ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS RFQ-BG-109

Transcription

1 ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS RFQ-BG-109 The Arapahoe Library District (ALD) is seeking responses to this Request for Qualifications for the purpose of creating a list of qualified vendors to provide an accounting software package to increase efficiencies within the Finance department, enhance reporting and transparency for internal and external purposes, and increase internal controls of the Library District as a whole. To accomplish these goals, we intend to acquire a fully integrated financial software solution that includes software, implementation services, ongoing training, and technical support. Limits on individual user functions and audit trail capabilities are requirements to provide the internal controls sought. BACKGROUND & PROFILE Arapahoe Library District is a local government with two funds and twenty-five departments. ALD operates on a calendar year, and budgets are maintained and approved in accordance with Colorado State Statutes. ALD also has two non-profit component units, one discretely presented, Arapahoe Library Friends Foundation (Foundation), and one blended, Arapahoe Library District Building Authority (Building Authority). All six members of the Finance department utilize the accounting software daily, and the reporting module is used regularly by three members of the department. Library District Monthly financial statements are prepared for the ALD Board of Trustees, department managers, and the Foundation Board of Directors. Finance staff prepares a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) at the end of the year. Supporting documentation for general ledger, cash receipts, accounts payable, p-card activity, cash receipts, payroll, bank statements, debt issuances, contracts, and requests for proposal are all maintained electronically in software separate from our accounting system. ALD currently uses Sage MAS 90 accounting software with FRx reporting module and Crystal Reports, and Fortis software by Ikon is used for electronic document storage. Our current accounting software does not record or report fund-level accounts separate from government-wide accounts, and we are seeking a software that will provide accounting modules for a governmental entity reporting in conformity with Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The following MAS 90 modules are used by ALD: General Ledger (including Budget), Accounts Payable, Purchase Order, Bank Reconciliation, and Visual Integrator. 1

2 Payroll is currently performed in-house using software separate from MAS 90, and ALD is in the process of transferring processing to an external payroll service provider. We are not seeking to purchase a payroll module as part of this request, though we are looking for an accounting software package that can integrate with ADP Payroll. Cash receipts at the Support Services building and online are recorded through journal entry; cash receipts at our eight library locations are entered into a point-of-sale system,that operates with 160 users, then uploaded into our accounting system daily by the Finance department. Patron accounts are currently maintained in our circulation software, Millennium by Innovative Interfaces Inc., which is not integrated with the accounting system. Capital assets and depreciation are tracked in Excel, and recorded in MAS 90 as part of the monthly closing process. Technical environment Currently our MAS90 and FRx software is running on a Windows 2003 server with plans to upgrade this server to 2008R2 in a Hyper-V virtualized environment. Fortis is installed on a separate Windows 2003 server also with plans to move it to a virtualized environment. These servers are backed up to disk based array storage on a 14 day cycle using Symantec Backup Exec Our server room is backed up with a full server room UPS and an automatic 60kW generator that can keep the server room running at full capacity including air conditioning. Our current staff computers are running Windows XP with plans to upgrade them to Windows 7 64-bit in late 2011 or early 2012, these computers all use Internet Explorer 8 as their default browser. Our current internet bandwidth is 10mbit with plans to upgrade to 20mbit in early We have 300 staff PCs across the Library District; these are allocated throughout the Support Services building (which houses the server room and Finance department) and eight libraries with point to point 10Mbit+ Metro Ethernet and DS1 lines tying them all back to the server room. For vendor access we can implement firewall policies or use our current SSL VPN system to grant access. SUBMISSION OF QUALIFICATIONS The qualifications must be sent in a sealed envelope and received before the due date and time as specified in this RFQ. The vendor is responsible for addressing the envelope as indicated below. If the qualifications packet arrives late, it will be returned unopened. Please address the envelope as follows: Ms. Betty Gower, Purchasing Specialist Arapahoe Library District E Adam Aircraft Circle Englewood, CO Please send us one original hard copy (marked as such) and four copies of your proposal. 2

