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evaluate this Proposal.
January 30, 2013
Submitted To:
Peggy Claborn, Procurement Manager Florida Department of Children and Families 1317 Winewood Boulevard, Building 2, Room 306 Tallahassee, FL 32399-0700 Email: [email protected]
Submitted By:
Accenture LLP Federal Tax Identification Number: 72-052904 John G. Martin, Senior Executive 2002 Old Augustine Road, Suite E45 Tallahassee, FL 32301 (850) 513-3534 Email: [email protected]
STATE OF FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Office of Economic Self-Sufficiency
ACCESS Florida System Replacement
ITN # 03F12GC1
Interim Revised Response (IRR) #6 Document
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 1
January 30, 2013
Ms. Peggy Claborn Procurement Manager Florida Department of Children and Families 1317 Winewood Boulevard, Building 2, Room 306 Tallahassee, FL 32399-0700
Dear Ms. Claborn:
Accenture is pleased to submit the attached response to the Interim Revised Response (IRR) #6 request provided on January 25, 2013 in relation to the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) 03F12GC1 for the ACCESS Florida System Replacement project. In this response, we provide as requested our comments and suggested changes to the Phase 3 Design, Development, and Implementation (DDI) Performance Measures/Liquidated Damages and updated Statement of Work (SOW). We are supportive of the Department’s effort to quickly and efficiently finalize the scope and approach to implement the new system components needed to meet Affordable Care Act (ACA) guidelines. While the delayed contract signing and project start have compressed the project schedule, we are confident the Accenture team, working collaboratively with DCF, can adapt and implement the solution to successfully meet the important ACA deadlines. The solution components and team we have proposed seek to provide best value in addressing both the Department’s immediate deadlines and the broader goals defined in the Feasibility Study. We expect the capabilities implemented in the scope defined in this SOW will provide an excellent foundation for further modernization and improved outcomes for the Department and its stakeholders, allowing you to begin with Phase 3 as the first priority and eventually into Phase 4 functionality and beyond as a longer term goal. To quickly and efficiently complete the negotiation process, we would recommend face-to-face meetings to finalize Performance Measures/Liquidated Damages and Statement of Work (SOW) comments. Accenture continues to be enthusiastic about the ACCESS Florida Replacement System project. As DCF prepares for and evaluates this response for further discussions and negotiations, Accenture is available to answer questions and further discuss the best approach and value for DCF and the State of Florida. We have provided the responses to
2002 Old St. Augustine Road, E-45 Tallahassee, Florida 32301 PH: (850) 513-0620 FAX: (850) 513-3500
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 2
your questions and instructions in the format provided by the Department. Our response has been developed to be focused to your request. Please do not hesitate to call me at (850) 591 – 5364. I look forward to working with you in this very important endeavor. Sincerely,
ACCENTURE LLP
John G. Martin Senior Executive
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 3
2.1 PHASE 3 DDI PERFORMANCE MEASURES / LIQUIDATED DAMAGES Vendor Instructions Using the tables in Appendix A, please provide feedback to the performance measures and liquidated damages in the tables.
Vendor Response: We have used the table in Section 3 Appendix A below to provide feedback to the performance measures and liquidated damages.
Accenture has successfully negotiated performance measures with State of Florida departments and agencies, sister agencies of DCF in other states and local governments, and with commercial clients. We monitor our market related to vendor performance measures closely. We are willing to place portions of our monthly fees at risk for critical performance measures that are consistent with current market trends.
We look forward to engaging with the Department in discussions on the topic of performance measures and innovative techniques to create best value. Accenture brings insight based on current and past experience with performance measures and how to target them to motivate parties to exhibit desired behaviors without creating unintended behaviors that might undermine outcomes for the Department.
