RFP 319

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOOD SUPPLEMENT EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING (FSET) PROGRAM CREATIVE SERVICES PROJECT FIA/BCP-18-001-S AUGUST 22, 2017 311 West Saratoga Street Room 508B Baltimore, Maryland 10:10 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. PRESENT FROM DHS: NNEKA WILLIS-GRAY, Procurement Officer SHOMARE BRAXTON, Acting Director, Workforce and Development KARI NYE, Communications Director TANYA WILLIAMS, Deputy Chief Information Officer PAMELA PERKINS, Office of Administration SIMON CORNBERG, Attorney General ARETHA ECTOR, Attorney General DOMINIC EDET NIA GRAVES ALSO PRESENT: DIANE DEVANEY, Devaney & Associates, Inc. ELLIS HARCUM, Sahara Communications, Inc. CHRIS SMITH, idfive CASEY RHOADS, TB&C, Inc. KRISTEN PARKS, Eleven Peppers Studios CRYSTAL MYERS, CADMUS JAMES BYLES, Washingtonian Custom Media COLLEEN DOYLE, Doyle Communications CHRISTINA SGAMBATO, Highrock Studios DAVID WHITE, Exit10 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 2 ALSO PRESENT CONTINUED: DAN RAPP, Exit10 ANTOINE WRIGHT, Mindboard GARY GOLDBERG, Maryland Procurement Group REPORTED BY: KATHLEEN A. COYLE, Notary Public HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Good morning everyone. 3Welcome to the Department of Human Services. My name 4is Nneka Willis-Gray, and I’m the procurement officer 5for the food supplement employment training, also known 6as FSET program creative service project. The purpose 7of this solicitation is to establish an innovative 8brand and identity that will aid the Department in 9increasing enrollment I n the FSET program. With this 10new brand and identity DHS will be able to, one, 11connect FSET participants and training that will 12prepare them for careers, which will place them on a 13path for financial independence and family self 14sufficiency; two, promote the efforts, services, and 15impact of those organizations that collaborate with the 16FSET program; and three, promote DHS’s efforts to 17become a national model for FSET program, 18implementation, and positive outcomes. 19 This contract shall be for approximately six 20months, starting on or about September 22, 2017, and 21will go until March 21, 2018. The due date for HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 4 1proposals is September 1, 2017. Proposals are due at 24:00 p.m. Please note, please submit your proposals 3timely or else they cannot be accepted. 4 Just for you reference, if anyone needs to 5use the restroom, you can use the back entrance, you 6will go to the right and immediately to the left are 7the restrooms. Hunt reporting is recording this 8conference. A copy of the transcripts will be posted 9to eMaryland Marketplace and DHS websites once they 10become available. 11 So with that, we’ll start. We’ll introduce 12ourselves by going around the room. We’ll start here 13at the table. 14 MR. BRAXTON: Shomare Braxton, acting 15director of workforce and development. 16 MS. NYE: Hi. I’m Kari Nye. I’m the 17communications manager. 18 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Nneka Willis-Gray, 19procurement officer. 20 MR. HARCUM: Ellis Harcum from Sahara 21Communications. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 5 1 MS. MYERS: Crystal Myers with CADMUS Group. 2 MR. BYLES: James Byles, president of 3Washingtonian Custom Media. 4 MS. SGAMBATO: Christina Sgambato, marketing 5executive for Highrock Studios. 6 MS. DOYLE: Colleen Doyle, creative director, 7Doyle Communications. 8 MR. SMITH: Chris Smith with idfive. 9 MR. WHITE: David White, managing partner, 10Exit10. 11 MR. RAPP: Dan Rapp from Exit10. 12 MR. WRIGHT: Antoine Wright, Mindboard. 13 MR. RHOADS: Casey Rhoads, TBC. 14 MS. DEVANEY: Diane Devaney, Devaney & 15Associates. 16 MS. PARKS: Kristen Parks, Eleven Peppers 17Studios. 18 MR. EDET: Dominic Edet. 19 MR. GOLDBERG: Gary Goldberg, MPG. 20 MS. PERKINS: Pamela Perkins, Office of 21Administration. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 6 1 MS. ECTOR: Aretha Ector, Office of the 2Attorney General. 3 MR. CORNBERG: Simon Cornberg, Office of the 4Attorney General. 5 MS. WILLIAMS: Tanya Williams, 6(unintelligible). 7 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: And so it is my pleasure to 8introduce Mr. Shomare Braxton with the Family 9Investment Administration, and he will provide the 10opening remarks today. 11 MR. BRAXTON: So I just want to give a 12overview of the food supplement employment and training 13program, also known as FSET. So the food supplement 14employment training program connects those who receive 15food supplement benefits to in demand industry specific 16training programs. Our participants are provided with 17no-cost opportunities to gain skills, training or 18experience that will improve their employment prospects 19and lead to self sufficiency. In addition to training 20our partners also provide job placement, job retention 21and support services that assist participants in HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 7 1obtaining and maintaining employment. These services 2are provided by third-party partners, to include 3community colleges and community based organizations. 