2025-061 Sole Source Determination.pdf

Last Updated: 7/1/2023 Page 1 of 6

SOLE-SOURCE DETERMINATION AND JUSTIFICATION

FOR SUPPLIES AND SERVICES

To: DELC Procurement Director

Procurement Specialist: Dan Long

Date: March 20, 2025

Re: Sole Source Determination pursuant to Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 279B.075 and Oregon

Administrative Rule (OAR) 137-047-0275

Part A

1. Authority to enter into a Sole-Source Contract: OAR 125-246-0170(2)(c)(H)

2. Estimated Total Value of Contract: $89,375.00

3. Subject of Contract: BUSINESS COACHING / TECH MAPPING

4. Background:

Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care (DELC) is requesting approval of this Sole Source

Procurement (“SS”) to direct award a contract to Opportunities Exchange (OppEx). for aligned business coach training & technical assistance and Early Childhood Education Technology Ecosystem for Child

Care Management Systems within the State of Oregon.

This contract will support the work of a pilot project for Shared Services. Opportunities Exchange has the ability to complete the work on or before June 30, 2025.

DELC is intending to award Opportunities Exchange to support business coaches to align implementation with CCMS use…throughout Oregon. In collaboration with regional CCR&Rs, the contractor will facilitate monthly meetings to connect coaches to resources and train coaches on use of the resources and develop crosswalks between CCMS and required reporting (state licensing regulation, state rating and improvement system standards and National Association of Family Child Care accreditation standards).

The additional training opportunities …

Additionally, Opportunities Exchange will be able to support DELC’s IT goal to create an ECE

Technology Ecosystem. Map current technology ecosystem system in Oregon, craft the future vision of

ECE technology and identify steps toward ECE Technology Ideal State and facilitate a webinar to create a shared vision.

5. Findings:

Opportunities Exchange is the National Expert for the Shared Service model and is the only consultation firm that while offering extensive services related to business coaching and automation systems design and alignment in the early childhood education (ECE) system, does not sell or deliver business coaching services nor technology. OppEx facilitates change across the ECE system on two levels: by providing technical assistance to intermediaries interested in working with providers to transform their businesses, thereby allowing greater time and investment in quality and positive child outcomes, and by shaping public policy and finance to incentivize high quality, sustainable ECE for young children. Opportunities

Exchange believes that the formation of Shared Service Alliances enables ECE providers to build and sustain strong organizations, in which they are able to focus on their mission, create positive work environments and growth opportunities for staff, and offer high-quality early learning services.

A. Market Research Overall Finding.

There is no other entity currently facilitating this unique work towards tech infrastructure and business supports for child care business owners participating in a Shared Service Alliance. The combination of services and levels of work - from provider to intermediary to government to systems - is singular to

Opportunities Exchange. While many tech consulting firms exist, most offer consultation that is bundled with the sale of software and/or programming. Opportunities Exchange is tech vendor agnostic and does not build or sell software of any kind. Instead, they offer unbiased consultation around technology options and systems design. The Opportunities Exchange team of consultants, including one technologist, meet regularly with ECE tech vendors to stay updated on their work, projects that are coming to scale and changing technology. Opportunities Exchange developed the concept of ECE Tech

Ecosystem Mapping, has written and presented extensively on this topic for more than two years, and has been engaged in multiple states and communities to perform this important work.

The Colorado Office of Early Childhood (OEC) at the Colorado Department of Human Services contracted with OppEx to document current ECE data systems, research options and help forge consensus on an ECE technology pathway for the state. The OppEx team conducted interviews with internal and external stakeholders; contextualized their work in a description of potential changes and recommendations for the new Department of Early Childhood IT system; and built consensus among key OEC staff on final vendor solicitation language.

Timeline: March – June, 2022

Final report: Crafting an ECE System for The 21st Century: A Technology Pathway for

Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood.

The Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative, with support from the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, contracted with OppEx to: map the current ECE technology ecosystem in Nebraska; craft the future vision for ECE technology in Nebraska; identify steps toward the ECE technology ideal state; and share the vision and steps with stakeholders to build understanding and buy-in. To ensure robust understanding across all key groups, OppEx met with more than 25 stakeholders representing child care providers, state agencies, funding organizations, nonprofit organizations, and policy organizations. We examined a variety of systems used by child care providers, including a variety of CCMS systems, Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) systems, and state systems including those required for

Licensing and Subsidy usage. The major takeaway was that while each agency or regulatory body had their one system to work within, the end result was that providers have to interface with 10+ agencies and tools to remain in compliance with a host of requirements. Recommendations for streamlining this experience included providing insights to stakeholders on how to leverage data from CCMS via data dashboards to allow each respective agency to receive the data they need, while removing the current experience of requiring providers to enter duplicate information into each system. One result of this project was a decision among Nebraska’s key ECE stakeholders to reconvene their ECE Data Coalition group, which had previously ended due to lack of engagement.

Timeline: January – December, 2024

The Nebraska Department of Education received support from OppEx and another consulting firm, Resultant, for an analysis of the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System (NECPRS). The deliverable for this consultation engagement was an analysis of gaps and opportunities in the system, with a primary focus on how it is used in Nebraska’s voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement

System. The OppEx team prepared a survey emailed to over 44,000 recipients who represented various user-types of the NECPRS system; with this survey we were able to collect insights from a variety of stakeholders on their experiences, expectations, and requirements within the current system, as well as their ideas for future enhancements. Stakeholders included ECE center directors, home-based providers, Nebraska Department of Education staff members, Step Up to Quality (QRIS) coaches, professional development trainers, and teachers using the system. Survey results were analyzed through a lens of each user type, which helped inform recommendations for future product and customer service developments relating to the ways that each group interacts with the existing too.

Timeline: July – December, 2024

The Iowa Governor’s Office of Management retained OppEx in 2021 to assess the current ECE landscape and help craft a multi-faceted strategy to expand provider use of Child Care Management

Software (CCMS), plan and launch provider business training linked to CCMS, and guide early-stage technology ecosystem builds. In July, 2023 oversight of the contract shifted to the Iowa Department of

Health and Human Services, as the scope of work shifted from planning to implementation. During this phase, OppEx designed an RFP for CCMS-aligned business coaching, served on the scoring team for

RFP responses, and worked with all four technology vendors on execution. OppEx continues to work with Iowa on scaling the work, including co-creation of performance metrics, data collection strategies and evaluation.

Timeline: October, 2021 – present

Reports and Resources:

Iowa Leads the Way: How Modern Technology Can Improve Access to High-Quality Child Care

Collecting Data on Child Care Supply in Real Time: A New Approach to Data Collection

Sample QRIS/CCMS Crosswalk and General Recommendations for Consideration

Example of how to link CCMS to CACFP

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: How Iowa is Transforming their ECE Sector with Technology

Using CCMS Data to Streamline Reporting and Inform Public Sector Systems

ECE Technology Ecosystems: An Overview https://www.oppex.org/s/OppEx_2023_Issue-Brief_Iowa_ModernTech.pdf https://echidna-sawfish-rs5w.squarespace.com/s/OppEx_2025_Issue-Brief_Collecting-Data-on-Child-Care-Supply.pdf https://www.oppex.org/s/OppEx_2025_11_Sample-Licensing-and-QRIS_CCMS-Crosswalk.xlsx https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f4d7a7ef6c82325c5ec80c0/t/673673a828e3790ce6b7e74e/1731621804045/OppEx_2024_11_CCMS_TK_Example+of+how+to+link+CCMS+to+CACFP.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f4d7a7ef6c82325c5ec80c0/t/673673a828e3790ce6b7e74e/1731621804045/OppEx_2024_11_CCMS_TK_Example+of+how+to+link+CCMS+to+CACFP.pdf https://www.oppex.org/s/Everything-Everywhere-All-at-Once-How-Iowa-is-Transforming-their-ECE-Sector-with-Technology.pdf https://www.oppex.org/s/Using-CCMS-Data-to-Streamline-Reporting-and-Inform-Public-Sector-Systems.pdf https://www.oppex.org/s/ECE-Technology-Ecosystems-An-Overview.pdf

