City of Seattle

Request for Proposal

RFP# DEA-2592

Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) Solution

Closing Date & Time: July16, 2009 @ 4:00 pm (Pacific Time)

Schedule of Events / Deadline Date
RFP Release date / June 23, 2009
Pre-Proposal Conference / July 1, 2009 @ 10:00 am (PT)
Deadline for Questions / July 8, 2009
Sealed Proposals Due to the City / July 16, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
Proposal Evaluations / *July 20, 2009 - July 22, 2009
Select Most Competitive Proposers / July 31, 2009
Software Demonstrations (if any) Interviews? (at the City’s Option) / *September 14, 2009 – September 18, 2009
Announcement of Apparent Successful Proposer(s) / *October 2, 2009
Anticipated Contract Agreement / *October 30, 2009
Start Implementation / *November 2, 2009

*Estimate

The City reserves the right to modify this schedule at the City’s discretion. Notification of changes in the response due date would be posted on the City website or as otherwise stated herein.

All times and dates are Pacific Standard Time.

Mark the outside of your mailing envelope with “RFP# DEA-2592”

PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE THE DUE DATE AND TIME AT THIS LOCATION:

If delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, it must be addressed to:
Carmalinda Vargas
City Purchasing, City of Seattle

PO Box 94687
Seattle, WA 98124-4687
If delivered by a courier, overnight delivery or other service, address to
Carmalinda Vargas
City Purchasing, City of Seattle

Seattle Municipal Tower

700 5th Ave., #4112
Seattle, WA 98104-5042

1.INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE.

Proposers are required to read and understand all information contained within this entire Proposal package. By responding to this RFP, the Proposer agrees that Proposer has read and understands the requirements and documents in this package.

1.1 Purpose:

For the past two years, the City of Seattle(the “City”) has been exploring ways to improve the quality of services that are offered to its customers. In support of the Mayor’s Customer Bill of Rights, the City is striving to provide “best of class” service delivery by improving overall quality, timeliness and cost effectiveness while improving our customer’s ability to access City services and information.

In support of the above, the City is focused on purchasing a Web-enabled Constituent Relationship management (CRM)system, and servicesto allow the City to capture, triage, track and resolve inquiries, requests and complaints from citizens, businesses or visitors to the City of Seattle. The information and metrics available through CRM will givethe Mayor and Department heads a holistic view of service request metrics regarding how efficiently requests are being handled, major trends and issues and resource management. Customer Self-Service via WEB portal will also be very important as our customers use alternate methods to search for information and communicate with the City.

At this time, the City is only considering “hosted” solutions, ones that will allow for a quick start-up process with options for transferring the function to “on-premise” in the future. Although the initial scope of supported services is small, the City expects this CRM function to expand to a full 3-1-1 service in the future, with interfaces to the City’s telephony and work-order systems.

The City has allocated a specific budget for this project for 2009/2010, including operational costs, and the City does not expect this project to exceed $500,000. This covers Phase I implementation. This phase has a narrow scope, involving a limited number of processes, no data conversion or interfaces, and no customization. Therefore, theVendors should structure their solution to fit within the City’sbudget constraints.

1.2 Background:

The City of Seattle, with a population of approximately 600,000, is recognized as one of the world's most livable cities. Renowned for its innovative programs and environmental concerns, the City of Seattle strives to provide excellent service to its customers and to make service and information more accessible.

City of Seattle Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) Project

The CRM project at the City of Seattle represents the first step in improving service and making information and services more accessible to the City’s customers. The City views the CRM project as an opportunity to enhance how customers obtain services from the City, and how the City tracks, responds and resolves requests for service.

Although internal applications exist that perform specific tasks of tracking customer information, requests and resolutions, they are service-specific and do not offer a holistic view across the City. The City views this project as an opportunity to move from a silo-ed structure to a City-wide approach when it comes to customer service, leveraging investments made in technology infrastructure, telephony software, network switches, and operating systems. The City will also take this opportunity to develop processes and resources that ensure consistent delivery of customer service.

This project initially began, in 2006, as a concept for a 3-1-1 service for the City of Seattle. While assessing the feasibility of a 311 service, the City decided to take a more gradual approach to a 3-1-1 service, with the first step being the implementation of a CRM application to begin tracking more requests for information and services, with the goal of capturing information on service request volumes, handle times, seasonality and trends across the City.

The City currently uses an old CRM as a correspondence tracking application to record service requests. Although adequate, the application appears dated and does not support the types of access to City services required by our constituents. Maintenance is difficult and labor-intensive: the City is planning to migrate to a more state of the art system with more service offered as part of the base package.

1.3 Scope

The City desires to acquire the most appropriate CRM solution within its budget from a qualified Vendor at a firm, fixed price, to enable the City to create, manage and track customer interaction, regardless of communications method. The City prefers to purchase a proven CRM system/solution that is already in use by other organizations and operating effectively. The City is soliciting proposals for a CRM software solution from interested and qualified Vendors. In addition to the software, the City is soliciting combined proposals for implementation assistance of the technology solution to ensure a coherent assimilation to the CRM approach and methodology being introduced to the City. The City estimates a need to support 150 users at implementation of the new software, with a growth expectancy of up to 500 within 3 years.

