Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Transcription

1 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Date: September 4, 2012 Subject: Customer Relationship Management Solicitation Number: RFI Response Date/Time: 10:00 AM on September 26, 2012 via to Addendum Number: 1 To Potential Offerors: The purpose of this addendum is to provide answers to all questions received by 10:00 AM on August 28, 2012 for RFI , Customer Relationship Management. Except as clarified and amended by this Addendum, the specifications, and instructions of RFI , remain as originally written. Very truly yours, Name: Beverly Ward Title: Issuing Officer Phone: beward@pa.gov

2 Customer Relationship Management RFI Submitted Questions Q1. What type of point of sale system do the LCB stores have? Is it common through the network? A1. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) utilizes an Oracle Retail Point of Sale (currently using Version in all stores but will be upgrading to Version 13.4 at some point) system throughout all stores. Software is integrated with e-commerce and Retail Merchandising System. Q2. Are there any restrictions around tracking customers, their history, and the alcohol they are purchasing? If so, what are they? A2. The restrictions have not been specified, however the PLCB is collecting some zip code and addresses with customer consent. The PLCB is seeking legislative changes to remove restrictions on collecting consumer data. The PLCB is collecting customer preferences obtained from our ecommerce customers and social media followers. Q3. How many users or customers are anticipated to use the system? What type of users are these, i.e., store internal sales people, marketing people customers? A3. The users will be broken down into central office and retail stores. Central office will include users such as marketing communications and branding and design staff, CRM, social media, product selection, and e-commerce. Retail stores will include the in-store 60+ wine specialists who will provide the face-to face customer service and direct sales support. Please provide a tiered approach for estimated costs. Q4. The RFI mentions linking customers from social media sites does the PLCB have particular sites or social media channels you want to monitor? A4. The PLCB currently uses Facebook, and Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. Foursquare, and Instagram are under consideration for future use.

3 Q5. The RFI mentions integration with Oracle Financials and Retail software is there integration to any other systems required? A5. Presently the RFI seeks conceptual information related to solution providers preferred approaches to enabling an efficient and effective customer relationship management business model for the PCLB. In addition to the systems mentioned, the PLCB also operates an ecommerce site utilizing IBM s Websphere Commerce Suite. Q6. What information are you currently tracking on customers? A6. The PLCB tracks consumers through , Twitter and Facebook. As of 11:30 AM on Wednesday, August 29, the PLCB had 1,673 followers on Twitter and over 13,000 followers on Facebook. The transactions of licensed customers (bars, clubs, restaurants, pubs, etc.) are tracked in detail. Names, addresses, telephone numbers, license identification numbers, and purchase history are the types of details maintained on licensees. Q7. Is the current Wine and Spirits web site inventory stored in the Oracle Financial or Retail software? If not what are the details (software vendor, software and version, implementation company) of the current inventory system? A7. The current web inventory is loaded in IBM Websphere E-Commerce Version 7; Database 2 Universal Database Version 9.7 for the purpose of sales display to the web. The inventory ledger file is maintained in Oracle s Retail Software for Store Inventory Management (SIM). Q8. What percentage of total sales does the PLCB do through the website versus retail brick and motor stores? A8. In fiscal year , PLCB sales revenue was $2 billion and $2 million of it was e-commerce sales. Q9. Does the PLCB have a solution for assigning a unique identifier (customer number) at the retail level?

4 A9. The PLCB does not have a unique identifier for customers. The PLCB is looking for a solution that will include that aspect. Q10. What version of Oracle Financial and Oracle Retail software is PLCB using? Are either of these systems modified/customized for PLCB? A10. The PLCB is in the process of upgrading Oracle Retail Application to version Oracle Financial will be upgraded to Some customizations do exist within Oracle. Q11. Our typical engagement assumes a three year term once the solution is accepted by our Client. Please let us know if this does not meet your needs. A11. As stated on Page 1, Paragraph 2: This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a procurement solicitation. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted to form a binding contract. Q12. Please provide any budgetary guidelines possible for a one time build and ongoing retainer fee. We can optimize the approach to target your guidelines so any guidance you can provide (ranges, etc.) will streamline the process. A12. Please see the answer to Q11 above. The PLCB will not disclose any budget information. Q13. Can you share the number of vendors invited into your RFI process? A13. The PLCB used a potential bidder list and advertised the RFI publicly on the Department of General Services website. Q14. Do you have a go live date? A14. Please see the answer to Q11 above. No awards will be made from the RFI responses.

