Port Management Dashboard Pre Proposal Meeting, September 8, 2011 SBE/VSBE Program: 1. Q: Should a company obtain SBE certification prior to submitting a proposal? A: There is no mandatory goal assigned. It is recommended to be certified by the deadline of the project RFP. If you are not yet certified, certification takes effect from the day application was submitted so you are encouraged to submit application as soon as possible. 2. Q: When does SBE certification expire? A: It expires every three years. Risk Management: RFP: 3. Q: Is insurance for another project valid for this project? A: Risk Management Division (RM) checks if there are any documents on file (once the contract has been awarded) that will meet this project s requirements. If the documents on file will suffice for the new contract, you won t have to do anything. If there is a requirement or additional limits or anything different than what we have on file, then RM will contact you to let you know about what is missing. RM encourages not limiting the documents to specific contracts. Section 1: Introduction 4. Q: From email: What does the Port mean by three years referring to the length of a project? A: We want vendor to support us for a total of three years from the start of the project. Section 2: 5. Q: Will a copy of the IMBP be available for vendors to see? A: This document does not contain information useful to the RFP since it is over 5 years old. 6. Q: From email: Will the Port be comfortable with the requirements validation process that does not duplicate requirements gathering to ensure that we have complete understanding of what is expected. A: Yes, we do expect that there will be time to gather the information. This is mentioned on Page 11, section 4.1 Design Services. 7. Q: Does the Port have a vision of what the dashboard should look like for each user? A: The Port has a general sketch outline that includes four main perspectives. A vendor is expected to provide us with their vision as well. 1
8. Q: What is the Port s requirements gathering process to this date and what sort of documentation is there available? A: During the course of the last year, all of the Directors were interviewed to understand what information they will be looking to see on a dashboard. We will be providing a summary of some of that information in terms of the databases and the information sources that will help you. We expect a vendor to assist in building on the work to date, providing and defining the solution. 9. Q: Part 1: Are dashboard external Internet based on internal? Part 2: What is Project/Tenant dashboard? A: The dashboards are for Director and Managing Directors use, and Internal only, being accessed only within our internal Port network. By project/tenant dashboard we mean the perspectives of information. So one dashboard will focus on project information, another dashboard will focus on information about the Port s tenants. 10. Q: Has the Port of LB gone through the process to indentify its BI maturity? A: The Port realizes that the first step in BI maturity is to identify the information needs, get the information available, and guide towards adoption. This is the 1 st step and as you can see from the project we have just got to the place of understanding, from a first draft level, what the directors are looking for. The dashboard that is created will be the first step in this direction, and its adoption will be the first step in our BI endeavors. 11. Q: Do you have a list of all the sub systems (such as finance, project, time recording and etc,) where the data will be populated for the dashboard? A: We decided that we will set boundaries for this project and as mentioned in the RFP we believe there will be four dashboards perspectives, with a total of ten objects on each dashboard, and a total of 40 different data objects to be created. We will make available a document about the data sources that we know of and we believe will be used in the creation of the data objects. We will put that document together and will make it available to all of you. 12. Q: Part 1: From our warehousing standpoint: are you going to house this here, outside or a combination of both? Part 2: Do you allow a remote building of it or do you require on site presence? Part 3: Through the life cycle of the project, are you looking for developers who do the backups and provide that type of support or that will be done by local IM staff? A: Part 1: We are looking to house data in house; the information sources are mainly all internal. There are a few external databases but the information will be stored internally within our SQL database warehouse infrastructure. The data cubes will be housed within that infrastructure. Part 2: For development work we do support access through VPN with the appropriate authorization. You don t have to be physically present on site to work on this. However, our experience is that the vendors who have been on site generally have done better than those who worked remotely. So proposals that are leaning to that direction probably will 2
