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Edited By Bob Monn and Shelagh Taylor
DSHS Multi-Award Procurement Project Realizes Big Savings
Update on Web Content Management Infrastructure Project
Other News | March 8, 2001 IPMA Board Meeting
--by Jeanette Sevedge-App, Agency IT Portfolio Manager, DSHS
The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) was conducting numerous competitive procurements to select contractors for information technology personal services contracts. Competitive procurements took approximately 300 staff hours and three to four months of processing time. To reduce the processing time and satisfy legal requirements, our agency developed the multi-award procurement process for personal services.
Competitive procurement processing time cut from 3-4 months to less than 1 month.
As part of this process, the agency identified five services that were likely to be needed more than once in a fiscal year and conducted a competitive procurement to establish a pool of pre-qualified vendors for these services. When DSHS needs a contractor for a service on the pre-qualified list, a secondary level of competition is conducted where each pre-qualified vendor is sent a letter inviting a bid. The secondary level of competition only takes 50 hours of staff time with as little as two to three weeks processing time. Over 25 different contractors are available on the pre-qualified list for providing quality assurance, project management, business process re-engineering, feasibility and contingency planning services.
As a result of implementing the multi-award procurement process, the department has estimated a savings of over 2,758 hours of staff time in our central contracting section. The department has also saved nearly $18,000 dollars in advertising, printing, and postage costs.
For additional information, please contact Phil J. Wilson, Information System Services Division, at 902-7729.
--by Garth Cowan, Project Manager, Department of Information Services
The Web Content Management Infrastructure Project is continuing to research the feasibility of developing an infrastructure to assist in developing, publishing, and managing web content. Web Content Management is defined as a process of managing Web content from the authoring stage through to the live production site. The February issue of IPMA News included an article describing this project .
The Content Management project team has made a great deal of progress in the last few weeks. Recent accomplishments include:
In March, the RFI responses will be analyzed along with other information to assess the feasibility of establishing a common infrastructure for content management and a state master contract for content management tools.
As noted in the previous IPMA News article on this project, a listserv has been established to keep stakeholders informed about the project. To join the listserv, see: http://listserv.wa.gov/archives/discm.html
For more information on the Content Management Infrastructure Project, contact Garth Cowan, Project Manager, at garthc@dis.wa.gov or 360-902-3197
The April 2001 issue of Government Technology magazine included an article on DIS' Digital Government Applications Academy. A large photo of Dave Kirk and Steve Kolodney quickly draws a reader's attention to the article that highlights ESD's UI FastTax Web and quotes Dale Wallace, one of ESD's participants in the Academy's E-Forms class. (Note: An on-line version of this article is not available.)
The March 2001 issue of Civic.Com magazine included an article on the use of web transaction fees by government agencies. The trend appears to be away from the use of such fees. One state, Virginia, even offers a discount for residents who renew their driver licenses or vehicle tags over the Internet. However, several state executives and industry analysts noted that there is still a place for convenience fees in carefully selected situations. See the complete story.
The April 2001 issue of Civic.Com magazine includes a brief article on Washington's new Ask George web search service. See the complete story (Link no longer available).
Members Present: Jim Albert, Mary Ellen Bradley, Thomas Bynum, Phil Grigg, Sheryl Hall, Dennis Jones, Dennis Laine, Mike McVicker, Bob Monn, Darrel Riffe and Shelagh Taylor
Shelagh Taylor, IPMA Chair, opened the March meeting of the IPMA Board of Directors at 7:38 a.m.
Reports
Secretary/Treasurer: The minutes from the February 2001 Board meeting were approved.
Financial Reports for the months of February and March 2001 will be combined and presented at the April board meeting.
Business Planning: Mary Ellen Bradley reported that the IRS had denied our application for designation as a tax exempt educational organization. However, they proposed that the IPMA resubmit its application requesting designation as a tax exempt business league. The application was resubmitted and a determination is expected during the month of March. The IRS contact indicated that the application would be turned around quickly and would be made retroactive to 1989. This may result in a tax refund for the most recent three years which the IRS considers open to amendment. The board will be notified as soon as the determination is received.
Executive Seminar: No Report
Forum: Jim Albert reported that all issues related to the St. Martin’s exhibition facilities are taken care of. The response of corporate sponsors to the March 29th meeting has been very good. Sam Reed, Secretary of State, has agreed to be the Executive Luncheon speaker. There is still some difficulty in obtaining keynote speakers for both days of the Forum.
Professional Development: No Report
Communications: Bob Monn reported that the year 2000 IPMA Annual Report is completed and has been put up on the web site.
New Business
Annual Planning Retreat: The retreat has been rescheduled for April 5 & 6, 2001, at Quinault Ocean Shores Resort. It was suggested that it might be helpful if the Forum event management contractor and the IPMA financial support contractor attend the retreat. The board approved.
April Board Meeting: The business of the regular April board meeting will be conducted during the board retreat.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:07 a.m.
IPMA, P.O. Box 1943, Olympia, WA 98507-1943