RECREATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR THE CITY OF SOUTH GATE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT

Transcription

1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS RECREATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR THE CITY OF SOUTH GATE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT Contact Information: Steve Costley, Deputy Director City of South Gate Parks & Recreation Department 4900 Southern Avenue South Gate, CA (323) Due Date: 10:00 AM AUGUST 10, 2015 Deliver to: Office of the City Clerk 8650 California Avenue South Gate, CA Requests for information must be submitted no later than August 3, 2015 to receive a response. Page 1 of 10

2 PROJECT BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW The City of South Gate Parks & Recreation Department is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide, install, train, & support City staff in the use and implementation of Parks & Recreation Management Software Solutions. GENERAL INFORMATION The City of South Gate is located in Los Angeles County, California. South Gate has a population of approximately 98,000 residents and manages 9 parks. Facilities include: an Olympic-size swimming pool, 9 lighted multi-purpose athletic fields, 6 lighted basketball courts, soccer fields, a 9 hole golf course, fitness center, gymnasium, resource centers, senior center, band stand and many other recreational venues. These facilities generate over 5,000 visitors per day, 2,400 memberships with 50,000 visits annually and over 20,300 program registrations. The Department also manages over 1,400 facility use permits per year. HISTORY/PROJECT GOALS The City of South Gate Parks & Recreation Department has been using Class Software since 1999 for all of its facility reservations, program registrations, and POS systems. Starting in 2012 the department added Active Net service to enhance their management software to include online registration and hosted payment server. In 2014 the Department was notified that Active was phasing out the Class system and clients would no longer be supported after The primary goal of this project is to replace the current management software with new and improved software. The new software should be easier for both staff and clients to navigate, more efficient and cost effective for City staff to manage, and provide a wide variety of services to the citizens of the City of South Gate. The ideal system will also include competitive pricing and a flexible pricing and payment plan that will allow the city to tailor a plan which suits its operations. Short Term Goals Replace the current Recreation Management Software System with an easier to use and more responsive system including installation/setup on up to 50 City computers. Provide appropriate levels of training to the following employees to allow for a seamless transition and ongoing trouble free operations: o Front line staff o Supervisors o System Administrators o City s Finance Department Transitioning from current database and system to new platform without interruption of daily operations. Import user base from existing system to new database. Preservation and access to existing historical data. Purchase and installation of any needed hardware required for 100% compatibility prior to startup of new system. Page 2 of 10

3 Financial management system that ensures accountability for all monies received and all service provided. Long Term Goals Provide clients with easy access to program information, updates, registrations and facility reservations via the internet using personal computers, tablets and smart phones. Integrate Recreation Management Software with City s financial system Integrate Recreation Management Software with City s website and social media accounts. Ability to keep new management system up to date with changing technology trends. Provide easy to manage reporting functions for staff to access data for marketing, planning and program management. Web based access for easy off site use. SCOPE OF SERVICES The project objective is to obtain a parks and recreation management software system that meets the current and future needs of the City of South Gate Parks and Recreation Department. The following description outlines the basic functions and requirements for qualifying systems. To be considered as a responsive proposal, the proposal must demonstrate the ability of the software to meet or exceed all Mandatory Functions listed below. Proposals which demonstrate an ability to meet any or all of the functions listed as Desirable Features may be rated more favorably. The City is most interested in fully hosted (web) solutions with minimal local client (PC) software install which provides staff and customers the greatest flexibility in accessing the software. However, the City will consider on-premises software solutions, especially if the product meets the functionality needs and has a more cost effective and/or secure method for facilitating payment processing. The product must keep credit card information separate from the City s network and computers. The ideal software solution will enable the City to provide excellent customer service both in person and online for its main business activities including, but not limited to, daily recreation program administration and registration, facility and field reservations, memberships, payment processing and reporting. In addition, the system should provide for efficient and effective business processes and management tools to assist in programs administration and financial reporting. Mandatory Functions And System Requirements 1. Facility Reservation and Scheduling The ideal system will allow for easy scheduling of facilities for a variety of uses, booking and management of reservations for private events as well as contract management for outside users including deposits, security retentions, refunds, credits, transfers, payment plans and electronic archiving and access of agreements. The scheduling function should allow staff to easily find and see available space based upon specific search criteria or by calendar. It should also allow Page 3 of 10

