In a challenge-based procurement released Thursday, CDT calls for submissions from contractors interested in working with it and DPR to create the California Pesticide Electronic Submission Tracking (CalPEST) system, a modern, integrated system capable of providing effective and efficient administration of DPR’s pesticide product registration program. DPR sought and received $5 million in the newly enacted Fiscal Year 2021-2022 state budget to develop and implement CalPEST.
“CalPEST is DPR’s opportunity to modernize our pesticide registration submissions,” DPR Chief Information Officer Mike Wanser told Techwire, ”which includes allowing electronic submissions for pesticide registration, amendments, special research requests and a wide variety of other processes. One of the goals of the project is to provide online access for any label submitted electronically.”
The bidders’ conference will be held virtually at 9:30 a.m. Monday via WebEx. It will include an overview of the business processes that the system will support, and a question-and-answer session. Go here for advance registration, which is required. Among the takeaways:
- The intentions of the CalPEST project include delivering necessary program information; connecting program activities to outcomes; and offering workflow management. Officials also want the new system to integrate numerous existing but separate data repositories, and to streamline DPR’s current duplicative “manual processes.”
- CalPEST project objectives include improving data collection and integration and developing processes for validation that ensure the accuracy, quality and completeness of submissions; offering 24/7 online access to product labels submitted electronically; and establishing measurable process performance targets and accountability as a best practice. Objectives also include improving registration, communication and coordination with staff; electronically centralizing company profile information, payment processing and tracking as well as pesticide label data and scientific studies data. Other goals include improving training and delivering intelligent work tools to employees.
- Contractor responsibilities include providing a solution to “replace and integrate all current and supporting systems,” as well as converting and transforming “all required data” from current systems into the new solution. The new solution must “eliminate the current stand-alone, disparate systems and numerous manual processes.” The state, per the procurement, “is interested in pursuing a custom-developed solution, but is open to considering a commercial off-the-shelf, modified off-the-shelf, or Software-as-a-Service solution” if it meets all system requirements. The contractor must “design, develop, and implement a solution that meets all system requirements.”
