REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) RELATED TO
ENTERPRISE DOCUMENT CAPTURE (EDC)
July 1, 2015
This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and should not be construed as a Request for Proposal (RFP). This is not a solicitation for offers. This information will be reviewed and discussed by the state agency and may result in the advertisement of a formal and competitive Request for Proposal for the services included in the RFI.
1.0 Purpose of the Request for Information
The State of Louisiana, Division of Administration/Office of Technology Services (DOA OTS) is seeking information to gain a better understanding of the current capabilities from vendors to provide an Enterprise Document Capture (EDC) solution. Using the information provided by vendors on this RFI, the State of Louisiana will make a determination regarding a future strategy for an EDC. The State envisions multiple vendors partnering to provide an effective solution which leverages existing State investments, while providing the best possible solution available at the lowest cost.
The DOA OTS encourages interested parties to respond to this RFI. “Interested Parties” refers to a person or entity that possesses applicable enterprise document capture experience and storing processed images in an enterprise repository. Vendors who have this expertise and have the capacity to support a solution of this size are encouraged to participate in this response. DOA OTS is interested in receiving creative and effective ideas to assist in the State’s development of a comprehensive RFP that will meet the document capture needs for the State of Louisiana.
2.0 Objectives of the Request for Information
Understand the level of interest and availability of potential vendors that could provide an EDC solution to the State of Louisiana.
Gain a more comprehensive understanding of EDC business models and industry best practices.
Identify issues, roadblocks, and barriers to successful EDC implementations. Provide suggestions for a cost allocation plan that allows the State of Louisiana to
3.0 RFI Coordinator
RFI responses must be directed to the RFI coordinator: Matthew Vince
Office of Technology Services P.O. Box 94095
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095 Phone: 225-342-7105
Fax: 225-219-9475 Email: pmo@la.gov
All communications relating to this RFI must be directed to the RFI Coordinator named above. All communications between respondents and OTS staff members concerning this RFI will be strictly prohibited.
4.0 Schedule of Events
OTS reserves the right to revise this Schedule of Events. Schedule of Events
Public Notice of RFI July 1, 2015
Deadline for Receipt of RFI Responses August 7, 2015 4:00 PM CT
5.0 Proposal Preparation Cost
OTS will not pay for the preparation of any information or response submitted in reference to this RFI, nor will it pay for any use of response information. The respondent assumes sole responsibility for any and all costs and incidental expenses associated with the preparation and reproduction of any proposal submitted in response to this RFI.
6.0 Proprietary and/or Confidential Information
7.0 Written Inquiry / Response Process
Respondents may submit written inquiries to the RFI Coordinator via email according to the Schedule Events herein.
OTS shall provide responses to all written inquiries, according to the Schedule of Events, in the form of an RFI addendum, posted to the LaPAC at http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/osp/lapac.
8.0 Proposal Submission
Proposals, which must include one hard-copy and one digital (CD or DVD) copy, must be submitted via U.S. Mail, courier, or hand-delivered to:
If courier mail or hand-delivered Matthew Vince
Office of Technology Services Claiborne Building
1201 N. Third St., Suite 2-130 Baton Rouge, LA 70802 If delivered by U.S. Mail Matthew Vince
Office of Technology Services P.O. Box 94095
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095
All proposals must be received by the due date and time indicated on the Schedule of Events. Proposals received after the due date and time will not be considered. It is the sole responsibility of each respondent to assure that its proposal is delivered at the specified location prior to the deadline. Proposals which, for any reason, are not so delivered will not be considered.
9.0 Ownership of Proposal
All proposals become the property of OTS and will not be returned to the respondent. OTS retains the right to use any and all ideas or adaptations of ideas contained in any proposal received in response to this solicitation. Selection or rejection of the offer will not affect this right. Once a contract is awarded, all proposals will become subject to the Louisiana Public Records Act.
All proposals shall be submitted in hard-copy and digital format (pdf or Word is preferred), not to exceed 100 pages, in 10pt. Font or larger according to the following outline:
Corporate Background and Experience
Responder shall provide a brief description of the company, including a brief history, corporate structure, and organization and the number of years in business.
Business Model for Contracting of Services
Responder shall describe its approach to a contract for its services should it be awarded a contract through a subsequent RFP contract, but without providing any cost
information in its response. Approach and Methodology
Responder shall describe its proposed solution for delivery of services. Implementation Timeframe of Solution
Responder shall indicate the minimum timeframe from contract execution for full implementation of its solution, inclusive of equipment acquisition, configuration, and testing.
No cost information shall be included in this RFI response.