2.2 PHASE 3 DDI SOW Vendor Instructions Using the tables in Appendix B, please provide feedback to the changes that were made in the SOW to reflect the updates in scope that have been discussed in negotiations. If the vendor has no issues with the changes that have been made please make note of it below. Vendor Response: We have used the table in Section 4 Appendix B below to provide feedback to the changes that were made in the SOW. Because the project start has been delayed, the reduced project duration to meet federal deadlines is a significant risk and area of concern for all of us. As we discussed in IRR #3, if the project start date was delayed, it would be necessary to alter the approach and/or scope to be able to meet critical federal deadlines. In thinking through how to best meet the DCF needs and ACA requirements, we recommend utilizing a hybrid System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) approach that takes advantage of streamlining the work and targeting flexibility in the process to achieve the DCF desired outcomes. We believe the rigorous phase gated SDLC may actually increase the risk of failure to meet critical deadlines as opposed to helping to reduce risk. An example of a specific change is to modify the development process to reflect a more significant overlap of activities than originally anticipated, and a reduction in formal deliverables and an acceleration of deliverable review. Given the short project duration, it will be especially important to tightly manage work to deadlines and stay focused on the critical path. We would like to discuss an approach with the end in mind that includes a reduced number of tangible milestones and checkpoints that are more aligned to federal deadlines than the typical SDLC process phases. We would expect that liquidated damages and performance measures are
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 4
aligned around these critical outcomes and dates in the project. The SOW language provided by the Department also implies there could be areas that require further clarification about the solution we have proposed. Specific examples include conversion, training, reports, and warranty. We look forward to clarifying these and other items as required. Given the reduced project scope and duration as defined in the SOW, we would also like to discuss potential adjustments to the project team structure and proposed role realignments. Lastly, the project governance structure appears complex and our experience delivering projects in Florida indicates that it does not provide a sound framework for effective and timely decision making. In the SOW, all key decisions are made by the Executive Steering Committee which includes representatives from other Agencies which given the tight timeframes for this project, will create delays putting all of us at risk. We would recommend that the decision framework for the project should be revised to include a single project sponsor as primary decision maker, with some decision making authority pushed down to lower levels of the project including the Project Director.
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 5
SECTION 3 APPENDIX A
Ref# Measure Description Measure
Metric(s)
Frequency of
Measurement
Will this measure
decrease,
increase or not
impact the
vendor’s price?
If the measure will increase the
vendor’s price, provide
alternative language that will not
increase the vendor’s price.
1 90% of the Project’s deliverable
documentation shall be approved within
the first iteration of a standard review
cycle (Contractor submit, Department
evaluate and comment, Contractor
update, Department review and accept)
based on deliverable acceptance criteria
mutually agreed upon by the
Department and the Contractor before
creating each deliverable.
The Department is responsible for
compiling feedback and resolving
conflicts in comments. All input will be
incorporated in the Department
comments in the first review.
Remaining 10% of the Project’s
deliverable documentation shall be
approved within the second iteration.
Calculated as
“{(Number of
deliverables
approved within
the first iteration
of standard
review
cycle)/(Total
number of
deliverables
submitted)}X100
%”.
Quarterly No impact on price
2 100% of any data needed from the
legacy systems databases shall be
converted and loaded accurately into the
new system.
Data to be converted, if any, shall be
mutually agreed upon.
Calculated as
“{(Number of
records
converted from
the legacy
systems and
loaded into the
new system) /
(Total number of
records to be
converted within
the legacy
systems)X100%}
”.
Prior to
implementation
during final
mock
conversion and
at final load
prior to
implementation
.
Potential increase
in price
In order to avoid a price increase,
the following open points require
confirmation:
The data to be converted
The cleanliness of the data to be converted
Data manually converted by DCF is excluded from this measure
How accuracy is determined
Target is 95%.
3 99.5% of the converted data from the
legacy system shall be available to the
users within the new system on the day
of go-live.
Remaining 0.5% of the converted data
from the legacy system shall be
available to the users within the new
system within 10 Business Days of go-
live.
Data to be converted, if any, shall be
mutually agreed upon.
Calculated as
“{(Number of
converted
records available
in the new
system) / (Total
number of
converted
records)
X100%}”.
Prior to go-live
during final
mock
conversion.
After go-live.
Potential increase
in price
In order to avoid a price increase,
the following open points require
confirmation:
The data to be converted
How availability is determined
The cleanliness of the data to be converted
Data manually converted by DCF is excluded from this measure
Target is 95%
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 6
Ref# Measure Description Measure
Metric(s)
Frequency of
Measurement
Will this measure
decrease,
increase or not
impact the
vendor’s price?
If the measure will increase the
vendor’s price, provide
alternative language that will not
increase the vendor’s price.
4 The Solution shall have 0 (Zero) “Fatal”
defects for entering “go-live”.
The assignment of defect type shall be
mutually agreed upon.
Note: For “Severe” and “Trivial” defects,
the decision for entering “go-live” shall
be mutually agreed upon.
Calculated as
“Total number of
defects classified
as Fatal”.
Prior to go-live. No impact on price Assumptions for no price increase:
Assumes that a Fatal defect equals
Accenture definition of a Severity 1
Test defect:
A Severity 1 Test Defect
significantly impacts ongoing test
execution and productivity, and if
deployed to production would likely
result in a loss of a critical business
function that disrupts business
resulting in a financial loss, or
prevents the client from conducting
business.
