RP028_24 Inv.pdf

June 26, 2024

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

RP028-24

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners (“County”) is soliciting competitive sealed proposals from qualified service providers for the Provision and Implementation of a Legal Matter Management Solution on an Annual Contract with four (4) options to renew for the Gwinnett County Law Department.

Proposals must be returned in a sealed container marked on the outside with the Request for Proposal number and Company Name. Proposals will be received until 2:50 P.M. local time on August 1, 2024, at the Gwinnett County Financial Services - Purchasing Division – 2nd Floor, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046. Any proposal received after this date and time will not be accepted. Proposals will be publicly opened and only names of submitting firms will be read at 3:00 P.M. A list of firms submitting proposals will be available the following business day on our website www.gwinnettcounty.com.

A pre-proposal conference is scheduled for 10:00 A.M. local time on July 8, 2024. All responding service providers are urged to attend. To access pre-proposal conference, dial 1-408-418-9388 and enter conference ID 2338 747 4574##. Questions regarding proposals should be directed to casey.beauston@gwinnettcounty.com no later than 3:00 p.m. on July 11, 2024. Proposals are legal and binding upon the bidder when submitted. One unbound single sided original, six (6) exact, bound copies, and one (1) electronic copy on a flash drive should be submitted, with the fee schedule on a separate flash drive from the technical response.

Successful service provider will be required to meet insurance requirements. The Insurance Company should be authorized to do business in Georgia by the Georgia Insurance Department and must have an A.M. Best rating of A-5 or higher.

Gwinnett County does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the admission or access to its programs or activities. Any requests for reasonable accommodations required by individuals to fully participate in any open meeting, program or activity of Gwinnett County Government should be directed to the ADA Coordinator at the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center, 770-822-8165.

The written proposal documents supersede any verbal or written prior communications between the parties.

Selection criteria are outlined in the request for proposal documents. Gwinnett County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to waive technicalities, and to make an award deemed in its best interest.

Award notification will be posted after award on the County website, www.gwinnettcounty.com and companies submitting a proposal will be notified via email.

We look forward to your proposal and appreciate your interest in Gwinnett County.

Casey Beauston Purchasing Associate II

The following pages should be returned:

Table 3 - Proposal Response Format, Pages 27-29 Q2.1 – Q2.15 (Refer to Pages 30-33) Q3.1 – Q3.113 (Refer to Pages 33-46) Q5.1 – Q5.14 (Refer to Pages 49-51) Q6.1 – Q6.2 (Refer to Page 51) Service Provider Information, Page 56 References, Page 57 List of Subcontractors, Page 58 Contractor Affidavit & Agreement, Page 68 Code of Ethics Affidavit, Page 69

Exhibit B – Functional Requirements Response Workbook (attached Excel file) Exhibit C - Pricing Response Workbook (attached Excel file) http://www.gwinnettcounty.com/ mailto:casey.beauston@gwinnettcounty.com http://www.gwinnettcounty.com/

REQUEST FOR

PROPOSAL

RP028-24

Provision and Implementation of a Legal Matter Management

Solution on an Annual Contract

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA

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INTRODUCTION

The intent of this Request for Proposal is for the Gwinnett County Law Department (“the Department”), located in Gwinnett County, Georgia, to obtain proposals from vendors offering a cloud-based application solution to provide and implement a Legal Matter Management software/solution. The cloud solution must enable a holistic approach to matter management, document management, and workload management while providing multi-layered data insights that inform stakeholders. Emphasis is to be placed on process automation and simplification of data and document capture. The solution is required to be a SaaS solution that will meet the functional requirements and criteria as described in this Request for Proposal.

The Department is interested in solutions that have a proven track record of providing the necessary functionality described by this Request for Proposal to other government jurisdictions of similar size and complexity as the Department and/or private practices. The proposed solution should meet the requirements outlined in this Request for Proposal and the vendor should be prepared to demonstrate those capabilities during an in-depth demonstration, should they be asked to do so before award. Note, systems that are undergoing major functional changes or upgrades are not acceptable for industry-standard systems sought in this solicitation. Although the County is interested in implementing systems with a proven track record and implementation history, that does not preclude service providers from submitting optional proposals that may utilize emerging technology whether on-premises, hosted, or cloud-based solutions, to provide the best result for Gwinnett County.

The County intends to award a contract for this solicitation to one (1) service provider. It shall be understood that the awarded service provider is responsible for all work associated with this contract.

