Revised MAP RFP-S000000036 ~3.pdf

STATE OF ARKANSAS

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSFORMATION AND SHARED SERVICES

OFFICE OF STATE PROCUREMENT

501 Woodlane St., Ste. 220 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-1023

REVISED - REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (MAP)

*All revisions to this RFP are in red.

SOLICITATION DOCUMENT

SOLICITATION INFORMATION

Solicitation Number:

S000000036 Solicitation Issued:

August 16, 2021

Description: Unemployment Insurance System Development

Department: Arkansas Department of Workforce Services

SUBMISSION DEADLINE AND DELIVERY OF RESPONSE DOCUMENTS

Proposal Opening Date: September 13, 2021 Proposal Opening Time: 02:00:00 PM, Central Time

Proposal submissions for this Request for Proposal must be submitted through ARBuy, the State’s eProcurement system. It can be accessed at https://arbuy.arkansas.gov. Proposals received after the submission deadline may be rejected as untimely. See Section 1.2 for information regarding Live Proposal Openings.

TSS OFFICE OF STATE PROCUREMENT CONTACT INFORMATION

TSS OSP Buyer: Tanya Freeman Buyer’s Direct Phone Number: 501-682-4140

Email Address: tanya.freeman@arkansas.gov TSS OSP’s Main Number: 501-324-9316

TSS OSP

Website:

https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/ https://arbuy.arkansas.gov/ mailto:tanya.freeman@arkansas.gov https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/

SECTION 1 – GENERAL INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

• Do not provide responses to items in this section unless specifically and expressly required.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The TSS Office of State Procurement (TSS OSP) issues this Request for Proposal (RFP) on behalf of the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services (DWS or DWS), part of the Department of Commerce within Arkansas state government, administers Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs for the state of Arkansas. DWS is seeking proposals for a complete modernization of all Arkansas UI information technology (IT) systems. UI IT systems include those related to UI benefits, tax, and appeals, as those terms are commonly used related to UI programs. Proposals and solutions will contemplate UI system integration with related stakeholder systems, such as federal and other Arkansas State government entities and a statewide network of satellite offices. DWS expectations include that respondents to this RFP will:

• Possess a strong recent track record of developing and implementing UI IT systems;

• Possess and deliver best practices and subject matter expertise to advise and bolster existing DWS UI expertise;

• Complete the proposed solution within 18 to 30 months;

• Collaboratively go beyond straightforward automations and conversions of manual to electronic processes in order to seek, discover, design, and achieve what is optimally possible.

1.2 LIVE PROPOSAL OPENING

Use the information below to view the proposal opening online.

Zoom Meeting Link: https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/83358785348?pwd=czRTNE8zNGxGRlQzZ0RrOFhXSEc3QT09

Meeting ID: 833 5878 5348 Meeting Password:064287 Dial-In Information: 877 853 5257 US Toll-free 888 475 4499 US Toll-free

1.3 TYPE OF CONTRACT

A. As a result of this RFP, TSS OSP intends to award a contract to a single Contractor.

B. The anticipated starting date for any resulting contract is November 22, 2021, except that the actual contract start date may be adjusted unilaterally by the State for up to three (3) calendar months. By submitting a signed proposal in response to the RFP, the Prospective Contractor represents and warrants that it will honor its proposal as being held open as irrevocable for this period.

C. The initial term of a resulting contract will be for four (4) years. Upon mutual agreement by the Contractor and DWS, the contract may be renewed by TSS OSP for up to three (3) additional one-year terms or portions thereof, not to exceed a total aggregate contract term of seven (7) consecutive years.

1.4 SOLICITATION SCHEDULE

A. For informational purposes, TSS OSP is providing a Solicitation Schedule; however, dates listed and noted with an asterisk (*) are anticipated dates only and are subject to change at the discretion of the State.

TABLE A: TENTATIVE SOLICITATION SCHEDULE

ACTIVITY DATE

RFP Release to Prospective Contractors August 16

Bidders Conference August 19

Deadline for Prospective Contractor Questions August 23 https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/83358785348?pwd=czRTNE8zNGxGRlQzZ0RrOFhXSEc3QT09

ACTIVITY DATE

Answers to Questions Posted to OSP Website* August 30

Proposal Due Date September 13 @ 2 pm CST

Initial Proposal Evaluation* September 14

Interviews* September 20

Final Proposal Evaluation* September 20

Discussions Kick Off Meeting* September 27

Finalize Discussions* October 27

Post Anticipation to Award* October 27

Portal Entry* October 27

ALC Review* November 19

Award Contract* November 22

1.5 BIDDERS CONFERENCE

A. TSS OSP will host a bidders conference to provide additional information and clarification regarding the RFP.

1. The conference will take place on August 19, 2021 at 2:00 p.m., Central Time.

2. The conference is important for Prospective Contractors to understand the tasks a Prospective

Contractor shall complete when submitting a proposal (“Submission Requirements”).

