EIS Concepts for CBSAsand Services Price Evaluation

Background

GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) is designed to reduce the barriers to entry for potential offerorsand thereby allow a larger potential complement of service providers for the expected 15-year EIS program life. GSA intends to achieve this, in part, by eliminating the mandatory requirementto offer so-called “ubiquitous” geographic coverage. The requirement for coverage ubiquity has been replaced by the use of Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) to define required coverage areas. Furthermore, GSA has grouped CONUS and certain OCONUS government telecommunications services usage information according to the government locations served within these Core-Based Statistical Areas. The purpose of this paper is to provide additional information and discussion about CBSAs to help clarify their application under EIS.

Overview of CBSAsand EIS Draft RFP Traffic Model Characteristics

CBSAs are defined by the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and are used for a variety of purposes. Briefly, CBSAs identify geographic areas of the US, including territories and possessions that have a density of at least 10,000 people. For purposes of the EIS price evaluation, population densities are assumed to be related to the locations of federal users of telecommunications and the related infrastructure. Based on this assumption, CBSAs are used to group federal user locations into standard geographic areas approximating individual telecommunications markets.

Research performed by GSA provided information about which telecommunications service providers offered services to which CBSAs. This research indicated that there are growing numbers of facilities-based providers offering services to growing numbers of CBSAs, especially the more densely populated CBSAs. According to recent data, there are 925 of 929 total CBSAs in the US with federal locations using telecommunications services.

Using billing data from the Networx and Regional Services Programs, GSA has assigned federal locations and services to CBSAs and rank ordered the CBSAs by bandwidth consumed. Table1 provides an analysis of these patterns of federal usage.

Table 1 – Federal Bandwidth and Revenue Distributions

Bandwidth / Revenue
Top 100 CBSAs / 89% / 73%
Top 300 CBSAs / 96% / 85%

See section J.1.4.1 for the list of CBSAs. Additional information is also found in the Draft Traffic Model that is accessible upon request.

While most federal locations are contained in one of 929 CBSAs, there are locations that are not within any CBSA. For purposes of the EIS price evaluation, federal locations outside of any CBSA are assigned to the nearest CBSA by choosing the closest county within the same state that is assigned to a CBSA. The Traffic Model released with the EIS Draft RFP (hereinafter referred to as the “Draft Traffic Model”) includes all federal locations and identifies each location’s associated CBSA.

Based on research and analysis of the federal usage across CBSAs, and the corresponding provider coverage of CBSAs, GSA has determined that the minimum offer to qualify for an EIS contract award must include pricing for the mandatory services delivered to all government locations in 25 of the top 100 CBSAs, as ranked by bandwidth.

This minimum qualification significantly increasesthe number of potential offerors, and furthers the goal of expanding the complement of providers serving federal users for the expected 15-year EIS program life.

Figure 1 depicts the top 100 CBSAs ranked by Federal bandwidth consumed.


Figure 1 Top 100 CBSAs by Federal Bandwidth Usage

Mandatory and Optional EIS Price Evaluation

As reflected in Section B of the RFP, Table B.1.2.1.1, pricing for EIS services is either CBSA dependent or not. All four mandatory services are CBSA dependent, as are Access Arrangements. The four mandatory services are:

  • Voice Service
  • VPN Service
  • Managed Network Service
  • Ethernet Transport Service

The Draft Traffic Model groups the federal usage of telecommunications services by CBSA. Analysis of the services grouped by CBSA reveals a variety of services and capacities purchased within each CBSA. As a result, the Draft Traffic Model reflects variationsof traffic from one CBSA to the next due to federal buying behaviors. Following are examples of this variety across CBSAs:

  • A given CBSA may include demand for all mandatory services and many optional services to multiple locations within the CBSA.
  • A given CBSA may not include demand for all mandatory services. In the Draft Traffic Model, for example, a few CBSAs have no demand for mandatory services.
  • A given CBSA may not include demand for all optional services.
  • A given CBSA may not include demand for optional or mandatory services at all federal locations.

These combinations of demand variety are just a few examples of the diverse federal buying patterns found in the Draft Traffic Model.

This demand diversity has implications for the specific services and locations to be priced by offerors when submitting their EIS price proposals. The approach to evaluating and qualifying individual services and CBSAs for award is also affected by the lack of uniformity in the distribution of mandatory services, optional services, and served locations across CBSAs.

