RFP Q & A for BUDGET DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE 1. Cover page (page 1): Would SCBE considers a 3 week extension to the July 1st deadline?

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1 1. Cover page (page 1): Would SCBE considers a 3 week extension to the July 1st deadline? A. Yes, Monday, July 22, Please see Addendum I. 2. Cover page (page 1): What is TIME REQUIRED FOR DELIVERY DAYS? Is that the total number of consulting days to implement the solution? A. Please include timeframe to make the solution available after contract is signed including days to implement. 3. Cover page (page 1): What do you want for TERMS? A. Net 30 no less than 30 days after acceptance. 4. Please confirm that both a hosted and in-house solution are acceptable to SCBE? A. Both are acceptable options. 5. Is your current financial data that resides in APECs in a relational database? If so, which one? A. Yes, APECs is a relational database. 6. Is APECS hosted or in-house? A. APECS is hosted. 7. Page 8, section 1.2. Please elaborate on The new system will need full field search capability? A. This refers to the ability to search data on any field, i.e. Fund, Department, Function, Name, Account, Location, Project, Fiscal Year, or Proposed vs. Actual. 8. Page 9, section 1.2. Please elaborate on Specific to capital budgets, it is desirable that it maintains data on projects that are not approved in the capital budget? A. We would like to include proposed projects that may not be included in the final approved capital budget for a given year but are likely to be included in future years. 9. Page 9, section 1.2. Please elaborate on The software must have the ability to create new positions that will upload/integrated to the Financial System A. Part of the budgeting process includes the creation of new positions including position parameters and account information. Rather than continue manual reconciliation, positions should be created in the budget system and uploaded to the Financial System. 10. Page 9, section 1.2. Please elaborate on The system must provide notification when staff must be added or eliminated due to declining enrollment A. Based upon the District s staffing formula on pages 404 and 405 of the District s website the RFP# (WSP11) 1

2 software should calculate when a new position is necessary or when a position should be eliminated. 11. Page 16, section d. SLAs seem more appropriate for hosted solutions. What kind of SLA do you need for an in-house solution? A. Please include in your response what, if any, support is provided for your solution to respond to questions, failures, or issues. 12. Page 16, section a.b. and.e. Please elaborate relative to an in-house solution. A. Please provide in your response such items as are applicable for your proposed solution. Inhouse solutions may have upgrades, patches, and other periodic alterations as well as access for users which may present security responses. 13. Page 17, sections & seem to ask for the same things as section A. Thank you for your comment. 14. Page 18, there are two items marked with the same section number There is also no section A. Thank you for your comment. 15. Page 23, section The weights total 105% in the table? A. Services will be changed to 35% so that the weights in the table will total 100%. 16. Page 27, section What hours will we be permitted to work? A. The District Administration offices are open 8:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m, Monday through Friday. Staff is frequently available up to one hour prior and after these hours. 17. Page 27, section The SCBE would not own the programs that make up the budgeting solution. SCBE would be licensed to use the IP. A. SCS would own the data that goes into the software and must have access to retrieve it in an appropriate useable format. Additionally, the successful respondent/proposal will need to provide adequate training and documentation to SCS/SCBE IT staff so that they can create and modify reports and queries. 18. Page 36. Do you want us to estimate travel costs? If so, what line item should that go in? A. Please insert a line below Training Costs. 19. Can we get all the required forms in native Word and Excel formats? A. Section E and F will be available as fillable PDF documents. Section G will be will be RFP# (WSP11) 2

3 available as an Excel document. Documents will be posted to website on Tuesday, June 23, Page 15, item b. Please elaborate on "Contractor must provide an environmental study to prove acceptance and feasibility into SCS s existing infrastructure and staffing." A. SCS needs an assessment of what human and technical resources are needed to implement this solution and are expected to be provided by SCS as part of the implementation process. 21. Page 45, item number 24. Please elaborate on "Allow the advanced query of budget accounts and categories so that budgets can be analyzed and updated on an account rather than budget basis. A. We want the ability to import/export budgeted and actual data for analytical purposes. 22. Page 47, item number 62. Please elaborate on "Provide ability to rank or prioritize projects based on user defined criteria. A. Projects and programs are assessed on various factors to determine their priority for inclusion in the proposed budget. Such criteria can include future funding requirements, positions, grant matches, and support of District priorities. Does the solution allow for such rankings or prioritization and is that presented? 23. Section A-Announcement: Is budget funding available now for the solution? A. Yes, up to a certain amount. 24. Section A - Announcement: Is a Shelby County Business License required for submitting an RFP, or can it be obtained prior to commencement after award of the contract? A. No. 25. Section A - Announcement: Will SCBE accept more than 1 response from a vendor, either as an alternate response by that vendor or where the vendor is part of one of more consortia? A. Yes. 26. Section B - Scope of Services: Is there a system currently in place and if so, which vendor provided it? A. SCS currently uses an in-house assortment of MS Access databases with data imported from the APECs Financial System to MS Excel and Word. 27. Section B - Scope of Services: Have SCBE viewed any budget solutions prior to release of the RFP within the last year? If so, which solutions? A. No, not within the last year. RFP# (WSP11) 3

