FY 2027 Turnkey Sole Source.pdf

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Sole Source Justification Form Version 7.01 Page of Sole Source Justification Form - Part I Section I - General Information Will this Sole Source amend a Professional or Artistic Services contract?

If yes, what was the original contract value?

*Sole Source may not be used for amendments for Professional or Artistic Services if the amendment would increase the value by more than 5% of the initial award or extend the term by more than 60 days.

Section II - Proposed Term If a Term Contract, does the term, including renewals, exceed 12 months?

If yes, provide a detailed justification including any economic benefit received for agreeing to a multi-year term:

Section III - Funding Source Select the type of funding to be used (Check all that apply):

Section IV - Sole Source Justification Are there secondary justification(s) for this sole source?

Section V - Purchase History Has the Agency or University Purchased these supplies or services in the past?

Term Term From Term To Value Description Contract Number Type Section VI - Business Rationale

1. Provide a detailed explanation of the need for the supplies or services:

2. Provide a list and describe in detail the specifications required to satisfy the need:

3. Provide detail explaining the justification selected in Section IV to explain why the requested supplies or services are the only ones available that can satisfy the agency or university requirements?

4. What are the unique features of the supplies or services that are not available in any other product or by any other vendor? Provide specific quantifiable factors/qualifications:

5. Has the Agency or University considered alternative supplies or services to satisfy their need?

5a. If yes, name the alternative vendors whose supplies or services were evaluated:

5b. If yes, what were the alternatives for each vendor and why were they unacceptable? Be specific with regard to features, characteristics, requirements, capabilities and compatibility:

5c. Explain how the market evaluation was conducted?

*This evaluation is to determine available options within a market. If the evaluation is to determine quality or best suited option, this is not the appropriate source selection. Under no circumstances shall the evaluation consist of testing alternative options. These activities must be conducted in a competitive transparent environment (i.e. IFB or RFP).

5a. If no, why weren't alternatives evaluated?

6. Are there resellers or distributors?

7. What efforts were made to get the best possible price (i.e. did the agency/university negotiate) and how did you determine the price for this purchase is considered fair and reasonable?

8. Will this purchase obligate the State to this vendor for future purchases such as maintenance, licensing or continuing need?

8a. If yes, please provide details regarding future obligations and/or needs:

9. What will be the financial or other impact to the State if this sole source is not approved and a competitive bid is required?

10. Is there any additional information you would like to add to justify this sole source?

Section VII Requesting Department Signature Required I know and understand the contents of this Sole Source Justification and attest that all statements are true and correct and the fairness and reasonableness of the price was adequately confirmed.

State Agency Bureau/Division Head or University Purchasing Director Approval and Signature Required I know and understand the contents of this Sole Source Justification and attest that all statements are true and correct and the fairness and reasonableness of the price was adequately confirmed. (All prior form fields will lock once this e-signature is completed) SPO Approval and Signature Required Sole Source Justification Form - Part II Section I - General Information Was a Sole Source hearing held per 30 ILCS 500/20-25?

Section II - Sole Source Hearing Details The State posted to the Illinois Procurement Bulletin a description of the State's need, the justification for the sole source decision, and information regarding the opportunity to submit comments and testify at a public hearing. Notice of the hearing was also posted outside of the hearing room 48 hours prior to the hearing.

The public hearing was conducted for the purpose of receiving testimony regarding the sole source determination. The Hearing Officer recommends the following:

The following relevant documents are attached:

Section III - CPO Approval and Signature Required 9.0.0.2.20101008.1.734229

IL High School Equivalency (GED, HiSET,

7/1/2014 to 6/30/2015 138,000 IL High School Equivalency Sole Source 7/1/2013 to 6/30/2014 140,250 IL High School Equivalency Sole Source 7/1/2012 to 6/30/2013 120,000 IL High School Equivalency Sole Source 7/1/2011 to 6/30/2012 92,500 IL High School Equivalency Sole Source 7/1/2010 to 6/30/2011 92,500 IL High School Equivalency Sole Source 7/1/2009 to 6/30/2010 90,000 IL High School Equivalency Sole Source Q1Answer: ICCB is statutorily required to provide access to completers of the State of Illinois High School Diploma to copies of their transcripts and diplomas. In order to accomplish that, ICCB contracted for the development, hosting, and maintenance of the Illinois High School Equivalency (ILHSE) database and web portal. The database is used to used to receive and maintain scoring history from testing vendors, print and distribute high school equivalency records, provide data to ICCB for state and federally mandated data reporting, track completions of the Illinois Constitution requirement, and provide a web-interface for accessing the data for Regional Offices of Education and ICCB.

