In a request for information (RFI) released Jan. 25, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy (SSJDC), an agency within the California Natural Resources Agency, seeks information on a “Time-Tracking System.” Created Feb. 3, 2010, by the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy Act, the Conservancy is a “primary state agency in the implementation of ecosystem restoration in the delta,” according to the RFI. The SSJDC works with other stakeholders to “preserve, protect and restore the natural resources, economy and agriculture of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh.” Among the takeaways:
- The SSJDC works via internal programs and grant-funded projects to advance environmental protection and economic well-being for delta residents. Grant programs include Ecosystem Restoration and Water Quality via state Prop. 1; Community Enhancement via Prop. 68; Climate, Access and Resource funding; the Delta Drought Response Pilot Program; and Nature Based Solutions: Wetland Restoration. Timely reports on progress are needed for all, and payment requests have to have certification by the “project proponent” that expenses meet project requirements, plus supporting documentation. The department is audited on its use of bond proceeds to ensure they meet all criteria and legal requirements, and achieve the intended outcome. To validate its hours and spend, SSJDC is given labor rates monthly; these typically change twice a year, and benefit rates change in January. Currently, SSJDC must update this information for its 20 employees, all working on different projects, each of which has a different “monthly hourly breakdown.” This information must be “calculated and logged manually, then uploaded to its current system of record.”
- The department now lacks a way to “track input hours to specific budget or project codes” as well as “centralized reporting on project activities.” Difficulty is also present in “toggling between multiple spreadsheets and different inputs to compile updates and reports.” The SSJDC seeks a “comprehensive and streamlined solution to effectively and easily track employee timesheets, billing rates and hours spent on corresponding projects,” per the RFI. Visibility into “hours worked on project-specific tasks” is essential to successful “oversight, budgeting and forecasting.” SSJDC is “working to implement a cost-effective and easy-to-use time-tracking system” to track time worked in differing activities “to bill to different bond appropriations” to ensure compliance with rules and regulations.
- SSJDC seeks a solution that tracks time with start and stop, and can add work sessions together; that maps hours to projects and funding streams; that enables easy editing of recorded time including the ability to add time manually; and allows supervisor approval throughout. The system should also allow manual entry of billing rates; offer “canned and ad-hoc” reporting functionality; break projects down to roles and tasks to show time spent per project; allow monthly and yearly reporting; and have flexible user role permissioning. Desirable features include being cloud-based and having project management capabilities. Per the RFI, vendors will be expected to provide an implementation lead; a project manager and project management support; testing plans; training materials; and user support during Pacific business hours at a minimum. Minimum qualifications for respondents are experience delivering timekeeping services or solutions to government agencies with a preference for experience with California government; and compliance with all state terms and conditions.
- The question-and-answer period for the RFI ends at 7 a.m. Friday. Responses to the RFI are due by 9 p.m. Feb. 8.
