Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission – M-00900239F0013

RE: RFP 2005-2 CTVRS

August 22, 2006

The following responses to Pre-filed Questions are offered to potential vendors.

Sprint 1) Sections I-5.,TYPE OF CONTRACT and II.6., COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS. Section 1.5 states that the resulting contract will be “a fixed fee contract with reimbursement monthly for actual minutes of use.” Yet the requirements for cost submission in Section II-6seem applicable to another type of contract award, perhaps a cost-reimbursement or cost-plus-fee contract. Given that the resulting contract is to be a fixed fee/price, level of effort type contract awarded on the basis of a full and open competition, will the PUC rescind the requirement in II.6 to submit costs in such detail that all elements of debt, equity (capital costs), and operating expenses are provided in schedule form and that each element of the rate that adds to produce one session minute of use (MOU) shall be detailed in schedule form, including any subcontractor costs?

  1. No, the PUC will not rescind the requirement. The costs must be detailed so as to provide support for the service price per session minute of use. Scheduled-based supporting documentation should build to the proffered compensation rates. Subcontractor costs should be separately scheduled. Subcontractor costs are not expected to be as finely delineated as to actual personnel and their individual rates, but should be segregated into appropriated categories consistent with Commonwealth procurement guidelines. Reminder – all data and schedules supporting prices must be contained in a separate document under separate cover.

Sprint 2) Section II.6., COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS. Willthe PUC provide an explanation for the following requirement? “Each element of the rate that adds to produce one session minute of use (MOU) shall be detailed in schedule form, including any subcontractor costs”? Session minutes of use are a function of elapsed time. Elements of the rate do not add together to produce a session minute of use.

  1. All costs should be sufficiently identified and quantified so as to provide a comparable price on an estimated session minutes of use. Costs of the present CTVRS Interim Service are billed on a session minute basis.

Sprint 3) Section II.6., COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS. Will the PUC allow pricing for additional but separate services to the CTVCO to be submitted as separate charges, for example a separate monthly recurring charge outside of the rate for the actual service? The reason for this request is the ever-changing ratio of fixed recurring expenses associated with Account Management and Outreach as compared to the anticipated Pennsylvania CTVCO revenue stream.

  1. Upon consideration of your request, we are willing to accept a separate monthly recurring charge for IV-10 Outreach as part of a proposal. As IV10 Outreach is a specific workplan element, potential contractors should fully detail their plan for outreach in the proposal as it could be the differentiating criteria between proposals. Costs for Outreach would be contained in the separately submitted cost document. Account Management is to remain an element of the expected session minute of use compensation.

Sprint 4) Section II.8., FINANCIAL REVIEW. Included in this section is a requirement toprovide a signed copy of the most recent federal and state tax returns and a bank reference. This requirement seems onerous given that the PUC need only be concerned with the financial condition of the proposed vendor and if information concerning compliance with tax returns is necessary, confirmation can be achieved through a certifying statement. Will the PUC rescind the requirement for the submission of federal and state tax returns?

  1. Upon consideration of your request, the PUC will rescind the requirement for the submission of signed copies of the most recent federal and state tax returns and accept as an alternative the submission of a confirmation of compliance with tax returns through a certifying statement.

Sprint 5) Section IV-2.s. and Appendix D. Section IV-2.s. states that the requirement for answer speed is “an average speed of answer of 9.9 seconds or less for 85% of the calls on a daily basis.” The Service Level Agreement in Appendix D conflicts with this requirement by stating that the service is required to answer all calls in five (5) rings or less. Neither of these requirements are compliant with the current provision of CapTel service, currently the only CTVCO service, which is only provided in an FCC compliant "85% of all calls are answered in 10 seconds or less" daily average speed of answer. To the best of our knowledge, all states receive the same level of ASA service for CapTel. The only way to improve ASA service for PA would be to increase ASA across the board for all states, resulting in a cost increase for all states. In order to provide the best cost-value service to PA, will the PUC consider revising this requirement to accept an 85/10 ASA for all Captioned Telephone calls and will the PUC correct these two requirements for the speed of answer so that they are consistent with one another?

A.Upon consideration of your question, the applicable standard for the term of the contract will be Federal Communications Commission minimum standard as stated:

TRS facilities shall, except during network failure, answer 85% of all calls within 10 seconds by any method which results in the caller's call immediately being placed, not put in a queue or on hold. The ten seconds begins at the time the call is delivered to the TRS facility's network. A TRS facility shall ensure that adequate network facilities shall be used in conjunction with TRS so that under projected calling volume the probability of a busy response due to loop trunk congestion shall be functionally equivalent to what a voice caller would experience in attempting to reach a party through the voice telephone network.

The original language had been modeled on the New Mexico RFP.

Sprint 6) Section IV-2.u. This section requires that call minutes spent talking to the CTVTRS point of contact or in escalation activities not be billed under the resulting contract. To the best of our knowledge, CapTel, Inc., currently the only provider of CTVRS, does not have the ability to isolate and dismiss incoming calls made for either of these purposes. This being the case, it is not within the vendor’s control to comply with this requirement. Will the PUC rescind the requirement to exclude these minutes of use from the billed amounts?