be more favorable. Certainly that is not always the case. But on a project like this an understanding of the users need is a key. It will be hard to get that if you are not on site. It s a small user group and they are all busy people. Regarding our infrastructure, we are looking to utilize what we have in place today. We have DR capability and etc. We are going to leverage what we have. Part 3: The backup support of the system will be done by local IM staff. Section 3: Scope of Project. 13. Q: From email. Will the prototype be one dashboard or four? A: Think about it as four basic dashboards. Get the vision in place and let s see how it works. The four dashboard views will likely be customized for each Director. 14. Q: Can we clarify the version of SQL that we are using and are we open to future versions such as Denali, SQL2010? A: For production environment the Port is using SQL 2005 enterprise database infrastructure. The Port does have a roadmap to transitioning to 2008 version in the future but those dates have not yet been defined. The Port has implemented SharePoint2010 and 2008 reporting services. So from a reporting services perspective you will have the ability for 2008. You can include your vision for the benefits of future tools, but plan on using the current infrastructure. Section 4: Service to be provided. 15. Q: From email: What does the security trimming mean? A: It just means restricting of the data views depending on the user role, sharing and hiding data as needed. 16. Q: What kind of mobile devices do we need to support? A: We know we need to support mobile devices over the long term. At this stage we want to show a proof of concept that the infrastructure that is going to be developed can be viewed on the most generic set of all of those devices, the basic html5/minimal plug in approach. We have users at the port who use ipad, Blackberry, Android. We are looking for minimal capabilities just so the key information can be displayed. 90 99% of the initial usage of the dashboard will be on desktop computers but as you know these things change quite quickly when we least expect it. We might find in a year s time that we have a lot more Division directors that are using tablet devices. We are looking for the Vendor to provide an understanding of how to put in place in a strategy to handle this, and this is what we are looking for in that piece. The mobile views will be minimal versions that which will be expanded over time as needs clarify. 17. Q: Do you currently have a source control system? A: We have team foundation server which we would like to use, also document management system that has been recently implemented. 3
18. Q: In case we have to propose any additional software do you have any kind of a budget for it? A: You should put in to your proposal what you think is appropriate for the project. 19. Q: What is the average procurement time for software and limitations at the Port I ask this information for putting together a schedule. If we decide we have to purchase software and procurement becomes a problem, we want to know what the normal procurement timeframe. Speaker clarification: Should you be awarded the contract and your proposal requires software A, B, C how long does it take to arrive? A: You should identify in your proposal the expectations of the Port in terms of the additional software it would need to purchase. You should expect that the software will be available for the start of the project. 20. Q: Does the Port have a data modeling tool? A: If you feel you need to use a data modeling tool to complete the task, you should include it in to your RFP. 21. Q: Your primary database infrastructure is SQL based and all the information is being pulled from there. You provide all divisions with the tools to access information with levels of security. Is that correct? A: That is correct. The Port standard database in Microsoft SQL server. There are some databases that are based on Oracle. 22. Q: Do you have any number as of the size of the databases that the Port currently has? A: We are talking about gigabytes of data analysis, not terabytes. Time recording and Projects will have some transactional data. But in general this is a relatively small scale analysis. We have about 20 sources that we believe we are going to be pulling data through and data structures. 23. Q: Part 1: While doing the rollout, while creating the pilots, will we require DBAs? Do we need to have our DBAs and network administrators or will Port staff be available for this? Part 2: What should be the composition of our team: network admin, DBAs does that look complete? A: Part 1: Vendor should be providing those resources. We ll be looking to you to reach into databases, extracting the data and presenting it to the dashboards. Your team will be required to do that. Part 2: The Port has network admins, your focus will be primarily on DBA. 24. Q: Overall Perspective on Project. A: We look at this as mainly a reporting programming integration exercise with additional perspectives that you bring. But in the simplest case we are looking for: extracting data from a 4
SQL database, putting it into reports, and presenting them in a presentation framework which will be SharePoint. 25. Q: Speaking of extracting and transforming data, is there an ETL standard that the Port is looking for utilizing for this? A: We are looking for your guidance on that. This is a first step for the Port in terms of managing information so any best practices that you bring forward are welcomed. 26. Q: Over the course of recent years, are there any applications that have been brought in such as accounting system, project management, and etc. that will be extracting data from? A: Yes, the purpose of this project is to provide a management interface to all those different systems that have been put in place over the last five years, just so the Directors won t have to go to all the different databases to find needed information. 