QA2 JPA S2S System and Resources final.pdf

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320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949

JPA Seed to Sale Tracking System and Resources RFP

BidBuy Bid# 23-440DFPR-SECRE-B-29251 Question and Answer Document

Last Revised: October 5, 2022

PART 1

# Question Answer 1 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria:

For submission, can Attachment A be converted from excel (for example, Word table) and uploaded as a pdf?

If an Offeror chooses to convert Attachment A to a different format, we respectfully ask that a redundant Attachment A is sent back as an Excel sheet. The Excel format will assist in more efficient evaluations of an Offeror’s proposal. We prefer it’s submitted back as an Excel format but it’s not mandatory.

2 D.9. Where Services Are To Be Performed: The RFP indicates that the response must be “N/A” Please confirm that vendors do not need to include a response related to D.9 in proposals.

Section D.9.2. of the RFP allows Offerors to disclose the locations where services will be performed. Please disclose this information in that section with your proposal.

3 D.2.11, Information Technology (IT) Governance and Legal Requirements: “The Offeror shall review, sign, and return the completed attachment [Attachment E] back in Packet 1.” Please confirm that vendors need not submit narrative responses related to Attachment E.

Confirmed.

4 Attachment F, RFP Demo: Could the State provide an estimated timeframe for when vendor system demonstrations are expected to occur?

Please see section B.6.2. of the RFP for more information.

5 A.22. Evaluation Process: Could the State provide an estimated timeframe for when it expects to execute a contract?

A contract will be executed after the RFP evaluation process and Notice of Award are fully executed and the State has the approval to proceed with executing the contract. Each procurement is different and varies depending on the number of proposals receive, evaluator schedules, approvals, protests, negotiations, etc.

www.idfpr.illinois.gov

JB PRITZKER

Governor

MARIO TRETO, JR.

Secretary

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6 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria:

Will the State share the percentage of mandatory and desirable requirements that are already being met by the incumbent vendor?

The current agreement is publicly available and can be made available through a FOIA request with IDFPR’s FOIA Officer.

7 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria includes numerous requirements that include “I” (D.66, 68, 94, 169, 197, and 211) or “my” (D.54, 64, 108, 109, 110, 113, 153, 163, 164,

181) statements. Should these requirements instead refer to the System, such as “The System should ____?” Furthermore, if these functionalities apply to specific user roles, could the State please specify which roles those are?

Each desirable criteria describes the result in the solution the State would like to procure.

Column D details the specific user/role the criteria apply to. The “I” or “my” can be read as coming from the user/role listed in Column D.

8 D.2.1-11, “Any and all narratives and attachments requested, related to the below requirements documented in subsections D.2.1 through D.2.11, shall be completed and returned in Packet 1 of the Offeror’s proposal.”

Could the State provide additional direction / guidance on the information it's looking for vendors to provide in the narrative section?

Currently, there are only a few sentences describing what vendors should include for each section.

That RFP section further states, “The content provided within the Offeror’s responses to subsections D.2.1 through D.2.11 will be evaluated and scored based on the responsive element points assigned…” The content of your narratives and plans should be concise and justify how your solution and resources meet the RFP’s mandatory and desirable criteria.

9 D.2.1-11, “Any and all narratives and attachments requested, related to the below requirements documented in subsections D.2.1 through D.2.11, shall be completed and returned in Packet 1 of the Offeror’s proposal.”

Could the State provide guidance on page limits or recommended page counts/ranges for each section of the narrative response? It’s unclear if the State is looking for a few paragraphs, a few pages, or a few dozen pages of narrative for each section.

There are no mandatory minimums or maximums when completing these sections of the RFP for your respective proposal. The content of your narratives and plans should be concise and justify how your solution and resources meet the RFP’s mandatory and desirable criteria.

10 A.8.1. Offer Due Date, Time, and Address for Submission of Offer: Would the State consider extending the proposal submission deadline to give vendors adequate time to adjust their response to the state’s answers to vendor questions?

Yes, a due date extension may be considered but it’s not guaranteed.

