eSignature Legitimacy for Outsourcing Services Contract in United States

How to eSign a document: eSignature legitimacy for Outsourcing Services Contract in United States

hello thank you for joining us i will go ahead and begin and just kind of go over some pretty big conference housekeeping guidelines um should we have any um technical difficulties just want to let you know with the actual webinar itself we will proceed to our audio conference bridge that information is down below if you want to take a screenshot of that uh in the meantime uh please if you'd like you may change audio by switching between computer audio and phone call there's the information there in listen only mode you should all be muted i do have that automatically set however we will not check to see if maybe everybody is able to hear me and our speakers today if you would please click the raise hand option and uh this way i can find out if y'all are all good and it looks like we are all good to go um now i want to kind of go over your opportunities to submit any anonymous questions please do that in the question and answer uh section of the control panel try to avoid using the chat feature so that we can capture all questions and respond to them appropriately finally this handout has been made via email prior to this session and if you did not receive it i will follow up with those who have attended this and present that as well otherwise we will proceed and i will turn this over to stephanie good afternoon everybody i'm stephanie harrison i'm one of the managers with the chief procurement office in the procurement services division at dir and i will be presenting most of the topics today through the end user it outsourcing rfo i have with me lynn hardy and teresa williamson who will help with explain the hub requirements on this scott wilson is also in the procurement service office and he was assisting on this rfo colleen berkeley is the director of procurement services and then beth perry who's there mentioned on your slide as our it support and will help me help you all get into the vendor information system if you're not able to gain access immediately we'll we'll work through those and troubleshoot any questions jeff klein is our program director for statewide eir accessibility jeff will not be able to join us here today but i will cover part of the information that you will need to know for the rfo and then any additional questions you may send those in through the format that we're going to talk about in the slides here this afternoon okay next slide please so just a brief agenda we're going to go over the rfo go over the scope some contents of the rfo the terms and conditions where you can find that information the rfo schedule hub will give their presentation eir which is the accessibility portion and then we'll go over evaluation criteria and some general information i will also walk you through how to set up your bitstamp vendor information portal account so you can submit your proposal we'll go over the mandatory submission requirements take a quick break and then come back and we'll go over some of the questions that are submitted during the conference i do want to say that this any of the questions that we addressed during the preved conference are unofficial until they come out in addendum 1 which will be posted as a q a document along with any other clarifications that we may need to make for the rfo this slide deck will also be a part of that addendum and the attendee list for this conference next slide please the purpose for this request for offer is for dir to solicit responses from potential vendors for end-user i.t outsourcing services this is for our master contracts through a cooperative contract program so this is not a solicitation for dir it is a solicitation for dir to make master contracts that rdir customers will utilize through the cooperative contracts program the ir intends to make multiple awards from this rfo next slide please okay if you have the rfo in front of you or if you're open to the esbd portal which is where the rfo is posted you'll see that we have the rfo contents described here there is a bid package one which is the rfo itself which complete contains exhibits a through d we have bid package two which is the respondent engagement experience we'll go over that a little bit later we have a sample dir contract which is bid package three the current standard terms and conditions which is bid package four our vpat form our pdaa form the vendor references i'll talk about that our edgar form and then our current mla and current master operating lease agreement and then we have a sample statement of work and we'll walk through which of these are going to be required for you to fill out and send back in and which of them are there for your reference next slide please bay package one this is the rfo itself it includes the vendor information system which is our vis or your your heel to me referred as bid stamp as well those are the same thing vis or bitstamp bitpackage1 also contains the scope general information your submission requirements the evaluation negotiation and award requirements our exhibit a which is the vendor information form our exhibit b which is vendor history and experience exhibit c which is the contract marketing support plan and exhibit d which is our hub uh contracting plan our hub subcontracting plan all of those exhibits are required documents that will have to be completed and submitted with your response next slide please so the scope of the rfo this particular rfo is for services only our services include the list you see here which i'm going to explain a little bit about what each of these are the provisioning of equipment includes any information technology equipment that may be made commercially available within the current and future technology marketplace that addresses a business deed for a customer the equipment can include but is not limited to desktops and workstations notebooks portables mobility devices end-user support support services storage area networks networking software and peripherals and challenge services can include but not limited to management of the equipment procurement equipment configuration management and provisioning of the equipment successful respondents must be capable of provisioning equipment using standard configurations developed by the customer the successful respondent shall also be responsible for bearing the cost of acquisition or lease cost that may be applicable in the procurement process and for it equipment that may be required by the customer we also have desktop outsourcing services this includes services related to desktop computers or laptops acting in the role of desktops desktop hosting server servers the underlying network infrastructure the processes and the organization the support services for that include desktop dispatch hardware break fix services installations moves ads and changes remote server our lan our wan services where applicable shrink software dispatched efforts first level application enterprise specific services where applicable and then i t asset inventory maintenance i'm still on that previous slide then we also have asset tracking services these are services that maintain a central asset management system to maintain tracking of successful respondent owned equipment to include but not limited to the physical location users software licenses maintenance records and end