NEW YORK STATE

OFFICE OF GENERAL SERVICES

NEW YORK STATE PROCUREMENT (NYSPro)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

This is not a solicitation.

On behalf of the New York State (NYS) Office of General Services (“OGS”), New York State Procurement (NYSPro) and the Business Services Center (BSC) requestinput from suppliers that provide Online Marketplace Catalog Hosting Sites and Management Services for statewide contracts, Marketplace Catalog Spend ReportingCapabilities, and Electronic Invoice Management Services (eInvoicing) regarding their product offerings and business models. NYSPro is seeking information from suppliers that are capable of providing all services.

Purpose and Objective

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to acquire information regarding possible options and solutions available forOnline Marketplace Catalog Hosting and Management Services for statewide contracts, Marketplace Catalog Spend ReportingCapabilities and Electronic Invoice Management Services (eInvoicing). New York State will use the information received from this RFI to review the available options and solutions in making a determination regarding future contracting strategies. Vendors interested in participating in any possible future opportunities are encouraged to respond to this RFI and sign up for the Online Vendor Registration for Bidder Notification Service ( the NYS OGS website under classification codes 43, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 86. Vendors are also encouraged to sign up for the NYS Contract Reporter ( New York’s official publication of state procurement activity.

It is the objective of this RFI to:

  • Develop a general understanding of current vendor demographics and capabilities;
  • Solicitvendor perspective on the future direction for implementing a Marketplace Catalog, capturing contract spend data, and eInvoicing integration with the State’s PeopleSoft ERP system; and
  • Obtain vendor feedback on working with New York State and other public and private sector customers and possible operating models, leading practices, pricing structures and process improvements.

Please reference the announcement “Transforming New York’s Information Technology Environment” found at additional information regarding IT Procurements.

Scope of Request

  1. Electronic Marketplace CatalogHosting and Management Services

New York State is transforming the manner in which State agencies buy goods and services to create a best-in-class procurement function that captures operational efficiencies and secures the highest quality goods and services for the best prices. To support this mission, the State would liketo obtaininformation regarding electronic catalog hosting and management services. The State would like to implement a seamless online “Marketplace Shopping Site” for all State entities to utilize in order to view and purchase items on statewide contracts.

New York State is currently operating on an Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) system that is Oracle’s PeopleSoft software which is referred to as the Statewide Financial System (SFS). SFS is currently on PeopleSoft Financials version 9.0 bundle 18 operating on PeopleTools version 8.49.33. The State is considering an upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials version 9.2 operating on PeopleTools 8.53 by 2015. SFS supports requisition-to-payment processing and financial management functions. The eProcurement application specifically supports the requisitioning process for State Agencies to procure goods and services. The application provides catalog integration capabilities, however, the State is currently not utilizing this functionality to support the requisition creation process.

New York State currently operates numerous contract vehicles with multiple contractors through the Office of General Services (OGS) and other agencies. The New York State Procurement (NYSPro) organization manages 198 awards, consisting of 1298 statewide procurements, as of June 20, 2013. NYShas statewide contracts that have been awarded to multiple vendors. In addition, NYSPro supports contracting activities for State Agencies, as well as local government entities.

The acquisition mechanism and buying function for State Agencies is decentralized with each agency responsible for individual interaction with contractors. However, all requests for goods and services are processed via the State’s PeopleSoft eProcurementapplication. State Agencies are currently not required to utilize the eProcurement requisition application to request goods or services unless the agency is being supported by the Business Services Center (BSC), New York State’s shared services organization. However, agencies are required to generate purchase orders for goods and services procured on statewide contracts unless certain criteria exist (i.e., transactions fall under a certain dollar threshold), in which case goods and services may be purchased and settled directly via non-PO invoice or Procurement Card (P-Card).

