Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Office of Court Management
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)
INTERPRETER SCHEDULING SYSTEM
Summary Sheet
Purchasing Entity:
Executive Office of the Trial Court
Address:
Two Center Plaza
Suite 540
Boston, MA 02108
RFP File Name/Title:
Interpreter Scheduling System
RFP Manager:
Sybil A. Martin, Ph.D.
Senior Manager of Support Services
Office of Court Management
Two Center Plaza, Ninth Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
617-878-0269
RFP Summary:
In issuing this Request for Proposals (“RFP”), the Massachusetts Trial Court seeks proposals from qualified Vendors who can provide an interpreter scheduling system with the ability to integrate with the Massachusetts Trial Court’s statewide case management system in order to streamline the scheduling of spoken language and American Sign Language interpreters (both internal staff and external contracted interpreters and agencies). Preferably, the proposed scheduling system will be a cloud-based solution.
A new interpreter scheduling system will serve the “Office of Court Interpreter Services” (OCIS), the complex and critical operation responsible for improving language access to justice across the Commonwealth. The implementation of a new scheduling system should enable OCIS scheduling staff to consistently and reliably fulfill interpreter requests using a comprehensive, easy-to-use scheduling tool. The new system should also facilitate the billing and payment process for external interpreters.
Official Publication Solicitation and Related Documents:
The Commonwealth’s sole official online procurement record site is “COMMBUYS”, http://www.commbuys.com. All clarifications, notifications, addenda or other documents or information related to this solicitation are officially published through the COMMBUYS website. Hardcopy communications from the Trial Court to any Vendor are provided as a courtesy. Vendors should access the COMMBUYS website frequently for official communications related to this solicitation from the Trial Court.
***BID SUBMISSION DEADLINE***
September 6, 2017 @ 3:00 pm (EST)
RFP TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION DESCRIPTION PAGE
SECTION 1.0 GENERAL SUMMARY 5
SECTION 2.0 ACQUISITION METHOD 6
SECTION 3.0 SINGLE/MULTIPLE CONTRACTORS 7
SECTION 4.0 SINGLE DEPARTMENT PROCUREMENT 7
SECTION 5.0 ANTICIPATED CONTRACT DURATION 7
SECTION 6.0 ANTICIPATED COMPENSATION STRUCTURE 7
SECTION 7.0 Procurement Process 8
SECTION 7.0.1 procurement timetable 8
SECTION 7.0.2 correspondence 9
SECTION 7.0.3 vendor questions 9
SECTION 7.0.4 restrictions on contact with court personnel 9
SECTION 7.0.5 commbuys 10
SECTION 7.0.6 mandatory rfp documents 10
SECTION 7.0.7 sample mandatory documents 11
SECTION 7.0.8 submission of proposals 11
SECTION 7.0.9 interpreter scheduling system proposal submission 11 SECTION 7.0.10 pricing proposal submission 11
SECTION 7.0.11 proposal due date 11
SECTION 7.0.12 clarification and correction of proposal 12
SECTION 7.0.13 mandatory response requirements v. bolded text 12
SECTION 7.1 PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS 12
SECTION 7.1.1 General Information 12
SECTION 7.1.2 Interpreter Scheduling proposal specifications 12
SECTION 7.1.3 no pricing information in the proposal 13
SECTION 7.1.4 INTERPRETER Scheduling system proposal format 13
SECTION 7.1.5 proposal transmittal letter 13
SECTION 7.1.6 executive summary 14
SECTION 7.1.7 SYSTEM REQURIEMENTS RESPONSE 14
SECTION 7.1.8 mandatory forms and disclosures 14
SECTION 7.1.9 vendor qualifications 14
SECTION 7.1.10 staff qualifications 15
SECTION 7.1.11 CLIENT References 16
1
SECTION DESCRIPTION PAGE
SECTION 7.2 PRICING PROPOSAL 16
SECTION 7.2.1 pricing proposal requirements 16
SECTION 7.2.2 pricing proposal transmittal letter 16
SECTION 7.2.3 pricing Structure 17
SECTION 7.2.4 general cost considerations 17
SECTION 7.3 PROPOSAL EVAULATION 17
SECTION 7.3.1 introduction 17
SECTION 7.3.2 evaluation committee 17
SECTION 7.3.3 overall proposal review 17
SECTION 7.3.4 rejection of proposals 18
Section 7.3.5 evaluation process 18
SECTION 7.3.6 vendor presentations 18
SECTION 7.3.7 clarification of proposal information 20
SECTION 7.3.8 review of pricing proposals 20
SECTION 7.3.9 clarification of pricing proposal 20
SECTION 7.3.10 best and final offers (bafo) option 20
SECTION 7.3.11 vendor selection and contract negotiations 21
SECTION 7.3.12 estimated evaluation weighting 21
SECTION 8 CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS 22
SECTION 9 MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 22
SECTION 10 APPENDICES 26
Appendix A: overview of the Massachusetts trial court system 27
Appendix B: overview of the office of court interpreter services 30
Appendix C: interpreter scheduling functional & technical system
requirements 33
Appendix D: mandatory rfp documents 51
Appendix E: pricing structure 54
Appendix F: sample mandatory contract documents 56
appendix G: instructions on submitting a bid to commbuys 57
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Office of Court Management
Request for Proposals (RFP)
INTERPRETER SCHEDULING SYSTEM
Published: July 24, 2017
Section 1.0 – General Summary
In issuing this Request for Proposals (“RFP”), the Massachusetts Trial Court Office of Court Management (“Trial Court”, “OCM”) seeks proposals from qualified Vendors who can provide an interpreter scheduling system with the ability to integrate with the Trial Court’s statewide case management system to streamline the scheduling of spoken language and American Sign Language interpreters (both internal Staff and external contracted interpreters and agencies). The new system should also facilitate the billing and payment process for external interpreters with system scalability that can process more than 2,000 interpreter requests per week and manage schedules for more than 200 interpreters.
