RFI: Mobile Application Dev Environment
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is seeking, through this Request for Information (RFI), information from Vendors in preparation for the potential release of a competitive solicitation for a Mobile Application System. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR PROPOSALS FOR SUCH SERVICES. Further, potential respondents to the competitive solicitation are not required to respond to this RFI in order to be considered for an award of the subsequent competitive process.
DCF desires a complete, comprehensive in-house, behindthe-firewall Mobile Application Development System. Information received by DCF from the Vendor community in response to the RFI may or may not have an impact on the ultimate solution sought by DCF. DCF reserves the right to decide whether to utilize any information/ideas submitted in response to this RFI. The RFI will also serve to alert the Vendor community to the potential competitive process and provides an opportunity to familiarize themselves with DCFs needs.
1.0 PURPOSE
1.1 This RFI is intended to provide a standard base from which to begin considering alternatives for Mobile Application Development and to allow the Vendor flexibility in proposing appropriate and cost-effective options for DCF.
1.2 From the information gathered, DCF expects to be able to identify an approach (but not to select a Vendor) that best addresses its needs. It may seek outside help in validating the information gathered and/or in developing the approach.
2.0 DESIRED END SOLUTION
DCF envisions a Mobile Application development system response that will demonstrate the vendor has experience and expertise in delivering mobile enterprise applications to smartphones without coding to include:
1. The Mobile Application System should provide the ability for mobile device users to a secure connection to enterprise resources, choose the content and tasks that users want to access and generate the interface that appears on mobile smartphone device.
2 The Mobile Application System should allow administrators to create and deploy enterprise applications without any coding or software development kits (SDKs).
3. The Mobile Applications System should be able to provide access to any leading enterprise databases (including, but not limited to, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 and MySQL) for real-time smartphone data-base access.
4. The Mobile Application System should be able to generate reports from business intelligence platforms or any other enterprise application (Excel or CSV format) and deliver those reports to smartphone devices allowing real-time data updates all without coding.
5. The Mobile Application System should be able to allow smartphones to connect to HTML web sites (including sites with intensive use of JavaScript) and only extract the needed data from these sites and generate to the smartphone an interface that provides users with secure mobile access to any web facing enterprise application all without coding.
3.0 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The objective of this section is to define a standard format for responses to the Request for Information (RFI). DCF desires a concise response which conforms to the specifications in this section. Vendors are requested to provide in Microsoft Word format one electronic copy of their submission to the attention of David Shepard, Department of Children and Families at [email protected]. All responses are due on September 21, 2009.
The requested information must be sent electronically to the contact person listed above at the electronic mail address supplied.
Using the information received from Vendors to the RFI, DCF will make a evaluate the materials provided and will decide whether and what type of procurement may be used to acquire the commodities and services desired. The department may elect not to issue any procurement for these commodities and services.
3.1 The Vendor should submit one (1) electronic copy of its Response with the Vendors name, the RFI title and RFI number in accordance with the instructions shown on the title page of this RFI.
3.2 The Vendor should organize its Response according to the following format utilizing the section numbers as set out below:
TITLE PAGE: The title page shall show the RFI title and number, submission date, Vendor name, address, telephone number and the name and title of the contact person.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Page numbers should be indicated.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A short summary of the key features of the Response demonstrating the Vendors understands of the requirements.
RESPONDENT PROFILE: Provide a brief overview and history of the organization including the following:
number of employees;
year of incorporation; relevant experience;
other details pertinent to the Response.
DESCRIPTION OF COMMODITIES AND SERVICES SATISFYING THE RFI REQUIREMENTS:
Provide sufficient detail to address all of the requirements contained in this RFI, as well as any other information that the Vendor believes would assist DCF in developing a strategy. Provide at least three current references where the Mobile Application Development System described in the Response is used or supplied to other clients, preferably large State departments. Include the organization name and address, contact person and telephone number, and a brief description of the integration and implementation services performed and date supplied. DCF reserves the right to contact these references. Vendors should only provide references that have utilized similar Mobile Application Development Systems contemplated by DCF within the last two (2) years.
