Amendment_002_(USM-RFI-14-0001).pdf

VENDOR QUESTIONS

USM-RFI-14-0001

DATA MART AND DATA WAREHOUSE

FORMAL RESPONSES – GROUP II

1. Does the US Mint desire two separate stand-alone responses to this RFI, one for Data Mart and another for Data Mart/Data Warehouse, or shall both solutions be provided within one response? Are both solutions to be described in a single 10-page submission, or are 2 separate 10-page submissions being requested, one for each solution?

Response: Vendors shall submit one response to include both their data mart and data warehouse solution, maximum of 10 pages.

2. Is the US Mint expecting responses to this RFI to include all necessary:

a. Analytics software?

b. ETL software?

c. Database software?

d. Data warehouse server hardware including storage and archive?

Response: Yes to all, 2a-2d.

3. If the responses to this RFI are not expected to include all net new software, database and hardware, what are the in-place systems the proposed solution is to use:

a. Database software and version?

b. Server hardware including RAM, storage and archive?

c. Server OS and version?

Response: Currently, there are no data mart and/or data warehouse systems in place.

4. Where would the US Mint anticipate installing a solution resulting from an RFP as a result of this RFI? (i.e. Austin Data Center? Treasury data center? Other 3rd party data center?)

Response: The US Mint is open to vendor suggestions/recommendations.

5. How large does the US Mint anticipate the data warehouse will be initially (in terabytes)? Response:

The size of data is estimated to be a maximum of 7TB, with individual data marts around 2TB maximum. Anticipated 3 year growth?

a. What is the current storage network topology? FC SAN? NAS? No current storage network topology.

b. Is there an existing Backup-Recovery and Archive architecture in place that needs to be integrated with the new solution? The US Mint is looking for options.

c. Is Remote Replication to a separate DR Site a requirement? If so, what architecture and policies are currently in use? The US Mint is looking for options.

6. What is the approximate query load: Responses: See below.

a. Number of queries per day? Multiple queries are executed to produce 14 Daily reports, 22 Weekly reports, 40 Monthly reports and Ad Hoc reports for Sales & Marketing.

b. Number of concurrent queries? More analysis is need to determine concurrent queries but it takes approximately 15 hours to run the 14 Daily reports.

c. Approximate query run time (e.g., average query < 10 seconds, but probably as many as 10 that run for 2 minutes)? There are 2 daily reports that run < 10 seconds, 5 daily reports between 30 seconds – 4 minutes, and 3 daily reports that run between 6 – 8 hours.

7. Are there any cast-in-stone required service levels?

Response: No, we are looking for industry standards.

8. What user client requirements exist (if any): Responses: See below.

a. Client OS and version? Windows 7

b. Client browser and version? Internet Explorer 8

c. Desktop integration (MS Office? Version? Other?) Microsoft Office 2010

9. What is the current system of record to be used as the source of the US Mint’s sales data: Responses: See below.

a. Software package (E Business Suite, etc.?)? CommercialWare Direct (CWD) until new Order Management System (OMS) is implemented in FY15.

b. Hosting Location? (Same as the proposed solution? Other location?) CWD located in Sterling, VA and new OMS to be determined.

c. Will a direct database connection be possible between the system of record and the proposed solution, or will the proposed solution rely on data extracts to load data into the mart/warehouse? We cannot allow a direct database connection to CWD since it is a production environment that currently is outdated and whose current performance rating has not been scaled to meet growing capacity needs more so with an unknown entity/solution being linked in via a direct database connection for unknown purposes.

10. Approximate size of the reporting and analytics user community:

a. Total number of users

b. Expected average number of concurrent users

c. Expected peak number of concurrent users

Response: The reporting and analytics user community consists of approximately 15 Super Users and 35 Users; the Data Warehouse is estimated to have 50 Super Users and 250 Users.

11. What is/are the current and anticipated system(s) of record to be used as the source(s) of the US Mint’s sales and marketing data:

a. Software packages (i.e., Oracle E-Business Suite, etc.?)?

b. SaaS solutions? Please provide brand name.

c. In-house systems? Please provide name and description.

d. Hosting Location? (Same as the proposed solution? Other location?)

Will a direct database connection be possible between the system of record and the proposed solution, or will the proposed solution rely on data extracts to load data into the mart/warehouse?

Response: The data sources for Sales and Marketing are CWDirect, social media and surveys.

The data sources for Manufacturing are Maximo, Oracle Manufacturing Applications, Die Information Systems and Coil Racking Systems. The data source for the Financial Office is Oracle Financial Applications ERP modules. The daily operations and maintenance is maintained by our contractors in-house. Recommendations are needed for new data mart/data warehouse solution.

12. System security architecture:

a. Will the proposed system need to integrate with any in-place security architecture? If so, what is the requirement? Yes, the solution is expected to pass FISMA, NIST 800-53 and PCI compliance controls prior to be certified and adopted as a US Mint system.

b. Is there a requirement to make some or all of the reports and analytics available to users outside the US Mint? Limited to US Mint users only.