Section 1.1 – Procuring Entity
This RFP is issued by the Executive Office of the Trial Court (“EOTC”), which is
responsible for the overall management of the Trial Court Department of the Judicial Branch of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A complete overview of the Massachusetts Trial Court system is described in Appendix A: Overview of the Massachusetts Trial Court System.
This RFP is issued under laws, rules, procedures and practices applicable to the
Judicial Branch of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Judicial Branch is not subject to 801 CMR 21.00 et seq., which governs the procurement process of the Executive Branch of the Massachusetts state government. Vendors responding to this RFP should not assume that Judicial Branch procurement practices correspond directly to the procurement practices of other branches, agencies, departments, or divisions of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Additional terms and conditions may be introduced at the Vendor selection and contract negotiation phases of this procurement process.
The Trial Court recently finalized the implementation of a statewide case management system, internally referred to as MassCourts, which is a customization of the CourtView 3, J2EE Application by Courtview Justice Solutions of Canton, Ohio. As of June 2016, MassCourts contained information on more than 22 million cases, 48 million case calendar events, and 15 million scanned documents. The Trial Court is committed to the greater use of information technology to improve the efficiency of the courts, ultimately reduce costs, and most importantly enable the Judicial Branch to continue to meet its constitutional obligations to the Commonwealth’s court users seeking effective and timely justice.
Section 1.2 – Purpose and Scope; Office of Court Interpreter Services
a) In an effort to provide equitable access to justice across the entire Massachusetts court system, interpreter services are available to all court users, and interpreters are requested at the court level. The Office of Court Interpreter Services (“OCIS”), situated under Support Services, is directly responsible for coordinating and allocating interpreters to requesting courts.
b) All interpreter requests are submitted at the court level and predominantly entered through the statewide case management system referred to as MassCourts. The volume of interpreter requests received by OCIS is significant and requires careful coordination of interpreter resources, prioritization, and ongoing interpreter recruiting initiatives in order to satisfy the increasing demand for interpreters. Presently, OCIS is receiving more than 2,000 interpreter requests per week and successfully fulfilled about 100,000 interpreter event requests in 2016.
c) The substantial volume of OCIS requests is supported by maintaining a skilled, professional pool of interpreters. While many requests are communicated to OCIS in advance, some last minute, unexpected events are inevitable in the court system, and OCIS must be prepared to react to such emergencies. Currently, OCIS has 30+ Staff interpreters and contracts with approximately 150 Per Diem interpreters. Staff interpreters are assigned to high volume courts across the five regions, and Per Diem interpreters are contracted to fulfill the remaining volume of interpreter requests.
d) OCIS is a complex and critical operation, providing a key component of access to justice in the Commonwealth. Over several decades, the Trial Court has developed systems and solutions to support the scheduling and payment process for interpreters. However, it remains a predominantly manual and demanding task that is prone to human error. A comprehensive overview of OCIS is described in Appendix B: Overview of the Office of Court Interpreter Services, including descriptions of the staff roles and responsibilities.
e) The Trial Court is seeking bids that will enable OCIS to streamline its scheduling, service, and billing processes using a cloud-based software system that is integrated with the Trial Court’s case management system (MassCourts). The desired future scheduling, service, and billing processes and system requirements are detailed in Appendix C: Interpreter Scheduling Functional & Technical System Requirements.
