Questions and Answers
1.) Is the automation of transfer student courses part of this RFP?This automation is not officially part of this RFP. However, if this offering is part of your solution, please include information describing this feature and the costs/implementation changes associated with doing so.
2.) What email client(s) are supported and expected to be integrated with at FLC?
E-mail integration for Outlook 2013 is desired within a Microsoft Exchange environment. We are also working to implement Office 365, so any information relevant to that environment would also be helpful.
3.) In regards to the requirement “Document access control via logical filing hierarchy,” can you provide an example of what you are looking to achieve here?
Fort Lewis College would like to maintain a logical organization of documents both for security purposes as well as to ensure that end users can quickly and efficiently find the electronic document they need. Currently we utilize the following security levels:
o All documents are stored within “applications” which are specific to functional areas. For example, Admissions, Human Resources, Finance, etc. Some users have access to all documents within their functional area. For example, Admissions processing staff would have access to all Admissions documents. However, they would not have access to Human Resources documents.
o In certain cases, users have a need for only particular types of documents within a functional area. For example, Advising may need to view high school transcripts from the Admissions application. In this case we grant access to only the High School Transcript document type.
4.) Regarding the import of faxes, does FLC want direct fax integrations or just a means for importing faxes? If so, please provide the name of the third-party fax software.
At the moment, Fort Lewis College does not have a mechanism for direct fax integration, but this may be something that we pursue in the future to reduce paper processing further. Please provide information on support direct integrations (if applicable). We understand that scanning the paper document would be an alternative and would welcome suggestions for other alternatives where appropriate.
5.) How many departments and which departments they are looking to deploy for the initial implementation as well as future deployments?
Department Estimated Concurrent User Count # of Scanning Stations
Academic Advising 5 1 Controller’s Office 5 3 Financial Aid 6 2 Office of Admission 6 2 Office of Advancement 4 2 Registrar’s Office 8 4* Teacher Education 1 1 Testing Center 1 1 Totals 36 12
6.) Can you provide the number of BDM licenses the College currently owns?
Our current licensing allows for the following concurrent connections, and something comparable would be appropriate for the new system.
o 159 concurrent desktop imaging client users (includes indexing)
o 9 concurrent scanning users (Please include pricing for 20 concurrent scanning users as we have an immediate need for growth here)
o Unlimited concurrent web client users
7.) Does the College have a desired implementation plan? How many departments does the College anticipate being part of the initial implementation plan? Future phases?
o The College does not have a desired implementation plan – we are looking for a response that includes a best-practice type of implementation plan, as well as a plan for migrating all of our current data into the new system.
o All departments listed above will need to be part of the initial implementation plan, and the college anticipates about a 5 – 10% growth per year of the user base.
8.) The RFP references the need for the system to ‘support more than 100 concurrent users’. How many users does the College anticipate being part of the initial implementation plan? Future phases?
o Please see above
9.) Please provide several real-life integration scenarios with Banner. Please provide other business application integrations you would want with new ECMS.
At Fort Lewis we have many users that view documents from a variety of Banner forms. Using the context determination rules available with Banner Document Management, users are presented with a particular document or a filtered list of documents depending on the form they’re using. Included below are some examples of this interaction. Please note that for each of these scenarios, validation against Banner data for relevant indexing criteria (invoice number, person ID number, etc.) is required and assumed to exist.
o Finance receives a paper invoice from a vendor which is scanned and indexed against the corresponding invoice in our system (Banner). From the invoice inquiry forms in Banner, a user can click the view document button to see the supporting documentation for that invoice.
o Admissions receives a paper high school transcript. This document is scanned and indexed to the student and is now viewable from a variety of forms within Banner based on the user’s access.
o Health Center receives a paper copy of a student’s immunization records. This document is scanned and indexed to the student. Through a custom process, once the document has been indexed the student’s immunization status is updated in Banner to show compliant or non-compliant.
o Registrar’s Office receives a paper add/drop slip with instructor permission to enroll the student in a course. Once the Registrar’s Office staff process the registration change, the document is scanned and indexed and becomes part of the student’s official record.
o Registrar’s Office receives a transcript request for a student that attended Fort Lewis before Banner was implemented. The Registrar’s Office staff located the appropriate microfilm and then scan and index the corresponding documents against the student’s ID so they can be accessed in the future without the microfilm.
o A P-Card holder receives an e-mail or scans a paper receipt which needs to be stored as supporting documentation. To simplify this process, this individual might complete a web form and to upload the document. This web form would contain the appropriate indexing criteria so that the document can be automatically indexed.
