The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) issued a two-part Invitation for Bid to procure an administrative system for processing counties' claims.
Called the County Expense Claim Reporting Information System (CECRIS), the IT modernization was originally approved in 2007, but was put on hold in 2014 to allow the Department of Social Services to re-evaluate the project. The new system will replace two existing legacy systems: the County Expense Claim (CEC) and County Assistance Claim (CA 800) systems.
CDSS requests that the new integrated system be Web-service based and leverage technology components already in place, such as BizTalk, Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management and the department's Identity Management System Security Access Framework.
The chosen vendor will work in collaboration with and directed by the CDSS Technical Lead, developing and implementing the replacement system. In addition, they will work with other contractors in providing organizational change management, financial system auditing, independent verification and validation, independent project oversight consultant, and training consultants. CDSS will lead integration.
CECRIS will cost $10.6 million, with full rollout scheduled to commence in 2019, according to a 2016 project report. Draft proposals are due March 2, after which the first evaluation period will take place from March 3-16. Notification of Intent to Award is scheduled to take place on June 1. The contract term will be two years and four months.
The CEC system, built atop solutions released in 1997, processes about $8 billion in claims for county welfare departments; CA 800 is used by county welfare departments to claim reimbursement for assistance costs paid to beneficiaries of public assistance programs such as CalWORKS and CalFRESH.
