The Employment Development Department (EDD) held a bidders’ conference Monday morning for the massive effort to replace its ancient — by today’s IT standards — claims management system.
Officials from EDD and the California Department of Technology (CDT) walked vendors through the critical portions of the enormous 688-page request for proposals (RFP) and the requirements to be considered for the project.
EDDNext Deputy Director Ron Hughessaid that among the many requirements for the new system, it must be capable of handling pandemic-level claims plus 20 percent.
“There are three things I want to highlight: We want a unified experience across all three programs, we want it to be cloud-based, and we want it to be scalable,” Hughes said. “During the pandemic, we went from 56,000 claims a week to a million in one week. I think we peaked at two-and-a-half million claims in a week. We want a system that is scalable to that level.”
Hughes called the project timeline “fairly aggressive, but certainly doable.” He also highlighted that the project has been a very open and inclusive process, with several opportunities to provide the procurement team with feedback.
The last day to submit intent to bid and confidentiality statements was Monday, and the last day to submit questions or requests for changes is Sept. 3. Final proposals are due by 2 p.m. Nov. 5. Mandatory, daylong solution demonstrations will be scheduled for select bidders between Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, with a final award expected by June 23.
Katie DeAngelis, CDT senior procurement officer and branch chief for statewide technology procurement, gave an overview of the critical components for valid proposals, including previous contracting and team member work experience, references, and much more.
She urged bidders to not only look at the instructions within the RFP, but also the accompanying documents when filling out their bid.
DeAngelis noted that questions should be submitted in writing to receive a binding answer from the procurement team, adding that she and fellow procurement officer Wendy Bright would be the only acceptable points of contact for respondents in the ramp-up to an award.
The slide deck used in the presentation will be made available within the RFP package (CaleProcure event ID: 0000032397), officials said.
Bidders Get a Walkthrough of Massive EDD Claims Management RFP
It’s been roughly two weeks since the Employment Development Department released its call to vendors for a new case management system. Monday, the department held a two-hour walkthrough of what it expects from interested bidders.
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