11 D.3.1. Milestones and Deliverables: Does the State prefer an implementation timeline that’s fewer than 180 days? Or should vendors use a proposed implementation of 180 days and note if they’re able to perform a shorter

That is an anticipated milestone/deliverable the awarded Vendor is expected to achieve throughout the life of the awarded contract.

Your proposal should be geared to meet that anticipated milestone/deliverable; however, 320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949 implementation? Could shorter implementation timelines result in a higher evaluation score?

the State will accept proposals that can implement the solution in a shorter timeframe.

Scoring details can be found in Section B of the

RFP.

12 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.33 states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to decipher between a plant that is frozen or not frozen.” Could the State please confirm that “frozen” refers to the physical state of the plant, eg flash-frozen cannabis material?

Confirmed. This is regarding flash-frozen cannabis material.

13 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.215 states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to provide easy access to a help desk within the S2S solution that is available 24 hours/day.” Could the State confirm that 24-hour support applies to State users? If so, does the State have preferred support hours for industry users?

D.215 is for “All Users” as stated in column D.

All Users refers to any regulatory/State and business/licensee/public user of the system.

14 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.215 states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to provide easy access to a help desk that is available 24 hours/day.” Could the State further describe what “easy access” means? For example, does it include live support via phone, chat, and/or email during business hours? What are the expectations for after-hours access?

The State recommends Offerors provide accurate and attainable information in their proposals and anticipate their respective response(s) to be part of the future contract, if awarded.

15 2.E, Pricing: Could the state estimate the number of industry and state users?

There are currently 5 main State agencies that oversee the cannabis industry and 13 total agencies involved in the regulatory structure.

Currently, the State has issued 21 cultivation center licenses, 76 craft grow licenses, 54 infuser licenses, 98 transportation licenses, and 295 dispensary licenses.

The law authorizes up to 30 cultivation center, 150 craft grow, 100 infuser, unlimited transportation, and 500 dispensary licenses unless by administrative rule the State increases those caps.

Each agency or licensee may have a number of users to the solution.

16 2.E, Pricing, Item #4, #5, and #6: Could the State clarify the difference between Tier 1, 2, and 3 roles?

Please refer to Section D.3.4. of the RFP for this information.

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17 2.E, Pricing, Item #4, #5, and #6: Could the State confirm that it seeks a total of 6,000 labor hours for mandated enhancements during the initial term of the contract? In our experience, this is a very high estimate for enhancement labor hours and effectively equates to an employee working full-time each year on system enhancements.

The State wanted to include a higher estimate of mandated enhancement resource work hours to ensure minimal or no amendments/change orders would be executed against the awarded contract for this work. Also, the State legislative process varies annually. This could mean zero mandated enhancements be executed one year and a dozen mandated enhancements executed another year. The State wants to ensure budget appropriations for any and all services are included on an annual basis in the awarded contract.

18 2.E, Pricing, Item #4, #5, and #6: Are the initial term’s estimated labor hours for the for mandated enhancements covered by the RFP requirements? Or are they for enhancements that are not covered by the RFP requirements (and may not yet be contemplated)?

They are enhancements covered by the RFP’s mandatories and desirables and subsequent requirements required by future mandates from legislative, judicial or administrative actions during the life of the awarded contract.

Please see Sections D.2.10. and D.3.3. of the RFP for more details.

19 2.E, Pricing, Item #4, #5, and #6: Will the cost of the initial term’s estimated 6,000 labor hours be scored in the pricing evaluation or are these estimates provided to help inform vendor resources allocation?

Yes. The pricing formula score can be found in Section B.7.

20 2.E, Pricing: How is the State calculating and scoring the total proposed cost of each vendor in the Pricing section? Is it scoring the sum of all costs for Items 1-21? Or is the State excluding any price Items from scoring, such as optional renewal years?

Pricing formula scoring is based on the total cost of the potential entire contract term (10 years)

21 A.23. BUSINESS ENTERPRISE FOR

MINORITIES, WOMEN, AND PERSONS WITH

DISABILITIES ACT PARTICIPATION AND

UTILIZATION PLAN includes a BEP goal of 20%. How is this goal calculated? Is it the percentage of the total proposed contract price? If so, will it be based off the initial term (three years) or based off the total possible contract, including optional renewals (ten years)?

