THE CHALLENGE

When the City of Sacramento municipal water utility released its 57 page CIS RFP, the utility was hoping to receive several vendor proposals. They didn't have to wait long. The first two vendor requests for the RFP arrived the same morning it was announced. Eighteen responses in all were received by the City, which meant stronger choices and more options.

Prior to release of the RFP, TMG Consulting surveyed the major CIS vendors to ensure they had current contact information, as well as to ensure that the vendors were aware that the Sacramento RFP was in production. When TMG Consulting posted the RFP at its CISWorld.com website, an email alert was distributed to the vendor list with downloading instructions.

TMG CONSULTING SERVICES

The RFP drafting process began with a detailed Design Blueprint Process kicked off by Greg Galluzzi , president of TMG Consulting, in a meeting with key utility staff Margaret L. Freeman, utility team leader, and the City’s Revenue Manager, assisted by Rose. The Blueprint offers a structured methodology for collecting and sifting information that flows into the RFP itself. A step-by-step evaluation of all the current and potential future requirements was pivotal because every utility’s needs tend to be prioritized differently. The differences can be due to state regulation, or corporate culture or even the utility team make-up. Past utility experiences also can play a large role in determining what the utility does and doesn't want in future systems.

The Blueprint considers and articulates Project Drivers, Objectives, Timeline, and Funding, as well as an explanation of the Computing Environment, Users, and Connectivity. The RFP document explicitly instructs vendors to respond with an Executive Summary, Profile and Qualifications and details about the proposed solution and installation. It also includes a Schedule of Events, Evaluation Criteria, and the utility’s Terms and Conditions. All these pieces are critical to ensuring that the utility has the information it needs to make the right selection.

In the Sacramento RFP, the City identified several "Critical Reactive" issues as project drivers, and signaled its willingness to consider in-house packages, out-sourced solutions and co-sourced solutions alike. Once Sacramento’s RFP was released, it was posted at CISWorld.com, a service available to all utilities and energy service companies regardless of whether they are TMG clients. At the TMG hosted site venders can register and download the initial RFP as well as addendums and responses to questions made available throughout the RFP process.

In some utility's projects, the actual release of the final RFP to vendors can sometimes be delayed by evolving organizational issues. While this didn't happen in Sacramento's case, it may sometimes take as long as six months from the time an RFP is drafted until it is released. Because of these sometimes unanticipated circumstances, TMG Consulting charges its utility clients a fixed fee based on the work scope for drafting the RFP, rather than an hourly charge or charge based on the length of time from project kick-off to RFP release.

RESULTS

After receiving the vendor proposals, a Sacramento review team undertook the arduous task of whittling its 18 proposals down to a short list of five vendors that met all the minimum requirements detailed in the RFP, and also presented installation experience directly applicable to similar sized municipal water utilities. Sacramento will now move on to product demos and due diligence prior to announcing its final selection.

The City of Sacramento is California's state capital with a population of over 400,000. The City's Departments of Utilities and Public Works provide utility services to 123,000 residential and commercial customers. The services include water, sewer collection, storm drainage, solid waste collection, recycling, garden refuse service, and street sweeping. Additionally, the City bills customers for wastewater treatment services provided by the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District.