State of Minnesota State Court Administration

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Product and Service: Provide a Portfolio Management Tool and Service for the Minnesota Judicial Branch

I. REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS.

A. Defined. The STATE of Minnesota, State Court Administrators Office (State) is using a competitive selection process (referred to herein as the Request for Proposals or RFP) to select the vendor responsible for providing a Portfolio Management Tool and services to implement the tool and support for the State Court Administrators Office. This is not a bid, but a Request for Proposals that could become the basis for negotiations leading to a contract with a vendor to provide the tool and services described in this document.

B. RIGHT TO CANCEL. THE STATE IS NOT OBLIGATED TO RESPOND TO ANY PROPOSAL SUBMITTED, NOR IS IT LEGALLY BOUND IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER BY THE SUBMISSION OF A PROPOSAL. THE STATE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CANCEL OR WITHDRAW THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AT ANY TIME IF IT IS CONSIDERED TO BE IN ITS BEST INTEREST. IN THE EVENT THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS IS CANCELLED OR WITHDRAWN FOR ANY REASON, THE STATE SHALL NOT HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO ANY PROPOSER FOR ANY COSTS OR EXPENSES INCURRED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THIS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS OR OTHERWISE. THE STATE ALSO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY OR ALL PROPOSALS, OR PARTS OF PROPOSALS, TO WAIVE ANY INFORMALITIES THEREIN, AND TO EXTEND PROPOSAL DUE DATES.

II. PROJECT BACKGROUND.

A. Minnesota Judicial Branch. The Minnesota Judicial Branch has 10 judicial districts with 289 district court judgeships, 19 Court of Appeals judges, and seven Supreme Court justices. The Minnesota Judicial Branch is governed by the Judicial Council, which is chaired by Lorie S. Gildea, Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Minnesota Judicial Branch is mandated by the Minnesota Constitution to resolve disputes promptly and without delay, and handled approximately 1.6 million cases in 2011. For more information please visit www.mncourts.gov.

B. Project Background. The Judicial Branch is in need of a tool that will support oversight and management of its project and resource portfolios. Effective portfolio management will help the Judicial Branch realize efficiencies and provide the facts to make strategic decisions.

The Judicial Branch is planning a phased approach to implement the functionality a portfolio management tool will bring. For example, the first phase will focus on review, selection, and oversight of our current project investments and new project requests. Subsequent implementations will include resource portfolio management and time tracking functionality.

C. Project Benefits. The outcome of this effort will be a fully implemented portfolio management tool that can be immediately utilized by the Judicial Branch. The existing and new project methodology and projects will be migrated into this tool to make it a comprehensive project management tool. Users will be trained for immediate use of the tool, thus providing an immediate benefit to the Judicial Branch. This initiative will enhance decision making for launching new projects, managing projects and resources, and provide a means to communicate and report to the appropriate users.

D. Technologies to be Implemented. A comprehensive portfolio management tool.

E. Project Approach. The Vendor will be tasked to work with the Judicial Branchs Project Portfolio Manager and other designated Judicial Branch employees to develop and execute a strategy to integrate the tool for use, provide the training and consultation necessary for a successful implementation, and to develop an operational plan and service agreement once implemented.

III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENT LIST.

In an effort to improve the tracking, communication, and resource scheduling related to portfolio management with the Minnesota Judicial Branch (MJB), the State Courts Administrators Office (SCAO) is purchasing and implementing a comprehensive Portfolio Management (PPM) tool to manage our portfolio of projects, programs, and resources. The use of the selected tool will be required for MJB to register and report the status of projects, programs, resources, operational work activities, and the health of our portfolios.

Tool Users:

Project managers, project team coordinators, portfolio managers, directors, managers, project team members (may be external clients), and employees (including contract staff)

Requirement List

Overall

Provide Demand Management activities that includes but not limited to:

a process to create projects

ability to submit ideas and projects for exploration

create business cases

select, score and rank projects

prioritize projects and operational activities

provide What If scenarios to assess the impact of changes

Track project and resource costs.

Establish different hierarchy levels and division/teams.

Provide a central administration for us to add or delete users based on roles, and to set multiple security profiles for users to view or edit.

Provide real time dashboards and reports for different or various audiences.

Ability to interact with other work going on throughout the organization by creating dependencies where needed.

Provide flexibility to customize categories, fields, and reports to fit MJB needs.

Integrate with other applications (e.g., SharePoint, Microsoft Project) and support common types of formats (e.g., Word, PDF, and PowerPoint).

Provide a means for users to communicate at different levels which include setting alerts and stage gate approvals within the project lifecycle or other operational activities.

Accommodate approximately 300 500 concurrent users with view capability.

Accommodate approximately 30 50 tool management (entry and update) users

Reporting

Provide streamlined report set up to create and manage different real-time and trend analysis reports (historical data).

Provide on demand ad hoc reports.

Ability to customize reports to fit MJB needs at the following levels:

portfolio, program, and project

administrative

resource management

financial and budgetary (at all levels)

Ability to email, print, and export reports to other software for presentations and information sharing.

Program and Project Management

Provide project templates

Ability to baseline for selected activities.

Provide status reports which includes planned and actual.

Provide easy access to drill-down to the task level

Ability to attach and open documents.

Ability to enter, track, sequence, and assign tasks.

Identify, manage, and categorize risk management.

Create, manage, and track issues.

Provide change request submission and tracking.

Resources

Create and manage a pool of all resources, their skill sets, and their overall allocation.

Allow for capacity planning.

Identify gaps in resources or skillsets to determine future resource needs.

Allow for time tracking.

Allow for individuals to view assigned work and provide status on projects.

Ability to track which resources are assigned to which tasks/projects and what tasks still need to be assigned.

Flexibility on setting duration hours, different rates, or flex time.

Implementation and Services

Ability to use the product out of the box and implement functionality in stages.

The tool must meet current MJB security standards and policies.

Integrate with the current system and software used at the Judicial Branch.

Must be compatible with the current versions of but not limited to SharePoint, Microsoft Project, SQL Server, Visual Studio, and BMC Service Desk Express (Magic)

The tool can be used by remote access (including mobile devices).

The tool/vendor provides high quality end-user documentation.

New and current end-user training and support materials are available.

Implementation and consulting service available (remote or on-site).

Provide a training database.

The successful vendor must be flexible to work with MJB in scheduling and performing the services hereunder, and shall do so in a manner that minimizes the interruption of court business.

IV. PROJECT DELIVERABLES.

The following artifacts will be produced during the projects progression:

1. A project plan, including milestones, outlining the content to be reviewed, revised or created to support the project objectives, and status reports as determined in consultation with project leadership.

1. Implementation of the product designed for the Judicial Branch.

1. Developing the data elements needed for governance, project management, resource management, and reporting.

1. On sight, written or web-based training for Judicial Branch staff.

1. Development of operational plan.

1. Development of service/maintenance agreement and what occurs after the service/maintenance agreement expires.

V. PROJECT MILESTONES AND SCHEDULE.

A. Project Start Date: On or about June 15, 2013.

B. Key Deliverables Dates: to be determined through negotiation with the Portfolio Manager. All Project Deliverables and Work specified in this RFP must be completed by the date indicated in the contract.

VI. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS.

A. General Requirements.

1. Certificate of Insurance. Each proposal shall contain acceptable evidence of compliance with the workers' compensation coverage requirements of