of agreement term dates our support services include service desk services which are where the vendor would manage and supply a toll-free telephone number email addresses or web-based application for the customer to report maintenance issues trouble tickets and request other how-to assistance as necessary this process must include a timely confirmation of receipt of all customer reports and a resolution of status of all services requested submitted i.t service desk is defined as a provision of internal end user support for all it services and includes labor facilities systems processes management and connectivity for service desk support the service category also support services also includes on-site support moves ads and changes or the mac services that's kind of self-explanatory we also include the remote support services which are services that are managed to provide remote remote support to take over and support a piece of equipment from a centralized location by the vendor personnel the venezuela will provide phone support to assist in a resolution of the problems from the customer that is remote to the end user customer that's becoming very increasingly important especially with a majority of our current workforce working from home we also have standard and ad hoc reporting and documentation this is where the vendor produces various types of reports through online or our hard copy and may be required by a customer these can include but not limited to the number of problems or calls logged number of dispatch calls and resolution time frames we have break fix and maintenance services this is where the vendor manages support services including bearing cost for all equipment owned and provided by the successful respondent this will include but not limited to time and materials maintenance troubleshooting on-site support function and upgrading of equipment as needed to provide any new technology features next slide please we have the un unwind end of engagement services and this is where the vendor would manage the de-installation and packaging of the vendors provided equipment to include but not limited to providing a plan to manage the unwind of the services removal hard drives and to be left with a customer for destruction then our technology services category includes mobility which this category defines mobility as a provision of internal end-user support for all mobility functionality this includes labor facilities system processes management and connectivity managing mobile devices including bring your own device to work with the customers network and based systems and managing mobile device connectivity services we also have the hosted virtual desktop or hvd services which include vendor access to applications from a centralized server combined with a lower cost desktop solution than the thin client option network management services include manage managing and providing services for network related issues to include but not limited to connectivity troubleshooting eliminating bottlenecks and monitoring for dir eligible telecom customers telecommunication connect connectivity services will be achieved through the dir consolidated telecommunications or the texan contracts then the last two here are software services where the vendor manages services for software to include but not limited to software configuration management patches automated distribution imaging creation and imaging implementations and then for security services where the vendor manages security services applicable to the equipment as described previously the provisioning of equipment and procurement services that may be provided these include but not limited to firewalls passwords and data protection equipment shipped in a default secure configuration and the option to keep a hard drive is required within the applicable equipment configuration okay next slide please these contracts are a five-year total contract so the initial term will be two years from the date of signature and it will be automatically renewed in a one-year two-year renewal and then an optional one-year one-year renewal for a total of five years on this contract next slide please the rfo schedule so this rfo was posted last friday on october 9th today we're holding the vendor conference webinar the deadline for submitting any questions so you can submit questions today through the q a option you also have the option to submit questions up to 2 o'clock p.m central time on october 19th those questions should be submitted through the vendor portal um in the question section and then those questions will be sent sent to me for review review and response but you do need to send up your vis account in order to submit those questions through the portal and i'll walk you through how to do that in a minute we anticipate having those questions back out and with the answers by october 23rd that is a tentative date we will try our best to meet that deadline all the questions and answers will be posted on the electronic state business daily in the form of an addendum and that was the addendum that i referred to earlier it is the vendor's responsibility to check the electronic state business daily for um for any addendum or changes to the rfo as dir is not necessarily required to send you a notification of updates to the esbd so please make note of that november 9th this is the important deadline for everybody who's wanting to respond currently all responses will be due at 2 pm central time november 9th these do have to be submitted electronically um after 2 pm the submission system actually will not allow you to submit so be sure you plan in advance to get your your response submitted on time we have a deadline to receive the vendor references i will go over in detail how those references should come into us that is also on november 9th at 2 p.m and then we will we anticipate starting the evaluation of responses by november 16th we will complete continue the evaluations to all that's completed and then we will move straight into negotiation and contract awards and those will continue until dir has met the need for the state or we are told for whatever reason to cease negotiations let's see next slide please bid packages um 1 our bid package 1 exhibits a b and c these all require vendor to complete the form and submit it as a part of your response to the portal so exhibit a is the vendor information this form must be filled out in its entirety and signed by an officer or agent empowered to contractually bind the respondent this was a disqualifier if it comes in unsigned so this is one that you actually need to print out sign and you will upload that back into the portal exhibit b is your vendor history and experience this is where we want you to provide a detailed response to each question detailing the vendor's history and experience in providing the products the services proposed and we are going to give you a separate document that will allow for the expansion of that of how you provide those services in a real instance exhibit c is your contract marketing and support plan this is where we want you to provide a plan that describes adequately how you intend to market your contract and how you plan to provide support to the dir customers should you be awarded a contract the all of these are very important please be sure you read them thoroughly and give yourself plenty of time to ask questions before your response is due so you can submit those