3. Prospective Contractors may attend the conference via Zoom.

Zoom Conference Link: https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/89778949240?pwd=QUQvcXpFMWxhMEV1WHNVaENCWlRJZz09 -Meeting ID: 897 7894 9240 -Meeting Password:029411 -Dial-In Information: 877 853 5257 US Toll-free 888 475 4499 US Toll-free

4. The bidders conference presentation will be posted with the RFP through ARBuy, the State’s eProcurement system at https://arbuy.arkansas.gov/bso/external/publicBids.sdo.

1.6 CLARIFICATION OF SOLICITATION

A. Submit any questions requesting clarification of information contained in this Solicitation via the solicitation posting in ARBuy by the date and time listed in Section 1.4 Table A to the TSS OSP buyer as shown on page one (1) of this Solicitation.

1. For each question submitted, Prospective Contractor should reference the specific solicitation item number to which the question refers.

2. Prospective Contractors’ written questions will be consolidated and responded to by the State as deemed appropriate. The State’s consolidated written response is anticipated to be posted to the solicitation posting in ARBuy by the close of business on the date provided in Section 1.4, Table A. If Prospective Contractor questions are unclear or non-substantive in nature, the State may request clarification of a question(s) or decline to answer.

B. The Prospective Contractor should notify the TSS OSP buyer of any term, condition, etc., that precludes the Prospective Contractor from submitting a compliant, Responsive Proposal. Prospective Contractors should note that it is the responsibility of the Prospective Contractor to seek resolution of https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/89778949240?pwd=QUQvcXpFMWxhMEV1WHNVaENCWlRJZz09 https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/89778949240?pwd=QUQvcXpFMWxhMEV1WHNVaENCWlRJZz09 https://arbuy.arkansas.gov/bso/external/publicBids.sdo all such issues, including those relating to the terms and conditions of the contract, prior to the submission of a proposal.

C. Prospective Contractors may contact the TSS OSP buyer with non-substantive questions at any time prior to the proposal opening.

D. An oral statement by TSS OSP will not be part of any contract resulting from this solicitation and may not reasonably be relied on by any Prospective Contractor as an aid to interpretation unless it is reduced to writing and expressly adopted by TSS OSP.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

A. Unless otherwise defined herein, all terms defined in Arkansas Procurement Law have the same meaning herein.

B. “Prospective Contractor” means a responsible offeror who submits a proposal in response to this solicitation.

C. The terms “Request for Proposal”, “RFP” and “Solicitation” are used synonymously in this document.

D. “Responsive Proposal” means a proposal submitted in response to this solicitation that conforms in all material respects to this RFP.

E. “Shall” and “Must” mean the imperative and are used to identify requirements.

F. “Requirement” means something required.

G. “Specification” means any technical or purchase description or other description of the physical or functional characteristics, or of the nature, of a commodity or service. “Specification” may include a description of any requirement for inspecting, testing, or preparing a commodity or service for delivery.

H. “State” means the State of Arkansas. When the term “State” is used herein to reference any obligation of the State under a contract that results from this solicitation, that obligation is limited to the Department using such a contract.

1.8 RESPONSE DOCUMENTS

A. All proposal responses must be submitted through ARBuy, the State’s eProcurement system. The system can be accessed at https://arbuy.arkansas.gov.

B. Technical Proposal Packet

1. Responses within the Information for Evaluation and Exceptions sections must not contain the Prospective Contractor’s name or any other identifiers, including without limitation names of staff members, projects, products, and addresses.

2. Prospective Contractors shall utilize the Technical Proposal Packet to submit their responses.

3. The following items are proposal submission requirements and must be submitted as part of a Prospective Contractor’s proposal response.

a. Signed Proposal Signature Page. Signature may be ink or digital. (See Technical Proposal

Packet.)

b. Technical Proposal response to the Information for Evaluation section included in the Technical Proposal Packet. Proposal response must be in the English language.

https://arbuy.arkansas.gov/

c. Completed Pricing Response. Official Solicitation Price Sheet attached to solicitation posting.

Pricing must be proposed in U.S. dollars and cents.

d. Proposed SubContractors Form. The utilization of any proposed subContractor is subject to approval by the DWS.

e. Exceptions Form.

4. The following items, which must be submitted prior to a contract award to the Prospective Contractor, may also be included with the Prospective Contractor’s proposal:

a. EO 98-04: Contract and Grant Disclosure Form.

b. Copy of Prospective Contractor’s Equal Opportunity Policy.

c. Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), if applicable.

5. DO NOT include any other documents or ancillary information, such as a cover letter or promotional/marketing information.

C. Redacted Copy of the Technical Proposal Packet and Completed Pricing Response

1. One (1) redacted (marked “REDACTED”) copy of the Prospective Contractor’s proposal response.

1.9 ACCEPTANCE OF REQUIREMENTS

A. Unless a Prospective Contractor expressly and conspicuously identifies any exception or exceptions to any of the Requirements in the Requirements Section(s) of this RFP by listing them on the Exceptions Form (See Technical Proposal Packet), Prospective Contractor understands and agrees its submission of a proposal to represent that its proposal meets all such Requirements.