4As DHS enhances and expands the FSET program, we want 5to ensure there is a consistent and clear message to 6the public while raising awareness of program 7participation available to staff recipients, third- 8party partners, and other community organizations. 9 Our goal is to establish an innovative brand 10and identity that will aid the Department in increasing 11enrollment into FSET programs. The target audience is 12customers currently receiving and those potentially 13eligible for SNAP benefits. Many of these customers 14are unemployed or under employed, have significant 15barriers to employment, limited job experience, and no 16means of reliable transportation. Their age, education 17level and language may vary. So to summarize, we want 18a website to be used as a vehicle to connect and direct 19customers while also highlighting the program to the 20general public, state, local and federal partners. 21 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Thank you, Shomare. So now HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 8 1we’re going to go throughout the RFP. We’re going to 2highlight some sections that want to bring your focus 3to. We’ll start with the minimum qualifications, which 4is section one, and then move onto section two, which 5is the scope of work requirements. These sections will 6be presented by Mr. Shomare Braxton and Ms. Kari Nye. 7 MS. NYE: Good morning. I’m going to read 8the offeror minimum qualifications. I apologize for 9just reading it to you, but in case you haven’t had the 10opportunity. The offeror shall demonstrate that it has 11five years of in-house experience or has subcontracted 12with other firms providing multidisciplinary design and 13creative services to include the following: logos and 14branding, graphic design, printed and digital marketing 15collateral, copy-wright and messaging, and website 16design and development. As proof of meeting this 17requirement the offeror shall provide a digital 18portfolio that includes at least three examples of 19multidisciplinary design experience within the previous 20five years. The portfolio shall include dates, 21organization/client’s names and contact information for HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 9 1all examples provided. Subcontractor experience may be 2used for one of the three design experiences. 3 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Just to interject, we will 4have a questions and response period at the end of the 5conference today. So if you can write down and hold 6your questions until that time, we would appreciate it. 7 MS. NYE: Moving onto scope of work. We’re 8going to start at section 2.3, since Shomare did the 9other two. Basically, what we’re looking for is a 10marketing tool, as he said. And under this project is 11going to comprise six –- or sorry, five different 12sections to include naming and brand as one, messaging 13and copy-writing as two, graphic identify and design as 14three, website design and development as four, and 15outreach materials as the fifth section. 16 Under naming and brand positioning, this is 17the first section that we’re looking for. We want the 18vendor to conduct a site visit with program 19participants to gather research information for the 20naming and branding of the FSET program. Meaning, 21we’re not looking to call it FSET program. So we want HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 10 1you to come up with a brand by going to visit these 2places to glean from them what their services are. 3Propose a brand name that is representative of the FSET 4program’s goal and DHS’s mission. And then we’ll have 5you submit electronically, via email, within the 6specified time line, 30 calendar days of the notice to 7proceed. 8 Under the next section, messaging and copy- 9writing. We’ll provide you information about the FSET 10program from our prospective. And you’ll use that 11information in accordance with what you’ve also 12gathered to write, edit, and develop content for the 13FSET website and marketing materials. We’re looking 14for you to develop strong messaging for the FSET 15program that speaks to the diverse audience that 16Shomare summarized for us. We also look to you to 17develop a social media campaign to promote the FSET 18program using our social media channels, which I must 19say since this was published have actually just changed 20this week in accordance with our new brand. So just to 21update this, the Facebook and the Twitter can now both HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 11 1be found at /mdhumanservices. And we’ll be sure to 2issue a update. But you would be using our existing 3channels to propose the campaign. And then this 4initial draft copy of messaging and copy-writing will 5be presented no later than 45 calendar days of the 6notice to proceed. 