10.) Are workflows used with the current document management systems? If so, please identify.
o No, FLC does not have established workflows with the current system. Workflows will likely be built based on business processes following an internal process review.
11.) Are there certain business process workflows that you would like to start with in the initial project? Please list several examples.
We have not settled on any particular workflow for this initial project yet. However, here are a couple options that could be demonstrated.
o A student petitions through Admissions to have in state residency which has been approved. If the student is already enrolled, Admissions requests that the Registrar’s Office update their residency. If the student is not registered, they complete the update and notify the Registrar’s Office.
o Procurement receives a request for a new P-Card. To complete this setup, Purchasing must complete the following in order.
Request the new P-Card from the Bank
Purchasing requests IT to setup the re-allocator access to the re-allocation forms in Banner. Purchasing requests that the Controller’s Office setup the re-allocator with the appropriate
fund/organization access in Banner.
12.) Please provide any OCR requirements the College has. Please provide a few examples, if any.
OCR is not required for this initial implementation, but we would like to know our options. The most likely candidate for an initial rollout would be automating indexing of documents with the same format. For example, Financial Aid generates award letters which all have the same format and contain the indexing criteria. These would be read and indexed against the student’s record.
13.) Which department and workflow process do you see requiring OCR, if any? Do different departments require different levels (summary data, coursework, invoice line item, barcodes, full text search, etc)?
See previous item.
14.) How are admissions applications received by the College? How is the data from the application entered into Banner?
o The majority of applications for admission are received electronically via our online web application. These applications are handled using baseline Banner processes.
o Some applications are received via paper for students that do not have Internet access or are unable to complete the online application. In this case, Admissions processing staff enter the application into Banner and then scan/index the application to be stored with the student’s other records.
15.) What is your process for matching data to existing electronic records?
We typically use Banner Common matching to match new records to existing records whenever the process is automated or when a new person/entity record is needed. In some cases, manual matching is performed by campus staff by searching for the appropriate ID number(s).
16.) Does your current upload process create duplicate records?
17.) How are applicant test scores received by the College? How are the scores entered into Banner? o ACT and SAT scores are received electronically and loaded into Banner using a baseline process. o Some other scores including CLEP are currently received via paper and evaluated by the Registrar’s
Office. Once the evaluation process is completed, these documents are scanned and indexed as part of the student’s record. Note: We are working towards receiving these scores electronically using the same process as the ACT/SAT.
18.) Does the College prefer a traditional, perpetual deployment? Is the College investigating a hosted (SaaS) model?
Please provide details on each deployment model and the associated costs for review by Fort Lewis College. 19.) Section IV.C. Proposal Submission, 5. Requirements, Scope, Approach, and Methodology – 1st paragraph, last
bullet and follow on paragraph on Migration, page 8 – We would like some further information concerning the
type of documentation that need to be migrated to the new EDMS. Are the documents just the documents themselves or do they contain notes, annotations, sticky notes, and document histories? Please advise. [Technical]
In general we would be looking to move the actual documents along with the associated indexing. Images are stored in BIN format and indexed using tables in an Oracle database. In general we have not used annotations, so I don’t think we’ll need to worry too much about this. There may be some, but it would be the exception rather than the rule.
20.) Section IV.C. Proposal Submission, 5. Requirements, Annotation/Redaction page 9 - Does FLC want the capability for automated redaction, or is manual redaction acceptable? Please advise. [Technical]
Manual redaction would meet our needs right now. If automated redaction is available, it may be useful based on pre-defined templates.
21.) Section IV.C. Proposal Submission, 5. Requirements, Collaboration, page 9 – Does FLC require electronic signing (additional module)? Please advise. [Technical]
Not needed as part of the original implementation, but please provide information on features and price breakdown.
22.) Section IV.C. Proposal Submission, 5. Requirements, Electronic Capture and Object Support, page 10 – Does FLC have a fax server today? If yes, please provide the technical details of that server(s). [Technical]
No, FLC does not have a fax server in place today, but may be considering options for the future.
