All required information must be completed in full, in ink, or typewritten.

Transcription

1 THE CITY OF BOZEMAN 20 E. OLIVE ~ P.O. BOX 1230 BOZEMAN, MONTANA IT DEPARTMENT PHONE: (406) smcmahan@bozeman.net City of Bozeman, Montana Request for Proposals For E-Discovery Software Platform for Legal Hold & Document Collection/Analysis/Review/Production Notice is hereby given that the City of Bozeman is requesting proposals from qualified vendors to provide an e- discovery software platform. Proposal documents must be sent to the City Clerk, City of Bozeman, P.O. Box 1230, 121 N. Rouse Ave., Suite 202, Bozeman, Montana Proposals must be received at the above address on or before 5:00 p.m., June 16, Discrimination Discrimination in the performance of any agreement awarded under this RFP on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, marital status, national origin, or actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or disability is prohibited. This prohibition shall apply to the hiring and treatment of the awarded entity s employees and to all subcontracts. As such, each entity submitting under this notice shall include a provision requiring the submitting entity to affirm in writing it will not discriminate on the basis of color, religion, creek, sex, age, marital status, national origin, or because of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or disability and recognizing the eventual contract will contain a provision prohibiting discrimination as described above and this prohibition on discrimination shall apply to the hiring and treatment of the Contractor s employees and to all subcontracts. Failure to comply with the above shall be cause for the City to deem the submittal non-responsive. The City of Bozeman is an Equal Opportunity Employer. For additional information, contact Scott McMahan, IT Manager (406) , or smcmahan@bozeman.net. DATED THIS Thursday May 21, 2015 City of Bozeman, Montana By: Stacy Ulmen, CMC City Clerk, City of Bozeman Publish Dates: Sunday, May 24, 2015 Sunday, June 7, 2015

2 Introduction The City seeks an e-discovery solution to assist with managing document discovery for litigation and records requests. The e-discovery platform features should include automation of the legal hold process; search and collection of electronic document across a variety of document repositories and devices; efficient automated data processing, culling, and predictive coding; and document production in a variety of formats. The City will consider either a cloud solution, onsite appliance, or a hybrid. I. Proposal Submission Requirements General Requirements: All required information must be completed in full, in ink, or typewritten. The proposal must be signed by a person authorized to commit the Contractor to provide the goods or service. Submission of a signed proposal will constitute an incontrovertible representation by proponent that proponent has complied with every requirement of the RFP, that without exception the proposal is premised upon performing and furnishing the Work required by the proposal documents and applying any specific means, methods, techniques, sequences, and/or procedures of performance that may be shown or indicated or expressly required by the proposal documents, that proponent has given the City written notice of all conflicts, errors, ambiguities, and discrepancies that proponent has discovered in the proposal documents and the written resolutions thereof by the City are acceptable to Proponent, and that the proposal documents and any written resolutions are generally sufficient to indicate and convey understanding of all terms and conditions for performing and furnishing the Work. The proposal must be received no later than 5:00 p.m., June 16, Proposals received after 5:00 p.m. will be returned unopened. Proposals will be privately opened and evaluated by the City. Two (2) copies of the proposal shall be sealed and submitted to: Scott McMahan IT Manager 20 East Olive Street Bozeman, MT Proposals must be plainly marked in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope as follows: E-Discovery Platform The City s staff contact for this RFP is: Scott McMahan IT Manager Phone #: (406) address: smcmahan@bozeman.net Proposal Format: a) Section I - Statement of Understanding An overall introduction, including a statement of the Contractor s understanding of each item proposed in the Scope of Work, and a general description of the Contractor s approach. 2

