ITSA CBE Roundtable
2-22-11
Question and Answer Open Session
Question: Can you provide budget clarification and expectations?
Answer: OCTO’s budget is being reduced and is lower than last year. We are talking to other agencies and George Washington University, the ITSA contract is also open to Federal Agencies, if they were interested in participating.
Question: Resource Purchase Orders may run out of hours and in some cases the PO renewal process is delayed. At what point should vendors reach out and follow up on POs with low hours?
Answer: OCTO’s procedure for Program Managers to add funding to Purchase Orders when resources have 200 hours remaining. Due to budget constraints, Purchase Orders are typically funded a quarter at a time. Vendors should also monitor the hour spend on Purchase Orders for their resources. The PASS system allows resources to enter time. They should enter time each week to ensure the hours are calculated correctly.
Question: How do we know how many hours are left? Can we look at the timesheets?
Answer: The original hours that the PO is funded with is displayed on the PO that you receive. OST can run a report to calculate the amount of hours remaining.
Note on Candidate Submissions
Answer: Several incidents have occurred where we have received the same resume (word for word) from different vendors. In these instances the candidates are rejected on behalf of all vendors involved. If you are using a joint recruiter, please be careful and work with your recruiters and resources. We have also run into issues with falsified resumes; during the interview the candidate denies the credentials or work experience.
Also, sometimes the resource and the submitted resume do not match. Please make sure this doesn’t happen especially if you work with a third party recruiter.
Question: Follow-up question, does the background check help with identifying these issues, it verifies that all resume information is correct?
Answer: The background check is initiated after the resource is hired; these issues have arisen at the time of candidate submission to an open position.
Question: Involvement in the recruitment process. Streamlining candidates? Submit into Peopleclick, also on the resume: cumbersome?
Answer: Resume template: Process designed to make it easier for Program Managers to review. The template is standardized and allows for resumes to be compared easily.
The enhancements from Compliance Manager will standardize the way certification, background check, and other compliance items are presented.
Question: Requests an overview of infractions.
C. Infractions
Prime Contractor will measure Subcontractor performance against the requirements in section B above according to the Minor and Major Infractions below:
i. Minor Infractions
(1) Each time Subcontractor submits a Candidate who does not possess all qualifications defined as “Required” by the End Customer
(2) Each time Subcontractor submits a Resume without using the ITSA Resume Template, available at itsa.ostglobal.com
(3) Each time a Resource submits a timesheet that is late or inaccurate
(4) Each time Subcontractor submits an invoice that is late or inaccurate
ii. Major Infractions
(5) Each time a Candidate fails to participate in a scheduled interview without notice to the Prime Contractor
(6) Each time a Resource fails to report for work as scheduled without notice to the Prime Contractor
(7) Each time the End Customer evaluates a Resource as below satisfactory
(8) Each time the End Customer requests removal of a Resource due to unsatisfactory performance
(9) Each time a Resource resigns without two week advance notice unless the resignation is caused by reasonably unforeseeable circumstances such as death or serious illness
Question: Can we get feedback from the Program Managers, rather it’s positive or negative? It took more than a month to get feedback for one of my candidates.
Answer: I share your concern, the PMs are not always responsive and that’s not a good excuse. Good detailed feedback is lacking from the Programs. I understand that you need more details than “hired a stronger candidate”. It is difficult to get direct feedback for 35 candidates. I will work harder to get that info to you; perhaps pre set multiple choice options in the Peopleclick. We may consider enhancements to Peopleclick with pre set multiple choice options to attain a greater feedback rate.
Question: It is difficult for vendors to find proper candidates without feedback; we provide good candidates but they are not selected for engagements. Later, the same requirement may be republished and we do not receive feedback. Feedback is used to help with recruiting the right candidate to fill the open positions.
Answer: There are few possibilities here, sometimes there are irregularities in the process and we need to put it back out there to be fair to all vendors. There may be a false start because there was an extended period from the close of the requirement to the Program Manager selecting a candidate and the selected resource is no longer available. There are cases where candidates fail the background check and cannot accept the engagement. All of the cases listed usually result in the position being republished to the vendor community.
Question: Can they edit the requirement before they re-submit it so we are not seeing the same exact position again?
Answer: We can work with OST to refine requirements as they are re-released if the appropriate candidates have not been supplied initially.
Question: Please explain the process for releasing requirements. Is funding found after the selection or before?
Answer: Funding must be approved before position is released to the vendor community. Quick changes may occur because of Administration changes and changes in the Agency’s budget and things are re-prioritized.
Question: There have been cases where the PM requires additional training and to keep the job the vendor must pay for the training. Is that correct?
Answer: The vendor is responsible for any training expenses for their resources; the District does not pay for anything outside of the requirement.
Question: Who is responsible for filling out the past performance of the candidate?
Answer: Check with OST and we will get it to the PM to verify skills and experience. Program Managers can also complete evaluations that are available in the Peopleclick system, feedback is immediately provided to the vendor in the system.
Question: Payment issues, at what point should we realize we are not going to get paid by a certain date? If a purchase order is out and there is no funding when will you tell us?
Answer: We are taking a stronger stance pulling resources with little to no hours left. We are becoming stricter with verifying funding, invoices, and purchase orders to minimize delays. We have been working with the City Administrator’s office working to ensure that all ITSA bills are paid.
Question: Payments are sometimes partial for our invoices. Why partial payments?
Answer: Purchase orders can be made up for multiple sources and get paid from one source and the other funding source cannot be paid yet.
Question: I have a resource who hasn’t been paid since 10/01. I am assuming the PO invoiced against has money, but do they? They are also advertising more positions and I am fearful that the agency has no money for the resources.
Answer: This issue has been corrected with City Admin Office and we will continue to work until all payment issues have been resolved.
Note on ITSA Achievements
Answer : I want to announce an accomplishment; the ITSA Program has been recognized by NASCIO for best practices.
Question: Is there a pipeline for positions for more than just 5 days in advance. Doesn’t the procurement office talk about it for months?
Answer: A forecast is difficult; fluctuating budget and uncertainty makes it very hard to do. We are contingent based not project based.
ITSA is not project based and OST has no project forecasting. As we hear about positions we work with the Program Manager to validate the requirement one day before it is released. Once the position is released, it is posted to all vendors at the same time.
Question: The Federal Government has a vendor outreach program. Can you work in a partnership with them even though this is staff augmentation? Networking.
Answer: This is not allowed by the contract.
Question: Commending ITSA on writing and making requirements better. We would like to see more information to source better candidates. Suggestion, more detail such as the position that was released previous that included the SOW.
Answer: Thank you for suggesting, we will take that into consideration going forward.
Question: To piggyback on the previous suggestion, we also want to get a better idea of what the exact project will be, responsibilities, and how many people the resource will be managing? The candidates ask us these questions, the more information that we have, the more we can tell them.
Answer: This can be addressed in the requirement to provide more detailed information about the position.