Emergency Procurement ("EP") Approval Request

Transcription

1 ID 6687 Department of General Services Emergency Procurement ("EP") Approval Request Bureau of Procurement If either of the following two conditions exist, an EP is not required and should not be requested: 1. Material / Service available from DGS statewide contract. 2. Estimated Cost of the Material / Service is within the Small, No-bid Procurement threshold identified in the Procurement Handbook, Part I, Chapter 7. Agency requests approved to proceed with an emergency procurement under Section 516 of the Commonwealth Procurement Code (62 Pa. C.S. 516). Requesting Agency Information Agency/Bureau: Contact Person: Contact Address: Labor & Industry Benjamin Michael 651 Boas Street Harrisburg PA Contact Tel#: Contact bemichael@pa.gov Description Of Material (or) Service (or) IT SAP Material Groups: Estimated $ Amount: Length of EP: IT Days Services to provide maintenance and support of all Unemployment Compensation applications implemented in mainframe environment. Enhance and reprogram current applications made up of online and batch programs to effectuate Federal and State Law changes in a timely manner, analyze and debug program problems, and provide system stability for business users and citizens. Programs are predominantly written in BAL implemented in an IMS environment using DB2 and IMS database technologies and VSAM file structures. General knowledge of the Advantage:GEN code generator is needed. The existing service expires October 31, Delivery Location: City Mechanicsburg State Pennsylvania ZipCode Basis for the Emergency Purchase Threat to public health, welfare, or safety Identify the Threat: Provide a brief explanation of the need for the material and/or service:

2 State the consequence if the procurement is not done on emergency basis: Indicate whether approval was obtained from DGS. Yes No If "Yes", provide the following: a. Name of person granting approval: b.date of approval: Circumstances outside the control of the agency create an urgency of need, which does not permit the delay in using more competitive methods NOTE: Verbal approval will not be provided for this basis. Agency cannot proceed with emergency procurement until this form is completed and approved by DGS. Identify the Circumstances: Why are those circumstances outside of the control of Agency? Provide a brief explanation for the urgent need: Logisys has provided the only support for the core 12 to 45 year old Unemployment Compensation legacy mainframe systems for the past 5 years while Commonwealth staff have been redirected to development and support of the replacement system. It was planned that the replacement system would be deployed and fully operational in 2012 thus negating the need for any more legacy system support, but project delays have moved the final Release deployment into Additionally PA Act 60 law changes were recently signed into law that require extensive changes to these systems by January 1, Replacement system project delays are attributed to the vendor missing deadlines and to the numerous Federal Law changes related to the Recession and enacted since 2008 requiring multiple extensions of payments for Unemployment Compensation. An independent vendor assessed our mainframe systems in 2002 and categorized our most important core benefits systems as our most vulnerable they were rated at the highest possible risk of failure. Any disruption in the ongoing knowledgeable support of these fragile systems puts the Commonwealth into a position of high risk - processing of payments for Unemployment Compensation claims could fail and there is a strong probability we would not be in a position to recover from the failure. Information Required For ALL EP's provide the following information: Brief description of selection process: Full supplier information (if known at time of submission of form) Name: Address: Telephone #: SAP Vendor#: Logisys has been providing assistance and application support for Unemployment Compensation systems from 1999 through the present. Logisys has provided full time support for the Unemployment Compensation legacy systems 2007 while state staff have been redirected to the UCMS project. UCMS will replace the legacy systems. Logisys Inc 470 Friendship Road Ste 303, Harrisburg, PA Total Amount

3 For EP's that are NOT a threat to public health, welfare, or safety, provide the following information Include a list of the solicited suppliers, their contact information, and their quotations: Funds have already been encumbered for this request (Yes/No): If applicable, what has been done previously to procure this material/service? (Also provide the previous SAP/SRM PO number and/or Contract Number) Sole source vendor Yes no No Current engagement was procured via sole source justification and expires on 10/31/12. In the process of submitting a new sole source justification but have encountered roadblocks prior to receiving approval. Current engagement at PO NOTE: If any Agency only intends to solicit a quote from one supplier, the following section, "Supplemental Single Source Information" must be completed Supplemental Single Source Information Required This section of the EP APPROVAL REQUEST Form is only required to be completed if the following is applicable: 1. Category of Emergency is due to "Circumstances outside the control of the agency create an urgency of need, which does not permit the delay in using more competitive methods." 2. It is not practical for the agency to obtain two or more quotes.