National Work:

OppEx coined the term ECE Technology Ecosystem and has written extensively about the importance of this framing approach for the past several years. In early 2025 we posted an extensive CCMS Toolkit on our website and hosted a webinar with more than 50 participants to discuss the contents of the Toolkit and ways for individuals and teams to use the content to accomplish their ECE goals. We have promoted strategies for states and communities to engage with this work, including a 2024 three-hour pre-conference session in Orlando Florida on the ECE Technology Ecosystem designed for, and limited to, government staff, and have consulted or are currently consulting on ECE Tech Ecosystem mapping in

Arizona, the District of Columbia, New York, and Oregon.

OppEx also engages in research and development designed to inform and scale national work. A recent example is a Real-Time Data Project, initially funded by the Pritzker Children’s Initiative and continued with funds from the WK Kellogg Foundation. This project aims to establish an industry-wide data collection standard that makes it possible to collect, track and benchmark ECE supply data in a consistent way – regardless of who funds, regulates or administers the services. Our focus is on building consistent capacity to collect this data via CCMS software. Thus, we worked with several leading tech companies to better understand the capacity of their software and to identify modifications that might be needed to ensure clean data transfers. To date, we have crafted a data protocol, tested it with several data sets, and are now focused on encouraging CCMS vendors, and their public and private partners, to embrace the standard and begin to work on scaling the approach. An OppEx issue brief further outlining this work can be found here.

National technical assistance offered by OppEx to state-level staff across the US can vary from short-term consultation and document review to long-term assistance crafting plans and implementing new approaches. Our work has focused on topics such as best practices in ECE technology implementation, technology integrations to surface actionable data, designing a comprehensive RFP process, and more.

As noted above, we host a national conference that includes an invite-only half day pre-conference session on the ECE Technology Ecosystem designed for, and limited to, government staff. Presentations and Handouts from the 2023 and 2024 conferences are available at the Opportunities Exchange website.

Conference information can be found under “Events” in the navigation.

Each conference included a track on data, technology and automation in addition to multiple other content areas. The 2024 conference included more than 18 exhibitors of which 16 were ECE technology vendors. The conference allows vendors to interact directly with current and potential customers and to better understand their needs and the needs of the field. Vendor staff are encouraged to attend conference sessions in order to learn more about the vexing challenges that conference participants are seeking to address. This strategy is echoed in the three (3) national communities of practice (CoP) that

OppEx convenes monthly. Focused on CCR&R and other ECE intermediaries engaged in using specific child care management software (Procare Online, Brightwheel, and Playground) monthly meetings bring together more than 10 business coaching teams from around the country and staff from the vendors to learn together about how to maximize CCMS use among providers, how to improve CCMS reports and dashboards, and how to link CCMS to public data system. With philanthropic support OppEx is launching a CCMS-aligned business coaching initiative in Arkansas with a local coaching partner. We are providing training and technical assistance, along with data analysis to the Pilot project, which will ultimately serve between 75 and 100 providers.

The OppEx team is a frequent contributor and leader at national conferences including the National

Chamber Foundation Child Care Innovation Summit, the BUILD Initiative, National Association of

Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the

Child Care Aware of America Symposium, and South by Southwest (SXSW).

The OppEx team brings extensive expertise in driving technology transformation within the ECE sector, with a deep commitment to ensuring that new systems and tools work for child care providers and the intermediaries working with them — not against them. We understand that effective technology solutions must be grounded in the day-to-day realities of providers, regulatory agencies, and other key stakeholders. Our team’s work is built on a foundation of strong relationships with state agencies and

ECE leaders, allowing us to convene diverse stakeholders, align interests, and drive collaborative problem-solving to advance shared goals.