3 SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES The following activities and dates are an outline of the process to be used to solicit vendor responses and to evaluate each vendor proposal: August 9, 2011: Issue Request for Qualifications August 23, 2011, 11:00 a.m. MDT: Pre-proposal Conference Vendors will have the opportunity to have someone from their firm attend the meeting at the Support Services building (address above) and ask questions. Any further questions can be submitted in writing to Betty Gower at until 3:00 p.m. MDT on this date. August 24, 2011, 3:00 a.m. MDT: Answers Posted Answers to all inquiries will be posted no later than 3:00 p.m. MDT on this date on the Rocky Mountain E-Procurement System at This meeting is not mandatory. September 7, 2011, 3:00 p.m. MDT: Qualifications submittal deadline All qualifications must be RECEIVED no later than 3:00 p.m. MDT by our clock. It is the responsibility of the vendors to ensure that their proposals are received prior to the deadline. Qualifications received after the above date and time will not be considered. After review of the Qualifications, demonstrations will be requested from vendors considered to best meet the needs of the Library District. System overviews or demonstrations will be conducted at the vendor s expense. Site visits and reference checks will follow to support and verify the information included in the responses. Arapahoe Library District will determine the exact modules and functionality it is requesting and issue an RFP to vendors meeting those qualifications. Terms of the RFP may differ from the original qualification requirements based on the knowledge gained through the RFQ and additional qualifying analysis. Therefore, a response to this RFQ does not constitute a bid. ALD shall issue a written addendum if substantial changes which impact the technical submission of Offers are required. A copy of such addendum will be posted on the Rocky Mountain E- Procurement System at It is the vendor s responsibility to check the aforementioned website for the addendum. The vendor shall certify its acknowledgment of the addendum by signing the addendum and returning it with its offer. In the event of conflict with the original contract documents, addenda shall govern all other contract documents to the extent specified. Each proposal shall consist of an original hard copy (marked as such) and four copies. Along with the response, please include a contact that we may use if we have questions about any of the information received. All proposals become the property of the Arapahoe Library District and become subject to the Colorado Open Records Act. Proprietary or confidential material must be clearly identified and easily separable from the rest of the proposal. 3

4 SCOPE Accounting System MAS 90 (replace) located on an internal 32 bit server Following is a description of our current operating environment as well as modules desired and functionality of each. ALD is seeking information on the vendor s ability to provide each of the features below, as well as a description of other capabilities within these modules that your software can provide that may increase internal controls or operating efficiencies. Cash and Investments Current Operation: ALD has two checking accounts and investment accounts in five different financial institutions; the Foundation has one checking account and investments in one financial institution. Checks are issued from the ALD main operating account twice every month with a need to issue one or two additional checks per week from the account. An average of 130 checks are printed from the operating account each month using MAS 90 on pre-numbered check stock with electronic check signatures produced from the accounting software. Positive pay reports are extracted from MAS 90 after each check run and uploaded to the bank. Exceptions to approved checks are communicated by alerts from the bank to the Finance department and can be approved or rejected for payment through the bank website. About five ACH and wire transfers are also made out of the operating account every month. Deposits for the operating account are prepared at eight library locations as well as our administrative location; each location uses unique deposit slips containing an associated location number that we are able to view on our banking website as well as monthly bank statements in order to track deposits by location. All credit card transactions from patrons are deposited in to the operating account and can be performed using terminals located at five of our library locations, self-check machines at eight library locations, online through our website, or may be entered directly in to our PayPal processing account by the Finance department. Each location has a unique merchant identification number allowing us to identify transactions by location on our bank website and bank statements. ALD also has a checking account used for payroll tax and pension contribution payments which are electronically transferred to Federal and State agencies and to our pension fund at the end of each month. Generally, two or three ACH transfers are made into the operating and tax checking accounts from investments to fund monthly operations. A petty cash and an escrow checking account are also maintained by ALD with little to no annual activity. The Foundation operates a checking account separate from those of the Library District for their daily operations. Cash deposits are prepared by Finance staff once a week and checks are electronically deposited to the bank by the Finance Revenue Clerk and a Foundation coordinator using check scanners connected to their respective desktop computers. One library location has a credit card terminal for Foundation transactions and the Foundation coordinator has a credit card terminal in her office for processing credit cards called in by supporters and members. The Foundation hosts four large book sales each year requiring four wireless credit card terminals over a cellular connection for the events. Checks issued from the Foundation account are hand-written from a check book and individually signed by the Executive Director or Deputy Director; approximately six checks are written from the Foundation checking account each month. 4

