Request for Information (RFI) for

Transcription

1 Request for Information (RFI) for Currently Marketed Software Solutions Used To Produce The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report For Governmental Entities Released on August 1, 2013 Issued by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Office of Finance

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) SUMMARY SHEET... 3 I. INTRODUCTION... 4 Purpose of the Request for Information (RFI)... 4 II. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS... 4 General Vendor Information Requested... 4 Goals and Functionality... 5 Questions... 6 Requested Vendor Input... 7 III. RFI PROCESS AND RESPONSE FORMAT... 7 Page 2

3 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) SUMMARY SHEET The purpose of this RFI is to request information on currently marketed software solutions utilized by governmental entities to produce the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). Name: CAFR Software Solution Issue Date: August 1, 2013 Closing Date and Time: Issuing Office: Procurement Officer: Questions Submission: Responses are to be sent via to: August 16, 2013 at 4:00 pm Office of Finance Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Liz Bryan Phone: (703) No later than 3:00 P.M, August 8, 2013 via the form at Address: Attention: CAFR Software RFI Response Page 3

4 I. INTRODUCTION The Office of Finance within the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is contemplating acquiring a software solution for automating production of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). MWAA is a public body politic and corporate, created with the consent of the Congress of the United States by an Act of the District of Columbia and an Act of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the purpose of operating, maintaining, and improving Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), the Dulles Toll Road and the Dulles Access Highway. MWAA in cooperation with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Fairfax County, and Loudoun County is designing and constructing the Dulles Metrorail Project, a 23.1 mile extension of WMATA s 106-mile Metrorail System, that will connect the Dulles Corridor in Northern Virginia with the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. MWAA prepares the CAFR following the guidelines recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). A copy of MWAA s most recent CAFR may be accessed at: A copy of MWAA s most recent Budget may be accessed at: Purpose of the Request for Information (RFI) The purpose of this RFI is to gather information and explore available options with currently-marketed software utilized by governmental entities and other not-for-profits to automate production of a CAFR. This RFI contains preliminary information to serve as a platform to initiate discussion with the vendor community. The requirements in this RFI are in no way final or represent what may be contained in a Request for Proposal (RFP), Invitation for Bid (IFB), or other procurement vehicle. This issuance does not constitute a commitment to issue a request for proposal/bids, award a contract, or pay any costs incurred in preparation of a response to this request. Furthermore, the Office of Finance requires that all responding vendors abstain from providing any quotes or prices in response to this RFI. This input will assist the Office of Finance in preparing for the potential procurement and implementation of a software solution if deemed necessary. II. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS The focus of this document is to gather information on currently marketed software solutions utilized by governmental entities in producing the CAFR. General Vendor Information Requested a. Name of company b. Contact person c. Address, telephone number and address Page 4

5 d. Brief history of company, including a listing of companies and governmental entities for which the company has successfully implemented the software solution being presented. Please include a contact name, company and or government agency, phone number, and address for these companies and agencies. e. Company brochures/literature, if available Goals and Functionality The Office of Finance could realize data quality improvement, production efficiency, and potential cost savings with an automated document production solution. Reduction of manual processes and the ability to automatically track changes to the documents would reduce production time. Audit fees could potentially be reduced by improving internal controls over report generation and providing real-time access to reports and supporting documentation. The solution should integrate with the general ledger system (Oracle EBS) and be able to accept statistical data from other sources (e.g., PROPworks) directly or via Excel spreadsheet upload. In addition, the solution should have change management controls over the report preparation process. Documents created by the solution should be connected to the source data (general ledger) at all times, so as to allow for real-time data refresh. Business rules should ensure data reconciles between various financial statements, footnotes, and statistical exhibits within the document. Internal controls, including tracking the status of document sections, and allowing for workflow review and approval, should be standard functionality. Below are examples of features and functions that the Office of Finance is seeking: a. Document Production 1. Import data from various financial systems, including Oracle EBS, PROPworks, and Ceridian 2. Produce financial schedules based on GL account mappings 3. Use validation rules to verify the accuracy of schedules, statements, and text produced from source data 4. Ability to programmatically validate data between schedules to ensure consistent footing, crossfooting, and cross-referencing within and between schedules 5. Use the imported data and product functionality to produce additional reports, for example, bond offering statements and interim financial statements b. Review and Formatting 1. Other reports can be created using the data used to produce the CAFR 2. Produce customizable reports in MS Word or Excel format 3. Review the formatting of all financial statements 4. Reconcile imported numbers to the general ledger exports provided 5. Individual logons to the software allow documentation of all changes by a user. Different versions of the CAFR are stored and can be compared and the changes by each user documented. The software could provide the ability of authorized auditors to view the document and audit trail of changes. 6. Track changes made to the CAFR by each user 7. Apply checklists for approvals for each section of the CAFR 8. Track CAFR workflow with due dates and responsibility assignments 9. Store each version of the CAFR produced during the reporting process Page 5

