Request for Information HIR-CRM Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)/Correspondence Management System (CMS) Providers

Transcription

1 Request for Information HIR-CRM Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)/Correspondence Management System (CMS) Providers

2 1. INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) 1.1 The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (the CAO ) of the United States House of Representatives (the House ) has been charged by the Committee on House Administration (CHA) with supporting and maintaining the information technology ( IT ) and service support structure of the House. The environment is composed of four hundred and forty-one (441) Members of Congress and over fifty (50) committee, leadership and support offices. There are approximately ten thousand (10,000) staffers of the House and approximately nine hundred and fifty (950) district offices across the United States and Territories. 1.2 The purpose of this RFI is to obtain information from firms with demonstrated capability and experience in enterprise-wide Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software, also known as Correspondence Management Systems (CMS) on how to provide CMS services in a secure and cost effective manner. 2. BACKGROUND 2.1 The House CRM/CMS systems are heavily utilized by Members and staff to manage and track correspondence and casework. The system tracks communications between Members, constituents, businesses, local governments, and federal government agencies, and provides analysis of constituent sentiment on pending/enacted legislation. Constituent communications are initiated through multiple channels; phone calls, faxes, , web forms, social media, and walk-ins. The Basic and Advanced Features for House Correspondence Management Systems (see attachment 1) document details incumbent capability. 2.2 All vendors must adhere to a standard data interchange format, comply with House IT policies and publications, offer basic required features (see attachment 1), and provide training and application support during core business hours. All service offerings and service plans are available to the House community for feature and cost comparison on the House s web portal. 2.3 In the current model, multiple vendors offer customized solutions under two basic scenarios: Scenario (1): CRM/CMS on Servers Owned by House Offices (In-office servers) The first (1) scenario; in-office servers, is the least desirable because it offers no business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) in the event of an emergency, consistent life-cycle replacement of the server hardware, and often costs more to the office because server maintenance is required along with the software. The House has made the migration of these offices to the House Hosted cloud solution a major priority with more than 90% of the entire population now migrated. Page 2 of 6

3 2.3.2 Scenario (2): CRM/CMS on Servers Owned by the House (House Hosted Cloud solution) The second (2) scenario; House Hosted, is the recommended platform. The CAO manages the infrastructure, supporting multiple vendor-offered CRM/CMS solutions, by supporting the hardware life cycle replacement, break/fix, backups, and data replication to an alternate facility for BC/DR purposes. The vendor is responsible for the CRM/CMS software, security patching and associated support. More importantly, it reduces the hardware maintenance cost(s) by removing the physical servers from the office. 2.4 House Members currently pay approximately $11M a year for CRM software and support. Excluded from this figure are the costs associated with the House hosted cloud infrastructure for (1) hardware life-cycle replacement; (2) business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) and data replication; (3) hardware sustainment; (3) power consumption; and (4) personnel. 2.5 Current CRM/CMS support is under review for ways to add value, increase efficiency and reduce costs. Correspondingly, the House is seeking alternative option(s) to the current CRM/CMS software and hosting model. 3. SCOPE OF SERVICES 3.1 The House is seeking information on alternative option(s) to the current CRM/CMS software and hosting solution. The objective is to address Member costs, enhance functionality, keep pace with changing requirements, secure data, and increase responsiveness over wide-area networks to District offices throughout the U.S. and its territories. Functionally, the House is particularly interested in how CRM/CMS data can be hosted and the customer experience can be improved without compromising I/O responsiveness. In addition, the new solution must adapt and expand according to House customer needs. 3.2 Model House Data Privacy Statement Applicable to Candidate CRM/CMS Solutions All data or other information transferred by a House office for storage by the Vendor outside the office in which the records originated shall remain the exclusive property and under the exclusive legal control of the office in which the data originated The Vendor agrees to notify the Office of the General Counsel of the House ( ) and the appropriate custodian of records in the office in which the records originated if any third party requests access to data or other information, including but not limited to requests issued pursuant to subpoena or the Freedom of Information Act. Any release of the data or other information shall be subject to the applicable law, policies and rules of the House Where a House office is no longer in operation at the time of an information request, the Vendor agrees to notify the Office of General Counsel of the House and the custodian of records in the successor House office, promptly upon receipt of such information request. The Vendor may consult with the Clerk of the House to determine the successor House office. Page 3 of 6

