State of Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) CLASS:920 ITEM: 22 CLASS:920 ITEM: 30 KEY DATES: RFI Posting Date: June 5, 2015 Questions Deadline: 3:00 p.m. Local Time June 12, 2015 Response to Questions: On or about June 16, 2015 RFI Response Deadline: 3:00 p.m. Local Time June 23, 2015
Page 2 of 8 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 1.1. Acronyms and Definitions... 3 2. Disclaimer 3 3. Background and Objectives 5 3.1. Background... 5 3.2. System Objectives... 5 3.3. Assumptions... 6 3.4. OAG Constraints... 6 4. General Information and Response Instructions 6 4.1. Schedule of Events... 7 4.2. Point(s) of Contact... 7 4.3. Questions... 7 4.4. Response Submission Instructions... 7
Page 3 of 8 1. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather information from qualified vendors that can provide a solution(s) to the requirements as described in this document. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is researching software to assist the OAG handling the ever increasing demands of electronic documents during litigation. The OAG is conducting research to determine potential vendors with the capabilities to provide a flexible, customizable enterprise-level Electronic Discovery (ediscovery) Environment. The OAG requests input based on the requirements outlined in this RFI. All ideas and information that Respondents share with the OAG are welcome. Proposed solutions should incorporate products and services that address all capabilities for the stated objectives. Information provided about products that specifically address the objectives stated herein will receive our careful consideration. 1.1. Acronyms and Definitions When capitalized, the following terms have the meaning set forth below. Acronym Local Time Respondent ediscovery EDRM ESBD RFI OAG SME Definition References to time indicate the standard time or daylight savings time, as is then prevailing, in Austin, Texas. Any individual, partnership, or corporation submitting a Response. AKA, Vendor or submitter. The process of finding, identifying, locating, retrieving, and reviewing potentially relevant data in designated computer systems. Dealing with discovery documents produced in electronic format rather than hardcopy. The production may be contained on hard drives, tapes, CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, etc. Electronic Discovery Reference Model (http://www.edrm.net/) Electronic State Business Daily Request for Information Office of the Attorney General Subject Matter Expert 2. DISCLAIMER The intent of this RFI is to obtain information. It is not a formal request for a proposal or quote. If the OAG decides to acquire any products or services based on the information submitted in response to this RFI, the appropriate procurement methods will be used. Submitting a response to this RFI shall not substitute for submitting a response to any subsequently issued procurement. However, the OAG offers no assurance or guarantee that a solicitation for procurement will result from this RFI. Vendors are invited to provide budget information and describe potential services or solutions for OAG s internal planning purposes only. Expenses incurred by Respondents in developing, preparing, or submitting any information, documentation, or other materials in response to this RFI and/or by attending meetings directly or
Page 4 of 8 indirectly related to this RFI are entirely the responsibility of the Respondents, and will neither be paid nor reimbursed by the OAG or any agency of the State of Texas. Respondents develop, prepare, or submit any information, documentation, or other materials in response to this RFI at their own risk and expense. All information, documentation, or other materials submitted in response to this RFI become the property of the OAG. Respondents should retain submission copies for their records. The OAG reserves the right to use any and all ideas presented in any response. As an agency, the OAG will strictly adhere to the requirements of Chapter 441, Subchapter L of the Texas Government Code regarding the preservation, management, and retention of state records and Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code (the Texas Public Information Act ) regarding the disclosure of public information. As a result, by participating in this RFI process you acknowledge that all information, documentation and other materials you submit in response to this RFI will constitute state records for the purposes of Chapter 441, Subchapter L of the Texas Government Code and absent an exception to disclosure, be subject to public disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act. The OAG is without authority to agree that any information submitted will not be subject to disclosure. Disclosure is governed by the Texas Public Information Act (the "Act"), Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code. Under the Act all information held by governmental bodies is subject to public disclosure unless it falls within one of the Act's specific exceptions to disclosure. Vendors are advised to consult with their legal counsel concerning disclosure issues resulting from this RFI process and to take precautions to safeguard trade secrets and other proprietary information. If it is necessary for a Vendor to include information that it considers to be proprietary or otherwise confidential in its Response, the Vendor must clearly mark all copies of the proprietary or otherwise confidential information, documentation or materials that are being provided to the OAG with a written notice identifying the specific exception(s) to disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act that the Vendor claims is/are applicable to such information, documentation, or material. Subchapter C of the Texas Public Information Act sets forth the Act s exceptions to the required disclosure of information. Please note that claiming a disclosure exception for provided information does not automatically render such information confidential. Further merely making a blanket claim that all of the submitted information is protected from disclosure because it contains some proprietary information is not acceptable, and shall not render the entire submission confidential. The OAG, at its sole discretion, may choose to disqualify any response that is marked confidential or proprietary in its entirety. Any information which is not clearly identified as proprietary or confidential shall be deemed to be subject to disclosure pursuant to the Act. In the event that the OAG receives a request under the Texas Public Information Act for a copy of any information, documentation, or other material for which an exception to required disclosure under the Act is claimed, the OAG will undertake a good faith effort to provide the Vendor with notice of the request for release of provided information and afford the Vendor the opportunity to brief the facts that bring the information under the applicable exceptions of the Act. The Vendor would submit the brief to the Open Records Division of the OAG. The Open Records Division is the division within the OAG that governmental bodies (including divisions of the OAG) seeking to withhold information under the Public Information Act must request a decision on whether the information is accepted from disclosure. It is not possible to obtain a decision prior to a request for public disclosure being made because the Open Records Division does not render advisory opinions.