5 100% of the functional and non-
functional requirements shall be
traceable throughout the software
development life cycle (i.e.
Requirements Validation, Functional
Design, Technical Design, Coding, Unit
Testing, System Integration Testing,
User Acceptance Testing,
Implementation)
Calculated as
“{(Number of
requirements
included in the
life cycle
phase)/(Number
of requirements
scheduled for the
life cycle
phase)}X100%”
At the end of
each phase
within the
SDLC.
No impact on price Assumptions for no price increase:
The target is 95%.
Assumes that requirements which
are not clear or cannot be validated
shall be excluded.
Assumes only requirements
included in Phase 3 are included in
this measure.
Assumes we mutually agree upon
the approach to attain traceability.
6 100% of Solution Support requests
classified as “High” shall be resolved or
an agreed upon plan of action is in place
(i.e. fixed, closed, ready for
implementation) within 4 business
hours.
For issues not resolved within 4 hours of
such outage, status updates shall be
provided every 2 business hours until
resolved and a Root Cause Analysis
shall be provided within two (2)
Business Days.
Calculated as
{(Number of
“High” issues
resolved within
the stipulated
time)/(Total
number of “High”
issues)}X100%.
Monthly Potential increase
in price
Assumptions for no price increase:
Assumes the definition of High
Priority aligns to our standard
definition of Severity 1:
Complete loss or significant
degradation of a critical business
function in production that disrupts
business resulting in financial loss,
or prevents the client from
conducting business.
Assumes request can be resolved
once service is restored (including
via workaround).
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 7
Ref# Measure Description Measure
Metric(s)
Frequency of
Measurement
Will this measure
decrease,
increase or not
impact the
vendor’s price?
If the measure will increase the
vendor’s price, provide
alternative language that will not
increase the vendor’s price.
7 100% of Solution Support requests
classified as “Medium” shall be resolved
or have an agreed upon plan of action in
place within 1 (one) Business Day.
For issues not resolved within 1 (one)
Business Day of such outage, status
updates shall be provided every 4 hours
until resolved and a Root Cause
Analysis shall be provided within three
(3) Business Days.
Calculated as
{(Number of
“Medium” issues
resolved within
the stipulated
time)/(Total
number of
“Medium”
issues)}X100%.
Monthly Potential increase
in price
Assumptions for no price increase:
Assumes the following targets:
Expected Service Level equals 95%
within 1 (one) Business Day.
Minimum Service level equals 90%
within 1 (one) Business Day.
Root Cause Analysis shall be
provided within five (5) Business
Days.
Assumes the definition of Medium
priority aligns to Accenture’s
standard definition of Severity 2:
Partial loss of critical business
function in production and/ or
moderate degradation of ability to
provide service to the customer
such that business can be
conducted with no financial loss or
at a reduced level of performance,
or complete or partial loss of an
internal function.
Assumes request can be resolved
once service is restored (including
via workaround).
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 8
Ref# Measure Description Measure
Metric(s)
Frequency of
Measurement
Will this measure
decrease,
increase or not
impact the
vendor’s price?
If the measure will increase the
vendor’s price, provide
alternative language that will not
increase the vendor’s price.
8 100% of Solution Support requests
classified as “Low” shall be resolved or
have an agreed upon plan of action in
place within five (5) Business Days.
Calculated as
{(Number of
“Low” issues
resolved within
the stipulated
time)/(Total
number of “Low”
issues)}X100%.
Monthly Potential increase
in price
Assumptions for no price increase:
Assumes the following targets:
Expected Service Level equals
95%.
Minimum Service level equals 90%.
Assumes the definition of Low
priority aligns to Accenture’s
standard definition of Severity 3:
Degradation or loss of non-critical
business functions in production.
Users can continue operating with
the results being adequate to
perform needed functionality
(although the process or format may
be less than desirable). Problems
which degrade system functionality
or business performance; but major
functions of the application still
work. Problems affecting a single
user – preventing completion of a
critical task.
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 9
Ref# Measure Description Measure
Metric(s)
Frequency of
Measurement
Will this measure
decrease,
increase or not
impact the
vendor’s price?
If the measure will increase the
vendor’s price, provide
alternative language that will not
increase the vendor’s price.
9 95% of Solution Support requests
classified as “Trivial” shall be resolved
within eight (8) Business Days or on an
agreed upon plan of action. .
Remaining 5% of Solution Support
requests classified as “Trivial” shall be
resolved within two (2) additional
Business Days.