The State would like to obtain information on a Marketplace Catalog solution that would consist of the following:

  • An online catalog hosting site of goods and services provided by State of New York suppliers awarded a statewide contract

-Catalog enablement of all statewide contract supplier content via a seamless online “Marketplace Shopping Site”for all State entities

-The technological capability to integrate the catalog hosting site functionality with the Statewide Financial System (SFS), PeopleSoft ERP (version 9.x) eProcurement and Contract Management software functionality

-An internet based application/web page that will allow State entities that do not utilize the State’s PeopleSoft system (i.e. local governments) to see all the Statewide contract pricing in the marketplace, and be able to purchase items from and settle transactionsvia Procurement Card (P-Card)

  • Helpdesk services and support for the online MarketplaceCatalog environment
  • Resources needed to maintain and promote the growth of electronic catalogs for the State of New York

-Continually update the State’s catalog product, pricing, and content as contract products and pricing changes as a result of contracts being reduced, expanded, and/or assigned to a new contractor to perform

-Staff required to recruit State suppliers to participate in the catalog hosting marketplace site

-Staff required to support Marketplace Catalog usage by local governments and other authorized contract users

  1. Electronic Marketplace Catalog Spend Reporting Services

Over the past several years, NYSPro has implemented best practices around its Strategic Sourcing activities to support the State’s mission to deliver and sustain savings to taxpayers. To support this initiative, it is critical that reporting metrics be captured to track spend against statewide contracts.

The State is able to capture certain contract spend metrics against purchases made by State Agencies that are processed through the Statewide Financial System. The State is able to track spend by capturing the vendor contract number on purchase order and voucher transactions, however the vendor contract number cannot be captured on transactions settled via P-Card. In addition, local government entities do not utilize the Statewide Financial Systemand must purchase directly from statewide contract vendors, thus NYS is unable to track spend against such purchases and must rely on metrics provided from suppliers themselves. In order to procure goods and services at the best prices, as well as achieve savings goals, the State must be able to capture the most accurate contract spend reporting metrics possible.

The State would like to obtain information on a Marketplace Catalog Reporting solution that would consist of the following:

  • Reporting capabilities to capture spend generated from purchases made from the Marketplace Catalog site, to include but not limited to the following:

-Spend by Category (UNSPSC)

-Spend by Vendor

-Spend by Customer

-Spend by Contract

-Spend by Item

  • Ability to generate reports in Microsoft Excel format in real-time
  • Ability to integrate reporting information to a statewide data warehouse

-It is the State’s desire for the Statewide Financial System to be the “one source of truth” for all data reporting and it is not the intent for State users to access reports from the Marketplace Catalog and create shadow systems to capture and report on information separate from SFS. Thus, any data integrations should only be built to the SFS Enterprise Data Warehouse.

  1. eInvoicing Services

The State is looking for solutions that can integrate with the Statewide Financial System’s (SFS) PeopleSoft Accounts Payable modulefor electronic capture of supplier invoices(e.g., self service entry, PO flip, pdf upload, etc.),as well as integrate with anEnterprise Workflow and Electronic Content Management (ECM) System. The State is in the early stages of evaluating ECM products to support the BSC.

In the 2012-13 Executive Budget, Governor Cuomo called for the establishment of a Business Services Center (BSC) as a key part of his plan to re-imagine government with the intention to streamline transactional HRand finance services that are largely common across agencies, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our government’s operations. The BSC is intended to be New York’s central office for processing HR and finance transitionson behalf of all 64 State Agencies. The BSC currently provides transaction processing for 39 State Agencies with the remaining 25 agencies beingon-boarded within the following timeframe:

Date / July 2013 / September 2013 / July 2014 / September 2014
# of Agencies / 11 / 4 / 4 / 6

The BSC currently has 59 FTEs that manually process an average of 6,000 invoices per month; 1300 utilities, 3300 PO vouchers, and 1400 inter-agency invoices. The BSC estimates to have an average staff size of 450 FTEs processing anywhere from 200,000 to 700,000 invoices once all agencies have been on-boarded by the end of September 2014. NYS Prompt Payment guidelines require invoices to be paid within 30 days for electronic invoices and 45 days for paper invoices. Interest accrues at greater of 12% per year or corporate tax rate. The BSC estimates that approximately 15% to 20% of invoices processed are subject to late fees, which was affected largely by the impacts of Hurricane Sandy.