4 28. Section B - Scope of Services: Does SCBE have a preference for any particular software delivery model, e.g. hosted on premises, hosted by vendor or software as a service? A. No. 29. Section B - Scope of Services: Section Where the respondent is a privately owned Corporation without requirement for an annual audit of the financial reports, will SCBE accept management reports covering 3 years? A. No. 30. Section C - Instructions to Respondents: Sub-section In the event SCBE decides to procure, is there an indicative time frame SCBE would like the implementation to begin or a target date for completion? A. As soon as possible. 31. Section C - Instructions to Respondents: Sub-section 8.3: To assist with resource planning, does SCBE have a timeframe for oral presentations should they be required? A. Yes, within a month of RFP closing date. 32. Section C - Instructions to Respondents: Section 10.21: is a bond or security required for this project? A. No. 33. Section G - Appendix: 11. Item 4 of the Requirements: can SCBE provide an example of formula driven values in priority-based budgeting? A. A formula used in priority-based budgeting may include weighted averages or additional weight variables applied to dollar values or assigned to specific projects or account criteria. For example, items under a specific priority may receive a higher weight value when assigning priorities or rankings. 34. Is your preference to have the software installed on your premise (your server) or, in a hosted environment? A. No preference 35. What database does APECS use (including version #)? A. SQL 36. Can APECS export data in a CSV and/or Excel File format? A. Yes, typically it exports to csv. What export options are supported? RFP# (WSP11) 4

5 A. MS Excel, Adobe. 37. Can APECS accept data in a CSV and/or Excel File format? A. Csv What import options are supported? A. Csv 38. Page 15, item calls for the contractor to provide an environmental study. Can you elaborate on exactly what this means? Generally software implementations have little or no impact on the environment. A. See response to # Page 18, item states Disclosure of the Respondent s financial reports for the last three years of the most recent audit reports. Can we include one copy in a separate sealed envelope that is marked confidential? A. Yes 40. In order to meet the 10% MWBE Participation goal, (Section D) can you provide a listing of certified MWBE firms? Are there any other resources SCS can provide to assist in meeting this goal? A. Please contact the Doris Gordon with Memphis Minority Business Council Continuum, dgordon@mmbc-memphis.org. 41. In Section G, what is your expectation regarding the last column labeled Reference Note? Do you want additional narrative details in this column? A. If you have additional information in your narrative that you would like to include and need to make reference to a particular point /page number in this section please use this column to annotate that information. 42. Does SCS require vendors to respond to each of the numbered items starting 1.3 on page 9 through to and including item 1.5 on page 17? A. Yes 43. If yes to the above question, are vendors also required to respond to each of the items in Section G also? A. Yes, where applicable. 44. The Format of Proposal on page 17 does not mention Section G. If vendors are required to respond to Section G, where in the format should it go? RFP# (WSP11) 5

6 A. Please provide / recreate your own grid if necessary including the same information provided in Section G. 45. What is your annual (Operating & Capital) budget? A. Approximately $1.4 billion in all funds 46. Can the RFP be provided in an editable format, such as MS Word? A. No, Section E and F will be available as fillable PDF documents. Section G will be will be available as an Excel document. Documents will be posted to website on Tuesday, June 23, If no, can we reproduce (manually type/create) duplicate document? A. Yes 48. Does the SCS want a COTS (Commercial off the shelf) solution, or a custom built tool? A. Either will be considered. 49. Can you provide an overview your general organizational structure as it relates to budgeting? For example, below is a common organization structure: 10 Divisions; 50 Departments; 200 Cost Centers / Schools (budgeting done at this level, then rolled up)? A. 13 Funds, 45 State Functions with 20 Major State Function Codes, 10 Object Code Categories with approximately 600 Object Codes, approximately 350 Project Codes, 160 Departments, 11 Chief Operating Areas, 250 Location Codes. The Account String is: 50. What is the total number of positions (staff) expressed as FTE s? A. 12, What number of these positions are unionized? A. We have collaborative conferencing. All certificated teaching type positions (~7,000) are in this category. 52. For the majority of positions, are staffing costs calculated based on Steps and Grades (a matrix)? If not, can you explain how position costs are calculated? A. Position costs are assigned to each Position Control Number. SCS is moving to a variable RFP# (WSP11) 6