7 Next we have graphic identity and design. 8We’re seeking a modern logo tag line –- the tag line is 9important –- and graphic identity that will promote 10awareness of the FSET program and its services. We’d 11like a draft of the graphic identity and design no 12later than 45 calendar days from the notice to proceed. 13And then the final no later than 90 days from the 14notice to proceed. 15 Under website design and development, we’re 16seeking for you to design, develop, and implement a 17website that serves as an easy-to-use resource for 18potential program participants. So this would be 19anyone who is currently or could be eligible for one of 20these training programs. At minimum the website shall 21have an interactive web tool allowing customers to HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 12 1quickly evaluate their options and eligibility for 2training programs, the ability to compile a list of 3compatible training locations and addresses, and 4multiple web pages that will serve program 5participants, partners, and stakeholders. One thing 6that may not be clear from this so far is that each 7training program has its own distinct opportunities. 8Certain qualifications for each program, certain areas 9of focus. So the web tool will need to help 10participants quickly evaluate what they’re qualified 11for, what fits their interests, and go from there. 12 The initial proposed website design template 13should be presented no later than 120 calendar days 14from the date of the approved contract for review, 15prior to implementation. Following review of the 16initial draft, the Department will evaluate the website 17to ensure satisfaction with the website function and 18conformance within the RFP. We will notify the 19contractor in writing of acceptance of the site or any 20amendments and/or additions that are required. 21Notwithstanding above, the go-live date is March 8, HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 13 12018. We also need a part of this is to ensure that 2the content can be printed from the website and is 3compatible across mobile devices and operating systems, 4including Apple, Android, Windows. 5 The final component of this would be outreach 6materials. We’re seeking for the offeror to design a 7combination of printed and digital outreach materials 8that could include posters, tri-fold brochures, 9postcards and other items that can be printed by our 10Department in black and white and color as needed in 11perpetuity. We’ll also seek for you to provide 200 12color printed posters with a minimum size of 18 by 24 13inches, and 1250 printed fliers. Present drafts of all 14outreach material no later than 60 days from the notice 15to proceed to the State project manager. Provide all 16approved printed outreach materials no later than March 178, the go-live date. 18 MR. BRAXTON: Okay. So I want to talk about 19invoicing. And it’s in section 3.4. All invoices for 20service shall be signed by the contractor and submitted 21to the State project manager. All invoices shall HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 14 1include the following information: contractor name and 2address, remittance address, federal taxpayer 3identification number, invoice period, invoice date, 4invoice number, State assigned contract number, State 5assigned purchase order number, goods or services 6provided, and amount due. 7 The Department reserves the right to reduce 8or withhold contract payment in the event the 9contractor does not provide the Department with all 10required deliverables within the time frame specified 11in the contract or otherwise materially breaches the 12terms and conditions of the contract until such time as 13the contractor brings itself into full compliance with 14the contract. 15 The invoice submission schedule. Invoices 16are due by the 15th of the month, following the month 17in which the deliverable has been received. 18 MS. NYE: I guess just to call your attention 19real quick to, it should be page 20 on yours, but 3.1, 20the deliverables chart. Just a handy chart to 21summarize what I said the deliverables of the project HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 15 1are, including site visit, naming and branding, which 2the details are outlined on the previous section, 3message and copywrite material, graphic identity and 4design, interactive website, outreach materials, and to 5include all materials, drafts, proofs, negatives, 6limited English proficiency implementation plan, 7technical support and training, and problem escalation 8procedures. So these are all the -- 9 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: And so now I’m just going 10to jump back just a little bit more to section 3.1, 11which is the insurance requirements. This solicitation 12does require commercial general liability insurance 13with limits of 375,000 per occurrence, and 750,000 for 14aggregate. It also requires malpractice or 15professional liability insurance with a minimum of one 16million per claim and annual aggregate. And also for 17the automobile and/or commercial insurance to maintain 18liability, collision, and PIP limits no less than those 19required by the state where the vehicle is registered. 