23.) Section IV.C. Proposal Submission, 5. Requirements, Integration, page 11 – Beside Banner, what other FLC applications do you need the EDMS to integrate with? Please advise. Also, what parts of Banner does FLC need the EDMS to integrate with? [Technical]
Banner is the critical system to which integration must be implemented and we would need the ability to integrate within each major functional area (i.e. Imaging should not have a standalone integration or single point of access). If an API is available that would allow us to integrate with other external systems as needed, we would look to utilize that, but it is not a requirement.
24.) Section IV.C. Proposal Submission, 5. Requirements, Scanning and Quality Assurance, page 11 – How many scanning stations does FLC have that are part of the project scope? Does the vendor need to price and provide any scanners in our proposal? Please advise. Also, does FLC perform desktop or batch scanning, or a
combination of both? If both, please provide the percentage of each. [Technical]
We currently support 19 scanners with our Imaging system. The make and model of the scanners is included below. For your system, please provide recommended low, medium, and high volume scanners with an associated estimated or current market price.
· Fujitsu fi-4120c · Fujitsu fi-4340c · Fujitsu fi-5110c · Fujitsu fi-6110 · Fujitsu fi-6240
· Konica Minolta MS7000 MKII
25.) General – please provide your approved budget amount for this project or at least a dollar range for your budget. [Administrative]
FLC will be evaluating proposals over a 5 to 10 year total cost of ownership (TCO). Cost is one factor of the evaluation and will be benchmarked against the TCO of continuing with our current solution using Ellucian Banner Document Management and the EMC Application Xtender suite.
26.) Page 8. Please explain level of integration with Banner system? Export/import? Dynamic calls?
There are two components to our expected Banner integration. First, indexing criteria should be validated against Banner information. For example, if indexing documentation to support and invoice or a purchase order, the invoice and/or PO number should exist in Banner. Second, our users expect context specific integration from Banner. For example, if you’re viewing a purchase order and choose to view the associated documents, it should show you the documents associated with the purchase order you’re viewing.
27.) Page 9. What are the 11 delivery and custom application?
These applications correspond to specific functional areas. For example, Human Resources, Admissions, Student Records, etc. The differences between the applications is primarily for indexing purposes. For the purposes of this RFP, think of these applications simply as containers for documents which share the same indexing criteria.
28) Page 9. What is the format of the repositories? Legacy systems?
The existing repositories utilize the EMC Application Xtender Suite. Images are stored in BIN format and indexed using tables in an Oracle database.
29.) Page 9. How is data accessed and used?
Data is accessed primarily from Banner using context specific rules (see integration question from Page 8). Alternatively, users can query documents directly from a vendor supplied Windows client or Web Application. The use of this information varies by context. Generally documents in the imaging system are supporting documentation for some activity such as a request to generate a purchase order or high school transcripts for a prospective student.
30.) Page 9. What platforms and you looking to install the clients on?
The client will primarily be installed on Windows workstations using Windows 7 or higher. However, we would also like the option for a web application that is platform agnostic.
31.) Page 10. What does your current faxing solution look like?
At the moment, Fort Lewis College does not have a mechanism for direct fax integration, but this may be something that we pursue in the future to reduce paper processing further. Please provide information on support direct integrations (if applicable). We understand that scanning the paper document would be an alternative and would welcome suggestions for other alternatives where appropriate.
32.) Page 11. Please elaborate on the flexible, customized indexing options.
The criteria we use to index documents is based on identified business needs which can change over time. Our hope with the proposed system is to have the flexibility for us to choose how documents within a particular context are indexed. Some may be attached to a person while others may be attached to documents, etc. 33.) Page 11. What are the existing business software systems you want to auto index the documents?
OCR is not required for this initial implementation, but we would like to know our options. The most likely candidate for an initial rollout would be automating indexing of documents with the same format. For example, Financial Aid generates award letters which all have the same format and contain the indexing criteria. These would be read and indexed against the student’s record.
34.) Page 11. In what format are they stored?
Assuming this question is paired with the previous question, documents would arrive in a variety of standard image formats including TIFF, PDF, etc. They may also arrive as part of a mail merge in DOCX format.