B. A Prospective Contractor’s proposal may be rejected if a Prospective Contractor takes exception to any Requirements in the Requirements Section(s) of this RFP.

C. Requirements included in this RFP are a prioritized and sometimes a summarized minority of the total number of Requirements. It is expected that any prospective Contractor meeting the experience requirements of this RFP will anticipate a total requirements set in its bid.

1.10 ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

A. This RFP incorporates all of the Solicitation Terms and Conditions located on the TSS OSP website here (Agencies – Forms and Reporting – Solicitation Templates):

https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/agencies/forms-and-reporting/.

B. Any special terms and conditions included in this solicitation shall override the Solicitation Terms and Conditions.

C. Unless a Prospective Contractor expressly and conspicuously identifies any exception or exceptions to any of the terms in the Services Contract (SRV-1) Fillable Form by listing them on the Exceptions Form (See Technical Proposal Packet), Prospective Contractor agrees and shall adhere to all terms if selected as the successful Contractor. Items identified as non-negotiable may only be modified if the legal requirement is satisfied and approved by the State. The Services Contract (SRV-1) Fillable Form can be viewed on the TSS OSP website here (Agencies – Services – Forms):

https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/agencies/services/.

D. A Prospective Contractor’s proposal may be rejected if a Prospective Contractor takes exception to any terms or conditions in the documents listed in 1.10.A and 1.10.C.

https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/agencies/forms-and-reporting/ https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/agencies/services/

SECTION 2 – REQUIREMENTS

• Do not provide responses to items in this section unless specifically and expressly required.

2.1 CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

Current environment comprises legacy mainframe and windows servers, not shared with other programs, that entered production approximately 10 to 30 years ago and are fully built and maintained by the State.

Application bases include COBOL, CICS, and .NET. Database bases include VSAM, DB2, and SQL Server. Hosting is provided by the State and by industry standard cloud services. Storage usage is both archival and traditional. Backups occur at least weekly using an Industry standard backup software. The State instituted a cloud services policy in the last three years.

2.2 OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

The Project Scope includes delivery of a comprehensive, state-of-the-art, UI IT system that replaces the current UI IT system in its entirety. Project management, deliverables, and requirements are highlighted in this RFP. It is not anticipated that aspects of Arkansas’s existing UI system will be modified, adapted, repurposed, or retained, other than functionality. The new UI IT system shall include fully integrated components for UI benefits, tax, and appeals, as those terms are commonly used related to UI programs, as well as comprehensive and tailorable report generation and performance measurement capability, and interfaces with related stakeholder systems. The Project Scope projects long term system operation, maintenance, and updates in a SaaS-type model.

2.3 PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTOR MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

All Prospective Contractors must meet the following minimum qualifications. A subcontractor’s experience may not be used by Prospective Contractor to meet minimum qualifications. The minimum qualifications must be met by the Prospective Contractor.

In the past eight (8) years:

A. The Prospective Contractor shall have successfully completed at least one (1) UI modernization project that included design, development, and implementation of either Tax or Benefits/Appeals or both Tax and Benefits/Appeals. This includes Appeals, Benefits, and Tax computer systems and business processes using the same or nearly similar technologies that delivered the desired functional and operational components as described in this RFP, at a cost of at least $10,000,000.

Costs are exclusive of hardware and licensed software. Successfully completed is defined as a system that has been implemented and operational for at least one (1) year with no critical application defects. Critical application defect is defined as a defect that has caused a system outage resulting in a work stoppage greater than 24 hours and affecting a core service or application.

B. The Prospective Contractor shall have at least one (1) year of demonstrated experience providing support/maintenance services, similar to the functional and technical scope and services outlined in this RFP, to a U.S. based government entities. In addition, the engagement must meet the following criteria:

1. The engagement must have lasted at least one (1) year; and

2. The cost must have been at least $500,000. Cost exclusive of hardware and licensed software.

2.4 MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

A. Baseline Functional, Technical, and System Requirements

Attachment A provides high-level requirements developed by DWS that are ready for elaboration in order to be used for design. The Contractor shall comply with Federal plain language requirements.

2.5 CONTRACTOR MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

A. The Contractor shall, subject to DWS approval, ensure the use of appropriate tools to measure the complexity and maintainability of all source code. The Contractor shall define the metrics and their thresholds of acceptability and submit to DWS for review and approval.

B. The Contractor shall establish, maintain, and document general coding/development and database standards and guidelines for the project subject to DWS approval.

C. The Contractor shall provide a comprehensive organizational change management (OCM) program that includes internal and external communications, stakeholders’ communications and participation (including employers, State internal users, and claimants), and staff and DWS trainer training. Also see Section 2.18 Training.

D. The Contractor shall ensure, subject to DWS approval, the use of appropriate tools to measure the complexity and maintainability of all source code. The Contractor shall define the metrics and their thresholds of acceptability subject to DWS approval.

2.6 DELIVERABLES

A. Deliverables See Appendix A for Anticipated Deliverables and Project Phase Milestones

B. Deliverable Submission

For every deliverable, the Contractor shall provide a Deliverable Expectation Document (DED) that outlines the contents of the Deliverable for DWS Approval. Each DED shall be provided at least one-month prior to the due date of the full Deliverable.

