Cherokee Nation

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Implementation of Lawson Data Warehouse/Data Mart Solution

Shelly McClain

Acquisition Management

CHEROKEE NATION

P.O. Box 948

Tahlequah, OK74465

(918) 453-5000

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Implementation of Lawson Data Warehouse/Data Mart Solution

Introduction and Background:

The Cherokee Nation is the federally recognized government of the Cherokee people and thereby has sovereign status granted by treaty and law. Tribal sovereignty is the right to self-governance. The seat of tribal government is the W.W. Keeler Complex near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, capital of the Cherokee Nation. The jurisdictional area of the Cherokee Nation covers 14 counties in Northeastern Oklahoma.

In October 2004, Cherokee Nation went live with Lawson AP, GL, Procurement, and ProcessFlow They went live with Payroll and Human Resources in January of 2005. The system foundation was migrated to LSF9 environment in August 2007 and LS9 Applications in June of 2010. Further details of the Cherokee Nation IT environment are included in Appendix A.

Cherokee Nation is requesting a proposal from qualified companies who understand and have experience in assisting with Lawson data warehouse/data mart solutions including installation, implementation, and training. The Nation will be accepting proposals from Indian and Non-Indian parties. Indian preference will be given only to responding parties who provide proof of current certification from the Cherokee Nation Tribal Employments Office (TERO) located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, telephone number (918) 453-5000. Indian preference will be applied in accordance with Cherokee Nation Acquisition Management Policy and Procedures. Proof of TERO certification must accompany and be included in proposal submittal.

Project Scope:

The goal of this RFP is to engage a company to assist with the following:

  • Provide and install Lawson data warehouse/data mart solutionsin the following suites: Finance; Procurement; and Human Resources.
  • Provide full implementation and data validation.
  • Provide training for 6 employees.
  • Provide one year maintenance.
  • Project completion by December 31, 2011.

It is the intent of Cherokee Nation to award a contract to one company for the services noted above.

Requirements

To be eligible for award, bidder must be a Lawson certified partner and provide certification with the proposal submittal. Organization must be knowledgeable and have experience in previous installations and implementations of Lawson data warehouse/data mart solutions. The ability to meet the stipulated timelines and associated costs must also be addressed in the response.

Timeline:

The project timeline will be from date of award through December 31, 2011; contingent upon date of fully executed agreement.

Proposal Contents:

Proposal should include, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Outline of processes for each area of project scope
  • Training hours
  • Experience in previous installations and implementations
  • Trade References from previous installation and implementations
  • Confirmation of ability to meet timeline
  • Costs
  • Training hours
  • Resume with References
  • Indian Preference Information (reference General Information Section)

General Information – Instructions

Proposals must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on November 04, 2011. Any and all costs to submit proposals are the responsibility of the offeror. Proposals must be submitted in the following format.

  • E-mailed: Proposals may be e-mailed to with the Subject Line: Proposal Attached Lawson Data Warehouse/Data Mart Solution.

Any proposal received after the stipulated time and date will not be eligible for award. Cherokee Nation reserves the right to reject any and all proposals. Cherokee Nation reserves the right to determine if a proposal meets stated requirements. Award will be made subject to availability of funds. No offeror may withdraw their proposal within 30 days after proposal due date.

Any questions must be submitted in written format. Questions may be e-mailed to . Responses will be posted on the website as an addendum to the Request for Proposal.

Indian Preference will be applied in accordance with Cherokee Nation Policy. Indian Preference will be given to entities certified as an Indian-owned firm by the Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) of the Cherokee Nation. Proof of Certification card must accompany all proposals.

The Cherokee Nation reserves the right to determine a proposal acceptable in terms of meeting RFP requirements. The Cherokee Nation reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals received and to negotiate with bidders regarding the terms of their proposals or parts thereof. The Cherokee Nation reserves the right to award a contract in the best interests of the Cherokee Nation.

Modification of Proposal - Any responding party may modify their proposal at any time prior to the scheduled closing time for receipt of proposals, provided such communication is received in writing by the Cherokee Nation prior to the closing time.

Subcontracts - The Cherokee Nation will contract only with the Contractor. Should the Contractor propose to employ a Subcontractor, the request must be made in writing to the Director of Acquisition Management. The Nation must approve in writing any person, firm, or party proposed by the bidder to award a subcontract. The Cherokee Nation, in giving such acceptance, assumes no responsibility in connection with the terms of the subcontract and their performance will be the responsibility of the Contractor.

