SPEAR Application Programming, Reporting, and Technical Support

The Illinois State Police is procuring SPEAR Application Programming, Reporting, and Technical Support through a sole source contract award notice posted on May 21, 2026, with a due date of June 4, 2026. The Department of Innovation and Technology has identified the need for comprehensive programming modifications, on-demand reporting capabilities (approximately 33 reports annually), and technical support services for the Strategic Performance Evaluation Application for Results (SPEAR), a proprietary application. The programming scope includes eleven specific modifications encompassing data export functionality, removal of numeric scoring systems, modification of evaluation criteria terminology, enhancement of proxy evaluator processes, and implementation of automated evaluation advancement workflows. The contract is a two-year term agreement with an estimated start date of July 1, 2026, and end date of June 30, 2028, with no renewal options. The public hearing for this sole source determination is scheduled for June 4, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. via WebEx, and will be cancelled unless interested parties submit written comments or request a hearing by 4:00 p.m. on May 30, 2026. Submissions should be directed to Dianne Richman at the Chief Procurement Office for General Services via email at Dianne.Richman@illinois.gov or telephone at 217-622-1857.

This procurement is restricted to Illuminative Strategies, Inc., as the sole vendor capable of providing the required services due to its role as the original developer of the SPEAR application. The justification for sole source procurement is based on SPEAR being a proprietary application with ISI possessing exclusive knowledge of the application structure; the Illinois State Police previously attempted to transfer hosting to the Department of Innovation and Technology but determined DoIT lacked sufficient technical knowledge and control to effectively manage programming changes and support. The incumbent vendor, Illuminative Strategies, Inc., currently holds the SPEAR hosting contract through June 30, 2028, and will continue to provide these services under the proposed award. Billing will occur on an hourly basis at $150.00 per hour for programming and technical support services (with a minimum of one-half hour per request) and per-report billing for reporting services, representing a 19 percent discount from the previously contracted rate of $185.00 per hour. The contract carries a not-to-exceed value of $150,000 for the initial two-year term, with funding provided through state appropriated funds. The sole source was approved on May 20, 2026, by the State Purchasing Officer.