Survey Resource Center Development RFP
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Survey Resource Center and Laboratory Profiles
Issued December 16, 2010
Responses due by January 5, 2011
ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORIES
8515 GEORGIA AVENUE, SUITE 700
SILVER SPRING, MD 20910
PHONE: 240-485-2742
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Background
1.2 Contact for this RFP
1.3 Budget
2 PREPARING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
2.1 Contractor Information Required to be Included with Response
2.2 Response submittal
2.3 Timeline
3 GENERAL INFORMATION, ASSUMPTIONS AND REFERENCES
4 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS OF PROPOSAL
4.1 Executive summary
4.2 Organization/management capabilities and financial stability
4.3 References
4.4 Examples of successful implementation
4.5 Staff qualifications
4.6 Timeline
4.7 Budget
5 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
5.1 Scope
5.2 Development guidelines
5.3 Application infrastructure
5.4 SRC requirements
5.5 LP requirements
6 Evaluation criteria
1 GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Background
The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is accepting new proposals to design, develop and implement the Association’s Survey Resource Center (SRC) and Laboratory Profiles (LP). The SRC serves as a central repository of survey data collected through the years. This is available for state public health laboratories and APHL staff to use for trending, benchmarking and profiling across laboratories as well as individual data. However, the current iteration of the SRC does not fully meet the needs of the Association’s members and staff. The LP will provide APHL’s members with a searchable and easily updatable profile of the member’s laboratories. Currently APHL does not have an LP. Both the SRC and LP will be incorporated in the APHL’s website for members to access.
APHL is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization that works to safeguard the public’s health by strengthening public health laboratories in the United States and globally. The Association’s members include state and local laboratories, state environmental and agricultural laboratories, and other government laboratories that conduct testing of public health significance. To obtain more information about APHL, please visit www.aphl.org
1.2 Contact for this RFP
Responses to the RFP should be submitted to Deborah Kim, Survey and Research Manager at Deborah.Kim@aphl.org
1.3 Budget
APHL has allocated $170,000 for all phases of this project. Monies will be delivered as the phases of the project are finalized. Final payment will be made as final product is delivered.
2 PREPARING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
2.1 Contractor Information Required to be Included with Response
The proposal must contain the full legal name and signature of the authorized representative of the contractor. Telephone, fax, email and business address of the point of contact person needs to be included.
2.2 Response submittal
Proposals must be submitted by 5 pm EST, on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. Responses can be sent by the following methods: via email to Deborah.kim@aphl.org or by Postal Service (USPS) Priority, Express mail or Federal Express to Deborah Kim, APHL, 8515 Georgia Avenue Suite 700, Silver Spring, MD, 20910.
Email attachment is the preferred means of receipt. Email responses must be received at the APHL office by 5pm EST on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. USPS and Fedex responses must be postmarked or entered into a tracking system by 5pm EST on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. Submitters will receive a confirmation of receipt of their proposal by APHL. APHL may terminate or modify the RFP process at any time during the response period.
Responses that are not received by the stated deadline shall be determined to be non-responsive and at APHL’s discretion may not be considered in the review of respondents.
2.3 Timeline
Proposals are due by 5pm EST on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 and will be evaluated immediately thereafter. During this time the evaluation team might require interviews on or about January 19, 2011. A notification will be sent if this is requested.
APHL will request a meeting with the selected respondent prior to awarding a contract. The meeting will permit inclusion of changes that may arise in deliverables or conditions of the implementation.
The awarded respondent will be contacted and a contract will be created. Detailed contract and terms will be finalized as part of the contract negotiations. The contract starting and ending effective dates shall be indicated on the contract.
3 GENERAL INFORMATION, ASSUMPTIONS AND REFERENCES
The notes on general issues, assumptions and preferences, while not requirements, provide an overview of the non-functional requirements and preferences that are important issues for consideration by respondents since they describe key aspects of the SRC and LP that would be most appropriate.
1. All work including development, design, testing and implementation must be completed by June 30, 2011. Not negotiable.
2. Both the SRC and LP can be developed in different timeframes but must be completed by the above date.
3. The respondent can either improve the current SRC or create a brand new one.
4. Both the SRC and LP must be accessible to both APHL members and staff.
5. The applications must be compatible with both MOSS 2007 and 2010. Currently APHL uses MOSS 2007, but anticipates upgrading to 2010 within the next 2 years.
4 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS OF PROPOSAL
Instructions: Respondents must provide a point-by-point response to each of the General Requirements specified in this RFP. For each requirement, respondents should provide documentation as requested. The documentation demonstrates they understand the requirement and agree to the requirement. Responses to general requirements must be in sequence and numbered as they appear in this RFP.
4.1 Executive summary
Provide a narrative summary of the proposal being submitted. The summary should identify the design, development and services that are being offered in the proposal.
4.2 Organization/management capabilities and financial stability
Respondents should describe their company’s organizational structure and provide a brief history of their business.