Calculated as
{(Number of
“Trivial” issues
resolved within
the stipulated
time)/(Total
number of
“Trivial”
issues)}X100%.
Monthly Potential increase
in price
Assumptions for no price increase:
Assumes the following targets:
Expected Service Level equals 95%
within thirty (30) Business Days or
As Agreed (based on priority and
capacity).
Minimum Service level equals 90%
within thirty (30) Business Days or
As Agreed (based on priority and
capacity).
Assumes the definition of Trivial
priority aligns to Accenture’s
standard definition of Severity 4:
Degradation or loss of production
functionality that affects individuals
or small workgroups, minimal
impact, preventing completion of a
non-critical task but NOT impacting
other aspects of the user’s
workstation.
Problems which do not degrade
system functionality (tolerable or
deferrable problems) or are
cosmetic in nature; major functions
of the application still work.
Change requests, modifications,
enhancements, user queries, and
ad hoc requests not included and
would have a different request
category/ ticket type.
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 10
Liquidated Damages Clause:
Liquidated Damages Clause
Will this clause increase
or not impact the vendor’s
price?
If the measure will increase the
vendor’s price, provide
alternative language that will not
increase the vendor’s price.
If the Contractor fails, for reasons within its control, to gain approval for the Final
Deliverable associated with any Phase by the approval date for the Phase as
defined in Section 8.2 of the SOW, the Department shall assess against the
Contractor liquidated damages in the amount of Fifteen Thousand Dollars
($15,000) for each Business Day between the approval date for the Phase and any
later date the Contractor gains approval for the Final Deliverable associated with
the Phase provided that the total assessment of liquidated damages under this
section shall in no event exceed $10,000,000. Liquidated damages for missing
Final Deliverable approval dates associated with a Phase will not be cumulative
(e.g. if a Final Deliverable approval date associated with a Phase is missed by 10
Business Days, and each successive Final Deliverable approval date associated
with a Phase is not missed by an incremental number of Business Days, no
additional liquidated damages will be assessed).
To the extent that the Contractor misses a non-Implementation Final Deliverable
approval date associated with a Phase, but achieves the original Final Deliverable
approval date associated with the Implementation Phase, as may be adjusted from
time to time, the Department will refund 50% of the liquidated damages previously
assessed.
Potentially, subject to
discussions with the
Department.
Accenture looks forward to
discussions with the Department to
include language in the Contract/
SOW that would address the
following topics:
Clarity concerning exclusive responsibility for liquidated damages triggering events
An agreed upon form or mechanism for the imposition of liquidated damages
Opportunities for notice and cure of any liquidated damages trigger including subsequent modification of the schedule
Evaluation of the total cap and penalty amounts in light of other performance metrics in the Contract.
Establishment of a Service Credit Pool whereby liquidated damages would be deducted against an available total number of flexible hours to achieve Departmental Milestones.
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 11
SECTION 4 APPENDIX B
SOW Section Number and Text
Vendor Comments/Suggested Changes
2. Problem Statement – “…the State of Florida has determined that it will retain
the existing public assistance eligibility system, the ACCESS Florida System”
We would like to engage in a discussion on the Department’s strategy and
direction for use and eventual replacement of the ACCESS Florida System
beyond the requirements of the ACA.
3. Contract Objectives – Department Goal #1, Department Goal #2 Provider new system components and services may be contributors toward
Department goals, but are the not only responsible factors and considerations
of achievement of Department business goals.
6. Project Governance – Roles Given proposed scope for statement of work, we would like to discuss project
team structure and proposed role realignments.
7.1 DDI Performance Periods – Project Phases Given the expected start for the scope of work, we are concerned that
attempted implementation of system components using traditional SDLC
phases does not allow for sufficient elapsed time to meet project milestones.
At a minimum, we anticipate the need for phase overlap and the initiation of
activities prior to completion of predecessor phases.
7.1.2 DDI Performance Periods – Define Our proposal is based on configuration, customization and use of “out of the
box” functionality as opposed to custom building to specifications. We expect
strict scope control to ensure elaborated requirements align with COTS
capabilities and focus on ACA requirements.
7.1.3 DDI Performance Periods – Design We intend to use “out of the box” functionality to maximize the COTS and avoid
costly changes that could be difficult to maintain. As such, design will
emphasize the configuration and customizations to COTS products that
provide the new system components capabilities.
7.1.6 DDI Performance Period - Implement We have described our expectations that the system components defined in
this statement of work are primarily public (client) facing and that we
anticipated no conversion of client data. We want to clarify with you
expectations about end users to be trained and requirements for conversion
and cleansing of existing data.
