Economic Development Prospecting Tool SOW

Written by on March 21, 2017

The WDCEP is seeking proposals from qualified companies to create, design and implement a new Economic Development Prospecting Tool (EDPT).  The SOW is available for download. Responses are due April 7th, 2017.

Questions & Answers

1. Are there notes from the conference call?

There were no notes taken by WDCEP. Most of the questions (outside of 2 – 6) revolved around the following:

  • Data Ownership: WDCEP owns all of the data in Salesforce and is in the process of marking its digital assets as Full Ownership, Partial Ownership (can use in tool) and Restricted Ownership (can’t use in tool).
  • ArcGIS: Vendor will be able to use WDCEP’s ArcGIS Online account to help with data implementation.
  • Mobile access: It is important for WDCEP that a user can access the tool on a mobile device.
  • Open-Source solutions: WDCEP is open to looking at open-source solutions.
  • Digital Assets: The WDCEP is working with another vendor to add proper keywords to our photos/renderings of buildings/projects. One of the keywords will be a folder name which will match a field in Salesforce.
  • Other Q&A was addressed in the updated SOW (clarified export file type, new proposal deadline, and clarified delivery date of tool).

2. What involvement will ThinkTechLabs and their REthink product have in this procurement, if any?

  • ThinkTechLabs’s REThink product is built on-top of Salesforce. WDCEP uses their objects to maintain our real estate data (e.g. building, vacant/occupied space, neighborhood, Metrorail info). We have been told that there is no special API/access needed for data in REThink as it is built on top of Salesforce – any Salesforce APIs or tools will have access to this data.
  • Outside of technical support (if needed) there will be no involvement with ThinkTechLabs in this project.

3. Can you provide the criteria by which you will evaluate the proposals?

  • We are looking for a tool that offers similar functionality to our existing Retail Site Search tool and Development Search Tool and comparable to other economic development prospecting tools (see SOW .PDF). In addition, we would like to offer demographic data (preferably from Esri) and integrate with Salesforce and a digital assessment management system.
  • The bids will be evaluated on numerous criteria, including: what is possible within budget, ease of integration with 3rd party software such as Salesforce, digital assessment management system & demographics (i.e. will this be a manual process or automated), delivery timeframe, platform/CMS recommended, and experience of bidder on similar projects.

4. We do not think the work specified in the RFP can be accomplished within the budget indicated – please advise as to whether we should provide a proposal for one year’s worth of work within this budget with the anticipation of future years / budgets, or how to address and whether our inability to do all the required items within this budget suggests we should not bid.

  • WDCEP is relying on vendors experience and guidance on what is possible within our year 1 budget. The guidelines are meant to offer examples of functionality WDCEP desires so strategic decisions can be made when the initial design of the tool is created so future enhancements can be built off of year 1 implementations. If you choose to respond to the SOW please indicate what is possible within the year 1 budget and what is possible for additional $X as separate line items.

5. We have reservations about delivering the EDPT by the deadline. Can you provide information on what is driving the schedule?

  • Tool needs to be completed by the end of the fiscal year (September). Given past experience we will need time after requested target date of August to fix bugs before official roll-out.

6. Companies on the call / potential bidders:

  • Blue Raster
  • CleverMap
  • Community Systems
  • Confluence
  • GIS Planning
  • New Light Technologies
  • Streetsense

7. How robust does the login need to be? Is setting up a SSO the eventual vision, and/or who will be in charge of user management (sign up, password resets, license expired, etc)?

  • The eventual goal (i.e. roadmap) would be to set-up a username & password system that would allow the user to manage their user profile, password and payment independent of WDCEP. Ideally, this system would support SAML to allow for SSO access. In addition, WDCEP would have admin privileges to troubleshoot issues and revoke credential/access if needed.
  • For year 1 implementation a “first step solution” could be a way to capture a user’s information (e.g. name, company, email, phone) in order to access select “premium features”. Ideally, this type of implementation would only ask for this information one time or one-time per session so user does not have to re-enter this information each time they wish to access “premium features.”

8. The RFP states that WDCEP desires to acquire a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution.  While the RFP shows a need to build interoperability with this DAM. Is the cost of acquiring, licensing, or operating the DAM to be borne as part of the RFP by the successful bidder?

  • Any costs associated with the DAM (e.g. acquire, set-up, subscribe/license, operate) would need to be included in the year 1 budget. The SOW gave some examples of DAM solutions for further investigation, but WDCEP is open to other alternatives.

9. Any preference on Cloudinary or Photoshelter? Do you already have pricing from them?

  • While I have seen a demo on Photoshelter (back in August), there is no preference and we are open to other solutions as well. The hope would be that the DAM solution could be used for the EDPT as well as general photo management. Ideally, the DAM would allow us to organize photos based on buildings/projects, choose the photos to integrate with the EDPT and in a specific order/sequence. We do not have current pricing on either.

10. Who will be involved in decision making process? With a 20 page limit it is important we prioritize some content to give additional decision makers context.

  • The plan is to make an internal decision. Chad Shuskey (WDCEP) will be taking the lead on the project and advising our President & CEO. Other WDCEP staff may be asked to provide comments.

11. In an ideal world, which of the custom search criteria do you want to have up front? (e.g. neighborhood, quadrant, ward, main street, etc.).

  • Ideally, the user would have similar options to what our Retail Site Search (http://wdceprss.dc.gov/) offers today with the ability to choose a standard geography (neighborhood, ward, quadrant main street). If you are asking order of importance of these searches it would be 1A. Ward; 1B. Neighborhood; 2. Main Street; 3. Quadrant.
Posted Under: DC News