REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR GRANTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Transcription

1 STATE OF TENNESSEE TENNESSEE ARTS COMMISSION REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR GRANTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM RFI # February 5, STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: The State of Tennessee, Tennessee Arts Commission issues this Request for Information ( RFI ) for the purpose of exploring options for an improved grants management system. We appreciate your input and participation in this process. 2. BACKGROUND: The Tennessee Arts Commission cultivates the arts for the benefit of Tennesseans and their communities. Toward that end, the agency manages an annual grant program that has grown over the years in both volume and complexity. Tennessee Arts seeks to improve the efficiency of its grant management processes for grant seekers, reviewers and state administrative staff, moving to a fully digitized system over the next 3 years. Specifically, the Commission seeks a fully online platform that incorporates applications submissions, upload of supporting materials, easy communications interfacing, flexible reports generation, remote reviewing capabilities and easy updates of what users see. For the fiscal year July 1, 2013 June 30, 2014, the agency received 1,554 grant applications for $9.6 million and awarded 1,001 grants totaling $5 million. Grant amounts range from $300 to $100,000. Grants were reviewed and awarded in 20+ separate grant categories. The agency currently manages 4 major grant cycles: 1. Annual Adjudicated Grants - Annual deadlines in January for annual operating, project and individual artist fellowship awards. Applicants for operating support must submit audited financial document(s). Applicants for individual artist fellowship awards submit portfolio attachments. Grantees may submit attachments of up to 10 digital images in jpeg format, no more than 300 dpi (1500 pixel max) OR video files of performance no longer than 30 minutes OR music files of performance not to exceed 40 minutes. Applications are reviewed by grant program and artistic discipline and rated by panels of arts adjudicators in April. Approximately 1

2 6 different adjudicators serve on each of 20 panels and would need access to any on-line review solution (approximately 120 total adjudicators annually). 2. Arts Build Communities Grants - Grassroots nonprofits and public agencies apply for grants up to $2000 through the state grants management system, but up to 15 regional designated agencies administer the up to 15 separate review panels of approximately 6 regional adjudicators per panel. Application deadline is July 1 with panel reviews in August and awards by September. 3. Student Ticket Subsidies - Local public schools apply for grants up to $3000 for funds for ticket costs and transportation fees to expose K-12 students to a broad variety of cultural experiences, arts disciplines and artists. Arts Commission staff review applications made through the grants management system. Funds are awarded on a per capita and first-come first-served basis in up to six rounds of funding beginning in September. 4. Rolling Grants. Individuals and organizations apply throughout the year for small grants up to $10,000 that are reviewed by staff. Grants for qualified projects are awarded on a firstcome, first-serve basis within 14 days of application. Critical process elements to be supported in a grants management system include application guideline and forms development by TN Arts staff; on-line application, budget, and artistic work attachments from applicants operating from a variety of platforms; merit review, rating and ranking of applications by outside adjudicators and/or TN Arts staff; grant award or denial letter and contract document generation by TN Arts staff; payment tracking (payments are made through a separate statewide financial system); grantee final report submitted on-line; closeout by TN Arts staff. Accurate, easy reporting is a critical function. Reports are prepared annually for the National Endowment for the Arts and state legislative funding committees, in addition to internal monthly reports to manage timely grantee reporting and closeouts. The Arts Commission employs 19 staff members. Currently 13 staff have access to the grants management system. An ideal system would allow for tiered access with a few administrators, limited access for applicants and reviewers and broader read-only and query access for the remaining arts commission staff. Based on responses to this Request for Information, the Tennessee Arts Commission anticipates structuring a procurement process consistent with State of Tennessee procurement policy to secure grants management services for the future. 3. COMMUNICATIONS: 3.1. Please submit your response to this RFI to: Carol White, Associate Director for Operations Tennessee Arts Commission 401 Charlotte Ave, Nashville, TN [email protected] 2