27. Q: Have the applications been installed? A: We are going to provide that information to you in terms of as summary of information sources. Section 5. Selection Criteria No questions. Section 6. Information required from proposers 28. Q: What does Southern California area presence mean? A: We want to make sure that the vendor is available for working. By Southern California presence we mean a reasonable travel distance and ability to make sure that the collaboration will be optimal. Appendix I No questions Appendix II No questions Note: if you have any issues with the City s standard agreement please provide us with a redline copy and a list of issues. 29. Q: From email. We assume this is the time and materials not to exceed contract with invoices to be submitted on a monthly basis. Please confirm that this assumption is correct. A: This will depend on negotiations. To control costs Port will prefer fixed fee deliverables with milestone dates. Appendix III: Current Environment 30. Q: Does the Port utilize Virtualization? A: Yes, the Port is utilizing VM vsphere technology. 5
31. Q: In the RFP you mention you use Blackberry right now. Do you currently have BS server? A: Yes, we do have a BS Server. 32. Q: What 3d party components or web parts do you currently use with SharePoint that SQL server should be considered? A: We don t use any right now. If you believe we should be using any, you should put it in to a proposal. We have a clean SharePoint system. This is one of the first uses for our SharePoint system. Appendix IV: Detailed description of the Port Management Dashboard. 33. Q: For the purposes of creating a prototype, are you going to provide the types of data that are going to be expected to be seen in each one of those four categories? A: Yes, that has been part of the work done at the Port already and that will be part of the design phase working with the vendor to review and finalize. The IM team and the project team that you ll work with will help you to define what should be those data components on the prototype. You as a team will end up selecting, say, ten data objects. One of the reasons we ve left it to this next part of the project is because while know that the databases contain some of the information, until we do a deep dive into that, we won t know exactly what can be presented. So if a managing director says that he wants to see everything on a daily basis and we find that the data is kept only on a weekly basis then we are going to re think of what is going to be presented. It is going to be an interactive process during that design phase to pin point what will be the ten most appropriate and optimal dashboards and data objects to present to the users. 34. Q: Please elaborate on data sources? A: It might happen that some of the data requested by the users won t come from the internal database but outside sources, like web sites or rss feeds. So you might want to think how that will be presented on a dashboard if needed. Appendix VI 35. Q: Via email. Question about references form. A: Should be completed, particularly by a Prime. If you are using a Sub, it will be helpful to have that information as well. Appendix VII: Cost forms 36. Q: Do you have an overall budget set aside? A: We expect vendors to submit cost proposals appropriate the project presented 37. Q: How long will this project take? 6
A: We want you to tell us about best practices you know, and we have allocated three years for both the main phase plus ongoing support. 38. Q: How long will the prototype take? A: It depends on what kind of tools you are using and your team resources. 39. Q: is a performance bond required? A: No 40. Q: have there been key stakeholders identified for each division manager should they not be available for a part of a project (who can get involved to get a feedback)? A: Not yet. You can include it as a part of things to do as a part of a project. 41. Q: Part 1: Do you have a model for on shore /off shore cost proposal? Part 2: Does the port have preference regarding on site/off site people? Is Port willing to work with off shore people too? A: Part 1: The cost summary sheets that we have included request the minimum level of detail to provide. If you want to expand on those and give us other cost elements including breakdowns for on shore/off shore elements, than you are free to do so. What we are looking is an understanding of a total cost. On site/off site model can be proposed. Appendix VIII: All bidders should be aware of insurance requirements no questions Appendix IX: SBE no questions Appendix X: Insurance forms no questions Miscellaneous Questions: 42. Q: Does the Port support additional hosting capabilities (in addition to SQL 2005) expand on the capacity of existing SharePoint? A: We want to maximize the use of newly installed SharePoint system. So if there are additional things that we should be doing to make more use of that, you should include it into a proposal. 43. Q: Can we use SQL 2008 on this project or not? A: SQL 2005 database, but SQL 2008 reporting services. It does not mean it cannot be part of your plan. You should put down the reasons why, and what you can do with other versions. Moving a SQL server is a comprehensive job and the Port is not planning it right now. 44. Q: As the Port developed this project, will it be having developing, testing, and production? A: Yes, the recent upgrade of our SharePoint environments is putting in place development, test, and production environments. 7