A core strength of our team is our ability to bridge the gap between technical development and practical application. We specialize in translating complex technical concepts into accessible, actionable information for child care providers and regulatory staff — and equally, in elevating the voices and needs of end users so that technology teams design products that truly meet their needs. Our team has repeatedly seen the negative impact of technology products that inadvertently add complexity to child care providers’ work, and we are deeply committed to preventing this outcome. Instead, we advocate for and facilitate the creation of streamlined, intuitive tools that reduce administrative burdens and improve service delivery.

In addition, they have extensive experience helping to streamline efforts that benefit all parties — child care providers, families, community and state agencies alike. We have led and supported projects to modernize licensing, subsidy, and food program systems, ensuring that new technology solutions enable providers to easily access and utilize critical services without needing to navigate multiple, disconnected platforms. This approach also extends to conducting gap analyses of existing technology products to identify complementary tools that can integrate seamlessly, improving access and reducing the administrative load on providers.

Their work in technology transformation has also involved hands-on testing of new, bespoke systems in collaboration with key stakeholders, including regulatory agencies and technology developers.

The team has a proven track record of facilitating multi-stakeholder convenings to identify and work toward common goals. We recognize that sustainable technology transformation in ECE requires input and buy-in from all sides — providers, state agencies, technical partners, and families. Our convening expertise allows us to build alignment, navigate competing priorities, and advance solutions that work for everyone involved.

In retrospect, the OppEx team’s experience uniquely positions them to support this project. While many business coaching strategies exist, the framework that they have developed for CCMS-aligned business coaching stands alone. In addition, they bring the technical knowledge to guide effective ECE technology product development, the relational expertise to build consensus among diverse stakeholders, and the user-centered mindset to ensure that new technology solutions meaningfully reduce burden and improve access for child care providers. And, they do not develop or sell software products. OppEx commitment is to ensure that technology works for the field and not simply exist as another tool users must tolerate — ultimately resulting in a more efficient, accessible, and user-friendly child care system.

And

B. Findings of Fact pursuant to OAR 125-247-0275(2):

3. Pursuant to ORS 279B.075 (2)(c): Pilot or Experimental Project. Provide findings supporting your determination that the goods or services are for use in a pilot or an experimental project.

This is a pilot project supported by DELC to determine the viability of the use of a shared service alliance model across Oregon. The data being gathered through various Child Care Management (CCM) systems currently used within the pilot project is needed to establish the viability of a shared service model. As part of the pilot project there is a need to establish collection standards utilizing and enhancing existing CCM systems.

4. Pursuant to ORS 279B.075 (2)(d): Other findings that support the conclusion that Supplies and

Services are available from only one source may include but are not limited to considerations of: unique design, availability, geographic location, exclusive authorized representative, cost of conversion, and warranty services.

Opportunities Exchange (OppEx) is a tech vendor agnostic and does not build or sell software of any kind, thus allowing our Oregon Child Care Providers choice in software used within their organization.

OppEx project aims to establish an industry-wide data collection standard that makes it possible to collect, track and benchmark ECE supply data in a consistent way – regardless of who funds, regulates or administers the services. OppEx crafted a data protocol, tested it with several data sets, and are now focused on engaging CCMS vendors, and their public and private partners, to utilize the standard and begin to work on scaling the approach. The services being offered, which have been developed by

OppEx, allows for the creation of tech mapping and training on the crosswalks needed to establish an

Oregon Statewide Shared Service Alliance model. OppEx tech mapping and crosswalks are being utilized in other developing and established Child Care Provider Shared Service Alliance pilot programs nationwide. OppEx also has established a nationwide Communities of Practice that meet regularly to focus on this work.

Approved By: ____________________________________________________________________

Lori Nordlien/Procurement Director Date:

3/20/2025