4 for automatic scheduling of space based upon the program schedule information and allow for scheduling of maintenance time by city maintenance staff. 2. Program Registration The City needs a system to manage and receive registrations, both in person and online, for a wide variety of programs and activities. The system shall also assist in managing program participants by creating program rosters, attendance records, wait lists and instructor payment records. It must also allow for secondary registration documents including informed consent/liability waivers, health forms and team rosters. 3. Membership Management and Tracking - The City is interested in a component to sell and manage memberships, both in person and online. The City currently issues both seasonal and monthly memberships for its Fitness Center. Monthly memberships are renewed by automatic payments via credit cards. The membership component must also include swipe card access and tracking, member activity records, and a marketing component. Fitness component tracking and progress is desirable. 4. Point of Sale - The Department is interested in a point-of-sale system that provides for internal cash controls that can support payment intake at multiple locations. This might include cash register functionality and monitoring reports. In addition, the City uses its current point-of sale system to sell retail items, to sell tickets and day passes and to deposit donations. 5. Financial Reporting and Cash Drawer Functions - The City is interested in a software program that allows for an internal general ledger that tracks financial accounting for all transactions, such as revenues related to classes and facility rentals. Currently, the City provides printed daily cash reports to Finance along with the daily deposits. The City is interested in the new software system interfacing or at least exporting to the current financial system, Eden Financials by Tyler Technologies. Critical functionality includes a general ledger data export and an export to process refund checks in the Eden system. The City is interested in the flexibility of interfacing with other financial systems as well. 6. Credit Card Processing The City is interested in a safe and secure system for receiving payments via credit card. The City currently accepts both online and in person credit card payments as well as automatic payments through contract for our Fitness Center membership program. This process must fully integrate into the point of sale and financial reporting functions and may not retain any of the individual credit card information within the City s network, computers or databases. The service providing for these payments must have an excellent security record and protocols. The system must allow for refunds directly back to credit card. Transaction fees must be at market rate or lower with flexible options as to how and when those fees are paid, either by the customer or by the City. 7. Online Registrations and Payments - The City is interested in a user-friendly online interface for its registration, facility reservation and membership transactions. The interface should be flexible and accessible on personal computers, tablets, mobile phones and other devices utilized by today s customers. This system should integrate easily with the City s existing website. 8. Online Facility Reservation and availability The City does not currently allow online reservations for facility use, but may soon be interested in allowing such. The City is interested in a system that allows for online viewing of available facilities by both patrons and staff, online modification of schedule by approved users, online booking of practice Page 4 of 10

5 times by sports teams and other user groups and initial reservation of park facilities for private use. 9. Customer Database Management and Reporting - The City is interested in a core customer database that allows for patron management across the various components of the business system. Strong areas of interest include a flexible search capability within the customer database, standard fields for capturing key customer information and easy export or integration with other programs. Easy access to both marketing data as well as use statistics and financial data are highly desirable. 10. Informed Consent/Liability Waiver Acknowledgement, Archiving and Management The City is interested in a system that provides for electronic signing of informed consent and liability waivers as part of the registration process, both in person and online. The system needs to allow for archiving, searching and retrieval of these documents as needed. The stored data must be in a format and standard that is acceptable for presentation in a court of law. Archived data must be accessible for up to 15 years. Desirable Features 11. League Scheduling - The Department does not currently use the Class system for sports league management. The Department reserves field time and registers teams in a general course for its sports leagues. The Department is interested in reviewing options for sports league management. While the City s preference is that all components of the software solution are integrated and part of the same software family, the City will consider nonintegrated components as long as they are able to share common customer database information. 12. Maintenance Scheduling The City is interested in an easy to use interface which allows for effective communication with the City s maintenance staff in the facility reservation process. The system should allow viewing of daily events and activities for maintenance staff scheduling and allow for maintenance staff to designate required times for event setup or facility maintenance to avoid overbooking. The ability to provide for Maintenance Division acknowledgement and to include setup information on event reservations is desirable. 13. Marketing and Communication - The City is interested in facilitating communications with its customers through different channels including phone, and regular mail. The City wants to be able to and/or text receipts and basic course registration, facility rental and membership information. There is also interest in tools for pushing surveys and newsletters to program users. Functions for reminders of appointments, program start dates, outstanding or unfinished registration materials, renewal and registration dates are also highly desirable. Finally, the Department produces a brochure for the web and for print and data from the software system should export for this purpose. The proposed system may be a hosted web based system (preferred) or a server based on site system. If the solution is a server based system the vendor must specify the necessary hardware and software platform in detail. Page 5 of 10