13. How current does the data mart/warehouse data need to be? (Daily updates? Near-real time? Or some other updates frequency?)

Response: Daily

14. The RFI indicates that this solution could potentially replace the U.S. Mint’s current data warehouse solution. Please identify the current data warehouse solution.

Response: There is no current Data Warehouse solution in place at the US Mint.

15. Given that the U.S. Mint desires a phased approach, please provide the initial data mart capacity required, as well as any growth estimates.

Response: The size of data is estimated to be maximum of 7TB, and data marts around maximum of 2TB.

16. The U.S. Mint desires a scalable implementation that can be readily available to U.S. Mint business units – please clarify whether U.S. Mint will consider solutions that are cloud-based (i.e. Software-as-a- Service; Analytics-as-a-Service; etc.).

Response: All options (i.e. Software-as-a-Service; Analytics-as-a-Service …) will be considered.

17. The RFI is silent on the U.S. Mint security considerations for subject data – please clarify any specific security requirements that US Mint will expect in the proposed solution (i.e. data encryption).

Response: The solution is expected to pass FISMA, NIST 800-53 and PCI compliance controls prior to be certified and adopted as US Mint system. PCI control standards demand all PII data to be encrypted in transmission as well as storage.

18. Does the U.S. Mint currently use any data analytics products? If so, please identify which tools are in use or may be considered for the final replacement solution.

Response: The US Mint has no technology preference and is looking for your technical recommendations and solution approaches which will result in a scalable, efficient, manageable Enterprise Data Warehouse and Data Mart solution which has high performance standards.

19. Please describe the types and volumes of data streams that the US Mint will ingest and store in the targeted data warehouse/data-mart.

Response: Please reference response to Question 11.

20. Does the US Mint have any existing Data Integration tools that they would like to leverage on this program?

Response: No.

21. Does the US Mint have any existing reporting and dashboard tools that they would like to leverage on this program?

22. Does the US Mint have an existing database platform in place for this program?

23. Does the US Mint have any interest in Mobile Business Intelligence solutions?

Response: Yes.

24. Is the US Mint interest in a Hosted solution or is there a preference for an on Premise Solution

Response: The US Mint is looking for options.

25. Is the US Mint interested in sales forecasting and advanced analytics?

26. Is the US Mint interested in data discovery tools?

27. How many anticipated users are there for each phase? How many concurrent users? (Section 2.0)

Response: Please reference Question 10.

28. What is the anticipated size of the SAM data mart? Growth rate per year? Retention (historical) period? Structured vs. unstructured?

Response: CWD has been growing at about 12 GB per month on average since 1/1/2013.

Based on our current 2404 GB available, that is about .5% per month.

29. What is the anticipated size of the total data warehouse solution? Growth rate per year? Retention (Historical) period? Structured vs. unstructured?

Response: Please reference Question 28.

30. How many disparate sources are expected in the end goal Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) environment? What are the sizes of the sources? How often (latency) are source systems extracted to

EDW?

Response: Please reference Question 11.

31. Has a decision on the “new order management system” been made? If so, what is this application?

Response: No decision has been made on the new OMS at this time.

32. Does the U.S. Mint already have reporting/analysis/BI tool licenses? If so, which tools/applications?

Is the RFI looking for new tools/applications?

Response: We are looking for options.

33. Does the U.S. Mint have any specific SLAs defined?

Response: No, we are looking for industry standards for RFI.

34. Is there a requirement for Disaster Recovery/High Availability/Backup?

Response: There is a requirement for Backup. High Availability is optional.

35. Is the U.S. Mint acquiring the solution directly and installing it in their data center, or is the U.S. Mint looking for a cloud based solution hosted by third party?

Response: We are looking for options.

36. Are there any requirements for the encryption of data? Other security requirements?

Response: Please reference Question 17.

37. Roughly how many “individual business unit specific data mart access layers” does the U.S. Mint foresee needing and who are they for?

Response: Please reference Question 11.

38. What is the current data mart solution?

Response: There is no current data mart solution.

39. Will the new data mart or enterprise data warehouse solution be a transactional system of record, an analytic decision-support system, or both?

Response: Both.

40. How does the U.S. Mint define a “data mart only solution” vs. a “data mart with data warehouse” solution?

Response: Please reference Section 2 - General Information of the RFI.

41. How long do you envision Phase 1 lasting before moving to the “ultimate” enterprise data warehouse environment?”

Response: The US Mint would like to implement the data mart in FY14 and the data warehouse in FY15 or FY16. The Mint fiscal year for FY14 begins 10/01/13 – 09/30/14.

42. How many anticipated users for each phase? How many concurrent users? What types of users – power users vs. ad hoc vs. business /executive?

Response: Please reference Question 10.