6 Questions The Office of Finance requests that the vendors answer the following questions and topics in their response to this RFI: a. Functionality 1. Describe the security, audit and accountability components of your solution (for example, internal controls, workflow tracking, checklists, and business rules.) 2. Does your solution integrate with Oracle EBS, Oracle OBIEE 11g, PROPworks, Ceridian, or Hyperion? 3. Is your solution compatible with, or does it integrate with Livelink, OpenText s Electronic Content Management Suite (ECM)? 4. Please identify which ECM solutions your system interfaces with and how. 5. Describe the standard reports produced by the solution. 6. Does your solution have the capability to be used to create an annual Budget? 7. Describe the file formats compatible with your solution. 8. Describe the file format of the output file generated by your solution. 9. Describe how the operator and administrator interface with the system. 10. Please supply some sample user interface screens in your response. b. Customization 1. What extent can the software be customized by MWAA staff? 2. Has this tool been customized to create annual Budgets? 3. What 3 rd party products do you recommend with your solution? What functionality do they provide? 4. Provide 3 examples of ways your solution has been customized. c. Setup/Maintenance 1. Describe the components (hardware and software) of your solution and the functionality of each. 2. Describe the recommended technical architecture of your solution, including recommended hardware platform, servers, workstations, printers, operating systems, communications, database platform, etc. 3. Describe the software components of your system and the industry standards they are based upon (i.e., Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), XML, web services) 4. Describe your approach to system maintenance, both the hardware and software components. d. General Company/Product Information 1. By your estimation, what percentage of your market have you captured? Please explain how you define market. 2. Indicate the total number of customers using your CAFR solution. 3. Describe any restrictions or limitations for the above recommended architecture components. 4. Describe where your product is in its product life-cycle. 5. Can a trained user/administrator create custom reports? If so, what type of reports can be created? 6. Please provide 3 sample CAFR reports produced by your solution. Page 6

7 7. Describe your approach to enhancements, maintenance, release updates, and patch management of the solution. 8. Describe the flexibility of your solution. Which parts of your solution require vendor involvement? What types of maintenance, modifications and enhancements can be made by a trained administrator or end user? 9. Describe your product warranties. 10. Describe your primary pricing model and the potential value of the model to the prospective purchasers. (Since this is not a procurement, this is not a request for a pricing.) 11. Describe your primary method of pricing training (per type operator and administrator; individually; in groups) 12. Do you offer training delivered through recommended third parties or business partners? 13. Describe recent technological advances made in the industry which you now incorporate into your approach. 14. Do you provide a Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) or cloud solution? Requested Vendor Input The Office of Finance requests responders recommend what kind of statistics, documentation, and information that the Office of Finance should furnish in a future solicitation and what the significance or criticality of that information would be on the success of the procurement. Also, please provide any additional clarifications or areas for discussion that should be considered. All input is valuable to us. III. RFI PROCESS AND RESPONSE FORMAT This RFI is being issued by the Office of Finance to seek initial Vendor input through a written response. Once the responses have been received, the Office of Finance may request that some of the Vendors present their solution. This presentation is informational or for clarification only, for the purpose of determining feasible solutions and recommendations that could be included in a potential future procurement. The invitation does not indicate that the Office of Finance is engaged in a pre-selection process for an implementation Vendor. Proprietary Information The Airports Authority maintains a Freedom of Information Policy which applies to this RFI. All records of the Airports Authority are available to the public upon reasonable request, except those identified as not required to be disclosed in this Policy, which can be viewed at Respondents who include in their submittals data that they do not want disclosed to the public for any purpose or use by the Airports Authority, except for review purposes, are required to mark their RFI submission with a legend that states: This response includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the Airports Authority without the permission of [insert firm s name] 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 Airports Authority s right to use information contained in this data if it can be obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are contained in pages [insert numbers or other identification of pages]; Page 7