questions for answers and remember there is a deadline for submitting the question so you'll want to read through all of that thoroughly get any questions that you have and get those submitted before the deadline in the rfo for submitting those questions next slide please hub subcontracting plan i'm going to turn this over to lynn and teresa hi good afternoon everybody and thank you stephanie this is lynn hoddy i'm the director of the hub program outreach and training and we're going to discuss your hub subcontracting plan and requirements next slide so for this rfo you will be completing a hub subcontracting plan and submitting that um via bidstamp you will complete that online in the bid stamp portal you will print it sign it and upload that back in there a copy of the signed hsp into the portal and you all must do this if you have any problems or any questions you can reach out to my office and we can assist you with that next slide so the hub subcontracting plan it's a requirement that all respondents complete and submit a hub subcontracting plan failure to do so will result in your response not being reviewed um so we don't want this to happen to you uh if you have any questions about completing this you can reach out to our office you can ask how to complete hub subcontracting plan questions our office will review your hub subcontracting plan prior to the bid date so we can review that ahead of time for you to ensure that you've completed that correctly and you need to do that at least 10 or more days prior to the close of this rfo that gives us enough time to review it and it gives you enough time to make any corrections should you need to now make sure you again complete the form on bid stamp and there will be one of three ways in which you can complete the sub-sub-contracting plan you can meet the goal via subcontracting with hub subcontractors you can subcontract and not meet the goal or you can self-perform on the next slide the hub goal for this rfo is 26 that means if you subcontract to any other companies 26 or more of the expected value of this contract you're meeting that hub goal so you would complete method a ensure that you complete sections 1 2 4 and then method a attachment a and the totals for your subcontracting opportunities that you identify in section two need to equal the total of the percentages that you have identified in method a attachment a now should you have two or more subcontracting opportunities you would complete um multiple method a's but in bitstamp it should allow you to do so so again if you have any questions with that please contact us make sure that you include all vid numbers for each of your subcontractors make sure you include the estimated dollar amounts and percentages for each vendor remember two plus two is four i'm an aggie and it still is four so again if you have any questions contact our office next slide if you're going to be subcontracting but you're not going to meet that 26 percent hub goal then you will complete method b this will require that you solicit a minimum of three hub vendors and two minority trade organizations and you have to allow them seven working days for them to respond back to your solicitation you can attach as an additional attachment in bitstamp proof of your contacting those vendors and soliciting them along with soliciting the minority trade organizations so you'll want to keep documentation of that inc in case we ask for verification or if you want to just go ahead and include that with your submission you can next slide um then you can also uh the third and final method in which you would complete the hsp would be if you're going to self-perform meaning you're going to keep everything in-house you're not going to sub out any of the work to anyone um in in which case you will complete sections one two three and four and in section three you're going to provide an explanation on how you intend to self-fulfill this contract and when you do complete section three do not refer us to any other section of your response we don't have access to that so you need to just provide a brief summary that you have the employees the skills and the the finances whatever to fulfill this contract and then ensure that you sign and date that hsp in section 4 and submit that next slide so again if you would like for us to provide you a complimentary review prior to the rfo uh due date we can do that for you but please get it to us at least 10 or more days prior to that closing again that gives us enough time to review that it gives you enough time to go back and make any corrections should you need to um we're not going to answer any other questions related to this rfo what we can answer for you is yes or not you completed the hsp correctly if we see that you need to make any changes if we see that your math doesn't add we'll let you know and you can do so and make those corrections and then submit um that corrective form so there is our dir hub email and then you also have my email and my phone number but i suggest since we are working remotely that should you have any additional questions reach out via email it's the best way to contact us thank you okay next slide please and now i'll briefly go over bid package two three and four which includes your respondent engagement experience and then the contract sample contract and then our standard terms and conditions and those will be a high level overview it is expected that all vendors go and read the documents and be familiar with the documents so that you can ask the appropriate questions prior to the question and answer deadline or the question deadline and make sure that you understand the actual terms and conditions that you would be agreeing to should you receive a contract as a part of this rfo experience next slide please bid package 2 this is the respondent engagement experience document it is a multi-page document where we ask for each vendor to describe your approach to general business management by responding with an op to each overall requirement please read through this make sure you've responded appropriately there is a 10 page limit for section a the section a asks multiple questions and it asks for multiple examples of where you provide these types of services so we we do limit that to 10 pages we want to be able to read everybody's and read them thoroughly and if we're getting a huge documents that are submitted and it just takes a lot longer to review and evaluate the responses section b of the responder engagement experience is where the vendor would provide a detailed end-user it outsourcing services submitted in the proposal so whichever services that you're proposing that is where you want to give as much information as possible so that we get a clear picture of what it is that you are proposing to do should you be awarded a contract next slide please so in the bid package 2 vendors are to provide three end user i t outsourcing engagements initiated within the last three years so we want examples of recent experience with real real recent experience not um something that you plan to do this is experience that you should have had within the last three years if the vendor has less than three um leaving leave the remaining engagement blank however blank engagements will not be scored they'll receive a score of zero so the information must be provided for three separate engagements which were initiated within the last three years when the work actually