Section 2.0 – Acquisition Method
a) The products and services to be rendered as a result of this RFP will be obtained under either a licensing agreement or a service contract/work for hire that provides for both specified deliverables and services to be provided during the term of the contract.
i.) Licensing Agreement. In the event the end product and services are acquired under a licensing agreement, the Vendor retains all copyright, patent and intellectual property rights in any software or product that was previously or independently developed by the Vendor.
ii.) Service Contract/Work for Hire. In the event of a service contract or work for hire, in which a Vendor develops, creates or designs a software product for the Trial Court, full copyright, patent and intellectual property rights shall belong to the Trial Court. Whether any contract resulting from this procurement is designated as a licensing agreement or work for hire will be detailed in the terms of any such resulting contract.
Section 3.0 – Single or Multiple Contractors
a) The EOTC intends to award a contract to a single Vendor who will provide the specified deliverables and services detailed in this RFP. Due to possible changes in the Trial Court’s needs, the availability of bidders and other factors, the EOTC reserves the right to award contracts to multiple Vendors under this solicitation.
Section 4.0 – Use of this Procurement by a Single Department Procurement/Multiple
Department Users
a) This procurement is intended for the exclusive use of the Judicial Branch.
Section 5.0 – Anticipated Duration of the Contract (Including Renewal Options)
a) Initial Term. The initial term of any contract resulting from this procurement shall be three (3) years.
b) Renewal Options. Any contract resulting from this procurement shall also have five (5) additional optional contract renewal periods of up to one (1) year each. The optional renewal periods will be activated and exercised at the sole discretion of the Trial Court. Any optional contract renewal periods shall be activated by written correspondence sent by the Trial Court to the contracted Vendor, informing the Vendor that the Trial Court is exercising the option to renew the contract for the time frame stated in the correspondence. As part of any possible renewal, the Vendor agrees to complete and execute any additional documents necessary for the renewed agreement.
c) Total Maximum Contract Duration. The total maximum contract duration for this project, inclusive of possible renewal options, is eight (8) years.
Section 6.0 – Anticipated Contract Compensation
a) Licensing Agreement. In the event any contract resulting from this procurement is structured as a licensing agreement, the anticipated compensation structure is an all-inclusive cost for licensing rights and maintenance and support provided by the Vendor for the entire possible contract duration (initial term of three (3) years and up to five (5) optional renewal years).
- Service Contract/Work for Hire Agreement. In the event any contract resulting from this procurement is structured as a service contract/work for hire agreement, the anticipated compensation structure is an all-inclusive cost for the development, design or creation of a software product, inclusive of maintenance and product support provided by the Vendor for the entire possible contract duration (initial term of three (3) years and up to five (5) optional renewal years).
- Vendors submitting a proposal in response to this RFP should identify whether their submission is for a licensing agreement for an existing software product or for a service contract/work for hire agreement in which they would be developing such a product, and should include a corresponding pricing proposal.
- Any component of the project not listed with its price shall be deemed to be available to the Trial Court at no charge.
Section 7.0 – Procurement Process
Section 7.0.1 – Procurement Timetable*
The following schedule of events for this RFP identifies the key events and deadlines for this process, some of which are set forth in more detail in the sections that follow:
EVENT / DATERFP Issued: / July 24, 2017
Deadline for Vendor Submission of Questions: / August 14, 2017
Posting of Answers to Vendor Questions (estimated): / August 28, 2017
Proposals Due: / September 6, 2017 by 3:00 PM
Vendor selection (estimated): / September 29, 2017
*The EOTC reserves the right to amend or delay any of the dates or times reflected above, as well as any other timeframes or deadlines referenced throughout this solicitation, if such a change is in the best interests of the EOTC.
Section 7.0.2 – Correspondence
a) All correspondence, including Vendor Inquiries and Vendor Proposals related to this RFP should be submitted through the Bid Q&A Tool on COMMBUYS (Refer to Section 7.0.3).
Section 7.0.3 – Vendor Questions
a) Vendors may submit questions concerning this RFP to the Bid Q&A Tool on COMMBUYS no later than the dates and times specified in the Procurement Timetable (Section 7.0.1). Vendors are advised the Trial Court (1) restricts submission of questions to the Bid Q&A tool and (2) requires all responses to be submitted using the online submission tools available to active COMMBUYS account holders only. No telephone or in-person inquiries will be accepted.
b) The Trial Court will review and consolidate Vendor questions received by the deadline for submission, and will provide answers for those questions deemed appropriate. Submission of a question does not guarantee a response to that question. The Trial Court reserves the right to provide consolidated responses to similar questions. Only properly submitted inquires (submitted by the deadline on COMMBUYS) will be addressed. The Answers to Vendor Questions will be made available electronically via COMMBUYS (Commonwealth Procurement and Solicitation System - http://www.commbuys.com) to all Vendors.