RFP No. 901199, Addendum No. 3

County of Alameda, General Services Agency – Procurement & Support Services

RFP No. 901199, Addendum No. 3

COUNTY OF ALAMEDA

ADDENDUM No. 3

RFP No. 901199

for

Dashboard Implementation Project

Specification Clarification/Modification and Recap of the Networking/Bidders Conferences

Held on August 21, 2014 and August 22, 2014

This County of Alameda, General Services Agency (GSA), RFP Addendum has been electronically issued to potential bidders via e-mail. E-mail addresses used are those in the County’s Small Local Emerging Business (SLEB) Vendor Database or from other sources. If you have registered or are certified as a SLEB, please ensure that the complete and accurate e-mail address is noted and kept updated in the SLEB Vendor Database. This RFP Addendum will also be posted on the GSA Contracting Opportunities website located at .

PLEASE NOTE:

BIDDERS MUST USE THE ATTACHED REVISED EXHIBIT A – BID RESPONSE PACKET WHEN SUBMITTING THEIR BID RESPONSE.

THE NEW BID RESPONSE DUE DATE IS OCTOBER 28, 2014.

Alameda County is committed to reducing environmental impacts across our entire supply chain.

If printing this document, please print only what you need, print double-sided, and use recycled-content paper.

RFP No. 901199, Addendum No. 2

Page 1

County of Alameda, General Services Agency – Procurement & Support Services

RFP No. 901199, Addendum No. 3

The following Sections have been modified to read as shown below. Changes made to the original RFP document are in bold print and highlighted, and deletions made have a strike through.

Page 9-10 of the RFP, CALENDER OF EVENTS, has been modified as follows:

II.CALENDAR OF EVENTS

EVENT / DATE/LOCATION
Request Issued / August 4, 2014
Written Questions Due / by 5:00 p.m. on August 22, 2014
Networking/Bidders Conference #1 / August 21, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. / at:General Services Agency
11th Floor, Room 1107
1401 Lakeside Drive
Oakland, CA 94612
Networking/Bidders Conference #2 / August 22, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. / at:Public Works Agency
Conference Room 405
4825 Gleason Drive
Dublin, CA 94568
Addendum No. 1 Issued / September 5, 2014 September 12, 2014
Addendum No. 2 Issued / September 26, 2014 September 30, 2014
Addendum No. 3 Issued / October 6, 2014 October 14, 2014
Response Due / October 20, 2014 October 28, 2014by 2:00 p.m.
Evaluation Period / October 20, 2014 – November 21, 2014 October 28, 2014 – November 26, 2014
Vendor Interviews / November 13-14, 2014 November 20-21, 2014
Board Letter Recommending Award Issued / November 18, 2014 December 2, 2014
Board Consideration Award Date / December 2, 2014 December 16, 2014
Contract Start Date / December 8, 2014 December 22, 2014

Note:Award and start dates are approximate.

Page 13 of the RFP, COUNTY PROCEDURES, TERMS, AND CONDITIONS, has been modified as follows:

The Evaluation Criteria and their respective weights are as follows:

Evaluation Criteria / Weight
Completeness of Response:
Responses to this RFP must be complete. Responses that do not include the proposal content requirements identified within this RFP and subsequent Addenda and do not address each of the items listed below will be considered incomplete, be rated a Fail in the Evaluation Criteria and will receive no further consideration.
Responses that are rated a Fail and are not considered may be picked up at the delivery location within 14 calendar days of contract award and/or the completion of the competitive process. / Pass/Fail
Financial Stability (See Exhibit A – Bid Response Packet) / Pass/Fail
Debarment and Suspension:
Bidders, its principal and named subcontractors are not identified on the list of Federally debarred, suspended or other excluded parties located at / Pass/Fail

Responses to Questions

Q1)Is it required that work be completed on-site? Will remote access be provided to all Contractors involved in this project? Can the work be done off-shore?

A)Work does not have to be completed on-site; however, it is preferred to be completed on-site. Remote access will be provided and remote work is acceptable when necessary. The work may be done off-shore.

Q2)Are there any security issues around the data and/or issues around the fact that there will be access of the data off-shore?

A)There is personal identifiable data but it is not the sum total of the data. If there are policies that prevent using off-shore with a certain type of data then the County would not allow that work to be done off-shore.

Q3)In the proposal, is it expected to give the County what the Contractor requires from the County’s site as well as resources in order for the project to be implemented?

A)Yes, the proposal shall include what the Contractor requires from the County’s site as well as the resources for the project implementation.

Q4)Who will be involved in this project from the County side?

A)A Project Manager and all developers associated with the legacy Data Warehouse team from the County will be involved in this project.

Q5)Has the County engaged any vendor to prepare this RFP?

A)The County has not engaged any vendor to prepare this RFP.

Q6)In regards to the resources and personnel needed from the County, is the cost of the personnel needed for the project part of the cost? If no, would the bidder just have to state what personnel would be needed (how many staff, what type etc.)?