5 Bank reconciliation for the ALD main operating account requires manual selection of individual receipt and disbursement transactions that clear the bank within MAS 90, then preparing a Microsoft Excel reconciliation of balance bank to general ledger; there are approximately 8,800 transactions cleared per month. The ALD tax account is reconciled in a similar manner to the operating account with about ten transactions to be cleared per month. Reconciliations for petty cash, escrow, and Foundation accounts are prepared using Excel spreadsheets with no clearing of transactions in MAS 90 because transactions for these accounts are not integrated with a bank reconciliation module in the accounting software. ALD holds a portfolio of investments in five financial institutions with varying liquidities and maturity dates. Individual investments and monthly activities are tracked in Excel and recorded in MAS 90 using one investment account, one unrealized gain/loss account, and one interest account. Our current general ledger setup does not allow us to identify individual investment account activity with ease. The Foundation has two liquid investment accounts used to hold excess funds and gain minimal return; about two transfers of funds between Foundation checking and investment accounts are done each year. Investments are reconciled monthly using Excel spreadsheets. Desired Operation: We do not wish to make any changes to the general processing of checks by the Library District. ALD would like to continue cutting checks as we see fit for the operating needs of the Library District, including when to issue checks, use of prenumbered check stock, printing of electronic signatures through the accounting software, positive pay uploads, and bank reconciliation module within the accounting software. ALD would like to have an accounting software package capable of pooling cash between multiple funds, and also between ALD and the Foundation. In addition, we would like implementation of BAI (Bank Administration Institute) uploads to assist with clearing transactions in the ALD operating account that have already been processed by our bank. This may need unique consideration to match six to eight daily physical deposits with the corresponding general ledger activity, along with daily ach deposits for credit card batches. Because of the number of transactions in other ALD checking accounts and the Foundation checking account, the BAI feature is desired only for the ALD main operating account. For the Foundation, we would be interested in the ability to electronically print checks directly from the accounting software package similar to the ALD operating account checks. However, because of the limited number of checks issued by the Foundation, we do not wish to purchase additional modules for the capability to print these checks from the accounting software. We are interested in a general ledger sub-ledger system that would allow ALD to identify and track investments individually; these sub-ledger accounts should roll up in to one general ledger account to allow for simple monthly reconciliations of the investment accounts. Bank statements and investment purchase confirmations should be able to be permanently stored in the module and be accessed as needed. Accounts Receivable Current Operation: ALD records receivables for items purchased on behalf of the Foundation, and an invoice for reimbursement is submitted to the Foundation every month. ALD does not have a billing module so invoices are generated in Excel and the receivable is recorded via journal entry. ALD also has a contract with the County for operating a facility in the jail; contract revenues are recorded as a receivable monthly when an invoice is generated out of Microsoft 5

