Bay Area City Calls for IT Companies Interested in Joining Vendor Pool

In a request for qualifications (RFQ) released Monday, the consolidated city-county of San Francisco wants to hear from IT companies capable of assisting it in “Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Implementation & Support Services.” San Francisco has moved apace on IT initiatives during the pandemic, standing up a new software-defined network for a new 16-floor office building used by 1,000 employees, moving all legacy servers to the SFCloud environment and moving the primary data center for the entire city to city property, its Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of the Department of Technology Linda Gerull told Techwire in August. Among the takeaways here:

• With this RFQ, the city-county Controller’s Office, Systems Division (CON-Systems) looks to create a list of qualified contractors or suppliers for ERP implementation and support. San Francisco will evaluate proposals to create this pool; proposers who prequalify via this RFQ are nevertheless “not guaranteed a contract” according to the RFQ. The city can use the pool “at its sole and absolute discretion,” as needed. Project-specific terms and any applicable portions of a proposal submitted will be worked into a proposed agreement if a proposer is chosen from the pool. Contractors will work with CON-Systems, staff from the controller’s office and from the city, on maintaining the citywide ERP system. The controller is the city’s chief accounting officer and auditor and is “responsible for all financial management systems, procedures, internal control processes and reports that disclose the fiscal condition of the city to managers, policymakers and citizens.”
• The city-county needs services in five areas; respondents must show experience in at least one area in order to prequalify for it. Doing so, however, will prequalify them only for the area in which they have shown experience. The areas are production support and maintenance of existing systems, where functional and technical support needed includes “analysis, design, configuration, development, testing and deployment”; implementation of new systems and functionalities, where needs include “ensuring system capabilities for protecting sensitive ERP data at-rest, in-transit or in-use are properly implemented to comply with all regulatory requirements including but not limited to FedRAMP and California data privacy provisions”; project and change management, including “initiating, planning, executing, controlling, deploying and closing of projects”; strategy and transformation services, including “organizational assessment, design, and transformation, and digital strategy and transformation”; and auditing services including “assessing information technology general control risks, cybersecurity, cloud API (Application Programming Interface) risks.”
• Requirements include three to five descriptions of prior projects demonstrating experience in at least one of the service areas indicated. The project manager indicated in the response and proposed to oversee all consulting work assigned by the city must have at least seven years’ project management experience and at least five years’ experience in at least one of the service areas described. Team members listed must have at least two years’ consulting experience in at least one of the service areas indicated. Respondents must identify “functional and technical leads” and include their resumes. Resumes may also be included for “supporting principal and senior consultants.”
• A precise contract value isn’t stated; however per the RFQ, the city’s “minimum competitive amount” is $706,000 for general services and $129,000 for commodities and professional services. A city-county prequalified pool list is valid for two years and may be extended for up to two more years if re-opened by the city. Questions are due by 5 p.m. May 9; answers will come May 19. A pre-proposal conference will be held from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. May 11. Intents to respond are due by May 27. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. June 10. A notice of intent to establish a prequalified pool is expected Aug. 1.