There are no obligations expressed or implied for the County to reimburse responding service providers for any expenses incurred in preparing proposals in response to this solicitation. The full cost of proposal preparation and interview presentation (if required) is to be borne by the responding service provider.

Proposals must be signed in ink by a company official who has the authority to commit company resources.

This Request for Proposal and the successful service provider’s proposal will become part of a written contract between the County and the proposing service provider. The contract shall be on forms supplied by the County. A sample contract has been included for review by the proposer’s legal counsel.

Finally, all proposed solutions must comply with the existing Exhibit A - Security Requirements for Purchases provided in the solicitation. All exceptions to items in Exhibit A must be itemized and the exception explained in full. The County reserves the right to decline any solution that does not meet all items in Exhibit A.

BACKGROUND AND CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

This section of the proposal provides background on the County, the Department, the Department of Information Technology Services (DoITS), relevant systems in operation in the current environment, as well as the planned future environment.

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County Background

Gwinnett County, Georgia is a suburban county, located approximately 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. The County has an estimated population of approximately 983,656, as of 2022, and is expected to have well over 1,000,000 residents within this decade. Currently, the County has a total of 6,105 authorized positions, including appointed and elected officials.

The governing authority of the County consists of a five-person Board of Commissioners, including a full-time chairman elected at large and four Commissioners elected on a district basis. The County operates under the County Administrator form of management and has 13 operating departments.

The County Administrator reports directly to the Board and oversees the activities of the appointed County department heads. In addition, the County Administrator's Office also acts as a liaison for the Board with other elected officials.

Gwinnett County includes 14 departments directly under the Board of Commissioners, as well as departments headed by elected officials and judicially appointed department directors. The elected officials include Chief Magistrate, Clerk of Court, District Attorney, Probate Court Judge, Sheriff, Solicitor, State Court Judges, Superior Court Judges, and the Tax Commissioner. The judicially appointed department heads include Juvenile Court Judges, Recorder's Court Judges and Court Administrator. The County government provides a wide array of services to its residents including "traditional" county government functions such as construction and maintenance of roads and court related activities, as well as municipal functions such as police, fire, recreation, emergency services and water/waste services.

Gwinnett County Law Department

The Gwinnett County Law Department (“Law Department”) is an internal service department that primarily provides legal services and representation to the government entity of Gwinnett County, as generally reflected by a majority vote of its Board of Commissioners. Department attorneys also provide legal services and representation to the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, other elected county officials, employees, managers, staff, authorities, constitutional officers, courts, and other related governmental organizations.

The Law Department’s current organizational structure is headed by the County Attorney. Under the County Attorney are three Deputy County Attorneys who lead teams of attorneys that are assigned specific departments, boards, committees, or legal areas. The attorneys are assigned specific legal support staff. The support staff report to the Legal Manager. In addition, the Law Department has another Legal Manager whose area of responsibility is providing administrative support to the County Attorney and supervising the County’s Open Records Officer and corresponding SaaS solution. The Department will continue to grow in the coming years.

The Law Department’s current workload averages 3,000 legal matters per year, ranging from one-time consultations with departments to multi-year litigation. The Law Department handles all areas of legal practice for the County, including contract drafting and review; ordinance, resolution, and policy drafting and review; real estate procurement; employee disputes, zoning, litigation, and

RP028-24 Page 5 administrative hearings; investigations and other administrative legal matters. With this, the Law Department currently has over 525,000 individual, legal matter-related documents, including audio and video files, with approximately 30,000 - 50,000 additional documents added annually.

The Law Department’s current case management system possesses underwhelming functionality, therefore, is underutilized by staff due to its limited capabilities and difficulty of use. The system has basic search functionality that requires exact match text when attempting to locate matters. Each staff member uses their own naming and document retention conventions; thus, making the current system impossible to search. Often, documentation is only accessible on the Law Department’s internal shared drive or an individual’s OneDrive, leading to pertinent case/matter information or documentation being absent from the case/matter management system. While the system does provide the ability for staff to associate emails or documents from Outlook, it is a difficult manual process. All scheduling occurs within Outlook and there is no automated functionality to associate an event in Outlook with a matter in the system. The current system also has limited reporting capabilities resulting in the inability to provide the necessary data to make elevated strategic decisions.

By implementing a new legal matter management platform, the Law Department looks to increase productivity; improve collaboration with departments, external counsel, vendors, and other stakeholders; as well as enhance strategic planning through quality data analytics. Implementation of a new platform will enable the Department to realize the following benefits and opportunities:

• Improvement in staff’s ability to support the management of day-to-day operations and relationships with their client departments and external parties.