7 compensation model based on performance in which across-the-board increases may be granted but position specific increases may be given either by dollar value or percentage. However, teacher type positions are currently on steps and lanes. 53. For the Professional Services component of the bid, are you requesting a fixed price or time & material? A. Either approach is acceptable; if using time & materials, please include a not-to-exceed amount. 54. Can the RFP deadline be extended to July 10 th? Based on the current due date, I do not think we will have enough time to put together a formal response. Any accommodation will be greatly appreciated. A. Please see response to question number one. 55. Does the school system have a preference in how the software is consumed (installed on-premise and managed in-house or via public cloud)? Would the school system prefer a cloud based model where all future upgrades, patches, & maintenance are the sole responsibility of the software vendor? A. No preference 56. Section G Budget Software Business Requirements can you release this section in word or excel? A. Yes, Section G will be will be available as an Excel document. Document will be posted to website on Tuesday, June 23, How many users do you expect to use the system during budget season? For instance, some of our school district customers not only license the budget office users but also each principal and bookkeeper at every school. I noticed the following sentence - The software must be capable of supporting at least 300 total system users with 150 concurrent users. Considering the prior sentence, should we assume a software price for 300 users will suffice? A. 300 users will need access to the system with 150 concurrent users during peak season. 58. Is the Budget Software RFP related at all to the ERP Assessment RFP? Has the District decided to procure the budget software separate from the enterprise resource planning? A. The purchase decisions will be made separately. 59. General / Project Management: How many of your employees will participate on the project team? What roles will your team play on the project team? A. Response to Question #20 explains the Environmental Study which requests clarification from the vendor as to how many and which employees will need to participate in the implementation. At minimum, there are 5 people from the Budget Department and RFP# (WSP11) 7

8 representatives from Accounting & Reporting, Facilities, Information Technology, and Human Resources will also be available. 60. General / Project Management: What percentage of each project team member s time will be allocated to this project over the course of the initiative (for example, the project manager might spend 100% of his or her time on the project during the project lifecycle, while an end user representative might spend 25% of his or her time on project activities)? A. See response to Questions #20 and Infrastructure / Hardware: Has the business already procured the servers? A. Please include specifications in the solution proposal. 62. Infrastructure / Hardware: Would you team provide a part time infrastructure admin to manage the hardware and installed software during the project timeline? A. Please include specifications in the solution proposal. 63. General / Location: What is your team s expectation about the location where consulting partner team members will perform project work (for example, on site, remote team participation, blended)? A. Please include your recommended approach in your solution proposal. 64. Requirements: For this kind of initiative, we often build in person workshops and meetings into the project plan to help achieve team consensus and to more efficiently develop project deliverables. Is your team open to this kind of approach, or do geographical or other constraints preventing us from using this approach? A. Please include your recommended approach in your solution proposal. 65. Data Integration: Is there currently an ETL tool being used to manage data and or/metadata? Would SCS provide the data in the required format to load into the system. A. Data is managed via MS Access and APECS and can be provided in MS Excel and csv formats. 66. Reports: How are reports produced today? How many reports? How many reporting structures are used across the existing applications? A. Reports are exported from APECS into MS Excel or MS Access and modified to display specific content. Multiple stock reports such as position control, position parameters, account numbers, and account content are linked in Access to create custom reporting and budgeting options. 67. For the 3 to 5 year projections, is the level of data the same as the operating budget, or are these projections done at a higher level? RFP# (WSP11) 8

9 A. All are prepared at the same level of detail but may include formulas for general inflation. 68. Of the 300 users defined for the system how many are involved in the operating budget process? How many users would be involved in the capital/grant budgeting process? A. Most of the 300 are involved in grant and operating budget process. Approximately 25 are involved in the capital budget process. 69. When does Shelby County Board of Education anticipate starting the budget system development project? A. As soon as possible 70. Has a budget for this project been determined? A. Funds have been approved. 71. What software demonstrations of Budgeting systems has SCBE seen prior to this RFP? A. Hyperion, Questica, 72. Can SCBE please clarify the expectations in regards to long term maintenance of the software? Is SCBE looking for a managed services approach from the implementer to support ongoing technical and functional requests? A. Please provide the recommended maintenance approach within your response to proposal. 73. Section 1.4.1, page 13: In the District s previous solicitation for the Budget Development Software, the Q&A responses from the District specified 160 users to be priced. Please confirm or correct this number, as it does differ from the original and the more recent RFP content which states 300 total system users with 150 concurrent users. A. See response to Question # General: If possible, please share the District s budget for this initiative. A. This would not be appropriate at this time. Please provide your best solution based upon the information provided in the request for proposal. 75. General: Please share the key dates/timeframes of the District s current annual budgeting cycle. A. Please find attached the most recent budget calendar. The FY process is tentatively scheduled to kick off in late September and be broken into phases including goals, personnel/organizational structures, and non-personnel components. 76. General: Please share the anticipated start date for this initiative. A. As soon as possible. RFP# (WSP11) 9

10 77. General: Please share the desired deployment or go live date for this initiative. A. As soon as possible; preferably within the FY budget process in order to complete parallel testing prior to budget implementation. RFP# (WSP11) 10