6 Word and sent to the County. Because ALD does not have an invoicing module within our current accounting system, all receivables are recorded through journal entry. Employees are also offered the benefit of purchasing books and audiovisual materials through our vendors at a discounted rate; orders are made in advance of payment and recorded as a receivable from the employee until paid. ALD offers a Flex Spending Account plan to employees as a benefit; total employee contributions are estimated at the beginning of each fiscal plan year and funded up front by ALD. This Flex plan funding is recorded as a receivable by ALD and reduced each month as employee contributions are made to the plan; no invoicing is done for these contributions because they are deducted from employee paychecks each pay period. COBRA healthcare is available for some terminated employees and the recipient is required to pay back the cost of their coverage to ALD each month while covered under the plan; these payments are recorded as receivables until payment is received. These payments received from employees and past employees are not easily identified during month-end closing and require separate tracking in Excel to identify all components of the accounts receivable account. During month-end closing accounts receivables are manually reconciled to the general ledger using Excel. Property tax revenues are recorded at each year end deemed collectible in the following calendar year; these are reportable only at the government-wide level and must be maintained in accounts separate from other receivables. Desired Operation: Because ALD generates only two recurring invoices every month, a billing module is not wanted at this time. We are looking for software that will produce an aging detail report of the Accounts Receivable accounts that agrees to the general ledger in order to eliminate the task of manually reconciling all accounts receivable activity. In addition, the general ledger should be able to distinguish and separate accounts reportable at the fund level versus accounts reportable at the government-wide level. The Accounts Receivable module should allow for matching of collections with AR and clearing of partial or the total balance. Inventory Current Operation: Approximately 1600 computer inventory items that do not meet our capitalization criteria are assigned a tag number and tracked in Microsoft Excel, but are not itemized in our accounting software. An online ticketing system is used for repairs and maintenance needs but is not tied to specific inventory units. Inventory available for sale by the coffee shops is entered and monitored through point-of-sale software installed individually on the cash register machines located at two coffee shops throughout the Library District. Coffee shop inventory is recorded as cost of goods sold in our accounting software, but is not individual items are not tracked within MAS 90. The Foundation receives book donations from patrons throughout the year to be sold in the four book sales and also in the small book stores located in five ALD library locations; these books are not inventoried. Desired Operation: ALD would like the ability to maintain non-capitalized computer inventory items within our accounting software and to have our maintenance ticketing system tied to computers as well as fleet. This would help us to identify individual items with high repairs and maintenance history that may be due for replacement. 6

7 If the vendor provides a point-of-sale module for the libraries and coffee shops, this module should be able to provide Finance with detail information on coffee shop inventory as well. For the Foundation, we would like to be able to record inventory in a group method rather than by individual item. These desired inventory module features are not requirements, but will be considered based on integration capabilities of the accounting software package. Please provide us with the benefits of using and integrated ticketing and inventory system and the associated costs for our consideration. Fixed Assets Current Operation: ALD has approximately 200 fixed assets not including our book and audio visual collection. The Finance department maintains asset description, life, location, cost, accumulated depreciation, current depreciation expense, net book value for all fixed assets in an Excel spreadsheet. Fixed asset additions and disposals and depreciation for these 200 fixed assets are recorded in our accounting software monthly. All collection acquisitions are processed through our Millennium database acquisitions software, which is not integrated with our accounting software. Collection inventory is added as received and paid. Physical inventory counts of the collections are performed monthly on a rotating sample of the collection at all locations to identify item deletions. Library books and audio visual materials are recorded in MAS90 as a group at December 31, and capitalized using an average life of four years. Desired Operation: ALD would like the ability to integrate our acquisitions software with our accounting software to be able to identify and record collection additions and disposals as a group every month; ideally this would be performed through an electronic report out of the acquisitions software that could be uploaded directly into our accounting software. In addition, we would like the capability to report fixed assets at the fund level and government-wide level directly from accounting system, as our current software does not differentiate between the two. However, a fixed asset module is not required if additional costs are associated with it. Purchasing Current Operation: The Purchasing process at the Library District is a combination of manual and MAS 90 generated processes. Purchases over $500 require a purchase order requisition that is created by the end user in Excel or on paper, and that, depending on the purchase amount, must be approved (currently in writing or via ) by the department Manager, Director, Executive Director, or Board of Trustees. Departments are responsible for obtaining bids (manual form), quotes, and approvals in accordance with ALD policy prior to submitting their request to Finance. Some larger transactions also involve a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) prior to purchase. Purchase orders created in MAS90 can be ed to the vendor and/or the end user as necessary. Completed W-9 forms are required for all vendors regardless of transaction amount, and 1099 s are produced from the accounting software by the Finance department each year. We require certificates of insurance from certain vendors; expiration dates are tracked manually. MAS 90 maintains transaction history for each vendor including invoice details (date, amount, description, general ledger account), transaction payment history (date paid, check amount, check number), comparative historical data by month and year, and purchase order detail and history. 7