• Improvement in efficiencies and productivity through a solution that integrates with existing

County technologies and software minimizing, to the extent possible, the need for manual and duplicative information entry.

• Improvement of document retention practices and enhanced in-document and document metadata searchability.

• Improvement in matter and documentation tracking capabilities, including dynamic workflows where appropriate.

• Reduction in duplication of matter files and documentation across multiple document retention drives and platforms.

• Increased access to quality data for analysis and reporting.

Gwinnett Department of Information Technology Services

The Gwinnett County Department of Information Technology Services (“DoITS") is responsible for delivering shared infrastructure and IT services to all Gwinnett County Government (“the County”) departments, agencies, and Constitutional Officers. DoITS is made up of over 200 business and technology professionals that deliver innovative technology solutions, services, and support to over 6,600 personnel and over 100 physical locations.

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Gwinnett Department of Information Technology Architecture and Environment

While continually evolving, the IT architecture provides a high degree of vendor neutrality, maximum flexibility, and the agility needed to meet the ever-growing service delivery needs of the County. It is a standardized environment that leverages physical and virtual infrastructure, services, processes, and support staff to minimize risk and lower the overall cost of technology.

The IT architecture stack includes various layers, where each layer represents a set of technologies put in place to support specific business processes. At every layer, the products and technologies implemented were selected to maximize investment dollars and to ensure architectural integrity (i.e., Product A works with Product B).

End user devices use Microsoft Windows 10/11 Operating Systems (OS) and the Microsoft 365 Applications suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook) for business productivity. The OS and applications are maintained at the current most stable build on a routine schedule. Apple devices (iPad & Mac) devices are present in limited quantities to address specific business requirements not available on a Windows platform.

The County’s Microsoft 365 tenancy is hosted in the Government Community and synchronized with the County’s on-premises Active Directory (AD). Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Teams for Business are deployed and managed by DoITS.

The standard server OS is Windows Server 2019/2022. RedHat Linux is available in limited quantities to address specific business requirements. VMWare is the standard virtualization platform, with a limited IBM PowerVM environment for the IBM AIX and Linux virtual machines on IBM Power servers.

The County owns and operates two centrally located data centers with redundant, Asynchronous Switched-Ethernet (ASE), high-speed (10GB) internet access provided by AT&T. All remote nodes connect to the data centers, via redundant connections, over diverse paths for internet access.

Remote access to on-premises system is managed via a Virtual Private Networks (VPN) through AT&T Global Secure Gateway or the NetMotion Wireless for mobile devices. Additionally, the County maintains a combination of Public/Private Cloud, SaaS, and PaaS partnerships to facilitate remote work, and mobile operations for essential service organizations.

The current Gwinnett County ecosystem that includes the relevant technologies for this proposal is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 – Technology Ecosystem

Technology Type Current Technology On-premises SMTP relay Proofpoint Security Current Technology Data Loss Prevention Microsoft Anti Malware Microsoft Defender for End Point Network Current Technology Cloud Email Gateway Proofpoint

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Wide Area Network (WAN) AT&T ASE Cellular Network AT&T FirstNet LTE Wi-Fi Network Cisco Wi-Fi 6 Local Area Network (LAN) Cisco SDN Virtual Private Network (VPN) AT&T Security Gateway (Global Protect) Multi Factor Authentication Microsoft Protocols Current Technology Directory Services Standard Microsoft AD (LDAP) & Azure AD Premium Software Current Technology Business Productivity Microsoft 365 Applications Suite ERP Oracle Cloud Fusion (implementing) Document Repository FileNet, SharePoint Online Email\Calendar\Contacts Microsoft Exchange Online w/Outlook 365 Internet Browser Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome Document digitization and workflow DocuSign Mobile Device Management Microsoft Intune Operating System Current Technology Windows Server Microsoft Linux Server Red Hat Virtualization Hypervisor VMware

The Gwinnett County current requirements related to infrastructure and information security can be found in Exhibit A - Security Requirements for Purchases of this Request for Proposal. As indicated in the response requirements, all service providers are required to comment on their adherence to those requirements and specifically call out all exceptions or clarifications to the items in Exhibit A.

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Exhibit A - Security Requirements for Purchases

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SCOPE OF SERVICES

Project Overview

The County is seeking a cloud solution to facilitate the management of cases, contracts, and legal matters handled by the County’s internal Law Department. Key features of this solution should include, but are not limited to:

• Enhanced document search capability: the ability for documents to be organized and searchable using both standardized and ad hoc criteria, multi data field, in-document search, and natural language search.