The goal is calculated based on specific NIGP codes, as stated in Section A.23 of the RFP.

The BEP goal is approved by the State’s established process with the Commission on Equity and Inclusion. The percentage is the minimum goal for the contract term. The only term awarded is the initial term. All renewals are optional and mutually agreed upon.

22 A.23. BUSINESS ENTERPRISE FOR

MINORITIES, WOMEN, AND PERSONS WITH

DISABILITIES ACT PARTICIPATION AND

UTILIZATION PLAN: Will BEP percentages be calculated on an annual basis or across the term of the contract? For example, if a vendor

Based on the current State and CEI process, BEP goals on contracts are established during the solicitation stage (EX: RFP) and during contract renewals to re-calculate and/or re-verify the BEP goal for the optional contract

320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949 wants to meet the 20% goal for a three-year term and charges $1 million per year for the initial term, will that vendor need to subcontract with a BEP every year for $200,000 (for a total of $600,000 for three years) – or is the vendor able to subcontract with a BEP for one year for $600,000 (and not subcontract anything the remaining two years)?

terms that will be executed. The 20% is a minimum goal during the active term.

23 A.23. BUSINESS ENTERPRISE FOR

MINORITIES, WOMEN, AND PERSONS WITH

DISABILITIES ACT PARTICIPATION AND

UTILIZATION PLAN: Will the BEP goal be inclusive of the 6,000 estimated labor hours for mandated enhancements? If so, how should vendors address the likely variability in those hours, since they’re estimates? (For example, if a vendor has $1 million pricing inclusive of the 6,000 estimated hours, its SOW with a BEP would need to be $200,000 to fulfill the 20% goal. If the actual hours wind up being 2,000, and the vendor’s actual pricing is reduced to $400,000 to reflect that change, then the BEP’s portion of the contract would jump to 50%, exceeding the 40% subcontractor threshold.)

Offerors can document their respective BEP goal implementations/plans in the required Utilization Plan document. The U-Plan is attached in the BidBuy Bid attachments tab.

320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949

PART 2

# Question Answer

24 Could the State specify what patient information will be stored by the seed-to-sale system and require the vendor to be HIPAA compliant? If a vendor were able to recommend other approaches that meet the State's tracking needs without storing such data in the seed-to-sale system, would the State be open to those?

These other approaches might reduce the number of systems that store identifiable patient information, thus reducing data privacy risk.

You can find the statutorily required information in the Illinois cannabis Acts, rules, and regulations. The RFP explains what the desired criteria are for the proposed solution based on input from the regulating agencies.

Other approaches may be proposed but the scoring will reflect how the response is measured against the desired criteria. The State will award the contract to the most valuable proposal based on the evaluation, demo, and pricing scores.

25 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirements D.4, states “Describe Proposed solution's ability to receive real-time system push notifications […]”; D.6, states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability for all dispensary’s contacts on file to receive real-time system push notifications […]" D.64 states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to receive automated notifications […]" Could the State provide further information on the type of notifications it expects to be sent (eg in-system alerts, emails, etc)?

We kept notifications a generic term as we wanted to evaluate and score the Offeror’s options.

26 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.76, states “Describe proposed solution's ability to create QR codes on product labels with following data points included: full test results, harvest date, package date, additives, use by date and shipment dates.”

And D.77 states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to print labels with all State-required information.”

Could the State confirm that vendors should allow business users to extract data from the system for their use in creating their labels, e.g.

via API? Or does it expect that the seed-to-sale solution physically print and ship individual product labels for/to business users?

The role/user requesting these desirables is IDFPR, the regulatory body that oversees the State’s dispensary licenses. The system may allow for accessing labels via an API from the solution or creating a printable label.

27 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.61, states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to review, approve, deny, and reject product registrations.”

Can the State expand on the definition of product registrations or what might be included

The CRTA defines “cannabis,” “cannabis concentrate,” and “cannabis-infused products” and each product must be registered with the Department of Agriculture under 410 ILCS 705/55-21. It’s important this solution integrates and maintains continuity of product

320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949 within the registration? (“Registration” might be nomenclature that is specific to the current system.)

registrations and other program nomenclatures from other solutions.