Page 5 of 8 As noted above, when circumstances warrant, the OAG will seek to withhold information, documentation, or other material under the Act by submitting a brief to the Open Records Division of the OAG seeking to withhold information it believes is excepted from disclosure, especially to protect its interests in situations involving competitive procurements. Additionally, if Respondent marks the Response as copy written or protected by copyright, the Respondent grants OAG a license to reproduce the Response in order to comply with any legal requirements to produce the document. This includes, but is not limited to, the Texas Public Information Act and any reports for the Legislative Budget Board. 3. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 3.1. Background The OAG is seeking information on innovative and flexible products from vendors who provide ediscovery products and services that span all, or nearly all phases of the EDRM model, focusing on electronic data processing, review and production. Products that comply with industry standards and models, focused on reducing the labor intensive process of review and analysis of discovery in complex litigation. The OAG is also seeking more information on platforms that can be hosted in multiple environments, whether it be inhouse, datacenter or cloud-based. 3.2. System Objectives The proposed solution(s) should contain mechanism to meet or exceed the following: 3.2.1 General Features 3.2.1.1 Clean, easy to use interface, easy to start case review 3.2.1.2 Accessible from multiple platforms and locations (web-based, browser/hardware agnostic) 3.2.1.3 Scalability ability to grow the environment as needs increase, without complex reconfiguration 3.2.1.4 Customizable interface simple to complex, depending on needs of litigation teams and the complexity of the litigation 3.2.1.5 Collaborative workspaces for reviewers 3.2.1.6 Ability to create stand-alone case files (case-on-the-go) 3.2.1.7 Technology Assisted Review (TAR) capabilities 3.2.1.8 Capabilities to assist litigators in preserving case data in line with agency data retention policies, i.e. off-line storage 3.2.2 Processing 3.2.2.1 Ingest native data. (email containers, loose data files) 3.2.2.2 Ingest data using standard load file formats (LFP, Opticon, DAT, CSV, etc.) Ability to export data to same standard formats 3.2.2.3 Culling features for de-duplication, de-nist, date filter, and search terms 3.2.2.4 Data overlay capability ability to substitute replacement data, ability to clawback data unintentionally sent 3.2.2.5 Full processing reports and status updates 3.2.3 Review 3.2.3.1 Robust search and advanced search capabilities
Page 6 of 8 3.2.3.2 Custom views for Text only, Native View, Image, Production image. 3.2.3.3 TIFF on the Fly for native files. 3.2.3.4 Image Redaction. (vector based overlay) 3.2.3.5 Customizable review coding/tagging to include single choice, multi-choice, or free form text fields. 3.2.3.6 Customizable organizational functionality for review and workflow needs. 3.2.3.7 dtsearch type indexing engine and robust metadata search functionality. 3.2.3.8 Ability to create and assign Batch Sets to reviewers. 3.2.3.9 Customizable document review workspaces (2-monitor support) 3.2.3.10 Keyword/priv term on-screen highlighting 3.2.4 Production 3.2.4.1 Ability to create mixed mode production sets and export metadata from the user interface. Export to native and more than one image type at the same time. (PDF, Single page tiff, mutli-page tiff) 3.2.4.2 Comprehensive production capabilities including detailed priv log. 3.2.4.3 Create multiple industry standard load file formats. 3.2.4.4 Rolling production sets w/ reporting i.e. number of docs/ pages, date produced, redacted docs 3.2.4.5 Ability to amend or reproduce productions 3.2.4.6 Ability to connect multiple Bates number to specific documents when produced to separate parties 3.2.5 Other Desired Features 3.2.5.1 Legal Hold workflow system. 3.2.5.2 Relational database with backend SQL table access. 3.2.5.3 Group level permissions. 3.2.5.4 Ability to be hosted on multiple platform options internal network, hosted datacenter, cloud-based implementation (AWS, etc). 3.3. Assumptions 3.4.1 The OAG assumes that all Respondents have the legal right to sell or re-sell all products described in their responses. 3.4.2 The OAG assumes that the intended use of Respondents products or services does not violate any state or federal laws with regard to data security or consumer privacy. 