• Task and documents: the ability to create and manage task and document workflows based on established business rules and roles.

• A configurable dashboard for management of assignments, reminders, important dates, communications, etc.

• Data analysis and reporting: provide users the ability to create and analyze data within the system, including providing access to personal and team metric and workload dashboards.

• Systems interfaces and integration: the ability for the system to seamlessly operate with established business solutions such as Microsoft Office 365 Applications Suite, DocuSign, and Adobe Acrobat, and others.

The successful vendor solution will include not only the cloud solution, but also the maintenance, professional services, training, project management, implementation, and support as described in this solicitation.

Component Systems

The County expects the service provider to provide all the components necessary for a fully functioning solution. Each solution component should work seamlessly and collectively to provide a singular user experience. The solution provided can include components from multiple manufacturers and providers;

however, the service provider is responsible for providing a single solution response that is complete and meets all requirements. The level of integration between major system components will be a proposal evaluation factor. The County anticipates that in a proposed solution with components from different sources, the service provider will act as the system integrator and be responsible for overall implementation, any internal interfaces required, testing, training, and maintenance support of the complete solution.

As outlined in this solicitation, the County’s desire and expectation is that the proposed solution, including any subcontractor applications, partners, and others delivering elements of the solution will be highly configurable. Gwinnett County anticipates selecting the Legal Matter Management Solution that meets the optimal number of functional specifications with standard system functionality at the best value for the County.

Conceptually, the proposed solution should include, but not be limited to, the capabilities/ components listed below. The functions (as well as those included in Exhibit B – Functional Requirements

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Workbook) should all work together with no integrations, interfaces, or development required by either Gwinnett County or the service provider.

• General o Modern, intuitive, easy-to-use interface o User management with tiered permission structure o Mobile friendly and accessible across multiple platforms and devices o Configurable department user work management dashboard

• Documentation o Synchronization across storage platforms o Searchable using established criteria, multi data field search, in-document search, and natural language search.

o Searchable knowledge base o Linkable and taggable o Retention and purging policy management.

• Business Rules/Workflows o Customizable/configurable templates and data fields o Staff dashboards and task management o Date and Time Stamp/Status functionality throughout workflow.

• Communications o Automated email and system reminders based on process step or timeline.

o Notifications to both internal and external users o Notifications within the solution from integrated systems

• Reporting o Detailed, standard out-of-the-box reports.

o Custom reports that can be created and managed by authorized users.

o Complete data export in standard format

Information Security Protection

The County requires that the vendor proposes a solution that protects against service disruption caused by ransomware, in addition to the traditional Continuity of Business provisions. Such protection could use a tiered replication model where the third-tier synchronization lags behind the near real-time replication of the lower tiers. Alternatively, the approach could also include using an off-line Disaster Recovery model. The service provider is responsible for: (1) providing detailed responses to Interrogatories related to security, (2) responding to all related functional requirements in Exhibit B – Functional Requirements Response Workbook, and (3) agreeing to adhere to the requirements and policies outlined in Exhibit A - Security Requirements for Purchases. Finally, the proposed solution(s) must be able to comply and work with the end-point protection and other security requirements of Gwinnett County.

System Software and Hardware

The service provider will propose all necessary hardware and software to ensure that the proposed solution provided by the service provider will perform at its optimum capabilities for the users and those that interact with the system.

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The County requires that service provider’s response to this solicitation includes a turnkey system configuration necessary to meet the functional and operational requirements of this solicitation proposal consisting of items as outlined in the response at a minimum:

• Completed solution component diagram and how it will connect the user and County to the cloud-based solution.

• Databases and database management.

• Operating system software required (device, browser, Internet speeds, etc.).

• Servers and backend equipment – if applicable.

• Specifications in size, power consumption, etc.

If applicable, the County requires Cisco Network switches for any connectivity between the proposed infrastructure and the County’s network. In addition, the County preference is for hyper converged (HCI) fully virtualized environments. As a result, the proposer should consider this type of architecture when proposing the infrastructure required for the proposed cloud solution.

While the County expects a cloud-based solution, if any hardware is proposed, the proposed pricing for all hardware and system software will be included in the response.

