OPR is the state’s comprehensive planning agency. OPR studies future research and planning needs, fosters goal-driven collaboration, and delivers guidance to state partners and local communities, with a focus on land use and community development, climate risk and resilience, and high road economic development.

OPR includes three main budget programs: the State Policy Program (often referred to as OPR), which houses most of core planning and research functions; the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC),which coordinates and works collaboratively with public agencies, communities, and stakeholders to realize healthy, thriving, resilient communities for all and provides direct grant funding to projects demonstrating the value and feasibility of sustainable communities; and California Volunteers (CV), a program aimed to increase the number and impact of Californians involved with service and volunteering throughout the state. For the purposes of this RFI, the GMS is to address OPR and SGC programs. CV is exempt from the GMS. 

OPR and SGC’s programs invest in both capacity and capital infrastructure, with a focus on improving outcomes in California’s most under-resourced and over-burdened communities. Table 2 provides an overview of the grant programs provided by OPR and SGC. Additional program information may be found on the OPR and SGC website. 

California Strategic Growth Council

The California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) is a 10-member council comprised of seven state agencies and three public members with the mission to build healthy, thriving, and resilient communities for all. Funded through California’s Cap and Trade system and the California General Fund, SGC’s grant programs, strategic initiatives, and interagency coordination focus on multi-benefit and community-centric solutions at the nexus of climate and equity. Since 2008, SGC has invested over $2 billion in projects strengthening communities and addressing climate change. The SGC is seeking to implement this Grant Management software on behalf of - and in in partnership with - the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. 

Programs

SGC’s and OPR’s programs invest in both capacity and capital infrastructure, with a focus on improving outcomes in California’s most under-resourced and over-burdened communities

Vision

OPR is seeking a robust, cloud-based, flexible GMS. The goal is to have a cradle to grave grant management lifecycle solution for the various grant programs and recipients.  The GMS should streamline, integrate, and automate process workflow in order for internal and external users to track and manage their grant applications, agreements, funds, and projects. The ultimate resolution would be a cohesive grant management business model based on a single grant management solution to effectively manage and monitor the portfolio of OPR and SGC grant programs and projects.

Challenges

OPR currently receives and reviews grant applications manually. There is no automated or centralize way to receive grant application and the applications received are not stored in a single solution or database. In addition, when State departments are tasked to review and approve documents, it is conducted manually, shared through emails, shared folder, and with little or no collaboration. These reviews are typically done in tandem, and if project staff have questions or concerns, they independently reach out to the applicant to request clarification or updates. Paired with those challenges, documents and applications often lead to version control issues. If the applicant provides updated plans to one of the reviewers, those updates require manual process in order to share and store the information.

Additionally, there is no way for applicants to view their application status throughout the review process. There is no standard or centralize way to communicate and provide status of applications or update applicants on an on-going basis.

For awarded applicants that receive grants, the grant administration and monitoring also does not enter a state software system. Multiple departments are also tasked with reviewing and approving documents, and recordkeeping is currently dependent on Microsoft Office tools with no central reporting or tracking system. Task-dependencies such as issuing grant reimbursement checks and recording account balances are done manually. If a grantee wants to check on an invoice status, they must contact the department to request information on an individual basis. There is also duplicated accounting of grant account balances and deliverables tracking by the state, grantee, and the subcontractors - resulting in multiple versions that may need to be reconciled.

With these dispersed tracking systems, agency  staff are unable to view a program-wide report on project status, location or other details. Project staff are often asked to update legislators and stakeholders on the status of projects in geographies, such as city, county, or Senate or Assembly Districts, and create progress reports for programs cycles.  

The current process results in:

• Higher number of phone calls and in person visits
• Lack of visibility into status or progress
• Inconsistent information across departments, applicants, and grantees
• Increased time to approval
• Frustrated and annoyed applicants and grantees
• Manual document and recordkeeping development
• Lack of accountability from all sides of the grants

The outcome of this market research is to identify a potential solution of the challenge statement, have an understanding of the rough order of magnitude of the cost, and develop a procurement strategy. 
 

The OPR is seeking a grant management lifecycle solution that would have the following capabilities:

• Cloud-based solution
• Role based access
• Built-in workflow
• Support of document automation
• Online portal submission
• Ability to have complex evaluation
• Ability to accept, process, and track invoicing, expenditure, and billing
• Ability to track scope of work, deliverables, project data
• Ability to support multiple grant programs
• Centralize Grant management lifecycle solution, from intake to grant management
• Reporting systems on project status, location, and applicant identity

The outcome of this market research is to identify a potential solution of the challenge statement, have an understanding of the rough order of magnitude of the cost for the licensing, configuration, migration, and on-going support.

The OPR, at its own discretion, will invite the top selected respondents to conduct a demonstration of their grant management solution, presentation of their approach, and explanation of the costing model.

Attachment 2, OPR GMS Mid-Level Requirements, lists the GMS system requirements organized by functional areas.  Attachment 2 is provided to help Respondents better understand the detailed GMS system requirements, permit OPR to evaluate the completeness of the Respondent’s solution, and to guide the content of the Respondent’s demonstrations.

After the Respondent’s response to this RFI is received by OPR, a demonstration of the solution may be scheduled. In preparing the demonstration, pay careful attention to the GMS requirements in Attachment 2 for the capability to be shown since the intent of this activity is to identify which solutions are best able to provide GMS functionality with minimal development. Sixty (60) minutes will be allowed for each demonstration to be followed by a thirty (30) minute question and answer session. The demonstration must be performed on a production system or a configured production-level test system. In either case, the demonstrated system may employ live or simulated inputs. A brief description of the production/production-level environment, including any limitations imposed on the demonstration, should be part of the presentation. The demonstration may be observed OPR staff and consultants at a single time via Zoom and may be recorded. If a feature in the solution cannot be demonstrated on a production or production-level test system, the respondent may present the feature using PowerPoint slides. If respondents cannot demonstrate or present all the solutions within the sixty (60) allowed time, OPR may schedule a follow-up demonstration or presentation at a later date.

Responses to this RFI should include the following information:

• Supplier Name
• Supplier Address (Street, City, State, and Zip)
• Name and title or position of the individual submitting the response
• Contact information including a telephone number and email address
• A statement by the individual certifying the information in the response is true and accurate to the best of his/her knowledge at the time of the submittal. 
• The proposed tool and solutions and high-level approach to implement them
• Estimated costs for the proposed solutions and strategies (see 1.3 Cost Information)

This RFI is to perform market research that will assist OPR to investigate alternatives to modernizing the current processes with a robust, cloud-based, flexible GMS and assist OPR in the development of a procurement strategy. A response to this RFI is not an offer, bid, or commitment, and cannot be accepted by OPR to form a binding contract. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. OPR will consider supplier responses for its procurement planning and in developing a Request for Quotation (RFQ), Invitation for Bid (IFB), Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Offer (RFO), or other action.

The submission of a response does not constitute any commitment on the part of the interested party except that the submitted information is correct to the best of the Respondent’s knowledge. Also, the right to compete in future procurements is not affected in the event that the party chooses not to submit a response to this RFI. 

The responses to the RFI are considered public documents subject to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code sections 6250-6276.48). Respondents should not include confidential or trade secret information in their response.

Listed below are the important key actions and dates. If OPR deems it necessary to make changes to this schedule, it will do so by posting changes to all interested parties via Cal eProcure at https://caleprocure.ca.gov.

Table 1: Key Actions and Dates