SPECIFICATIONS FOR TENDER 0171-0810 SUPPLY OF LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SOFTWARE FOR WESTERN HEALTH CLOSING DATE: March 3, 2008 CLOSING TIME: 11:00 AM (Newfoundland Time)
Invitation to Tender for a Learning Management Software System 1.0 General Provisions 1.1 Intent Western Health is seeking to purchase an integrated Learning Management System (LMS)/Learning Content Management System (LCMS) to incorporate into our Organizational Development operations to be able to offer state of the art learning solutions to all our employees. The purpose of this project is to provide advanced distributed learning (anytime and anywhere) through a blended learning experience for all employees of Western Health. It is our goal to have the following components in a proposed LMS/LCMS for Western Health: Learner management functions (registration, tracking, monitoring, reporting, wait-lists, E-mail notification) Content management functions (develop, store, reuse, manage and deliver training content from a central repository) Course authoring functionality Virtual classroom delivery capability for real time instruction The ability to issue, store, and track certifications and attendance at education and training both internal and external to Western Health. Needs assessment and survey capability 1.2 Client Background Western Health was established by the Government of Newfoundland in 2005 as the Western Regional Integrated Health Authority and is responsible for the delivery of Health and Community Services in the Western Region of Newfoundland. Western Health offers a broad range of health and community services to the people of the Western region of Newfoundland. The primary clients of Western Health are those individuals, families, and communities who avail of its services and programs. The primary clients of Organizational Development are the staff, managers, physicians, volunteers, and students that provide the direct lines of service to the individuals, families and communities of the Western region.
The Vision of Western Health is that people of Western Newfoundland have the highest level of health and well being possible. Organizational Development envisions competent and capable staff, managers, physicians, volunteers, and students to provide safe, effective, and efficient services in a healthy, safe and respectful work environment. Organizational Development is committed to assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating education programs and services that support the development of a learning environment for all clients. The fundamental programs, processes and practices of Organizational Development are guided by Western Health s vision, mission and values. Programs and services of Organizational Development represent a planned approach to support the alignment of organizational performance through training and development to meet the strategic and operational goals of Western Health. Organizational Development endeavors to support organizational change by facilitating, consulting, coaching, analyzing, designing, and training. Organizational Development have adopted a competency-based training model to assist the branches, programs and services of Western Health in promoting effective and efficient learning and validation of competencies essential for both beginning and advanced practitioners. The competencybased training model identifies pertinent knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for each individual to advance from successful performers to exemplary performers. The goals of a LMS/LCMS with E-Learning capability is to develop a sustainable regional application to support the employees of Western Health to access evidence based learning as a means to develop and maintain competencies. The objectives of a LMS/LCMS for Western Health are: To conduct, collate, interpret, and manage an online learning needs assessment To implement e-learning to provide equitable access regionally to programs that will enhance employee performance of safe, evidencebased quality patient/resident/client care. To research, choose and/or develop web-based learning programs beginning with high risk, high volume issues, e.g. Fire safety, OH&S, WHMIS, etc. To develop evidence-based, competency-based learning modules in consultation with content experts to be used by employees across the region 1.3 Vendor Response 1.3.1 Vendor s tender must contain an Executive Summary which shall contain:
a. A brief description of the product being quoted. b. The name, title and address of the Vendor s representative responsible for the preparation of the Tender. 1.3.2 All prices quoted for goods and services must be specified in Canadian dollars, FOB Western Health. The vender must clearly state all applicable costs for the product being offering along with any service/licence fees for the term of contract where applicable. All Tenders will be held to be valid for ninety (90) days following the Tender closing date. 1.3.3 Tenders must be received in full on or before the exact closing time and date indicated. TENDERS RECEIVED AFTER THAT TIME WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. 1.3.4 All costs relating to the work and materials supplied by the Vendor in responding to this Invitation to this tender must be borne by the Vendor. 1.4 Release of Information 1.4.1 While Tender is Open: The names of individuals or companies who have picked up the tender documents will not be released. 1.4.2 At Tender Opening: Only the names of the bidders will be read out. 1.4.3 After Tender Opening: 1. No further information will be released until after the contract is awarded. 2. After award, only the name and bid price of the successful bidder will be made available. 3. Information will be made available for a 90 day period only.