Implementation and Support

The service provider, with appropriate involvement from Gwinnett County employees, must perform all tasks required to install and implement the proposed system, including all software installation, service provider-configuration, instruction, professional services, and guidance on user-configuration, testing, and training. For cloud-based systems, the system will be maintained and updated by the service provider as part of the ongoing service agreement, whereas on-premises systems will require involvement from Gwinnett County employees for system maintenance and updates. The service provider must use Gwinnett County’s Global Protect VPN in order to remote access to the County network.

Site Preparation and Bandwidth Requirements Assessment

As part of the solicitation response, the service provider shall state the minimum and maximum bandwidth requirements, as well as other permitted ranges of environmental variations, necessary for the satisfactory operation of the proposed solution. The service provider should describe any environmental requirements for all recommended and/or proposed components of the proposed solution. This would include the following (if required):

• The latency between Gwinnett County and the service provider’s cloud solution

• Transactional response time ranges that may be tied to service level agreements (SLAs) or invocation of support related tickets.

• Documented connection speeds up and down, from the service provider’s cloud solution

Project Management

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The service provider will be responsible for applying sound project management methodologies in the areas of:

• Project planning

• Risk management

• Resource management

• Project monitoring and reporting

• Production control

• Configuration management

• Quality assurance

• Test planning and execution

• Training

• Implementation methodology

• Post-implementation support

• Adherence to Gwinnett County Change Management processes

• Documentation (technical and non-technical)

The service provider will provide Gwinnett County with a Project Manager who will be the single point of contact throughout the service provider’s relationship with the County. The County reserves the right to request a change in the project manager if it feels the relationship is not progressing smoothly. The service provider’s project manager will work with a Gwinnett County-provided project manager who will liaise with internal Gwinnett County teams and resources for the delivery of Gwinnett County-owned project tasks.

Change Management

Managing process changes associated with implementing the new systems will be a critical component of project success. The service provider will comply with County Change Management procedures, during implementation and post implementation for all deployments, configuration changes, and system maintenance throughout the lifetime of the solution. The County expects the service provider to work with Gwinnett County’s project team and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify process changes, provide guidance on implementation strategies that provide maximum benefit to the Department, as well as develop training tools and materials to facilitate the transition to the new systems using new business processes.

Documentation

Documentation must be provided to support the solution, as well as County business processes pertaining to the solution. Any solution tools or utilities that are desirable to tune, test, maintain, or support the systems must be specified in the documentation. Any tailoring or configuring must be documented and delivered to the County. At a minimum, as applicable, the service provider shall provide Gwinnett County with the following:

• User documentation.

• Configuration documentation.

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• Interface documentation.

• System Administration manuals.

• Solution tutorial.

• Database setup and maintenance.

• System documentation.

• Documentation for web service/interface definitions.

• First level triaging/trouble shooting for agency helpdesk.

• Helpdesk/Support call escalation process.

• Disaster recovery documentation.

Configuration/Training Environment

The service provider is to provide a combination configuration (test) / training environment for the proposed solution; a “sandbox” environment where new features, changes, workflow, forms, etc. can be tried without impacting the test, training, production, or other environments.

Acceptance Tests

The implementation must include adequate provisions for functional, performance, and reliability testing. The County requires service provider involvement in the development and execution of test plans to assure that the systems deliver the expected results. Satisfactory completion of a mutually agreed-upon Acceptance Test for each stage of the implementation is required, as is a Final Acceptance Test in a fully integrated environment, to ensure components work together as intended.

The Acceptance Test will include a confirmation of each functional requirement identified as provided in the service provider’s proposal, in addition to required performance and reliability acceptance procedures that the County may require.

The County requires three (3) types of acceptance tests: Functional, Performance, and Reliability.

The proposed acceptance test strategy must address all three types of acceptance tests.

Acceptance tests will be conducted first on each system component, including all applicable interfaces, independently. Upon acceptance of all systems, a final set of Functional, Performance, and Reliability Acceptance Tests will be performed on the integrated Solution to ensure that all systems work together as intended and at the contracted performance levels.

The County will notify the selected service provider of the successful completion of each test in accordance with task completion requirements in the Statement of Work (SOW).

Functional Acceptance Testing Requirements

The service provider is to include in the solicitation response the plan they would use for Acceptance Testing for their solution should they be selected. The service provider is affirming that the final Solution design, Acceptance Test Plan, and System Documentation includes each proposed

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The County will confirm all solution functionality prior to System Acceptance. Each specific system function agreed to as part of the final Contract will be tested and tracked from original documentation, e.g., from proposal to Contract, then to Acceptance Testing, by the selected service provider.

