Purchasing Department 102 South Hickory Avenue Bel Air, MD 21014 410.809.6040 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION RFI # 08-07002 Transportation Routing and Attendance Area Planning Software Introduction: Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) otherwise known as The Harford County Board of Education, located in Maryland consists of 32 elementary schools, 8 middle schools, 8 comprehensive high schools, the John Archer School (a special school for students with disabilities), the Harford Technical High School, and the Alternative Education Program for secondary students making a total of 51 schools. In August 2007, the new Patterson Mill Middle-High School opened. In the near future, two new elementary schools will be opened resulting in a greater number of boundary change requirements for students. The total student enrollment is presently about 40,000. General Information: Increasing student transportation cost, population growth, and building capacity management drive the need to optimize scarce resources. HCPS recognizes the ability to combine student information with geospatial data as a solution to address both the routing and attendance planning requirements. HCPS wishes to identify possible sources of supply for a Transportation Routing and Attendance Area Planning software solution. Harford County Public Schools Transportation, Planning & Construction, and Technology departments will operate and support this software application. The software package will receive data inputs from the Harford County Government s GIS database and the HCPS student information system. Matthew Payne, the HCPS Application Team Manager, is the Project Administrator. Questions and Inquiries may be emailed to Matthew.Payne@hcps.org. 1
Purpose: HCPS anticipates the Request For Information (RFI) will produce sufficient data (i.e., product information, one-time cost, recurring costs, etc.) enabling HCPS to select a software solution and proceed to contract negotiation. However, the RFI may result in a Request for Proposal (RFP), in which case only the RFI respondents may be prequalified or acceptable for consideration in evaluating subsequent proposals or negotiating for the acquisition of the software package. HCPS has documented the Functional and Technical requirements in the following sections. Requirements are organized into three (3) categories: Mandatory, Desirable, and Optional. Functional Requirements Mandatory Ability to produce maps (hardcopy or PDF) of school attendance zones Ability to modify attendance area boundaries for what if scenario analysis (enrollment projections) Ability to compare scenario analysis in a side-by-side manner using charts, graphs, spreadsheet format Ability to define school attendance zones based on street address ranges, longitude / latitude, and tax parcel identifier Ability to include / exclude specific street addresses from attendance zones Ability to associate school district specific (e.g., from student information system) student demographic data to street address and display the information on a map Ability to integrate population demographics with student demographics and attendance area boundaries onto a cartographic view Ability to display cartographic output with zoom levels and symbols Retrieve data via static (canned) queries or pre-formatted reports Ability to build user defined queries either via a command line or prompted interface Generate bus routing and driving directions based on shortest distance, fastest route, point-to-point route, multi-stop (multiple addresses not on a linear route) Provide manual override for bus route generation Ability to specify individual student pick-up / drop-off addresses Color code / differentiate student addresses by special needs equipment, time constraints, etc Print detailed bus route directions (turn-by-turn, in an easy to read format) Compute bus route distance, travel time, and expense 2
Break down distance and time between each student Ability to import commercial street map datasets to refresh the base maps Vendor delivered training to customer for initial start-up and on-going as scheduled Desirable Ability to add Transportation routing rules / parameters (e.g., no left turns on state roads, no traveling dirt roads, etc.) Ability to use aerial or satellite imagery as the background image with any map layers Optional Ability to integrate an AVL/ GPS solution for fleet management (i.e., bus tracking) Tie all Transportation information into one product suite (field trips, fleet maintenance, driver management, etc.) Technical Requirements Mandatory Graphical user interface Microsoft Windows Server 2003R2, Windows XP, and Microsoft Office 2007 compatible Microsoft SQL Server RDBMS data storage Text / SQL driven data import processes (minimum requirement) Ability to integrate with SunGard Pentamation StudentPlus and ESRI ArcGIS Geodatabase Use of street data sources NAVTEQ NAVSTREETS or Tele Atlas Dynamap Support for map cartography export (in image format or as PDF) Support for map data export to Excel or delimited format 3
Desirable Web-based (IIS or Tomcat) component (i.e., no workstation software installation) SIF Agent compliant with SIF specification version 1.5 ESRI GIS software (ArcGIS) compatibility: software can operate as an extension of, or perform import / export with ESRI ArcGIS Geodatabase Vendor provided data dictionary and data relationship map (reference) Optional API or Services to expose data / reports to requesting applications. Example, a bus-route request made from the school district s website. General Instructions: Businesses with the capability to provide the required software and related services are invited to submit a written proposal. The proposal must include the following deliverables: A narrative or statement of work describing how they intend to meet the outcomes and deliverables described in the Functional Requirements and Technical Requirements sections and whether they have met the Mandatory, Desirable, and Optional criteria. A detailed narrative that describes the strengths of the organization and software and the firm s understanding of the required deliverables. A contact list that includes the name of the firm, mailing address, web-site address, telephone number, email address, and principal contact name. Identify any hardware requirements, application documentation, the ratio of onsite and off-site work required and whether the application will reside on HCPS hardware or at a hosted site. Specify if the proposed solution is currently on a GSA or State contract with a contract vehicle suitable for cooperative procurement by other government agencies such as HCPS. Provide five (5) references and contact information whereby HCPS can verify customer satisfaction. Provide a budget figure including all one-time acquisition and implementation costs including staff training of approximately 15 persons. 4
Provide a budget figure that addresses recurring costs (annual maintenance or subscription as appropriate). Respondents should clearly mark any proprietary information submitted in response to this Request For Information. Response Instructions: Qualified firms must submit the information requested no later than Friday, June 6, 2008 by 2:30 PM, local time. Submissions received after the deadline time and date will not be considered. Information requested in RFI # 08-07002 must be mailed to: Richard G. Raulie, CPPO, C.P.M. Purchasing Agent Harford County Public Schools 102 S. Hickory Avenue Bel Air, MD 21014 5