Erie 1 BOCES Western New York Regional Information Center (WNYRIC) Request For Proposal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM )

Transcription

1 Erie 1 BOCES Western New York Regional Information Center (WNYRIC) Request For Proposal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM ) Section I: Scope/Purpose 1. Definitions Page Scope/Purpose Page 4 3. Requirements Page General Evaluation Criteria page 5 Section II: Summary Page 6 Section III: Vendor Profile: 1. Corporate Overview Page 7 2. Financial Information Page 8 2. Employees and Support Personnel Page 9 3. User Groups Page Installation Base Page Support Information Page Pricing Structure Page Client References Page 14 Section IV: Functional Specifications Page

2 Please include these definitions in any contract language with regards to this RFP. 1. DEFINITIONS: 1.1. Available Date means, with respect to any particular Software, Equipment, or Support Services, the date upon which the relevant Software or Support Services are made available to Licensee pursuant to the terms of the relevant Schedule, regardless of whether Licensee utilizes the Software, Equipment, or Support Services and for Equipment, the date a valid Purchase Order is accepted by vendor VENDOR means VENDOR Inc., located at address here Confidential Information means any non-public information disclosed by either Party to the other, related to the operations of either Party or a third party that has been identified as confidential or that by the nature of the information or the circumstances surrounding disclosure ought reasonably to be treated as confidential. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Confidential Information will be deemed to include, without limitation, information about a Party s business, vendors, Licensees, end users, end users grades or other educational information, end users financial information, transaction data, Softwares, services, employees, finances, costs, expenses, financial or competitive condition, policies, and practices, computer software programs and programming tools and their respective design, architecture, modules, interfaces, databases and database structures, non-literal elements, capabilities and functionality, source code and object code, as well as research and development efforts, marketing and distribution efforts, licensing, cross-licensing, marketing and distribution practices, computer software programs and other information licensed or otherwise disclosed to a Party in confidence by a third party, and any other non-public information that does or may have economic value by reason of not being generally known Documentation means, with respect to any particular Software or Equipment, any applicable standard end user specifications and/or operating instructions provided by VENDOR for such Software and/or Equipment, which may be amended from time to time. Documentation does not include any sales or marketing materials. 1.5 Effective Date means the date upon which both Parties have executed this Agreement. 1.6 Equipment means any hardware provided by VENDOR to Licensee pursuant to any Schedule, including, without limitation, hardware related to the stored value card system and security access system. Unless otherwise specified, Equipment shall be provided to Licensee upon receipt and acceptance by VENDOR of a valid Purchase Order. 1.7 Licensee means Erie 1 BOCES on behalf of the Western New York Regional Information Center, or any other BOCES in the State of New York which accepts the provisions of this agreement by formal action of its Board of Education. 2

3 1.8 Licensee Content means any data, information, graphics or other media files or other content, including, but not limited to, course materials, provided by or for Licensee or any end user of the Software through use of the Software, excluding any portion of the Software or Documentation. The licensed RIC will be the sole owner or custodian of all content transmitted, received, or manipulated by the Software. 1.9 Party means either VENDOR or Licensee Regional Information Centers & BOCES mean any of the following Regional Information Centers: South Central, Mohawk, The Greater Southern Tier, Onondaga-Cortland-Madison, Northeastern, Monroe 1, Wayne-Finger Lakes, Nassau, Western New York, Eastern Suffolk, Lower Hudson, Dutchess, Monroe 2, Oneida Herkimer Madison, St. Lawrence, Sullivan County, Washington Warren Essex Hamilton, Western Suffolk. It is understood that these RICs and BOCES have defined service areas within the State of New York and that said service areas include one or more BOCES ( BOCES is a NYS municipal corporation that by contract pursuant to Education Law 1950 provides shared computer services and software to school district components of the Regional Information Center ( RIC ) or BOCES and in that capacity purchases various software for use by said districts as part of the BOCES service). Each BOCES is an entity comprised of districts in the state of New York. Only districts served by a BOCES may participate in this contract through their RIC/BOCES. Licenses granted under this Agreement are at the RIC or BOCES level only. Licenses hosted by an individual BOCES or district will not be eligible for this contract unless and until they join a participating consortium for this service. Licensed component districts means a school district component of a RIC/BOCES that purchases the Instructional Technology service Services means any services provided by VENDOR to a Licensee pursuant to any Schedule, including, without limitation, consulting, educational, ASP installation and hosting, system administration, training or maintenance and support services Site shall be defined as the specific classroom Software means the object code version of the VENDOR software as described on the applicable Software Schedule(s). 3

