Questions and Answers Automated Budgeting Tool RFP

Transcription

1 1 11/18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/15 Questions and Answers Automated Budgeting Tool RFP Date: November Date Question OPERS Response We understand that OPERS is looking for an automated budgeting system as against the current Excel based manual processes. Can you please provide the top 5 challenges of the existing system? We understand that Microsoft Dynamics GP is one of source system that feeds actual data to planning system. Are there any additional source systems to be considered? Do you expect the system to have a drill back to source system for auditing and reconciliation? We assume that the functional scope of the engagement is limited to : Operational planning (Revenue/Capital and Expenses). P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, etc. are assumed to be out of scope. Please let us know if any of them are to be considered in scope What is the number of years of data being considered for planning process (Actuals + Forecast)? Are there any specific regulatory compliance requirements? Please elaborate. What are the typical timelines of the budget cycle? What is the time taken for the annual budget to complete? How many users will be using the planning system? How many of them will be concurrent? Manual template creations and distribution Errors when completing templates Manual consolidation of templates & Reporting Flowing changes back down to the details Quarterly Budget Upload to GP (comprehensive and Analytical Accounting) Microsoft Dynamics GP (GP) is the source of actual data as well as account, analytical accounting and vendor information. It would be helpful if you could drill back to the original transaction into GP, but not a requirement. The source of the payroll data is the payroll system, which is Kronos. There is not interface requirement. The desire is to allow a spreadsheet of positions/people/dept/pay downloaded from Kronos to be uploaded into the budgeting system. The scope is operating expenses (including payroll) and capital. One year. Example: 2017 will be budgeted in our next budgeting cycle. We are required to submit our budget to the Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC) 60 days prior to final Board approval of our budget. This deadline drives our internal deadlines. The budget process is typically kicked off in mid-july with a training session and distribution of templates to the Divisions. The templates are due back by mid-august. The Leadership Team performs iterative reviews of the budget over the next three to four weeks until a final budget draft is agreed upon. The draft is presented to the Board Budget and Planning Committee at the end of September, and then it is sent and presented to the ORSC in mid-october. It is presented to the Board for final approval in mid-december. Approximately five budget administrators and 70 budget users. All 70 users could potentially be in the system at the same time. Although 35

2 8 11/18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/15 Are you expecting parallel run of the existing system and the new planning system? If yes, what is the duration of parallel run expected? Are we correct to assume installation and configuration of the product is to be done by the vendor in all environments - DEV, QA and PROD? We understand that the Budget Tool implementation initiative is critical to OPERS. However, is there any dependency from other projects related to upstream/downstream/infrastructure based systems? If so, please share the timeline by when such dependent projects will be completed? Is there any specific start date and end date that OPERS is looking at for the planning implementation? How many years of history data needs to be maintained in the proposed budgeting system? Is the granularity of data the same at which budgets and forecasts are collected for various time periods, account level, product etc? Does OPERS already have physical infrastructure that can be used for this engagement or the vendor can provide recommendations on the infrastructure? If answer to above is yes, how many environments are to be considered? Will OPERS need a load-balancing solution for PROD? As a best practice, product vendor would provide infrastructure recommendations during licensing. Please let us know Can we assume that the models/templates / reports as developed to cover the subject areas will be common for all the departments/cost centers in scope and there is no need for customization at individual departments/bu? We assume that all the user interaction / demonstration / training/ documentation will be done in Ohio only. Please confirm might be a more accurate estimate. No. There is no current automated system. We will require at least a Prod and Dev environment with training and documentation for our internal IT to be able to recreate and support. There are no other project dependencies. January June Our budget cycle starts in July so we would want it to be implemented by the first of July. 1 year prior budget Yes. Would need to know what is required in order to answer this question. We have the ability to run POCs but would have to better understand the requirements. We have apps that require a thick client installed on the client and the server has the app and another server has the database, we have apps that are web based. We will require at least a Prod and Dev environment. We are not sure if our volume would require load balancing. We will rely on vendor recommendations. You can assume they will be common to all, no customization by department. The administrators and IT people will need to be trained during the implementation. If you provide user training, separately identify costs as an additional service.

