NDERFP240226 Vendor Questions.pdf

Questions Answer

On page 1, it says, "The term of the contract will be four

(4) months commencing upon execution of the contract by the State and the Contractor (Parties)/notice to proceed May 13, 2024." Can you clarify what this refers to? The dashboard will presumably be up for the foreseeable future, so I would think the contract would be indefinite as long as data as the dashboard is being fed with data. Or are they just expecting a one-time static data pull?

The intent is to complete the scope of work within the four months with annual access to the system, with future annual licensing options provided for ongoing expenses and access.

Lightcast can and has fulfill(ed) the stated scope of work in multiple ways (through "off-the-shelf" software, or by economic consulting, or raw labor market data visualization, or a mix of these). Can I submit multiple responses that detail the different options? Or what is the best way to outline different answers with different pricing structures? The State is open to all options.

Is the intended audience of this dashboard essentially any person in the state?

It sounds like you'd like it open to high school teachers, students (high school and college), college/uni faculty, University administrators/Provosts' office, etc. Understanding this will be necessary to benchmark our pricing

The primary audience is educators, administrators, learners, and those aligning educational programming, especially career and technical education programming, with labor market information. This applies to both secondary and postsecondary education.

Can you provide more details on the specific needs and preferences of educators and students regarding the labor market information they seek? Understanding their requirements will help us tailor the dashboard to meet their needs effectively.

Under Perkins legislation recipients are required to align their local programs with high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand occupations. Data presented should assist users with identifying these H3 occupations within their local region and the state to better inform programmatic decisions. Additional labor market information presented should additionally support students career exploration and development, including information like occupation wage information, annual growth, etc.

What are the primary data sources for the labor market information that will be displayed on the dashboard?

Data should including national and state public data, including alignment with Nebraska Department of Labor data and reporting (https://neworks.nebraska.gov/

Will the system require integration with external data sources or APIs to ensure real-time or up-to-date information? Potentially.

Are there any specific customization requirements for the dashboard interface, such as branding, color schemes, or user interface preferences? Nothing pre-determined.

Do educators and students require the ability to customize their dashboard views or save preferences for future sessions? No.

What measures need to be implemented to ensure the security and privacy of sensitive labor market data?

Unclear what labor market data would be sensitive or identifiable at the level requested.

Are there any specific compliance standards or regulations that the system needs to adhere to, such as GDPR or data encryption protocols? Compliance with industry standards.

What is the allocated budget for the development and implementation of the labor market information dashboard? Undisclosed at this time.

Are there any specific timeline constraints or milestones that need to be met during the project lifecycle?

The system needs to be built within the four months of the contract.

Would you consider proposals from firms that operate internationally or have offshore development teams, provided they can meet the project requirements and quality standards? Yes, We will consider those proposals.

Can you explain the 4-month contract term period? Are you open to a multi-year subscription?

The intent is to complete the scope of work within the four months with annual access to the system, with future annual licensing options provided for ongoing expenses and access.

Do you have an Evaluation/Scoring Rubric that you can share?

Page 28, Section VI.A Shares the expectations for proposals

Are you looking for an off-the-shelf commercial SaaS solution or a custom-built solution? Open to multiple solutions.

What specific data sources would you like us to load and digitalize on the dashboard?

The State is open to all options. Data should including national and state public data, including alignment with Nebraska Department of Labor data and reporting (https://neworks.nebraska.gov/. Desired attributes of the platform are included in Section V (C) of the RFP.

If there are specific data sources that you want us to use, can you please clarify the data format?

Data should including national and state public data, including alignment with Nebraska Department of Labor data and reporting (https://neworks.nebraska.gov/.

Desired attributes of the platform are included in Section V (C) of the RFP.

Which section of the proposal should we place the initialized Terms and Conditions document? At the end of your proposal will work.

Which section of the proposal should we place From A Bidder Proposal Point of Contact? At the end of your proposal will work.

Can you confirm that this is the correct pricing document and encompasses all items needed with this RFP? For example, pricing for Gap Analysis, Findings & Recommendations, and Top 5 Policies Written do not coincide with the RFP Scope of Work.

The Cost Proposal sheet is a template that can be adjusted to your cost proposal. Please feel free to remove "Top 5 Policies written"

What is it about your current provider that is not meeting your needs

The Department of Education does not currently have its own system, but relies on other databases and state agencies to provide the information.

Are you open to a joint proposal with partners to meet the requirements Yes.

We respectfully request a 30-day extension to ensure the proper amount of time and attention for the preparation of a thorough response. All work must be completed by September 30, 2024.

Could you provide further insight into the State's approach to non-exclusivity in contracts?