commenced not when the contract execution date took place so again we're looking for real experience here in the areas that you're proposing to provide services through the rfo next slide please bid package three and four bid package three is a sample contract um the contract is the boiler plate we will tailor it to the specific um winning awards so the some of the information will change but that is a standard boilerplate contract and then bid package 4 is our standard terms and conditions for products and services contracts you can take exceptions to items in the bid package 4 which is our standard terms and conditions that is allowable in your exhibit a you must follow the directions in order for those exceptions to be considered however there are certain sections in the appendix a standard terms and conditions that are noted as no exceptions may be taken at all so if you try to take an exception for that area dir will decline that exception and it will not be considered please note that on exceptions that if you propose too many exceptions to our terms and conditions you will be disqualified from the process and we will not uh move forward with any negotiations so if you are taking exceptions we actually prefer that you do not take exceptions to that appendix a but if your agency feels there is a need to take exceptions then the exception needs to be something that you just cannot enter a contract without not just to change semantics or change some wording or to um adjust something to where it's um it's very very specific to one particular incident that's those will not be considered any of the exceptions that you note cannot conflict with state law statute any rules or regulations that dir is bound to or the comptroller's office is bound to so many of our terms and conditions are there's a statute or a rule behind it so you those are the ones that note that no exceptions will be taken as well as some others um but dir cannot enter into a contract that removes any sort of language or requirement that is part of statute that state agencies are bound to next slide please eir accessibility forms in the bid package five and six so i will give a really high level overview of this that um these are services so for the most part the vpat and the pda the vpat and the vatsar will not be required we do ask that the vendors go ahead and the next slide please i'm sorry we do ask that vendors complete the pdaa be it package 5 and submit that back vpat the voluntary product accessibility template is only applicable when you're selling product this is services and so that's not fully applicable on this rfo and the accessibility development services questionnaire bib package eight that is required for you um the services that you're proposing so do complete that package and bid package five vpat is not bit package six is not necessarily going to be applicable to vendors proposing on this next slide please so the purpose of the pdaa form is to one for compliance texas agencies and institutions of higher ed are required to procure um or develop accessibility offerings and so gaps and vendor internal governance systems and leadership commitment inhibit the ability to meet these standards for their products or services and so we we as an agency dir make every effort to enter into contracts that provide accessible products again since this contract is going to be mostly services that there may be areas in that form that do not apply to what you're offering that is fine feel please complete the form to the best of your ability as well next slide please so the accessibility forms the eir forms that come in from you all they're reviewed internally um and they're they're viewed for credibility and what we're looking for is that you all have thought of the offerings that you're proposing and have made some sort of best effort to make sure that those offerings are accessible to our customers who would be making the purchase um so we as an agency um have an internal review which is jeff klein and he he reviews all the documents to make sure that they're credible they don't have to be 100 accurate as far as oh just a second sorry i was trying to turn something off there um so they don't have to be 100 accurate but you do have to make a best effort to complete those forms that are applicable to you all and your offerings let's see i'm going to kind of skip over part of this since i am not the subject matter expert on a vpat and pdaa but we do have a training on um if you go to the dir website and you look at the on the dir calendar i do want to direct you all to this so if you go to dir.texas.gov and click on the calendar at the top what data said i think it is monday so if you scroll down through the calendar on monday october 9th there is a procurement and digital accessibility training that you can register for and that training is presented by jeff klein um where he will be able to provide the information in general for the uh accessibility and what that means and that's a really good presentation to attend and it's virtual so you can anybody can register for that let's see next slide please and the vpap form is again it's not going to be applicable um for the majority of you all so we're going to skip over that at this moment it shouldn't be applicable for anybody because this is all services next slide please and next slide one more so for additional information regarding eir there is a website on our link on the dir website for eir and then there's a pdaa maturity model there's some information there that goes into more detail again i would recommend as many as possible register for the accessibility training that will be provided next week through dir and go to that webinar and hear all about it and you can get your questions answered directly from jeff klein there next slide please vendor reference questionnaire next slide so we do ask that you have three different references at least three different references three is all we'll look at that submit on your behalf to show that um they have done business with you and then they will give you a ranking so the vendor you can you we ask that you provide the reference form to your um reference but the form actually has to come back from your reference directly to dir and not through the um not through you all it won't come in as a part of your response it'll come outside of your response so your reference questionnaire we have those loaded in vis and you can send it from vis to um to companies that you want to fill out the form on your agency's behalf and then they will send the reference form gives them an email box to email that back to dir and those come to myself and scott wilson and the other people on the procurement services team will get the vendor responses and we'll add those to your proposal please note that there are instructions included in bid package 7 on how to send out those vendor reference forms dir is not responsible for under deliverable emails or non-responsive references so if your reference doesn't ever send the form back that's that's not anything that dir is going to follow up on and try to resolve um the vendor may not submit the reference form on behalf of their reference that does need to come directly from them um and they do need to use the form that is util that is provided and not a separate just letter of recommendation okay next slide please we have a sample of the vendor reference form so the top portion if you're