3 18 11/18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/15 What is the version of MS office that is used across the OPERS enterprise? Are you looking at enablement of Budget Tool through Android and ios based devices? What is the average number of iterations used for the budgeting and forecasting process at OPERS? Please elaborate on the non-financial components of budget and how they are integrated (E.g. Headcount data, Demand Plan Qty, allocation driver data etc.) How many reports are generated as part of the existing system? Please let us know if OPERS has done any tool evaluation exercise? If yes, which tools were considered closest to the requirement of OPERS? We understand that OPERS is looking for 5 customer references as part of proposal response. Please let us know if these are evaluation criteria or are the references used to understand the delivery capabilities of the vendor? Page 4, item 1.7 states: OPERS shall have full ownership, including copyright interests in all software, documentations and other related work projects, as applicable. As a software vendor we cannot agree to this statement. Will your requirement be satisfied if we agree to the following statement instead? hereby grants to Licensee a perpetual, Personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive license to use the Software, solely in executable code format, and the Documentation provided therewith, solely for Licensee s own internal business purposes. has exclusive ownership of the intellectual property associated with the Software and any customizations developed within the context of this agreement. There is no ownership in the Intellectual Property transferred to the Licensee as a result of this Office 2010, IE 11. Enabling through a smart device is not a requirement, but would be nice to have. Four The source of the payroll data is the payroll system, which is Kronos. There is not interface requirement. The desire is to allow a spreadsheet of positions/people/dept/pay downloaded from Kronos to be uploaded into the budgeting system. During the budgeting process, reports include current budget vs. prior year budget detail worksheet reports by division and department, summary budget reports by admin category in total, and by division and department. Also, reports of actual vs. budget reporting at all these levels will be required monthly. In addition, special reports are prepared for the Board and Leadership Team and contain budget information at the Analytical Accounting and account string level. Not related to the Scope of this RFPNicole checking with Legal Both. You can include this statement in your response; however, our acceptance of the change will depend on the final purchase.i (Nicole) will ask Legal about this.

4 25 11/18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/15 Agreement. Licensee will at all times be the sole owner the data contained within the solution. Page 5, item 2.6 states: Please provide a report, study, or assessment of your company, prepared by an unbiased independent thirdparty source, concerning client satisfaction and measures of your firm s strengths and weaknesses visà-vis your key competitors. We do not have such a report prepared by an independent third-party. We do have annual client satisfaction statistics (Net Promoter Score) however this does not address our strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis your key competitors. Can we provide our own assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and where we believe we rank compared to our competitors? What is your annual operating (including Capital or CIP) budget? Has the OPERS viewed budget solutions before the release of the RFP document? (Within the last 2 years) If so, which solutions? Has a budget been set aside for this project? If so, how much? Does OPERS want a COTS (Commercial off the shelf) solution, or a custom built tool? Will you consider a thin client as a part of the offered solution or are you only accepting RFPs where the entire spectrum (100%) of budgeting, reporting functions is web-based? Can you provide an overview your general organizational structure as it relates to budgeting? For example, below is a common organization structure: 10 Divisions 50 Departments 200 Cost Centers (budgeting done at this level, then rolled up) Can you describe your organizational structure in this manner? Yes, you can provide you own assessment. Operating is approximately $100 million and new capital is approximately $5 million and carryover capital is approximately $20 million. Not related to the Scope of this RFP(Similar to question #22) Nicole checking with Legal OPERS has set aside budget money in 2016 for this purchase. We do not divulge that information to vendors during this stage of the process. Please submit your best pricing. We are hoping to find an off the shelf product that fits most of our needs with the ability to tweak it as needed. We will consider both on premise (thick or thin client) as well as cloud based solutions. Approximately 65 cost centers roll up to approximately 30 departments that roll up into approximately 12 divisions.