20But in no case less than those required by the State of 21Maryland. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 16 1 And then we’ll move onto section four, which 2are some procurement instructions for you. We’ll start 3at section 4.2, which is eMaryland Marketplace. 4Essentially, eMaryland Marketplace is the State’s 5electronic commerce site. It’s where all information 6about the solicitation, including award, is posted. So 7it is a requirement that if you are submitting a 8proposal that you are registered for eMaryland 9Marketplace. Registration is free. And to register 10you go onto emaryland.buyspeed.com Once you are 11registered you just want to take note of your eMaryland 12Marketplace vendor number. This number is needed on 13the transmittal letter, or the cover letter, which is 14submitted with your proposal. 15 Moving onto section 4.5, proposal due date 16and time. Again, proposals are due September 1, 2017. 17Proposals are due at 4:00 p.m. If it is received after 184:00 p.m., on September 1, we cannot accept your 19proposal. 20 I also just want to point out, if for some 21reason that you’re not able to submit a proposal, the HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 17 1State would really like your feedback. So if you can 2use the vendor notice form provided in the solicitation 3and let us know why you are not submitting a proposal. 4We would greatly appreciate it. 5 Section 4.8 is the Public Information Act 6notice. Just keep in mind that any information that 7you consider confidential and/or proprietary to your 8company should be identified by page and section 9number, and placed after the title page, and before the 10table of contents in the technical proposal. And if 11it’s applicable to the financial proposal, include it 12in the financial proposal as well. 13 Section 4.17, mandatory contractual terms. 14Just keep in mind that any exceptions to the RFP and 15contract shall be clearly identified in the executive 16summary of the technical proposal. A proposal that 17takes exception to any terms and conditions may be 18rejected. 19 Section 4.21, verification of registration 20and tax payment. For any entity to do business with 21the State you must be registered with FSET or the State HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 18 1Department of Assessment and Taxation. If you are not 2registered for FSET, then if you were otherwise a 3qualified offeror, your proposal may be rejected. Will 4be rejected, excuse me. To register, it’s also free, you want to go to www.egov.maryland.gov/businessexpress 5 6 For this solicitation there is no minority 7business goal or veteran small business enterprise 8goal. However, we do encourage minority businesses and 9veteran small businesses to submit a proposal. And 10also, the Maryland living wage law is not applicable to 11this solicitation. 12 Next we’re going to highlight section five, 13which is the proposal format. So when you’re 14submitting your proposal you will be submitting your 15proposal in two parts. Volume one is the technical 16proposal, volume two is the financial proposal. Each 17volume shall be sealed separately from one another. 18It’s preferred that the name, email address, telephone 19number, the contact person for the offeror be included 20on the outside of each volume. Each volume should 21contain four copies and one original. And then if it’s HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 19 1not too big, both sealed copies should be submitted 2together in a single package with a label that has the 3RFP title and number, name and address of the offeror, 4closing date and time for receipt of proposals. We 5also expect to see an electronic submission which can 6be submitted on USB or DVD. That electronic submission 7should be in two parts as well. So you’ll have one for 8the technical proposal and the other for the financial 9proposal. The electronic technical proposal submission 10should include a Microsoft Word version of your 11proposal as well as an Adobe pdf searchable that is 12redacted for PIA requests. For the volume two, 13financial proposal electronic submission you want to 14include the financial proposal in Microsoft Excel, and 15also a searchable Adobe pdf version of it that is also 16redacted for PIA requests. 17 For the delivery of your proposals, you can 18choose to either mail or hand-deliver your proposal. 19If you’re choosing to mail your proposal, we do 20recommend that it is sent either Express Mail, Priority 21Mail, or Certified Mail, as these are the only forms HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 20 1that the Department can verify received. Anytime that 2you have a hand-delivery, please make sure that you 3receive a secure date, signed, and time stamped receipt 4of your delivery. 