Turnkey was selected as the vendor for system development 25 years ago as the only authorized vendor by the U.S. Department of Education. It has since provided hosting of the system and made necessary upgrades to accommodate needed changes and improvements to the system. Through the ILHSE database, TurnKey Solutions has developed and maintained a system that communicates with the Regional Offices of Education and the HSE State Administrator's Office for the purposes of certifying an individual test-taker's receipt of a high school equivalency credential and issuing appropriate high school equivalency records (State of Illinois High School Diploma and official transcripts).

Continuing with this vendor is cost effective because the development of a new system by a new vendor would be an additional significant and multi-year outlay to develop the functionality already in place. There would also be a need for an overlap with dual systems until a new system was ready. Without continuing with the vendor, there would be a gap that would negatively impact residents of Illinois. Disruption would halt the issuance of high school equivalency records for test takers who need their State of Illinois High School Diploma to enhance their careers or enter postsecondary education.

Q2Answer: In general terms, the functions required by the database are:

• Maintenance and redevelopment as necessary of a statewide database to house High School Equivalency (HSE) records for the State of Illinois.

• Provide hosting and maintenance of the system.

• Provide system security to ensure no unauthorized access.

• Provide appropriate backups and redundancy to ensure continuity of operations in the event of a catastrophe.

• Ingest data from HSE providers (GED and HiSET) into the statewide database

• Ingest data on completers of the Illinois Constitution Module

• Maintain the scoring history for High School Equivalency (HSE) tests (GED and HiSET) in Illinois

• Correlate passing and completion requirements for achievement of the State of Illinois High School Diploma by vendor and testing series.

• Certify completers who have earned the State of Illinois High School Diploma.

• Print transcripts and diplomas for candidates by ROEs and ICCB for distribution.

• House documentation on system training, Alternative Methods of Credentialing (AMOC) transcript reviews, requests for transcript and diploma paper, and requests for system access.

• Provide statistical reports on HSE candidates, including by candidate demographic, testing vendor, testing history, by testing centers, by counties, import activity, and AMOC.

• Lookup of examinee information, including search by properties such as name, date of birth, vendor IDs. Includes the ability to add new people and merge people within the system.

• Tracking of import errors from vendors with ability to resolve unknown testing centers, revocation of testing scores within the system.

• Add new or change contact information for test centers and Regional Offices of Education (ROEs).

• Provisioning and deprovisioning of access to users from ICCB and ROEs as well as user profiles.

• User input for tracking of when transcripts and diplomas were printed and any additional notes needed regarding a candidate.

• Has the layout and print function for Illinois transcripts and diplomas.

• Has 25+ year history working with ICCB, the Regional Offices of Education, and the testing vendors.

• Has an intimate knowledge of current and historical GED and HiSET scoring protocols and the Illinois requirements for HSE completion.

• Has an understanding of ICCB data requirements for Adult Education reporting ensuring data validity.

• Has an understanding of the security requirements and data infrastructure requirements from ICCB, the Illinois Department of Information Technology, and the testing vendors, protecting ICCB from data breaches.

The vendor has agreed to no pricing increase for the Hardware & Usage fee since 7/1/2017. The Server & Processes cost increased slightly from last year, reflecting increased software and security costs and the need for additional training as there have been a number of changes affecting high school equivalency in the State. An additional item was added to address the need for a System and Organization Controls (SOC) report to meet auditing requirements on the agency. The Adult Education Specific Tasks increases slightly to include additional programming to meet data tracking needs. These activities are based on federal requirements from the U.S. Department of Education in order to meet federal performance outcomes for the Adult Education and Literacy Grant.

The Illinois High School Equivalency Specific Enhancements portion are onetime costs for additional work ICCB requires for the contract year. This is variable and has been as low as zero in the past when no enhancements were required. There was a decrease this year as there were less programming needs for general updates to the system. Focus areas for this year include updates to the high school equivalency database to improve functionality, deprecation of outdated aspects of the previous constitution requirements in the system, and changes to user roles by Regional Offices of Education to allow them additional functionality. Additionally, historical records from a Regional Office of Education will be added to the system, building on previous work to aggregate additional records into the system.

One large project is added to modernize the database for two purposes. First is to update the system to reflect modern security protocols to ensure the safety of the data house in the database. Second is a large scale system enhancement to house PDF files of records. This change will allow ICCB to house digitized versions of its microfilm records backups within the system and to allow ROEs to be able to do the same. This improved functionality will reduce staff time in trying to find old or missing records and will provide the ROEs with the opportunity to move away from outdated legacy systems.

Hardware & Usage Fee: $29,428.00 Server & Processes Support: $140,197 Training & Meetings: $12,168.00 Security Services & Associated Labor: $30,993 Data Matching for TOPSpro last fiscal year (up to 3 times): $5,616 Data Matching for TOPSpro Current Fiscal year (up to 12 times, overlapping the 3months for last for last LY run): $22,464 Illinois High School Equivalency Enhancements: $80,496