RFI Questions Responses 10 26 2020.docx

RFI Questions and answers Virtual Platform 10/19/2020

1. Are you basically looking for a platform where you can manage and track activities right from when a Vendor submits the proposal until the close of a particular contract? Yes

2. Should the software have the ability to create an RFI and an RFP? No

3. Should the software have the ability to interact through the portal at the time of creating an RFP or RFI? No

4. Are you looking for a Vendor Portal also? No

5. Will the vendors be submitting the proposal through a portal? If yes, do they have the option to edit any information after submitting it if it is before the due date of the proposal? Yes and Yes

6. What are features to be available on a Vendor portal? Not an exhaustive list because we are still thinking this through based on info from this RFI: proposal submission, proposal status tracking, download responses, services received dashboard.

7. Will the Vendor be submitting both the Technical proposal and financial proposal at the same time? Yes

8. Provide an overall dashboard for contract management- Will the vendors also have a dashboard? Yes although it may differ slightly

9. Are you looking to build a new system? We are interested in knowing if a system is readily available on the market that may meet the need.

10. Do you have an existing system? No

11. How is the current system built? Is it completely manual or partially manual and partially automated or completely automated? The current processes are manual using only MS office products

12. Could you please provide the documentation of the current system? There is no current system

13. What are the software specifications and in which platform is it built on if it is automated? If you are referring to our current system, there isn’t one, it is manual processes

14. What is the database of the current system? MS Office

15. What is the hosting of the current system if it is automated? No current hosting

16. What type of hosting are you looking for in the new system? FEDRAMP Approved Cloud based.

17. Is your current system integrated with any other systems like ERP, CRM, etc? If yes, could you please provide the details? As the new system should be compatible with those. No current system except MS Office

18. Does the current system have all the requirements mentioned in the RFI? No current system except MS Office

19. Should the system have the ability to notify existing Vendors on the new RFI and RFP/ Solicitation? No – we will not be using RFI or RFP’s.

20. Will the System have the option to respond to Vendors or other Users' questions in the portal? Yes

21. Does the system have the option to sent Notification through the portal? If yes, what type of notification is preferred? Yes, email

22. Do you have any preference for the technology being used in the new software? We would like to be able to export to MS office product files

23. Capacity to manage over 60 contracts per year with access for over 100 users -Could you please provide the type of users who would require access to the portal? Internal and external customers.

24. When you say users does it mean federal employee, IHS employees, or any other? IHS Staff and Tribal Staff

25. Ability to assign tasks to particular staff members and track progress/workload – Could you please specify the different levels of users and the type of tasks that will be assigned? Program staff.

26. Generate progress and financial reports – What are the list of reports you require and what are the details required in those reports? Financial Tables and workload/finance reconciliation.

27. Provide a Virtual Computer Software Platform to serve as a portal for tribal contract submission, allowing federal and tribal staff to: - What do you mean by Tribal staff? Staff employed at Tribal Clinics

28. What is Manage and catalogue contract communications? We want to be able to track requests from customers and responses to customers and keep that correspondence associated with the file.

29. Submit, Monitor and Evaluate proposal and proposal progress. – Could you please explain how the system should evaluate the proposal? It won’t fully evaluate proposals without human input. However, a system can compare last year’s documents against this year’s submission and identify changes, which can reduce review time. Many grant management solutions have this type of technology.

30. Since each of the vendors' proposals would be different, what do you mean by Proposal comparisons? A system can compare last year’s documents against this years submission and identify changes, which can reduce review time. Many grant management solutions have this type of technology. MS word has this technology. We would like it integrated if possible.

31. Manage financial data and provide financial data/tables based on a tribal share formulas – What do you mean by this and what is tribal share formulas? Gross funding is broken down to awardee via formulas. We would like the solution to be able to do this in the form of pivot tables that can be exported to spreadsheets if needed.

32. Tracking Capability - Could you please list down what are the tracking capabilities you are looking to have in the product? Track the status of a proposal, track payments made or received, track workload against a funding line.

33. Update information such as tribal election results, changes in leadership etc. – How do you want this to be updated? Basically this could take the form of a customer database. We would like the external customer to be able to update their own contact information as changes occur.

34. Track administrative actions related to contract modification and close out- What are the type of administrative actions related to contract modification and closeout? Funds received, funds paid out, services provided in relation to a contract. Language changes.

35. How many contracts will be managed overall in the system? Between 30 & 60 per year

36. Will you be maintaining inactive contracts also in the system? Yes

37. Do you have any specific format to submit the response to the RFI? No

38. Any limit on the number of pages for the response? Do you have a limit on the size of the document? No

39. In what format do you prefer? PDF or Word? PDF

40. What are the specific details we must submit about the Virtual Computer Software Platform? Could you please specify? We are interested in knowing if your system is capable of managing the tasks associated with this RFI. We don’t have technical details yet. That will come later.

41. Should we send the response password protected? If yes, after password protection, should we send the password in the same email or only upon your request? No password.

42. Serve as an integrated database, customer relationship management, and grant/contract management solution. Can you elaborate more on this? The system will need to serve as a financial database capable of exporting to spreadsheets, CRM to track services provided to customers against funding lines, track awards made, payments made, reconciliations completed, reports received, contracts closed.

43. Can we review a sample contract? No. Are they different contract types? Yes, refer to FAR part 16. How large are these contracts (size)? Depends on the magnitude and complexity

44. Can you please elaborate on what format and content you would like for our RFI response? We see the Requested Information under #1. with subpoints a. - o., but are wondering to what extent you would like us to address each subpoint? With respect to format, please place on company letterhead. With respect to subpoints address them to the extent that you believe your platform can assist or support that activity. This being an RFI we are hoping to determine what is on the market that might be a viable solution.

45. For the bullet on "Manage financial data and provide financial data/tables based on a tribal share formula." Can you provide any clarification on this so that we can appropriately respond to it? With respect to managing financial data and applying a tribal share formula. This could be thought of as similar to grant management. The agency receives bulk funding and based on a distribution formula calculates a Tribes share of the formula. This in turn is exported into excel spread sheets. We are hoping to find a platform that can accomplish this with minimal opportunity for human error.

46. For the bullet on "Update information such as tribal election results, changes in leadership etc." Is there a software that already collects this, and does the new software integrate with this? This is currently managed with MS Office products. It really amounts to a distribution list. We would like the interface with external customers to have the ability to allow those customers to update new information such as new Tribal chairman contact information etc. We are not looking for a solution to collect election results but the change in contact information for tribes to help better serve our Tribes.

47. For the bullet on "Reports." Do you have any specifics as to why type of reports you'll need? We can create any number of reports, so we want to be able to be more specific to what the needs of the end user are. Financial reports, funding available, funding transferred to awardee’s, internal workload that can be associated with a particular award. Etc. basically an executive / management data base. One could think in terms of project management. Workload associate with a particular project affiliated with a particular customer.