5 All right. So I’m moving onto how your 6proposal will be put together. Again, your technical 7will have four copies with one original and electronic 8submission. I’ll start with tab “A,” which will be 9your title page and table of contents. Then you’ll 10have A-1 if there is a claim of confidentiality. 11 Tab “B” will be the transmittal letter or the 12cover letter. And just keep in mind with the cover 13letter or transmittal letter that the following is 14expected to be included: includes the name and address 15of the offeror, name, title, email address and 16telephone number of the primary contact of the offeror, 17the solicitation title and solicitation number that the 18proposal is in response to, the signature, typed name 19and title of the individual authorized to commit the 20offeror to its proposal, the federal employer 21identification number or a Social Security number for HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 21 1an individual, the eMaryland Marketplace number, if you 2are a MBE, your minority business enterprise 3certification number, and acceptance of all State RFP 4contract terms and conditions. If any exceptions are 5taken, those should be included in executive summary. 6And also acknowledgment of any addenda to this RFP. Do 7keep in mind there has been an amendment that has been 8issued to the RFP. It was issued on August 18. It is 9to revise attachment “P.” So at the bottom of your 10solicitation you’re looking at the correct version if 11in the footer you see “revised solicitation 8/17/2017, 12revision to attachment P.” 13 Tab “C” will include the executive summary. 14 Tab “D” will include minimum qualifications, 15any documentation related to it. 16 And tab “E” is going to be the bulk of your 17proposal. It is the offeror’s response to the RFP 18requirements and proposed work plan. In this section 19each offeror shall provide a definitive section by 20section description of the proposal, of the proposed 21plan to meet the requirements of the RFP, beginning HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 22 1with section 2.3.1.1 of the solicitation. The work 2plan shall include specific methodology, techniques, 3and number of staff, if applicable, to be used by the 4offeror in providing the required services as outlined, 5descriptions to include an outline of the overall 6management concepts employed by the offeror, any 7project minutes or plan, including project controls, 8mechanisms, and overall time lines. Project deadlines, 9consider contract deliverables must be recognized in 10the work plan. So essentially, your work plan is your 11proposal. 12 Tab “F” will include experience and 13qualifications of proposed staff. 14 And tab “G” will be offeror qualifications 15and capabilities. 16 Tab “H” includes references. At least three 17references are being requested. Each reference will be 18from within the last five years. Portfolio examples 19used to meet the minimum requirements in section one of 20the RFP can be used to meet this requirement. Also, 21the references should include the name of the client HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 23 1organization, name, title, telephone number, and email 2address, if available of the point of contact for the 3client organization, and value type, duration and 4description of services provided. 5 Tab “I” will list the current and prior State 6contracts from within the last five years. And this 7section should include the State contracting entity, a 8brief description of the services and goods provided, 9the dollar amount of the contract, the time of the 10contract, the State employee contact person’s 11information, and whether the contract was terminated 12before the end of the specified term, or if any 13available renewal options were not exercised. 14 Tab “J” will include the financial 15capability. We’re looking for at least two years, 16perferrably independently audited of a profit and loss 17statement and balance sheet. In addition to these 18items you can submit an Dun and Bradstreet rating, 19Standard and Poor’s rating, lines of credit, evidence 20of successful financial track record, and evidence of 21adequate working capital. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 24 1 Tab “K” is the certificate of insurance. 2Under tab “K” we’re just looking for your current 3insurance certificate. At this point it does not need 4to meet the requirements that were set forth in section 53.1. 6 Tab “L” we’ll go over subcontractors, if it’s 7applicable. 8 Tab “M” is the summary of any legal action. 9 And tab “N” includes economic benefit 10factors. 11 Tab “O” will include additional technical 12submission. At this time what would be included under 13that section would be a completed proposal affidavit, 14which is attachment “C,” and a completed federal funds 15attachment, which is attachment “G.” So that’s all 16that’s required for the technical proposal volume one. 17 So now moving onto the financial proposal, 18volume two. We need one original and four copies of 19the financial proposal form, which is provided as 20attachment “B.” Also keep in mind that the financial 21proposals shall not exceed $100,000. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 25 1 So now we’re going to move onto section six. 2I just want to point out some things about the 3evaluation and selection process. So evaluations of 4proposals will be performed in accordance with COMAR 521.05.03. The technical proposal evaluation criteria 6include offerors technical response to the RFP 7requirements and work plan, experience and 8qualifications of proposed facts, offeror 9qualifications and capabilities, including 10subcontractors and economic benefit to the State of 11Maryland. Technical proposals will be evaluated and 12ranked prior to the evaluation of financial proposal. 13Once the technical has been evaluated and ranked the 14financial proposal will be ranked from the list, which 15is the most advantageous to highest, which is the least 16advantageous. 17 So that concludes the sections that we wanted 18to highlight for you today. So now we were going to 19open up the floor to any questions. I did want to 20point out that we have received some questions and have 21provided some responses. You do have an attachment. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 26 1If you were not able to grab one, there are copies over 2on the table in regards to questions already asked 3previously. We also received a sheet of questions. 4We’ll be responding to those questions after the pre- 5proposal conference today. And again, Hunt Reporting 6is recording the conference. So the transcripts will 7be posted on the website. Whenever you do ask your 8question, if you can identify yourself and your company 9for the record, we would appreciate it. So are there 10any questions? 11 MS. PARKS: Kristen Parks, Eleven Peppers 12Studios. I have a few questions. Should I ask them 13all or should I just do one at a time? 14 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: You can ask one at a time. 15 MS. PARKS: Okay. The first question I have 16is on the four copies for technical and financial 17volumes, should they be bound or unbound? 18 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Unbound. 19 MS. PARKS: So everything should be unbound? 20 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Unbound. 21 MS. PARKS: My second question is regarding HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 27 1the LEP plan. Do you have requirements for translation 2language or should that be part of what we propose in 3our LEP plan? 4 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: It should be part of what 5you propose in your LEP plan. 6 MS. PARKS: My third question is, where 7would you like the digital portfolio saved, which CD, 8or a separate CD? 9 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: We’ll actually take that 10question down and get back to you. 11 MS. PARKS: Related question is for the 12minimum qualifications. Since the minimum 13qualifications is a digital file, would you like us to 14reference the file in the minimum qualifications tab? 15 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: We’ll take it down and get 16back to you. 17 MS. PARKS: Okay. Thank you. And then my 18last question is, I just wanted to confirm that you 19said there is no separate CD for the redacted pdf. In 20the proposal it says to keep them separate, but I think 21you said to put them on the same CD. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 28 1 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Right. You can put them on 2the same CD. 3 MS. PARKS: Okay. Thank you. 4 MR. HARCUM: Ellis Harcum, Sahara 5Communication. Is there an incumbent for this bid? 6 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: There is no incumbent. 7These are new services for this Department. 8 MR. HARCUM: Is the Department open to 9having like a Skype meeting in addition to in-person 10meetings? 11 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: We can take down that and 12get back to you. 13 MR. HARCUM: Okay. And how much interaction 14will the contractor have with the Department, 15communications involving? 16 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: A lot of communication. 17 MR. HARCUM: Okay. No problem. And you 18didn’t really talk about the website. I do have some 19questions with that. Do you want me to just submit 20those? 21 MS. NYE: No. Go ahead. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 29 1 MR. HARCUM: Okay. So will the new FSET 2program website replace the contents on, I guess the 3food supplement website or will it reside on the My DHR 4Benefits page? 5 MS. NYE: It will not replace. It will work 6in tandem what’s on DHS’s website regarding food 7supplement program is there by law. So we’re looking 8for an independent marketing tool. It will not reside 9on My DHR either. It will have it’s own URL. 10 MR. HARCUM: Okay. I guess also, I guess in 11section 2.3.3, technical requirements, item “D,” it 12talks about creating the pages in HTML. However, on I 13think appendix “P,” and I don’t know if I have the 14latest one or not. I’m not certain. It talks about 15using Agular JS. So for the creative tool, is that 16something that you have to use, that Agular JS to 17develop that or -- 18 MS. WILLIAMS: No. So those are the 19specifications from My DHR. So we just gave you the 20specs of what My DHR is developed in to give you and 21idea of what you need to be compatible with. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 30 1 MR. HARCUM: Okay. I see. All right. And 2then the criteria, the eligibility criteria that will 3be used, will that be changed over time, so we should 4program it in there, or should it be kind of like, I 5guess a database driven parameter so that you can 6change the eligibility parameters without changing the 7programs? 8 MS. NYE: Do you mean for the third party 9training partners eligibility parameters? 10 MR. HARCUM: Well, I guess when they come 11onto the website they can determine eligibility I guess 12for whatever program or tool that they’re eligible for. 13Is that something that’s going to change or can change? 14 MS. NYE: It can change. Correct. 15 MR. HARCUM: I think that’s it. I reserve 16the right to ask another question. 17 MS. NYE: Yes. 18 MS. PARKS: Kristen Parks, Eleven Peppers 19Studios. Your questions brought me some questions. 20Related to technology as a .net continues currently on 21My DHR, is that also required on the new site or can a HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 31 1different technology be used? 2 MS. WILLIAMS: It needs to be compatible. 3 MS. PARKS: You also stated it would be it’s 4own URL. Does that mean that we will participate in 5helping the domain in hosting requirements, or is that 6the Department? 7 MS. WILLIAMS: So we need to go back and 8revisit that question and we’ll get back to you. 9 MS. DEVANEY: Diane Devaney, Devaney & 10Associates. You said that you want our target market 11to connect and direct, but is there a call to action as 12in do want them to make a phone call, do we need to 13have forms on the website that they need to fill out? 14 MS. NYE: As far as a unified call to 15action, it does vary from training program to training 16program. So our hope is that in the future we’ll be 17able to identify unified call to action. For now, I 18think it’s going to depend on each program and what 19your proposal is. We’re not looking for a specific 20answer that we don’t have to the problem yet. But 21people do need to be able to identify their options and HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 32 1then take the required action. 2 MS. DEVANEY: So do we need a program forms 3or required action -- 4 MS. NYE: I don’t believe that currently any 5of the third party training models are accepting online 6enrollment. Does that answer your question? 7 MS. DEVANEY: Yes. And how many training 8locations are there? 9 MR. BRAXTON: So right now we have eight and 10we are on-boarding five. 11 MS. DEVANEY: Then moving onto social media. 12Is there a dedicated person at DHS that oversees social 13media? 14 MS. NYE: There is. It is I, me. 15 MS. DEVANEY: Do you have a written social 16media guideline? 17 MS. NYE: We do have some stylistic 18guidelines that I can share with everyone. 19 MS. DEVANEY: And do you produce a monthly 20social media calendar? 21 MS. NYE: No, we do not. HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 33 1 MS. DEVANEY: Just for a little background, 2how many participants have you had in the training 3program to date? 4 MR. BRAXTON: We can get back to you on that. 5The numbers vary. So we can get back to you on that. 6 MS. DEVANEY: And year of establishment, when 7was it established? 8 MR. BRAXTON: The FSET program? 9 MS. DEVANEY: Yes. 10 MR. BRAXTON: Two thousand fifteen. 11 MS. WILLIAMS: For the question about the 12portfolio, whether or not you can put it on a separate 13disk, if you can include it on the same disk as your 14proposal you can include it. If there’s not enough 15room, do a separate disk. 16 MR. BYLES: Are there general branding 17guidelines that need to be followed within this, as 18we’re developing the proposal? 19 MS. NYE: We do not have branding 20guidelines. So no. 21 MR. BYLES: Okay. Under the languages, I HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 34 1know that you said we’re to propose the language; do 2you have a number of languages that the State of 3Maryland requires things be able to be interpreted 4into? 5 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: We’ll take your question 6down. 7 MS. WILLIAMS: It’s just one. 8 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: I think it’s just Spanish. 9 MR. BYLES: So we’re looking at a bilingual 10program, not more than that? 11 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Not to my knowledge. 