8 And mark only those pages containing restricted data with the following legend: Use or disclosure of data contained on this page is subject to the restriction on the title page of this Expression of Interest. A blanket restriction applicable to the entire RFI is not acceptable. Moreover, the inclusion of this provision regarding the restriction on disclosure and use of data should not be construed to protect against the Airports Authority s use of generic concepts. Written Responses and Questions shall be submitted to the Procurement Officer identified below: Liz Bryan, Procurement Officer Phone: (703) contracting@mwaa.com From the issue date of this RFI until the responses are due, vendors shall communicate only with the Procurement Officer. Questions regarding the RFI may be submitted via the Airports Authority website at until 3:00 PM August 8, Questions will not be accepted by telephone, facsimile, mail or hand delivery. Questions must be made on behalf of a prospective respondent and must include the requestor s name, or mailing address, telephone number, and the name of the prospective proposer. Questions submitted, along with responses, will be posted on the RFI webpage by August 13, Individual responses to questions will not be given. RFI Responses shall be submitted to the Procurement Officer via . RFI responses are due on 08/16/2013 by 4:00 p.m. EDT, and are to be sent to the Procurement Officer s address as shown above. The Procurement Officer will not accept submissions after the stated date and exact time. The time of receipt will be local time as determined by MWAA s system time stamp. The responses to the RFI are to be submitted via as MS Word 2007 and/or Adobe PDF files. The subject line in the submission shall state "CAFR Software RFI Response". Vendors should give specific attention to the identification of those portions of its response which it considers confidential, proprietary, commercial information, or trade secrets, and provide justification why such materials, upon request, should not be disclosed by MWAA. Vendors are advised that, upon request for this information from a third party, the Procurement Officer will be required to make an independent determination regarding whether the information may be disclosed. The inside title of the RFI is to be marked: CAFR Software Request for Information (RFI) Name of Respondent The purpose of the following section is to describe the format the vendors should use in responding to this RFI. The Office of Finance is very interested in your comments, ideas and opinions concerning enhancement of its CAFR. The Sections which should be included in your response to the RFI are: Page 8

9 Transmittal Letter (separate MS Word 2007 or Adobe PDF file, named CAFR RFI Transmittal Vendor Name ) The transmittal letter should be in the form of a standard business letter and should be signed by a vendor-authorized individual. It should note the following: A statement that proprietary information is included, if applicable. Response(separate MS Word 2007 or Adobe PDF file, named CAFR RFI Response VendorName ) Please provide responses to the questions as listed in Section II. In addition, please feel free to make any comments, observations, or suggestions which may assist the Office of Finance in drafting an RFP, IFB, or other procurement vehicle. Product Brochures (separate MS Word 2007 or Adobe PDF file, named CAFR RFI Brochures VendorName ) Product literature, white papers, and other publications which the vendor would like to submit in response to the RFI are to be ed as separate files. Proprietary Information The vendor should place all confidential data, in order, in a separate file clearly marked CAFR RFI Confidential. All data should be titled and reference the question to which the information is related. Page 9