1.4.4 FYI, Statements that are included as part of our Tender calls: Bidders are welcome to attend the public opening, please be advised that it is not our policy to release bid information at the opening. Only the names of the bidders will be released. 1.5 Communication during Tendering 1.5.1 All communications with Western Health with respect to this invitation to Tender must be directed in writing to the attention of: Mr. John Piercey Regional Director, Materiels Management Western Health P.O. Box 2005 Corner Brook, Newfoundland A2H 6J7 Tel: (709) 637-5511 Fax: (709) 634-2649 Email: johnpiercey@westernhealth.nl.ca 1.5.2 Western Health may, during the assessment period, request meetings with the Vendors to clarify points in the Tender. No changes by the Vendor will be permitted after the Tender closing date. 1.5.3 Faxed Tender responses will be accepted with the condition that the original Tender documents are received at Western Health s Materiels Management Department no later than Five working days following the Tender closing date. 1.5.4 All bids must be sent in a sealed envelope clearly marked with Tender Name and Number to: Materiels Management Department, Western Health, Western Memorial Regional Hospital, Lower Level, P.O. Box 2005, Corner Brook, NL. A2H 6J7. 1.5.5 Bids submitted by electronic transmission (e-mail) will not be accepted. 1.5.6 Companies submitting fax Tenders are doing so at their own risk and the fax Tender must be at the public opening as specified in the Tender information. This Authority will not be responsible for inhouse courier services if companies submit quotations by fax
machine. The time stated on the fax Tender will become null and void since it is the responsibility of the company placing the Tender to have their Tender at the public opening, therefore, this Authority will not be responsible for any damages or liabilities. 1.5.7 In order to contribute to waste reduction and promote environmental protection, the Western Health will endeavour to acquire goods and services that support these principles, therefore, product(s) quoted should include: maximum level of post-consumer waste and/or recyclable content minimal packaging minimal environmental hazards maximum energy efficiency potential for recycling disposal costs must not reduce the quality of the product required or affect the intended use of the product must not significantly impact the acquisition cost 1.5.8 Are the quoted price(s) on this tender (where applicable) available to our employees? Yes No N/A Administratively the Western Integrated Health Authority will not be involved in ordering, servicing, warranty and payment; the employee(s) would deal directly with the company. 1.6 Tender Acceptance 1.6.1 Any acquisitions resultant from this invitation to Tender shall be subject to the Public Tendering Act. 1.6.2 The Tenders shall be opened in the Private Dining Room at The Western Memorial Regional Hospital on the scheduled date and time. 1.6.3 A Tender bid may be accepted in whole or in part. The lowest Tender may not necessarily be accepted as product and/service capabilities, suitability and performance for intended use will be assessed by Western Health s selected team. The criteria that will be used to evaluate the proposals will include: 1. Technical capability
2. Software capability 3. Learning management capability 4. Content assessment development and content delivery capability 5. Functionality 6. End User training package 7. Vendor support, responsiveness and follow up 8. Ease of use 9. Flexibility and ease of product implementation 10. Implementation plan, timelines and support 11. Cost: the total cost to Western Health of the proposed preferred vendor relationship. 1.6.4 Western Health reserves the right to cancel the Tender call. Western Health shall not be held responsible or liable for the payment of any costs that are incurred by the bidder in preparing a Tender in response to this invitation to Tender. 1.7 Warranty The Vendor shall warrant that the product supplied to Western Health shall equal the published specifications. The Vendor shall provide clear statements of warranty on the system. The Vendor agrees to provide free of charge all parts and labour necessary to repair the system during the first year of operation. 2.0 Specifications SPECIFICATIONS STATUS COMMENTS 2.1 Supplier Specifications The vendor shall be able to provide: 2.1.1 A strong company history and proven implementation record in a health care environment 2.1.2 A well-defined project approach for scope of work including a description of interactivity and media treatments. 2.1.3 The primary characteristics of your system that will enable Western Health to provide advanced learning services. 2.1.4 A project schedule and work plan that depicts intermediate tasks and milestone events 2.1.5 A summary of corporate experience in successful completion of LMS/LCMS projects. Please include examples. 2.1.6 Be able to provide a list of clients similar in focus, size and population 2.1.7 A description of quality control processes