8 Desired Operation: Because purchase orders often require multiple levels of approval, we are seeking an automated requisition workflow system module within our accounting software. This module will have rules for workflow based upon which department is initiating the purchase, the amount of the purchase, vendor chosen and/or the general ledger accounts effected. This would allow Finance, supervisors and other end users a high level of transparency when identifying the status of purchase orders within the system (e.g. users could see approval history and where the purchase order is currently sitting awaiting the next approval). The accounting software will include budget controls established by department and general ledger account that will be activated during submission of purchase orders prior to approval. Users will have the ability to view encumbrances compared to recorded expenditures by department. Supporting documentation will be self contained in the system and will allow external documents to be attached for permanent storage. Accounts Payable Current Operation: ALD invoices not requiring purchase orders are entered in MAS90 by accounts payable staff in Finance once approved by the departmental manager making the purchase and by Finance. All invoices are paid with checks issued by Finance or with purchasing cards (p-cards). Purchases below $500 are often paid for with employee p-cards; these transactions are coded to general ledger accounts and approved online through the Visa Management System portal. P-card purchases are extracted from the Visa portal and uploaded in to our accounting software at the end of each monthly cycle. Some ALD vendors have ghost cards and receive an electronic file exported from our accounting software authorizing payment of specific invoices; this payment method is performed 2-3 times a month. Accounts payable detail and p-card liability activity are reconciled to the general ledger balances each month using Microsoft Excel. The Foundation incurs liabilities to ALD that are repaid with a check from the Foundation checking account every month. All Foundation expenses are recorded through journal entries as incurred. The Due to ALD account and Due from Foundation account are reconciled monthly in Excel. On construction projects, any retainage payable amounts are manually separated and recorded through journal entry. Desired Operation: Our current invoice entry system works well, however, we would like the capability of accounts payable workflow approval of invoices that do not have purchase orders attached. Invoices would be routed to appropriate approving personnel based on department and amount. Along with this, we would like users to have the capability of attaching packing slips, and invoices within the accounting system. Within the accounting software, users would be able to drill down from an invoice to underlying purchase orders and contract attachments. We do not wish to change the p-card usage or processing of ALD, and the new accounting software package should have the import and export capabilities compatible with Visa Management System or the ability to assign account numbers to these transactions within the accounting software system. The accounting software should produce an accounts payable aging detail report that reconciles to the general ledger without manipulation. An automated check cutting module for the Foundation is ideal, though costs would not outweigh benefits if this module is at an additional cost. Also, the accounting software should be able to track retainage payables separately from construction fees without multiple journal entries. 8