5 Q15. What are your top 3 marketing challenges? A15. The PLCB s top 3 marketing challenges are: 1. Increasing participation of our database. 2. Increasing consumer engagement through social media. 3 Streamlining communication to the customer with existing touch points, such as , social media and advertising, and integrating them with communication interactions of the store-level staff and wine specialists. Q16. How many customer records do you estimate would be part of your overall universe of records to be made available in the CRM marketing database? A16. The PLCB currently estimates there are over 8.5 million Pennsylvania consumers over the age of 21, according to the 2010 census. It is estimated that 2.5 million of those Pennsylvanians consume wine and spirits. PLCB has set a goal of attracting 800,000 participants within two years of the CRM program. Q17. Are your customer records all consumers or are businesses also considered customers? If businesses are customers, what percentage of customer records falls into this category? A17. Our customers are broken down into 3 categories: 1. Individual consumers 2. Licensed customers (bars, clubs, restaurants, pubs, etc.) There are over 18,000 licensed customers in Pennsylvania and represent 25% percent of all sales. 3. Corporate businesses This is a new category and we want to target these customers with gift giving ideas, specifically around the holidays. Q18. How many registered online accounts do you have today? A18. As of August 30, 2012, there are 35,531 online registered accounts. Q19. How many addresses have you captured? A19. There are currently 29,748 individual customer addresses and 447 licensed customer addresses captured.

6 Q20. Does the PLCB have an service provider today? If yes, should we assume we d integrate with them on your behalf, or would you also anticipate the new vendor will take this functionality on? A20. The PLCB uses Listrak as its service provider. As part of the RFI process, we are open to options that would integrate with Listrak or other service provider solutions. Q21. Goal 1c: Assist customers during their in store shopping experience by recommending new/additional products. Can you please expand on what is meant by assist customers? Is this through sending a text to the customer while they are in the store or otherwise? A21. The customer could access their purchase history from the site or through our mobile app. Q22. Goal 1d: Please describe the method by which a customer would access their purchase history, e.g. by way of their account on your website? A22. The PLCB is looking for a technology solution that would provide this service. Q23. Goal 4: The solution should provide face-to-face and direct sales support to personnel. Please expand on what you envision as face-to-face support vs. direct sales support. A23. The PLCB envisions its retail specialist supporting customers while shopping in retail stores. Face-to-face and direct sales support are synonymous. Q24. Based on your RFI, we d project the following sources of information would feed into the marketing database: POS data, website ecommerce data, web analytics, response data, social activity, customer preferences, call center (hotline). Are there any other major sources of data we should expect, e.g. do you purchase any prospect lists, etc.? A24. The PLCB also has customer touch points through Special Liquor Order phone service to customers and in store sales support activity with retail wine specialists and follow-ups on in-store customer special orders and pre-selling activities. These

7 in-store sales support activities are currently tracked/managed with manual methods. Q25. For POS data, can we assume we d receive a single set of POS data feeds that would contain data for all 600 stores, or would there be 600 separate POS data feeds in all the same formats, or 600 separate POS data feeds all in different formats? There is a different level of development effort for each of the scenarios described. A25. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project. Q26. We d assume the ecommerce data would be provided in one set of feeds, managed centrally. Please confirm. A26. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project. Q27. What web analytics package do you use today, e.g. Omniture, Coremetrics, other? A27. The PLCB currently uses Hootsuite, Google Analytics, and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) text analytics for web use and social content analysis. Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition is used for sales and product performance analytics. Q28. How many SKUs do you have today? Are they ever re-used? A28. There are presently approximately 85,000 unique SKUs. Numerous SKUs are added each year. In the past there have been incidents of SKU reuse. Q29. How many years of transactional history do you have available within your POS system? Within your e-commerce system? A29. There are approximately 2½ years of retail transactional data available (none tracked by customer). This information is not within the POS (it would be in our data business warehouse). Transactions within the e-commerce system are turned into RTLOGs and processed as a POS sales. This information should also be in the data warehouse.

