Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Date: November 7, 2013 Subject: PLCB Regulatory Affairs System Solicitation Number: 20121101 Proposal Due 1:00 p.m. on December 11, 2013 Date/Time: Addendum Number: 2 To All Offerors: A solicitation Addendum is defined by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as an addition to or amendment of the original terms, conditions, specifications, or instructions of a procurement solicitation (e.g., Request for Proposals). Addendum 2 contains the official Answers to the written Questions received by October 31, 2013 for RFP 20121101, PLCB Regulatory Affairs System. Sealed proposals consisting of three separately sealed submittals (technical, small diverse business, and cost) must be received by 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday (not Thursday as listed in the Calendar of Events on Page iii of the RFP) December 11, 2013. The submittals must be addressed to Beverly Ward, PLCB, Bureau of Purchasing and Contract Administration, Room 316 Northwest Office Building, 910 Capital Street, Harrisburg, PA 17124 and be properly signed. Attach this Addendum to your solicitation response. Failure to do so may result in disqualification. If you have already submitted a response to the original solicitation, you may either submit a new response, or return this Addendum with a statement that your original response remains firm, by the due date to the above address: Except as clarified and amended by this Addendum, the terms, conditions, specifications, and instructions of the solicitation and any previous solicitation addenda, remain as originally written. Very truly yours, Name: Title: Beverly Ward Management Analyst Supervisor (Issuing Officer) Phone: 717.705.6320 Email: beward@pa.gov Form Revised 02/26/08 Page 1 of 1
PLCB Regulatory Affairs System RFP 20121101 Questions Submitted by 10:00 a.m. on October 31, 2013 Q1. Appendix F Cost Submittal Template indicates that Task 6 Subscription Based Training/Hosting/Maintenance/Support should be stated as annual Bundled Charges for three separate periods; February 1, 2016 through June 30, 2016, July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017, and July 1, 2017 through January 21, 2018 for a total of 24 months, however Section I-23 Term of Contract indicates that the base period of the agreement is 4 years. Is the Commonwealth assuming that the subscription based charges would begin only after the completion of the Tasks 1 through 5? If so can the Offeror present alternate dates for the 24 month subscription period assuming an earlier go-live date? A1. Tasks 1-5 must be completed before Task 6 begins. Offerors can propose an earlier go-live date. The dates listed in the Cost Submittal Template, however, should not be changed in order for the PLCB to comparatively evaluate all submittals. Q2. Item H. Integration with the Commonwealth s e-payment service and Integrated Enterprise System (IES), IV-2. Nature and Scope of the Project; a. Is First Data Management Services (FDMS) the vendor for processing credit and debit cards, as identified in Addendum 1 to the solicitation, responsible for processing all of the Commonwealth s e-payment services? b. Does the payment services used to access FDMS through the Office of Administration s Office of Information Technology (OA/OIT) epay service constitute the Commonwealth s e-payment services as identified in the solicitation? c. Is there additional technical information available regarding the Commonwealth s e-payment services, to include; published web services, protocols, accessibility, security boundaries, firewalls, etc.? A2. a. The PLCB utilizes FDMS through epay service. We cannot answer if all Commonwealth entities use FDMS through epay service. b. Yes. c. The selected Offeror will be given additional information regarding e- payment services. Page 1 of 9
Q3. II-9. Small Diverse Business Participation Submittal, Item A. To receive credit for being a Small Diverse Business or for subcontracting with a Small Diverse Business (including purchasing supplies and/or services through a purchase agreement), an Offeror must include proof of Small Diverse Business qualification in the Small Diverse Business Participation submittal of the proposal a. Does the definition for purchasing supplies and/or services through a purchase agreement apply to a prime Offeror that is a reseller of software licenses, subscription and/or hosting services? b. If yes, is it correct that the prime Offeror that resells supplies, software licenses, services, subscription and/or hosting services as part of its total solution, will be weighted and credited accordingly to achieve the 60% contract performance value that a business submitting a proposal as a prime Offeror must perform as stated in Section III-4. Evaluation Criteria, C. Small Diverse Business Participation, Item 1 to receive points for the criterion under any priority ranking? c. Is the Small Diverse Business participation amount calculated from the total awarded contract value (licenses (as applicable), SaaS hosting service, and implementation services) or the total percentage and dollar amount of the implementation services committed to Small Diverse Businesses? A3. a. The PLCB is unable to provide a definitive response without additional information regarding the services and how the Prime Offeror is looking to report the spend. The Bureau of Small Business Opportunities will review and evaluate each submittal to ensure that subcontractor costs are correctly calculated. b. See answer above. c. As stated in Section II-9 B.2 on Page 14 of the RFP: All Offerors must include a numerical percentage which represents the total percentage of the total cost in the Cost Submittal that the Offeror commits to paying to Small Diverse Businesses (SDBs) as subcontractors. Q4. Section III-4. Evaluation Criteria, C. Small Diverse Business Participation, Item 1, states that a business submitting a proposal as a prime Offeror must perform sixty percent (60%) of the total contract value to receive points for the criterion under any priority ranking. Page 2 of 9