3 Please feel free to contact the Tennessee Arts Commission with any questions regarding this RFI. The main point of contact will be: Carol White, Associate Director for Operations Tennessee Arts Commission 401 Charlotte Ave, Nashville, TN Please reference RFI # with all communications to this RFI. 4. RFI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: EVENT TIME (Central Time Zone) DATE (all dates are State business days) 1. RFI Issued February 5, Written Questions & Comments Deadline 2:00 PM March 2, State Response to Written Questions & Comments March 10, RFI Response Deadline 2:00 PM April 20, State Schedules Respondent Demonstrations April 27-30, Respondent Demonstrations May 4-7, GENERAL INFORMATION: 5.1. Please note that responding to this RFI is not a prerequisite for responding to any future solicitations related to this project and a response to this RFI will not create any contract rights. Responses to this RFI will become property of the State The information gathered during this RFI is part of an ongoing procurement. In order to prevent an unfair advantage among potential respondents, the RFI responses will not be available until after the completion of evaluation of any responses, proposals, or bids resulting from a Request for Qualifications, Request for Proposals, Invitation to Bid or other procurement method. In the event that the state chooses not to go further in the procurement process and responses are never evaluated, the responses to the procurement including the responses to the RFI, will be considered confidential by the State. 3

4 5.3. The State will not pay for any costs associated with responding to this RFI. 6. INFORMATIONAL FORMS: The State is requesting the following information from all interested parties. Please fill out the following forms: 4

5 1. RESPONDENT LEGAL ENTITY NAME: 2. RESPONDENT CONTACT PERSON: Name, Title: Address: Phone Number: RFI # TECHNICAL INFORMATIONAL FORM 3. Please provide a brief description of experience providing similar scope of services/products. 4. After reading the RFI background information, State responses to written Questions and Comments and the key functionalities of interest to the Tennessee Arts Commission listed in detail in item 5, please provide the name and a short overview description of the grants management system you would recommend for our needs. 5. Now let s think about specific details. To streamline data collection, this format allows for checkboxes of key functionalities of interest to the Tennessee Arts Commission. Listed below are those key functionalities under the relevant topic headings. If your software can provide the requested functionality, check the box. In addition, there are some questions to which we hope to receive a short narrative response. Those items are marked with a pencil icon. To receive a copy of this Technical Information form in MSWord, please request from [email protected]. To help compare systems, the Tennessee Arts Commission is using A Consumers Guide to Grants Management Systems, Idealware For a complete free copy, see: If your company is listed in the guide, please comment on the accuracy of the data included in this guide for your product. In any case, please check whether your product can deliver the request functionality below or explain alternative approach. Respondents that can provide requested functionality will be invited to provide an online product demonstration as indicated in section 4. RFI Schedule of Events. a. Internal Tracking Can track a project name, request amount, organization, program, physical location, House, Senate & Congressional district numbers, application ID #, funding source, state unique vendor ID# and funding year with all information for each grant project linked together through its entire lifecycle. Check yes if your product can provide this functionality. Yes- Lets us (TN Arts Commission) easily attach external documents to a grant record (grantees across multiple years and/or grant categories). Yes- Lets us easily and quickly view related records and data across records. Yes- b. Grantmaker Experience 5

6 Lets us collect application information online and view it. Application fields can include file uploads, checkboxes, and text fields. Yes- Automatically pulls data from online applications into the core grants management system no download or upload or data files is required. Yes- Virus scan or security feature(s) prevent malicious files from being uploaded onto the application or downloaded into the system. Yes- Lets us create new online applications without additional charges from the vendor. Yes- System supports prevention of duplicate registrants. Yes- Lets us open or close a grant category when the application season starts and closes so that applications cannot be submitted out-of-season. Yes- c. Grantseeker Experience Lets applicants view status online and easily view or print applications at any stage of the process. Yes- Applicants can save application and return to it at a later point. Yes- System registration is simple, prevents duplicates and allows for quick and easy applicant ID and/or password recovery and/or reset. Yes- Help us understand possibility of functionality to allow grantseekers to scroll over instructions while completing various parts of the application? The idea is to explore integration of step-by-step instructions into the application to make it more intuitive. d. Form Design & Flexibility Lets us customize online forms with our logo and adjust character or word counts for all fields in online forms and displays prominently how many characters remain in a field. Yes- e. Application Review Lets state administrator(s) assign access to specific grants or categories to specific reviewers. Yes- External and/or internal reviewers can easily view and/or print full grant information (including attachments) or grant summaries. Yes- Lets multiple reviewers each rate an application, with at least one comment and one numeric grade for each application. Even better, lets multiple reviewers each numerically rate an application on a number of different factors, and add comments. Yes- Allows reviewers to see and review specified grant applications without navigating the full grants management interface. Yes- Provides strong online application functionality, including the ability to reopen online applications once they ve been submitted if more information is required from the applicant. Yes- Supports different information or scoring schemes for different programs. Yes- Supports online viewing and reviewing of applications. Yes- f. 501(c)(3) Status and Congressional/state legislative districts. Help us understand what s possible for checking current tax status of applicants. 6