3 b) Section II Technical Capabilities Please complete Attachment A. c) Section III - Personnel Qualifications Names, relevant experience, professional registrations of Contractor s personnel with background information on previous experience, qualifications, and skills relevant to each item proposed upon in the Scope of Work section. d) Section IV References A list of at least three clients for whom the Contractor has provided similar services. This list shall include the agency/company name, address, phone number and name of contact person, and description of the similar project. e) Section V Subcontractors A list and description of names, office locations, tasks, qualifications, and responsibilities of any subcontractors that may be utilized for this project. f) Section VI - Change in Scope A proposed procedure to accommodate changes in scope of the contract, and addition or deletion of task activities. The Contractor will include a current fee schedule and a cost of services proposal for any work that is to be provided or that the City may request after the contract is awarded. g) Section VII - Contractor s Expectations of City Staff Clearly define any expectations for information or support to be provided by City staff during the project. h) Section VIII - Delivery Schedule A proposed schedule for delivering the products and services as described in the RFP. Please describe vendor s lead time needed before installation can begin. i) Section IX - Price Proposal The price proposal shall clearly state the costs to the City of Bozeman for the project. The contract for services shall be between the City of Bozeman and the Contractor. The price information shall include staff-hours of effort planned for each task by the categories (i.e., level of experience) of personnel who will perform the services, materials, travel costs, equipment usage charges (rate and total cost), and any other direct charges. All prospective Contractors may submit written questions about, or request written clarifications of the RFP, including written protests of the RFP s terms and conditions or technical specifications no later than June 2, All questions must be in writing (includes ) and addressed to the City s staff contact. No other staff member will answer questions about this Request for Proposals. Each entity submitting under this notice shall include a provision requiring the submitting entity to affirm in writing it will not discriminate on the basis of color, religion, creek, sex, age, marital status, national origin, or because of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or disability and recognizing the eventual contract will contain a provision prohibiting discrimination as described 3

4 above and this prohibition on discrimination shall apply to the hiring and treatment of the Contractor s employees and to all subcontracts. Failure to comply with the above shall be cause for the City to deem the submittal non-responsive. II. Selection Criteria and Process The proposals will be judged on the completeness and quality of content. Only those Contractors who supply complete information as required herein will be considered for evaluation. The City of Bozeman is seeking to contract with a firm that has the appropriate qualifications using appropriate technology and methodology to ensure delivery of high quality products and who has demonstrated extensive experience with, and an understanding of, similar projects. The criteria for evaluating proposals are as follows, with the weight each item carries shown in parentheses: Criteria Weight 1. A demonstrated understanding of each item proposed 10% 2. The technology and methodology proposed 40% 3. The necessary qualifications, experience, organization, technical and 10% managerial staff, and equipment and facilities to carry out the work 4. Prior experience on related or similar projects, and the 5% accessibility/availability of the individuals working on this project 5. Ability to complete the work within a proposed time schedule 20% 6. Cost of acquiring the RFP deliverables 15% The City may invite three or more prospective Contractors to respond to the selection committee in person or writing during the proposal evaluation. Failure to provide additional information, if requested, may disqualify the proposal from further consideration. The evaluation of proposals and the determination of conformity and acceptability shall be in the City s sole discretion and will be based on information furnished or identified in the proposal as well as on other information available to the City. All proposals submitted in response to this RFP become the property of the City and public records and, as such, may be subject to public review. III. Reservation of Rights; Liability Waiver The City reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals; to add or delete items and/or quantities; to amend the RFP; to waive any minor irregularities, informalities, or failure to conform to the RFP; to extend the deadline for submitting proposals; to postpone award for up to 30 days; to award one or more contracts, by item or task, or groups of items or tasks, if so provided in the RFP and if multiple awards are determined by the City to be in the public interest; and to reject, without liability therefore, any and all proposals upon finding that doing so is in the public interest. The City of Bozeman reserves the right to reject the proposal of any person/firm who previously failed to perform properly to the satisfaction of the City of Bozeman, or complete on time agreements of similar nature, or to reject the proposal of any person/firm who is not in a position to perform such an agreement satisfactorily as determined by the City of Bozeman. The City of Bozeman reserves the right to determine the best qualified Contractor and negotiate a final scope of service and cost, negotiate a contract with another Contractor if an agreement cannot be reached with the first selected Contractor, or reject all proposals. The successful Contractor will be required to enter into a professional services contract with the City of Bozeman, which will incorporate the Contractor's scope of service and work schedule as part of the agreement. 4