4 SECTION I: SCOPE/PURPOSE It is the intention of Erie 1 BOCES to receive a proposal for STEM products to be offered as a service by the Western New York Regional Information Center (WNYRIC) for our regional school districts. This RFP will allow Erie 1 BOCES to negotiate a cross state contract for the New York State Contract Consortium BOCES members stated in Requirements 1. The proposals will be evaluated by using (but not limited to) the following criteria: unit and overall pricing, adherence to specifications, warranties and return policy, delivery lead times, known vendor performance history in the implementation, maintenance, and service level of same or similar proposal(s) current and past vendor financial status, and customer references. 2. Vendor must guarantee pricing for at least one year from sign-on date. Invoicing must be based on the BOCES and School District fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30. Vendors will also give pricing for the next fiscal year by November of the current contract year. 3. Vendor must outline discount structure for WNYRIC purchase of software licensing and maintenance. 4. Vendor must outline pricing for direct support to districts for purchase of software licenses and maintenance. 5. Vendor must include fee schedules for future enhancement requests and for custom reports or forms. 6. Four (4) copies of the response must be provided. 7. If awarded, the vendor will work with Erie 1 BOCES to negotiate a contract that will be renewed annually. 8. EXECUTORY CLAUSE - The contract shall be deemed executory only to the extent of monies appropriated and available for the purpose of the agreement, and no liability shall be incurred beyond the amount of such monies. The full faith and credit of BOCES is pledged to the payment of any amount due or to become due under this agreement. It is understood that neither this agreement nor any representation by any public employer or officer creates any legal or moral obligation to appropriate or make monies available for the purpose of the contact. This agreement is further subject to annual cancellation by BOCES as the result of the withdrawal of a request for the service program, which makes use of the object of this lease. 9. CANCELLATION - BOCES shall have the right to terminate the agreement in the event of a vendor s failure to cure any default or breach of this agreement within (30) days written notice (subject to the Force Majeure provisions of lease #18 ). 4

5 10. FORCE MAJEURE - If the performance of the respective obligations of Vendor shall be prevented or interfered with by reason of an event of Force Majeure, then provider shall not be liable to BOCES for its failure to perform such obligations here under. A Force shall mean unusually severe weather, explosion, accident, an Act of God or public enemy, riot or civil disturbance, or order of any court of competent jurisdiction, not foreseeable, preventable or within the control of the provider. In such event BOCES shall not be required to make any payment until provider is in compliance with this agreement. General Evaluation Criteria 1. BOCES reserves the sole right to accept/reject or award to multiple vendors any and all proposals based on (but not limited to) the criteria as stated in paragraph 1 under the heading REQUIREMENTS. 2. Vendor must detail procedures for real time, direct telephone and access to live technicians in vendor s support center via a toll free number. 3. Items 8 through 10 of Requirements above must be part of any vendor contract. 4. The RIC contract example will be provided to the vendor(s) awarded the bid. Both parties will work together to execute a final contract. 5. Vendor must provide a New York State school client list for the products. List must include the year each installment implemented the software. 6. Vendor must complete all sections of the RFP. If they have no response for an item, vendor must enter N/R and an explanation of why they have no response. 5

6 Section II: Summary The Western New York Regional Information Center, WNYRIC, at Erie 1 BOCES provides instructional technology services to over 100 school districts Pre-K-12 in 7 counties around Western New York. This RFP will also be used for a statewide contract that allows BOCES and RICs that have joined the New York State Contract Consortium to utilize the contract. Please describe the STEM areas that the product serves. Please describe the appropriate grade levels and curriculum areas that the product serves. Please describe the different instructional models the software has to offer and what group size it is designed for. Please describe the software s ability to track different levels of student performance. What reporting features are present? Please describe the ways in which students are assessed (i.e. multiple choice, project based, short response, etc.). Please describe how you have worked to ensure that the data can be extracted into the data warehouse at the BOCES. Are the products aligned to the New York State Standards and Common Core? What are the technical requirements? 6

7 Section III: Vendor Profile Please provide answers to the following questions. 1. How many years has your company been in business? 2. How many years has your company been providing software for New York State school districts? 3. In what year was your product developed? 4. In what year did you first sell that product? 5. Did you develop the product yourself or did you purchase it from another company? 6. Are you a reseller for this product? Yes / No 7. In what city, state and country is the product developed? 8. From what city, state and country is the product supported? Please attach any published reviews, research, and/or articles about the product. 7

8 Financial Information 9. Is the company privately or publicly owned? 10. Has the company filed for bankruptcy or reorganized due to financial hardship in the last 10 years? 11. Has the ownership changed during the last five years? 12. How long has the CEO been with the firm? 13. Please provide the last three years of financial history including annual reports. 14. What is your company s credit rating? 15. Are you involved in any litigation? If yes, list each. We reserve the right to request any additional financial data We deem helpful in evaluating your company 8

