FIN 2021-Articulate Training Consulting Services

FIN 2021-Articulate Training Consulting ServicesFIN 2021-Articulate Training Consulting ServicesClosing Date:05/10/2021 07:00:00 PM PTDetail: Release Date: April 16, 2021 Procurement Contact: Address    E-mail address: Stephanie Gutowski 200 E. Santa Clara St., 13 thFloor San Jose, CA 95113 stephanie.gutowski@sanjoseca.gov  Deadline for Questions and Objections: Written Questions/Clarifications Objections to Specifications/Requirements May 3, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. PDT Objections to specification and/or questions must be submitted in writing using Biddingo.  Proposal Due Date and Time: May 10, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. PDT Proposal responses must be submitted online through Biddingo prior to the proposal due date and time. 1  INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW BACKGROUNDThe City of San José Finance Department invites qualified firms to submit a proposal to provide consultant services for the development of written and web-based

interactive training materials and modules using the Articulate Rise software.    The mission of the Finance Department is to manage, protect and report on the City of San José's financial resources to enhance the City's financial condition for residents, businesses, and investors. The Finance Department has an operating budget of approximately $21.1 million and 125 employees. The organizational structure consists of the following divisions:  Accounting, Administration, Purchasing and Risk Management, Revenue Management, and Debt and Treasury Management.  The Finance Department staff provides a wide range of services including debt management, investment and cash management, payment processing, billing, accounts receivable, delinquent tax and revenue collections, payroll, accounts payable, financial reporting, risk management and procurement services.  The City organizational structure is decentralized, whereby some of these functions are assigned to other City department staff to complete and submit on behalf of their departments for Finance staff to review and approve.  Therefore, it is important that staff from other City departments are trained properly on the respective City Finance procedures to ensure compliance, consistency and minimize errors.    2  SCOPE OF WORK Coordination and Collaboration with Finance Department staff.Consultant shall coordinate and collaborate with Finance staff who are the subject matter experts (SMEs) in the identified training areas  to develop training materials.  This will require excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate with all levels of the organization, including senior management staff.  Consultant will not be making changes to the existing established Finance procedures but may advise staff on best training practices.  Project Management.Consultant shall serve as the lead, in coordination with the Department Project Manager, to develop training materials and define and execute project milestones.  Consultant shall develop a plan to interview and compile information from SMEs and then transfer this information into training materials for City staff.     Development of Training Materials.Consultant shall provide final training material deliverables at the conclusion of this assignment.  The deliverables should be a combination of written documents and interactive web-based training modules and incorporate a variety of learning styles (visual, auditory, verbal physical, logical).  The City should have the ability to modify these materials, so the materials will be provided in native format. The Consultant shall utilize the Articulate Rise software.  Training Modules to Produce Samples of training modules needed by Finance Department are:Timekeeping:  AWS (Alternative Work Schedule) Reporting  Exception Time Reporting    Accounting:  A/P Processing  Procurement Card Processing  A/P Processing GASB 87 Lease Tracking and Accounting Sales and Use Tax Processing   FMS Software Accrual Training  Audit Adjustments  Encumbrances and Encumbrance Adjustments  Journal Entry Custom Reports      Payroll  Auto Deposit  Cancel Payroll Deduction    Procurement Card  Approval Process  Amazon Business Process  US Bank Access Online    Purchasing and Risk Management Purchasing Fundamentals Purchase Order Processing Procurement Processes Insurance Compliance 3  HOW TO OBTAIN THIS RFPThis solicitation may be downloaded from the Biddingo solicitation posting system at http://www.biddingo.com/sanjose.   Vendors wishing to respond to this solicitation must register with Biddingo at http://www.biddingo.com/sanjose. If you have a problem registering, contact Biddingo directly at (800) 208-1290 or by email to info@biddingo.com. All addenda and notices related to this procurement will be posted by the City on Biddingo. In the event that this solicitation is obtained through any means other than Biddingo, the City will not be responsible for the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of the final solicitation document.  