a. If a prime Offeror is submitting as a Small Diverse Business (SDB) and performs less than 60% of the total contract value, is there a penalty to the evaluation criteria for that prime Offeror s submittal? b. If yes, is the evaluation criterion for Section III-4. Evaluation Criteria, C. Small Diverse Business Participation, Item 1, a scaled point evaluation based on percentage of the total contract value, or is it an all or nothing evaluation criteria? A4. Please refer to Section III-9 C for priority rankings soring criterion. Q5. E. Defect Service Level Objectives, identifies PLCB s Defect Service Level Objectives. These Service Levels should serve as a guideline of the level of response and resources the PLCB is seeking for all of the support periods described in Task 6, Provide Subscription Based Training/Hosting/Maintenance/Support. The Offeror should propose Service Levels with these guidelines in mind. Defect Severity Maximum Response Time Resources Applied Hours and Days of Coverage Level 1 2 hours Vendor will provide resources to fix until completed. 24 hrs/day; 7 days/wk a. What are the types of computing or system utilization that occurs between the hours of 9:00 PM and 7:00 AM EST that require Level 1 service? b. What are the requirements for computing capacity between the hours of 9:00 PM and 7:00 AM EST? c. Are industry standard service level agreements for a hosted solution for Software as a Service (SaaS) acceptable to meet this requirement? A5. a. Twenty-four hour service must be available for PLCB customers. b. An answer cannot be given until the PLCB has an opportunity to review responses. c. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Page 3 of 9
Q6. IV-3. Requirements, E. Source Code will be placed in escrow in accordance with Paragraph 36(S) of the IT Contract Terms and Conditions, Appendix A. Section 36. Ownership Rights, Item (s) Source Code and Escrow Items Obligations, states that simultaneously with delivery of the Developed Works to Commonwealth, Contractor shall deliver a true, accurate and complete copy of all source codes relating to the Developed Works. To the extent that the Developed Works include application software or other materials generally licensed by the Contractor, then the source code shall be placed in escrow, subject to the terms and conditions of an Escrow Agreement to be executed by the Parties and an Escrow Agent that is acceptable to the Commonwealth. a. Since a prime Offeror will be providing a hosted solution for SaaS, not implementing a PLCB hosted solution with purchased software licenses, does the requirement for placing Source Code in escrow apply to this solicitation and contract award? b. If a prime Offeror proposes a solution other than placing Source Code in escrow, will that disqualify the prime Offeror as non-compliant? A6. a. Yes. b. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Q7. Section II-4. Prior Experience. Requires prime Offerors to list any current contracts that may present a conflict of interest. If there are none, provide a statement to that effect. a. Is it the intent of the PLCB to have prime Offerors submit an Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) Plan in its proposal? b. If yes, should the OCI Plan include actual or potential conflicts of interests of the prime Offeror and its proposed subcontractors? c. If yes, should the OCI Plan describe how the prime Offeror addresses potential or actual conflicts of interest and identify how they will avoid, neutralize, or mitigate present or future conflicts of interest resulting from award of a contract for RFP Number 20121101? A7. The PLCB needs to evaluate a conflict of interest on a case-by-case basis. An Organizational Conflict of Interest Plan should not be included in the technical Page 4 of 9
submittal. The PLCB reserves the right to ask for this information in the future. Q8. PART IV: WORK STATEMENT, section IV-3: Requirements. Item I. Key System Features, subsection 14. Address Validation: a. Does PLCB provide electronic list of valid PA Addresses in parsed form (including zip codes) for the purpose of address validation? A8. No. The software should provide address verification functionality. Q9. Will the PLCB accept a solution that addresses some of the functionality from the Recommend and Optional Requirements in Appendix O and N through enhancements of the existing PLCB systems already utilizes? A9. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Q10. Does the PLCB s existing Filenet solution allow for any of the requested capabilities, including the ability to upload, scan, store, archive and retrieve documents? A10. Upload directly into Filenet is not used. All documents are either scanned, autoimported or auto-committed to Filenet. We do store, archive and retrieve documents in Filenet. Q11. What version of Filenet is the PLCB currently running? A11. The PLCB currently runs: Filenet IDM desktop/web services 4.1.2 fix pack 11; Filenet image services 4.1.2 fix pack 11; Filenet Capture Professional 5.2.700.302; Hot fix pack level 1 Q12. Assuming the PLCB decides to keep Filenet as its ECM solution, will it be necessary to convert/migrate any images from this system as part of the implementation? A12. Offerors are to submit solutions. If Filenet is part of the technical submittal then, at a minimum, migration would be needed. Possible conversion may be Page 5 of 9