4 3.2.4 The Vendor further agrees not to release, transfer or provide access to any such data or other information pursuant to such requests without the prior written approval of the Office of General Counsel of the House and the appropriate custodian of records in the office in which the records originated. Should the Vendor release any information without written authorization from the Office of General Counsel and the appropriate custodian of records in the office from which the records originated, this contract is subject to immediate cancellation at the discretion of the House, in which event the Vendor forfeits any additional payments due under this contract Compliance by the Vendor with any subpoena or other request for information will not condition, waive or modify any legal right or Constitutional privilege of the House office or of the House of Representatives The Vendor will notify the House immediately upon learning of a known or suspected compromise or breach of data, or any incidents or issues that put our data at risk, including but not limited to the viewing, altering, or copying of House data by an entity other than the office that originally provided the data. 4. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS Respondents are requested to provide detailed information on how they would provide services based on two general scenarios (see Section 2.3 for a detailed description of each scenario): 4.1 Scenario(s): Scenario 1: Externally Hosted CRM/CMS Solution (SaaS) The vendor owns and maintains the software, support, and externally hosted cloud solution Sole source environment supporting (441 offices) Supports a subset of customers in competitive environment (150 offices) Scenario 2: Externally Hosted CRM/CMS Platform Solution (PaaS) Vendor provided and maintained platform capable of supporting multiple vendor-supported and/or built CRM application(s) Sole source environment supporting (441 offices) Supports a subset of customers in competitive environment (150 offices). 4.2 Company Overview - Vendors shall provide the following information: Cover letter with the name of vendor, mailing address, overnight delivery address (if different from mailing address), phone number, name of designated point of contact and address A general description/history/capabilities of the vendor and partnering organizations, if applicable. 4.3 Detailed Information Vendors are requested to provide copies of their proposed solution for the following items as they relate to the Scope of Service in Section 4.1: Cloud infrastructure and data Hardware specifications Storage capacity Page 4 of 6

5 Communications links / API support Data facilities, location, and security Data encryption (at rest and in transit) User access controls Data segregation Data recovery Reporting Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) Infrastructure visibility Change management process Incident response and reporting Information security process Continuous monitoring process CRM/CMS Software Platform System architecture (a) Application layer (b) Database engine Software modules (a) Correspondence tracking (b) Targeted mailings (c) System reports (d) Systems administration (e) Data import/export (f) Advanced features (i.e. social media integration) (g) Printing (Local printing of CMS correspondence on printers within House network) Service/Support model Training Desk-side support Remote support Service desk support System data migration support Hours of operation / support EULA example Pricing Licensing cost Support cost 5. RESTRICTION ON DISCLOSURE AND USE OF DATA 5.1 Responses that include data, including proprietary data, that the vendor does not want disclosed to the public for any purpose, or used by the CAO except for evaluation purposes for this RFI, should include a title page marked with the following legend: Page 5 of 6

6 This response to RFI HIR-CRM includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the House and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed--in whole or in part--for any purpose other than to evaluate this response. This restriction does not limit the House's right to use information contained in this response if it is obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are contained in sheets numbered [insert number(s)]. 5.2 Respondents should then mark each sheet of data to be restricted with the following legend: Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this response. 5.3 The House is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act or Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). 6. DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Information contained herein is subject to change. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the CAO to form a binding contract. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. Failure to submit a response to this RFI in no way precludes a vendor from participating in any competitive solicitation the CAO may issue in the future. 7. SUBMISSION OF QUESTIONS Submit questions related to this RFI to Toinetta Bridgeforth, Contracts Specialist, Toinetta.Bridgeforth@mail.house.gov, no later than 2:00 PM Eastern Time on September 12, Questions will be answered at the discretion of the House. 8. SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES 8.1 Vendors should submit all responses in searchable PDF format. Responses should not exceed 50 pages. Vendors shall organize their responses so that they follow the format outlined in Section 4 of the RFI. 8.2 Please responses to this RFI to Toinetta.bridgeforth@mail.house.gov so that they are received no later than 2:00 PM Eastern Time on September 26, Your interest in the doing business with the House is appreciated. Page 6 of 6