11.0 Optional Discussion
To solicit feedback and ask follow-up questions based upon vendor RFI responses, OTS reserves the right at its sole discretion to conduct a structured Discussion for respondents to this RFI only. If the Discussions are scheduled to take place, the discussion session will begin with a
ATTACHMENT I: SCOPE OF SERVICES
1.0 Background
The State of Louisiana has many document imaging solutions, repositories, and levels of
processing in operation in various departments throughout the State. Prior to the consolidation of all states agencies’ information technology sections into the Office of Technology Services (OTS) on July 1, 2014, each executive agency was responsible for its own purchases of
information technology equipment, related services and software. Since the consolidation went into effect, OTS is responsible for procurement activities related to information technology. OTS is interested in responses from Enterprise Document Capture vendors who can process incoming mail, faxes and uploaded images both from an outsourced document capture facility, as well as from distributed locations that would enable workers at state office locations to scan documents locally using multi-function devices. The document capture solution must integrate with the Enterprise Document Management System (created under a separate procurement), that will be used as the document repository.
The diagram below describes a high-level vision of how the Enterprise Document Capture solution integrates with the Enterprise Document Management System and other application systems. All metadata utilized for document indexing will be available from the Master Data Management enterprise component. User authentication, access management and other profile information must utilize the Identity and Access Management component. The Electronic Document Management System will be the central repository for all documents. All enterprise services will be accessed through the Enterprise Service Bus.
The enterprise architecture (EA) for DOA OTS has the general EA scalability requirement of “scaling of performance and storage capacity of the architecture and their associated cost” that is “linear and infinite.”
Figure 1.
The primary functional requirements of this project include the following:
Must integrate with components of the EA referenced above and described in the RFP released on May 6, 2014. These integration points include an Enterprise Service Bus, Master Data Management, Data Warehousing, Identity Management/SSO Portals, Document Management Repository, Consumer Communications, and Business Rules Engine.
Must support all of the most common document and file formats.
Must be able to index both metadata and internal document contents for common file types. EDC indexing requirements will be determined based on department-specific needs (i.e., some department-specific document libraries may not require document content indexing while still requiring metadata indexing).
Must support annotations on documents such as Sticky Notes, Text Notes, Redaction, and Highlights.
policies as regulations and laws change. The solution will also require the capability to export documents as required by document retention.
Must be capable of integrating with the Enterprise Architecture - Identity and Access Management component.
Must support Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to allow for automated document content indexing.
Must be capable of handling the upload of documents from external users, such as citizens.
Must include both a User Interface and an API process that will integrate with a
distributed capture solution that enables scanning at local state offices by state workers. Must include interfaces that will work both with the existing scanning technology—
Lexmark Multi-Function Devices—and with any current/future scanners or document capture systems.
Must allow for flexible integration/onboarding of content taxonomy on a case-by-case basis upon the implementation of new or existing systems into the EDC and the EDMS. Must allow for flexible security that takes into account specialized requirements of
disparate Departments, agencies, offices, and groups that will use the EDC system. Must leverage an existing centralized antivirus system to scan newly uploaded
documents.
Must allow for flexible Document Workflows that will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Must work effectively on all common platforms and devices—desktop, web & mobile— including, but not limited to the latest versions of common desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), common mobile browsers, and Internet Explorer 9 and above.
Must meet Disaster Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) – 12 hours and Disaster Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) - 4 hours.
2.0 Expected Benefits of EDC
Optimize – Align EDC with the State agency’s businesses and missions, “right-size” the mix and placement of devices across agencies for the greatest efficiency and user
productivity, and produce budgetary savings.
Manage – Improve the day-to-day management of proactive support services to maximize the utilization of current assets, while improving current workflow.
Innovate – Analyze and add value to business process activities by providing EDC with workflow options that improve productivity and assist agency business operations.
3.0 Category Specific Questions
3.1 General
1. Does your document capture solution integrate with other agnostic document management solutions or does it require a proprietary Document Management Repository?
2. What is your company’s definition of an Enterprise Document Capture Solution? 3. What is your company’s EDC business model, strategy and scope of services? Do NOT
include sales or marketing-related materials unless it includes pertinent information for the State of Louisiana.
4. What experience does your company have in providing or implementing Document Capture systems to large organizations? Your response should include specific details as to the size of the entities where the EDC solution was implemented, and the actual implementation timeframes.
5. What experience, if any, does your company have implementing an EDC solution in a State, Federal government agency, or large municipality or county? If so, what was the outcome relative to the following:
a. Planning and assessment
b. Deployment and implementation c. Management and support
d. Efficiencies achieved e. Quantifiable savings
6. What were the challenges or lessons learned while implementing EDC solutions with government clients? Detail any technical delays, operational barriers or policy questions that may have occurred and how they were resolved.
7. What are the leading industry practices that you would recommend the State of Louisiana consider in an EDC solution (e.g., in-house scanning, central mail processing center, etc.)?