submitting this directly from bitstamp from vis obviously you're not able to fill in the top portion of that so it is okay for the the entity that is filling out the form on your behalf to fill out the vendor name and the uh product information that they did you may want to give them a heads up in an email or give them a call and let them know what portions they're supposed to fill out you may also want to follow up with them to make sure they sent the form back into dir there is a deadline for that and it's the same deadline as when the rfo is due at the same time date and day for the when the rfo response is due your proposals do the vendor reference forms are also due um any forms that are later than that the ir will not consider if you see if you have more than three agencies submit back we'll take the first three that they submitted as your your references um next slide please evaluation criteria next slide so in rfo section 4.1 there is um some information on how dir will evaluate the responses incomplete response packages will be rejected the financial review and the hsp the hub subcontracting plan are part of a pass-fail basis our financial review we have an internal review that goes out in checks for financial stability and if you score a low score on duns and broad street then it's not recommended to move forward with a contract award due to insufficient financial stability and the hsp really you have you have a lot of opportunity to get a good hsp in beforehand and to make sure that everything on your hub subcontracting plan is complete so we should not fail you due to lack of hsp if you do not submit a hudson contracting plan at all then that is automatic fail but if you submit something the hub department will work with you you have opportunity to ask them questions specifically about the hudson contracting plan before it is due so please take advantage of that we don't want to not allow your response to move forward to the final evaluation and negotiation due to technicalities um other parts of section 4.1 include the duns number is a requirement which is your if you do not have one you need to follow the process in order to get a duns number um i believe there's a brief instructions on how to do that and then we whenever we evaluate the proposals they are given a score based on a combined weighted evaluator score um meaning we have multiple evaluators and different segments are weighted and so your combined score ranks you and we have a cut off and it's dependent on hrfo so i can't actually tell you what the cutoff number is but we have a what we call competitive range if you score within that competitive range then your proposal moves forward to the next step which are final negotiations and if those negotiations are successful and then to contract award so you need to put your best foot forward this is a competitive process and you are scored by evaluators so the the top tier will get to move forward to the next stage if you don't score high enough your your process stops there and you're notified um that your your proposal did not not meet the minimum requirements to move forward um so what are some of those requirements in section 4.2 of the rfo it goes over the percentage that will be weighted within the rfo evaluation so your past engagement experience that exhibit bid package 2 is 50 of your total score so it counts a lot um your vendor's contract marketing and sort support plan is your next big ticket item and that is 30 of your overall score so those two items can make or break your proposal that is eighty percent of the total score the conformity with the end user i t outsourcing services terms and conditions you get ten percent um you get the top score if you don't take any exceptions you take exceptions the percentage starts coming down um vendor history and experience and vendor references is five percent so that is um one of your exhibits i think it's a and then your respondent and from er that's b and your respondent information is another five percent so that's what we look at and evaluate when we score that does not mean that just because it's not in that evaluation criteria that it's not a required document and we'll go over the mandatory documents in just a minute next slide please next slide so as far as general information and bid submittal so how do you get your bid into dir that's going to be through our bid stamp portal and then other general information so whenever you are asking questions either in the chat or whenever you submit them through the vendor information system in order for us to be able to address which uh your actual question please reference the rfo page number and the section when submitting questions or if you're asking a question about the um any of the contents please reference what section you're you're talking about um the webinar participants you guys may submit questions electronically anytime during the webinar please use the q a tab to do that and then again a reminder we will take a little quick break we'll do a internal discussion of some of the questions that come in but any of those questions that we answer after we come back from the great break those are going to be unofficial and then until they're posted on the electronic state business daily in that addendum remember to check the espd often for updates and then all questions including those submitted at this webinar and through the vis portal those questions any question that you have for the rfo is due to received by dir no later than october 19th 2 p.m any questions that come after that dir has discretion as to whether or not we would include that in our addendum for the question and answer okay next slide please so some disqualifying information if you fail to sign the vendor information form the exhibit a that stops your process there to automatic disqualifier if you failure to complete the financial information which includes the duns number that is also a disqualifier failure to complete a hub subcontracting plan and submitting the hub subcontracting plan automatically disqualifies failure to com to submit on or before the due date and time this is electronic submission so if you don't get it submitted in time then if you don't get it submitted in time then the system actually will not allow you to submit it it will look like it still allows for a little bit because your portal is still active but you will not be able to hit that submit button after 2 p.m on the due date of the rfo the other disqualifying item and this is not a this is not negotiable is contact with dir employees regarding this rfo other than the designated contacts um i am the designated contact for the overall rfo um so you if you are planning on responding to this rfo you cannot shop around to other dir employees for questions for guidance for any sort of information because all of that gets back and i document that and then i document that there was a violation of the rfo it's actually specifically written in the rfo and it's in the comptroller's procurement manual and guide that that is prohibited so there's two different places that that's documented that that's prohibited and it also documents that offenders of that will be disqualified from the entire process so this is an open and active rfo as of october 9th the only person that you're able to communicate with about the rfo is myself we do have a couple of exceptions one is hub you may contact hub for their portion and then