4  PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS You must respond to this RFP by the due date and time as stated on the cover sheet of this document for your response to be considered.  Proposals must be submitted and addressed to the attention of the Contact listed on the cover sheet of this document, clearly labeled FIN 2021-Articulate Training Consulting Services.Note that responses will be submitted via the Biddingo portal ONLY.  Emailed or Facsimile submissions will not be accepted, nor will hand deliveries as City Hall is closed due to the COVID-19 Health Order.   The selected proposer(s) will be required to adhere to the City’s insurance requirements as described in Attachment A. If you have any exceptions to the standard terms and conditions, you must note them in your proposal. Submit a completed Proposal Certification Form (Attachment B), Previous Customer Reference Worksheet (Attachment E), and Conflict of Interest Form (Attachment F).  5. STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONSThe proposer will provide a concise document that describes the proposer’s qualifications. Qualified firms will have demonstrated verifiable experience compiling, producing, and developing both written and web-based interactive training materials using the Articulate Rise software.   6  TERMOF AGREEMENTIt is anticipated that the term of this agreement will be effective through June 30, 2022   assuming a contract start date of June 1, 2021.   7 COMPENSATION WORK HOURSThe proposal should include a not-to-exceed estimate for the entire scope of work by key tasks or projects, with detail showing estimated labor hours and hourly rates.   8  PROTESTS If an unsuccessful Proposer wants to dispute the selection process, the Protest must be submitted in writing to the Director of Finance no later than two calendar days after announcement of the successful Proposer, detailing the grounds, factual basis and providing all supporting information. Protests will not be considered for disputes of proposal requirements and specifications, which must be addressed in accordance with the above Section. Failure to submit a timely Protest to the contact listed below will bar consideration of the Protest. The address for submitting protests is:  Julia H. Cooper, Director of Finance San José, CA 95113 julia.cooper@sanjoseca,gov  9  LOCAL AND SMALL BUSINESS PREFERENCE The San Jose Municipal Code, Chapter 4.12, provides for a preference for Local and Small Businesses in the procurement of contracts for supplies, materials, and equipment and for general and professional consulting services. The amount of the preference shall be 5 points if the business is local and an additional 5 points if the business is small. For the Proposer to be eligible for local and/or small business preference, the Proposer must complete Attachment C, Request for Contracting Preference for Local and Small Businesses. If the Proposer fails to complete this form and submit it with the proposal, the Proposer will be denied consideration for local/small business preference. This information cannot be submitted later.  10 CITY BUSINESS TAX The winning proposer(s) must comply with San José Municipal Code Chapter 4.76 with respect to the payment of any applicable City Business Tax prior to the commencement of work. Contact Finance/Revenue Management by phone at (408) 535-7055 or email atbusinesstax@sanjoseca.govto determine applicable tax costs. More information may also be obtained on the City’s website:https://www.sanjoseca.gov/yourgovernment/departments/finance/business-tax-registration  11 SELECTION PROCESSCity staff will evaluate proposal submissions. The City reserves the right to interview prospective firms/individuals prior to making its selection. The City also reserves the right to rely on information from sources other than the information provided by the respondents. Responses will be evaluated as outlined in this section. Final award shall be contingent upon selected firm (Contractor) accepting Terms and Conditions in substantial conformity to the terms listed in Attachment D.   City reserves the right to accept an offer in full, or in part, or to reject all offers.   Description Weight Proposal Responsiveness Pass/Fail Qualifications 45% Relevant Project Experience 45% Local Business Enterprise 5% Small Business Enterprise 5% TOTAL 100%   12 GROUNDS FOR DISQUALIFICATIONAll Proposers are expected to have read and understand the "Procurement and Contract Process Integrity and Conflict of Interest", Section 7 of the Consolidated Open Government and Ethics Provisions adopted on August 26, 2014. A complete copy of the Resolution 77135 can be found at: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/35087  Any Proposer who violates the Policy will be subject to disqualification. Generally, the grounds for disqualification include: a. Contact regarding this procurement with any City official or employee or evaluation team other than the Procurement Contact from the time of issuance of this solicitation until the end of the protest period. b. Evidence of collusion, directly or indirectly, among Proposers in regard to the amount, terms, or conditions of this proposal. c. Influencing any City staff member or evaluation team member throughout the solicitation process, including the development of specifications. d. Evidence of submitting incorrect information in the response to a solicitation or misrepresent or fail to disclose material facts during the evaluation process.   