8. What would be the specific metrics that should be measured or tracked in merging or implementing an EDC business model based upon the provided diagram in Figure 1? 9. What would your company consider a typical project timeframe required to implement a
full Electronic Document Capture solution? Be specific as to the various stages of implementation, such as assessment, deployment, and ongoing support.
10. Excluding assessment, deployment, service and management of equipment assets, what document management and workflow solutions does your company provide that could enhance the productivity or effectiveness of an organization’s core business process? 3.2 Hardware & Software
1. Provide the type of equipment covered under your company’s EDC solution, as well as limitations. Do you support multiple manufacturers and existing equipment, or is your EDC solution hardware dependent?
4. What is your recommended approach for leveraging existing State owned or leased equipment and how to update these models over time? What is your company's inventory strategy and approach for ensuring necessary replacements and deployments are timely? 5. What are the recommended features for ensuring security and privacy of data? How is
information security handled in your software?
6. What would the impact be of using the multi-function Devices (MFDs) or multi-function printers (MFPs) currently used for day-to-day printing, scanning, etc. in your solution? What are the limitations?
7. What differences, if any, would be required for rural versus urban response times? Describe the effect on Service Level Agreements (SLAs), service and maintenance. 3.3 Services
1. What are your company’s key service areas and metrics used to establish a typical Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
2. Does your company offer support for the development of EDC user policies and procedures for deploying, managing and maintaining EDC services?
3. What is your recommendation for the type and frequency of training your company would provide to contract users? What types of training services do you offer? 4. What is your recommended hardware, software, and technician deployment approach
given the existence of multiple state agency locations across the State? How does your company handle decentralized client operations?
5. What levels of on-site technical support are offered by your company? What is your recommendation for the type of helpdesk support to be provided and standard resolution timeframes for key activities such as equipment fixes, etc.?
6. What is your company’s strategy for minimizing life cycle costs? What is your company’s recommended approach to the disposal of assets at end of life?
7. What is the recommended approach and frequency of redistribution of assets as users physically shift and move locations?
8. What is your strategy for coordinating with other vendors and establishing clear roles and responsibilities under an EDC implementation? If significant subcontracting or teaming is utilized by your company in order to deliver EDC services, please address the
administrative and management structure of such arrangements.
9. Does your company have an environmental sustainability policy or any recommendations to reduce environmental impact in terms of energy and paper consumption, solid waste and CO2 emissions, etc.?
3.4 Pricing
1. What is your company’s EDC pricing model? Explain in detail.
2. Does your company charge for assessment of an organization’s current equipment fleet for the purpose of establishing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) baseline costs?
3. Is hardware pricing one-time or monthly? Does it include the cost of periodic refresh? 4. Are services priced separately from the hardware?
6. What is your method of implementing pricing changes over time as hardware costs change up or down?
7. What information must the State gather and provide to potential future bidders in order for them to effectively respond to any potential RFP solicitations for EDC? What information or background on current equipment inventory would your company like to see in a potential bid document?
3.5 Reporting
8. Is there a centralized monitoring dashboard to monitor equipment tied to the Enterprise Document Capture solution? Describe the reporting features offered to enable the State to perform analysis and monitoring.
9. What are the reporting capabilities of your EDC in terms of breaking down costs into separate cost pools? To what level can cost be broken down?
10. How will your EDC solution provide reports on meeting SLAs? Describe suggested Service Level Agreements. For example, tracking the time it takes from document capture until transfer to the ESB or time it takes to retrieve documents.
3.6 Return on Investment
1. What are some of the key benchmarks used to measure EDC savings? Separate hard dollar savings from soft productivity savings.
2. What opportunities should the State concentrate on to maximize its financial return on investment? What are the tradeoffs between speed of implementation, costs, and potential long term benefits?
3. Given the experiences of other states and large private sector entities, what financial benefits are generally realized first?
4. Given the existence of the initiatives described in Section 1, what is your expectation for realistic and achievable implementation timeframes?
5. How can the State’s current investments best be leveraged to achieve a fully integrated system?
3.7 Success Factors
1. What are the key reasons that EDC projects fail or fall short of intended goals?
2. What are the major risks to EDC projects and what strategies for risk mitigation do you recommend?
ATTACHMENT II: CURRENT STATE ANALYSIS
The following is a high-level overview of Document Imaging/Management systems that have been aggregated across agencies. This is not necessarily a complete view of all current state investments.
Hyland OnBase (11,000,000 images, 8 TB)
IBM Content Manager (227,000,000 images, 15 TB) IBM Filenet (32,000,000 images, 11 TB)
Kofax
Microsoft SharePoint (350 GB) Microsoft SQL Server (5 TB)