28 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.108, states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability to register my company’s vehicle and receive a printable certificate to put in the vehicle.”

Can the State expand on what is expected to be included in a printable certificate? For example, should it include information on the associated business, driver name, license number, make and model of the car, and cannabis product(s) being transported?

You can find the statutorily required information in the Illinois cannabis Acts, rules, and regulations, especially in Illinois JCAR Section 1300.540: License Issuance and Transferability. All information stored about the transporters should be available for printing on the certificate.

29 Attachment A, Mandatory & Desirable Criteria, Requirement D.123, states, “Describe Proposed solution's ability for the system to track location of vehicles in route through GPS.”

Can the State share more information on how vehicle tracking via GPS is currently done through the seed-to-sale solution? Or how it envisions vehicle tracking via GPS to be accomplished in the seed-to-sale solution?

The current solution does not include GPS tracking. The desired criteria is an improvement requested in the new solution.

Currently, the system provides the best route between approved locations selected by the businesses.

30 D.7 Specifications/Qualifications/Statement of Work, Offeror’s Proposed Solution to Meet the State’s Requirements: BidBuy appears to require that the Technical Proposal, Attachment A, and Attachment E are uploaded separately.

Could the State confirm that vendors should not bundle those three files into a single document and upload as "Packet 1”?

That is just a separate itemized list of the required attachments for this RFP. You can submit them all together in a single Packet (EX: Packet 1) just make sure the individual files are labeled clearly and concisely.

31 D.5. COMMITTMENT TO DIVERSITY

GUIDANCE states, “Please see “Attachment D

– Commitment to Diversity RFP Guidance.

Please read this entire attachment and provide the requested information as applicable and per the instructions. Only the prime Offeror’s commitment to diversity will be evaluated.”

Please confirm that vendors do not need to submit a narrative response in section D.5.

No separate narrative is needed, just Attachment D.

32 Attachment D, Section II, Commitment to Diversity Category Section, Category II states, “The success or failure of each event does not impact the points achieved. Each event contact will be called twice before being deemed

The State will verify the Offeror’s responses to Category II and verify the information that was documented in the two boxes at the end of the Category II portion.

320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949 unverified. Each event contact will be asked the same set of verification questions (as prescribed by the Agency).”

Could the State please share the verification questions that will be asked? This will allow vendors to notify contacts and let them know what to expect and how to be prepared with the information the State seeks.

33 Attachment D, Section II, Commitment to Diversity Category Selection, Category I states, “Full points will be awarded if the Offeror submits a Utilization Plan meeting this solicitation’s goal or demonstrating a commitment constituting a good faith effort. No points will be awarded if the Utilization Plan doesn’t meet this solicitations’ goal or demonstrate a commitment constituting good faith effort.”

Could the State confirm that vendors should include the proposed rate or cost of BEP subcontractors in this section? If not, where should subcontractor pricing information be included (so that the State can confirm how much of the BEP goal is met)?

The Commitment to Diversity Attachment D is different than the BEP Utilization Plan attachment. These are separate requests.

Attachment D documents the Offeror’s commitment to diversity as a whole and the BEP Utilization Plan attachment documents the BEP subcontractor(s) for this specific procurement. Offerors will disclose a percentage they are allocating to the BEP subcontractor(s) during the term of the contract. The awarded vendor, once executing the contract terms and receiving payments from invoices, will track and report payments to BEP subcontractors through the Illinois Commission on Equity and Inclusion’s reporting process.

34 Section D.8.1 states, “Subcontractors are allowed. A subcontractor is a person or entity that enters into a contractual agreement with a total value of $50,000 or more with a person or entity who has a contract subject to the Illinois Procurement Code pursuant to which the person or entity provides some or all of the goods, services, real property, remuneration, or other monetary forms of consideration that are the subject of the primary State contract, including subleases from a lessee of a State contract. If subcontractors are to be utilized, Offeror must identify subcontractors expected to receive $50,000 or more annually under the contract and disclose the expected amount of money each will receive in the Subcontractor Disclosure form found in Section 3 Part I.”