C. Deliverable Acceptance

1. A final deliverable shall satisfy the scope, requirements, and acceptance criteria applicable to the deliverable, including State policies, functional or non-functional requirements, industry standards, and the quality and acceptance criteria as approved by DWS.

2. The Project Manager shall review a final deliverable to determine compliance with the acceptance criteria as defined for that deliverable.

3. Each deliverable shall meet the following minimum acceptance criteria:

a. Be presented in a format appropriate for the subject matter and depth of discussion.

b. Be organized in a manner that presents a logical flow of the deliverable’s content.

c. Represent factual information reasonably expected to have been known at the time of submittal.

D. The Contractor shall provide a proposed Deliverables and Project Phase Milestones Plan during the Discussions Phase outlined in Section 3.

E. The project must follow phased approach for relevant deliverables whereby DWS users are exposed to the evolving system as early as possible; the phased approach must include the following:

1. Analyses and Requirements

Finalization Phase

2. Design Phase

3. Development Phase

4. Testing Phase

5. Go-Live Phase

6. Post-Go-Live / Warranty Phase

7. Maintenance and Support Phase

2.7 ARCHITECTURE DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

A. The Contractor shall provide an overview, in both written description and diagrams, of how major hardware and software components are layered and used within the architecture.

1. Components/Design

Contractor shall ensure that the System is developed using best practices including using interfaces, design patterns, and other principles of object-oriented development. The architecture must have "openness" and adherence to industry standard hardware, software, security, and communications protocols. The proposed Solution shall be built on “Service- Oriented” architecture and the following items apply:

a. Single Responsibility and Business Logic Principle

b. Separation of Concerns Principle

c. Interface Segregation Principle

d. Dependency Inversion Principle

e. Service Composition

f. Core vs State Extension

g. The Contractor shall provide, semiannually, technology and process/function roadmaps that also include addressing technical debt.

2. Configurability Provides configurability within the Solution so authorized DWS administrative business users may change the solution, without code changes where possible, and without further cost or utilization of Contractor services.

3. Modularity

Provides Modularity to the Solution, so modules may be reused as necessary. The Core Software logic components shall be used “as-is” if DWS does not require any customization.

Shall adhere to disaster recovery, security, and business continuity state and DWS standards

4. Extensible and Service Oriented Enables easily and cost-effectively leveraging any services, components, or solutions that become available as a result of the USDOL Fact Sheet below, or any other Unemployment Insurance-related services and shareable components that emerge during the span of the contract for which DWS is interested:

https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/FactSheet_UImodernization.pdf

2.8 ENVIRONMENTS

A. DWS requires distinct design, development, and implementation environments. All environments shall be fully accessible to DWS throughout the life of the Contract and through any contract transitions. Separate environments should include, but are not limited to the following:

• Design and Development Environment.

• Sandbox Environment for DWS that allows state staff to build, test, and experiment with each iteration.

• Testing Environment (e.g., Component Testing, Integration Testing, Functional Testing, System Testing, Security Testing, Performance Testing, Web Accessibility Testing, Regression Testing, Load Testing),

• Quality Assurance/User Acceptance Testing Environment.

• Training Environment.

• Production Readiness (Staging) Environment.

• Production Environment.

• Disaster Recovery Environment; and

• Any additional environments deemed necessary by DWS to fully support the development, implementation, and support requirements of the project.

B. DWS requires that all logical environments utilize virtualized servers, virtualized networking, and virtualized storage to ensure a high degree of hardware abstraction and portability among different physical environments.

2.9 BUILD MANAGEMENT

A. The Contractor shall propose, explain in detail, and implement the structured Build Management

Process that will be used for DWS approval.

B. The Contractor shall provide a Build Management Plan during the Discussions Phase outlined in Section 3.

2.10 HOSTING AND INFRASTRUCTURE

A. The Contractor is required to address three (3) solution options for Hosting:

• State Hosted

• Cloud Hosted – FedRAMP Moderate

• Cloud Hosted – FedRAMP High

B. For all options, the Contractor shall architect and design a solution that meets all Service Levels and all other requirements of the contract as applicable, including but not limited to all hardware needs (processing, storage, connectivity, networking, bandwidth), enterprise class operating systems and database software, physical and information security, disaster recovery, and administrative tools to rapidly deploy new or increase existing infrastructure resources. Further, the solution shall be architected such that it is transferable, with minimal changes, among the options above and between any Cloud providers. The Contractor shall provide all hardware and software for the DWS solution including all environments and in a just-in-time delivery.

C. Prospective Contractors shall submit pricing for all 3 options on the Official Price Sheet. However, only Cloud Hosted – FedRAMP High will be used for low cost determination.

2.11 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

A. The Contractor shall utilize an industry standard tool to handle source code storage, if applicable, and version control. The Contractor shall store all source code within DWS’s environment utilizing the tool. The Contractor shall work with DWS and provide guidance and documentation on how the source code is controlled, based on best practices.

