Vendors are beginning to come aboard for a relaunched business transformation project at the California Secretary of State's Office.
Late last month the Secretary of State's Office awarded a $542,000 contract to Technology Management Solutions Inc. to do business analysis for the $53.5 million Business Connect project, which will put Statement of Interest business filings online and move the Secretary of State’s Office to a paperless records environment, enabling the organization to turn around business filings in a matter of days instead of weeks.
The new Business Connect system aims to replace and consolidate nearly two dozen existing systems.
A team of analysts from Technology Management Solutions started Aug. 22 on business process analysis, validation of the planned business changes, development of key user interaction scenarios, and development of the functional requirements to support the business needs, according to a monthly project update.
"In preparation for the Business Analysis Contractor, the Secretary of State project team is developing high-level future state process flows and supporting narrative documentation for the filings, orders, and related financial processes. These materials will be utilized to communicate the Secretary of State's vision for the California Business Connect solution and provide a framework for the development of the functional requirements," the update said.
There will be other significant contract opportunities for vendors. In its Special Project Report, the Secretary of State proposes to spend $11 million on contract services for software customization; $1.2 million for project management; $1.2 million for IV&V; $4.5 million on "other" contract services; and $1.2 million to purchase software and licenses.
The Secretary of State plans to release an RFP for the project in summer 2017.
The Business Connect project was suspended in 2015 after the effort fell behind schedule, and a contract with the project's system integrator was mutually terminated. The Secretary of State relaunched the Business Connect project this year with a new project schedule, scope and proposed budget.
The new project budget is $53.5 million — about double the previous $26.9 million budget. The Secretary of State also proposes to focus on about 100 "higher-volume" filing types instead of the more than 500 types that were originally included in the scope. The estimated completion date has been moved to 2022 — an additional five years — in part to allow the Secretary of State's Office to re-engineer business processes prior to the procurement.
