Teachers’ Retirement Entity Mulls CRM Update

The state entity charged with spearheading retirement for teachers is seeking assistance from IT companies in assessing an enterprise-level system.

In a request for offer (RFO) released Friday, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) wants to hear from vendors that hold a California Multiple Award Schedules (CMAS) agreement in IT with the California Department of General Services, and can assist it in conducting a “Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solution Assessment.” Among the takeaways:

• CalSTRS seeks a contractor to evaluate “Customer Relationship Management tools ... and implementation approach.” The team from the company chosen will work under the direction of CalSTRS’ chief technology officer. Each deliverable will necessitate “at least two structured walkthroughs with CalSTRS-designated personnel” and a “design walkthrough should present the contractor’s Deliverable Expectation Document,” with a plan for the deliverable’s scope, organization and content, and a staffing/resource plan. The walkthrough should be done early on in the task plan to validate “alignment of expectations,” with a second walkthrough or deliverable presentation to stakeholders done “when the deliverables are considered functionally complete,” but not entirely final.
• The project has five tasks. First is CRM strategy and use case development, with deliverables including use cases, a CRM program governance gap report and a proposed CRM program governance model. Second is a CRM tool analysis, with deliverables including use case mapping and a comparative analysis report. Third is a CRM implementation strategy and road map with deliverables including the strategy and road map. Fourth is project management and administration, with deliverables including project planning and scheduling; and status, problem, risk, issue, decision and project close-out reports. Fifth is supporting CalSTRS’ development of CRM solution implementation procurement documents if the state decides to proceed — with deliverables including the procurement statement of work, tool requirements and technical qualifications.
  

Minimum technical qualifications include:

• Respondent’s designated project lead “must have successfully delivered at least one project of a similar scope and complexity.“
• At least five years’ experience “performing requirements gathering and analysis, developing use cases, and performing advisory and consulting services related to CRM solutions.”
• At least three years’ experience “developing strategy and implementation roadmaps related to CRM.”
  

Desirable technical qualifications include:

• Experience designing CRM solutions for a pension/retirement or financial organization.
• Experience managing IT initiatives via agile methodologies, and knowledge of agile best practices.
• Experience managing IT initiatives with “industry standards and best practices such as Project Management Institute (PMI) PMBOK.”
• Experience delivering consulting services to public-sector entities like local, state or federal agencies.

The contract’s precise term and value aren’t stated; the RFO indicates the payment structure will be hourly for time and materials. Offers are due by 2 p.m. Dec. 10. Estimated start date is in February.