5 This RFP does not commit the City to award a contract. The City assumes no liability or responsibility for costs incurred by firms in responding to this request for proposals or request for interviews, additional data, or other information with respect to the selection process, prior to the issuance of an agreement, contract or purchase order. The Contractor, by submitting a response to this RFP, waives all right to protest or seek any legal remedies whatsoever regarding any aspect of this RFP. The City reserves the right to cancel, in part or in its entirety, this RFP including, but not limited to: selection procedures, submittal date, and submittal requirements. If the City cancels or revises this RFP, all Contractors who submitted proposals will be notified using . This project is subject to the availability of funds. IV. Time Line These dates may be revised if any step takes longer than anticipated. The City reserves the right to postpone the award. RFP issued May 24, 2015 Written questions submitted June 2, 2015 Proposals due June 16, 2015 Notice to award Approx. June 26, 2015 V. Withdrawal of Proposals Proposals submitted may be withdrawn by written request if received before the hour set for the opening. After that time, proposals may not be withdrawn for a period of fifteen (15) days and at no time after award. No responsibility shall attach to a City employee for the premature opening of a proposal not properly addressed and identified in accordance with these documents. When discrepancies occur between words and figures, the words shall govern. VI. Scope of Work The project scope, specifications and requirements that are outlined in this RFP are subject to modification and final contract negotiations. The City is seeking to find an e-discovery solution to assist with managing document discovery for litigation and records requests. Currently the City of Bozeman utilizes different manual processes to facilitate the legal hold, discovery and collection of documents. The City needs a more defensible and automated/manageable way to identify custodians, track legal hold processes, and discover and produce documents. The City anticipates being able to implement a system that will allow the City to identify custodians and various software/hardware sources of information for collection, culling, analysis, redaction and production into various accepted formats. The City anticipates the work being performed in the following stages: Project Initiation/Planning Phase The timeline and expectations for the project plan will be discussed on the first call. All responsible parties shall be identified and all will agree to the recommended timeline prior to any work starting. Weekly calls (more if warranted) will be utilized to insure the project timeline is met. 5

6 Installation Phase Vendor will be responsible for the remote or onsite installation and configuration of all components of their solution. If a hardware appliance is utilized and shipped, the City of Bozeman IT staff will do the physical install so that the vendor doesn t have to come onsite. Testing Phase The vendor will be responsible for testing all functionality of their solution and will show evidence of this testing being successful. The system will not be considered to be in a live state until this testing is successfully completed and training is completed. Training and Close The vendor will provide adequate training to City of Bozeman Staff so that they can perform all functions of the software. Once the City and the vendor feel that the system is running as promised and the staff are adequately trained to use the product the project can be brought to a close and final payment made. VII. Project Schedule & Resource Plan In their responses to this proposal, Respondents shall propose a detailed schedule of performance for completion of all components of the production process. General project milestones should be presented; final project milestones will be established prior to project initiation. It is anticipated that this project will start as soon as possible after the start of the City s 2016 fiscal Year which starts July 1 st, The City will not pay for the entire product/project up front but would like to utilize incremental billing as the project progresses. This incremental billing arrangement will be decided between the City of Bozeman and the vendor of choice. VIII. Confidentiality and Disclosure of Information Upon completion of negotiations or a determination that no proposals will be pursued, one copy of each submitted proposal shall be retained for the official files of the City and will be considered a public record. In addition, each respondent agrees the city shall not be liable for disclosures of confidential information if disclosure of such information is required by law. IX. No Partnership/Business Organization Nothing in this RFP or in any subsequent agreement, or any other contract entered into as a result of this RFP, shall constitute, create, give rise to or otherwise be recognized as a partnership or formal business organization of any kind between or among the City and the respondent. X. Employment Restriction and Indemnity No person who is an owner, officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of a respondent shall be an officer or employee of the City. No rights of the City s retirement or personnel rules accrue to a respondent, its officers, employees, contractors, or consultants. Respondents shall have the responsibility of all salaries, wages, bonuses, retirement, withholdings, worker s compensation and occupational disease compensation, insurance, unemployment compensation other benefits and taxes and premiums appurtenant thereto concerning its officers, employees, contractors, and consultants. Each respondent 6

7 shall save and hold the City harmless with respect to any and all claims for payment, compensation, salary, wages, bonuses, retirement, withholdings, worker s compensation and occupational disease compensation, insurance, unemployment compensation other benefits and taxes and premiums in any way related to each respondent s officers, employees, contractors and consultants. XI. Accessibility Upon reasonable notice, the City will provide assistance for those persons with sensory impairments. For further information please contact the ADA Coordinator James Goehrung at or the City s TTY line at XII. Governing Law This RFP and any disputes arising hereunder or under any future agreement for the sale and purchase of shares, interests, or rights shall be governed hereafter and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of Montana, without reference to principles of choice or conflicts of laws. XIII. Miscellaneous No conversations or agreements with any officer, employee, or agent of the City shall affect or modify any term of this RFP. Oral communications or any written/ communication between any person and the designated contact City staff shall not be considered binding. 7