Accordingly, all offerors must adhere to the following rules in order for GSA to evaluate and qualify price offers for EIS services:

  • In order to qualify for award of an individual CBSA, offerors must price all mandatory pricing elements for all mandatory services.
  • Since all mandatory services are CBSA dependent, pricing necessarily includes Access Arrangements to federal locations servedin the CBSA, if any.
  • Mandatory bandwidths for mandatory access types must be priced for the access types found in the EIS traffic model.
  • Access types may be wireline only, Ethernet only, or both (see Section J.1.3.1.1).
  • Offerors must be favorably evaluated in at least 25 of the top 100 CBSAs (as defined in the RFP, Section J.1) to be considered for a contract award.
  • For each optional CBSA-dependent service
  • Offerors must price all mandatory pricing elements for each optional service included in the Traffic Model for that CBSA. Such pricing necessarily includes Access Arrangements to the federal location NSCs served, if any.
  • Services will only be considered for award where an offeror has been awarded the CBSA for mandatory services.
  • For each optional non-CBSA dependent service
  • Offerors are required to price all mandatory pricing elements found in the Traffic Model forthat service.
  • Services will be evaluated and awarded individually.
  • Both mandatory and optional services may contain optional pricing elements, such as OCONUS and non-domestic locations, features, etc. To be considered for award of such optional pricing elements, offerors must price all appropriate elements found in the Traffic Model associated with the optional features, locations, etc. For example, if an offeror desires to offer a service in non-domestic location, the offeror must price all elements associated with providing the service to that non-domestic location.
  • Offerors may propose services in CONUS, OCONUS, and non-domestic locations where no services are found in the traffic model by completing Table B.4.1.4 for those services and POPs.

Evaluation of offered prices will include:

  • Calculating the total evaluated price for all mandatory services in a given CBSA, and comparingthisprice to GSA’s total reference prices and to other offerors’ prices for the same demand.
  • Pricing analysis in accordance with FAR 15.404 for all mandatory and optional services

Sensitivity analyses associated with changes to the demandfor all mandatory and optional services may also be performed.

Each successful offeror will be awarded some number of CBSAs from a minimum of 25of the top 100, to the maximum of all 929 CBSAs, depending on their proposal and the results of the proposal evaluation. Successful offerors may also be awarded optional services, optional CLINs, and optional locations, depending on their proposal and the results of the proposal evaluation.

Post Award Treatment of CBSAs, Optional Services, Optional CLINs, and Optional Locations

After award, GSA will make information available to all contractors and agencies identifying the full set of CBSAs and services awarded to each EIS contractor. AgencyOrdering Contracting Officers(OCOs) may use this information in formulating fair opportunity decisions. For example, agencies could include existing service and geographic coverage on the contract as a factor for fair opportunity decisions. This could be important to fair opportunity decisions since no orders may be placed under an awarded Task Order for CBSA dependent services where the CBSA has not been awarded to the contractor, or where a service has not been awarded to the contractor if not CBSA dependent.

After award, if an offeror desires to add one or more CBSAs to its contract, the contract must be modified. The rules for the contract modification price proposal and price evaluation will be substantially the same as the rules for the contract award. That is, the contractor must submit a proposal that includes pricing adhering to all of the rules enumerated above for CBSA-dependent services.

Similarly, after award, if an offeror desires to add one or more optional services, CLINs, or locations to its contract, the contract must be modified. The rules for the contract modification price proposal and price evaluation will be substantially the same as the rules established for the contract award. That is, the contractor must submit a proposal that includes pricing adhering to all of the rules enumerated above for the services, CLINs, and locations to be added.

Impact of the Contract Modification Process

The length of the contract modification process for a given contractor and for a given modification proposal depends on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Breadth and complexity of the modification(s) sought
  • Completeness and quality of the modification proposal package
  • Length of time required for clarification and negotiation interactions among the contractor, GSA, and agencies
  • Number of concurrent modifications in process across all EIS contractors
  • Contractor and government resources available to process modification requests

Since OCOs may not order items that are not yet on contract, many concurrent modifications could be in process seeking to bring multiple contracts into compliance with the complete set of offerings associated with one or more agencies’ Fair Opportunity requirements. Workload surges such as this could result in delays to accomplish needed contract modifications.

To avoid the need for contract modifications and associated delays, offerors are encouraged to propose as many CBSAs and services as practicable as part of their original offers.

1