NDE and the State of Nebraska do not favor exclusive contracts. We reserve the right to enter into contracts with more than one provider to provide the same or similar types of services from other sources. A contractor will generally not be granted exclusive rights to provide a particular service.

In terms of the short-term project scope, could you provide more details on the specific objectives and deliverables expected to be accomplished within the four-month duration?

The intent is to complete the scope of work within the four months with annual access to the system, with future annual licensing options provided for ongoing expenses and access.

Could you please clarify the scope of the contract in terms of both development and hosting services?

The intent is to complete the scope of work within the four months with annual access to the system, with future annual licensing options provided for ongoing expenses and access.

Could you provide insights into the allocated budget or funding for this project? Undisclosed at this time

Could you please provide more details on what you envision for the dashboard? Specifically, we are interested in understanding the key features, functionalities, and data visualization elements that the State/DOE aims to include in the dashboard.

The State is open to all options. Desired attributes of the platform are included in Section V (C) of the RFP.

Could you please provide clarification on how the LMI Dashboard is intended to be accessed by Nebraska educators, students, and employers?

Specifically, we are interested in understanding whether the dashboard will be accessed directly through a new unique URL or integrated into an existing platform.

Additionally, if integration with an existing platform is planned, could you provide further details on which platform(s) are being considered for integration and how users will navigate to access the dashboard functionality within the platform?

The platform should be accessible through a unique URL and available 24/7 to any user.

Could you please provide clarification on the user access model for the LMI Dashboard? Specifically, we are interested in understanding whether users will be able to navigate the dashboard as guests or if user registration will be required to access certain features or functionalities. Additionally, if user registration is planned, could you provide insights into the registration process, including any required user information and authentication mechanisms?

The platform should be a publicly available site with no restrictions to user site access. No registration required.

Could you please clarify if the State desires employers to have the capability to post job opportunities directly to the dashboard's job board?

No. That is not intended to be a feature of this LMI platform.

Does the State envision staff having the capability to manage both student and employer accounts on the platform? If so, could you provide insights into any specific functionalities or tools they should have access to for user management and support? No. There will be no user accounts.

What are the specific indicators or benchmarks that the State considers particularly relevant or impactful for informing decision-making and planning efforts at the school district, educational service unit, and community college region levels? For more granular LMI, will the State provide zip code mapping data for school districts, educational service units, and community college regions?

Desired attributes of the platform are included in Section V (C) of the RFP. The state can assist with the identification of data groupings and boundaries.

Given that the National Career Clusters Framework (NCCF) is no longer supported by Advance CTE, will the State be providing its own career cluster mapping data to support the configuration of the LMI Dashboard?

This is not accurate. Advance CTE not only supports the existing national framework, it is currently working to modernize and release an updated version this year.

Nebraska will provide mapping to state-specific cluster information.

Could you please clarify if reporting requirements aim to better visualize Labor Market Information (LMI) data, track registered user activity, or both? Both.

Will the State be providing its own career pathways mapping data to support the configuration of the LMI Dashboard?

Yes, this can be provided is and is available on the Nebraska CTE's webpage.

A review of the scope of work and RFP information makes it appear as though all, or nearly all, of the deliverables could be completed remotely. Are there any specific expectations or requirements of in-person work or travel that should be factored into our proposal?

If yes, please provide anticipated # of instances of in-person travel, the type of work to be performed (ex: in-person meeting, annual presentation, in-person focus group, etc.) and approximate duration (# of days) of each instance.

No, there no specific expectations or requirements of in-person work or travel to complete the scope of work.

What kinds of data sources should the offeror expect to interface with? For example, cloud-hosted databases, on-premises databases, web APIs, or file based exports from a system.

Publicly available data are presented in multiple formats. Some may be access via download from the NE Department of Labor.

Does the Nebraska Department of Education have access and / or the ability to grant access to the entirety of the data to be included in the proposed statewide Labor Market Information Dashboard, or will the selected contractor be responsible for collecting some portion of the data?

The contractor will be responsible for sourcing the related data.

What types of relationships exist between data sourced from different systems? Are there existing mappings or business logic definitions that relate data from different systems? None known at this time.

Are there any non-standard (city, county, zip) regional boundaries that are expected in the mapping features.

For example, school districts, economic development regions, community college regions, etc. If so, are there any existing GeoJSON or Shape files defining these boundaries?

Desired boundaries include, but are not limited to, economic development region, school district, community college region, and ESU.

Will all dashboards be public and contain public information? Is there any need for internal dashboards that will have private data and restricted access for selected groups of users?

Yes. All dashboards will be public. There is no need for internal dashboards with restricted access.

Is there an estimated daily active user count for the public dashboard based on NDE’s historical web traffic or forecasted traffic to the dashboard after launch? No.