2.12 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

A. The Contractor shall follow best practices of Project Management.

B. The Contractor shall produce a final detailed Project Work Plan, in electronic and paper form, to the DWS Project Manager for approval within thirty (30) business days after contract award.

1. The final project work plan must include, at a minimum, the following:

a. Project Integration

b. Project Scope

c. Project Time

d. Project Quality

e. Project Staffing

f. Project Communications

g. Project Risks/Issues

C. Throughout all phases of the project, the Contractor must (at the discretion of the DWS Project

Manager) share iterations or versions of working drafts of deliverables with DWS in advance of formal submittal.

D. Project Management Approach. The Contractor will designate a Project Manager to work closely with a designated DWS Project Manager. These two Project Managers will collaborate and coordinate to address all of the relevant tasks and issues, including meeting on a consistent basis as specified by

DWS, to discuss all aspects of the project and to confirm that all of the contract requirements have been met.

E. Status meetings. The Contractor, at a minimum set by DWS, will meet bi-weekly with DWS to review the project status, develop action items, and prepare a report on any action required. Additionally, Contractor will meet quarterly with DWS Management and related stakeholders to review the project’s performance over the past quarter, review milestones and any schedule changes, review trends and reporting measures, appraise action items and resolutions, and identify opportunities for improvement.

F. Progressive Elaboration. The Contractor should contemplate progressive elaboration in its pricing proposal and project schedule.

G. DWS shall maintain full discretion and have final approval over all requirements resulting from

Progressive Elaboration. Any base code set, framework, COTS product(s), or any technical base proposed by the Contractor will be used to determine finalized requirements solely at the discretion of

DWS.

H. Organizational Management. The Contractor shall provide an OCM program that includes internal and external communications, stakeholders’ communications, and participation (includes employers and claimants), and staff training.

2.13 IMPLEMENTATION

A. The Contractor shall complete the design, implementation, and installation of a complete and functional system and achieve full production operations within eighteen (18) to thirty (30) months after contract award. The State requires the implementation be done through a phased approach.

B. The Prospective Contractor shall provide a proposed Implementation Plan during the Discussions

Phase. The Implementation Plan must include a schedule under which the solution will be implemented and delivered and complete transition to production operations will be achieved if selected as top-ranked Prospective Contractor. The schedule must break out completion of the installation of each of controller equipment, network connections, workstations, mapping, MIS, etc.

C. A final Implementation Plan shall be provided to the State designee within thirty (30) days of contract award for his or her review and approval.

2.14 TESTING

A. The Contractor shall conduct the following levels of testing:

1. Unit Testing

2. Integration Testing

3. System Testing

4. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

B. Functional Regression Testing

Functional regression shall be performed by the Contractor through all stages of testing, including before each UAT release.

C. User Acceptance Testing

The System UAT shall occur after all System Integration Testing (SIT) exit criteria have been satisfied and approved by DWS. System UAT is conducted to ensure that the System as a whole satisfies all functional, technical, and system requirements of DWS as specified in Attachments 1, 2 and 3 and provides confidence in its use.

UAT is a series of tests conducted on the deployed System by DWS after the System has been fully installed and is operational at the hosting site (s). UAT is performed to evaluate the System's compliance with functional, non-functional, and technical requirements in the production environment.

Acceptance testing shall not commence unless all entry criteria are met. DWS has final approval of the entry criteria and exit criteria.

D. Other Major Testing During UAT

1. Performance, Stress, and Load Testing

The Contractor must perform a final stress test to ensure SLA service performance levels are met at peak period that will be determined by DWS and demonstrate the reliability and expandability of the system.

2. Usability Testing

The Contractor must conduct Usability Testing, to demonstrate to DWS that the system will operate for users in an easy-to-use and efficient manner.

3. Security Testing

The Contractor shall ensure that the system meets all security requirements.

4. Failover Testing

The Contractor must include a failover test with the final acceptance testing and prior to Go Live.

E. Final Acceptance.

1. The Performance Period for Acceptance shall occur after System Go-live.

2. The duration for the Performance Period for Acceptance is ninety (90) continuous days without critical defect. This period will restart upon any new release to fix any critical defect. All software defects discovered during this time shall be repaired and must be done at no additional cost to

DWS.

F. Requirement Management and Traceability The Contractor shall trace all requirements, including functional and system requirements, through design, code, testing, and training to ensure the requirements are met. The Contractor shall not commence System User Acceptance Testing (UAT) until Contractor has certified and demonstrated to DWS for its verification, subject to DWS’s approval, that all requirements are met by the Solution.

2.15 TRAINING

Execution of this Training section shall be integrated with execution of the OCM section under Project Management.

A. The Contractor shall use a centralized, Integrated Training System that can provide the following:

1. Course modules to meet the specific needs of each individual who requires training for the project. Training shall be role-based, business process specific, and tailored for functionality specific to DWS.

2. The capability to automatically push new training and policy changes by role type to business users.

3. Capture assessment data by session to gauge the effectiveness of the training.

4. Support of training requirements and tracking for DWS State training staff to ensure that all

DWS business staff are proficient with the new system given each of their roles.

