Title
Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) recommending the Board:
1) Award Request for Proposal 23-918-033 to the Proposer identified as appropriate by the evaluation panel, Streamlink Software Inc., doing business as Amplifund, for the provision of Software as a Service Grants Management System through its AmpliFund Grant Lifecycle Enterprise Solution;
2) Authorize HHSA to negotiate a five (5) year Agreement for Services with Amplifund to include one-time implementation fees of $31,490, plus annual costs of $37,000 for year one and $47,000 for years two through five, for an estimated cost not to exceed $256,490 for Fiscal Years 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26, 2026-27, and 2027-28; and
3) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute said Agreement, contingent upon County Counsel and Risk Management review, including minor revisions as required.
FUNDING: 100% Health and Human Services Agency Program Funding.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND:
El Dorado County (County) HHSA Fiscal Unit is responsible for managing approximately $121 million of revenue coming into the agency on an annual basis. To track grant revenue and expenditures, HHSA program and grants staff work closely with HHSA accounting and fiscal staff to ensure all grant activities are recorded and processed in the Tyler Munis financial system (referred to as FENIX). As grants and program staff do not have access to most of the financial expenditures and invoicing data in FENIX, these staff members rely on fiscal staff to provide such reports on an ad hoc basis to fulfill the ongoing grant reporting requirements by HHSA federal and state funders. Grant related documents are stored and tracked via various systems (i.e. Excel, shared drives, and Tyler Munis). The lack of a unified shared grants management system has proven to be inefficient and has resulted in staff tracking grants in siloed systems and methods.
Beginning in 2022, HHSA’s Administration and Fiscal Unit began working with County Information Technology (IT) to undergo analysis to determine the need to acquire a GMS, that would provide a centralized location to store and track all grant activities across HHSA and to discuss current deficiencies and identify system enhancements. As an outcome of these discussions, it was determined that HHSA needed to purchase the licenses/use of a SaaS GMS capable of integrating with the County’s FENIX system, to assist with the management and oversight of the multiple grant reporting processes that HHSA staff are responsible for completing.
During the system improvement discussions with County IT, HHSA and IT collaborated with other County departments including the Community Development Agency (CDA), Chief Administrative Office (CAO), Sheriff’s Office, and Probation Department, and it was revealed that the County as a whole would like to explore a SaaS GMS to simplify county-wide grant management processes. Given the magnitude of such a project, HHSA agreed to serve as the lead agency in completing a competitive solicitation to identify the best-suited SaaS GMS for the County.
Subsequently, on December 12, 2022, the CAO Procurement and Contracts Division, released RFP 23-918-033, which was requested by the HHSA under the advisement of the County IT Department, to solicit proposers to provide the SaaS GMS. Six (6) proposals were received and evaluated by a panel of six (6) raters, including members of HHSA, CDA, and County IT. As a further evaluation tool, a secondary evaluative component was added, in which the top three (3) ranking Proposers participated in a demonstration.
As a result of the RFP evaluative processes, Streamlink Software Inc., doing business as Amplifund, was selected as the highest-ranked Proposer. AmpliFund’s solution, Grant Lifecycle Enterprise Solution, is a purpose-built, out-of-the-box grant management solution that has been used by organizations since 2011 and has been successfully implemented in other county agencies. This solution will provide grant management tracking from application to close-out, provide configurable workflows to new revenue generation and expense tracking, centralize grant management activities to save time and resources, and will integrate seamlessly with the County’s Tyler Munis FENIX system to allow both financial systems to sync and share grant-related data.
HHSA is requesting the Board approve the award of this RFP to the qualified Proposer, Amplifund, to provide the SaaS GMS, and is requesting authority to enter into negotiations with Amplifund and authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute the resulting Agreement for Services with a five (5) year term with a not-to-exceed amount of $256,490. Should other County departments decide to pursue agreements with Amplifund for the SaaS GMS, those departments will bring the resulting agreements before the board for additional approval.
ALTERNATIVES:
Should the Board decline to award RFP 22-915-037, HHSA will continue to track grants through non-unified systems, which will impact efficiencies in managing and tracking grant funding, grant subawards, and subcontract expenditures associated with grant funding.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION:
No prior actions.
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
Chief Administrative Office, Procurement and Contracts Division, Community Development Agency, Sheriff’s Office, Probation Department, and Information Technologies Department.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The cost of the final executed SaaS contract will be paid by the HHSA Administration Division, to be recovered from HHSA programs through an approved Indirect Cost Rate that equitably allocates allowable costs of general administration to benefitting grants and programs. Appropriations are included in the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Recommended Budget request and will be included in subsequent fiscal year budget requests, upon approval of the final Agreement.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS:
N/A.
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT:
Good governance
CONTACT
Olivia Byron-Cooper, MPH, Health and Human Services