6 The City of South Gate currently uses Eden for Financial Management and Civic Plus for its website management. The City may desire to integrate the Recreation Management software with these two systems at some point in the future. Other Features The Vendor may include a listing of features not specified in this RFP which are part of the proposed software package and that the proposer feels that the City may find desirable or useful. The listing must clearly identify if the feature is provided as a standard feature at no additional cost or if it is furnished at an extra cost. The vendor shall list all features provided in an optional feature package and indicate total cost. Any features which are provided as extra cost options must be listed separately. Compatibility The City currently performs most of its functions with Windows based PC s operating on a variety of versions from Windows XP and later. The City is currently moving some remote functions and facilities to tablet (ipad) or smart phone (android) rather than full PC s. The City s current network is based on a Windows 2008 Server Platform with SQL 2005 and Exchange 2007/2010. Primarily workstation software includes Microsoft Office Suite. Connections include a full range from fiber and wireless connections to limited DSL. The ideal product will maintain satisfactory functionality on a full range of connection speeds and types. Systems that become slow or unstable during times of peak network use or at a remote location with limited connection speed may be problematic. SPECIFICATIONS FOR RESPONSE In order to be considered as a qualifying proposal, the following information is required. Each submittal must include the information listed below. Within the page limits specified under Proposal Format each proposal may include additional information as appropriate. Proposals which exceed the designated page limits may be considered unresponsive at the sole discretion of the selection team. This Request for Proposal (RFP) contains the information and requirements needed for vendors to prepare and submit proposals. The vendor shall provide proposal costs in a clear and itemized form, identifying any requirements they are not able to meet and separate any additional costs and features. The vendor must provide a list of client references that may be contacted in this process. General A successful proposal will provide a descriptive summary demonstrating the organization s qualifications and the software s ability to provide the services requested. Provide a clear outline of the proposed system s capabilities and how those address the City s needs as out lined in the RFP. A strong emphasis will be placed upon the ability to provide a smooth and timely transition to the new system, appropriate training of all staff prior to launch and a secure and trouble free product for the City. Proposal Format Page 6 of 10

7 Three (3) copies of the proposal shall be submitted in writing with all associated attachments on or before 10:00am on the due date. Proposals may only be received by the City Clerk s Office at 8650 California Avenue, South Gate, CA In addition, one (1) electronic copy of the proposal in PDF format is required. All proposals shall be 8 ½ by 11 and appropriately bound within a three ring binder. A USB thumb drive accessible by a Windows Operating System Computer shall be used to provide the electronic copy. The name of the firm shall be clearly identified on the exterior of the thumb drive as well as on the cover and spine of the binder. An additional ten (10) hard copies may be required of any proposal which is to be presented to the City Council for consideration. An officer who is authorized to execute legal documents on behalf of the organization shall sign the proposal. Information within the proposal should be clearly marked and formatted with the following sections. 1. Executive Summary (max 1 page) Provide an overview of the proposed services, your organization and its ability to be able to provide the services proposed. 2. Understanding of Project (max 2 page) Provide information which expresses and verifies your understanding of the services being requested and the City s goals and desired outcomes for this project. 3. Experience and Background (max 1 page) Explain in detail your organizations ability to ensure that the project achieves or exceeds goals and expectations through your experience, resources and qualifications of the project team. 4. Proposed Parks & Recreation Management Software (max 3 pages) Provide a detailed description of the proposed recreation management software, its ease of use, compatibility with current and future technology. 5. System Security (Max 1 Page) Ability of provider and system to maintain secure data for both the City and clients. Maintain all client credit card data separate from City computers and network. 6. Proposed Project Work Plan (max 2 page) Provide a detailed work plan which shows how you plan on achieving the goals within the allotted timeframe while ensuring full participation by the City in critical decision making processes. It is critical that the proposed transition plan will not interrupt the City s day to day operations. 7. Training (max 2 pages) Provide an outline of the proposed plan to train front line staff, supervisors, system administrators and finance staff within the City staff to ensure that the software and web resources provided through this project may be fully utilized. 8. Financial Arrangements Provide the proposed financial terms using the attached Form A. Page 7 of 10

