Preseason Incident Blanket Purchase Agreements (I-BPA) and Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) February 2015

I-BPA Program Overview I-BPAs are competitively awarded pre-season agreements for equipment, supplies, or services to be used on fire and all-hazard incidents; they largely replaced EERAs VIPR is the web-based Forest Service acquisition application designed to solicit, award, and manage I-BPAs Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service These first several slides will be gone thru quickly… providing a lead-in to a mini training session on how the FESSAA Team works with the regions on the agreements, how changes are implemented, and what input contractors can have. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

National Solicitation Plan for I-BPAs: National and Regional Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service Solicitations are issued based upon a national solicitation plan which outlines the resources to be solicited by year and by scope. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

National Solicitation Plan for I-BPAs: Local Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/compsolplan.php Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Scope of Solicitations I-BPAs are solicited on three primary levels as identified in the National Solicitation Plan for I-BPAs: 1) National one solicitation nationwide 2) Regional one solicitation in each region Two regions can partner to issue inter- regional solicitations as appropriate 3) Local solicitation level and acquisition cycle determined by the geographic area can be done by the forest, zone, or region will vary and can be different from region to region Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/solicitations.php Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management 2015 Resources Solicitations for 2015 Regional Templates = Gray Water Truck; Trailer Mounted Handwashing Station; Potable Water Truck Mobile Laundry Portable Toilet; Wheelchair Accessible Portable Toilet; Portable Handwashing Station Local Templates = Chipper Miscellaneous Heavy Equipment (Feller Buncher; Mulcher/Masticator (Boom Mounted); Strip Mulcher/Masticator; Road Grader; Skidder) Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service These resources will be solicited in 2015. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management 2016 Resources Solicitations for 2016 Regional Templates = Heavy Equipment with Water (Pumper Cat, Skidgine, and Softtrack) Refrigerated Trailer Water Handling Equipment (Engine, Support Water Tender, and Tactical Water Tender) Weed Washing Unit Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service These resources will be solicited in 2016. I will review in an upcoming slide more on how changes to solicitations are reviewed. Summary for 2016: HEW – no changes. Refrigerated Trailer – looking at the stairs, still need a platform for personnel entering/exiting units. Water Handling – brakes on all axles, engine compression release brake, Exhibit N – all positions to be current with the PMS 310-1. Weed Washing Unit – no changes (specification was developed by the San Dimas Technology and Development Center), users are satisfied with results being accomplished by current vendors based on this specification. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management 2016 Resources Solicitations for 2016 Example of evolving specifications for Refrigerated Trailer Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service These resources will be solicited in 2016. I will review in an upcoming slide more on how changes to solicitations are reviewed. Summary for 2016: HEW – no changes. Refrigerated Trailer – looking at the stairs, still need a platform for personnel entering/exiting units. Water Handling – brakes on all axles, engine compression release brake, Exhibit N – all positions to be current with the PMS 310-1. Weed Washing Unit – no changes (specification was developed by the San Dimas Technology and Development Center), users are satisfied with results being accomplished by current vendors based on this specification. OSHA Compliant, but not very functional OSHA Compliant, better, but still need platform Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management Scope of Program VIPR Activity Report (as of 11/28/2014) Year Solicitations Vendor Responses Signed Agreements Vendor Resources 2009 27 464 381 1414 2010 26 1306 1173 2868 2011 52 1289 1206 4022 2012 62 721 660 2253 2013 22 1248 3502 2014 37 1511 1401 5776 Totals 226 6597 6069 19835 Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service This slide gives a sense of the magnitude of the program… lots of agreement and resources. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Participants in the I-BPA Template Development & Solicitation Process FESSAA CETT Boards Regional COs Vendors Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service Who all is involved in the Solicitation Process Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Fire Equipment, Services & Supply Acquisition Analysis (FESSAA) Team Congressionally designated Forest Service Acquisition Management (AQM) virtual team made up of 3 Procurement Analysts and 2 Management Analysts Team provides national direction, guidance, and oversight to the I-BPA program, VIPR, and other acquisition-related activities Works closely with Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/fessaa.php Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Contract Equipment Task Team (CETT) Under the direction of WO FAM Comprised of reps from geographic fire operations, equipment specialists, AQM, a WO-FAM Ops liaison and a FESSAA liaison Mission is to develop and update equipment and service specifications; provide information to the field on cost and needs analysis; and facilitate information exchange between the field, Fire & Aviation Management, and FESSAA Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service When we first embarked on a competitive model we started with solicitation samples from every Region that was using a solicitation template. The group responsible for bringing that all together was the Contract Equipment Task Group. The CETG later became the Contract Equipment Task Team, or CETT. That group agreed on a standard specification to be used by the agency when soliciting for that resource. That was a very painstaking process because at this time Regions were all doing things a little bit different. I know people in this room were impacted because when you took your equipment from the Pacific Northwest to another Geographic Area there was a very strong likelihood that you’re equipment may have been held to a different set of standards. The first solicitations loaded and supported by VIPR were vetted through the CETT to agency personnel and they were also published on FedBizOpps, or FBO, as Draft Solicitations for the vendor community to comment on. All those comments were brought forward to the CETG and that group addressed each comment, question, or concern. Every solicitation that was on its first acquisition cycle, we published to FBO. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management Template Review Solicitations are reviewed in their final year of the acquisition cycle, in most cases year 3; when the CETT reviews the solicitations, we’ve had two (2) full seasons to work with the templates. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service As you recall from the National Solicitation Plan slide, we are in the 2nd acquisition cycle for every solicitation that is supported in VIPR. And for many of them we are in the 3rd acquisition cycle. http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/solicitations.php Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Template Review – continued Specifications are fairly mature so we’re not seeing many major changes, most are minor and oftentimes just a slight edit to specification language. Changes to the templates are processed via a Change Request process. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service As you recall from the National Solicitation Plan slide, we are in the 2nd acquisition cycle for every solicitation that is supported in VIPR. And for many of them we are in the 3rd acquisition cycle. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