5. Easy access to applicable training materials as work aids while using the production system.

B. Public user (claimants, employers, etc.) training and help, such as by providing real-time, on-screen assistance and suggestions, step by step “wizards”, chatbots, drop-down lists of options, video tutorials or other guides, in multiple languages as appropriate.

C. Instruction for DWS business trainers (‘train the trainers’) on how to use the Integrated Training System to manage, deliver, and assess business user training within DWS using the materials developed by the Contractor. There will be 20 DWS Trainers to be trained to execute training for the rest of DWS UI business staff.

D. The Contractor shall prepare a “just-in-time” training schedule for all training classes.

E. The Integrated Training System will be used to deliver multiple types of training including web-based training, guided interactive training, and 'on-demand' video or audio streaming for public training.

F. DWS technical staff will be trained for the initial implementation and future maintenance and support including relevant modules and interfaces, system administration, federal reporting, monitoring, compliance, etc. Such training shall be commensurate with Contractor and State Roles and Responsibilities.

G. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed Training Plan during the

Discussions phase.

H. A final Training Plan shall be provided to the State designee within thirty (30) days of contract award for his or her review and approval.

2.16 STAFFING AND KEY PERSONNEL

A. Key Personnel/Schedules

The Contractor’s on-site staff shall have access to DWS’s facility during normal business hours and DWS will accommodate after-hours access. DWS staff’s normal business hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. U.S. Central Standard Time, Monday through Friday, excluding DWS holidays. For a listing of Arkansas State Government holidays, see https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/news/state-holiday-calendar/. DWS requires that all Contractor staff be on-site at least eighty percent (80%) of the development and implementation duration. Also, DWS may require all Contractor staff on-site if DWS becomes concerned about the timeliness and quality of the Contractor meeting milestones and deliverables.

1. The Contractor’s Project Manager and key personnel shall be dedicated to the project full time and be on-site for a minimum of eighty percent (80%) of the normal business hours each month, four out of five days or 12 PM CST Monday to 12 PM CST Friday, for the duration of the entire project implementation and must be available as needed by either video conference or conference call when off-site. At any time during the project, DWS may elect to require that the Contractor’s Project Manager be on-site throughout the remaining duration of the contract.

2. DWS will allow the Contractor exceptions to the staffing schedule requirements identified herein only on an approved basis.

3. Contractor must provide its own office space within five (5) miles of DWS at #2 Capitol Mall or an alternative location in the event DWS relocates during the Contract.

B. All key personnel shall be one hundred percent (100%) dedicated to this project. Key personnel shall include those listed below with the below qualifications and experience at minimum. A single individual may fulfill multiple roles.

C. All key personal shall have, in addition to specific Qualifications listed below, demonstrated and proven experience with the UI system solution being proposed for DWS. A bidder may not satisfy a role if sufficient rationale is provided.

Position Qualifications

Project Manager A. Minimum of eight (8) years of project management and account management experience for a government or private sector project of similar size and complexity

B. Experience in Agile methodology such as Scrum, Kanban, or Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) process.

Requirements Lead A. Must have at least five (5) years of experience documenting requirements and business processes for a government or private sector project of similar size and complexity

B. Experience in Agile methodology such as Scrum, Kanban, or Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) process.

Technical Architecture Lead A. Minimum of five (5) years of web-based, solution design, development, implementation, and governance life cycle experience.

Application Development Lead A. Minimum of five (5) years of web-based, application design, development, and implementation experience for a project of similar size and complexity.

Lead Data Architect A. Experience in this role on two (2) or more projects which each had budgets of at least $10 million in IT application development services and spanned at least a three (3) year timeline.

B. Experience in two (2) or more successful projects with scope requiring relational database design, data migration, logical and physical modeling, database tuning and optimization, and capacity planning to support mission-critical and 24X7 enterprise applications.

Test Lead A. Must have at least five (5) years of experience coordinating, conducting and operating functional, system, acceptance and performance tests.

B. Demonstrated experience with a proposed solution similar to the design and develop of DWS.

2.17 DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND ESCALATION

The Prospective Contractor shall submit a proposed Communication and Issue Resolution Plan during the Discussions Phase.

A. The Contractor shall provide a Communication and Issue Resolution Plan that describes how the Contractor will work with the State and other stakeholders to facilitate communication and coordination throughout the life of the contract. At a minimum, the Contractor shall include:

1. Acknowledgement that the State shall maintain the right to review and approve any written communications or notice to State employees and/or users of the system.

2. Proposal for how the Contractor will notify the State of all planned or scheduled written communications or notice to employees and/or users of the system before such communications are issued.

3. Proposal to initiate a recurring update meeting, including recommended attendees and the frequency of which these update meetings will take place. Meetings may be held on site, via conference call, or via the web.

4. Proposal for periodic written updates that will serve to supplement the update meetings.

5. Proposal for which Contractor team members will serve as key points of contact for the term of the contract.

The above-referenced key points of contact are individuals whom the State shall contact when an issue arises; they will not serve as substitutes for daily, real-time technical support.