During the Functional Acceptance Test, the selected service provider will demonstrate the operation of each proposed feature, function, and interface simulating a live environment based on the test plan that will be approved by the County no less than 14-days prior to the start of functional testing.

Performance/Stress Testing Requirements

The purpose of the Performance Test is to demonstrate and document, as necessary, the selected service provider’s performance requirements. The Performance Test will be conducted at the successful implementation of each system and again when all systems have been successfully implemented.

To pass the Performance Test, the proposed solution or system must, for 30 consecutive calendar days, perform successfully, in accordance with the performance requirements stated in this solicitation.

System Performance and Testing Requirements

The following performance criteria are provided as a guide in designing the solution and form the basis for acceptance testing of the implemented solution.

• The solution shall conform to the requirements specified in this solicitation.

• The solution shall provide all the functional and operational capabilities described as both

“Yes - Fully meets” and “Yes - Partially meets” in the Functional Requirements Response, by the service provider in their proposal response to the interrogatory questions and those demonstrated in the product demonstration.

• All inquiry and file maintenance functions shall be performed without adversely affecting system performance and system operations.

• The system shall provide problem-free interoperability for all the solution components specified in this document.

• Users shall not be required to halt system operations system administration tasks.

The service provider will not be responsible for the processing time of external systems when such systems are involved in a transaction. It is understood that factors such as network latency, external system responsiveness, the performance of the network, system load, and any external systems, i.e., queries to state databases, may negatively affect such times and may need to be analyzed as part of the response time determination should an issue with these times occur.

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All responding service providers are expected to outline details describing how they will conduct system testing that meets the requirements outlined above. This includes a description of how each of the following system tests are administered and reported upon:

• System response times

• System availability

Reliability Testing Requirements

The purpose of the Reliability Test, as part of the overall solution acceptance requirements, is to demonstrate the operational capability and reliability of the solution and system components. The Reliability Test will be conducted at the successful implementation of each system component and again when all system components have been successfully implemented.

To complete the Reliability Test successfully the following must occur:

• All systems must demonstrate full availability for 30 consecutive calendar days.

• Should any selected service provider-provided hardware component fail three times during the testing phase, the selected service provider will replace the failing hardware component, without charge to the County.

• System performance will continue to meet the functional requirements of the Contract, as tested, or verified by County personnel at any time.

• If the solution or any system component falls below the required availability requirement, the Reliability Test will be stopped and the selected service provider is to correct any deficiencies in preparation for a retest. If the deficiencies are of such severity that the retest cannot be initiated within 15 days of the initial failure, the selected service provider is to prepare a Correction Plan that details the reason for the failure and proposed correction.

The selected service provider will have three opportunities to complete the Reliability Test over a period of 90 days. All responding service providers are expected to outline details as to how they meet the reliability testing requirements identified above.

Application Errors

Upon notification, the selected service provider will promptly correct malfunctions in any of the covered applications/solution components discovered by the County during the term of this agreement, provided (a) the County provides all information regarding such malfunction that may be requested by the selected service provider and reasonably available to the County as defined in the following error reporting section, and (b) the County has provided the selected service provider with remote access to the solution as required by the contract.

All responding service providers are expected to outline details as to how they meet the Application Errors requirements identified above.

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Error Reporting

The County personnel making such a report will describe to support service staff the malfunction in reasonable detail and the circumstances under which the malfunction occurred or is occurring. With the assistance of support service staff members, classify the malfunction based on mutually agreed upon severity levels. The County shall provide all reasonably available information requested by the selected service provider that is necessary to complete its request for technical services. Upon detection of any malfunctions in any of the covered applications, the County shall provide the selected service provider a listing of command input, resulting output, and any other data, including databases and back-up systems, that the selected service provider may reasonably request and is reasonably available to reproduce operating conditions like those present when the malfunction occurred.

All responding service providers are expected to outline details as to how they meet the Error Reporting requirements identified above.

Warranty

The entire solution as proposed by the vendor shall include a first-year warranty for vendor-supplied hardware and software for a minimum of twelve (12) months after the formal Final System Acceptance date. The warranty is to include all system and application software updates, enhancements, and refinements, as well as all professional services necessary to support the solution. The warranty is to conform to contractually agreed specifications and protect against any defects or damage in the solution’s equipment or software caused by manufacturers, service provider, or proposed subcontractors.

Additionally, the service provider will warrant its responses to the functional requirements included in their solicitation response and any other element of their proposal and will agree to attach its solicitation response to any contract reached with the County.