you may also if you're having issues with getting into bitstamp and i set up a ticket for you you can talk with the person from rit support just on your bid stamp issue and getting that that resolved okay so how do you get your bid to us let's see next slide please i just covered that pretty thoroughly and the next slide gives the exceptions to anybody you made talk to so it's myself stephanie harrison lynn with the hub department and then if you have questions about eir you may contact jeff klein only about the eir portion bid submittal next slide please so we've talked about bid stamp we've talked about the vendor information system what exactly is that that is our electronic response system so before anybody can submit their proposal you actually have to go in and set up an account um in order to set up an account um please give yourself some time because there's a manual process on the back end it's not an automatic immediate response on the account where that account is verified so we're not getting bots and robots in there going in and setting up accounts and we're also not getting hopefully we're eliminating some fraudulent activity by having a live person on the back end doing some verification on that um your the response time is about uh 48 hours for you to get your credentials back so please go into the bit if you're planning on responding is get your account set up now in the vendor vendor information system and then in a couple of days business days not weekend included then you will get your credentials to actually go in and log into that account next slide please any person with a disability who needs an accommodation under the ada who is planning to respond to the solicitation please contact the point of contact in section 3.1 of the rfo which is myself and allow a few days for a response for that so we can see what we need to do in order to get you an accessible accommodation outside of the automated automated response process next slide please so on the dir website in order to create your vendor account through the the vendor information systems you'll need to go to the dir website which is dir dot texas.gov and then the link is down here at the bottom view information for vendors and then you'll come to a landing page and on that landing page you you'll have an option to click on open solicitations next slide and next slide now let me backtrack just a minute this is what your landing page will look like after your account is set up so when in order to request your account you're still at that dir dir.texas.gov and you will go into the um the dir comm the biz stamp vendor login page um and you'll request an account so you you send in your email address and some basic information and then that comes to our person in it on our end and then they will go in and once they verify that they will send you the login information this process right here is after your account is enabled for additional steps on the real step by step by step of how to get to this page here there is a link with a video instruction on the dir website which is on the information for vendors page if you scroll towards the bottom it has the bid stamp video and tutorial that you can follow along with the the uh bistamp troubleshooting handbook this page is to show you how to get your solicitation in so once you have your account in your setup then you go into the create a new response you're going to click on the rfo number that you're interested in this particular rfo is dir cpo tmp442 any rfo that we have posted that's active and and available for response will show up in that list currently this is the only rfo so this is the only one that should show up in your list go ahead next side please so this page will display the important deadlines for the solicitation and list any questions that you have submitted as the vendor so this is the place um down at the bottom there where it says rfo questions there is a um a link where you not a link it's a text box that you go in and enter your rf your questions and then when you submit that question those questions come in on our end and we see we see the questions everybody submits you see the questions that your account submits but you you're able to keep up with that um that account internally and and kind of review those questions it does not show any answers that we go back because any of the answers will go in the um the addendum notification also on this page you're going to have the actual start date of the rfo the deadlines um for the sim the question submission deadline um the time and date that the responses do for that particular rfo um and any other like general rfo information so it's just kind of a snapshot of of the information for the rfo that you have clicked on the link to look at next slide please so when you're creating a new response for um the ir for the vendor information system you're going to want to go to the rfo button and then that will get you to the right page and then you're going to hit um respond to solicitation or review responses to create a new response or view a response that is in progress if the response has already been created or started it will read as view response and allow you to resume your progress on any existing rfo response the ask a question button there does just that ask you a question up to the deadline and then subscribe to solicitation is another option that you have where you can kind of watch a solicitation that you you might not be planning to to respond to but you just kind of want to keep tabs on it and you subscribe to that and then you'll get certain notifications when like dates change and things like that and then view solicitation documents will navigate to the that links to the espd and you can go there and that's where all of the official documents for the rfo are posted we have links on our dir website but those are courtesy links the actual rfos posted on the electronic state business daily and it is up to each vendor to go in and make sure that they have the most updated information in order to respond to next slide please i apologize in advance this slide is a little bit busy but this is the the slide within the vendor information system portal where you actually start compiling everything for your solicitation response so the rfo response this is the rfro response page you have several buttons in here the delete deletes all information that has been uploaded to the response record before response has been submitted and that is a um uh full on delete button it it it does not delete one section or what you just did it deletes the entire response that you've been working on so um you must be certain that you want to hit delete before you hit delete once our response is submitted that delete button is actually not activated anymore you must actually contact um you can withdraw the submission but when you withdraw it then you you're out of if it's past the deadline you cannot resubmit um the submit button just does that it submits the response record and all associated information with it so if you submit the record before you um have everything uploaded and it's still open you can go back in and hit the withdraw button but you got to start over again you got to start over on your upload so delete and submit are two buttons that you need to be really sure that you're ready to hit either one of those before you utilize them ask a question we've we've been over that one that's where you