentation, attachments or the like, not specifically required by this solicitation, such will count against the Offeror s page limitations unless otherwise indicated. Pages in violation of these instructions, either by exceeding the margin, font or spacing restrictions or by exceeding the total page limit will not be evaluated. Pages not evaluated due to violation of the margin, font or spacing restrictions will not count against the page limitations. The page count will be determined by counting the pages in the order they come up in the print layout view. File Packaging. All of the quote files may be compressed (zipped) into one file entitled quote.zip using WinZip version 6.2 or later version or the quote files may be submitted individually. Content Requirements. All information shall be confined to the appropriate file. The Offeror shall confine submissions to essential matters, sufficient to define the quote and provide an adequate basis for evaluation. Offerors are responsible for including sufficient details, in a concise manner, to permit a complete and accurate evaluation of each quote. *Use when using page limitations: A Cover Page, Table of Contents and/or a glossary of abbreviations or acronyms will not be included in the page count of the technical Volume. However, be advised that any and all information contained within any Table of Contents and/or glossary of abbreviations or acronyms submitted with an Offeror s quote will not be evaluated by the Government. The proposal shall be broken down in the following sections: TECHNICAL VOLUME. Offerors shall, at a minimum, demonstrate a clear understanding of all features involved in meeting and supporting the requirements outlined in the Statement of Work (SOW) in a format that follows the SOW tasks and/or deliverables. (ii) PRICE VOLUME. The Offeror shall submit a firm-fixed price proposal for each task outlined in the SOW and complete the price schedule in the appropriate table above. The task price shall be for the whole task regardless of the actual time to complete the task as it varies depending on the status of the contract. The total price must match the amount provided in the Total Evaluated Price table. This is an open-market combined synopsis/solicitation as defined herein.  The government intends to award a contract as a result of this combined synopsis/solicitation that will include the terms and conditions set forth herein. To facilitate the award process, all quotes must include a statement regarding the terms and conditions herein as follows: "The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document without modification, deletion, or addition." OR "The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document with the exception, deletion, or addition of the following:" Quotes shall list exception(s) and rationale for the exception(s). Note: any proposed deviations from the standard terms and conditions herein may render a quote unacceptable as the Government intends to award without discussions. Submission shall be received not later than September 29, 2020 at 11:59 AM EST via email to Lamonte.Jones@va.gov. Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f). The award will be made to the response most advantageous to the Government. Responses should contain your best terms, conditions. Any questions or concerns regarding this solicitation should be forwarded in writing via e-mail to the Point of Contact listed below. Point of Contact Lamonte Jones, Contract Specialist, Lamonte.Jones@va.gov See attached document: S02 - SubcontractingPlan Template. See attached document: P01 SOW_Sage Journals Subscription_v2