A)No, it is not part of the cost of the project. Yes, the bidder shall include what personnel would be needed in their proposal.

Q7)Will the County provide facilities space and/or equipment for required on-site resources?

A)Yes, the County will provide the facilities space and equipment required on-site.

Q8)Does the County of Alameda have any particular technology in mind?

A)The County does not have any particular technology in mind. The technology will have to integrate with the existing Business Intelligence Reporting system.

Q9)Does the County envision Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) integration?

A)Yes, ESRI integration is required.

Q10)Is the bidder restricted on recommending only one (1) technology to the County? Can more than one (1) option be given?

A)A bidder is not restricted to recommending only one (1) technology, more than one (1) option can be proposed. A single tool solution would be ideal; however, the solution may be a suite of tools.

Q11)Does the County have any particular software in mind?

A)No, the County does not have any particular software in mind.

Q12)Is software licensing part of the proposal?

A)Yes, software licensing is part of the proposal.

Q13)Will there be a variety of user types and roles within the population of the 200 licenses? Is there an exact breakdown?

A)Yes, there will be a variety of user types and roles within the population of the 200 licenses. The breakdown will vary on the implementation.

Q14)Is there a current incumbent? If yes, are they eligible to bid on this scope of work?

A)No, the County currently uses an in-house solution, Cognos.

Q15)In regards to the tools and the reports the County is delivering now,was that work done through a vendor contract? If yes, what vendors were involved?

A)Some tools and reports were done through a vendor contract, which involved IBM.

Q16)Has the County sought help in the past or present from any consultant on any part of this project?

A)Yes, in the past the County has sought help from a consultant.

Q17)Can the County list the levels of accessibility to the Dashboard?

A)The accessibility standards for browser – consumable reports should conform to current W3C standards of accessibility whenever appropriate.

Q18)What will be the maximum number of concurrent users on the system at one time?

A)There will be no more than 200 users on the system at one time.

Q19)Will the Contractor get access to the database?

A)Yes, the Contractor will have access to the database.

Q20)What kind of analytic procedures would the County like to implement?

A)The procedures for analytic reporting will be established with the awarded Contractor.

Q21)Does this project require to bring in new subject area and integrate it into your existing Data Warehouse or would the dashboard creator be on top of the existing Data Warehouse itself?

A)The solution should support both options.

Q22)In terms of source systems, what data quality and cleansing would be required when processing the data and bringing it into the warehouse?

A)Data quality and cleansing standards will be respective of individual reporting/dashboarding requirements. Depending on the reporting requirement, data cleansing can be as simple as scrubbing foreign characters or requirements may state source date may need to be resolved to refine results or relationships established to expand results.

Q23)What vendor implemented the County’s existing Data Warehouse?

A)IBM implemented the County’s existing Data Warehouse.

Q24)When was the County’s Data Warehouse implemented?

A)The County’s Data Warehouse was implemented in 2009.

Q25)Is any vendor providing support for the Data Warehouse currently?

A)IBM is currently providing support for the Data Warehouse.

Q26)Does the County consider the existing Data Warehouse implementation successful?

A)Yes, the County considers the existing Data Warehouse implementation successful.

Q27)Would data be pulled from other sources other than the County’s Data Warehouse? If yes, how many systems would data be pulled from? What are the different types of data sources for each (e.g. Oracle,excel,SQL Server)?

A)Yes, the Data Warehouse is not the sole repository. There could be up to 50 systems depending on how theword system is defined. The County has four (4) case management systems within the Social Services Agency plus numerous smaller web applications and databases that capture information that people want to see on their dashboard.Currently data is pulled from Oracle, DB2, SQL server and many legacy data sources and applications including MS Acces, Excel and Word; SPSS and Business Objects.

Q28)How many files or tables in each data source will the Contractor have to access/pull the information for reporting purpose?

A)The Contractor will have access to all relevant files and/or tables necessary for individual reporting requirements.

Q29)Does the County anticipate the need to bring in additional information to the data warehouse? If yes, how many systems and tables need to be added to the data warehouse?

A)The number of systems and tables would vary according to the reports/dashboard that have been deemed as priority requests.

Q30)Is there a dedicated data quality tool that would be required?

A)There is not any one (1)specific dedicated data quality tool required as there are numerous ETL processes that are supported by the Data Warehouse. If there is one (1) dedicated data quality tool,that would be ideal.

Q31)Does the County currently have an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool that is currently being used? Is the County only leveraging that tool or does the County want the Contractor to provide an ETL tool?

A)Yes, the County currently has a variety of ETL tools that will be encouraged to be used. Contractor can leverage legacy ETL tools or provide a tool if legacy tools are determined to be insufficient for the requirements of the respective report requests.

Q32)What extract, transform, and load (ETL) and reporting tools does the County use today relative to their existing reporting applications?

A)The County currently uses Talend, IBM Data Stage, and numerous home-grown processes.

Q33)What reporting tool and ETL tool were used to display the information from the warehouse?

A)The County currently uses Talend, IBM Data Stage, and numerous home-grown processes and the legacy reporting tool is Cognos.