necessary, depending on the version of Filenet submitted as part of the recommended solution. Q13. Is Filenet currently implemented across the enterprise or only for the specific departments or programs identified in the RFP? A13. Filenet is only for the specific areas identified in the RFP. Q14. Has the PLCB configured workflows within Filenet to support their licensing processes? A14. Workflows are handled through customized applications that use Filenet API's to access the Filenet queues and tables and route/prioritize work accordingly. Q15. Is the PLCB using an OCR engine with Filenet? A15. No. Q16. Are the 2.4 million rows of annotation data in Oracle the metadata associated with the images stored in Filenet? If there is no change to the ECM platform, will this data still need to be converted? A16. Annotations are notes or comments that are attached to a respective image document. Indexing terms are more like metadata that are associated to the documents. See A12 for conversion response. Q17. Regardless of whether the PLCB decides to stay with Filenet or replace it with another ECM solution, are the document management requirements limited to the scope described in the RFP? A17. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Page 6 of 9
Q18. Does the PLCB currently extract data from bar codes on applications or is this a new requirement? A18. The PLCB does not currently extract data from bar codes on applications. Q19. Will licensees need the ability to search for and view documents online or is this requirement limited to the PLCB and other agencies? A19. Yes. Q20. If the PLCB decides to migrate from FileNet to a new ECM solution, can you confirm that there are only two data ports related to the images listed in that 26 page Appendix J: the one from FileNet and the one from Oracle? A20. Images are stored on MSAR (Magnetic Storage and Retrieval). Indexing and like data is stored in Oracle database. Filenet s proprietary databases hold other information such as Notations. Q21. Throughout the RFP, SaaS and/or subscription-based seem to be used interchangeably with hosted when referring to the type of solution the PLCB is interested in deploying. Can the PLCB clarify whether they are equally interested in either a SaaS solution (that provides subscription-based pricing) or a hosted solution (where the agency owns the software licenses but the solution is hosted in the cloud)? Is there a preference for one type of solution over the other? A21. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Q22. If the PLCB is open to either a SaaS or hosted web application solution, can the RFP evaluation criteria related to corporate experience be revised to include experience with hosted solutions? For example, RFP Part II-4 Prior Experience (page 12) states that Offerors must include experience delivering subscription based web application services. The associated evaluation criteria in RFP Part III- 4, A.2.B (page 18) Offeror Qualifications states the same. Language such as experience delivering subscription-based or hosted web-based applications would more accurately reflect the experience of offerors providing either type of solution. Page 7 of 9
A22. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Q23. If the PLCB is open to either a SaaS or hosted web application solution, can the RFP evaluation criteria related to experience of key personnel be revised to include experience with hosted solutions? For example, RFP Part II-5 Personnel (page 12) states that key personnel must have experience with Software as a Service (SaaS). The associated evaluation criteria in RFP Part III-4, A.2.A (page 18) Personnel Qualifications states the same. Language such as experience with SaaS or hosted applications would more accurately reflect the qualifications of personnel that would support a hosted solution. A23. Offerors should submit a technical proposal that provides the best solution Q24. It appears that the PLCB would like each Offeror to complete and submit RFP Appendix N and Appendix O as part of the proposal. However, the instructions for submission included in RFP Part II do not specify where to include these documents in the proposal. Can the PLCB please specify where to include these completed documents in the proposal submission? A24. Appendices N and O should be submitted in the same format and included as part of the technical submittal. Q25. RFP Part II-10 states that no assumptions may be submitted in the cost proposal while RFP Part I-5 requires Offerors to submit an established price contract. These requirements seem contradictory. Offerors will need to disclose the assumptions from which they derived their firm fixed price proposal. Can the PLCB explain where Offerors should disclose such assumptions if not in the cost proposal? A25. Paragraph 3 on Page 16 of Section II-10 of the RFP further states: Offerors should direct any questions about whether a cost or other component is included or applies. Questions must be submitted in writing to the Issuing Office pursuant to PART I, Section I-6 of this RFP. All Offerors will then have the benefit of the Issuing Office s written answer so that all proposals are submitted on the same basis. Page 8 of 9
Q26. Is the cost of the software licenses included in the Small Diverse Business participation percentages or is SDB participation restricted to services only? A26. As stated in Section II-9 B.2 on Page 14 of the RFP: All Offerors must include a numerical percentage which represents the total percentage of the total cost in the Cost Submittal that the Offeror commits to paying to Small Diverse Businesses (SDBs) as subcontractors. Page 9 of 9