State of Colorado

Department of Human Services- North/Central District
Notice of Proposed Sole Source
Solicitation Number: NCSS910025OIT

Comments Submission Deadline

Date & Time:

09/29/2008 09:00 AM MDT

Address:

North Central Procurement Department of Human Services 7866 West Mansfield Parkway Denver, Colorado 80235

Point Of Contact

The Colorado Procurement Code provides that a contract may be awarded for a supply or service, without competition, when there is only one source for the required supply or service. Therefore, a "sole source" procurement is justified if there is only one item or service that can reasonably meet the state's need and there is only one vendor who can provide the item or service.

Some of the specifications on BIDS include files with this icon, , and/or the file extension, ".pdf". These require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Additional Information

The CFMS software platform (Oracle Financials) and the underlying database and Unix operating system were just recently upgraded to current versions. We are in post deployment mode at the present time. The upgrade was successful with minimal problems but that was due in large part to the fact that we made a conscious decision to perform the upgrade in vanilla fashion. In other words, even though the newest application software has many new features and improvements we elected to migrate the application and associated customizations (although the system is COTS it also has about a 30% customization factor) in as generic fashion as possible. The result was less risk and newer technology but with essentially the same functionality as the old system. The intent is to enable the newer features over the next 2 years in a very carefully controlled and systematic fashion. This will result in a smaller percentage of customization because the newer software has features built in which will allow replacement of customized extensions. But the process must be done very carefully because of complex interdependencies between the various customized components and the native software. Ciber has the unique perspective and knowledge to do this because of their support team's extensive experience with CFMS.

In order to leverage the CDHS investment in hardware and other infrastructure, we've taken an innovative approach to solving another issue that loomed over us for the past several years. Our department's central timekeeping system, Kronos, was very old and was out of vendor support eligibility. The underlying hardware was in the same dilemma. We tried to secure funding for replacement but were unsuccessful. Consequently we developed a plan for Kronos to share infrastructure with CFMS thus drastically reducing the cost to perform the Kronos upgrade resulting in a smaller fiscal hit for CDHS that could be absorbed without the need for new funding. Ciber took on the maintenance and support of the Kronos infrastructure at a very reasonable cost due to the economy of scale made possible by the sharing of the database environment. Kronos has been fully deployed for about 6 months so it is still in post production tweaking and shakedown mode. In keeping with the same minimalistic, risk reducing approach that was applied with the CFMS upgrade, the application was intentionally deployed so as to replicate the old system and to forego implementation of the many new features it offers. Again, the intent is to systematically enable certain highly desirable, sophisticated functionality over the next 2 years. Ciber is instrumental in this process due to their knowledge and technical familiarity with the application's underlying infrastructure.

Although it's not known whether the project will go forward, there is a very serious proposal being put forth by HCPF that would potentially have a dramatic effect on the core CBMS system. The proposal, in simple terms, is to separate HCPF related functions from the rest of the CBMS application. If this does go forward then it has the potential to generate a very serious ripple effect on critical interfaces across all major CDHS benefits determination and delivery systems including CFMS which is, essentially, the funnel through which all welfare benefit payments must pass. CBMS is already experiencing the pain of a vendor transition and it is less than prudent to expose the department to the potential of having a second system undergo that type of upheaval at the same time.

Additionally, CBMS is in the initial stages of a technology refresh. New servers must be deployed. This creates yet another ripple effect because server architecture has changed and older software is not certified to operate in the new environment. It's highly likely that core parts of the application will be affected and will need to be somehow modified for compatibility. The resulting potential risk for interfacing systems is the same as described above. All of these factors combined represent the potential for the perfect storm. If CFMS can at least guarantee continuity with its current, very successful, support arrangement then at least one element of risk would be removed.

The extension will be for up to three years.

State of Colorado

Department of Human Services- North/Central District
Notice of Proposed Sole Source
Solicitation Number: NCSS910025OIT

Comments Submission Deadline

Date & Time:

09/29/2008 09:00 AM MDT

Address:

North Central Procurement Department of Human Services 7866 West Mansfield Parkway Denver, Colorado 80235

Point Of Contact

The Colorado Procurement Code provides that a contract may be awarded for a supply or service, without competition, when there is only one source for the required supply or service. Therefore, a "sole source" procurement is justified if there is only one item or service that can reasonably meet the state's need and there is only one vendor who can provide the item or service.

Some of the specifications on BIDS include files with this icon, , and/or the file extension, ".pdf". These require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Additional Information

The CFMS software platform (Oracle Financials) and the underlying database and Unix operating system were just recently upgraded to current versions. We are in post deployment mode at the present time. The upgrade was successful with minimal problems but that was due in large part to the fact that we made a conscious decision to perform the upgrade in vanilla fashion. In other words, even though the newest application software has many new features and improvements we elected to migrate the application and associated customizations (although the system is COTS it also has about a 30% customization factor) in as generic fashion as possible. The result was less risk and newer technology but with essentially the same functionality as the old system. The intent is to enable the newer features over the next 2 years in a very carefully controlled and systematic fashion. This will result in a smaller percentage of customization because the newer software has features built in which will allow replacement of customized extensions. But the process must be done very carefully because of complex interdependencies between the various customized components and the native software. Ciber has the unique perspective and knowledge to do this because of their support team's extensive experience with CFMS.

In order to leverage the CDHS investment in hardware and other infrastructure, we've taken an innovative approach to solving another issue that loomed over us for the past several years. Our department's central timekeeping system, Kronos, was very old and was out of vendor support eligibility. The underlying hardware was in the same dilemma. We tried to secure funding for replacement but were unsuccessful. Consequently we developed a plan for Kronos to share infrastructure with CFMS thus drastically reducing the cost to perform the Kronos upgrade resulting in a smaller fiscal hit for CDHS that could be absorbed without the need for new funding. Ciber took on the maintenance and support of the Kronos infrastructure at a very reasonable cost due to the economy of scale made possible by the sharing of the database environment. Kronos has been fully deployed for about 6 months so it is still in post production tweaking and shakedown mode. In keeping with the same minimalistic, risk reducing approach that was applied with the CFMS upgrade, the application was intentionally deployed so as to replicate the old system and to forego implementation of the many new features it offers. Again, the intent is to systematically enable certain highly desirable, sophisticated functionality over the next 2 years. Ciber is instrumental in this process due to their knowledge and technical familiarity with the application's underlying infrastructure.

Although it's not known whether the project will go forward, there is a very serious proposal being put forth by HCPF that would potentially have a dramatic effect on the core CBMS system. The proposal, in simple terms, is to separate HCPF related functions from the rest of the CBMS application. If this does go forward then it has the potential to generate a very serious ripple effect on critical interfaces across all major CDHS benefits determination and delivery systems including CFMS which is, essentially, the funnel through which all welfare benefit payments must pass. CBMS is already experiencing the pain of a vendor transition and it is less than prudent to expose the department to the potential of having a second system undergo that type of upheaval at the same time.

Additionally, CBMS is in the initial stages of a technology refresh. New servers must be deployed. This creates yet another ripple effect because server architecture has changed and older software is not certified to operate in the new environment. It's highly likely that core parts of the application will be affected and will need to be somehow modified for compatibility. The resulting potential risk for interfacing systems is the same as described above. All of these factors combined represent the potential for the perfect storm. If CFMS can at least guarantee continuity with its current, very successful, support arrangement then at least one element of risk would be removed.

The extension will be for up to three years.