Q34)Will the Contractor have access to use an ETL tool or scripts to address any changes spawned out of data model design changes?

A)Yes, the Contractor will have access to use an ETL tool or scripts.

Q35)Is ETL from various sources a requirement? If the Contractor can actuallyconsume data from the sources directly is it part of the County’s strategy to get a copy of the data that exists and consolidating it in the County’s Data Warehouse?

A)That would depend but is not mandatory, if there is a way to get the data as is and there is no need for the data to be transformed or cleansed in any way shape or form that would be okay.

Q36)Does the County have dedicated ETL staff that the Contractor would be able to leverage? Would that staff be part of the organizational chart?

A)Yes, the County has ETL staff and the staff will be part of the organizational chart.

Q37)Is there a required database license to hold the extracted data or would a Contractor use the existing licenses?

A)Existing licenses will be used.

Q38)In terms of the database platform and the reporting layer, what is the utilization of the current environment? Is the County expecting that the Contractor would be looking into scalability and managing for the current platforms as part of the first year?

A)Current database platforms and reporting layers are used heavily in the current environment and are to be used when appropriate by the Contractor.

Q39)In regards to the database and reporting layers, would there be any database modeling? Would there be any ingestion of flat files? Is there any need of transforming?

A)Flat files would not have to be dimensionally modeled they will be modeled at the reporting layer. No database modeling is being anticipated nor is the ingesting of flat files. The County would prefer not to transform if the use case allows for that.

Q40)If a flat file is picked up it can be used as is only for any business intelligent tool, but if there is an opportunity for conforming the data, which will help the repository, is the County open to that?

A)Yes, the County is open to conforming the data.

Q41)What is the type of data involved in this project?

A)There are a myriad of data types that will be used in the project; Contractor tool should be scalable to that effect.

Q42)What is the size of data involved in this project?

A)There are a myriad of data sizes that will be used in the project; Contractor tool should be scalable to that effect.

Q43)Are the data sources from the web application? Is there an online or offline solution or both?

A)Both, there are an online and offline solution.

Q44)Is the County interested in the solution to be on premise or for the solution to be a cloud solution, where multiple agencies at multiple locations are able to access information from the cloud?

A)The solution shall be on premises.

Q45)What would be the time duration to the access of the data source and the report?

A)The duration to the access of the date source and the report are dependent on scope of the respective report.

Q46)Is the data that will be included in the Dashboard solution available electronically within the County network? Does the County anticipate to pull from external sources outside the County network?

A)Data is available from within the County network; no external sources will be used.

Q47)Does the County intend to build a new data mart for this project?

A)If the bidder’s scope of effort requires the construction of a data mart, a data mart will be built.

Q48)Do you have an existing data governing structure (e.g.,Who controls the data on a departmental level? Who is responsible for what?)? Or, is the County looking for the Contractor to specify one? Does that include change management?

A)The County’s existing data governance structure will be used. The existing data governance structure will be discussed with the Contractor.

Q49)Would the County be open to completing the outline scope of work in a timeframe of under a year?

A)Yes, the County would be open to completing the outline scope of work in a timeframe of under a year.

Q50)Does the County have a current budget? If yes, is there an amount that cannot be exceeded?

A)The County has earmarked what it believes to be adequate funding for the scope of this project but is not disclosing the dollar amount. Instead, bidders must include a budget for the services, software/hardware they propose in response to the RFP. The County Selection Committee will consider the merits of bidders’ proposed budgets as part of the proposal review and rating process.

Q51)Does this project require a Board of Supervisors approved budget? If yes, has that been approved?

A)The budget or dollars to fund this project were allocated as part of the Social Services Agency’s fiscal year 2014/2015 budgeting process and those funds are ready for immediate use. As part of Alameda County’s budgeting process, all County agencies’ budgets must be approved by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and the BOS has approved the County’s budget for this fiscal year. So, it is correct to state that the BOS has approved funds for this project. The BOS must also approve any new contract(s) awarded as a result of this RFP process.

Q52)Is the budget based on previous estimates or is that just a complete sample?

A)The budget is a sample.

Q53)Is the County receiving Federal Funding for the project? If yes, are there any requirements placed upon the Contractor in terms of reporting to the Federal Agency? What are the tracking methods that will be used?

A)Yes, the County is receiving federal funding for this project, however, the successful bidder will not be required to submit reports to the federal funding agency. Project funds and expenditures for this project will be tracked via invoices, the Social Services Agency’s Contracts Administration System (CAS), and the County’s Auditor-Controller’s Office automated accounting and auditing systems.

Q54)What are the minimum hardware specifications?

A)The minimum hardware specifications are as follows:

IBM System x3650 M3
Intel Xeon Processor X5680 6C 3.33GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz 130w
192GB (24x8GB, 2Rx4, 1.5V) PC3-10600 CL9 ECC DDR3 1333MHz LP RDIMM

Q55)Is the County looking for hardware sizing beyond the software? Is the hardware totally excluded and the County will do that on their own?