can send the questions into dir the adder edit the hub subcontracting form um allows you to do just that you can on the hudson contracting form you will complete the form online but you also have to print a copy of it and then upload the copy as one of your your attachments your rfo response documents because it does have to be signed this particular rfo it does not have a pricing form that is your vendor engagement experience document so you will not have to create a pricing form for this because this is all statement of work based type services your new rfo response documents that is the where you upload the files indicated in the rfo on the dir website again i referenced that bitstamp user manual there is sections that will walk you through even more screenshots on there i recommend people to go in and actually print a copy of that um this stamp user guide because it's kind of your it's your blueprint so to speak to make sure that you're responding to the solicitation and that you have everything that you need in order to get make sure that your response is a credible response that is received by dir and is able to move through all the phases that last one there on that list is the vendor references and that is where you can send the vendor reference document to the entities that you want to receive the vendor reference form on your behalf it does not give you any updates as to whether they ever send that back in or not it's just sending them the copy of the form instead of you taking the form out of the bid packages and emailing it to them this just sends it to you to them for a bit stamp you do not you also do not get a notification if there's any sort of bounce back so i recommend you follow up with whoever you're sending the um reference form to and make sure that they received it next slide please all right and we're almost done into our break point um so mandatory submission requirements we've been over some of this already but this is included in section 3.7.1 of the rfo you must provide the items listed below or the response will be rejected this includes your exhibit a which must be signed um exhibit a cancel contracts attachment 1 and 2 if applicable exhibit b your vendor history and experience your exhibit c contract marketing and support plan your exhibit d signed hub subcontracting plan your bid package 2 respondent engagement experience your bid package 6 which is the pdaa um any um licensings or service agreements most of these may be service agreements um and your bid package eight which is the edgar certification form the addendum that gets posted may make some modifications um to any sort of requirement it is the vendor's responsibility to check that and if anything has been added to the list of mandatory submission requirements that is up to the that is the vendor's responsibility to abide by anything that is maybe added by the addendum all right next slide please we're going to take a quick break to give you all an opportunity to submit questions to the q a section in your control panel we will review and address some of those questions now again any answers that are given today are unofficial until they're posted on the esbd in the form of an addendum and then please remember after the webinar you have the opportunity and we encourage you all to submit additional questions through the vis system okay and we will see you back here at 3 14. okay welcome back everyone um we're gonna go through some of the uh questions and and questions and give unofficial answers to as many as possible we won't be able to get through everybody's question but they will be accounted for and updated in the addendum as well as any questions that you submit through bitstamp please remember that if you've actually already have an account set up because you've either responded to or follow uh have followed a solicitation previously in percent you do not need to set up a new account um if you've forgotten your password you can have that reset but if you already have an account with your email you do not need to set up a new business account this is the same account let's see we'll get started here with um let's see scott were you able to get to some of the questions here yes can you hear me yes okay you ready for me to start reading them yes please okay so the first question will this contract be available to be used for computer software programming and so this contract is for the services that are listed specifically in the rfo if the um it's not specifically for standalone computer software programming only that's a different contract vehicle but if you need to program the computers that the customer already has to do some sort of reset there that is one of the services that is within the scope of the rfo next question okay next question i'm sure you've been asked this a lot today but i'll ask anyways how many incumbent vendors are there and how many awards to dir how many awards do does dir intend to make this cycle so we currently have 12 active vendors that have this contract vehicle there were more when it initially was awarded but several of them either were not renewed or expired but we currently have 12. we don't know at this point how many we expect to award it is a multiple award contract because these are master contracts that are utilized by our customers and we have several thousand customers that purchase off of dir so we do expect multiple awards but i don't have an exact number as how many next question okay how many end users would they be supporting um again that's going to be dependent on the sow that goes into effect with the customer the customer determines how many end users that they need it can be anywhere from a small agency like dir we have a 210 employees um to where you may be working for supplying services to a larger agency like hhsc that may have thousands of employees so it it's dependent on the customer and what sort of services that they have outlined in their statement statement of work next question the r the rfo package one indicates that this rfo is for services only yet there are numerous references to vendor-owned equipment and leasing please confirm this rfo does not include any hardware or software to be leased by the vendor so this rfo is what is commonly known as seat management and one of the services that can be provided during seat management is the leasing of hardware and software it's just not um it's where the the vendor would come in and the customer goes into agreement with them to lease out the computers their desktops and then after the lease expires the vendor comes and takes everything back so that is one of the services that is allowed the customer is not purchasing the equipment from the vendor it can be either vendor-owned equipment or the vendor can be providing services on customer-owned equipment but they're not buying any hardware or hardware equipment directly from the vendor those are we have other contract vehicles for the hardware purchases next question please is it required that bidders support all work categories as defined in section 2.1 of the rfo or may bidders propose to support only some of the categories listed um the vendors can propose some or all so it's you don't have to propose everything in there but they do you do need to propose services that you have actually experienced providing that's part of the vendor engagement response next question please okay will will the will the recorded webinar be