If the selected service provider is unable to perform under these guidelines, then a separate vendor of the County’s choice will be used, and the repair costs passed on to the selected service provider.

Support and Maintenance

The County expects that a maintenance and support agreement will be offered and that the maintenance and support will be included in the pricing of the solution units. Around the clock support (24 hours per day, 7 days per week Monday - Sunday) is required for the proposed solution.

The service provider’s proposed support agreement is to be included in the response and designate priority levels for system errors and include a guaranteed response time for each priority level.

Additionally, the support agreement should define the role of the service provider’s helpdesk for support.

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Technical Support Center

As the first level of Support and Maintenance, the service provider shall provide telephone support for operational and technical assistance. The service provider should provide information about their coverage level and hours of operations.

Training

The service provider must provide both a training environment for all solution components, as well as the necessary and sufficient training for County personnel as part of the implementation. Training for County personnel (system administrators, users, and DoITS support personnel) must be delivered directly by the service provider’s training staff to these target audiences.

Sufficient training is defined as that level of training that enables the end-user to proficiently perform the duties associated with the utilization of the system or, for system administrators, maintenance of the system.

Personnel Requiring Training

DoITS anticipates about 30 total trainees for this solution – a combination of end users and admins.

During the implementation process, the County and service provider will work together to define the final numbers.

Training Types

The County recognizes that the involvement, understanding, and commitment of employees are essential to the successful implementation of the proposed Solution. As such, Gwinnett County employees will participate in all key process design and configuration decisions. In preparation for that process, the service provider shall provide a foundational level of training for the County. The service provider can propose a “train the trainer” approach, however that must be clearly stated and described in the response to ensure it meets the steps outlined below.

Training Materials

All training material shall meet the following requirements:

• Training materials shall be provided three (3) weeks before the start of any training course unless otherwise mutually agreed upon by the service provider and the County

• Training materials shall be for the version of the solution that will be deployed.

• Training materials shall reflect adult learning principles, and all training sessions should include a demonstration of knowledge and skills transferred by the people being trained.

Additionally, the selected service provider is to provide a configuration/training system that will allow users to simulate live operations for all proposed system components without degrading solution performance.

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All responding service providers are expected to outline details as to how their training materials and environment meet the requirements identified above.

Post-cutover Support

The selected service provider and its implementation team, with appropriate involvement from Gwinnett County employees, must provide ongoing support for the 30-day reliability test period starting after the date of successful proposed solution implementation in the production environment. Upon completion of the 30-day reliability test period, if there are no outstanding issues, the County will provide formal acceptance of the solution.

The support and testing mentioned above will not preclude the actual support and ongoing daily interaction training that the system should support the Department for the duration of having the system.

All responding service providers are expected to outline details as to how they meet the post-Cutover support requirements identified above.

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE

The County will hold a pre-proposal conference. This is optional and not to preclude a service provider from submitting a proposal.

Service providers are responsible for submitting all questions in writing. All questions will need to be submitted in accordance with the published deadline. Service providers are encouraged to submit questions prior to the Pre-Proposal Conference. Questions will be answered and published for all to view.

Note: The written solicitation documents supersede any verbal or written prior communications between the parties.

PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS

The proposal response shall provide information necessary for Gwinnett County to evaluate the qualifications, experience, and expertise of the service provider to provide the requested functionality and services.

The service provider is to make a written proposal that presents an understanding of the work to be performed. The proposal is to demonstrate and provide evidence that the service provider has the capabilities, professional expertise, and experience to provide the necessary services as described in this solicitation. The service provider is to ensure that all information required herein is submitted with the proposal. An authorized representative of the service provider shall sign the proposal. All information provided is to be verifiable by documentation and demonstration requested by Gwinnett County.

To enhance the evaluation process and provide each service provider an equal opportunity for consideration, all service providers should adhere to a standardized technical proposal format outlined in this proposal. Responses are to be as thorough and detailed as possible so that Gwinnett County may

RP028-24 Page 24 properly evaluate the service provider’s capabilities to provide the required services. This includes the submission of the Functional Requirements Response Workbook and the Pricing Response Workbook in both electronic (Excel and PDF) formats, and written formats. All electronic submissions shall be on a virus-free flash drive with the required files included and named as outlined in this proposal. The Pricing Response Workbook shall be submitted in a separate sealed envelope, and on a separate flash drive from the technical proposal response. Unnecessarily elaborate brochures or other presentations beyond that sufficient to present a complete and effective proposal is not desired. Elaborate artwork, expensive paper, visual, and other presentation aids are not required.