8.1 Project Management We want to discuss expectations of Project Manager to “have overall
responsibility for success of the Project and the Department achieving its
goals.”.
We want to clarify the PM is to manage integration and coordination as
opposed to managing Department and NSRC resources, tasks and activities.
8.1 Project Management – NSRC It is reasonable to expect the PM to plan and manage risks related to NSRC.
We expect the Department would be responsible for resolving issues with
NSRC that could impact the project.
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 12
SOW Section Number and Text
Vendor Comments/Suggested Changes
8.1. Project Management Plan We want to clarify that PMP will be a living document that may have varying
levels of detail sufficient to manage the overall work. We anticipate there will
still be a lot of significant changes and direction coming from the Feds that will
require flexibility in the planning process to minimize rework and inappropriate
distraction of management resources.
We would expect the DDI Project Director would be responsible for providing
inputs and updates related to resources, tasks and activities of Department and
NSRC, CMS, and other Partner resources.
8.2 Phase Gate Reviews Given the late project start, expected need for phase overlap and short project
duration, we request discussions and clarification on phase gate reviews.
8.4 Knowledge Transfer We request need clarification of Department expectations and prioritization of
this item relative to the objective of meeting project deadlines and the best time
for knowledge transfer.
8.5 Disaster Recovery Based on statement of work approach of adding new system components, we
suggest clarification that scope is to update existing disaster recovery plan
incorporating the new system components.
8.7 Staffing Requirements Given proposed scope for statement of work, we would like to discuss project
team structure and role realignments.
8.7 Staffing Requirements - Work location We are committed to provide full-time dedicated resources. We expect our key
resources to work in the location that best enables completion of SOW
activities. We suggest work location site and time of day be relaxed to
accommodate work at the software vendor location(s), work from our eligibility
delivery center of excellence, or other locations as appropriate based on the
role and the best way to achieve project needs.
9.2 Define Phase We need request clarification on the following addition: “The Provider shall
facilitate a process to gather requirements from Department and Partner
subject matter advisors in order to achieve the goals of the Project. The
Provider will facilitate requirements sessions to build a solution that meets the
Department’s needs without increasing the cost or delaying the schedule of the
Project with over-engineering the work.”
9.5 Design Phase – Business Process Reengineering As our solution is a COTS based solution that provides business processes,
we may need additional information on the scope of business processes that
need to be reengineered.
9.8 Develop Reports We need to verify the number and complexity of reports included in the
Requirements Definition Document for Phase 3 specifically.
9.10 Master Test Plan We expect that master test plan may need to support iterative test planning
and testing. We expect some testing such as ACA required testing of new
system components from a production environment as early as May 2013 may
need to be accommodated before other types of test planning are complete.
ITN # 03F12GC1 - ACCESS FLORIDA System Replacement Page 13
SOW Section Number and Text
Vendor Comments/Suggested Changes
9.13 Data Conversion Using the solution approach we have described, there would be no or minimal
data that would be stored in the new system components. We consider
mapping of data movement that is transactional in nature (e.g., from the legacy
system to the new system components) to be interface definition work. We
would benefit from clarifications of the Department’s expectations for data
conversion.
9.14 Training The scope section describes training a large user population. As the new
system components are primarily client facing, we have scoped training for a
small number of personnel that have support interactions with clients. Also,
this section describes training being provided via classroom training sessions
for all end users. We would benefit from clarifications of the Department’s
expectations for training.
10. Warranty – Performance Period We would like to discuss the warranty period, confirm that warranted items
relate to capabilities of the developed new system components implemented in
Phase 3, and verify services do not include warranty of third party software and
hardware.
10.1 Warranty - Provider Warranty Support Responsibilities We would like to clarify that we will provide and pass-through the warranty of
commercial products.
10 Warranty Exhibit D: 4.a. & 4.c We believe the Warranty Language in the Special Provisions should reflect
either (i) specific Warranty obligations for overarching performance; or (ii)
Warranties and Representations concerning specific facts. Accenture
proposes removal of those provisions that are appropriately captured in other
Contract provisions, including performance metrics or Deliverable Obligations.
10 Warranty Exhibit D: 4.e. Although we agree to the general principle of this provision (with respect only
to software, code or documentation it controls), it is more appropriate when
included in a Section of the Contract concerning Deliverables standards and
requirements.
11. Deliverables We are concerned that the deliverable review and approval timeframes are not
aligned with the turnarounds that would be needed to meet overall schedule
deadlines. We would like to discuss a process to disconnect potential
bottlenecks and delays in formal deliverable approval from delaying progress
and/or payment.