RFP# CONSULTING SERVICES FOR ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE R12 UPGRADE QUESTION AND ANSWER RFP Reference Question GSFA Response

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1 RFP# CONSULTING SERVICES FOR ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE R12 UPGRADE QUESTION AND ANSWER RFP Reference Question GSFA Response 1 Section 1.1.2, Pg. 1 Does GSFA plan to have a dedicated DBA on this project or is this a resource the Supplier would provide? GSFC's DBA will be dedicated for this entire R12.2 Upgrade 2 General Does GSFA require the Supplier s resources to be on-site for the duration of the project, or are remote (out-of-state) resources allowed? No. Some functions can be performed off-site and would be cost effective. 3 General Can GSFA provide a list of required customizations? 4 General Who will be responsible for the customizations? 5 General Would the GSFA kindly consider granting a one week extension to the due date of the RFP response, allowing Suppliers adequate time to review the GSFA s responses to clarifications? Currently, there are only 5 business days between the GSFA s due date to respond and the due date for proposals. Yes. A list of customizations are provided on the B Project Requirements document. GSFC will provide details on each customizations as requested. Vendors are responsible for the conversion of custom applications/programs, as some customizations may be obsolete on R12 EBS, vendors will provide solutions. We have very minimal customizations. At this time GSFA is not able to accomendate this request and 1.1.2, Pg. 1 What is the time allocation for GSFA s resources? The Database Administrator (DBA) and the Financial Technical Programmer/Analyst that supports the Oracle EBS modules will be available almost full-time except handling issues that may arise from the current systems. 7 General What are the specific technical expectations for the Supplier? Refer to Exhibit A 1.1 Purpose of Procurement Are there any CEMLI objects in the current EBS environment? If so, can the No. there are no CEMLI objects in the current EBS environment. GSFC will provide list of 8 General GSFA provide the list of interfaces, customizations, personalizations, PL/SQL s, and custom database objects? customizations, PL/SQL s, and DB objects created. As mentioned above that we have very minimal customization work done , Pg. 1 Does GSFA have any date in mind before which it would like the project to be completed? As mentioned on the RFP, we are looking at a November/2015 go-live date. 10 Cost Worksheet In the Cost Sheet, should the rate per hour include expenses, or should it be exclusive of Consultant Travel expenses? If the rate per hour is exclusive of expenses, and if GSFA wants an estimate of the expenses, please specify where and how this estimate is to be provided. The current Cost Sheet does not have any line item for expenses. The price should be inclusive of expenses. 11 Cost Worksheet Can GSFA clarify as to the meaning of Extended Price on the Cost Sheet? The "Extended Price" is the "Rate per Hour" x the "Proposed Number of Hours". Section 4, Pg. 9 & Section 8, Would GSFA please clarify that there is no Additional Scored Response 12 There is not an " Additional Scored Response Worksheet". Pg. 16 Worksheet for this RFP? 13 General How many users per module need to be trained? We expect about 7-10 users to be trained per module. What is the expectation on training is it Delta training between R General and 11i or complete module training? Our expectation on training is a complete module functional training. 15 General Is there any existing training material that can be leveraged? No. We don t have R12 training materials. RFP#

2 16 Scope of Work, pgs. 3-4 The Scope of Work document, page 3, Project Overview states, The specific Consultant responsibilities in each phase are shown in bold. Will the GSFA please clarify, for each of the following sections 1-7, specifically which areas should be in bold? As an example, Section 3 states, Consultant will evaluate the suggested improvements to help determine what can be accomplished during the upgrade without significant impact to project cost and schedule. however, this is not in bold. The Scope of Work pages 3 4 should have been highlighted. 2. Assessment Phase It is anticipated that much of the initial assessment work will have been done by Suppliers during preparation for the submission of the RFP response. Consultants will lead the assessment phase in conjunction with GSFC Project Manager. 3. Improvements Phase Consultant will evaluate the suggested improvements to help determine what can be accomplished during the upgrade without significant impact to project cost and schedule. Identified areas include, but are not limited to: Month-end closing Year-end closing Drilldown capabilities Cash application Workflow Invoice workbench/payable Manager Attachments Reconciliation 4. Upgrade Phase Functional Requirements: Functional consultants will train GSFC IT staff and key users on the new functionality of modules and perform system configuration changes. Functional consultants will assist in problem resolution on process and software issues as needed, and ensure that training materials are appropriate. 