5 32 11/18/15 Please provide an example of the GL account hierarchies/coa. Activity Code Ex: FN1001 Fund-Cost Center -Account Project Ex: G (most accounts do not have a project code) 33 11/18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/ /18/15 Are Departmental Allocations needed? For example, some Departments (Cost Centers) allocate all of their expenses to other Departments or Cost Centers in the budgeting process. These are often referred to as Internal Service Providers or ISPs. A common example of an ISP can be the Information Technology (IT) department. ISP budgets are developed in detail just like any other department, and then their expenses are allocated out to other budget elements other departments. Can you describe how many licenses (users, seats) are required as per below:? How many Capital budgeting licenses are required? How many Operating budgeting licenses are required? How many Salary/Position budgeting licenses are required? What is the total number of positions (staff) expressed as FTE s? How many of the FTE positions are unionized? For the majority of positions, are staffing costs calculated based on Steps and Grades (a matrix)? If not, can you explain how position costs are calculated? Do you want training to be performed onsite or done remotely? Remote (internet conferencing) is becoming more common and is more economical. For the Professional Services component of the bid, are you requesting a fixed price or time & material? No allocation calculations are performed. The actual budget charged either to the department or IT, depending on where instructed. Capital 72 Operating 72 Salary/Position 3 Note there will be at least 2 other administrator users that do not create payroll. 600 None For filled positions, costs are calculated using on actual pay and assumed average merit increase. For open positions, costs are calculated based on pay grade The administrators and IT people will need to be trained during the implementation. If you provide user training, separately identify costs as an additional service. If it is more economical to provide training and implementing, then cost it that way. Just make sure it is noted. Fixed price. Please detail out the fixed costs between software costs and labor.

6 40 11/18/ /18/15 42 Teleconference Power Plan 43 Teleconference Power Plan 44 Teleconference 45 Teleconference Deloitte Is your preference to have the software installed on your premise (your server) or, in a hosted environment? On Page 10, section G states to submit the response electronically to Jay Yoho, however there is no address for Mr. Yoho listed. Can you provide? On the requirements matrix, #3 states the ability to distinguish between capital and operating costs as well as the ability to distinguish between one time vs ongoing expenses. Can you elaborate on your expectation as far as capital breakdown bet external cap vendor and internal cap labor? Please confirm that vendors only need to submit an electronic copy. How many years do you budget at a time? What are the expectations around performance measures and drivers and how you would implement those (performance based budgeting)? Are you looking for a driver based solution or a repository to house data that we have created in an Excel spreadsheet? Whichever would be most cost effective for OPERS. Most of our applications are on premise but we have a few that are hosted. Hosted solutions would have to be analyzed for security certificates and would have to meet our requirements. jyoho@opers.org Internal capital labor would need to be a contra account to the gross payroll calculated. We would use IT estimates of labor hours and apply an average labor cost per hour. We would then reduce the operating payroll budget by that calculated amount, and increase the capital budget. External cap vendor relates to external consultants, hardware, software costs. Yes, that is correct. Electronic must be received by the deadline. We typically budget one year at a time We don t have a lot of drivers that impact the budget. We are more zero based budgeting. There are ongoing costs to keep doors open and then one-time costs for new initiatives. We ask departments to provide some sort of metric to explain how they came up with their information. We do not have one standard set of drivers that work for every department. We want a one size fits all solution with the ability for departments to estimate costs that are unique to individual departments. Yes, we would need to know what our hardware requirements are to get that set up. 46 Teleconference Will the hardware be purchased during the 6 month implementation? 47 Teleconference What database language does OPERS use? SQL shop, we use all versions of SQL including Teleconference Would Unix or Linux be an option Suse Linux is preferred but Red Hat will work too 49 Teleconference Which Internet Explorer version does OPERS use? IE11 50 Teleconference Do you use other browsers besides IE11 Standard browsers Firefox, Chrome 51 Teleconference Matrix - Where are you recording your budgets today? Loading it into your budget system or Excel? Where would you like to do it? Currently budget is loaded into Dynamics GP solution, we have custom reporting that is done, we would be open to the actual data flowing other way because the reporting is not as robust as we would like. We are open to solutions vendors have to offer.