9 Revenues Point-of-Sale System Checkout software (replace or integrate) Current Operation: A point-of-sale software is installed on twelve computers in our eight library locations and two coffee shops for all daily revenue operations of ALD; this is a software system separate from our accounting software. The twelve point-of-sale computers operate as cash registers and the software has unique logins and passwords for approximately 160 users with the ability to restrict user rights to staff and manager levels. Daily library and coffee shop transactions are extracted from each location daily and uploaded to general ledger by individual purchase. Finance staff produces daily activity reports for library and coffee shop staff; these reports are manually reconciled to the deposit every day by the employee preparing the deposit (deposits and reconciliations are done by library and coffee shop staff). Credit cards are accepted by library and coffee shop staff and swiped through a terminal; staff must enter and complete the credit card transaction in the point-of-sale system, and also clear fines from the Millennium circulation software because none of these are integrated systems. Credit cards are accepted through self check computers at the eight library locations and online through our ALD website; by entering their patron information, fines are cleared from the circulation system upon payment through self checks and online. Credit card payments are also accepted by calling the Finance department and providing card and patron information over the phone; Finance staff enters credit card information in PayPal for processing then clears fines in Millennium software. Finance staff print reports from PayPal daily and record all self check and online credit card activity in MAS 90 through a journal entry. Every day, Finance reconciles library and coffee shop deposits with transactions entered in the point-of-sale system; the point-of-sale system is also reconciled to the circulation software daily for all library locations. Discrepancies found in the reconciliations are tracked in an Excel spreadsheet by location and recorded in the accounting software. The Foundation operates small book stores in five ALD libraries; one book store has a cash register and a credit card terminal, and four do not. The Foundation cash register runs z-tapes and has no capability of reconciling to daily deposits, running reports, or extracting electronic information. The four locations with no cash register operate on an honor system where patrons are trusted to put the correct amount of cash in a locked box for the number of books they are purchasing. The honor box money is not reconciled to deposits or to number of books taken from the shelves. All Foundation revenue is recorded through journal entry. Desired Operation: Point-of-sale systems with unique user logins are necessary for all library and coffee shop locations. The accounting software must have the ability to interact with the point-of-sale system either through direct interface. We would like increased options for limiting user access within the point-of-sale system beyond simple data entry or full access. ALD would like the ability to upload PayPal credit card settlement reports of self check and online transactions in to the accounting system to reduce journal entries. Ideally, the accounting software will interact with Millennium circulation software to reconcile daily transactions from both systems. 9

10 For the Foundation, we are seeking an easy to use point-of-sale system for all five book store locations with unique user logins. The point-of-sale must have the ability to extract informational reports and daily Foundation activity detail to upload into the accounting system. Expenses Current Operation: Payroll is ALD s largest expense and is performed in-house once a month in software separate from accounting package. Monthly payroll transactions are exported from the payroll software and imported into the general ledger. Desired Operation: ALD is looking to outsource payroll processing to a third party service provider, ADP Payroll. The accounting software must have the ability to upload liabilities and expenses detail from ADP Payroll directly in to the general ledger. Travel and reimbursement expenses should be included to allow workflow to the Human Resources department. ALD wishes to be able to export employee expense reimbursement information to ADP for inclusion with employees monthly pay checks to eliminate the need to issue separate checks. Because we are planning to outsource our payroll functions, no payroll or human resource modules are desired. Budget Current Operation: Budget detail is maintained in our accounting software for each account by month and year. We maintain an original Board-approved budget for external and reporting purposes and a revised budget for internal purposes. All budget balances and transfers are manually entered and adjusted. Changes and transfers to the revised budget are tracked in an Excel spreadsheet for trail purposes. Budget and actual amounts are reviewed regularly using reporting tools from the accounting system. All budget creation is done in Excel and linked through numerous spreadsheets. Desired Operation: There is a continued need for original and revised budgets, and this should be at a general ledger account level of detail. Users submitting purchase orders should be able to have access to their department s budget only; any requests to spend from another department s budget must have approval by that department manager. Along with this, we would like to instill warnings and hard stop capabilities in the system for accounts with expenditures exceeding budget. Users should be able to identify encumbrances on their department s budget as well as actual expenditures. We would like to have extended forecasting and scenario capabilities allowing for multiple budget columns in current and future fiscal years. There should be an audit trail in the system to show detail of transfers made between budget categories and accounts. Additional users should have access to view and/or run real-time reports of their budget categories. Creation of the budget should be contained in the accounting system. Workflow approval similar to purchase orders and accounts payable should be utilized and up to 30 users would have access to the system to create, request adjustments or transfers, and monitor real time budget to actual information. 10