4 Is only a single supplier capable of providing the material or services? If Yes, please explain. If not applicable, leave blank and respond in the next block. Yes. Logisys is the only known company that can provide the immediate and integral background and experience needed to support the existing Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation portfolio of custom mainframe legacy systems. More than eighty percent of the portfolio is written in Basic Assembler Language (BAL) and implemented in the IMS environment. While other companies may provide mainframe legacy system support, most provide only COBOL support implemented in a CICS environment, a newer and more common skill set. The UC systems have been layered to accommodate improvements and changes in public user interfaces, and they range in age from 5 to 45 years old. They have been modified to accommodate law changes affecting UC over the years. While the newer system layers are documented, the documentation related to the older systems is sporadic at best. Additionally, we are experiencing extensive delays in the UCMS release of the Benefits functionality that was planned for May of Delays are attributed to both a sizeable number of design changes required by Federal and State law changes supporting economic stability and UC fund solvency initiatives since the project started in 2007, and also to functional design defects found during testing. The current target for Benefits go-live is optimistically planned for Due to UCMS Project staffing commitments and retraining, staff retirements and unfilled vacancies, a Logisys contractor has been delegated to manage the day-to-day activities and workload of the other 6 to 7 contracted Logisys staff, in addition to 3 remaining Division employees. This arrangement has been in place since July, 2008 and has afforded us the capability of managing both the UCMS Project while still overseeing the high level legacy support project activities. If we were to change vendors at this point, there will be no staff to complete the extensive knowledge transfer and transition assistance that would be required. Explain why it is not practical to obtain two or more quotes for this emergency procurement. If timing is a factor, what is the time factor and why? If yes, please explain. Are there compatibility requirements or compliance requirements? If yes, please explain. Logisys staff, and the small skeleton state staff that remain in the legacy application groups, are the last of the UC business application system experts. Any disruption in this arrangement strips us of all continuity and our ability to react to mandatory federal and state legislation, and all other Act 60 and Integrity initiatives that are already planned for next year we will not be able to accommodate changes and requests related to increasing the solvency of the UC Fund when they are needed the most. Logisys has been providing assistance and application support for Unemployment Compensation systems from 1999 through the present. Logisys has provided full time support for the Unemployment Compensation legacy systems 2007 while state staff have been redirected to the UCMS project. UCMS will replace the legacy systems. Yes. Current engagement expires 10/31/12. Support for the legacy systems is particularly critical in the December/January/February time frame because of increased claims loads. Also, Act 60 law changes that were recently enacted are required in the near term. PA Act 60 law changes were recently signed into law that require extensive changes to the UC mainframe legacy applications by January 1, 2013.

5 NOTE: If the purpose of the emergency procurement is to prevent a lapse in contracted services, one of the following must be checked. Include status of the new contract/purchase and note any special conditions of the emergency procurement. To extend a current contract with the current contractor to prevent a lapse in contracted services. The Department of Labor and Industry and the Commonwealth will be left in an unacceptably vulnerable position if the current Logisys contract expires on October 31, 2012, and we have a lapse in service. The small staff of contractors provided by Logisys are responsible for supplying all analysis and development activities associated with maintenance and enhancements of the PA Unemployment Compensation mainframe legacy systems. These systems range in age from 12 to 45 years and are custom written applications using outdated software tools (Advantage:GEN), running under an older platform (IMS), and in languages that are associated with old technologies (Cobol and Basic Assembler Language). Logisys has been able to employ a handful of retired employees, retaining some of the knowledge base and skills that were lost with staff retirements in particularly vulnerable areas the UCAPS on line and Check Writing batch systems. The Department no longer has Commonwealth staff with the skills to maintain or change the UC systems housed on the mainframe. The background and knowledge base for a great number of the individual systems supported by the Department no longer exists at all in state service, and the remaining employees have been reassigned to the Unemployment Compensation Management System (UCMS) for the past 5 years. We have relied almost entirely on this vendor to manage and support these systems while the small number of remaining mainframe staff transitioned themselves to new skills needed to support the replacement system. All new staff have been hired for their more modern skills associated with the newer technologies used in the UCMS system. A partial list of the ramifications associated with the loss of this contract are as follows: If there are any failures in production there is no one to debug and fix them. Depending on the severity of the failure, it could prevent the daily batch processing cycle from completing which could result in our inability to process or pay claims. It could mean our inability to process claims through all internal and external channels, including PA Teleclaims and the Internet. We could possibly accept new Initial Claims in overnight mode on the Internet, but they would have nowhere to go from there. The main processing of all claims resides on the mainframe, regardless of their origin. There would be no way of completing a benefit determination or setting up a new claim so that it can enter a pay status. To bridge a gap between an expiring contract and a new contract by allowing the new contractor to begin work before the new contract is fully Act 60 law change implementation would stop. There are 98 programs that need to be changed and thoroughly tested prior to January 1st to accommodate the new eligibility rules - several of these programs have not been touched since the mid 1980 s. Any programming changes that might be needed to support the UC Amnesty initiative could not be done.

6 To authorize a supplier, who has been properly selected through one of the methods of award, to begin work before the new contract is fully executed because the agency needs the services immediately and cannot wait until full execution of the If none of the above is applicable, explain how the emergency supplier was selected. IMPORTANT*:The printed names on this form shall constitute the signatures of these individuals. Agencies must insure that these individuals review the completed form and give their consent to apply their printed name on this form. No handwritten signatures shall be required in order for the form to be considered "signed" by those individuals whose names appear in the signature section Requesting Authority (Agency Head or Designee reviewing and approving this request) Requesting Authority signature connotes concurrence with the Agency EP request to procure the material and/or service Title: Deputy Secretary, UC Agency Approvals Signature: Gregg Shore Date: