Managed Print Services

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Managed Print Services
• 3. Attestation of Assurance
• 4. Methodology
  1. 4.1 FM Activities and Observations – Request for Proposal Phase of the Process
  2. 4.2 FM Activities and Observations – Evaluation Phase of the Process
• 5. Reference Documents

1. Introduction

Samson & Associates was engaged as a Fairness Monitor (FM) to observe the evaluation and award of the National Managed Print Service contract for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) as solicitation #EZ107-140001, on October 10, 2013. Samson & Associates is an independent third party with respect to this activity.

The Request for Proposal was issued prior to the involvement of Samson & Associates as Fairness Monitor. From the time of our engagement, December 13, 2013, we reviewed all of the information provided, observed all relevant activities and had full access to all aspects of the procurement process. We had the full co-operation from all stakeholders.

We hereby submit the Final Report, covering the activities observed by the Fairness Monitor commencing with and continuing through the conclusion of Evaluation Phase of the procurement process.

This report includes our attestation of assurance, a summary of the scope and objectives of our assignment, the methodologies applied and relevant observations from the activities undertaken.

2. Managed Print Services

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have a combined population close to 35,000 employees located in 900+ office locations across the country.

The objective of the Managed Print Service (MPS) initiative is to standardize print environments, determine an accurate Total Cost of Ownership of print environments, improve fleet management by migrating from a departmentally managed and supported printing environment to one that is managed and supported by the private sector, introduce new technology for productivity improvements, improve customer satisfaction, increase end user productivity, contribute to departmental targets on sustainability of the environment through reductions in consumable usage and achieve operational cost savings.

3. Attestation of Assurance

The FM hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the National Managed Print Service evaluation phase of the procurement process that we observed.

It is our professional opinion that the evaluation phase of the National Managed Print Service contract, that we observed, was carried out in a fair, open, and transparent manner.

4. Methodology

Samson & Associates was engaged as a FM to observe the evaluation and award of the National Managed Print Service contract, and to attest to the fairness, openness and transparency of this monitored activity.

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents, observed bid solicitation activities (e.g. the Request for Proposal or RFP, Questions and Answers, amendments issued and bid evaluation), identifying fairness-related matters to the contracting and technical authorities and ensured that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate.

4.1 FM Activities and Observations – Request for Proposal Phase of the Process

The RFP for the Managed Print Services was posted on the government electronic tenders service, Buyandsell.gc.ca, on October 10, 2013. Proponents were able to submit questions up to 15 calendar days before bid closing. There were seven amendments, the last one being December 3, 2013. The sixth amendment, November 26^th, 2013, extended the closing date until December 9, 2013. There were 120 questions submitted, but none during the time of Samson & Associates involvement as FM. However, we did familiarize ourselves with the questions posed and the responses provided prior to our involvement. 

Observation: The RFP document was written in a clear and understandable manner. All questions submitted were responded to in a clear and understandable fashion and responses were provided to all proponents through the amendments issued.  

FM Summary of Findings on the Request for Proposal Phase of the Process: Although we do not provide an opinion on the RFP phase, we have no reason to believe that it was not conducted in a fair manner. In this context, fairness is understood to encompass the elements of openness, competitiveness, transparency and compliance elements.

4.2 FM Activities and Observations – Evaluation Phase of the Process

There were two bids submitted in response to the RFP. The bids were evaluated individually by the four member evaluation team, who met on December 16^th, 2013, to collectively determine whether bidders had met the Mandatory Requirements

The evaluation team met again on January 9^th, 2014 to collectively review the Rated Requirements and determine the final ranking of the proponents. As a result of the Financial Evaluation a successful proponent was identified on January 24, 2014. PWGSC plans to award a contract on or about June 13, 2014.

All technical evaluators were present at the consensus meetings, as was the FM.

Observation: The instructions and tools of the evaluators were complete, respected the terms of the RFP and were consistent with the principles and practices of fairness, and they were executed fairly. Evaluation criteria, weighting, points and passing notes complied fully with what had been established in the RFP. The evaluation was performed as described by the RFP and the scoring was performed in strict accordance with the criteria. Consensus discussions were open, all evaluators were present, and a consensus was reached for all the criteria.

FM Summary of Findings on the Evaluation Phase of the process: It is the opinion of the Fairness Monitor that the Evaluation Phase of the Managed Print Services procurement process was conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner. The FM observed the consensus meetings for the final evaluation and rating of the proposals. The evaluation was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner. In this context, fairness is understood to encompass the elements of openness, competitiveness, transparency and compliance elements.

5. Reference Documents

The following documents referenced in this report are available through PWGSC.

Table Summary

The following table includes a list of documents referred to in the report such as the Request for Proposal (RFP), amendments, clarification letters, debriefing letters, etc. Each row is numbered, followed by the document title, then a document identifier such as a date or document number.

#	Document	Date
1	RFP - Solicitation #EZ107-140001	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on October 13, 2013
2	Amendment #1	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca October 18, 2013
3	Amendment #2	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca November 7, 2013
4	Amendment #3	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca November 14, 2013
5	Amendment #4	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca November 19, 2013
6	Amendment #5	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca November 25, 2013
7	Amendment #6	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca November 26, 2013
8	Amendment #7	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca December 3, 2013
9	Bid Evaluation Plan	Informal and agreed by evaluators & CA - No specific date per CA
10	Technical Evaluation Worksheet	Embedded in RFP
11	Technical and Financial Evaluation Report	Dated January 24, 2014

Addendum to the Final Report
December 15, 2014

Addendum to Fairness Monitor (FM) Final Report dated January 29, 2014 on the Competitive Acquisition Process for Managed Print Services.

This Addendum to the FM Final Report covers the period following the conclusion of the evaluation phase.

FM Activities Related to Contract Award and Debriefings

There were two bids submitted in response to the RFP. Both firms were deemed qualified and the successful bidder was announced on November 17^th, 2014.

The unsuccessful firm requested and was provided a debriefing on December 2, 2014. The debriefing was attended by representatives of the unsuccessful proponent, the Contracting Authority, a technical evaluator and the FM. The debriefing was thorough and responded to the questions raised by the unsuccessful proponent. No fairness issues were noted during the process.

FM Attestation of Assurance

The FM hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the procurement process for the Managed Print Services contract that we observed.

It is our professional judgment that the procurement process for Managed Print Services that we observed, was carried out in a fair, open, competitive and transparent manner.