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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFI - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - 9113 ELECTRONIC PLAN REVIEW SOLUTION, INTEGRATING WITH EXISTING ACCELA PRODUCTS1 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 9113 ELECTRONIC PLAN REVIEW SOLUTION, INTEGRATING WITH EXISTING ACCELA PROCESSES I. OBJECTIVE 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 possible 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 conducts business. The City of Fort Collins Development Review Center and its partnering service areas administer planning, engineering and building processes that currently involve both electronic and paper- based plan sets. Within the next two years, the City intends to fully implement an Electronic Plan Review solution for all development review processes. While the initial objective is to replace the existing Electronic Plan Review solution used for building permit review (~30 users), the long-term goal is to expand the utilization of Electronic Plan Review into all development review functions. The City is seeking an Electronic Plan Review solution that can serve both immediate replacement needs and accommodate broader expansion over the next 2-3 years. The existing Electronic Plan Review solution is used solely for Building Code and Land Use Code compliance reviews, and use is limited to the Building Permit review process. Our future utilization would likely include: • Further use by other reviewing departments (both internal and external to the City) within the Building Permit process • Complete integration within a reshaped Development Review Process (Planning/Entitlement) across internal and external departments • Use within the Engineering functions for Right of Way and Excavation permit plan sets. The goals for a more robust Electronic Plan Review solution include: • Improved transparency and communication between reviewing departments and the applicant across all processes • Improved productivity and more efficient reviews by individual reviewers • Increased and more efficient collaboration between departments involved in review • Reduction in manual or error-prone steps during a project’s review • Improvement in the overall quality of plan review Below is a list of items that our users must have in order to consider the products, along with some wants that are desired in addition to the requirements: Must Haves (Requirements): 1. Full integration with Accela Automation 9.3.7 (and higher) utilizing existing functional integration via Accela’s Construct API 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 2. Allow for electronic plan review to simulate the following current pen and paper process including, but not limited to: a. Measuring (including calibration tool) b. Mark-ups c. Annotations d. Comments e. Side-by-side and/or overlap comparison with previous versions f. Custom stamps (including date and username where applicable) g. Ability to use rich text and/or formatting tools for comments 3. Ability to work with large file sizes, multiple file types, and multi-paged plan sets 4. No loss of functionality or system responsiveness when working with larger multi-paged pdf files. 5. Allow all reviewing departments to view and review plans simultaneously – as well as the ability to see all comments and markups by all other City reviewing departments with ease (concurrent review) Additional Wants (Desired Functionality): 1. Comment management and tracking a. The ability to determine whether comments are still active issues or have been resolved b. Allow comments to be aggregated, organized or reported on via the tool itself or Accela’s database 2. Provide applicants the means to view and directly respond to annotations, red lines, and comments on the plan sets 3. Seamless integration of plan review software with Accela, rather than requiring navigation from one system to another 4. A suggested process or software feature to handle slip-sheeting of additional plan pages 5. Vertical and horizontal Scale Adjustments 6. Either processing power to handle un-flattened files or document quality checks to handle corrupt or un-flattened files 6. Allow outside agencies (reviewing agencies that are not directly City employees) to participate in review and mark-up plans 7. Features or suggested best practices for a file structure that accommodate and distinguish between initial submittals, resubmittals and revisions 8. Ensure accessibility to marked up plans via the Accela Mobile and Accela Inspector applications Proposer Qualifications: The City is looking for a solution that can be implemented with minimal modifications required by the City; the City is not interested in extensive product customization or redundant configurations. The Accela workflow and its functionality should serve as the engine driving the electronic plan review. The Proposer must have demonstrated successful performance on installations of a similar nature to that requested by this RFI. Specifically, Proposers must demonstrate a history of a successfully developed and implemented systems of similar scope and size for government entities that are live in a production state. In addition, the following aspects will be considered when evaluating all solutions: 1. Timely implementation 2. Fault tolerant systems 3. Software reliability and performance 4. Operator / internal and external user friendliness 5. Maintainability 6. Reliability 7. Long-term useful life 8. Quality training for internal users and technicians 9. Quality service & maintenance including timely released upgrades 10. Quality system documentation and custom training materials 11. Proven record of responsiveness to customer needs and requested enhancements Respondents are also encouraged to provide any additional information that may be helpful in assisting the City in its market research. II. 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 03/30/2020 – 04/10/2020. A city employee involved in the project will call selected respondents to schedule a demonstration. The meetings will be limited to two hours in duration and held virtually or at 281 N. College Ave, Fort Collins, CO. 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, products available, 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 duties to make the software operational. The RFI one-on-one discussion will be an opportunity for respondents to discuss the needs of the City, informally. Respondents are not required to attend an RFI one-on-one discussion with the City. III. 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), 03/23/2020 and referenced as RFI 9113. 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 Electronic Plan Review solution, respond to the requested information for each product. 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 Electronic Plan Review Solution. B. Electronic Plan Review Solution Briefly describe your product(s) and how your product and services fit our needs as described above. When applicable, provide visual examples for as many of the required features as possible. 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. If multiple pricing models are available (per seat vs. enterprise licensing), please provide details for both. 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. E. References Please provide contact information for at least three similar organizations that have fully implemented your product or services. IV. SCHEDULE The overall schedule is estimated as follows: • Issuance of RFI: 03/02/2020 • Questions Due: 03/11/2020 • RFI Responses Due: 03/23/2020 • RFI Discussion Period: 03/24/2020– 03/27/2020 • Product Demonstrations: 03/30/2020 - 04/10/2020 V. QUESTIONS Questions should be directed to Ed Bonnette, Senior Buyer at ebonnette@fcgov.com in written format. Please format your e-mail to include: 9113 ELECTRONIC PLAN REVIEW SOLUTION in the subject line. The deadline for question submittal is March 11th, 2020 at 5:00pm. VI. MISCELLANEOUS A copy of the RFI may be obtained at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/city-of-fort-collins. 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. Confidential or proprietary information should not be included in your response.