RFP - IT - Utility Network Enterprise Deployment

The City of Minneapolis is requesting proposals for consulting services to migrate ESRI applications used by its Surface Water and Sewer and Water Distribution departments to ESRI's Utility Network architecture, with proposals due August 12, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Minneapolis time and questions due July 15, 2026.

The scope encompasses migration of water distribution, stormwater, and sanitary sewer systems across three schemas — Water Distribution using ESRI's Foundational Model and Surface Water and Sewer using ESRI's Foundation Expanded Model — deployed across Development, QA, Pre-Production, and Production environments. The consultant must preserve mission-critical business processes including FID generation, PDF map production, automated workflows, water quality modeling, Cognos-based reporting, and Python-based workflows; implement attribute rules; deliver role-based training; perform datum transformations supporting both current and legacy non-HARN coordinates with MicroStation output; validate integrations with Maximo, Granite, Trimble, and modeling platforms; and establish documented performance optimization procedures. Project governance must include formal structure with defined meeting frequency, comprehensive project plans with weekly tracking, RAID matrices and RACI documentation, and centralized issue-tracking. All City data must reside within the continental United States; remote access must use BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access; and no permanent vendor network connection to production is permitted. Consultants must provide three current-customer and three former-customer references demonstrating experience on comparable municipal or utility sector projects.

Evaluation criteria are proposal quality and clarity, staff qualifications and experience, scope alignment with departmental objectives and functional requirements, financial responsibility and capacity, organizational and management approach, cost of services, insurance coverage, and acceptance of City terms and conditions. Responses to questions will be posted by July 29, 2026. The contract term is anticipated to span Phase One (citywide utility network rollout) and Phase Two (process optimization and enhancement activities), with estimated consultant selection in the fourth quarter of 2026. Professional liability insurance of $2,000,000 per claim and $2,000,000 annual aggregate, and cyber liability coverage of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 annual aggregate, are required. The City reserves the right to reject any or all proposals or pursue alternative approaches.