In addition to violations of Process Integrity Guidelines, the following conduct may also result in disqualification: a. Offering gifts or souvenirs, even of minimal value, to City officers or employees. b. Existence of any lawsuit, unresolved contractual claim or dispute between Proposer and the City. c. Evidence of Proposer’s inability to successfully complete the responsibilities and obligations of the proposal. d. Proposer’s default under any City agreement, resulting in termination of such agreement  13 PUBLIC NATURE OF PROPOSAL MATERIALAll correspondence with the City including responses to this RFP will become the exclusive property of the City and will become public records under the California Public Records Act (Cal. Government Code section 6250 et seq.) All documents that you send to the City will be subject to disclosure if requested by a member of the public. There are a very limited number of narrow exceptions to this disclosure requirement.   Therefore, any proposal which contains language purporting to render all or significant portions of their proposal “Confidential”, “Trade Secret” or “Proprietary”, or fails to provide the exemption information required as described below will be considered a public record in its entirety subject to the procedures in Section 15.5.   Do not mark your entire proposal as “confidential”.   The City will not disclose any part of any proposal before it announces a recommendation for award, on the grounds that there is a substantial public interest in not disclosing proposals during the evaluation process. After the announcement of a recommended award, all proposals received in response to this RFP will be subject to public disclosure. If you believe that there are portion(s) of your proposal which are exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act, you must mark it as such and state the specific provision in the Public Records Act which provides the exemption as well as the factual basis for claiming the exemption. For example, if you submit trade secret information, you must plainly mark the information as “Trade Secret” and refer to the appropriate section of the Public Records Act which provides the exemption as well as the factual basis for claiming the exemption.   Although the California Public Records Act recognizes that certain confidential trade secret information may be protected from disclosure, the City of San José may not be in a position to establish that the information that a Proposer submits is a trade secret. If a request is made for information marked “Confidential”, “Trade Secret” or “Proprietary”, the City will provide Proposers who submitted the information with reasonable notice to seek protection from disclosure by a court of competent jurisdiction.     14 OTHER PUBLIC AGENCY PURCHASES It is intended that other public agencies be permitted to purchase under the same terms resulting from this procurement. Any participating public agency shall accept sole responsibility for placing orders, arranging deliveries and/or services, and making payments to the vendor. The City of San José will not be liable or responsible for any obligations, including but not limited to, financial responsibility in connection with participation by other public agencies.  List of Attachments Attachment A – Insurance Requirements Attachment B – Proposal Certification Form Attachment C  - Local and Small Business Preference The San Jose Municipal Code provides for a preference for Local and Small Businesses in the procurement of contracts for supplies, materials, and equipment and for general and professional consulting services. The amount of the preference shall be 5 points if the business is local and an additional 5 points if the business is small. For the Proposer to be eligible for local and/or small business preference, the Proposer must complete Attachment C, Request for Contracting Preference for Local and Small Businesses. If the Proposer fails to complete this form and submit it with the proposal, the Proposer will be denied consideration for local/small business preference. This information cannot be submitted later. The preference shall only be considered for the prime Proposer(s).  Attachment D – Master Consultant Agreement Template Selected vendor will be required to enter into an agreement with the City containing the terms and conditions and insurance provisions set forth in Attachment D. If you have any exceptions to the standard terms and conditions, you must note them in your proposal. In selecting a vendor, the City may consider any exceptions to the standard terms and conditions taken by a vendor. If there are no exceptions, please state "no exceptions" in your submission. Attachment E – Customer Reference Worksheet Attachment F – Conflict of Interest Form