APPENDIX A
FORM OF RESPONSE
Company Information
Company Name:
Complete Address:
including postal code
Telephone:
Fax:
Name of Primary Contact: Mr. Ms.
Title:
E-mail Address:
1. QUALIFICATIONS
Describe your company’s qualifications related to the Services required under this RFP.
2. SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY – BASE SYSTEM AND OPTIONAL SERVICES / ADD-ONS
HSC has requirements for a base system for a utility management information software solution as noted in the tables below. Any optional services must be outlined separately from the base system response, where provided below, should Proponents wish to identify optional services or add-ons.
· Base System:
The following categories are included in the base system:
1. System Architecture and Organizational Structure
2. User Experience
3. Data Management and Processing
4. Reporting
5. Analysis
6. Security
For each feature listed under each category, answer Yes or No in the box provided to indicate whether or not your system includes the feature while making note of mandatory features.
CATEGORY 1 - SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE /FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Web based / Solution must be web-based and browser agnostic / Mandatory
Data Logic / Software should allow for logical groupings of meters, buildings, user portfolios, such as in a tree hierarchy
Search Function / Solution should allow for quick and easy searching of the entities contained within the system, including capacity to search by Building Address and Organization Name (i.e. UMP participant, housing provider) in all modules/sections of system
Defined User Access / System must have capability for HSC to define user access to specific data at user, site, building, meter, and menu levels. For example:
· Viewer (UMP participant): user can view data through various dashboards and generate reports, potentially limited by module, portfolio(s), meter(s), region(s)
· HSC Data Entry: user can input/import/export all utility data and correct entries
· HSC Administrator: user can create users, modify any entry, access the audit trail, set up groups, create links between business systems, etc. / Mandatory
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
User Count / System must accommodate unlimited users with no added fees/costs to HSC. The ability for HSC to remove users during the course of the contract is preferred. / Mandatory
Automatic updates / Solution should automatically address software or version updates and should provide a minimum of one annual version upgrade
Flexible levels / System should have full flexibility for regions, departments, units, sites, meters, etc. with no limits on levels of complexity within its set up
Scalability / System must be scalable to accommodate an unlimited number of data points, such as meters, buildings, accounts, vendors, utility bill data, etc. / Mandatory
Provide a description of how your software solution addresses or incorporates any or all of the above features for Category 1.
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
User-friendly / System should be user-friendly with well-laid out dashboard(s), interactive capabilities, accessible and relevant reports, and provide all relevant information in a simple-to-understand display/dashboard with minimal scrolling (widgets, pop-up boxes, quick links, etc.).
Dashboard / System should have a dashboard page where users can view a quick, graphical snapshot of their portfolio
Custom Views / System should allow users to create custom views, such as through filters or dashboards, of particular groupings of objects within the system based on flexible, user-specified criteria
Branding / System should provide ability to be branded to HSC, including but not limited to branding or layout changes to make them suitable for our users.
Administrator Dashboard Control / Administrator should be able to customize the various screens or dashboards for various groups of users using a system administration panel
User Help / Application should have contextual help links that provide assistance to users based on what page they happen to be on when they click the help icon
Compatibility / System should have compatibility with older IT systems (operating systems, web browsers, MS Office, Adobe Reader) that our participants typically use. Examples include but are not limited to:
· Windows XP
· Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 32.0.1700, Firefox 32
· MS Excel 2007
· Adobe Reader 11
Provide a description of how your software solution addresses or incorporates any or all of the above features for Category 2.
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Data modification / Solution should be flexible in allowing data to be modified through the software without needing direct access to the back-end database
Treatment of large data sets / System must accommodate bulk import of data and should allow bulk setup of meters/buildings using an automated import tool of historical utility and building characteristic data from the current UMP program software and of large data sets, such as for multiple meters and utility types / Mandatory
Shared/Split Bill Allocation / System should have ability to automatically split/allocate utility bills shared by multiple users across one or more buildings/accounts/meters as part of data import process
Bulk editing / System should provide ability to edit meter/building/site level data in bulk and to modify entries without override
Export / System must allow for easy bulk exporting of data in Excel for part or all of the data set by users according to their specific user permissions. Scheduling of this task should be possible. / Mandatory
Input Formats / System should accommodate, at minimum, the following input formats:
· manual input through customized interface
· MS Excel file
Advanced input formats such as OCR or web scraping or integration with Green Button are considered attractive.
Additional Input Forms / In addition to the above mandatory input formats, the ability to support batch-scan with indexing and e-billing, direct data exchange or business-to-business billing (import structured data file) is preferred. Ability to support real-time data (where available) is also preferred.
Vendor Inputs / System should accommodate all types of utilities and commodities with any number of vendors. E.g. water, natural gas, hydro, fleet gas consumption, waste disposal
Utility Data Types / System should track any level of billing detail (e.g. taxes, non-utility charges, demand, power factor). See Schedule 1 for sample fields of utility data to be tracked
Non-utility Data Updates / System should provide ability to periodically import building characteristic data from HSC's database (in Salesforce) into the system and be expandable to support future additions of fields. See Schedule 2 for list of fields
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Weather Data / Weather data for relevant weather stations must be automatically uploaded by the system. System should allow HSC to modify the default weather station associated with a given meter. System should have a clear procedure in place to address terminated weather stations and gaps in weather data, notify administrator of such issues, and correct such issues / Mandatory
EnergyStar Portfolio Manager / System should include internal connectivity to EnergyStar Portfolio Manager to support user compliance with Ontario Bill 135-Large Building Energy & Water Benchmarking & Reporting regulation. If there is no internal mechanism, the system should have the ability to export data in a compatible format for upload in EnergyStar Portfolio Manager
Integration / A system with a flexible RESTful API that HSC can leverage to perform select custom integrations is preferred.
