REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

Subject: Financial Management & Utility Billing Software

Due Date/Time: March 28, 201412:00 pm Eastern Standard Time

Submit To: Chris Wilson

Village of Beverly Hills

18500 W Thirteen Mile Road

Beverly Hills, MI48025

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Table of Contents

Section Title ____ Page

1 Schedule 2

2 Overview 3

3 Guidelines & Process 6

4 Scope of Work 10

5 RFP Response Format & Requirements 14

6 Pricing Worksheet Appendix A

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1 Schedule

Listed below are important dates and times by which the actions noted must be completed. If the Township finds it necessary to change any of these dates or times, the change will be accomplished by addendum. All dates are subject to change. Milestone Expected Completion Date

Issue RFP February 28, 2014

Deadline for Questions March10, 2014

Response to Questions March 19, 2014

Deadline for Submitting Proposals March 28, 2014

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2 Overview

2.1 Background

The Village of Beverly Hills solicits sealed written proposals for the implementation of an

integrated Financial Management and Utility Billing system and related modules, data

conversion, training, implementation assistance, integration and ongoing software

support, in accordance with the terms, conditions and specifications outlined in this

Request for Proposal (RFP).

2.2 Existing Software

The Village is currently using the following Fund Balance software modules:

o Accounts Payable

o Cash Receipts

o General Ledger

o Budgeting

o Payroll

o Utility Billing

2.3 Scope of Work

The Village is seeking proposals from qualified and experienced software vendors to

provide a fully integrated Financial Management and Utility Billing software application

package. The Proposer shall prepare a response that clearly represents the experience of

the firm in the municipal environment, functionality of the software package, and outlines

an accurate representation of all costs. The following modules are included in the scope:

General Ledger

Budgeting

Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable/Invoicing

Purchasing

Cash Receipts

Payroll

Timekeeping

Utility Billing

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For the purposes of this proposal, vendors should assume a fully integrated

implementation including installing the software purchased, training and conversion of

data from the current systems. All modules should be provided by one vendor unless

otherwise noted.

Data Conversion - The Village requires conversion of existing Fund Balance data. A

separate breakdown for data conversion is included in the pricing spreadsheet.

Training - The Village requires on-site training for each of the modules to be provided.

The vendor will be responsible for developing a training plan in collaboration with the

Village and delivering on-site training to end-users. A separate breakdown for these

interfaces is included in the pricing spreadsheet.

System Interfaces - The Village requires a number of system interfaces/integrations with

both internal and external systems. A separate breakdown for these interfaces is

included in the pricing spreadsheet.

2.4 User and Data Volume Estimates

Number of Employees on Payroll 50

Number of Financial & Utility Billing System Users 4

Number of Accounts Payable Vendors 250-300

Estimated Number of Accounts Payable Checks per Month 150

Number of Utility Billing Accounts 4,200

2.5 Proposal Due Date and Opening

Sealed proposals must be received on or beforeMarch 28, 2014 at 12:00 pm (Eastern

Standard Time), at the Village Offices, 18500 W Thirteen Mile Road, Beverly Hills, MI

48025. Any proposal received after the specified time will be returned unopened. The

Proposer is solely responsible for ensuring the proposal is received on or before the

deadline.

RFPs will be opened and listed publicly in Village Offices, 18500 W Thirteen Mile Road,

Beverly Hills, MI 48025 on the date and time specified above.

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All proposals that are not submitted in the required format or missing required forms will

be subject to rejection. The complete RFP and applicable forms are available on the

Village’s website (www.villagebeverlyhills.com) or by sending an email to Chris Wilson at

cwilson@villagebeverlyhills.com. All proposals must be signed in ink. It is agreed upon

by the Proposer that the signing and delivery of the Proposal represents the Proposers

acceptance of the terms and conditions of the specifications.

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3 Guidelines& Process

3.1 Proposal Submission

3.1.1 One (1) executed original and five (5) copies (and attachments and exhibits, if

applicable) must be submitted in sealed envelopes to Village of Beverly Hills,

Attn: Chris Wilson, 18500 W Thirteen Mile Road, Beverly Hills, MI 48025, on or

before 12:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time, March 28, 2014. Late proposals will

not be considered. All proposals must be signed by an authorized representative

of your organization. Faxed or e-mailed proposals will not be considered.

3.1.2 Any questions concerning this RFP should be directed to Chris Wilson via email

at cwilson@villagebeverlyhills.com. Responses to e-mail questions will be

posted on the Village’s website, www.villagebeverlyhills.com. Respondents will

not receive personalized or individual email responses. Respondents should

check this site on a regular basis for responses to questions, as well as for any

amendments or other pertinent information regarding this RFP.

3.1.3 Responses to all Appendices sections in this RFP must be completed using the

templates provided by the Village.

3.1.4 In addition to the paper copies requested above, please submit an electronic

copy of your entire RFP response on CD/DVD in .pdf or Microsoft Word format.

3.1.5 Please provide one printed and one electronic copy of your completed Pricing

Worksheets and other pricing-related documents on the above mentioned

CD/DVD. The Pricing Worksheets are described in Appendix A.