8 9. References (max 1 page) Provide a minimum of three references for which you have provided similar services within the last three years. Provide a brief outline of the scope and location of the market as well as name and contact information of your primary contact with the City or agency. 10. Conclusion (max 1 page) Each proposer may include up to one page of summary which explains the overall value of their proposal and what they can bring to the City of South Gate s web site and online services. This section will not be graded, but may be included in the award of the overall rating points. 11. Appendix - Additional information which directly relates to the qualifications of the proposer, demonstrates the ability of the proposed software to meet the City s needs or clarifies and expands upon information contained in the proposal may be included here. Information in this section will be reviewed at the sole discretion of the City s Selection Team. Information contained solely within the appendices will not be used in scoring the proposals, but may provide additional clarification or insight regarding that information contained within the main body of the proposal. Information contained within the appendices will become part of the proposal for contractual purposes. Questions concerning Proposal Requirements All questions regarding this RFQ should be addressed to: Steve Costley, Deputy Director of Parks & Recreation Phone: (323) scostley@sogate.org Requests for information (RFI s) must be submitted no later than August 3, 2015 to receive a response. New information and answer to RFI s will be posted on the City s website at EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS An initial evaluation will be made of each proposal by a Selection Team made up of three or more City staff members. Proposals will be rated on the following categories 1. Overall quality of the organization and proposed system and services. 2. Demonstrated ability of the Company and the proposed system to meet the City of South Gate s needs. 3. Compatibility with the City s existing computer/technology systems. 4. Ease of use and capabilities of the recreation management system. 5. Technical resources for providing system support, maintenance and updates. 6. Safety and security of both the City s and its clients financial information. 7. Ability of company to provide for adequate training, support and a smooth transition without interruption to City s ongoing operations. Page 8 of 10

9 8. Price of software including annual maintenance cost projected over the next 5 year period beginning in Reputation of the vendors proposed system in serving other similar municipal clients through provided professional references and other sources. Those proposals judged as being most qualified by the Selection Team, will be contacted and given the opportunity to make a presentation to the Selection Team. Staff will negotiate a professional services agreement with the selected applicant and the final agreement will be presented to the City Council for approval. The City reserves the right to negotiate all terms of the agreement including pricing. In the event that an agreement cannot be reached with the selected applicant in a reasonable period of time, the City reserves the right to move on to the next highest applicant until an agreement is successfully reached. ANTICIPATED SELECTION SCHEDULE The following timetable is anticipated: Request for Proposal is released August 10, 2015 Proposals due by 10:00 a.m. Week of Aug. 31 Interviews with Top Candidates (if needed) October 13, 2015 Award of Contract by City Council November 2, 2015 Begin Transition Plan Implementation April 1, 2015 Expected Go Live Date NOTICE TO CANDIDATES This Request for Proposals does not constitute a contract or an offer of employment. The cost of preparation of proposals shall be the sole obligation of the consultant. All proposals, whether accepted or rejected, shall become the property of the City. The City reserves the right to reject any and all proposals. Elements and/or tasks may be added or deleted at the discretion of the City pending negotiation of the scope of work and compensation. The organization shall certify that no official or employee of the City or any business entity, in which an official of the City has an interest, has been employed or retained to solicit or aid in the procuring of the Agreement. No such person shall be employed in the performance of the Agreement. The organization selected will be required to negotiate and sign a professional services agreement with the City of South Gate and abide by all terms stated in the agreement including providing certificates of insurance as specified in the agreement. The City assumes no responsibility for late proposals and it is the sole responsibility of the consultant to ensure that the proposal is received at the City office prior to due date. No faxes or Page 9 of 10

10 s will be accepted. Late responses, including responses postmarked before but not received until after proposal due date, will not be accepted and will be returned unopened to the applicant. Page 10 of 10