5. Testing Phase Consultant will work with GSFC IT staff and key users on development of business scenarios and test scripts, and will resolve issues and inconsistencies with expected results. 6. Training Phase Consultant will lead the development of training materials adequate for on-going activities, and present classroom training for functional users. 7. Go-Live Phase Functional consultants should be available on-site to assist in problem resolution for the week following the upgrade Procurement Technical Consultant Procurement Procurement Procurement Technical Consultant Will the GSFA staff be responsible for creating new instance management strategy R12.2 environments (DEV, CRP1, CRP2, UAT) starting with baseline clones of Production ( ) or will this be the responsibility of the Technical Consultant DBA or a shared responsibility across both teams? Will any architecture components of the current system, besides the EBS Application ( ) be upgraded? (Examples: Discoverer, the Oracle database, etc.). Does the technical architecture have any Disaster Recovery (DR) capability, and if so, will the DR components be considered within scope of this contract? RFP calls for assistance in converting custom programs, processes, and reports to R12.2 technology. How many CEMLI s exist in the current system, with a breakdown of counts and complexity for each type (reports, interfaces, customizations, extensions)? Can you describe the level of assistance the GSFA staff will need for converting these CEMLI s (will the GSFA staff be responsible for the CEMLI analysis and upgrade, with some assistance from the technical consultants, or vice-versa, or a mix of responsibilities depending on CEMLI type (and if so, please elaborate). The GSFA Staff will be responsible for creating new instance management strategy environments (e.g. DEV, TEST). The Discoverer Reports will be upgraded to the available reporting tools in R12 version (BI). We have very minimal discoverer reports to convert. The Oracle DB has already been updated to The technical architecture of our systems has Disaster Recovery (DR) capability and the DR components are not considered within the scope of this project. No. there are no CEMLI objects in the current EBS environment. GSFC will provide list of customizations, PL/SQL s, and DB objects created. As mentioned above that we have very minimal customization work done. 21 Procurement Will the current hardware be used for the upgrade? No. Two new virtual servers (Oracle Linux) will be set up. RFP#

3 Procurement What are the Hardware and Operating System currently in place and the versions to be in place for the R12.2 upgrade, if different? 22 Current OEL To be OEL 6.4 How many programmers will be available from GSFA? Are they Vendors are responsible for the conversion of custom applications/programs, as some 23 SOW: 1. Project Assumptions responsible for all customization and interface modification to meet R12 customizations may be obsolete on R12 EBS, vendors will provide solutions. We have very requirements? minimal customizations. We have one programmer. We have automated Cron Job that ftp the file from the network drive to the server, run the 24 SOW: General Ledger How are journals imported from the Loan Servicing System? And How SQL*loader program, and call Oracle application to upload the data to Oracle journal often? interface tables. The user will review the journal and post. Usually it runs once a week as requested by the user. 25 SOW: General Ledger Is there any manipulating of the journal before it hits Oracle EBS? Are there other systems where the data comes from? There is no manipulation of journal before it hits Oracle EBS. 26 SOW: General Ledger How many custom reports do you have? We have a couple of custom reports. 27 SOW: General Ledger The IFA interface is the same one as the Loan Servicing system. The name Loan Servicing Can you describe and explain the IFA interface? Is it different that the System used to describe the IFA system. See Question # 24 for detail information on interface from the Loan Servicing System? processing. 28 SOW: Payables If you do not use workflow for the approval of invoices how is that accomplished today? Please provide the physical architecture of your current EBS implementation? Please clearly specify how many Tiers have been implemented in existing & what do we plan for E-Business Suite 12.2? Please provide the proposed physical architecture of your EBS 12.2 implementation? We don t use the approval function of the invoice process. Invoice is created on the system, processed, and payments are created. Managers approve invoices before it is created on the system. Intel based CPUs. Three tiers. Intel based CPUs 31 Please provide the current versions of all the technology stack for the current implementation. This should also include your patch logs for Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database version for E-Business Suite and other technologies like Discoverer, JRE, and JDK? RUP 7 32 Please provide the current size of your production E-Business Suite database that needs to be upgraded? Does the database need to be upgraded to the latest certified release as a part of EBS 12.2 upgrade? 