3.1.6 All forms and questionnaires must be completed using the electronic versions

provided with this RFP.

3.2 Evaluation Process

Conformance with RFP Guidelines and Submittal Requirements – The vendor must

follow all RFP guidelines and submittal requirements, including the completion of

required forms and templates.

Quality of Proposal – The vendor will be evaluated on the quality, clarity, and

completeness of proposal.

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System Functionality – including how well the system meets the overall needs of the

Village.

Software Maintenance, Updates, and Support – including the vendor’s process and

methodologies for software maintenance and updates, as well as the vendor’s

methodology, experience, and infrastructure for providing technical support.

Overall System and Technical Description – including the maturity of the software

solution, the use of current technology that is in line with the Village’s capabilities, the

proposed environment, and the overall architecture (e.g. MSSQL, Windows and/or

browser, .NET, runs in virtual server environment, etc.).

Company Background and Experience – including the vendor’s financial and

organizational stability, as well as the firm’s experience performing work of a similar

nature to that solicited in this RFP.

Project Understanding – including how well the vendor demonstrates its understanding

of the Village’s project goals and objectives, and how it perceives its role in carrying out

the responsibilities required by this implementation.

Project Staffing and Organization – including the experience level and competence of

the proposed consultants and organizational staff in performing similar work for other

clients and the comparability of that experience to the business and technical

environment of the Village.

Project Work Plan and Schedule – including the vendor’s demonstrated understanding

of the overall scope of work for this project and the proposed project approach and

methodology

Cost Proposal – Pricing is an important aspect of the overall evaluation of the vendor’s

response. Vendors are instructed to download the Pricing Worksheets from the Village’s

website as these templates must be used to provide the cost of the solution. Failure to

use the provided worksheets may characterize the response as non-responsive and

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preclude the vendor from further consideration in this procurement. Please provide the

level of detail as defined in the pricing worksheets. Clarification may be sought for

incomplete responses. If clarifications are not received by the specified due date, they

will be considered non-responsive and precluded from evaluation. All items not defined

in the scope must be shown separately as optional modules or tasks, and priced

separately.

Client References – including the quality and timeliness of work performed by the

vendor and its proposed consultants for previous clients and the comparability of such

work to the requirements of this RFP. The Village will conduct reference calls.

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3.3 Limitations

3.3.1 All information and materials submitted will become the property of the Village.

Vendors should not submit proprietary or confidential business information

unless the Vendor believes such information is critical to its presentation. Such

information should be clearly identified as such. The Village will protect such

proprietary or confidential information only to the extent which the law allows.

3.3.2 This RFP does not commit the Village to award a contract(s) or pay any costs

incurred in the preparation of a proposal in response to this request.

3.3.3 The Village reserves the sole right to accept or reject any or all proposals

received as a result of this RFP, to negotiate with qualified contractors, or to

cancel this RFP in part or in its entirety.

3.3.4 Each proposal shall include a statement indicating whether or not the firm or any

individuals working on the contract has a possible conflict of interest and, if so,

the nature of that conflict.

3.3.5 Information must be furnished complete, in compliance with the terms,

conditions, provisions and specifications of the Request for Proposals. The

information requested and the manners of submission are essential to permit

prompt evaluation of all proposals on a fair and uniform basis. The response

must follow the RFP Response Outline provided in Section 5.

3.3.6 Accordingly, the Village reserves the right to declare as non-responsive and

reject any proposal in which material information requested is not furnished or

where indirect or incomplete answers or information are provided.

3.3.7 Proposals and modifications or corrections received after the closing time

specified will not be considered.

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4 Scope of Work &Requirements

4.1 General Requirements

Village of Beverly Hills intends to acquire and implement a suite of applications that will

meet present and future needs. The selected vendor(s) will implement a system that is

based on proven solutions that use current technologies. The software vendor’s solution

must specify all required hardware, software and professional services. It is imperative

that the vendor’s solution must offer the following:

All modules should be integrated, fully functional solutions with multiple levels of

processes and approvals.

The system should facilitate the exchange of information by supporting electronic

messaging and mail functions.

Security functionality should be flexible, provide controls that meet the latest auditing

standards and are in accordance with best practices in the industry.

Basic financial processes such as closing year-end and opening new fiscal year

should be automated and require no developer intervention.

All systems quoted should provide user-defined fields and export functionality into

Excel and .pdf formats as well as provide flexible standardized reporting.

The system should provide customized ad-hoc report writing capabilities.

4.2 Implementation Plan

The Village of Beverly Hills requires that each vendor prepare a detailed Implementation

Plan outlining the required tasks, estimated hours, responsibility, major deliverables, and

timing. At a minimum, the RFP response will cover the following areas:

Implementation approach

Environment installation, including supporting software (OS, DBMS, etc.) and

hardware platform installation and configuration, if necessary. The vendor shall be

responsible for assisting the Village with configuring all required environments,

including testing, training, and production.

Application set-up (tailoring, configuration, end-user set up)

Application-level security design and configuration

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Design and development of customized reports

4.3 Data Conversion

It is anticipated that data conversion will occur when migrating to the new application.

