RFI - RFID EPC .docx

Request For Information (RFI) Inventory and Location Tracking Application

Current Requirement:

The Exchange seeks to find a vendor who can provide a cost effective inventory and location tracking application solution to augment the current in-store inventory processes. The current process tracks sales and returns via the Point-of-Sales (POS) system daily, with a physical corrective count annually. Communications up and downstream from stores to the Dallas HQ mainframe are batched for nightly processing. As the Exchange has evolved, our item level identifiers have become more collaborative –with many UPC bar-coded labels assigned to the company, printed by agents of the Exchange and attached by our suppliers. It is anticipated that RFID enabled Electronic Product Code (EPC) tags will be procured for inventory and locator tracking applications in much the same manner. Larger suppliers will assign GS1 compliant tags to items; while smaller suppliers will apply tags commissioned by the Exchange.

Objective:

Ultimately the Exchange seeks to improve the inventory accuracy of critical products, adjust inventory investment, increase sales, provide better service to customers, and extend product offerings from partnering suppliers. The intent of this RFI is to gather information about potential RFID/EPC application vendors and each company’s ability to meet the needs of the Exchange. A pilot and demonstration effort will begin at one facility, in central Texas, in mid-2012. The Exchange has supplied a high level requirements chart below. The vendor should be able to provide a solution which meets each required feature. For each of the items listed in the table below, the vendor should indicate whether the system provides the functionality natively (out of the box), with configuration, with minor customization, or with major customization. If the vendor does not mark any of the boxes, then the Exchange assumes that the system provided does not support the listed feature.

Sales Directorate and Marketing Requirements:

See attachment 1

1. Describe how the solution supports EPC item to UPC product associations.

2. Describe the inventory update (receipt) methods the system supports and how they are utilized.

3. Explain the location identification tracking and history capability and capacity.

4. Explain what standard productivity and exception management measures your system natively generates.

5. Explain how the system allows the administrator to customize required fields/attributes as a method to control inventory discrepancies.

6. Describe any validation methods which your application may apply to batch data input (via spreadsheet or CSV file datas).

7. Explain the type of Ad-hoc reporting capabilities on a user level and enterprise level basis.

8. Explain the type of out of the box reporting capabilities on a user level basis.

9. Explain how a user creates and saves custom reports at local and enterprise levels.

10. Does the system allow the administrator to set up audit trails for any changes to data (by user, time, or other designation)?

11. Describe the typical implementation timeline for a store of the pilot size (roughly 1000 SKU’s of a dozen or so items each, in four or more general work areas.)

12. Describe the implementation and installation process. Include estimated timeframe and labor hours.

13. Detail and explain the customer support process, including upgrades and conversions. For instance, explain process the Exchange would follow to report errors. Explain what constitutes an upgrade. Explain what constitutes a conversion.

14. Provide an architectural overview of the software.

a. Identify the environment needed to run your application from the list below.

· If your application can be deployed on multiple platforms within the Exchange Infrastructure (Wintel, Mainframe, hosted cloud … ), then please indicate the pieces separately and the percent of your customer-base using each platform.

b. If your application is unable to run within the defined the Exchange Infrastructure, please indicate the environment needed.

c. If deployment within the defined infrastructure is not possible because of software minimum version requirements, please indicate the minimum version you can support and the time frame for certification to the Exchange minimums.

d. If your application requires multiple platforms for deployment, please indicate each piece as needed.

a. If parts of the environments you need are not listed, you may indicate the additional items as required.

Platforms are currently supported in the Exchange infrastructure environment.

See attachment 2

15. Provide a list of client references.

16. Please provide any established partnerships and provide a description of the functionality. Example, a “cloud” hosted database providing shared or pooled view of in-store inventory to the partners via web or secured external data connections.

Pricing:

Please respond to the following questions regarding pricing. In your response, please provide industry or list prices or publically disclosed prices.

1. Licensing Fee Structure (Dependent on users? Dependent on company size?)

2. Annual Support and Maintenance fee percentage

3. Typical Setup fees

4. Other costs (Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Extensions)

5. Average additional costs borne by other users of your software (i.e. typical staff additions, peripheral hardware and software needed to support the tool, etc).

6. Do you have a Federal Government contract that we may be able to order from?

image1.png