12 MR. WHITE: David White, Exit10. Can you 13talk a little bit about the project management side 14from DHR’s side, like how will the project be managed; 15will we have one point of contact, or multiple points 16of contact, I mean how would the approval process of 17creative be done? 18 MS. NYE: We have one project manager who is 19in charge of the FSET program who is going to be the 20primary point of contact. But she will be working 21closely with the communications department to approve HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 35 1things going forward. So it’s going to be a lot of two 2person committee. And she and I are still working out 3the approval process. But the idea is to work closely 4with the vendors and among ourselves, and then we have 5identified executive directors who would be in charge 6of final approval process. Does that answer your 7question? 8 MR. WHITE: (Nods head affirmatively.) 9 MS. PARKS: Regarding translations. I know 10the website will require translation. You also require 11translation on the marketing material. So does that 12mean that the quantities for the posters, for example, 13would double to have English and Spanish versions? 14 MS. NYE: We will not require translation of 15the marketing materials. 16 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Any other questions? 17 MR. HARCUM: I guess the –- does the 18interactive web tool, is that going to store 19information about the customer for alter retrieval? 20 MS. NYE: No. This is not an enrollment 21tool. But the hope is that it will leap frog people to HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 36 1enrolling. So they need to get the information they 2need to move forward. But the website itself will not 3enroll people. 4 MR. BYLES: The economic impact to Maryland, 5is there preference being given to Maryland based 6companies? 7 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Right now it’s reciprocal 8preference. We do not give preference to Maryland 9based. We go based off of if you are outside of 10Maryland whatever your reciprocal preference law is, 11Maryland will adopt that. So I guess depending on the 12state. 13 MS. RHOADS: What are the KPIs you will be 14using to judge the success of this plan? 15 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Can we get back to you on 16that? 17 MS. WILLIAMS: I’m sorry, can you repeat your 18question again? 19 MS. RHOADS: Sure. The KPIs that are 20implemented here used to judge success. So 21(unintelligible) HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 37 1 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: And is it possible that you 2could submit that question to us in writing? 3 MS. RHOADS: Sure. 4 MR. BYLES: Just a follow onto that 5question. Do you have established benchmark that 6you’re trying to reach in 2018, after the launch date, 7or current measurables that we can benchmark against? 8 MS. NYE: We can provide the analytics for 9the current FSET site that we have, that is not a 10marketing tool, but is an information tool, as like a 11basis. But we’ll get back to you. We do have some. 12 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: Any other questions? 13 (No response.) 14 MS. WILLIS-GRAY: All right. Well, I guess 15that concludes the review of this RFP. And just to let 16you k now, if there is a discrepancy between any 17response provided here today and any written response 18provided after the conference today, the written 19response will prevail. 20 Thank you everyone for coming out. We 21definitely appreciate you being here today. And also HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 38 1remember, proposals are due September 1, by 4:00 p.m. 2And if you haven’t already done so, please either 3provide us your business card or sign in. And I hope 4you all have a great day. And travel safely. 5 (Whereupon, at 10:50 a.m., the meeting 6was adjourned.) HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376) 39 1 CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY 2 I, KATHLEEN A. COYLE, Notary Public, before 3whom the foregoing testimony was taken, do hereby 4certify that the witness was duly sworn by me; that 5said testimony is a true record of the testimony given 6by said witness; that I am neither counsel for, related 7to, nor employed by any of the parties to this action, 8nor financially or otherwise interested in the outcome 9of the action; and that the testimony was reduced to 10typewriting by me or under my direction. 11 This certification is expressly withdrawn 12upon the disassembly or photocopying of the foregoing 13transcript, including exhibits, unless disassembly or 14photocopying is done under the auspices of Hunt 15Reporting Company, and the signature and original seal 16is attached thereto. 17 18 ___________________________________ 19__________ KATHLEEN A. COYLE 20 Notary Public in and for 21 the State of Maryland 22My Commission Expires: 23April 30, 2018 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)