11 Reporting Package FRX (replace) Current Operation: MAS 90 produces some reports directly from the software package including Bank Reconciliation, monthly Balance Sheet, monthly Income Statement, Trial Balance, General Ledger detail, Journal Entries, Vendor History, among other limited budget and actual information. All other accounting system reports are created out of a reporting software called FRx that is integrated with MAS90; these reports are built individually by the Finance department and include monthly Managers Reports across departments; monthly financial statements for the ALD Board and for the Foundation Board; and fund level statements for Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Any government-wide reporting is produced by Finance manually in Excel. Analytical reports are also created external of the accounting system. FRx can produce reports in multiple formats. Desired Operation: We have extensive reporting requirements and will need a software package that can accommodate our demands. Templates for recurring reports should be able to be created with ease, saved, and reproduced on demand. Adjustments to templates are often necessary and should not require creating a whole new report. We would like to be able to incorporate current and historical actual, original budget, revised budget and forecasted amounts in the reports. Some specific reports desired include investments by investment type, including unrealized gain and loss activity; monthly balance sheet and income statement by fund; government-wide reporting; Accounts Payable aging detail; Accounts Receivable aging detail; elimination entries; Performance Management; indirect cost allocations for each location (not by department); facilities management (utilities consumption, fleet consumption); computer service tickets; and exception reports. Audit trail reports should be available for all changes made in the system. Document Storage Fortis (replace or integrate) Current Operation: Supporting documents are scanned or imported daily by Finance staff to an Ikon software called Fortis. These documents include general ledger entries and backup, cash receipts uploads/journal entries and backup, accounts payable check stubs and invoices, p- card statements and backup, all payroll reports and documentation for monthly processing, bank statements, documentation for debt issuances, contracts, and all requests for proposal documentation. Fortis is able to import documents from multiple formats in to the system, export and print documents, attach documents to s, edit and write to documents once imported, and search within system using multiple criteria. Users have unique user names and passwords and access is restricted based on individual and group as viewer, scanner, or administrator. There are currently 15 users. Desired Operation: Electronic document storage is necessary, and our move to a paperless organization is growing annually. In addition to the above tasks, we would also like the ability to link vendor, invoice, and purchase order information in accounting software to electronic documentation (such as a contract) for quick retrieval. Additional search capabilities within a document is also desired. 11

12 Library System Innovative Interfaces Millennium (integrate) We have an ILS system from Innovative Interfaces which contains all of our patron and library materials information; the server is Linux based and is housed in our server room, our client machines access the system with a client called Millennium, our current support contract with Innovative is a turnkey agreement. Millenium Integration topics Current Operation: The accounting system and the library system are not integrated and duplicate information is entered in different capacities to each system. Fines collections are entered into Millenium to clear patron records for past due, lost, and damage items. Additional fees are also added and cleared for NSF checks, collection fees and manual charges. Cash collections for these activities are entered in detail into the checkout system and in summary to MAS90 through an upload process. Collections information is entered in detail into the Millenium system to track the ordering, receipt, activation, and payment of individuals books, dvds etc. Purchases and disposal are entered in summary to justify the physical collection on hand into the accounting system at year end. Desired operation: The Millenium database to be accessed electronically so that daily summary information can be scripted to post into the accounting system without duplicate entry. We have addressed this with the Library software vendor and the exportable data is very static and doesn t meet the financial reporting needs of the Library District. We are looking for confirmation of this fact or ideas on how to eliminate duplicate entries between the two systems. System and Customer Support Current Operation: The accounting system and electronic document storage systems are supported by separate local companies, and we are assigned a representative from each that handles our needs. Upgrades, system add-ons and support are performed by our representatives during on-site visits and are charged by the hour. The point-of-sale system has online support that is billed hourly. Desired Operation: We are looking for a vendor with a local office that will assign a representative to our company to assist us with our needs. Online support should also be available during non-business hours. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Information on system securities is required to enable ALD to select a vendor that will be able to meet the needs of the Library District. Software and hardware requirements will need to be provided by you to ensure optimum performance of the software. Please also provide information about your software s ability to: 12

