SEALED BID REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Department of Buildings and General Services Agency of Administration

Purchasing & Contract Administration

10 Baldwin St. Montpelier VT 05633 [phone] 802-828-2210 [Fax] 802-828-2222 www.bgs.state.vt.us

SEALED BID

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Contract/ Grant/ Vendor Performance Management System

DATE:

December 7, 2015

RFI DUE DATE:

January 8, 2016 3:00PM EST

QUESTIONS DUE: December 16, 2015 4:30PM EST

LOCATION FOR RFI RETURN: 10 Baldwin St, Montpelier, VT 05633

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT ALL NOTIFICATIONS, RELEASES, AND AMENDMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS RFI WILL BE POSTED AT:

http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing/bids

THE STATE WILL MAKE NO ATTEMPT TO CONTACT VENDORS WITH UPDATED INFORMATION. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH VENDOR TO PERIODICALLY CHECK

http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing/bids FOR ANY AND ALL NOTIFICATIONS, RELEASES AND

AMENDMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE RFI.

PURCHASING AGENT:

TELEPHONE:

(802) 828-2210

E-MAIL:

1 PURPOSE

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for the Agency of Human Services (AHS) to gather input and obtain information and cost estimates in proceeding with proposals to implement a Contract, Grant and Vendor Management System.

AHS intends to evaluate the submissions by respondents to explore how they would meet their needs and understand the cost associated with proposed solutions. AHS shall not be held liable for any costs incurred by the vendors in the

preparation of their submission, or for any work performed prior to contract issuance.

For the remained of this document Agreement will encompass contracts, grants and other legal binding work items.

1.1 LIABILITY

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning

purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This request for information does not commit the State to contract for any materials or service whatsoever. Further, the State is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Respondents are advised that the State will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If an RFP is released, it will be posted on the BGS bid opportunities web

site: http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor this site for additional information.

1.2 CONFIDENTIALITY

AHS retains the right to promote transparency and to place this RFI into the public domain, and to make a copy of the RFI available as a provision of the Vermont access to public records laws. Please do not include any information in your RFI response that is confidential or proprietary, as AHS assumes no responsibility for excluding information in response to records requests. Any request for information made by a third party will be examined in light of the exemptions provided in the Vermont access to public records laws.

The solicitation of this RFI does not commit AHS or the State of Vermont to award a contract. This RFI is for information gathering purposes only and no vendor will be selected, pre-qualified, or exempted based upon their RFI participation.

2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

AHS currently lacks automation to track and manage contract, grants and vendors. AHS does have a Microsoft

SharePoint site that allows logging and storage of contracts, but it lacks the ability to catalogue specific details/attributes of contracts and grants, including performance measures over time. AHS is moving toward results based accountability (RBA) in contracting and grants, in accordance with Sec. 2. 3 V.S.A. § 2313 and Sec. 4. 3 V.S.A.(a).

Sec. 2. 3 V.S.A. § 2313

The Chief Performance Officer shall report to the General Assembly on the progress by rate or percent of how

many State contracts and grants have performance accountability requirements and the rate or percent of

contractors’’ and grantees’ compliance with those requirements.

Sec. 4. V.S.A.(a)

have and are using performance measures.

AHS processes hundreds of grants and contracts through its Central Office and six departments. There are staff in each department that manually oversee contracts and grants with a mix of spreadsheets and staff built software systems. These methods do not allow for proper monitoring of vendors or grantee’s performance.

This year, the State legislature has mandated new reporting for contracts and grants. AHS has no choice but to manually go back through all contracts and grants to gather the information to provide these reports.

3 RFI DESCRIPTION

The State is seeking to obtain information on existing solutions that most closely meet AHS requirements and the

associated cost of those solutions. Solution’s information should include technical requirements, any third party tool requirements and all solution features.

The RFI has three key objectives:

 Provide prospective respondents with information regarding the business need, and;

 Solicit respondent information to assist the State in determining if identified requirements can be met in a cost effective manner.

 Solicit respondent information to assist the State in determining if identified requirements can be met by available software/hardware COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) alternatives.

The State is seeking feedback on the information in this RFI and will consider any information, including partial responses, received in response to this RFI. If the State moves forward in the development of an RFP, the RFP process will be open to all respondents regardless of their decision to participate in this RFI.

The State envisions that the solution will support the following high-level goals:

 Allows for the tracking, auditing and reporting of contracts that AHS and its departments have entered into with vendors and grantees. This includes tasks that need to be completed either by the vendor, grantee or AHS staff, and includes storing performance measure data and targets over time.

 Produces reports to fulfill legislative requirements and management of the performance of vendors or grantees over time and across departments.

 Allows for the tracking and reporting on vendors or grantees, including disputes, over all interaction experience and basic contact information.

