Iowa Project Request Step 1 – Permission to Proceed Page 1
State of Iowa IT Project Request # 6
Forestry Seedling Inventory Management
Department of Natural ResourcesConservation and Recreation Forestry Seedling Sales
Paul Tauke (515) 242-6898 Paul.Tauke@dnr.iowa.gov
4/23/2013
Introduction: The Project Request is submitted to the TCC IPSC to gain support for the project and identify if there are existing applications or application components that can leveraged for the proposed project. This document is intended to answer high level questions about the project as details about total cost, timeframe and quantified benefits are not known as this document is expected to be completed during project planning. Submit this document to: xxxxx@iowa.gov TCC approval of this document results in the permission to proceed with project planning. Agency may be directed to complete the Project Execution Request before issuing an RFP or beginning internal development work.
Document Purpose: This document is to be completed when there is an identified need and tentative plan to initiate a project. Funding may not have been identified for the project yet (seeking IOWAccess funding, waiting on legislative decision or grant award).
Instructions for completing this Project Request form:
1. The agency point of contact should be the Executive Sponsor – the Program Area Manager responsible for the program policy area experiencing the problem.
2. Replace [bracketed text] on the cover page with your project and agency information. Note: Please do not remove or modify content in the footer area.
3. Complete the entire template. Each section contains abbreviated instructions, shown in italics, and a content area. The content area is marked with a placeholder symbol [ ] or with a table. Relevant text from other project deliverables may be pasted into content areas.
Note: Please do not remove the italicized instructions.
Iowa Project Request Step 1 – Permission to Proceed Page 2
Project Summary
Project Name: Forestry Seedling Inventory and Sales Automation
Problem Statement: What is the need?
Iowans purchasing seedlings from the DNR cannot be certain the desired seedling species is available. The largely manual inventory management system does accurately manage the inventory which means orders may be received for product which is not available. This impacts seedling sales and ultimately the amount of
forested lands in the State. A new sales and inventory management system is needed.
BACKGROUND: Iowan’s and Iowa’s lumber industry depend on seedlings to improve conservation efforts,
provide native wildlife habitat and retain and grow employment in the lumber industry. Statistics indicate during the last decade the overall increase of forest ground is slowing and has the potential to decrease. Decreased forestation risks employment of 18,000 people with a payroll of $931 million. Did you know that Iowa is has the third largest volume of sawtimber size black walnut growing the world? The DNR nursery provides NATIVE seedlings which are most adaptable to Iowa’s climate, soil and growth conditions.
The DNR Nursery currently sells about 1.5 million trees to landowners. Nursery sales have declined from a high of 4 million seedlings. The current inventory management system is largely a manual process that results in customers frustrated because they order product that is not available. Without an inventory management system that interfaces with a sales system the nursery has no efficient way to track inventory and sales. The operation simply cannot be run without this information. It is a customer service issue but it is also an issue of you simply can’t do business without an automated system.
Project Description:What are the project goals? Goals are high level and provide a context for project. More detailed information about the project is described in the success criteria.
Improve inventory management through an automated system (likely a package based solution)
Allow customers an easy way to order seedlings
Increase seedling sales
Alignment with agency or Governor’s strategic plan: Describe the specific agency or Governor strategic plan items that this problem’s resolution will help address.
Supporting improvements in seedling inventory management and sales supports the Governor’s initiatives to: 1) Retain or increase jobs by supporting forestry contractors as well as the lumber industry
2) Supports the Healthy Iowan’s initiative by retaining habitat for hunting, clean water for fish habitats and fishing and the enjoyment of outdoor activities.
Potential Solutions:Are you aware of any potential solutions? Describe Solutions. Agencies are not expected to have a solution in mind but it is important to know if there are any identified solutions. Are you aware of any off-the-shelf software solutions or another system in use at another Iowa department or in another State?
Iowa Project Request Step 1 – Permission to Proceed Page 3 DNR has surveyed other state’s forestry sites to determine if they have an online ordering or inventory
management system. Not all state’s sell seedlings and we could not find a state that had an automated solution. DNR issued an RFI last fall to identify potential solutions and found a couple of nursery industry package based solutions and also identified inventory management solutions that could be configured to meet our management needs. RFI responses and vendor interest includes:
Local Vendor: MS Dynamics GP and integrated front end sales ordering system $70,000-$120,000 Argos Software: Packaged Nursery Management Software and Hosting $30,000-$50,000 Radley Corporation: Packaged Inventory Management Software
Winplant: Packaged Agricultural Management Software and Hosting
The DNR has also contacted several states to learn about their online sales and inventory management systems. These states have a variety of back end inventory management systems which are generally a standalone system either workstation or client server based. They have implemented a front end ordering system which requires staff to re-enter the order into the back end inventory and order management system. State of Virginia works with Virginia interactive for the front end ordering system but are in the process of replacing the system with a standard shopping cart solution.
State of Georgia had been with GoDaddy and now uses 3DCart Stores for payment and then rekeys their orders into an order management system.
State of Montana rekeys information into a system developed by SBI Small Business Innovations
State of Missouri is looking to replace their 12 year old system built in Perl & CGI and they do not have online payment.
State of Kansas is looking for a new order management and epayment system.
Benefits Summary (What are your success criteria?): Describe specific benefits and how these will be measured and reported. Who are the customers of this project and how do they benefit? Project benefits are outcomes. What does success look like?