B. The Contractor shall explain in the Communication and Issue Resolution Plan how the Contractor will identify, track, and resolve issues which may arise between the Contractor and the State in the performance of duties under the Contract. The State shall have the right to approve the Communication and Issue Resolution Plan prior to implementation. The Contractor shall include, at minimum:

1. Any trouble-shooting tools and techniques that will diagnose issues with networks, services, equipment, software, and data.

2. The approach and metrics used to measure the success of its issue resolution.

2.18 MAINTENANCE SERVICES

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed Maintenance Plan during the

Discussions Phase.

B. The Contractor shall be responsible for performing maintenance of the proposed system.

C. The Contractor shall furnish to the State, thirty (30) calendar days prior to go-live, Quality Assurance Guidelines for testing new updates, patches or upgrades to the software solution.

D. The Contractor shall ensure that system changes or system upgrades are accompanied by a

System Upgrade Plan which includes a timeline, milestones and adequate testing to be completed prior to implementation. The Contractor shall notify and provide such plans to the DWS Designee upon request in the timeframe and manner specified by the Contract Administrator. All maintenance or updates to the solution that require scheduled down-time must occur at scheduled times, with fourteen (14) calendar day written notice being provided to the Contract Administrator and must only commence after the Contract Administrator’s approval of the requested timeline in the System Upgrade Plan. Approval will not be unreasonably withheld from the Contractor.

E. The Contractor shall ensure that any System updates or maintenance will not compromise or negatively impact or interrupt any configurations or customizations made by the Contractor to the solution.

F. The Contractor shall provide a technology roadmap to the State as least twice per year, which shall forecast technology and related performance improvements, and prospective system upgrades.

2.19 USER AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed User & Technical Support Plan during the Discussions Phase.

B. The Contractor shall provide ongoing user and technical support via telephone and email to DWS staff beginning at the time of Go Live and continuing for the life of the contract. The Contractor shall:

1. Provide Emergency Support twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. Emergency

Support shall include but not be limited to an event such as a complete system failure.

2. Provide Standard User and Tech Support via toll free telephone and email, at minimum, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Central Time, excluding State Holidays (https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/news/state-holiday-calendar/).

https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/news/state-holiday-calendar/

3. Provide English speaking Telephone Support Staff.

4. Provide properly trained User and Technical Support staff in sufficient quantities to support DWS.

C. Technical Issues must be designated Emergency, High, Medium, or Low Priority. The Contractor shall provide proposed response/resolution times to DWS for approval within thirty (30) days of Contract Award.

D. The State and the Contractor shall mutually agree upon the definitions of Emergency, High, Medium, and Low Priority Issues within thirty (30) days of Contract Award.

E. The Contractor shall provide same day response for tech support communications.

F. The Contractor shall dedicate a resource after eight business hours of down time.

2.20 DATA SECURITY

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed Data Security Plan during the

Discussions Phase.

B. The Contractor and all its Subcontractors shall comply throughout the term of the Contract with the most stringent of all applicable security requirements set forth in Arkansas Laws and Standards, including but not limited to the most current versions of the following:

1. State of Arkansas standards: https://www.transform.ar.gov/information-systems/policies-standards/standards/,

2. The system shall use Role Based Access Control (RBAC) with access levels to be custom defined and set at DWS-approved levels.

C. The Contractor shall prepare and deliver a finalized Data Security Plan for DWS approval. The Data Security Plan will describe how the System’s security features and capabilities, including infrastructure, shall be implemented to satisfy the security requirements of this RFP and the resulting Contract.

2.21 DATA MIGRATION

Contractor shall perform data conversion from existing systems/applications to the System. Contractors should not assume DWS has the proper toolsets to perform this migration. Contractor’s responsibilities shall include functions and processes necessary to ensure the successful conversion of DWS’s data to the proposed System. In the ETL Process, the extraction is the responsibility of the States, and the Transformation and Loading is the responsibility of the Contractor. Contractor shall migrate all data, images, and notes specified by DWS according to DWS document retention policy and as directed by

2.22 DATA OWNERSHIP AND PRIVACY

The State of Arkansas shall own and have all rights to intellectual property, data, documentation, software, code, and/or records produced as part of this contract. If the Prospective Contractor anticipates bringing pre-existing intellectual property into the project, the intellectual property shall be identified in its proposal. If the Prospective Contractor identifies such intellectual property (‘Background IP’) in its proposal, the Background IP owned by the Prospective Contractor on the date of the contract, as well as any modifications or adaptations thereto, remain the property of the Contractor. Contractor must grant DWS the perpetual right to use any Background IP and updates, modifications, derivatives, to extent necessary to operate the system and system upgrades, which grant shall perpetuate after the end of the Contract.