7 Help us understand what s possible for checking accurate autopopulating of congressional and state legislative district numbers for applicants. g. Letters and Mail Merge Documents Lets us insert mail-merge data into letters and other MSWord documents. Yes- h. s Lets us send through the system to a single individual or a group of people who meet particular criteria. Yes- Lets us set up and send automatic s based on certain events. Yes- Lets us store copy of correspondence associated with particular application records for reference and audit purposes. Yes- i. Relationship Management Help us understand what s possible in terms of tracking contacts and communications with individual applicants or constituents. j. Grant Requirements & Evaluation Lets grantees submit final progress report information through online data fields. Yes- Lets us store final progress report information submitted by grantees in multiple data fields. Yes- Lets us create custom online final progress report form(s) without paying additional vendor fees. Yes- Supports evaluation metrics based on grantee groups or data fields we identify. Yes- k. Payments Lets us enter data for payments that have been made, including amount, date paid and state voucher #. Yes- Help us explore if it would be possible to upload payment data into the Grants Management System from a periodic excel report from the state accounting system. l. Budgeting Lets us track both amount awarded and amount expended for every grant. Yes- m. Querying and Reporting Virtually all system data, including data entered into online applications, review forms, and grantee final reports, can be included in reports. Yes- Lets us save reports we create or modify and quickly view favorite reports without navigating a much larger set. Yes- Report process is easy enough for casual users to run queries independently. Yes- Reports can be exported into Excel for further analysis. Yes- n. Permissions & Workflow Has at least two different internal interfaces to provide a simpler experience for users with less complex needs. Yes- 7

8 Records certain specific actions, including grant approvals, status changes and new grantee records in a system audit log. Yes- Help us understand what s possible for automated workflow for key tasks, including staff checklist review of applications for eligibility and completeness; staff risk assessments; assignment of grants to outside adjudicators; adjudicator reviews; grant award decisions and contract generation; award notifications with attached contract document; contract return, including revised budget review, contract signature, scan, entry into state accounting system, return of counter-signed contract to grantee; payment request reviews; payments; final closeout report receipt; review; follow-up if needed; closeout; monitoring. o. Data Access Help us understand what s possible for data dashboards. Lets us directly access all data stored within the database and export all data visible to users into another file format, such as.xls. Yes- p. Overall Customization Lets us customize information requested in online applications and review forms at no additional cost. Yes- q. Ease of Use Most individuals could learn how to use the system with training. Ideally, navigation and action items are labeled intuitively. Yes- r. Support & Training Help us understand what s possible. s. System transition/migration and user acceptance testing. Help us understand what s possible if we were to transition to a new system with the goal of successfully supporting orientation of users and applicants, as well as continuity of access to historical data. t. Server or storage requirements. Help us understand options and any key technical or cost considerations. COST INFORMATIONAL FORM 1. Describe what pricing units you typically utilize for similar services (e.g., per hour, each, etc.): 2. Describe the typical price range for similar services, including an estimated first year cost and ongoing yearly cost. 3. The State of Tennessee contracts require a fixed maximum amount for a fixed term. In other words, for a final contract, an estimate of both unit rates and quantities for a specified time period is required. Can you do that? 8

9 4. The maximum term for a standard state contract is 5 years. What questions or concerns might a contract of that length raise for your company, if any? 5. Would you be willing to share a copy of a sample contract with another state arts agency? If so, please redact as appropriate and include with this response. ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS 1. Please provide input on alternative approaches or additional things to consider that might benefit the State: 9