3.4.3 The OAG assumes that Respondent s products or services are intended primarily for the purposes described herein. 3.4. OAG Constraints 3.4.1 The use of any proposed product or service must not require additional development, data storage, or integration on the part of the OAG. 3.4.2 All hardware and software must be purchased in accordance with the allocated budget and timeline. 3.4.3 The solution must meet or exceed the OAG s data integrity and security requirements. These requirements may be obtained from OAG upon execution of the appropriate non-disclosure agreement. 4. GENERAL INFORMATION AND RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS
4.1. Schedule of Events The OAG reserves the right to change the dates shown on the cover page. Office of the Attorney General Page 7 of 8 4.2. Point(s) of Contact Point(s) of Contact Information The point of contact for this RFI is Alma Torres, OAG Procurement Division. Phone: (512) 475-4524, Email: alma.torres@texasattorneygeneral.gov Physical address: Office of the Attorney General Procurement Division Attn: Alma Torres W. P. Clements Building 300 W. 15 th St., 3 rd Floor Austin TX, 78701-1649 Respondents shall make no contact with other OAG personnel, except as permitted by the point of contact, concerning this RFI. All official communication (including, but not limited to, Schedule of Events changes, RFI Questions and Answer Documents) concerning this RFI process will be posted on the Electronic State Business Daily (ESBD). The OAG has no responsibility to communicate personally with each possible Respondent. Each possible Respondent is solely responsible for checking the ESBD for OAG official communication concerning this RFI. 4.3. Questions All questions regarding this RFI must be submitted in writing to the point of contact listed in Section 4.2. The deadline for submitting questions regarding this RFI is the date and time listed on the cover page. Any questions submitted will be answered at the sole discretion of the OAG in a Question and Answer Document posted on the ESBD. 4.4. Response Submission Instructions Responses shall be delivered to the physical address specified above, and received on or before the RFI Responses Due date specified on the cover page. 4.4.2 Respondents shall provide one (1) original hardcopy (printed) and nine (9) softcopies (electronic) formats copies of Response document in response to the objectives and goals stated in this RFI. Hardcopy documents shall be submitted on standard 8.5in. x 11in. paper (except for marketing or promotional materials as described in 4.4.8 below). Softcopy (electronic) documents shall be submitted as PDF documents stored on a standard compact disc (CD). 4.4.3 The title of the response document shall be RFI Solution." 4.4.4 The first section of the Product/Service Overview document shall provide the Respondent s company name, individual contact name, company and individual contact information, and the date of the response.
Page 8 of 8 4.4.5 The second section of the response document shall provide a brief and clear description of the product or service that meet or exceed the system objectives referenced in Section 3.3 through 3.4. In addition, please list any software or equipment that is required to implement system or services. 4.4.6 In addition to the OAG requirements, Respondents may provide a description of any additional features and any new and innovative services IT solutions offered in this product. 4.4.7 The third section of the response document may provide an estimated price or pricing model for the product or service presented by the vendor. 4.4.8 In addition to the response document described above, Respondents are encouraged to provide separate written materials that describe the Respondent s product or service. This need not be information specifically prepared for this RFI, but may be any commercial brochures or previously prepared marketing information pertaining to the proposed product or service. This information may include, but should not be limited to, items such as product specification sheets, industry whitepapers, customer testimonials, news articles, press releases and business cases. 4.4.9 Respondents are encouraged to provide concepts and ideas for their security architecture. 4.4.10 Respondent must indicate in the proposed solution is offered through an established Department of Information Resources (DIR) contract. If so, Respondent shall provide the DIR contract number.