REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. Related to. Comprehensive Transit Grants Management

Transcription

1 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Related to Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Issue Date: March 25, 2013 Minnesota Department of Transportation Office of Transit 395 John Ireland Boulevard MS 430 St. Paul, MN RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 1 of 10

2 Table of Contents I. Statement of Need... 3 II. RFI Process... 4 A. Steps Issuance Response Submittal Review of Responses Conclusion... 5 B. RFI Process Schedule... 5 C. Contact... 6 III. MnDOT Environment/Standards... 6 IV. Requested Information response requirements... 7 A. Company Profile... 7 B. Solution Overview... 7 C. Solution Functionality... 7 D. Solution Cost Estimates E. Implementation Timeline RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 2 of 10

3 I. Statement of Need The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is in need of a Comprehensive Transit Grants Management system. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to identify a commercial off the shelf package that could replace MnDOT s current Public Transit Application. MnDOT would like to improve the ability to effectively plan, implement, administer, and evaluate programs and grants to improve public transit, community transportation, and other multimodal programs across the state of Minnesota. This includes the administration of state and federal grants and programs. MnDOT is looking for another solution because the current solution is out of date and very expensive to fix. Primary problems with the existing application are: The Budget setup process is cumbersome and time consuming There are workflow issues in budget creation and approval The Administrative function for applying funds to programs is inconsistent What-if-Scenario calculation processes are cumbersome and time consuming What-if-Scenario calculation processes due to complexity are more prone to allowing human error The Grant Administration function is unstable Navigation between cascading forms can be confusing The Vehicle module does not have features desired by MnDOT The Request for Funding Process is tedious and can easily introduce human error The Facility Management function does not have features desired by MnDOT The database structure leads to difficulties in producing reliable reports Complex reporting requirements result in difficult reports to create and maintain Changes in business processes (including Federal and State mandated changes) require constant maintenance of the application Due to shortcomings of the application it is necessary to use Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets for calculations outside of the application Who are we - What we are doing Minnesota has a statutory goal to provide transit services to all counties in the state to meet the needs of transit users. In Greater Minnesota, 59 public transit systems are operated by local governments and nonprofits. The Office of Transit administers state and federal transit assistance programs to support these public transit systems, directs planning and research activities, provides technical assistance, and coordinates statewide bicycle and pedestrian activities. Transit Assistance: Provides grants to eligible recipients to operate public transit services in Greater Minnesota. Provides grants to eligible recipients for the purchase of wheelchair-accessible vans and buses to serve elderly and/or disabled persons. RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 3 of 10

4 Provides grants to eligible recipients to meet the transportation needs of residents commuting to suburban employment opportunities. Provides grants to eligible recipients to operate NEW transportation services and public transportation alternatives beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Supports transit corridor projects in the Metropolitan Area. Supports statewide Rideshare projects. Coordinates statewide bicycle and pedestrian activities. Increases mobility for individuals and the workforce. State funding to support Greater Minnesota public transit systems comes from the general fund and dedicated funds from revenues from the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax and from sales tax on leased motor vehicles. Federal funding comes from the following Transit Grant Programs: Non-Urbanized Area Transit Assistance Program (Section 5311) Elderly Persons and Persons with Disabilities Capital Assistance Program (Section 5310) Job Access and Reverse Commute Assistance Program (Section 5316) New Freedom Program (Section 5317) Capital Facilities Assistance Program (Section 5309) When determining how to fund local transit agencies to sustain or improve bus service, MnDOT Office of Transit's first priority is to preserve well-performing existing services, equipment, and facilities, then provide public transit service in counties and areas that are not currently served, followed by expanded service hours in existing transit systems. II. RFI Process A. Steps 1 Issuance The issuance date of this RFI is March 25, Response Submittal Please complete items outlined in Section IV. Requested Information response requirements. You may include other supporting documents with your response (electronically or via mail or delivery service.) responses to: charles.a.morris@state.mn.us RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 4 of 10

5 Note: The Department of Transportation is not liable for any costs incurred by responders in developing the responses. Respondent is responsible for all costs associated with creation of a response to comply with this RFI or any follow-up requests. All responses submitted become the property of the Department of Transportation and will not be returned. Responses to this RFI become public in accordance with Minnesota Statutes, chapter 13. This RFI does not obligate the State of Minnesota or MnDOT to purchase any software, application, solution, or consulting service. This RFI will not be used to procure a solution, but MnDOT may publish a Request for Proposal (RFP) to procure a commercial off the shelf solution (COTS) or comprehensive solution. If the State issues and RFP, it will be publicized in the manner required by state law. MnDOT will notify all responders to this RFI about any subsequent RFP. 3 Review of Responses MnDOT will evaluate all responses received by the deadline to determine which responses are viable. Based on MnDOT s review of the initial responses, vendors may be requested to provide demonstrations of software to a group of MnDOT reviewers to elicit more detail and allow for a question and answer period. MnDOT may then request a trial period with software installed in MnDOT s environment for a time period to be negotiated with the chosen vendor. 4 Conclusion Following analysis, demonstrations, and trials, MnDOT will determine whether to continue to pursue a solution. B. RFI Process Schedule Description Date Time (if applicable) Issue RFI: March 25, 2013 Deadline for Questions: April 2, :00 p.m. CDT Anticipated posted response to questions: Submittal of RFI response due to MnDOT: April 4, 2013 April 12, 2013 End of business day 2:00 p.m. CDT RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 5 of 10