The Contractor must comply with DWS’s requirement that all data remain in the United States and meet stringent Data Privacy and Cyber Security requirements. These include, but are not limited to:

https://www.transform.ar.gov/information-systems/policies-standards/standards/ https://www.transform.ar.gov/information-systems/policies-standards/standards/

A. A cloud-based solution must be FedRAMP moderate or high;

B. Ensuring cloud-based solutions, hardware, and data are located within the United States and all access and support of the solution is performed from the United States;

C. Ensuring software, data and services are isolated within the cloud environment so that other cloud customers sharing physical or virtual space cannot access other customer data or applications;

D. Providing a complete listing of all data centers within the cloud environment where this solution will operate;

E. Ensuring data in transit and at rest is encrypted using FIPS 140-3 compliant algorithms and modules within the cloud as well as state data center;

F. Ensuring any storage devices used in the solution are securely sanitized and/or destroyed prior to disposal using methods acceptable by NSA/CSS;

G. Conducting an annual assessment of the security controls in place on all information systems used in the solution;

H. Incorporating multi-factor authentication for access to the cloud solution from the internet;

I. Ensuring, if using Network Edge Managed Services, that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/ISO/IEC 27018:2014 certification has been achieved for the specific services being added to the portfolio;

J. Ensuring the protection of DWS confidential information, including PII and SPI, from unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized access, and misuse, at a minimum in accordance with the NIST Special Publication 800-122, Guide to Protecting the Confidentiality of PII (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/legacy/sp/nistspecialpublication800-122.pdf) through the implementation of controls such as role-based access controls, encryption at rest and in transit, etc.;

K. Providing for Security Vulnerability Assessments and Controlled Penetration testing by DWS and/or its agent as agreed to for the duration of services of the Contractor;

L. Fully cooperating with the State Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and security team in the detection and remediation of any security vulnerability of the hosting infrastructure and/or the application; and

M. Providing a dedicated Hardware Security Module (HSM) appliance for encryption key management.

N. The Contractor shall maintain the source code with an escrow agent and list the State as an authorized recipient of the source code for instances in which the Contractor is unable to maintain the software. These instances include, but are not limited to, business failure, contract default, disaster recovery, or a different vendor continuing services after the termination or expiration of the contract.

These conditions shall be specified in the escrow agent contract, and this contract is subject to the approval of DWS.

2.23 DISASTER RECOVERY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY

A. Contractor shall provide a comprehensive Disaster Recovery (DR) plan that entails recovery and continuity of operations within 8 hours from a system/network outage.

B. Failover (Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 8 hours). The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is also 8 hours. Disaster Recovery must be demonstrated as part of User Acceptance and for approval by

2.24 WARRANTY

A. The Contractor shall provide a post-implementation warranty during which time any defects must be corrected at no additional cost to the DWS.

B. The Warranty period shall begin after successful completion of the Performance Period for Acceptance and shall end one year after successful completion of the Performance Period for Acceptance of DWS.

2.25 TRANSITION SERVICES

A. Knowledge Transfer

In order to ensure effective knowledge transfer, the Contractor shall plan for DWS staff to work side-by-side with Contractor staff for greater than 75% duration of this project.

B. System Knowledge Transfer to a Different Contractor

1. DWS reserves the right to transfer the System operation and maintenance to a new Contractor once in production.

2. Services under this contract are mission-critical and upon contract expiration or termination, such as for failure to meet agreed upon service level agreements (SLAs) the incumbent Contractor shall assist the replacement Contractor in the transition process, including ensuring the transition of any third-party software and cloud services subscriptions. The incumbent Contractor shall support transition efforts with technical and project support.

2.26 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

A. State law requires that qualifying contracts for services include Performance Standards for measuring the overall quality of services that a Contractor shall provide.

B. The State may be open to negotiations of Performance Standards prior to contract award, prior to the commencement of services, or at times throughout the contract duration.

C. Performance Standards shall not be amended unless they are agreed to in writing and signed by the parties.

D. Failure to meet the minimum Performance Standards as specified will result in the assessment of damages.

E. In the event a Performance Standard is not met, the Contractor will have the opportunity to defend or respond to the insufficiency. The State has the right to waive damages if it determines there were extenuating factors beyond the control of the Contractor that hindered the performance of services. In these instances, the State has final determination of the performance acceptability.

F. Should any compensation be owed to the DWS due to the assessment of damages, Contractor shall follow the direction of the DWS regarding the required compensation process.

G. The Contractor will monitor the performance of the System and product support during production operations within the maintenance/support period using performance reports or automated tools to be implemented jointly with the Contractor and managed by DWS. DWS will have access to view and monitor Contractor dashboards, reports and/or tools. Each Service Level Agreement (SLA) presented in this document establishes the performance level expected by DWS in specific areas. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are identified within the SLAs and are to be measured and reported each month. Service Level Agreements and KPIs, as further detailed below, include:

1. System Availability (Uptime)

2. System Performance

3. Technical Support

4. Data Recovery and Retention

5. Peak Expansion/Growth Factor

6. Operations Issue Management

(Critical Deficiency Levels)

7. Regular Operational Reporting 8. System Security

2.27 MONTHLY REPORTING

The Contractor will monitor performance against the DWS-specified. As part of defined project activities, the Contractor and DWS will jointly develop, and test operations reports that will be used to demonstrate…