Support Iowan’s ease of ordering seedlings which can be measured by:
Reduction in the number of phone and mail orders for seedlings and an increase in more secure online orders
Reduce the number of orders requiring substitutions due to lack of product availability from the current 15% to less than 2%.
Increase sales of seedlings in 2014
Project Impact:What is the impact if this project is not approved? Loss of funding? Risk to the public?
The State Forest Nursery is directed under Iowa Code (455A.13) to cover all expenses related to the growing of the plants it produces. This cost recovery is done through seedling sales. Continued reduction in sales could ultimately cause the closure of the nursery which would have a direct impact on forestation in the state and the loss of jobs not only associated with the State nursery but also with the consulting and lumber industry.
Iowa Project Request Step 1 – Permission to Proceed Page 4 The risk to the public is reduced habitat for wildlife contributing to poor hunting and reduced hunting tourism as well as health and well being that trees can provide according to recent surveys.
Project Technology: What technologies will be used in the project? Describe any departmental application or
technology standards or expectations. Since the purpose of the project request is to identify projects at a very early stage technologies may not be known at this time.
It is unknown whether the solution would be a hosted “software as a solution” environment or if the solution would be .Net based to run on the State standard server environment.
Project Type: Maintenance _____ New _X____ Multi-phased ______
Maintenance- is a work to be completed on an existing software or hardware asset. New- is a project that has a single phase. Examples: Rewrite a client server application into a web application; Replace an MS Access application with a client server application and SQL database; Create a new application to meet a new federal or state initiative.
Multi-phased- is a new project with multiple phases or the subsequent phase of a project already implemented. Example: The project is intended in Phase 1 to implement the web application, Phase 2 will add epayment and a mobile application and Phase 3 will expand the application to another program area.
External/Internal Urgency: Are there any funding/legislative deadlines that impact this request? Are there organizational/staffing changes impacting the request?
There are two critical factors creating urgency 1) Declining forestation in Iowa and 2) The opportunity to expand sales in neighboring states. The US Forest Service has issued a report showing the percentage of forested land in Iowa has decreased for the first time since 1974. Getting seedlings planted is critical to
restoring and growing forested lands in Iowa. Without support for the seedling program at the DNR it is difficult to stop the decline in forested lands. With sales that have declined from a high of 4 million to the current status of 1.5 million sales there is a clear need to increase sales and help grow forested lands in Iowa.
State nurseries in Nebraska and Minnesota have closed. DNR has been authorized to sell seedlings outside the State of Iowa for the first time. In order to expand sales to other states we must improve our ordering and inventory management system and associated processes. The DNR has increased our seedling plantings to accommodate growth in sales but we must have a system that helps us deliver on the growth in sales.
Funding Summary
Estimated total Project Costs: Provide a high level estimate or range. Project costs include hard dollar expenses for hardware, software and services AND soft expenses of internal staff time.
Under 50k _____ 50 to 100k __X___ 100-500k _____ 500k to 2 million _____ 2M to 5M _____ Over 5M _____ Unknown _____
Funding Source: IOWAccess, Pool, Federal Grant, Unknown, etc.
The department intends to seek IOWAccess funding. The Department does not have funds in the current budget to pay for the new system. We have analyzed the cost of implementation and anticipated benefits of
Iowa Project Request Step 1 – Permission to Proceed Page 5 the new system and anticipate growing sales by 10% in the year after implementation of the new system. DNR is committed to implementing a new system and modifying the processes we have used for the last 40+ years to streamline the process so we can use off-the shelf software. We believe with the process improvements and a fully functioning inventory and order management system we will can recover the implementation costs in a three to five year period. DNR believes so strongly in this project we will be asking IOWAccess for a loan with a plan to repay IOWAccess over five years with an option to repay earlier if sales exceed projections.
Project Sustainability Describe the plan to support and maintain this project. What kind of on-going costs will there be during the lifetime of this asset? Describe how often rule changes will require modifications to your system. The industry average for annual software support is 18% of the initial development or acquisition cost.
Department will commit to paying for any internal state hosting fees and annual software support charges.
Risk Assessment Describe specific risks and how they will impact the project. A risk is an obstacle to the project being completed on time on within budget. How will these be mitigated? Identify and list the major risk factors that could result in the project not producing the expected results. These should include both internal factors (for example, the technology involved fails to work as projected or is a new technology staff is not experienced with) and external factors (for example, federal interface specifications have not been published yet).
Include in this section also the key assumptions on which the project plan is based. In this case, the assumptions are mostly related to external factors (for example, government environmental policy remaining stable) which are anticipated in project planning, and on which the feasibility of the project depends.
Staff availability is a risk. System implementation must occur in the June through February timeframe as seedling sales (harvesting seedlings and processing orders) is most intensive in the March through May period.
Recommendation of the State CIO to the DAS Director:
Authorize this IT procurement Yes _X_ No ___ Alternatives suggested by the State CIO
(see comments below) Yes ___ No _X_ Additional comments from the State CIO:
TEC recommends approval of an RFP, CIO subsequently approved.
DAS Director’s action:
Authorize this IT procurement Yes _X_ No ___ DAS Director’s signature and date:
The above IT procurement concept approved by Director Carroll on __6/10/13__ Comments: None
