In a pre-solicitation notice published this week, CDFA says it needs to replace its legacy Emerging Threats (ET) information management system, which CDFA’s Animal Health and Food Safety Services division uses to protect animal health, public health and the state’s economy from catastrophic animal diseases, food safety and other health or agricultural issues.
“Obviously, CDFA is interested in getting as much vendor involvement and participation as possible,” the department’s agency information officer, Rob Peterson, told Industry Insider — California. “The pre-solicitation is to get vendor feedback on the RFP before the final is published later this year. We want their participation.” Peterson described the procurement as “very large.”
(Peterson, a veteran of state government, was named AIO in March 2021 and was featured in an Industry Insider “One-on-One” interview in August 2021. CDFA’s chief information officer, Amar Hariharan, was appointed to that role in February.)
ET2, as the new Emerging Threats system is known, was funded in the new state budget. CDFA was approved for:
- $6,685,000 and three new positions in Fiscal Year 2023-24, of which $4,212,000 will come from the state’s General Fund and $2,473,000 from CDFA.
- $12,138,000 in FY 2024-25 and 2025-26 ($7,647,000 of which would come from the General Fund and $4,491,000 from the department).
- $6,672,000 in FY 2026-27 ($4,204,000 from the General Fund and $2,468,000 from CDFA).
- $5,073,000 ongoing ($3,196,000 from the General Fund and $1,877,000 from the department).
CDFA wants the new system to consolidate the functionality from the legacy ET system with standalone and external applications and to allow mobile capability for use where Internet access may be limited or non-existent. In addition, CDFA requires that the replacement system include a central data repository in order to leverage master data at an enterprise level.
The official release of the ET2 RFP is tentatively scheduled for October. To that end, the California Department of Technology, working with CDFA on the procurement, is asking vendors to submit questions, feedback and/or recommendations to the pre-solicitation via email by 5 p.m. Aug. 31. Responses should be sent to Binh.Thai@state.ca.gov and copied to Chue.Yang@state.ca.gov.
The full documentation for the pre-solicitation is available online. It includes the pre-release letter, the draft RFP, templates for vendor responses, as well as pertinent deadlines and regulations for vendors to consider.