SPECIFICATIONS STATUS COMMENTS 2.1.8 A description of your organization to include: Number of employees Locations Years in business Awards & Honors 2.1.9 Three professional references (key contact names, titles, and telephone numbers). 2.2 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS 2.2.1 All systems shall use true TCP/IP for system communications. Systems must be able to run in an IP routed environment and must not depend on bridging traffic between sites. 2.2.2 Vendor shall be able to migrate historical course completion data from the Meditech Magic Payroll module 2.2.3 Vendor shall be able to interface with the Meditech Magic Payroll module in order to keep its database current with changes made in the Payroll system (e.g. hiring, terminations, status changes, position changes, etc. Please provide detail on how it s configured and functions. If 3 rd party interfaces are required to provide this functionality, information on the interface must be provided. 2.2.4 If remote access into WRHA network is required in order to provide support for your system, it must have strong security controls. Describe your network requirements and security mechanisms for remote access (outside the Corporate WAN). WRHA currently allows remote access via IPsec VPN. 2.2.5 WRHA s wide area network currently connects 30+ sites with connections ranging from dialup to dsl/vpn to 20mb atm. Some areas utilize switched VLAN s. The vendor must indicate ability of software to function acceptably in this environment. Explain in detail your network requirements. 2.2.6 The software should be browser based and require no specific software installation on the end user s computer. If browser based, the software must be able to function utilizing Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0. WRHA has a mixed environment of PCs and Thin Clients (Windows CE and XPe-based via Windows Terminal Services). The software should be able to run in our Thin Client environment. If it does, highlight any special hardware considerations or limitations. Explain in detail your minimum desktop computing requirements. 2.2.7 WRHA has standardized on the IBM eserver products (BladeCenter and xseries). The software shall be able to operate on this hardware platform (preferably BladeCenter).
SPECIFICATIONS STATUS COMMENTS WRHA is considering implementing server virtualization. The vendor shall indicate if their solution will function using this architecture. If the solution does not support this architecture, indicate if there are plans to do so in a future product release. WRHA has standardized on EMC SAN and NAS enterprise storage (Clariion and Celerra). The software should be able to operate in this storage platform. WRHA has standardized on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Standard version). If the system uses a RDMS, it must be able to operate in our SQL environment. Explain in detail your server/storage/database/os requirements. 2.2.8 System should integrate with other backend applications used by WRHA, specifically: Exchange 2003 (for email-based functionality) Active Directory on Windows Server 2003 (for LDAP directory services Explain in detail how your system interacts with these applications. 2.3 APPLICATION SPECIFICATIONS 2.3.1 The system shall have various registration capabilities including: The system shall manage the registration process to include self service, manager/administrator initiated, etc. Describe the registration support for individual and batch. The system shall have browse capability in the registration process. The system shall have the ability to set or configure course registration restrictions and approval including manger approval. The system shall have online registration for all education programs including classroom based 2.3.2 Vendor shall describe class management functions to include: Notification to manager if employee does not enroll in required scheduled courses by a certain date. Other customizable notification and registration capability, e.g. no show notification, reminders, etc. Automatic emailing to participants and managers of course registration and acceptance 2.3.3 The system shall have the ability for managing the learning activities including: General curricula development capabilities.
