State of Connecticut Request for Proposal - Attachments

Attachment A - Project Background

1. Agency Roles and Responsibilities

1.1 Office of the State Comptroller

Connecticut state law gives the State Comptroller, a separately elected official, the authority to determine State accounting policies and practices, to prepare all accounting statements relating to the financial condition of the State, to pay the wages and salaries of State employees, to process payments to vendors doing business with the State, and to administer State employee benefits and pension plans.

OSC's Accounts Payable Division (APD) is responsible for paying vendors for all State agencies except certain higher-education institutions. It processes some 592,000 checks and 6,700 electronic fund transfers annually, worth some $6.8 billion. APD manages the State's encumbrance and expenditure records, approves disbursements and charges them to an agency's appropriations, and generally enforces legal accounting requirements, among other duties. OSC's Budget and Financial Analysis Division (BFAD) performs the State's accounting and financial reporting functions, preparing monthly and annual financial reports including the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and an annual Comptroller's report. BFAD also performs cost accounting for all State programs and operations.

OSC's Payroll Services Division keeps all payroll records, processes taxes and deductions, and pays biweekly some 72,000 full-and part-time State employees in all divisions and branches of State government, including higher education, the legislature and the judicial branch. The division's own information technology staff maintains the State Payroll System to support the above-mentioned function.

OSC's Retirement and Benefit Services Division administers several employee benefit systems such as health insurance, deferred compensation, and group life insurance. It also administers the state employee retirement system.

1.2 Department of Administrative Services

As prescribed by State law, the Department of Administrative Services is responsible for establishment of human resource policy and for personnel administration, for administration of the State's worker's compensation program, for the purchase of goods and services for State agencies, and for collection of monies owed the State for services provided by a number of the State's social service agencies. The department's human resources business center administers the job classification system and provides staffing services to State agencies such as recruitment, examination, assessment and selection, and job placement.

1.3 Department of Information Technology

The Department of Information Technology (DOIT) is responsible for providing core computer, telecommunications, and networking services to State agencies, for procurement of IT-related goods and services, for statewide strategic technology planning, and for development of IT standards and policies. DOIT is in the process of centralizing the management of all executive branch information technology systems (which does not include the systems operated by the State Comptroller, State Treasurer, Secretary of the State, and State Attorney General). It also operates and supports three systems that fall into the core systems category. The State Agency Appropriations Accounting System (SAAAS), is used by many executive branch agencies for processing of financial transactions and to meet internal financial reporting requirements. This system is supported by DOIT's Business Office Systems Support group (BOSS), which also maintains the State's most commonly-used time and attendance system, known as TAS. Additionally, the Automated Personnel System (APS) used by DAS to support its statewide personnel functions, is under DOIT's direction.

1.4 Office of the Treasurer

The Office of the Treasurer (OTT), headed by the independently elected State Treasurer, handles cash management for the State, including cash accounting and reporting, cash forecasting, short term investing and bank account administration. The Treasurer also issues bonds to finance the State's capital projects, manages debt service payments and cash flow borrowing, and manages retirement funds for five retirement plans, including the State's employees, teachers, and municipal employees.

1.5 Office of Policy and Management

The State Office of Policy and Management (OPM) prepares the Governor's budget proposal and implements and monitors the execution of the budget as adopted by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor. OPM provides the Governor with the information and analysis he uses to formulate public policy goals for the State. OPM performs strategic business planning for the State and is responsible for collective bargaining with the State's 30 collective bargaining units.

2. Existing Systems and Technologies

Connecticut state government currently has separate statewide systems (and many other single-agency-based systems) for accounting/accounts payable, personnel, worker's compensation, payroll, and time and attendance. Together they form a hodge-podge of redundant databases and applications, which run on multiple, often incompatible, computer platforms. These systems utilize many different programming languages and database software products and are linked together by complex interfaces. This structure brings costly inefficiencies such as redundant keying, time-consuming paper flows, and substantial after-the-fact reconciliation of data. Furthermore, State managers and elected officials cannot obtain accurate, timely information needed to effectively manage programs and measure their level of success.

A table showing the various technologies utilized by the state's core systems is shown at the top of the next page.

System Hardware Program Language Database
Accounting (CAS) Unisys Mainframe COBOL DMS-1100
Payroll IBM Mainframe COBOL VSAM
Personnel (APS) IBM Mainframe COBOL DB2
Budgeting (ABS) LAN Server Visual Basic Access
Receipts (RDS) LAN Server FoxPro FoxPro
Retirement IBM Mainframe COBOL IMS
Agency Accounting DEC VAX Basic/C++ RMS
Agency Time/Attend DEC VAX Basic/C++ RMS

Following is a list of existing major financial and human resource systems, listed by agency. Note that it is yet to be determined whether all these are within the scope of this project.

2.1 OSC Systems

2.2 DAS Systems

2.3 DOIT Systems

2.4 OTT Systems

The Office of the Treasurer employs a variety of PC/LAN based systems to support its operations. Some of the functions performed using these systems are debt management, environmental grant tracking, and short-term investment tracking. The Receipts and Disbursements System (RDS) is the only OTT system with automated interfaces to the State's core financial systems. RDS tracks checks, deposits, and transfers. It also provides the mechanism for balancing the books with the OSC at the end of the fiscal year.

RDS handles two basic types of transactions - cash transactions between OTT and the banks and fund transactions between OTT and OSC. On the cash side it receives files from the banks reflecting funds transfers, deposits, and withdrawals. On the fund side, the disbursement information is combined with the receipt information (interfaced into RDS from SAAAS) and is fed to the central accounting system.

2.5 OPM System

Automated Budget System (ABS): The State's Office of Policy and Management (OPM) utilizes the ABS for agency spending plan management, biennial budgeting, mid-term adjustment management, analytical review for budget preparation, and monthly analysis. It was developed in-house and implemented in 1992. ABS has approximately 40 users within the Office and approximately 150 line agency users. It is written in Visual Basic.

2.6 Other Agency Systems

Many state agencies operate human resource, payroll and financial systems with agency-specific rules, content, or processes. These are estimated to number 135 and operate in a wide variety of technical environments.

 

Attachment B - Vendor Proposal Validation and Authentication Statement

The person responsible for the validation of your proposal must complete and sign this statement where indicated and attach it to your company's response to RFP OSC-001-2000. By so doing, the signer attests that the given proposal represents:

  1. Full and unconditional acceptance of all the stipulated administrative requirements of RFP;
  2. Acknowledgement that the vendor agrees that the State's decision on the awarding of the contract is final;
  3. Complete and valid information as of the proposal due date;
  4. Price offerings that are valid until such date as the State is specifically notified otherwise, but not less than 90 days from the proposal due date;
  5. A "best effort" by the company to comply with all State requirements regarding proposal content and format.

VALIDATING
OFFICIAL:

Signature and Date


Printed Name and Title


By countersigning this proposal, I confirm that this proposal constitutes a complete, authentic, and bona-fide offer to the State of Connecticut which this company is fully prepared to implement as described. The company official who validated this proposal was authorized to represent the company in that capacity on the date of his/her signature.

AUTHENTICATING
OFFICIAL:

Signature and Date

Printed Name and Title


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