4 CURRENT STATE

Current state, with the exception of one department, is a manual process using spreadsheets and filing cabinets. Department for Children and Families uses an in-house developed application to review and approve contracts. AHS and its departments do have access to a software called eSilinas for final signatures/ approvals of contracts and grants. AHS also has limited access (limited number of users) to the Result Scorecard web based tool, which enables presentation of data over time in a trend line via manual entry and is structured according to the RBA framework.

The State of Vermont has a license agreement with Oracle that includes an unlimited application user count of Siebel

5 STATEMENT OF WORK

5.1 ANTICIPATED

REQUIREMENTS

The purpose of this RFI is to determine if there are solutions capable of meeting the State’s anticipated

requirements and to determine alternatives for meeting those requirements that are consistent with the overall vision for AHS and the State.

The State’s discovery efforts to date have resulted in a desire to obtain access to solutions with the following attributes:

5.1.1 Business Requirements

FEAT1 – Track Agreements 

Tracking contract and grants requirements that the solution shall meet are: 

FEAT  Title  Description  Vendor Response (out of box,  customization, not supported)  1.8  Agreement Change  Request  The solution will have the ability to track change  requests for the signed agreement.    1.9  Signed Agreements  The solution will have the ability to store the  final signed agreement with the agreement  records.    1.10  Agreement Invoices  The solution will have the ability to track invoice  include but not limited to date submitted,  amount, date approved, date paid and amount  paid.    1.12  Agreement Closeout  The solution will have the ability to close out  agreements and archive the records.    1.13  Agreement Email  The solution will have the ability to share  pertinent information through email.    Pertinent Information can include but is not  limited to:   Source/sponsor   Aware amount    Duration of contract   Contract Manger   Copy of contract    1.14  Agreement  Management  The solution will provide a view to review  Vendor activities, the status of existing contract  and associated deliverables and performance  measure data over time, access the contract  account to determine the status of the contract  and progress made on fulfilling contract  deliverables (e.g. determine burn rate, forecast  remaining funds for the contract, determine the  percent of deliverables completed per contract,  project deliverable completion date, view  contract phase, etc/TBD).    1.15  Access based on  User Level  The solution will provide specific views based on  user role.  The solution will allow the System  Admin to set up which fields a user role can  maintain versus simply view.      FEAT2 – Track Vendors/ Grantees  Tracking vendor and grantees requirements that the solution shall meet are: 

FEAT  Title  Description  Vendor Response (out of box,  customization, not supported)   Company Name (could be multiple with  corresponding details below)   Company Address   Company Phone   Contact Name   Contact Email   Certificate of Insurance   o Date of expiration   Comments    2.2  Subcontractor  Information  The solution shall track the following  information fields about vendors (this list is not  exhaustive):   Company Name (could be multiple with  corresponding details below)   Company Address   Company Phone   Contact Name   Contact Email   Certificate of Insurance (could have  multiples)  o Date of expiration   Comments      2.3  “Report Card”  Vendor or Grantee  The solution will have the ability to store  evaluation reports on vendors and grantees.      FEAT3 – Reporting/ Querying  Reporting/ Querying requirements that the solution shall meet are: 

FEAT  Title  Description  Vendor Response (out of box,  customization, not supported)  upcoming deliverable(s) and due date(s).    3.4  Agreement  Summaries  The solution will provide a view of the status  of all contracts, a summary of multiple  Vendor activities so that a determination  can be made of progress made on multiple  contracts (e.g. determine burn rate, forecast  remaining funds for the contract, determine  the percent of deliverables completed per  contract, project deliverable completion  date, view contract phase, etc/TBD).      FEAT4 – Integration  Integration requirements that the solution shall meet are: 

FEAT  Title  Description  Vendor Response (out of box,  customization, not supported)  4.1  Various AHS  systems  The solution will integrate with VISION, future e‐ Procurement solution, E‐signature, SharePoint  Word, Adobe, AHS Result Scorecard system.      4.2  Import of MS Excel  The solution will have the ability to import from a  defined MS Excel spreadsheet form.    4.3  API to Results  Scorecard  The solution will have the ability to share data  with the tool Results Scorecard using API.   http://resultsscorecard.com/      FEAT5 ‐‐ Security  Security requirements that the solution shall meet. 

FEAT  Title  Description  Vendor Response (out of box,  customization, not supported)  6.1  Visual Appeal  The solution shall be visually appealing and  not tax the user’s eyes.  The solution shall  limit scrolling as much as possible.    6.2  Ease of Use  The solution shall be easy to use and not be  redundant or overly complex.  The solution  shall be intuitively designed and not feel  ‘clunky’ or overly difficult to use or  navigate.    6.3  Maintenance  The solution shall need minimal  maintenance and be available for use 24  hours a day, seven days a week with the  exception of scheduled maintenance and  variables outside vendor control.        FEAT7 ‐‐ Functionality  Functionalities that the solution shall deliver. 

