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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFI - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - 8882 AUTOMATED DATA TRANSFER, OWNER VERIFICATION, AND CONSENT TRACKING1 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 8882 AUTOMATED DATA TRANSFER, OWNER VERIFICATION, AND CONSENT TRACKING I. BACKGROUND The City of Fort Collins’ (City) goal in issuing this Request for Information (RFI) is to give vendors who are interested in entering into a contractual arrangement with the City an opportunity to exchange information with the City prior to the future issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP). This RFI is intended to provide both the City and the respondents an opportunity to learn more about how each entity conducts business. The City anticipates an increasing need to formalize and manage tools to facilitate the automation and verification of customer data exchange. These needs include: • With the passage of a City of Fort Collins Building Energy and Water Scoring law (Ordinance 2018-144), approx. 1,600 commercial property owners are required to comply. On March 1st of each year commercial property owners will begin submitting reports to the City through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and an increase of requests for Utility data from building owners required to comply will strain existing staff resources, leading up to the reporting deadline. • Aligning customer and trade ally data needs for efficiency projects, solar and battery storage systems, Fort Collins Utilities (Utilities) seeks to support trade allies with detailed customer load data in order to accurately model the economic benefit of proposed projects. Utilities also seeks the solar production data that comes from a solar array in order to support customers in monitoring their solar array’s performance. Currently, these processes are manual and include a request by the customer to a Utilities staff member for usage data or a Staff member request to the customer for behind the meter data. Customers and Staff are burdened by the manual processes and in the end are unable to fully meet the needs for data requests in a timely manner. Respondents are encouraged to provide any additional information that may be helpful in assisting Utilities in this RFI. Information obtained from this RFI will potentially be utilized in creating an upcoming RFP for a 2019 deployment. II. OBJECTIVE To reduce the burden on Utilities staff and building owners covered by the ordinance, Utilities requests information in pursuit of the following objectives: 1. Automate the process of customer consent to release data following the City of Fort Collins Municipal Code for the Release of Customer data that utilizes best practices and industry standards. (https://library.municode.com/co/Fort_Collins/codes/municipal_code?nodeId=CH26UT_ARTIIA D_S26-26COUTCUIN) 2. Manage identity verification control for the consent process, including verification methods currently used by industry experts and the tradeoffs between customer ease-of-use and verification rigor. Financial Services Purchasing Division 215 N. Mason St. 2nd Floor PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6775 970.221.6707- fax fcgov.com/purchasing 3. Manage record retention in a searchable and accessible repository that meets or exceeds the Colorado Municipal Records Retention Manual. (https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/archives/municipal-records-retention-manual) 4. Maintain a web-based customer interface that allows customers to grant or deny various partner service providers access to their Utility data. 5. Facilitate data transfer and consent management between the Utility and designated third- party providers/software (EPA Portfolio Manager, solar inverter data, etc.) using web APIs (preferably RESTful APIs). 6. Allow single sign-on integration with other systems. 7. Allow scalability to support other City data requests (beyond the Utility). III. RFI The City may invite some respondents to this RFI to participate in product demonstrations for the purpose of further information gathering. Product demonstrations will be held from April 22 - 26, 2019. The Buyer will notify selected respondents to schedule a demonstration. Phone calls to schedule these meetings will be made after April 5th, 2019. The meetings will be limited to two hours in duration and held virtually or at 222 LaPorte, Fort Collins, CO 80522. The one-on-one meetings are a chance for the respondent and the City to exchange information and questions related to the City purchasing process, product features and benefits, as well as getting to know each other, their capabilities, their needs and more about their business. Respondents should be prepared to discuss their product, implementation, and other prerequisites to make the software operational. While there will be a question period during the RFP, the RFI one-on-one discussion will be the primary opportunity respondents will have to informally discuss the needs of the City in regards to the Automated Consent Tracking. Respondents are not required to attend an RFI one-on-one discussion with the City. IV. REQUESTED INFORMATION As part of the City’s commitment to Sustainable Purchasing, RFI response submission via email is preferred. RFI response submittals shall be submitted in a single Microsoft Word or PDF file under 20MB and e-mailed to: purchasing@fcgov.com. If electing to submit a hard copy RFI response instead, please mail to the City of Fort Collins' Purchasing Division, 215 North Mason St., 2nd floor, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524. RFI response submittals must be received by 3:00 p.m. (our clock), March 29, 2019 and referenced as RFI 8882. If mailed, the address is P.O. Box 580, Fort Collins, 80522-0580. Please note additional time is required for RFI responses mailed to the PO Box to be received at the Purchasing Office. If you have more than one Automated Consent Tracking solution, respond to the requested information for each solution. Please include the following minimum information in your response: A. COMPANY INFORMATION 1. Company name, address, website address. 2. Organization Type (Corporation, Subsidiary, Partnership, Individual, Joint Venture, Other). 3. The name and contact information (email, phone) of the company representative responsible for providing further information. 4. A brief overview of the company’s capabilities, experience and role in providing & implementing your Automated Consent Tracking solution. B. Customer Reports Briefly describe your solution(s) and how your product and services fit our needs as described above. C. Budgetary Cost and Schedule Estimates 1. Provide budgetary estimates using only your pricing for each alternative for nonrecurring and annual recurring costs. Also, discuss costs, ongoing costs for user licenses, technical support, maintenance, and training. 2. Provide recommended schedules for implementation. (1-2 pages) D. Corporate Expertise Briefly describe your company, your products and services and other information you deem relevant. V. RFP Subject to funding approval, the City intends to launch an RFP for an Automated Consent Tracking product solution at www.rockymountainbidsystem.com in 2019. All qualified and interested firms may respond – responses are not limited to those who take part in the RFI process. Questions during the RFP process will be received via email and answered via addendum issued to all. After RFP responses are received, the City will evaluate the proposals as specified in the RFP. Information to be considered during these evaluations will be that which is submitted in response to the RFP only. A short list of firms will be developed from the evaluation and those firms may be invited to demonstrate their product. VI. SCHEDULE The overall schedule is estimated as follows: • Issuance of RFI March 1, 2019 • Questions Due March 15, 2019 • RFI Responses Due March 29, 2019 • RFI Discussion Period April 22 - 26, 2019 VII. QUESTIONS Questions regarding the RFI process and/or project should be directed to Marisa Donegon, Buyer at mdonegon@fcgov.com in written format. Please format your e-mail to include: 8882 Automated Consent Tracking in the subject line. The deadline for question submittal is March 15, 2019 at 5:00pm. Questions and answers to the RFI will posted as an addendum at www.rockymountainsystem.com. VIII. MISCELLANEOUS A copy of the RFI may be obtained at www.rockymountainbidsystem.com. This is ONLY a REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) and should not be construed as intent, commitment or promise to acquire the products and services presented by respondents. The City of Fort Collins will not be obligated to any respondent as a result of this RFI. The City is not obligated for any cost incurred whatsoever by respondents in the preparation of the Request for Information. The City is a governmental entity subject to the Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. §§ 24-72-200.1 et seq. (“CORA”). Responses to this RFI are subject to public disclosure by the City pursuant to CORA and City ordinances. Confidential or proprietary information should not be included in your response to this RFI.