13 Integrate with our current operating environment (Microsoft Windows 2008 Domain with Windows XP and Windows 7 clients), or is the product a hosted solution? If the system will be on our local network what are the OS and other software requirements and hardware requirements, and does it work in a virtualized (Hyper-V) environment? Provide multiple levels/types of user licenses, such as concurrent, user or device. Our accounting software has six users in Finance that are in the system daily, and we operate with five concurrent licenses. FRx software is used by three of the Finance staff; only one user can be in the system at a time. Fortis is currently used by all six Finance staff and we five concurrent user licenses; Fortis is also used by our auditors during their annual fieldwork. We are interested in providing read-only access in the document retention system to other departments. Our point-of-sale software has approximately 160 users with unique logins in ten computers across eight locations; only one person can be logged in to the software at each workstation at a time. The Millennium Integrated Library Systems software has approximately 120 logins with up to 250 concurrent logins running daily. Provide security and limit user access by software module for viewing, entering data, approving, and posting transactions. MAS90, Fortis, and Millennium have functionality to allow and limit access at multiple levels within the system based on specific user logins. Within these systems, staff may have no access, view only, data entry, approval, recording/posting, administrative access, or a combination of these rights for different modules. FRx software does not offer multiple levels of user access, as all staff with rights to the program have full access. Checkout point-of-sale software allows for staff or manager rights only; staff can enter and process sales transaction only, and managers have administrative access to run reports, add/delete/change inventory products, and add/delete/change users and passwords. Interact with document scanners. Approximately 90% of the documents in Fortis originate as hard copies that require scanning to enter them in the electronic document retention system. The Finance department has two Cannon scanners, one is used daily and the other is currently idle. We would like to be able to integrate scanned documents with the purchasing module of the accounting software and attach scanned documents to purchase orders for review and approval by supervisors and Finance. Provide information on the process required to install and the frequency of upgrades and patches. Describe any downtime and costs associated with such. Training and technical support structure. ALD is looking for system training for all six Finance staff as well as four IT staff. Other end users (such as department managers and administrative staff) will require training on initiating purchase orders and reporting. We are also interested in options for training our IT staff to have in-house expertise to handle a dominant portion of technical issues on the software without turning to the vendor s support staff. 13

14 CONTENT OF RESPONSE In order to be considered for selection for the Request for Qualifications and demonstration process, respondents must submit a statement of qualifications using the following criteria. Responses should be prepared simply and economically providing a straightforward, concise description of the vendor s ability to perform the requirements of this RFQ with special emphasis on your understanding of the products and services required and how your firm proposes to fulfill the needs of the Library District. A. Knowledge, Qualifications, and Expertise of the Firm: 1. Name, mailing address, address, telephone, and fax number of the firm. 2. Provide a history of your firm including description of the size of the firm, the location of the office from which the work on this engagement is to be performed, the number of years in business, and number of clients. B. Technical Requirements 1. Describe technical requirements of the system and who is responsible for them. i. Servers and connectivity. ii. Historical information state the number of years of transaction history can be retained, the format used, and what happens to our information upon termination. 2. Who performs updates, routine maintenance, trouble shooting, etc.? If it is ALD IT staff, what training and technical support is available? 3. Describe each module available in the accounting system, how they meet our desired operations, what additional capabilities the module offers, and why ALD should consider its usage. C. Similar Engagements With Other Entities For the office that will be assigned responsibility for support and processing, list the most similar engagements (five maximum) performed include support team members, description of the entity, number of users, etc. Include the name and telephone number of the principal client contact. D. Specific Conversion Approach Include a proposed time frame for conversion to the new system beginning March 1, State modules to be implemented, plan for installation and setup completed by vendor, who will be responsible for system setup, transferring current and historical transaction and account information, ability to transfer of current vendor information or set up from scratch, type of testing performed before system is live, on-site training available during implementation phase and training available after system is installed, continuing telephone and online support and any additional costs for each. E. Pricing Provide an estimated cost for each of following: the software package broken out by module (if separately priced), implementation, data conversion, training, and annual maintenance and support. 14