Events, Targets, Opportunities / It is strongly preferred that the system be able to store information relating to retrofits/upgrades/events and energy/cost saving targets for analysis and comparison
Automatic Rate Schedule Updates / It is strongly preferred that the solution be able to automatically update the different utility rate schedules/information for all applicable meters when rate changes occur associated with any/all utility companies. System should be able to store historical rate schedules
Units of Measurement / It is strongly preferred that the solution be able to support various unit conversions (Imperial to SI, cub meter of gas to ekWh, cubic meter and kWh to eCO2, eCO2 to comparison analogy) and set the following units of measurement as defaults throughout the system:
· Natural gas: cubic meters (m3)
· Electricity: kilowatt hours (kWh), kilowatt (kw)
· Water: cubic meters (m3)
· GHG emissions (kgCO2-equivalent using conversion factors specified by HSC)
Billing Periods / It is strongly preferred that the solution have capacity to adapt to varying billing periods and normalize data to accommodate for them (e.g. calendarize)
Base System:
CATEGORY 3 - DATA MANAGEMENT AND PROCESSING (CONTINUED) /FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Exceptions and Alerts / The solution must have a data accuracy safe guard to track and report on Exceptions and Alerts (e.g. for duplicate entries, estimates, adjustments, outliers, errors, missing data, overlapping bills) for the entire data set with details broken down to the meter/bill level / Mandatory
Bulk Email Operation / The software must have ability to automatically generate multiple utility reports unique to each meter/building/portfolio and automatically directly email each report to its unique meter/building/portfolio owner. The aforementioned should be a bulk operation that can be started by HSC, but no interaction should be required on HSC’s part to email the report. HSC requires the ability to run and email one-off reports from within the system. The native ability to track opt-ins to ensure HSC’s compliance with the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation is preferred. / Mandatory
Document Storage / System should have ability to store digital documents and scanned images (e.g. invoices, energy audits) attached to meters/sites
Provide a description of how your software solution addresses or incorporates any or all of the above features for Category 3.
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Report Types / System should support the reports, analysis, and dashboard display listed on Schedule 3 – List of Reports, Analysis, and Dashboard Displays
Canned Reports / System should include a set of existing high-quality, easy-to-use canned reports available to users
HSC-defined Report Templates / System should allow for HSC-defined report templates. At no added cost to HSC, proponent will work with HSC during the implementation period to develop or modify a group of custom report templates for users that can be set as ‘favourites’
Report Groups / System should have the ability to group reports together based on parameters defined by the user or HSC (such as report type, fuel type, audience, site/region)
Easy Reporting / System should allow users with minimal knowledge (of system or database concepts) to customize and generate reports based on their specific permissions and save them for future use. Custom report criteria should be able to be defined by selecting fields from either drop-down menus or drag-and-drop functionality.
Bulk Reporting (Batch) / System must have ability to run batch reports where multiple reports for multiple users for their specific portfolios are run at the same time (‘one click’) for the data set. See also “Bulk Email Operation” in the Category 3 table. / Mandatory
Printability / Each report should have a “printer friendly” view to allow for easy printing of reports
Standard Information / All reports should be able to be set up to include the user/UMP participant’s organization name, building address(es), and where applicable, the fuel type being reported for each meter. This set up would be expected to be done during implementation by the proponent with input from HSC.
Anonymized User Info / In any report, any buildings/meters shown that are not in the UMP participant user's portfolio must have their address details and organization information hidden. This requirement includes but is not limited to benchmark reports that display where the buildings/meters in a user's portfolio sit in the benchmark category compared to all other buildings not owned by the user. / Mandatory
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Data Formats / Where applicable, reports should show data in both graph and table form within each report
Real time data reports / System may accommodate real time reports and graphs on its dashboard
Utility Bill Review / System must be able to graph bill data and switch between consumption, cost, usage per day, etc.
Provide a description of how your software solution addresses or incorporates any or all of the above features for Category 4.
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Analysis Types / System should support the reports, analysis, and dashboard display listed on Schedule 3 for List of Required Reports, Analysis, and Dashboard Displays
Normalization / System must include normalization to, at minimum, weather conditions down to meter level. / Mandatory
IPMVP Analysis / System should accommodate analysis consistent with IPMVP standards
Forecasting / System should be able to forecast usage, costs, or emissions for a single meter or in bulk for multiple meters
Analysis / System should provide ability to track and analyze data at several levels:
· Events/projects for measurement and verification, cost avoidance, energy savings purposes
· Energy performance over time
· Benchmark
· Multi-variable Linear Regression
· CUSUM
Data Set and External Benchmarks / System must have ability to provide benchmark comparisons for each user, comparing their portfolios at various levels to all other users (anonymized) or specific groups of users (anonymized). Ability to benchmark users’ portfolios outside the HSC data set is preferred. / Mandatory
Provide a description of how your software solution addresses or incorporates any or all of the above features for Category 5.
Base System:
FEATURE / DESCRIPTION / YES / NO /
Data location / It is preferred that the system's data reside in Canada
Connection / All connections and communications with the system must be over a minimum 128-bit, encrypted connection
Audit tracking / System should have audit tracking which logs the username, the IP address and the result of the login request, or an additional mechanism, allowing HSC to track user activities and changes made in the system
Password Reset / System should allow the administrator the option to force reset all passwords for the organization in case of the risk of compromise of the system
SAAS Storage / Software As A Service (SaaS) systems should be stored in data centres that adhere to N+1 redundancy for all functioning components and should have no single points of failure
Provide a description of how your software solution addresses or incorporates any or all of the above features for Category 6.
· Optional Services / Add-Ons