Conditions of Work - Each interested party must inform themselves fully of the scope of work of this Request for Proposal. Failure to do so will not relieve a successful bidder of his obligation to carry out the provisions of a contract resulting from this proposal. Insofar as possible, the bidder, in performing work under this contract, will employ such methods or means as will not cause any interruption of or interference with the work of the Cherokee Nation.

Interpretation of the Request for Proposal - Interpretation of the meaning of the Request for Proposal will be made in writing only. Requests for interpretation shall be submitted in written format to Shelly McClain, Procurement Manager, at . Any and all such interpretations and supplemental instructions will be in the form of written addenda to the specifications which, if issued, will be posted on the website Failure of any interested party to receive any such addendum or interpretation shall not relieve such party from any obligation under their proposal as submitted. All addenda so issued shall become part of the contract documents.

Debarment, Suspension, Proposed Debarment, and Other Responsibility Matters - The responding party certifies to the best of its knowledge and belief that the person, the firm, or any of its principals are not presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, or declared ineligible for the award of contracts by any Federal agency or Indian tribe. The bidder will also certify they have not, within a three-year period preceding this Request for Proposal, been convicted of or had a civil judgment rendered against them for: commission of fraud or a criminal offense in connection with obtaining, attempting to obtain, or performing a public (Federal, State, Local or Tribal) contract or subcontract; violation of Federal or State antitrust statutes relating to the submission of offers; or commissions of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsifications or destruction of records, making false statements, and are not presently indicted for, or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by a governmental entity with, commission of any of the offenses enumerated in this provision. The responding party certifies they have not, within a three-year period preceding this Request for Proposal, had one or more contracts terminated for default by a Federal, State, Local or Tribal agency.

The responding party shall provide immediate written notice to the Cherokee Nation if, at any time prior to contract award, the person learns its certification was erroneous when submitted or has become erroneous by reason of changed circumstances.

This certification is a material representation of fact upon which reliance was placed when making award. If it is later determined the responding party knowingly rendered an erroneous certification, in additional to other remedies available to the Cherokee Nation; the Cherokee Nation may terminate the contract resulting from this Request for Proposal for default.

Confidentiality - It is understood any information submitted to the interested party by the Cherokee Nation in respect to this Request for Proposal embodies certain proprietary information and is loaned to the party on a confidential basis. Any information acquired at the Cherokee Nation or otherwise relating to processes belonging to the Cherokee Nation incorporated into this project shall be kept confidential. The party agrees not to use in any unauthorized manner or communicate to others any such confidential items without the prior written consent of the Cherokee Nation and will undertake such measures as are necessary to require its employees and all approved subcontractors to maintain complete confidentiality.

Term:

The term of the Agreement shall be from date of award to a date specified in fully executed agreement with successful bidder.

Rating Factors for Award Selection:

  • Experience/Qualifications
  • Ability to Meet Requirements
  • Ability to Meet Timelines
  • Cost
  • Indian Preference.

Appendix A: Cherokee Nation IT Environment

The enterprise resource planning system is Lawson, which was implemented in 2004. This package includes: Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Human Resources, Inventory, Payroll, and Procurement.

Cherokee Nation has a fourteen county jurisdictional area WAN, consisting of high-speed frame-relay over ATM network which also includes 802.11abgn wireless connections. Cherokee Nation has a switched 10/100/1000 Megabit Ethernet LAN infrastructure and is running Gigabit Ethernet for certain bandwidth intensive applications. The Ethernet Local Area Network uses Cisco 3548 & 6509 switches. A 100 Megabit full-duplex wireless Metropolitan Area Network connects multiple key buildings for the organization.

There are multiple Windows 2003 SP2 Servers. We have over 2500 PC’s running in a Windows XP/Vista/7 environment.

Cherokee Nation relocated its DataCenter to a new location in 2001, approximately 1 mile from the main facility. The Center has 3600 square feet of raised floor space and is state-of-the-art.

Cherokee Nation has defined the following standards for its IT systems architecture:

  • Network: Ethernet network protocol using Cisco switches, Cisco Wireless Access Points, Cisco VPN, Cisco ACE Modules, Solarwinds Network Management and WhatsUp Professional monitoring.
  • Hardware: Dell PowerEdge Servers, Dell/Gateway/Lenovo PCs and laptops, HP printers and Multi-Function Devices.

Software: Windows XP/Vista/7, MS Office 2003/2007 Suite, MS Project, Business Objects Enterprise, MS Exchange; IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM WebSphere Portal Server, Microsoft SQL Server, MS IIS, BSI, MHC Document Express