The following provides a breakdown of the top vendors for which invoices are currently being processed (fiscal year 4/1/2012 – 3/31/2013):

Count / Vendor Name
168,997 / NATIONAL GRID-UPSTATE UTILITY
163,198 / INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE ASSOCIATES PC
116,182 / NATIONAL FUEL GAS DISTRIBUTION CORP
74,115 / NYSEG
51,563 / ROCHESTER GAS & ELECTRC CORP
28,932 / CARDINAL HEALTH INC GRIFFIN CAPITAL LLC
26,854 / HEALTHPORT TECHNOLOGIES
25,215 / SOURCECORP BPS INC
19,287 / ORANGE AND ROCKLAND UTILITIES INC
19,106 / UNITED PARCEL SERVICE
18,301 / CENTRAL HUDSON GAS & ELECTRIC CORP
18,276 / WW GRAINGER
15,713 / SUPERIOR PLUS ENERGY SERVICES INC
15,409 / STAPLES CONTRACTS & COMMERCIAL INC
15,066 / MMS-A MEDICAL SUPPLY COMPANY
14,648 / VERIZON NEW YORK INC
13,635 / NEW YORK STATE IND FOR THE DISABLED
13,389 / VERIZON BUSINESS NETWORK SERVICES INC
12,775 / CITI - P CARD CITIBANK NA
12,159 / NATIONAL GRID-LONG ISLAND UTILITY
10,922 / OROGRAIN BAKERIES SALES INC BIMBO FOODS

The State’s Accounts Payable business process consists of invoice receipt and scanning/imaging, routing to agencies for approval to pay/inquiries, data entry in SFS A/P module, 2-Way and 3-Way matching in SFS A/P (PO vouchers only), budget checking (automated in SFS), release for payment disbursement and posting accounting entries to the SFS General Ledger. The State would like to determine if implementing an eInvoicing solution could enable the following improvementsto current invoice processing pain points:

  • Reduce volume ofpaper based invoices which result in high manual touch points and paper hand-offs in the current process
  • Reduce time to receive invoices and “first time right” quality of information thereof (SFS supplier ID, contract/PO#, receiving agency code, etc.)
  • Improve first time match rate for invoices that are matched to a PO or receipt due to incorrectinvoice entry
  • Decrease need to research transactions based on incomplete information required to process invoices
  • Enable electronic workflow to track invoices from receipt to resolution of supplier/agency queries and enable automated reminders and escalations for delayed actions
  • Improve controls to eliminate processing of duplicate invoices
  • Increase transaction processing efficiencies in order to eliminate late payments and identification/prioritization of invoices eligible for early payment discounts

The State would like to obtain information on an eInvoicing solution that would consist of the following:

  • Ability for vendors to submit standardized invoices (manually and/or electronically) which would require information to include but not be limited to the following:

-Agency Business Unit

-State Vendor ID

-Invoice Number

-Invoice Date

-Invoice Amount

-PO Number (if applicable)

-Invoice Line Item Detail

  • The technological capability to integrateinvoices with the NYS Statewide Financial System (SFS), PeopleSoft (version 9.x) Accounts Payable module
  • Ability for vendors to be able to track the status of their invoice from entry through payment
  • Vendor eInvoicing onboarding services and on-going support

-Resources needed to conduct and promote enrollment of vendors for the State of New York

  • Electronic workflow capabilities
  • Integrated OCR/ICR capabilities to convert invoices in pdf/image formats to electronic invoices
  • Supplier portal and existing supplier network capabilities
  • Two-way integration of supplier and purchasing master data with PeopleSoft financials
  • eInvoicing performance reporting and intelligence capabilities
  • Additional options available, including but not limited to dynamic discounting capability, eInvoice document archiving capabilities, supplier network, etc.