  1. This question is to be discussed at the pre-bid meeting.

Sprint 7) Section IV-2.v. Similar to Section IV-2.u., this section disallows call minutes spent discussing with a caller information included on the required website or in accessing potential user information. To the best of our knowledge, CapTel, Inc., currently the only provider of CTVRS, does not have the ability to isolate and dismiss incoming calls made for these purposes. This being the case, it is not within the vendor’s control to comply with this requirement. Will the PUC rescind the requirement to exclude these minutes of use from the billed amounts?

  1. This question is to be discussed at the pre-bid meeting.

Sprint 8)Section IV-5.c. This requirement is to provide CTVRS access in high traffic and public access areas. This seems beyond the scope of this contract. CapTel service is already accessible from any phone within any state that provides the service. However the CapTel phone is necessary in order to access the captioning part of the service. The procurement of phones and other CapTel equipment is not a part of this RFP. Will the PUC delete this requirement?

  1. No, the PUC does not plan to delete this requirement. In response, the proposal should incorporate a plan of how this need can be met, that accommodates public access in high traffic areas such as airports. Per Section IV-4(d) & (e), the contractor is responsible for all matters relating to user equipment, including seeking the best price for equipment. There is an expectation that the contractor will be involved in the procurement stream and provisioning of equipment for public access, as with any public telephone.

Sprint 9) As allowed in Section IV-9.b.will the PUC share the call history data for the past year to the present, including a breakdown of the monthly intrastate and interstate CapTel minutes of use? Also, what is the current number of CapTel phones that has been distributed in Pennsylvania?

  1. The following information can be provided. Further detail is barred due to proprietary claims.

Number of CAPTEL phones distributed as of 7/31/06 is in excess of 600, over 500 have been activated at one point in time. For the 12 months ending 6/30/06, less than 50 CAPTEL phones were distributed through the TDDP program. For the 6 months ending 7/31/06, session minutes have averaged 1,720 per day and increased 23.7% through the six month period. For the same period 64.6% have been reported as intrastate.

Hamilton 1) RFP Page 7 Section I-21 states that the successful proposal submitted in response to this RFP shall be subject to disclosure. Hamilton is a privately held company. As a result, its financial statements are not public records. Will the Commission please explain the process vendors should follow in order to keep their financial information confidential?

  1. The financial information is not subject to disclosure. Financial statements and other documentation that does not relate to the contract pricing can remain confidential. It is recommended that such financial statements be provided in a separate envelop, stamped confidential, as an attachment to the proposal. In this manner the material can be better handled.

Hamilton 2) RFP Page 14 Section II-6 refers to schedule form, which is not included in the RFP. In addition, Hamilton would like to clarify that because responses to this RFP are competitive bids, it does not intend to include its subcontractor costs, which is proprietary and confidential information. Hamilton respectfully requests that the Commission consider removing this requirement.

A.We have reviewed Commonwealth procedures, and the PUC believes that we cannot remove the requirement. We have been advised that we need to at least receive information on the total cost of the subcontract, but we do not necessarily need to include individual, hourly rates. We would need line item information, such as labor. However, individual information can be redacted. The Commonwealth does not believe that subcontractor costs are confidential.
StandardCommonwealth cost submittal information is quoted below as additional guidance to preparation of cost submissions.

II-10. Cost Submittal. The information requested in this Part II, Section II-10 shall constitute the Cost Submittal. The Cost Submittal shall be placed in a separate sealed envelope within the sealed proposal, separated from the technical submittal. The total proposed cost shall be broken down into the following components: [Use the appropriate items in the following format. If the project will involve costs over more than one year, show fiscal year breakdowns. Provide Offerors with a cost worksheet to be completed where appropriate.] Offerors should not include any assumptions in their cost submittals. If the Offeror includes assumptions in its cost submittal, the Issuing Office may reject the proposal. Offerors should direct in writing to the Issuing Office pursuant to Part I, Section I-9, of this RFP any questions about whether a cost or other component is included or applies. All Offerors will then have the benefit of the Issuing Office’s written answer so that all proposals are submitted on the same basis.

a.Direct Labor Costs. Itemize to show the following for each category of personnel with a different hourly rate:

i)Category (e.g., partner, project manager, analyst, senior auditor, research associate).

ii)Estimated hours.

iii)Rate per hour.

iv)Total cost for each category and for all direct labor costs.

b.Labor Overhead. Specify what is included and rate used.

c.Travel and Subsistence. Itemize transportation, lodging and meals per diem costs separately. Travel and subsistence costs must conform with the requirements of the most current version of Commonwealth Management Directive 230.10, Travel and Subsistence Allowances. The Issuing Office may accept higher rates normally paid by an Offeror, if those rates were approved by the Offeror’s officials and published prior to submitting this proposal to the Issuing Office.

d.Consultant Costs. Itemize as in (a) above.

e.Subcontract Costs. Itemize as in (a) above.

f.Cost of Supplies and Materials. Itemize.

g.Other Direct Costs. Itemize.

h.General Overhead Costs. Overhead includes two major categories of cost, operations overhead and general and administrative overhead. Operations overhead includes costs that are not 100% attributable to the service being completed, but are generally associated with the recurring management or support of the service. General and administrative overhead includes salaries, equipment and other costs related to headquarters management external to the service, but in support of the activity being completed. Specify what specific items are included and the rates used.

i.Fee or Profit. [Inclusion of this item depends on type of contract to be awarded.]

j.Total Cost.

Hamilton 3) RFP page 31 Section IV-9.b. Will the Commission please provide information regarding the number of existing CTVRS users and past growth rates?

A. Please see the response to Sprint 9.