SPECIFICATIONS STATUS COMMENTS Catalogue organization of learning activities including short abstract. Search capabilities for courses, materials, enrollments & accounts. Defining & enforcing prerequisites. Challenge all or part of course through testing. Support for evaluation of learning activities. Student profiles, transcripts, and activities tracking. Customized course catalogue for different user groups. Pre, post tests automatically graded, tracked and monitored. 2.3.4 The system shall have the ability to manage resources to include: Tracking learning activity resources. Manages course capacity. Detect resource conflicts. Tracks resources by usage, program cost, individual student costs, internal cost center tracking, etc. Allocate individual and pooled resources within set parameters. Maintain list of qualified instructors, including skill, availability, location, ranking. Regional scheduling of rooms/instructors/resources. Asynchronous scheduled learning on discontinuous days. 2.3.5 The system shall have the ability to track, monitor and report competency, skills development, and gaps to include: Flexibility for defining skills/competencies by employee group. Importing job and competency profiles. Self assessment of skills inventory. Skills gap analysis. Personalized learning plans including both required and recommended activities. Skills inventory development and mapping. 2.3.6 The system shall have the ability to collaborate on learning opportunities to include: Support off-the-shelf and custom developed learning activities. Integrates with other technologies, such as threaded discussion, shared whiteboard, instant messaging, bulletin boards, streaming video web casts. Integrates with live interactive (virtual classroom) technologies such as videoconferencing. 2.3.7 The system shall provide administration and reporting capabilities. Administrative interface and usability, e.g. stats,
SPECIFICATIONS STATUS COMMENTS utilization, summaries Standard reporting capabilities Flexibility in developing custom reports Default roles/permissions provided Event management capabilities with automatic e- mail notification Customize (compartment) users access based on group, e.g. management development Secure access to learning activities via distance Printing options for teaching materials for classroom-based training 2.3.8 The system shall include content management functionality to include: Content development process and support Authoring tools, integrating ability for off-shelf programs, templates Re-useable components Separation of content development from program delivery Capacity to store, retrieve multimedia such as audio, video, etc Facilitate adaptive/personalized learning experiences based on learner needs Creating/modifying online tests and evaluations Administering needs assessments and evaluations Assessment settings and options Bookmark course and continue later Securing assessment information Server performance capabilities CD-ROM, CD-web based courseware Track and report student s interactivity with the courses Ability to download courses Packaging for mobile download 2.3.9 The vendor shall outline the support and training options including: Technical support options Standard response times and resolution procedures Major revisions and release schedule Maintenance policy re software modifications and upgrades Provisions for problem solving and enhancements in contract End of life procedures including notification and timing Availability of training Online Glossary of terms Online Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Online Tutorial Training requirements/recommendations and cost
SPECIFICATIONS STATUS COMMENTS Service arrangements 2.3.10 The vendor shall provide a typical Implementation schedule to include: Implementation process and methodology Process of change requests Tracking and communication of issues and changes Critical success factors for implementation Implementation resources provided Roles and responsibilities in the implementation described Support services for courseware development Support services for deployment Competencies required for implementing customized programs Typical implementation framework System installation timeframe Characterize time to value, e.g. breakeven, ROI Intranet deployment considerations Hosting solutions offered Strategy to secure access to hosting 3.0 Presentation / Training / Service 3.1 Presentation A presentation of the Tender and / or a demonstration of the product / system shall be provided, if requested, at the Vendor s expense. 4.0 Product History and Vendor Reputation 4.1 The Vendor shall provide a list of three (3) organizations where a similar Unit has been installed. Western Health reserves the right to use information obtained from these organizations to determine if the bid product/service is suitable for Western Health s intended use. Please include a contact person for each organization. 5.0 Financial Considerations 5.1 All applicable taxes shall be indicated in the Tender. 5.2 All costs for initial purchase, licensing fees and service fees must be clearly indicated in the bid. This includes the cost for installation, initial set-up and programming shall be included in the Tender price. Available
options for product and/or service enhancements should also be clearly indicated. Please provide before tax pricing as follows: Software System Costs (including installation): Licensing Fees (provide full details): Training Fees (provide full details): Optional or Additional Fees: 5.3 When applicable the vendor shall state all required training and all costs for training shall be included in the Tender. This includes any travel, meals and accommodation. 5.4 Terms of Payment The Authority agrees to pay the full invoiced amount, according to contract terms, within 30 days following acceptance of the installed system by Western Health. Acceptance testing will be completed within 30 days following the complete installation of the system.
6.0 Vendor Confirmation (please sign) I confirm that our Tender meets or exceeds the specifications detailed in this invitation to Tender. I also confirm that all specifications are included in the quoted price. Any items that are optional are noted accordingly. Signed Title Company Name Address Phone Tender Price $ Tax Extra Yes No
TENDER CHECKLIST TENDER #0171-0801 DID YOU INCLUDE HAS TENDER SUBMISSION BEEN SIGNED Yes No COPY OF REQUIRED TENDER DOCUMENTS Yes No COPY OF BROCHURES (IF REQUESTED) Yes No COPY OF WCB LETTER OF GOOD STANDING (IF REQUIRED) Yes No COPY OF PROOF OF INSURANCE (IF REQUIRED) Yes No AMOUNT OF TAX NOTED ON REQUEST FOR QUOTATION FORMS Yes No OPTIONAL PRICING FOR TRAINING INCLUDED Yes No NOTE: TENDER RESPONSES MAY BE REJECTED IF YOU ANSWER NO TO ANY OF THE ABOVE QUESTIONS.