9 Vendor Profile Employees and Support Personnel 16. How many employees do you have working on this product in the following areas? Sales Technical Support Application Support Training Research & Development Management Clerical Other 17. Please describe how you will provide implementation, training and on-going support of our application usage. 9

10 Vendor Profile User Groups 18. Please list all established user groups that you sponsor and/or who may be affiliated with your product. Include address, phone number and contact person below. Name of User Group Address Telephone Contact Person Date Formed Name of User Group Address Telephone Contact Person Date Formed 19. Please describe how user groups are supported, funded and assisted by your company. 20. Does the user group impact all or part of your development effort? Please explain. 10

11 Vendor Profile Installation Base: 21. What is the name and the current release (version number) of the product you propose? 22. How many New York State school districts use your STEM solution? 23. How many school districts throughout the country use your STEM solution? 24. How many BOCES in New York State use your STEM solution? 25. How may Regional Information Centers in New York State currently support your product? If any, please name them. Analysis of Current Software Installations in New York State # of students # of users # of years in system Largest District Medium District Smallest District 26. Is the software on online resource that students have access to 24/7 or a client based software? Explain 27. Does any part of the software require a user interface other than an industry-standard browser? If yes, please list the additional software required and for what applications it is necessary. 28. Is any software required on the client to optimally use your software? If yes, please list the additional software required and for what applications it is necessary. 11

12 Vendor Profile Support Information 29. Describe how support issues are reported, tracked and handled by your support staff. 30. How do you provide software fixes? 31. How will you provide software release information to the WNYRIC? 32. What is the frequency and timing of planned major releases? 33. Do you have a toll-free phone support hotline? Please list number. 34. Is there an extra charge for the support hotline? 35. What hours is your support line available? 36. What process do you use to prioritize future enhancements to the software? 37. Describe the support model you will use in working with the WNYRIC. 12

13 Vendor Profile Pricing Structure 38. Please write a brief description of the pricing for your software. Include initial or annual fees, renewals, additional charges for any extra features you may offer, and fees per student and/or per building. *Please keep in mind that this pricing will aggregate across the state. Tier the pricing as such if at all possible. Describe discounts available to the Western New York Regional Information Center 39. List any additional charges that apply, estimate if necessary. Charges should be listed per application, per hour, per day, for example, and include an estimate for a total in each category. Additional software components not covered in the above Initial Charge, Year 1 charges On-going charge, maintenance Implementation planning Other The successful bidder must provide to the professional development for the BOCES Model Schools staff that will be turnkey trainers in this partnership at no cost. The successful bidder must allow the WNYRIC to provide the professional development surrounding the resource. You may include costs for staff development if districts wished to purchase additional staff development on their own. 13

14 Vendor Profile Client References 40. Please list at least 5 and up to 10 school districts that have implemented your software system that we may contact. List as many in New York State as possible. School Name: Address: Phone Contact: Title: Install Date: 14

15 Section IV: Functional Specifications Software Requirements The successful bidder will provide a product that includes the components listed below. Items checked below must be currently operating in the software package based on the version number indicated in section entitled Installation Base. If they have no response for an item, vendor must enter N/R and an explanation of why they have no response. Please check all that apply to your application. Bidders are required to list any exceptions to our requirements as indicated below. Please explain each of the items listed below. describe the STEM areas that the product serves describe how the product provides remediation and individualized instruction please explain and provide the research behind your product provides flexibility for the accessibility of the software provides a computer or device based method of gathering data (give all examples) provides extracts for data in a template format for loading into reporting systems Web-based product - support multiple browsers OR hosted product please describe allows easy import of student data measures to ensure security of data provides easy to read and customizable reports allows teachers and administrators to monitor, graph, or view student progress allows access of historical data tracks historical data outputs all data to Access and/or Excel from the user interface Please describe the software s ability to track different levels of student performance. Please describe the ways in which students are assessed. The product is aligned to the New York State Teaching Standards and Common Core. If there are additional features that your product has please detail them below. 15

16 Vendor Requirements: This section may NOT be modified or changed in any way and must be included in your response. The successful bidder must provide initial training free of charge to the WNYRIC and at 3 consortium locations around the state. These trainings can be face to face or virtual. The successful bidder must provide at least 1 annual training update per year free of charge to the WNYRIC and to 3 other consortium locations around the state. These trainings can be face to face or virtual. The successful bidder must allow the registration of users through the WNYRIC. The successful bidder must allow the WNYRIC to manage user accounts. The successful bidder must allow the WNYRIC the end user support for the application. The successful bidder must allow the WNYRIC to provide the initial professional development surrounding the resource at no cost. 16