available to attendees i'm currently i don't believe so that may change um i have to check with our webmaster to see if that's a possibility or not if it will it would be posted um on the dir website but currently we normally we do not post these next slide please who is who is currently providing these services um so we currently have 12 vendors that provide these services you can search for those on the dir website um let's see we have oes lancer llc vintage computer vintage i.t services shi government solutions cbm archives gts technology services serious computer solutions electro system engineers web head technologies incorporated unisys corporation insight public sector kst data incorporated att incorporated and that was the last one so those are the current vendors that um have contracts under the current rfo next question please okay when will the rfo be available in bitstamp um it should already be available in bitstamp if it's not i'll have to troubleshoot that later but it it was posted earlier today next question okay in rfo bid package one there is a reference to pricing sheet in bid package two yet there does not appear to be any pricing information in that document and then there's a following question what financial information is to be evaluated or passed fill as referenced um that may be just a section that got left in but um i don't know which section you're referring to in bidpac in rfo package one there's it's a multi multiple page document but the bid package two is not pricing that is the vendor engagement document and that one is a required document next question please if you are using a 1099 independent contractor to perform some of the services does that count as a subcontractor that's a lynn question lynn yes next question okay next question this is a little long one even even this so even this rf even though this rfo is for services only and no hardware or software products may be sold through a contract resulting from this rfo part of the scope of services is the provisioning of equipment could you clarify if you were looking for a utility computing model where we as a cert where we as service providers should make computing resources in parentheses laptops desktops etc servers etc as part of the services yes that is one of the options okay there's also another second question so all hardware related cost should be bundled in with the service rates yes and that will be developed in a statement of work depending on the customer's needs next question will the elements of section b in bid package 2 be available for access by other vendors so all of the solicitation documents that come in are not subject to open records request while the solicitation is open however after the solicitation closes and all awards have been made anything that is provided to dir is subject to open records request if you have confidential or proprietary information that you need to mark your document as confidential a proprietary in order for that to be redacted before it's released for any sort of open records request next question please in the standard terms and conditions document section 9 contract administration there is a reference to administrative fees in section b reporting an administration fee but no definition of such fee what is the administrative fee um the administrative fee is a fee paid by um our customers for doing business with dir it is a fee that is passed through the vendor and the vendor pays that on behalf of the customer as a part of their monthly sales reporting the administrative fee can vary from contract to contract for this particular contract it will be 0.75 of the uh sales and should you be awarded a contract we actually go over that in a great detail in our vendor orientation and how to how those fees are calculated and and paid to dir next question when remote support options are available are there any restrictions to provide these services from outside the united states yes and that's going to be dependent on the current federal and state regulations so the vendors have to of course abide by any laws pertaining to that next question will you post the list of attendees from today's webinar to see which other vendors expressed interest yes that will be a part of the addendum next question how will the financial pass fail be assessed based on what criteria so that is listed in the rfo the financial information and what they're looking for is financial score i believe it's your dundon bradstreet score let's see that's actually one of the i was trying to find the page it's on just a second i think it might be page 24. i think i just got there um it's on page 24 of the rfo section 4.2.1 it's a financial review of the duns number and basically your duns broad street score next question how long is the negotiation process typically if a contract is awarded what is the next step selling to state agencies the negotiation process can the evaluation and negotiation process is usually a multi-month process we try to get into negotiations um about six weeks after the solicitation closes um and then that is a it's a kind of a complicated process because a lot of that timing depends on how responsive the vendors are um we're working with multiple vendors and so it is a process that i may take anywhere from an additional six weeks to several months to finalize before it gets to a contract award once you have received a contract then the next step is we go over things with you in a vendor orientation on how you can reach out to our customer base and begin working with them i think we already answered the next question what's the one after that and stephanie it's 3 29 just giving you update on the time okay we have one time for one more question okay last question regarding bid packages bid package 2 specifically with three engagements as well as bid package 7 vendor references if a vendor is using subcontractors will those subcontractors engagements and or vendor references be considered during the evaluation or only the prime vendors if they were doing work for you uh as you were the prime vendor and they were your subcontractor um then yes you can use that engagement if they're doing it on uh in and of their own outside of a contractual agreement with you as the prime vendor then no that would not be considered and that's the answer for both okay that was the last question we had time for but all of these answers will be officially addressed and posted on the addendum one you have until october 19th to get any questions submitted through bitstamp um and the time and date that is located in the rfo and all those questions combined with these questions will go forward and and could be put into a excuse me i got the hiccups in there be put into a formal question answer document in our addendum along with the slides and the attendee list from this uh webinar um so let's see i think there's a couple if you click through a couple of slides it gives the final referral schedule there you go that's just a reminder and then the next slide is my information i prefer you use bitstamp for rfo specific questions so those get all tallied in there and please note that because it is open solicitation i'm very limited on answering one-off questions they all need to come in the formal process so they can be answered formally and that concludes our webinar for today we thank you all for attending please be sure you get those questions in by the due date and good luck to everyone