The successful vendor(s) is expected to assist the Village in the conversion of both

electronic data as well as the coordination and planning related to manual data

conversion (e.g. hand keying) to the new system. The Village expects the successful

Vendor(s) will be responsible for overall data conversion coordination, definition of file

layouts, and automated data import and validation into the new software. It is expected

that the Village will be responsible for any manual data conversion (e.g. hand keying), as

agreed upon and running reports to assist in the conversion

Describe your scope of data conversion services and approach of how the services will

be provided. Please detail the scope of data to be converted.

Describe the roles and responsibilities between your team and the Village related to data

conversion activities.

4.4 Integration

It is expected that information would be entered only once into the system and then

transferred electronically to other required systems. Modules within the system should

be integrated in real-time with each other so that batch processes are not required to

transfer information from one area of the system to another.

The following tables contain a listing of current and/or desired application interfaces and

their likely need in a future integrated software environment.

Item Integration Item Source System Target System

1 Export of Payroll direct deposit data Payroll Comerica Bank

2 Export of W-2 Files Payroll

IRS & State of Michigan

3 Send positive pay file to bank Payroll Comerica Bank

4 Import cleared checks from bank for bank reconciliation Comerica Bank A/P Payroll

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5 Export retirement data Payroll MERS

6 Export retirement data Payroll

ICMA, State of Michigan

7 Export Customer ACH Payment File Utility Billing

Comerica Bank

8 Export / Import of Meter Read Information Utility Billing

Meter Reading Equipment

9 Export Accounts Payable and Payroll outstanding check to State of MI HRS Pro software. Bank Rec HRS Pro

10 Import Master Parcel data to Utility Billing Accounts BS&A Assessing Utility Billing

11 Import Master Address/Parcel data to Accounts Receivable Accounts BS&A Assessing

Accounts Receivable

12 Import Tax Billing data into Cash Receipts BS&A Tax

Southfield Township

13 Export Tax Receipts into Tax Program Cash Receipts BS&A Tax

14 Import Journal Entries from BS&A Tax Program when Tax Billing is Created BS&A Tax General Ledger

15 Export Delinquent Utility Bills to Tax Program Utility Billing BS&A Tax

16 Export Delinquent Accounts Receivable to Tax Program

Accounts Receivable BS&A Tax

17 Import Delinquent Personal Property Tax Billing data into Cash Receipts

BS&A Delinquent Personal Property Cash Receipts

18 Import Delinquent Personal property Tax Receipts into General Ledger General Ledger

Southfield Township

19 Import Building Department information into Cash Receipting

BS&A Building Department Cash Receipts

20 Export Building Department Receipts Cash Receipts

BS&A Building Department

21 Import Special Assessments into Cash Receipts

BS&A Special Assessments Cash Receipts

22 Export Special Assessment Receipts Cash Receipts

Southfield Township

4.5 Training

The vendor will be responsible for developing a training plan in collaboration with the

Village and delivering on site training to end-users. The Village will be responsible for

performing and documenting system testing, and documenting business processes and

procedures. The vendor is expected to primarily Instructor Led training. For some

selected activities, (Purchase Order Training for example), the Vendor can train subject

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matter experts and they will conduct the end user training in a “Train the

Trainer”Approach. Vendors must specify any training that is expected to be “Train the

Trainer” approach. Vendors should also include a minimum of two follow up training

sessions scheduled 30 to 45 days after initial training. These sessions will be used to

supplement the initial training and help users in any problem areas.

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5 RFP Response Format & Requirements

5.1 Cover Page

Show the name of Proposers agency/firm, address, telephone number, name of contact

person, date, and the proposal number and description.

5.2 Table of Contents

Include a clear identification of the material by section and by page number.

5.3 Executive Summary

Limit to one or two pages.

Briefly state the Proposers understanding of the work to be done and make a

positive commitment to perform the work.

Give the names of the persons who will be authorized to make representations for

the Proposer, their titles, addresses and telephone numbers.

Provide an official signature certifying the contents of the Proposers responses to the

Village’s Request for Proposal.

5.4 General Information

Name of Business.

Mailing Address and Phone Number.

Names and contact information of persons to be contacted for information or

services if different from name of person in charge.

Normal business hours.

State if business is local, national, or international and indicate the business legal

status (corporation, partnership, etc.).

Give the date business was organized and/or incorporated, and where.

Give the location of the office from which the work is to be done and the number of

professional staff employees at that office.

Indicate whether the business is a parent or subsidiary in a group of firms/agencies.

If it is, please state the name of the parent company.

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List all contracts, business agreements or other business relationships with computer

hardware and/or other software vendors. List the names of the vendor and state the

relationship.

List all MIS services, computer hardware and/or software products marketed by the

firm, its parent firm or any subsidiary firm.

5.5 Tab 7 – References

Specify three (3) municipal references with similar characteristics to Beverly Hills.

No. Municipality and

Population

Contact Information (Name, Title, Phone Number)

5.5.1

5.5.2

5.5.3