The City requires a hosted, integrated system, along with software implementation, integration and maintenance support, to manage, respond to and report on constituent contacts and requests. Phase I of the CRM project will include the following:

  • The ability to record and tally all requests for information on City services.
  • The ability to record, track and monitor service requests requiring action on the part of the City for the following service areas:
  • Abandoned Vehicles
  • Graffiti
  • Illegal Dumping
  • The ability to analyze and display informational and service request statistics for performance measure tracking.
  • The development of a CRM WEB Portal for constituent “self service”, replacing the individual WEB forms being used by individual departments.

Subsequent phases of the CRM project will expand to cover such service areas as Noise Complaints, Animal Control, Requests for Public Disclosure, with a possible goal of implementing a full 3-1-1 function at the City of Seattle. A listing of future processes can be found in Attachment 3.

In support of the above, the City’s procurement for the CRM project must provide the following functions (detailed requirements for these functions will be found in the Functional and Technical Requirements form in Section 8 of this RFP):

  1. Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) – software that supports the call input and tracking function of receiving a call and/or service request from a constituent, entering the request and routing the request to the proper City department(s) or programs for resolution. Call input and tracking includes:
  2. Call entry and tracking number assignment,
  3. Caller/requester information entry,
  4. Multiple address entry and validation,
  5. Service request entry based on request type,
  6. Public web site entry for service requests as well as access to knowledge base information (accessible to constituents and City employees),
  7. (Optional) Geo-coding and mapping – overlay constituents’requests and cases, layers/boundaries and asset tracking on maps (see Future System Capabilities)
  8. Email alerts, triggers and notifications.
  9. Desirable integration with telephony and call categorizing/routing (ACD and IVR systems)
  1. Service Request Management – this is the functionality required to generate service requests, route requests to the proper departments for attention, tracking and reporting on the progress of a service request, and closing the service request when completed. The ability to generate multiple service request Work Orders from a single service request is required. Service Request Management includes:
  • Service Request creation and routing (one or more per request),
  • Service Request updating,
  • Work Order tracking against Service Requests
  • Service Request printing,
  • Service request completion,
  • Service Requestcustomization,
  • Document imaging and association with Service Requests
  • Forms and document generation.
  1. KnowledgeBase - the KnowledgeBase is the functionality that assists the call taker and constituent with additional information related to resolution of a request or question. The KnowledgeBase provides reference information, lists, policies and procedures along with other types of information that may be needed to respond to a constituent’s request or question. The KnowledgeBase should include:
  • Entry and updating of Knowledge Base information (including PDF forms, Word docs, and HTML documentation),
  • Retrieval of information from the Knowledge Base,
  • Association of Knowledge Base information with a call or service request,
  • Web-enabled for display on the City’s Intranet and Internet,
  • Integrated with City’s online directories (employees, services, and departments)
  • Hot links to internal and external web sites.
  1. Analysis and Reporting - is the functionality used to analyze the citizens’ requests for service, the City’s response to those requests, and opportunities for service improvement. Analysis and reporting includes:
  • Service request analysis and reporting,
  • Case analysis and reporting,
  • Public web request reporting,
  • Statistical, benchmark and trend reporting,
  • Ad hoc reporting,
  • Management reporting (activity-based management),
  • Performance/progress maintenance,
  • Ability to access data to run reports using third party reporting engines,
  • Transaction history (audit trail activities)
  • Automated reports that include timed notifications (i.e. overdue service requests report).
  1. WEB Portal Services: an off-the-shelf or custom developed portal via the WEB for constituent “self service” with access to status on service requests and the City’s Knowledgebase function.
  1. General System Capabilities
  • System security at the application, service request and field levels,
  • Service backup, recovery and archiving capabilities,
  • Audit trail capability,
  • Ability to apply business and data integrity rules,
  • Integration with City’s desktop (hardware and software)

Vendor Services

The City is requesting the following service from the vendor:

  • an integrated, hosted software solution to manage, respond to and report on service requests such as requests for City services and/or requests for information,
  • expertise for installation, integration and implementation of the system
  • training for all members of the City Project Team, including business analysts, trainers, and technical support staff
  • ongoing maintenance support and support for the City’s internal hardware/software support teams per agreements
  • programming and integration skills needed to create a WEB portal if not included as part of the off-the-shelf product.

Future System Capabilities:

  • GIS Integration: although not in scope for Phase I implementation, the City is interested in understanding the vendor’s capabilities for GIS integration with the CRM product in the future
  • Although not a requirement for this phase of work, the City will look at the flexibility and adaptability of the application to meet emerging business needs, and the ease of integration with future systems (for example, Hansen Work Order Management, the City’s Symposium application in support of telephony functions, etc).