8 Q30. Are you expecting real-time data exchanges occurring between the CRM database and some of your touch points? If yes, which touch points? A30. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project. Q31. Please provide details as to the number of marketing campaigns you run annually. Are these primarily through ? Direct mail? Telemarketing? Website/online? Other? A31. blasts are distributed weekly to consumers. s to licensed customers are distributed monthly. Sales promotions are ongoing and range in type but at least one campaign occurs per month. Seasonal or thematic promotions vary in length. Q32. How many s do you deploy annually? A32. As of 8/29/12, 1.7 million s were deployed for the calendar year. Q33. How many purchase transactions are processed daily? Please distinguish between website vs. POS. A33. The average weekly purchase transactions are 1.2 million (500 is ecommerce website). The average weekly transactions spike on a seasonal basis. Q34. What is your average order size (in dollars)? A34. The average order size in dollars is $28 per customer. Q35. What is the average order size (in terms of items in order)? A35. The average order size is two (2) items per customer.

9 Q36. What are your key performance indicators? A36. The PLCB seeks to learn responders preferred approaches to managing performance and service levels. Q37. How many new customers do you add annually? A37. It is unknown how many new customers are added annually. Q38. We have the ability to provide a wide range of professional services to our clients. This can range from basic campaign pulls and creating/running reports to more advanced strategic and analytic consulting services. Please provide us some guidance as to what roles you will want the vendor to cover vs. the portions that you d take on. A38. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project. Q39. Please share how your organization is organized, e.g. do you have one central corporate IT group supporting each of the stores? A39. The PLCB s Office of Information Technology Services is located in the Northwest Office Building in Harrisburg, PA and supports all retail stores. Q40. It is quite common for us to include marketing automation tools (e.g. campaign management such as Unica CM, SAS-Campaign) and business intelligence tools (Business Objects, Cognos, etc.) into the CRM marketing database. How many end users should we anticipate would use the two different types of tools from your organization? A40. See answer to Question 3 above. Q41. Do you have a preference for Campaign Management tools? A41. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project.

10 Q42. Do you have a preference for business intelligence tools? A42. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project. Q43. We have a number of capabilities we would be able to propose to meet your needs. Each of them would have a wide range of price points pending further understanding of your requirements. In addition, bundling some capabilities as part of a single solution would likely allow for a more competitive price than pricing each option out separately. We wanted to make you aware of the challenge we suspect all vendors will face producing estimates at this juncture. Please share any additional guidance with us. A43. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information regarding the best approach for the project. Q44. Is the PLCB looking for an existing, complete software solution, or are you open to customizing the existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution which the agency already is licensed for? A44. The PLCB is open to both options of a new CRM solution or integration with the existing licensed CRM program. Q45. Can you elaborate somewhat on the compatibility and integration requirements with the Oracle Financial and Retail solution in use at the PLCB? A45. The PLCB is interested in responders preferred approaches to integrating with the PLCB s primary business systems as well as potential integration/use of communication and collaboration tools such as MS Outlook and MS SharePoint. Q46. What type (hardware and software) of point of sale systems are in place in PLCB retail stores? A46. See answer to Question #1 above.

11 Q47. In point #3 under Goals it is stated that solution should be compatible with Oracle Financial and Retail software and have the ability to manage, route and send/receive multi-format communications with participating customers. Is this two different requirements (1 compatible with Oracle and 2. ability to manage/route messages)? Can you elaborate on the nature of the compatibility requirement? What must the solutions send to Oracle and receive from Oracle and on what frequency (real-time, periodically, etc.)? A47. These are two different requests. Specifically the PLCB seeks to learn how a potential software system would integrate with PLCB s primary business systems (existing Application Programming Interfaces, conceptual system architecture, impedance mismatch concerns, etc.) and also manage and route communications with customers (functional capabilities related to multiple communication and marketing media.) Q48. In point #4 it is stated that the solution should provide face-to-face and direct sales support. Can you elaborate on this? A48. See answer to Question #23. Q49. Approximately how many employees will be using the CRM (user #) and how often will they be in the system? A49. See answer to Question #3 above. Q50. Is the CRM system going to be open to public use? If so, any estimate on number of users or clients? A50. See answer to Question #3 above.