Hillsborough County Public Schools Business
Action Item

DATE: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
TO: School Board Members
FROM: MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent

SUBJECT / RECOMMENDATIONS

Accept and Contract with the Lowest and Best Proposal Submitted by CIBER, Inc., – Request for Proposal (RFP) #8217-DST Lawson 9.0 Application Software Upgrade (Business Division) Revised Attachment

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This item addresses the need to upgrade the District’s Lawson applications to the most current version, and is critical to keep the applications fully supported. The Lawson applications provide the District’s infrastructure to process Human Resources, Payroll, Benefits, Procurement, Accounts Payable, and Financial transactions. The present version will be decommissioned in May 2009, meaning that support from Lawson will end. Lawson has offered a proposal to extend our current version until May 2010, and that is being reviewed. This would give the District time to complete the upgrade while still fully supported. The offer from Lawson would also freeze our maintenance costs for a 3-year period, with estimated savings of $130,000 over the 3 years. There are hours allocated in the CIBER, Inc. contract for updates to the District’s custom Lawson programs. If the number of hours is not sufficient, the Information Services Department will draw from a pre-approved list of vendors for the additional services to update custom programs and/or reports. This pre-approved list has been used to obtain additional resources when necessary in the past and contains some local companies who are certified SBE vendors.

On November 7, 2008, the Procurement Department, in conjunction with the Information Services Department, issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to obtain Lawson 9.0 application upgrade services. Proposals were accepted on December 16, 2008. The District utilizes two on-line vendor registration systems to notify potential bidders of opportunities. Through these systems, four firms responded (Attachment A). The evaluation process included a committee of District-level personnel (Attachment B). On January 12, 2009, the committee evaluated the proposals based on stated RFP criteria, Phases I (Attachment C). The evaluation committee selected three firms to move to future phases (Attachment D). The three vendor presentations were evaluated at the committee meeting on February 2, 2009. Upon completion of all phases of the RFP, the committee reviewed key points as a group, individually rated each firm for final compilation and ranking (Attachment E), and recommended CIBER, Inc. for the award.

ANNUAL DISTRICT GOAL(S) AND CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S)

* Align the performance management system with the district’s priorities

FINANCIAL IMPACT (Budgeted: Yes)

Funds of approximately $1,057,000 was appropriated in the Project 5002 Technology Plan (Lawson Project) for Lawson 9.0 application upgrade services.

EVALUATION

Contract administration or evaluation is performed by the Project Manager (end user) and Procurement Officer, who function as a team. Reviews are conducted face to face, typically quarterly, or by utilizing an online vendor performance report. Prior to soliciting a new contract, the Contract Administration team must first give consideration to the specifications and supporting data of the expiring contract.

SUBMITTED BY: Jean R Bowman, General Manager, Procurement

David J Steele, Ph.D.
Chief Information and Technology Officer
813-272-4600
Gretchen Saunders
Chief Business Officer
813-272-4270
A 5.20R
Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20090224_344 * Section A Item# 5.20R