28 GB Please provide if your E-Business Suite database is implemented as a RAC database? How many environments do you wish to upgrade? The RFP is clear on the number of rounds of the upgrade, but not clear on how many production databases are in scope. Please provide if your E-Business Suite database is implemented as a RAC database? No In a perfect world we are planning to upgrade production into one environment. But if there are issues or any other reason, then we may consider a second environment. No RFP#

4 Please provide the following information regarding your customizations: No. of custom schemas No. of custom objects No. of custom interfaces No. of custom forms No. of custom reports Please provide the list of custom programs/interfaces/reports & business process description What is the Database & Application Character set for the current E- Business Suite environment? What is the Base Language for the E-Business Suite installation? How many languages are installed? No. of custom schemas 0 No. of custom objects 4-6 No. of custom interfaces- 2 No. of custom forms- 0 No. of custom reports- 3 DB-US7 ASCII English 39 Mandatory Scored Matrix Can the referenced attachments be referring to section headers within the proposal response instead of separate electronic attachments? Yes. 40 May we add a column similar to the Scored Matrix for Attachment file Mandatory Questions Matrix name? Yes. 41 Exhibit A Does the GSFA R12 Upgrade Project Manager have R12 upgrade experience? No 42 RFP 1.6, Contract Form Will other state entities be able to draw services from the awarded contract? This will be an agency contract. 43 Cost Proposal Will GSFA allow a Time and Material proposal? No. 44 Exhibit A Will offsite access via VPN be provided? We will attempt to provide offsite access via VPN. Some functions can be performed remotely and would be cost effective. 45 Exhibit A 46 Exhibit A 47 Exhibit A 48 Exhibit A 49 Exhibit A 50 General Information Worksheet 51 Mandatory Question #6 What is the count of customizations (reports, interfaces, forms, personalization s, extensions, ADI spreadsheets) by product type? Please refer to question # 36 Does GSFA envision implementing new functionality or strictly limiting new functionality to the R12 delta changes? GSFA envisions implementing new functionality wherever it is appropriate and if it enhances accounting processes. Will the vendor also be evaluating the technical environment during the Yes. Vendors also be evaluating the technical environment during the assessment phase assessment phase and make recommendations? and also make recommendations. Have test plans and scenarios been developed or will that be the Test plans and scenarios have not been developed. As stated in the RFP, it will be vendors consultant s responsibility? responsibilities Should we assume the GSFA developers will be responsible for all custom report and interface remediation? No. See question # 23 for detail. Will points be awarded for use of Georgia minority or small business subcontractors? No. Mandatory Question #6 requests examples of project plans, status reports, training guides, etc. which will not fit into the Excel spreadsheet. May we Yes. use See Attached in that case? 52 Exhibit A Can offshore resources be used? All work must be performed within the contiguous United States. Describe the R12 upgrade training that the GSFA technical staff has GSFA technical staff has not received R12 upgrade yet. But we have been reviewing various 53 Exhibit A received. upgrade documents from Oracle support. RFP#

5 Current: To-Be VMWARE HOSTS VMWARE HOSTS Please describe the current EBS technical environment including server OEL (OS) 5.11 OEL Exhibit A configuration, operating system and version, software versions, bit UNIX 64 BIT LINUX and EBS patch levels. Also describe the To-Be technical environment. EBS RUP Are there any other modules in the footprint? If yes, to what extent are they being utilized? We are using System Administration module to support AP and GL modules 56 Are the existing GL and AP modules closed in a timely manner? How many past periods are not closed? Yes. GL and AP close in a timely manner. We keep current Fiscal year plus 5 years. Please provide a list and description of each custom object to be included 57 General Questions regarding Please refer to question # 36 for detail. in the upgrade. Exhibit A Scope of Work Is a database or operating system upgrade or change planned for this 58 Yes. please refer to question # 54 for detail. project? 59 How many concurrent users do you have? About 10 users. 