Can you provide any indication on the likely volume of data? For example, roughly how many tables, rows, and columns could be included in the relevant data source systems. What is the size of the data in terms of megabytes or gigabytes? Unknown.

What is the expected data refresh frequency from source systems? For example, daily, weekly, monthly, Annually? Unknown.

In Section V, sub-section C, the RFP mentions a custom landing page and coordinated functionality for educators, students, employers, and statewide administrators. Does this mean that each user will have a unique log-in to afford a view that is saved each time the user accesses the dashboard, or does it mean that there will be various landing pages based on type of user (all students see a view configured for student use, all educators see a different view configured for educator use, etc.) WIll all views be public?

The landing page should be custom to Nebraska. The site will be public and not require any unique user log-

in. It should be accessible and relevant to all users.

The cost proposal includes a section for “Top 5 policies written,” but this phrase does not appear in the RFP. Is there a component of work the contractor is expected to perform that would fall under this category?

The Cost Proposal sheet is a template that can be adjusted to your cost proposal. Please feel free to remove "Top 5 Policies written"

What is the anticipated number of NDE staff members who will need to be trained in the train-the-trainer model? Up to 25 By signing the Request for Proposal for Contractual Services Form, does that signal the bidder agree with all language included in sections II - IV of the RFP, or is the bidder additionally required to initial all items contained within section II - IV of the RFP and include those pages in the submitted response?

You must Initial all Items and include those pages in the submitted response.

As a non-publicly held firm who banks with a large national bank, we are not confident that a banking reference letter can be provided on the timelines set forth by the RFP. Is there some other form of documentation that can be provided to meet the criteria of the Financial Statements section?

If you do not have a reference number from your bank, we will accept the financial statement from your accounting department. If we need more information, we will contact you.

We will plan to externally host the dashboards, but does NDE have an existing website where the dashboard can be embedded on a page? Or does NDE expect a completely separate website/subdomain to be built and dedicated to the dashboards? The NDE is open to multiple options.

Are there any existing business intelligence tools in NDE’s ecosystem? Does NDE have any preferred tools, software, or libraries? No preferences at this time.

Is ADA compliance and accessibility expected for the dashboards as identified by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Section 508 Standards? Yes.

Do you own licenses of Office 365 and/or Power BI? If so, how many? Yes. Unknown.

Do you have a Microsoft Azure Active Directory / Microsoft Entra tenant? Yes.

What is the anticipated budget for the proposed scope of work? Undisclosed at this time Is the NDE open to a longer timeline for completing the project, beyond the four months specified in the RFP?

Depending on the answers to our questions below, we anticipate that more time may be needed to present a full working prototype that NDE could provide feedback on, complete testing, finalize the dashboard, and complete training sessions.

The scope of work must be completed within the four month time frame.

Does the NDE expect a separate custom landing page for each different type of users? For example, a separate page for students, separate page for employers, etc.?

The custom landing page should be for Nebraska, not each user type. The site should be public and accessible to everyone at all times.

Does the NDE plan for this tool to be public facing and accessible to anyone? Or will access be limited to a specific group of individuals?

Yes. The platform should be public facing and accessible to anyone.

Is the NDE looking for a product that allows for users to login to save searches and create their own custom dashboards using the tool? No.

How many individuals does NDE anticipate participating in the “train the trainer” sessions, initially and on an ongoing annual basis? Who would participate in these “train the trainer” sessions? Up to 25. Primarily CTE staff.

If our proposal requires subscriptions to data services or software tools, is it acceptable to the NDE for our firm to pay for those services directly? Or would the NDE need to contract with those firms instead?

Subscription pricing sometimes differs for government and private businesses, so knowing this would ensure that we accurately budget for this in our proposal.

NDE is not interested in separate contracts with those firms. Please develop your bid accordingly.

Is there a budget range that NDE has allocated for this project? Undisclosed at this time

How frequently does the NDE expect the LMI data to be updated on the dashboard?

As often as data become available through national or state databases.

Will the student level dashboard require individual user accounts to be created for each user?

There should only be one dashboard accessible online without restrictions to all users.

Could you provide more details on the expected scope and scale of the train-the-trainer sessions?

The purpose of the train-the-trainer sessions will be to enable state CTE staff to work with and train school districts on how to use the platform for programmatic alignment.

How many NDE staff members are anticipated to be trained, and what is the expected proficiency level post-training?

Up to 25. Staff should be able to explain, use, and assist schools with use.

Are there particular accessibility standards (like WCAG) the dashboard needs to adhere to? Industry standard.

What are NDE's expectations regarding the response time and resolution for ongoing technical assistance?

The expectation would be for the contractor to respond to questions or concerns in a timely manner.