o Agreement Admins – approximately 14  o Users – this covers approximately 79 staff  NOTE:  Include estimated pricing for adding users in blocks of 10, in the initial year and during the  five following years.   Provide estimated pricing for support and maintenance for initial year and five years out.  5.1.4 Technical Requirements  Provide estimated pricing for Software as a Service when dealing with approximately 7000 active  contracts and grants in a year.   Must be able to operate on the existing LAN.   Provider hands on training for key staff   Provide estimated pricing for cost of implementation in hosted environment versus being responsible  for ensure state IT staff deployment solution in state network.   Solution must be scalable to meet growing demands of the Agency.  5.1.5 Documentation Requirements  Provide user manuals for various levels of users (administrators and users) 

6 REQUESTED INFORMATION

Each submission prepared in response to this RFI must include the elements listed below, in the order indicated. The vendor, when presenting the response, must use the following outline:

 Cover Page

 Vendor Information  Cost Estimates

 Business and Technical Requirements

6.1 COVER PAGE

The first page of the vendor’s RFI Response must be a cover page displaying at least the following:

 Response of RFI Title  Vendor’s Name  Contact Person  Telephone Number  Address  Fax Number  Email Address

All subsequent pages of the RFI Response must be numbered.

6.2 VENDOR QUESTIONNAIRE

6.3 CONTACT INFORMATION

All communications concerning this Request for Information (RFI) are to be addressed in writing to the attention of: Stephen Fazekas, State of Vermont, Office of Purchasing & Contracting, 10 Baldwin St, Montpelier VT 05633. Stephen Fazekas is the sole contact for this RFI Response. Attempts by RFI Responders to contact any other party could result in the rejection of their RFI Response.

6.4 RFI RESPONSE SUBMISSION

CLOSING DATE: The closing date for the receipt of RFI Responses is 3:00 PM January 8, 2016. Responses must be

delivered To: Stephen Fazekas, State of Vermont, Office of Purchasing & Contracting, 10 Baldwin St, Montpelier, VT 05633 prior to that time. RFI Responses or unsolicited amendments submitted after that time will not be accepted and will be returned to the vendor.

The responses will be received by purchasing at 10 Baldwin St, Montpelier, VT 05633 and will be passed on Agency of Human Services Central Office for review.

RFI responses must include one (1) electronic copy on Compact Disc (CD) and Three (3) Paper (hard copy) responses must also be submitted. Paper copies must be bound with a staple, binder or other appropriate means such that pages are not submitted loosely. Three (3) copies of the RFI must be delivered to the Purchase Agent.

The electronic response made to the narrative portion of this RFI must be in Microsoft Word version 2007

compatible format. At least one copy of the Cost Table and Business and Technical Requirements must be made in Microsoft Excel Version 2007 or higher.

6.5 EXPLANATION OF EVENTS

1. Issuance of RFI

This RFI is being issued by the Office of Purchasing & Contracting, Department of Buildings and General Services Department. Additional copies of the RFI can be obtained from the State Purchasing Division web site

http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing or directly from the State Purchasing Agent.

4. Submission of Responses

Three (3) paper copies of the RFI response and one (1) electronic copy on CD should be delivered to the Purchasing Agent no later than 3:00 PM Eastern Time on January 8, 2016. Responses received after the due date and time may not be considered.

Responses should be labeled, "Response to RFI# AHSCGVPerformanceManagement”.

5. Review and Evaluation of Responses

The review and evaluation of responses to the RFI will be performed by Agency of Human Services and their designees. The evaluation process will take place the week following the response due date. During this time, the RFI Manager or other Agency of Human Services representatives may, at their option, initiate discussion with respondents for the purpose of clarifying aspects of their responses.

6. Vendor Demonstration of Their Product

Vendors chosen from the review process may be called on to demonstrate their products and/or service offering. These select vendors will make arrangements with Agency of Human Services to demonstrate their products and/or service offering. The Agency of Human Services shall not be liable for any costs incurred by the vendor in preparation of its demonstration. All costs occurred are the vendor’s sole responsibility. All demonstrations are for planning purposes only and do not constitute a legal bid.

7. Vendor Product Test Trial

Certain Vendor products and/or service offering may be selected after review process to be trialed by Agency of Human Services if this is an option allowable by the vendor. The test trial can last up to 90 days. Up to 2 vendors products selected will be involved with the test trial. The Agency of Human Services staff will provide feedback to the RFI Manager. The selection of vendor products for a test trial does not commit the Agency of Human Services or the

vendor’s sole responsibility. All product test trials are for planning purposes only and do not constitute a legal bid.

7 VENDOR QUESTIONNAIRE

We are asking for a total cost estimate (low and high estimates) comprised of software, hardware, and necessary implementation services. We understand that the cost figures provided are for planning purposes only and will not be binding in any way.

8 APPENDIX A: COST ESTIMATE WORKSHEET

8.1: COST ESTIMATE TABLE

Item   General Requirements Description   Cost  

1  XXX     2  XXX     3  XXX     4  XXX     5  XXX         

8.2 ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

Please provide any other materials, suggestions, cost, and discussion you deem appropriate.