Price tag on proposed service to create requests for proposals for county could top $42,000

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commission has been exploring ways to both generate requests for proposals (RFPs) on county projects and develop a list of qualified contractors that will bid on those projects.

A recent call for bids to repair the county’s courthouse roof at first found no contractors to do the work and then the job was rebid – twice. The last time it was rebid was after a mailed bid was received after the deadline.

County Commissioner Alison Hamilton

At the July 7 commission meeting, a presentation was given by OpenGov representative Katelyn Rayburn, who explain to commissioners Alison Hamilton Jim Johnson how the OpenGov procurement software could benefit Linn County. Commissioner Jason Hightower did not attend that meeting.

Hamilton, who has been concerned about how RFPs have been written and how that information reaches contractors, and Ware, who is responsible for developing some of the county’s RFPs, asked the company to present this option to the commission.

Rayburn explained that the company offered different suites (options) and the most comprehensive one was the full suite or core procurement plus contract management. It is a solicitation module that automates building RFPs. Rayburn said this was the most popular and most commonly purchased. The four parts of this suite are:

1. A solicitation module: This automates building all those RFPs. OpenGov adds the county’s RFPs to their database of other RFPs, and these are available for the RFP writer to use as examples. She said that OpenGov users tend to see about a 90% time savings on building RFPs.

2. Supplier engagement: Because of OpenGov’s vendor portal, the county will get four

times more bid submissions than they are receiving. Rayburn pointed out that more bids

means more competition, cheaper prices. 

3. Evaluations and awards; This section will help the county evaluate the bids in an

automated fashion and then help award them. 

4. Contract management: This will help the county build the contract and send it out. It will

create automated alerts so that the user will never miss a deadline with the contract.

Using this suite, the county would never miss a renewal or miss an insurance renewal.

Rayburn said the pricing for this option includes all of the above. She explained that the cost was a one-time professional services fee for implementation and a twelve-month subscription fee. The total for this option is $42,420. She pointed out that there was a 5% increase built in every year in the subscription (software) fee.

Hamilton asked, “I guess I am not  really sure what the $42,000 is covering. Is it just procurement and RFPs? That’s it? I mean when I look at Miami County website they have a ton of options.”

Rayburn explained that the amount included nearly $26,000, which is the level of effort that it would take the company’s team to get Linn County’ account set up. That would be a one-time cost. The remaining $16,500 per year is for the actual software.

Ware asked if this was equivalent to what Miami County does. 

“Yes they have a full suite,” Rayburn said. “They have core procurement plus contracts. So what you guys see on their website is just the supplier engagement. It’s just the vendor portal. What they have on their back end is the automated solicitation development, the contract management, the evaluations and the awards portion.”

Hamilton asked Ware, “How many RFPs do you think we do a year?”

“There’s six that are on automatic rotation,” Ware answered. “They get done every single year no matter what. And then we’ve got probably anywhere from another ‘sevenish’ to 10 more that. You know, for example, the roofing one, that’s not a yearly one, but it’s one that we added.”

“Like I mentioned,” Rayburn said, “a big value in the solicitation development is not only  we will work with you to improve that process, but its going to be to be able to connect you guys with a ton more vendors, right?

“I told Chasity about a customer we had in Edgewood, Kentucky, that had to purchase a new sign for one of their parks – I believe every other year. And it was normally around $100,000 for that project. When they came on with OpenGov, we were able to essentially open the door to an entire pool of other vendors who are now able to bid on that project. In that first solicitation with OpenGov, they saved over $40,000.” 

I don’t know if that cost is worth the number of RFPs we do a year,” Hamilton said.

Rayburn then offered the next option, which includes the solicitation development, some employer engagement, evaluations and awards, but does not include contract management.

Rayburn asked if dropping the solicitation development (RFP writing) would help.

Hamilton answered, “Honestly I don’t know how to answer that, writing the RFPs is important to me, RFPs written professionally and submitted accurately, deadlines are an issue. Knowing where to send them, more calculated. I need a breakdown of solicitation development.  I am not understanding just sitting here what all they would include.”

Rayburn said that they make the solicitation essentially foolproof.

The cost for the second option first time set up is just over $20,500 and the software nearly $11,400 plus 5% per year for a total of about $31,900.

Rayburn then presented the third option. She said that all the third option includes is the supplier engagement, evaluations and awards module, goes into an evaluation portal. Scoring and awarding for a project. A place to post the supplier engagement.

The third option which includes only the supplier engagement, evaluation and award sections  would cost $11,232 for the first time set up and the software would be $7,335 plus 5 % per year for a total of $18,567.

“Chasity, when you came to me originally you said we want the vendor portal that Miami County has,” said Rayburn.

Hamilton said that the county needed to look at how much money has been spent posting RFPs in the newspaper and is that more or less than the cost of this software.

“If Jesse does a RFP or Chasity does a RFP, can everybody touch it, see it?” asked Hamilton. 

Ware asked Commission Chair Jim Johnson who all besides herself, Public Works Director Jesse Walton and Information Technology Director Chris Martin wrote RFPs.

Johnson said that was all he could think of.

Rayburn explained that local vendors would be able put in their names, company’s name and the code for what their company does. Whenever a project is posted by Linn County, Lawrence, or Miami County, they would automatically be notified. 

Ware said it would open it up for people in other locations to bid on Linn County jobs. She said Linn County had a lot of things that needed to be done but not enough people in Linn County that do those things.

Hamilton asked what the turnaround time on getting it set up was.

Rayburn said it depended on the option. This is very streamlined and only took 10 days after the contract is signed to get the vendor portal set up.

Hamilton asked if on this particular quote was this something the county could sign and yet not go into effect for six months, and Rayburn said that was possible.

Hamilton asked about a permitting and licensing suite. Rayburn said that they offered that but it would be completely outside out of what was talked about in the presentation. And that would be another yearly fee and another implementation fee.

Ware said she would personally like to look into that because what the county currently uses in planning and zoning with the cloud permit can take applicants’ information but it can't make a payment online.

Ware said she would like to compare the costs of permits versus the iCloud permit system the county is using.

Hamilton said that she would like to see financially these quotes that you have given us broken down so we can say that we do need this and this is why.  And also, get the figures for how much the county is spending on publications versus this quote.                                                                                                                        

Rayburn asked if the county had an idea of a timeline and if this was something the county was ready to move on.

Hamilton said, “My personal opinion, I would like to see it roll out with the new website.”         

Rayburn told the commissioners that it would take about three months for it to be ready. So if the county would let them know by the end of July it would be ready for the new website.