4.3 References
Respondents should include a list of clients, organizations or institutions that can be used as references. At least one reference should be from an organization where a similar project was developed. Selected references may be contacted to determine the quality of work performed, competency of personnel assigned to the project, etc. The results of the reference checks will be provided to the evaluation and may be used in scoring the written proposal.
These references should be capable of verifying information supplied by the respondent in their proposal. The data required for each reference should include:
· Company Name
· Address
· Contact person name, email, phone number and address
4.4 Examples of successful implementation
Respondents should include a description of their relevant experience developing and implementing web based resource systems. Please provide information about specific platforms used, dates implemented, and customer satisfaction.
4.5 Staff qualifications
The respondent must provide a project team organizational chart, followed by resumes of key personnel that will be assigned to the system development and implementation. Each key personnel must be an employee of the respondent or be identified as a subcontractor. Include roles, responsibilities and estimated time allocated for each key personnel.
4.6 Timeline
Respondents should provide a detail timeline of events from design, requirements planning, development, testing and deployment.
4.7 Budget
Provide a cost proposal to accomplish the scope of work. The budget must encompass all design, production, and software acquisitions necessary for the development and maintenance of the SRC. Please include any costs associated with additional maintenance, support, and upgrades.
5 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
5.1 Scope
The scope of the project is to update an existing SRC or create a new one and to create an LP. The applications must include a technology solution that allows APHL members and staff to easily and cost effectively search and update content after implementation.
5.2 Development guidelines
The applications must meet the following criteria:
· Create a content management system that will allow non-technical personnel to instantly update content information on the LP site.
· The applications must be visually appealing and attractive, and comply with APHL’s current branding and web design policy.
· The SRC and LP should have a common look and feel. The use of fonts and layouts should be consistent throughout both sites.
· The applications should be easy to navigate. Information should be grouped and presented in a logical manner.
5.3 Application infrastructure
Respondents must provide full technical specifications for the application’s database design and administration. The application must be compatible with APHL’s main survey platform, MRInterview™, as well as other platforms such as Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) and SharePoint’s out-of-the-box survey capabilities. In particular, the application’s database should allow for the following:
· Original question and answer text, and numbering for each question.
· The creation of a “survey question bank” which is fully searchable and customizable.
· Ability to easily export data to Microsoft Excel and other data-analysis applications such as SPSS, SAS, etc.
· Allow APHL to restrict access to questions and surveys as necessary.
Provide a description of how the application will ensure security of the data, as well as how the application will handle permissions/access for users. Describe the process of further customizing or modifying the application once it has been developed and implemented. Describe how much flexibility APHL will have to make its own modifications to the application.
5.4 SRC Requirements
The SRC application must meet the following requirements.
· Export raw data for individual questions, the whole dataset and subset of questions in an Excel, CSV format or in a format compatible with other data-analysis applications such as SPSS, SAS, etc.
· Trend questions across surveys over time.
· Must be able to migrate data from different sources such as Survey Monkey, LabNet and SharePoint’s out-of-the-box survey tool.
· Allow user to make data among different categories (e.g. compare by individual state or a user defined group of states)
· Create a fully searchable question bank. Further, each question should have a discussion board attached to it to allow APHL to collect feedback on its historical questions.
· Ability to search by category, keyword, laboratory, and year of survey database.
· Create basic graphics (such as bar charts, scatterplots, etc.) for questions that APHL deems appropriate.
· Allow for basic mapping capability, similar to what is available at http://census.factfinder.gov.
Please provide a mock-up of what the application will look like following the above requirements.
5.5 LP Requirements
The LP application must meet the following requirements:
· A template to upload laboratory profile information.
· Able to easily and quickly deliver information to users for benchmarking purposes.
· Create separate modules for different laboratory sections (such as HIV, STD, Newborn Screening, etc.) based on a standard set of profile criteria (such as contact information, testing volume, etc.).
· Allow APHL staff archive profile information on a quarterly basis.
· Allow APHL staff push content (either through custom alerts, announcements, etc.) to the users. For instance, APHL may want to alert users a new survey is ready for completion.
· Let users run queries based on predetermined data “bins” (such as population size, laboratory size, geographic region, laboratory type, etc.).
· Let users search for information in the profiles. The search capability must be restricted to just the SRC site, and not include all of aphlweb.org.
· Allow users to change their profile information with APHL approval.
· Allow users to give access to their profiles at their own discretion (with APHL’s approval).
· Create a discussion board of “what information should we collect?” to better hone surveys.
Please provide a mock-up of what the application will look like following the above requirements.
6 Evaluation criteria
APHL will evaluate each of the applications based on meeting the requirements listed in the RFP. Each of the requirements will be scored following a point system. The evaluation team will review each applicant and provide a score following these guidelines.
· General requirements: 25 points
· Technical requirements: 45 points
· Budget requirements: 30 points
A total of 100 points will be given to the successful applicant.