Content of Response

Vendors are requested to respond to all questions included in this document. A response does not bind or obligate the responder or the New York State Office of General Services to any agreement of provision or procurement of products referenced. No contract can or will be awarded based on submissions.

Since this RFI is designed as a tool to collect information and will not result in a procurement contract for Marketplace Catalog Hosting and Management Services for statewide contracts, Marketplace Catalog Spend ReportingServices or Electronic Invoice Management Services, it does not fall under the requirements of State Finance Law §§139-j and 139-k (the Procurement Lobbying Law) and there is no restricted period. However, questions and responses must be directed in writing to the email address listed below. No phone calls will be accepted.

In order to facilitate the review of the responses, please provide the information in the exact order as listed below. Vendors must answer within this document directly beloweach question, maintaining the original formatting of this document. Please rename this document with the following naming convention: NYS Catalog and eInvoicing Services RFI_VENDOR NAME.doc (.docx format is also acceptable). If there is additional or supplemental documentation vendors can provide to augment their responses to the questions in this RFI, please reference such in the corresponding question(s) and attach separately. NYS requests that vendors avoid providing sales literature.

If any of the information in the vendor response is considered confidential, proprietary or a trade secret, it must be clearly indicated on the appropriate page of the vendor response.Release of such materials is governed by the NYS Freedom of Information Law, which in pertinent part requires the requester to provide specific justification as to why disclosure of particular information in the response would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the vendor.

Please provide your responseno later than 12PM EST on August 7, 2013 to the IT Services New York State Strategic Sourcing Team:(spaces in the email address represent an underscore “_”)

Company Demographics

Question / Company Response
Company Name
Division/Location
Headquarter Location
Contact Name
Title
Email Address
Phone Number
How many years has your company been in operation?
When does your company’s fiscal year start and end?
What was your company’s total revenue last fiscal year?
Are you a Small business enterprise?
A “New York State Small Business” is defined as a company that is a resident to New York State, independently owned and operated, with 100 or fewer employees, and not dominant in its field. / (Please respond Yes or No)
Are youa Minority-owned business enterprise? / (Please respond Yes or No)
Are you a Woman-owned business enterprise? / (Please respond Yes or No)
Are you certified with Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC)as aMinority and/or Woman Owned Business (M/WBE)? / (Please respond Yes or No)
In how many other states does your company provide Marketplace Catalog Hosting and Management Services, Catalog Spend Reporting and eInvoicing Services?
How many customers do you provide Marketplace Catalog Hosting and Management Services, Catalog Spend Reporting and eInvoicing Services that integrate with Oracle PeopleSoft technology? Please provide a list of your top 10 customers.

Vendor Presentation

The New York State Procurement(NYSPro) and Business Services Center (BSC) will host a vendor presentationthe week of August 19th, 2013 in Albany, New York.The presentation provides an opportunity for vendors to showcase their services for a maximum time period of ninety (90) minutes with an additional thirty (30) minutes allotted for a question and answer period. Invitations are limited to those vendors that submit a completed RFI response. Specific time, location and agenda details will be provided after receipt of RFI response documents from each vendor.

Question / Company Response
Does your company wish to participate in the vendor presentation? / (Please respond Yes or No)
What kinds of information do you expect to present?
Are you going to demonstrate your company’s Marketplace Catalog and eInvoicing solutions at the presentation? If yes, what technical support do you require?

Questions

  1. General Information

1.Identify and describe your primary concerns in responding to a procurement for the Marketplace Catalog, Catalog Reporting, and eInvoicing solutions.

RESPONSE:

2.From your work on similar size projects and based on the description provided in the “Scope of Request” section of this RFI, identify and describe New York State’s greatest challenge and risk points in a procurement of a Marketplace Catalog, Catalog Reporting and eInvoicing solution based on NYS data?

RESPONSE:

3.Identify and describe provisions that New York State could include in an RFP that would encourage greater participation and competition amongst vendors.