60 Are there any dates that are constraints for the project; specifically around No. we are not aware of any dates constraints at this time. go-live? Oracle General Ledger Questions regarding Exhibit A Scope of Work Do you plan to make changes to the Sub Ledger Accounting (SLA) methods or simply pass the transactions through SLA to GL in their original form? To what extent does GSFA use General Ledger Financial Statement Generator (FSG) reports? Does GSFA desire to continue using the printer cartridge and custom payment process or will it choose to configure the new R12 Oracle Payments module? This has not been discussed with the users at this time. Once they are aware of Sub Ledger accounting then they will make determination on how to use SLA. GSFA use the FSG reports for budget data and for comparison of budget vs actual data. We have less than 10 FSG reports in use. GSFA will continue to use the AP check printing cartridge. The custom check printing programs are in-house developed system not included in this project. We will use the Oracle payment module. Are wires in the payables module simple to record a wire transfer which 64 occurred in the banking software, or does the creation of the wire in Oracle Payables trigger the wire transfer at the bank? GSFA do not use Wire in AP. The original RFP was corrected to reflect that. 65 Oracle Payables Questions Is the supplier database shared with any other applications? No. the supplier database is not shared with any application. 66 regarding Exhibit A Scope of Does your AP trial balance match or reconcile to the GL Trade Accounts Work Payable account balance? Yes it does. 67 Does GSFA use any tax rates currently in AP, and if so, how do the tax rates get loaded into Oracle? GSFA does not use tax rates currently in AP and does not upload rates. 68 What is the average number of lines on a typical AP invoice? The average lines on an invoice may range from 5 to 10. But have some invoices that has 40 to 100 distribution lines. 69 Does GSFA use FREIGHT and MISC line types on your AP Invoices? No. GSFA does not use FRIEGHT and MISC line type on AP invoice. 70 How many operating units exist for Accounts Payable? One operating unit. RFP#

6 71 RFP Reference Question GSFA Response What percent of the GSFA DBA s time will be dedicated to the upgrade project? Please refer to question # 6 for detail. Open for discussion. 72 Will the GSFA programmers for each of the modules be responsible for all of the remediation of RICEW/CEMLI items? If not, does GSFA have any problems with using off shore resources for remediation? Please refer to question # 8 and # 52 for detail. 73 Can GSFA supply their current list of non-production environments to support 11i? Yes. 74 Is there any other Oracle documentation that GSFA can share for the current environment (configuration guides, process flows, requirements log, test scripts)? GSFA is willing to share available documents. 75 Does GSFA maintain any user test scripts that can be re-used (with Project Assumptions modifications) during for the upgrade? GSFA has not maintained user test scripts. 76 Questions regarding Exhibit A Has any pre implementation work been planned or accomplished yet, Scope of Work such as DB upgrade, or OATM migration? Yes. DB upgraded to OATM is Active 77 Will there be any need for a technical review of current IT strategies Currently, GSFA does not anticipate review of the IT architecture or IT strategies as part of and/or IT architecture as part of this phase? this project. 78 Does GSFA use any tools for migrating custom code? No. 79 Does GSFA use any tools for managing custom code versions? No. GSFA does not manage custom code version currently How does GSFA handle custom responsibilities in Oracle 11i? Are all menus customized, or do you use exclusions on Super User menus? Are there specific features that are new to R12 which GSFA desires to be implemented? Will the functional consultants be performing configuration in the PRODUCTION instance for go-live, or will the GSFA team do those configurations from a BR100? From a planning perspective - for GSFC functional resources - what is the holiday schedule and what are the expectations for project availability vs regular functional activity? From a technical perspective: How big is the current database? We would like this information for environment planning purposes. GSFA uses custom responsibility for custom menu or reports. GSFA would like to review new functionality provided by R12 and implement. The consultants will perform configuration in the Production instance for go-live. The functional resource will be available for this project as much as possible in addition to their daily activity. 28 GB 85 Can you provide a flowchart of your existing system and integration points? We can look into it. 86 Will you be upgrading to version or ? We are planning for What Operating System and version host the ebusiness Suite applications? OEL What is the current version of the database that hosts ebusiness Suite? Current version Is GSFC OATM compliant? Yes. 90 Other than upgrading the ebusiness Suite components, are any other components of the instance to be upgraded? Fir instance, hardware, OS, database, etc.? Please refer to question # 54 for detail. RFP#