Service providers are encouraged to submit clear and concise responses, and excessive length or extraneous information is discouraged. To ensure our ability to evaluate and choose a successful solution, vendors are encouraged to be responsive to the specific range of issues requested in this solicitation.

Submission of excessive “boilerplate” information, including sales brochures, is discouraged. Service providers should not submit website links in lieu of written responses. Website links and any information contained within may not be reviewed or considered by Gwinnett County.

As a government agency, the County is subject to the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq. (Act), which gives any party the right to inspect and receive copies of most government records, including documents, contracts, and communications related to County business. As such, all information submitted by a service provider during the proposal process is subject to disclosure after contract award, unless an exception in the Act applies. See O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a).

NOTE: there is no blanket exception for “confidential” or proprietary information. While this solicitation does not seek trade secret information, if there are trade secrets contained in records submitted to the County, the Act imposes specific requirements on vendors to protect said information. See O.C.G.A. § 50- 18-72(a)(34) . Additionally, the County considers pricing information to be subject to public disclosure. See State Rd. & Tollway Auth. V. Elec. Transaction Consultants Corp., 306 Ga. App. 487 (2010).

PROPOSAL EVALUATION PROCESS

The County’s evaluation process will use the criteria outlined below to identify the solution that best meets the County’s business and operational needs, is offered at the best value, and is submitted by a service provider with expertise and a proven implementation track record for delivering successful systems.

Gwinnett County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, in whole or in part, to negotiate changes in the scope of services, and to waive any technicalities as deemed in its best interest.

Selection Criteria

Selection of the successful service provider will be based upon submission of proposals meeting the selection criteria. Proposal evaluations will be based on assigned evaluation points using the following minimum selection criteria in Table 2 below.

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Table 2 – Selection Criteria

Scoring Criteria Description Points

Part I

I. Responsiveness

The service provider’s ability to follow the proposal preparation instructions outlined in this solicitation, including the failure to return required pages, missing signatures, missing documents, etc. This will be considered an indicator of the service provider’s ability to follow instructions should they receive an award for this solicitation.

II. Experience & Qualifications

Experience (Past performance) Experience as evidenced in the response. This includes, but is not limited to, the experience of providing similar services to similar jurisdictions.

Qualifications (Ability to provide the solution) Specific information on the company’s resources and ability to deliver the required services, providing specific approach/plans (implementation, data conversion, testing, training, cutover) to be used to perform the services. Background on the company, including the number of years in business and past major projects completed as well as the financial position of the company, should the service provider’s company be awarded the contract. Successful service provider shall have the demonstrated ability to provide project management and administrative support to the County.

III. Solution Description

Solution Description Specific information provided by the service provider including, but not limited to, how the features and functions work, the architecture, supportability, level of configurability, and overall degree to which the solution will fit the purpose and environment in which it will be used.

Complexity & Flexibility The ability to be scalable.

IV. Functional Requirements

Functional Requirements Ability for the proposed solution to provide the required/desired functions based on the responses to Exhibit B – Functional Requirements Response Workbook.

V. Implementation & Project Management

The ability to support a smooth implementation through Project Management Institute (PMI) methods and standards, robust training, and service delivery.

VI. References

The quality of the references and their feedback will be taken as further indication as to the service provider’s ability to provide, implement and support the solution they are proposing to the County.

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Selection Process

Proposal Evaluation

Basis of Short-Listing / Selection

Part I – Initially, proposals will be evaluated based on their relative responsiveness to the criteria described above and will be scored based on the point values as shown. Please note that references, and subsequent reference checks, are a required component of Part I scoring.

Part II – Service providers may be short-listed for further consideration. The Proposal Pricing Responses of the short-listed service providers from Part I will be opened, reviewed, and scored, with the lowest cost receiving the most points and the other service providers receiving proportional points based on the differences in proposal costs.

Part III – At the County’s discretion, or as deemed in the County’s best interest, service providers may be short-listed a second time for the oral presentation and live demonstration session(s). At that time, the County may request further information, explanations, clarifications, presentations, interviews, or meetings with some or all the remaining service providers.

If interviews/demonstrations are necessary for selection, details on the scoring criteria for interviews will be provided along with notification of the scheduled interview.

Scoring Criteria Description Points

Part II

VII. Pricing

Solution pricing will not be the sole deciding factor in the selection process but will be considered as part of the evaluation process.