1.4 Objectives

The City is soliciting responses to this RFP in order to secure a system that must meet the requirements of a CRM solution. The chosen solution must meet the technical requirements as detailed in the attached list of questions (see Excel spreadsheet “Technical and Functional Requirements, Section 10”. -The chosen solution will support the following objectives:

Replacement of the current Internet Quorum software with a more robust, state-of-the-art solution, one that will provide a centralized CRM solution that will:

  • Improve City staff’s ability to help customers access services and information by equipping them with automated tools (e.g., constituent service relationship management (CRM) application, automated knowledge base, etc.); and
  • Improve the City’s ability to enhance service delivery and accountability by consistently tracking and reporting customer service delivery responsiveness.
  • Develop a knowledge base that houses comprehensive information regarding City services.
  • Create a central database for requests for service and service history.
  • Increase efficiency of departmental management with reporting and monitoring tools.
  • Provide the ability to more effectively partner across departmental boundaries.
  • Integrates with geospatial data and is GIS-enabled to provide management reporting using the City’s base maps.
  • Is expandable to support an anticipated 5% growth in contact volume per year
  • Can support eventual implementation of a 3-1-1 service for the City of Seattle

The City wishes to deploy an enterprise-wide distributed solution to organize the tracking andmonitoring of communication, contacts, and service delivery to the City’s constituents. Replacement of existing CRM software affords an opportunity to implement a new generation of business software that will provide increased benefit to City departments while reducing long-term cost. Installation of highly functional software that can meet the changing needs of the City is extremely desirable. With this project, the City expects to gain an area of increased user productivity, improved responsiveness to the community, and the ability to accommodate changing business structures.

2.MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

The following are minimum qualifications and licensing requirements that the Vendor must meet in order for their proposal submittal to be eligible for evaluation. The City requests a one-page or appropriate-length document as part of your proposal response, to clearly show compliance to these minimum qualifications. The RFP Coordinator may choose to determine minimum qualifications by reading that single document alone, so the submittal should be sufficiently detailed to clearly show how you meet the minimum qualifications without looking at any other material. Those that are not clearly responsive to these minimum qualifications shall be rejected by the City without further consideration:

The City is looking for the following minimum qualificationsof the consultant(s) to be awarded this

Engagement:

  • A company that has implemented a CRM project with at least two government organizations, including one municipality with a population of greater than 100,000. Both CRM implementations must be successful, as a fully operational implementation for at least 6 months.

3.MANDATORY FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The following are mandatory functional and technical requirements that the Vendor must meet for the proposal to remain eligible for consideration.You must clearly show that your product or service meets these mandatory technical requirements, or your proposal will be rejected as non-responsive. The City requests a one-page or appropriate-length document as part of your proposal response, to clearly show compliance to these mandatory technical requirements. The RFP Coordinator may choose to determine mandatory technical requirements by reading that single document alone, so the submittal should be sufficiently detailed to clearly show how you meet the mandatory technical requirements without looking at any other material. Those that are not clearly responsive to these mandatory technical requirements shall be rejected by the City without further consideration:

The following Mandatory requirements can be found embedded in the Functional and Technical Requirementsshown in Section 8of this RFP document.

Requirement Description / Location of requirement
System shall support at least an estimated volume of up to 2 million customer interactions per year and a maximum of 400,000 calls per month and accommodate a potential 5% growth per year. / Section G: General System –line G1
The system operates in an Oracle or Microsoft SQL database environment. / Section I: Infrastructure/Integration – line I1
System shall be built using an n-tiered architecture. / Section I: Infrastructure/Integration – line I2

4.MINIMUM LICENSING AND BUSINESS TAX REQUIREMENTS

This RFP and the resultant contract require proper business licensing as listed below. The Vendor must meet all licensing requirements immediately after contract award, or the City will retain the right to reject the Vendor.

Companies are required to license, report and pay revenue taxes for (1) a Seattle Business License and all associated taxes, and (2) a WashingtonState business License unless exempted by the State of Washington. Such costs should be carefully considered by the Vendor prior to submitting their offer.

Mandatory Seattle Business Licensing and associated taxes.

  1. You must obtain a Seattle Business license and have taxes due paid to date before the Contract is signed. All costs for any licenses, permits and Seattle Business License taxes owed shall be borne by the Vendor and not charged separately to the City.
  2. The apparent successful Vendor shall immediately obtain the license and ensure all City taxes are current, unless exempted by City Code. Failure to do so will result in rejection of the bid/proposal.
  3. If you believe you are exempt, provide an explanation to the RFP Coordinator and/or confirmation by the Revenue and Consumer Affairs Office (RCA). Out-of-state and foreign-owned businesses are NOT exempt.
  4. Questions and Assistance: The City Revenue and Consumer Affairs (RCA) is the office that issues business licenses and enforces licensing requirements. The general e-mail is . The main phone is 206-684-8484. You may also call RCA staff for assistance: Anna Pedroso at 206-615-1611, Wendy Valadez at 206-684-8509 or Brenda Strickland at 206 684-8404.
  5. The licensing website is
  6. You may apply and pay for your Seattle License on-line:
  7. A cover-sheet providing further explanation, along with the application and instructions for a Seattle Business License is provided below for your convenience.
  8. Please note that those holding a City of Seattle Business license may be required to report and pay revenue taxes to the City. Such costs should be carefully considered by the Vendor prior to submitting your offer. When allowed by City ordinance, the City will have the right to retain amounts due at the conclusion of a contract by withholding from final invoice payments.