7 Are there any third part integration points that will be affected by the 91 upgrade? If so, is the remediation of these integration points to be included in the estimate? Yes, PrevisionEPM budgeting application. No, not at present. 92 Can you provide your approval matrix for AP? GSFA does not use approval matrix for AP. 93 How many business units/legal entities are there? There is one legal entity. 94 Do the GSFC sets of books have operating units attached to them? If so, which sub-ledgers are configured? No. 95 What is your current chart of accounts design? COA Fund.Account.Cost Center.Project Code 96 General Will the chart of accounts be redesigned? COA will not be re-designed. 97 How many fiscal calendars are being used? One fiscal calendar. 98 How many currencies are being used? Assumption is 1 US Dollars. One - US Dollars. 99 Do you perform financial consolidations in Oracle? No. 100 Please describe the process for intercompany elimination sets of books? N/A 101 What is the budgeting process? What level do you budget (e.g. GSFA budgets at the Entity/Cost Center (department) level capturing anticipated department, headcount)? expenditures and head counts. 102 Are financial reports standard across business units/entities? Yes. 103 How are local statutory reporting requirements met? Using Excel 104 What are the key metrics and reporting needs? Currently is the same as the current reporting. 105 Are vendors maintained in accounts payable or purchasing? Accounts Payable 106 How many locations/sites pay invoices? One 107 How many payments methods types are there? We are using one, but would like to have the other option if it doesn't require additional costs 108 Any tax requirements other than 1099 such as Sales & Use, Withholding, VAT? Only 1099 is required for now 109 How is the corporation structured - centralized/decentralized? it is not a Corporation. 110 Do your reporting users create their own reports? Using set of fields or do reporting users execute pre-published reports created by IT? Yes to the first question, but in very rare situation, and yes to the second question 111 What are the key metrics and reporting needs by application? Currently is the same as the current reporting. 112 Do you plan to / currently use any automated testing tools? If so, can you provide the list of these tools? No. We are not using any automated testing tools. 113 Any source code version control system being used? No. 114 Can you please provide a list of following Customizations: 115 a. Custom Reports Refer to question # b. Custom Interfaces Refer to question # c. Any form customizations Refer to question # d. Any other customizations Refer to question # GENERAL LEDGER Are the Budgets imported using Web ADI? If not, what is the method? Budget is imported from a third party application PrevisionEPM. 120 How many Budget Organizations / Cost Centers do you have? About 15 to 20 cost centers. 121 What are the Custom Journal Categories - DAILY GHEAC, DAILY GSFA and Daily GHEAC is not in use any more. Daily GSFA and Daily HOPE are disbursement JE of DAILY HOPE used for? GSFA and GSFC respectively. 122 Are Journal Entries approved in Oracle or manually? Manually RFP#

8 123 Do you import / interface any invoices to AP? No. 124 Do you make any electronic payments, such as ACH, etc.? Not from Oracle EBS. PAYABLES Do you use Purchase Orders? How are they entered in the Oracle 125 We no longer use purchase orders. Applications? Do you have detailed scripts for testing of your accounting and payable 126 No. scenarios? 127 Are you open to additional Project Management and DBA resource needs? GENERAL We do not require additional Project Management and DBA resources. We will have a full time Oracle DBA and part time Project Management available throughout the project Contract / Contract Terms In the main document you use the approach "assist", "support". However, in the quotation form, you require a Fix Price approach. Can you please confirm if this is Fixed price or T&M? Contract Term: Initial term is 1 (One) year. Georgia Student Finance has 4 more options to renew the contract. Is the 4 more options correct or is there just one additional period to renew the contract? The Pricing Sheet is based upon the rate per hour and the projected number of hours to complete this the contract. There are up to four optional renewals exercisable at the sole discretion of the GSFA. 130 Do you own Oracle's User Productivity Kit No. 131 Training Do you own any training tools that you prefer to use to create training materials? No. we don t own any training tools at this time. 132 How are test scripts currently created? We use word or excel test scripts format. 133 Testing Do you use any testing tools? No. 134 Do you have any test automation tools? No. RFP#