Could the State confirm that any proposed BEP business would qualify as a subcontractor? If so, and the BEP business is paid over $50,000 per year, could the State confirm that vendors

Correct to both questions. Any BEP vendor utilized that is not the prime vendor will be considered a subcontractor. There can only be one prime vendor and that is the Offeror submitting the proposal. Any subcontractor, BEP or not, that will be receiving over $50,000 per year will need to be disclosed and include all necessary vendor documents.

320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949 should complete both the BEP utilization plan and the Subcontractor Disclosure form?

35 Mandatory requirement M.4 states: “Offeror shall have a minimum of three (3) years of experience in the development, production deployment, and support of implementing a fully Offeror-hosted product inventory solution along with documenting all previous implementation efforts.”

There are 3-4 companies in the Seed to Sale space that currently meet this requirement.

Renaissance Systems is very familiar with the three main offerors. Two of the companies are barcode tag only systems and one is RFID tag only system. From a competitive standpoint the state of Illinois is limiting their options with this requirement.

Would the state of Illinois accept, consider and offer a contract for a superior, robust Seed to Sale system can be configured for barcode or RFID tags that hasn’t been implemented in another state?

The State is not requiring a vendor to have experience with providing cannabis inventory tracking systems but with inventory tracking systems in general that will work to track agricultural growing (starting with seed and cloning) through manufacturing, processing, transporting to final retail sales. Many other businesses provide inventory tracking solutions for other products of similar nature than just cannabis.

36 Would the state of Illinois consider purchasing a Seed to Sale system including all source code and database schema rather than leasing a system through a monthly subscription model?

Offerors are required to propose costs that are listed in the BidBuy bid. However, offeror do have the ability to identify certain line items as “No Cost” which would apply a $0 cost.

37 Illinois currently uses the Biotrack Seed to Sale system which is a barcode tag only system. Is Illinois planning to continue with a barcode tag system or are they open to an RFID tag system?

As stated in section D.1 of the RFP, “The State requires the Offeror’s proposal to be a complete and all-encompassing solution. No supplementary procurements are anticipated to be executed to fully implement an Offeror’s proposed solution.” All functionality associated with the proposed solution should be written out in the response for evaluation against the requirements of the RFP.

38 System Interfaces and Workflow Process attachments appear to be the same document.

Can the Agency provide the necessary documentation?

Attachment B and Attachment C are different documents and are available in the Attachments tab within BidBuy. Attachment B shows the other State systems that integrate, now or in the future, while Attachment C shows the business processes and workflows from seed to sale.

320 West Washington Street, 3rd Floor Springfield, Illinois 62786 ∙ (888) 473-4858 ∙ TTY (866) 325-4949

39 Can the State provide specific requirements for the regulatory portal?

You can find these under the Desirable criteria tab of Attachment A and in the Scenarios (Detailed) tab of Attachment F.

40 Can the State provide specific requirements for the business portal?

You can find these under the Desirable criteria tab of Attachment A and in the Scenarios (Detailed) tab of Attachment F.

41 Can the State provide specific requirements for the consumer portal?

You can find these under the Desirable criteria tab of Attachment A and in the Scenarios (Detailed) tab of Attachment F.

42 Can the State provide transaction/API call volumes based upon historical data?

Currently, these types of transactions are handled manually so the State cannot provide an accurate or even estimated transaction/API call volume amount. The best volume estimate we can provide is an average transaction day at the end of September 2022: there were roughly 120,000 actions at the retail sale-level of the system. The transportation, manufacture, processing, harvesting, and growing actions all must support at least that level of daily sales.

43 Can the State please clarify the number of users for the State of Illinois Community Colleges and access they need for the S2S system?

The State does not know of the number of users but you can find the community college’s specific criteria under the User/Role column of the Desirable criteria tab in Attachment A.

44 Can the State please confirm that 0 is a low score and 5 is the highest scoring on the past performance rating scale?

Confirmed. 0 is the lowest rating and 5 is the highest rating.