6 C. Contact Questions and requests for additional information: Send s to the following contacts: Please submit your response electronically to: If you wish, you may send additional information via mail or delivery service to: Charles Morris Minnesota Department of Transportation Office of Transit 395 John Ireland Boulevard MS 430 St. Paul, MN III. MnDOT Environment/Standards Our preferred solution is a thin-client of some type. Client workstations should not need software, or if they do, the software should have a small footprint (like a browser plug-in or install of a small application, cloud, or SAAS). In case it is necessary to develop any custom interfaces, MnDOT s preferred application development tool is Java. MnDOT wants to export / download data from the chosen solution to a data warehouse for reporting and possible integration with other applications. Please see MnDOT s Java Software Development Standards and Infrastructure Standards for RFI and RFP to propose a solution. These documents are available on the same web location that this document is found. While there are many advantages in requiring strict adherence to standards (such as maintainability, licensing fees, ability to capitalize on the foundation, etc.), MnDOT will consider other solutions that demonstrate advantages in areas such as implementation speed, reduced development costs, or feature richness provided there is not a significant impact on MnDOT s ability to maintain its standard environment. RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 6 of 10

7 IV. Requested Information response requirements Please provide the information described in sections A through E below: A. Company Profile Provide the following information on your organization: Company name Contact information Services, products, and solutions offered, relevant to this RFI. Software names and versions Minimum system requirements for installation References: Provide up to three references including the company name, contact person, summary of work performed, contact phone number and address. B. Solution Overview Describe your proposed solution. Provide a detailed response of how your software will meet the needs for managing MnDOT Transit Grants. Note whether your solution is: An off-the-shelf application that would not require any billable configuration. An off-the-shelf application that may require billable configuration. An off-the-shelf application that is not configurable. Level of installation / configuration services required. Indicate scope of installation, configuration and training required to be successful with proposed tool(s). Note: MnDOT is not interested in a solution being built from scratch at this time. C. Solution Functionality For each of the features or capabilities in the table below, please indicate if your solution completely satisfies, partially satisfies, or does not satisfy the feature or capability. Completely Satisfies (CS): The Initial Cost stated in section IV D below is for a solution that completely satisfies the feature or capability. Partially Satisfies (PS): The Initial Cost stated in IV D below is for a solution that only partially satisfies the features or capability. Does Not Satisfy (DS): The Initial Cost stated in IV D below is for a solution that does not satisfy the feature or capability. RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 7 of 10

8 Feature No. Desired Features Feature CS PS DS Comments Data Collection - (Datasets identified here may not be inclusive of all workflow processes identified or changes in legislation or programs) 1. Demographic Records; including organization name, location, contact names, and vendor specific information. 2. Operational Statistics; including operating, financial, passenger statistics, drug and alcohol data, training data and safety data. 3. Service level proposal; including individual routes with days, hours, miles, costs, and passenger estimates. 4. Asset & Resource Information; including costs, funding source allocation, dates, location, capital specific information, and maintenance data, i.e.: equipment, vehicles, facilities, or technology 5. General Application information to create a scope of work and/or a management plan for contract development. Work flow Processes 6. Sub recipient Request For Funding including electronic signature, signature dates and payment processing. 7. Year End Contract Closeout; including reconciliation of financial and operational statistics. 8. Vehicle ordering process after state solicitation. 9. Contract creation including contract template, scope of work, exhibits, resolutions, financial information, electronic signatures, RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 8 of 10

9 and signatures dates. 10. Procurement Process; Including steps required by state and federal regulations. 11. State Transportation improvement Program (STIP) process for identifying and recording Federal projects 12. Compliance Monitoring; including checklists and evaluation tools. 13. Applications for State/Federal funding submitted by external vendors: including electronic submittal, evaluation, and success notification. 14. Budget Creation and Fund Management; including planning, funding scenarios and tracking of State and Federal funds. Interface/Integration 15. Integration to PeopleSoft (SWIFT State Wide Integrated Financial Tool) 16. Integration with FTA TEAM / TRAM; including program of projects, milestones, financial reports, program status reports, and NEPA process. 17. Integration with National Transit Database Reporting; in a format that is ready for upload or manual input. 18. Document Storage and Archiving; in conjunction with MnDOT electronic data management system. The current EDMS is ADV Hummingbird. This is being migrated to SharePoint. Reporting please indicate if reporting and report creation is built into the product or require a third party product. 19. Unlimited Date Combinations; including state and federal fiscal RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 9 of 10

10 years and calendar years. 20. Comprehensive Reporting Options; including pre-defined and Ad Hoc capabilities. Please comment on each feature or capability to help with our understanding of the proposed product. If the feature or capability could be satisfied, but at a cost greater than that stated in section IV D, please state the cost in the comments column. You may provide additional information including brochures, documents, and links to describe your products and services but you may not submit them instead of completing this response. D. Solution Cost Estimates Please provide the following cost detail: Initial Costs (for approximately 30 internal to MnDOT users and 350 external users): Software ( If there are individual modules with separate cost, please include the detail ) Installation (if separate from software and hardware costs) User Training ( Include onsite, online, or remote options if applicable ) Documentation / Manuals Other services (e.g., software configuration) required for successful implementation TOTAL INITIAL COSTS Recurring Costs (support, maintenance, and licensing): Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 TOTAL RECURRING COSTS E. Implementation Timeline Indicate, in calendar weeks, the amount of time from signing of a contract or receipt of a purchase order to the point where the product or solution is configured and running in the production environment and all users have been trained. Calendar Weeks RFI: Comprehensive Transit Grants Management Page 10 of 10