I-BPA Policy Board and VIPR CCB (Change Control Board) Forest Service boards chartered nationally by AQM and FAM to help with management, prioritization, and tracking of potential changes to I-BPAs and VIPR Policy Board reviews business change requests; VIPR CCB reviews technical changes to VIPR Membership is comprised of representation from WO-FAM, FESSAA, AQM Systems, field FAM operations and VIPR CO Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service The CR process facilitates making changes to the templates and VIPR functionality. Change requests are submitted to the Boards for consideration. The CRs are vetted thru the CETT, CO Forums, incident business community, etc. as necessary. The Policy Board relies heavily on the CETT on all CRs that involve the technical specifications. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management VIPR COs Forest Service COs across the country are granted access to VIPR and responsible for soliciting, awarding, and administrating I-BPAs Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service Your local or regional CO is your primary contact. http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/contacts.php Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Acquisition Management Vendor Involvement The CO should always be your first option for any solicitation questions or template suggestions. Depending on the CO’s experience or understanding with the specific template, they may be able to provide you with an immediate answer. The CO may also need to rely on the Fire Contract Equipment Specialist if they have that position in their Region. The CO may need to refer the question to the Contract Equipment Task Team (CETT), if it is specification related. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service The CO should be able to address immediate questions/concerns on a solicitation. How can I offer the best feedback? Review the specification, put yourself in the shoes of the incident personnel that are using the resource and ask if the specification makes sense. Remain objective in your review and suggestions. The specifications were most likely developed by the CETT so the field may or may not have a lot of information on how a specification was arrived at. If the CO or Fire Contract Equipment Specialist does not have a good understanding of the specification they will ask for an explanation from the CETT. Depending on the nature of their concern, suggestion, or whatever, that can be communicated to the CO/Equipment SME for the Region (solicitation) they want to respond to. It should be noted that solicitations are heavily vetted amongst the fire community and most of our specifications are in a very mature state. That said, they are reviewed the year prior to them being made available, that is done by the CETT and is based on feedback provided to representatives of that Team. If the question was asked I could say we have made some changes where something needed to be done immediately but with VIPR being an electronic system, all specifications are preloaded and available for use on or about the first day of the fiscal year, or October 1st of every year. If something is identified after the initial release it goes through our I-BPA Policy Board and if it's related to a specification, the CETT is always involved and asked for a recommendation. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Vendor Application Reference Materials FAQs Online help feature for vendors in the Vendor Application Vendor Brochure Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service That’s an overview of how I-BPA program changes are reviewed and implemented. I’m now going to move into the topic of incident performance evaluations for I-BPAs… once I get thru a few slides I’ll open it up for questions. http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/ Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

I-BPA Performance Evaluations Simplified Performance Evaluation Form Highlights 1-page form. Requires additional documentation if vendor’s performance is Unsatisfactory, Marginal, Very Good, or Exceptional. Rater will be required to provide documentation supporting the other than Satisfactory rating in accordance with the Rating Guidelines in Exhibit E of the I-BPA. Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service How can I help? Have your personnel engage their incident supervisors early. There is a strong likelihood that resources will move from one division to another and your personnel may work for multiple supervisors. There is also a strong chance that who you are working for the first few days of an assignment may need to demob before your resource does. Avoid the situation where you are prompted to seek out incident supervisors when you’re name appears on the demob list. The next thing you can do is review the rating guidelines in Exhibit E. There are some fairly straight forward guidelines for what justifies a rating above, or below satisfactory. I’ve seen many performance evaluations where the rater has given a 3 (very good) or a 4 (exceptional) but there was not supporting justification as to why the vendor exceeded the minimum, or satisfactory rating. The agency can’t really do much with those type evaluations. So, we need your help in helping us educate those completing your performance evaluations. We are developing some cheat sheets that Finance sections can use or post but you understanding the rating guidelines is the best place to start. In an attempt to get us better past performance the CETT has proposed a shortened, 1-page form. I’ll review that and the Rating Guidelines in the next two slides. http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/eera.php Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

VIPR Performance Evaluations Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

VIPR Performance Evaluations Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service

Questions? Shane LaValley http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/ Procurement Analyst/Contracting Officer Washington Office, Acquisition Management Fire Equipment, Services & Supply Acquisition Analysis Team (FESSAA) Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/ Acquisition Management USDA Forest Service 22