Explanation
BACKGROUND
The City of Columbus, Auditor’s Office conducted a Request for Proposals (RFP) in accordance with Columbus City Code Section 329.28 for supplemental professional consulting and technical services for Dayforce, our enterprise-wide benefits administration, payroll, personnel management, and employee self-service system. These professional services are needed to augment City staff and to provide solution consulting by furnishing Dayforce technical experts and functional resources on an as needed basis.
The City is in need of specialized product and industry knowledge for optimizing use of the product in alignment with industry best practices. The City contracts with Dayforce value added services for some of these items; however, there is often a backlog or delay in assigning resources as Dayforce is rapidly expanding its user base and these resources are in high demand for implementation. Dayforce has expanded its capabilities by introducing a partner network certified in system integration and Dayforce consulting.
The City Auditor’s Office prepared and released the RFP on January 8, 2024. The bid was advertised in the City Bulletin and on the City’s Vendor Services website as well as notifications sent to 137 vendors registered for information technology consultation services in the same system. In addition, the City’s Auditor’s Office notified eight (8) Dayforce partners directly via email or through their contact web pages. The partners were sourced using Dayforce’s published Partner Network on its website. A total of 145 vendors were solicited in the following Office of Diversity & Inclusion (ODI) classifications as follows:
|
ODI Certification |
Count of Solicited Vendors |
|
EBE |
16 |
|
MBE |
28 |
|
VBE |
3 |
|
WBE |
10 |
|
MAJORITY/Publicly held |
88 |
|
TOTAL |
145 |
Five (5) responses were received by the proposal submission deadline, February 15, 2024 and all offers were from majority owned or publicly traded companies. The evaluation committee ranked all offerors based upon the criteria identified in the RFP- (1) The quality and feasibility of the Offeror's technical proposal; (2) The ability of the offeror to perform the required service competently and expeditiously as indicated by the offeror's workload and the availability of necessary personnel, equipment and facilities; (3) The competence of the Offeror to perform the required service as indicated by the technical training, education and experience of the Offeror’s personnel who would be assigned to perform the work (4) Past performance of the Offeror as reflected by evaluations of the city agency, other city agencies and other previous clients of the Offeror with respect to such factors as quality of work, success in controlling costs, and success in meeting deadlines; and (5) pricing for services.
The evaluation committee was comprised of two (2) members of Auditor’s Office Dayforce Admin Team and one (1) member from the Department of Health. Health’s Human Resource Manager participated on the evaluation as it is reviewing its use of technology and some of the items under review are related to improving its use of Dayforce functionality.
Initial rankings of all offerors were as follows:
|
Company Name |
Ranking |
|
Enforce LLC |
4 |
|
KAM Consulting Inc dba ClearCourse Consulting |
1 |
|
OnActuate Consulting US Inc. |
2 |
|
RSM US LLP |
3 |
|
Vintage Hill Consulting LLC |
5 |
The top three (3) highest qualified offerors were selected with which to hold additional discussions. All offerors were notified of the selection and names of the top three. Each of the top three offerors were given the opportunity to virtually meet with the evaluation committee and Dayforce subject matter experts from Benefits Administration, Central Payroll, and the Civil Service Commission. At the virtual meeting, offerors presented information about their company and proposal and responded to questions from the City. The offerors were also provided the opportunity to ask the City questions about the nature and details of the envisioned agreement.
Based upon the content of the proposals and the additional discussions held with the offerors, the ranking remained unchanged and the evaluation committee recommended the initial contract in the amount of $375,000.00 from the Auditor’s Bond fund for Dayforce consulting and professional services be awarded to KAM Consulting Inc dba ClearCourse Consulting as the highest rated offeror. The City Auditor accepted the recommendation without any changes.
ClearCourse Consulting does not have an Application Programming Interface developer proposed in the list of roles requested by the City. A secondary award of $75,000.00 is made to OnActuate Consulting US Inc. to fill this need. There is planned technical work related to Dayforce and Dynamics integrations and OnActuate Consulting US Inc. is the most logical and highest rated choice as it is a certified partner with both Dayforce and Microsoft, as well as the City’s partner of record for the D365 Finance application. It will also serve as a backup for consulting in the event Clear Course Consulting does not have an available resource or the City needs to augment a project with additional staffing to fulfill roles needed in the scope of work.
The contracts would be for two (2) year terms and include the option to renew annually for three (3) times subject to annual appropriation and approval by Council. The contracts would be on a time and material basis as needed for a particular scope of work and billed at the rate cards from each of the offerors by the various project roles necessary to conduct the statement of work.
Contract Compliance:
KAM Consulting Inc dba ClearCourse Consulting: CC#-CC048137, expires 2/15/2026, D365#048137
Principal place of business: 3582 Farmstone Ct Kannapolis, NC 28081 USA
OnActuate Consulting US Inc., CC#CC-048102, expires 7/3/2026, D365# 048102
Principal place of business: 1155 N. Service Road W. Oakville, ONL6N 3E3, Canada
Fiscal Impact:
Funds ($450,000.00) are available and appropriated within the Auditor’s Bond Fund, Fund 7783.
Title
To authorize the City Auditor to enter into agreements with KAM Consulting Inc dba ClearCourse Consulting ($375,000.00) and OnActuate Consulting US Inc ($75,000.00) for two years with three annual renewal options subject to Council approval and appropriation for supplemental professional consulting and technical services for Dayforce; and to authorize the expenditure of $450,000.00 from the Auditor’s Bond Fund. ($450,000.00).
Body
WHEREAS, there is a need for professional technical, functional, and best practice consulting services for Dayforce;
WHEREAS, a Request for Proposal process was held in accordance with Columbus City Code, Chapter 329;
WHEREAS, proposals were received by the Auditor’s Office and the highest rated offerors were chosen in accordance with the criteria specified in the RFP bid Documents;
WHEREAS, it has become necessary in the usual daily operation of the City Auditor’s Office to authorize the City Auditor to enter into two contracts with KAM Consulting Inc dba ClearCourse and OnActuate Consulting US Inc. for supplemental professional consulting and technical services for Dayforce, NOW THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the City Auditor be and hereby is authorized to enter into contract for two (2) years, with three (3) single year renewal options subject to annual appropriation and approval of City Council with KAM Consulting Inc dba ClearCourse Consulting in the amount of $375,000.00 for professional services related to Dayforce, contingent upon KAM Consulting Inc. dba ClearCourse Consulting becoming registered to transact business within the State of Ohio as required by Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1703.
SECTION 2. That the City Auditor be and hereby is authorized to enter into contract for two (2) years, with three (3) single year renewal options subject to annual appropriation and approval of City Council with OnActuate Consulting US Inc. in the amount of $75,000.00 for professional services related to Dayforce, contingent upon OnActuate Consulting US Inc, becoming registered to transact business within the State of Ohio, as required by Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1702.
SECTION 3. That the expenditure of $450,000.00, or so much thereof as may be needed is hereby authorized from fund 7783 (Auditor Bond Fund) Dept./Div. No. 22-01, Object Class 06, Main account 66530, Project P783002-100002 per the account codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
SECTION 4. That funds are hereby deemed appropriated and expenditures and transfers authorized to carry out the purposes of this ordinance and the City Auditor shall establish such accounting codes as necessary.
SECTION 5. That the City Auditor is authorized to make any accounting changes to revise the funding source for all contracts or contract modifications associated with this ordinance.
SECTION 6. That the City Auditor is hereby authorized to transfer the unencumbered balance in a project account to the unallocated balance account within the same fund when said project has been completed and the monies are no longer needed.
SECTION 7. That this ordinance shall take effect and be in force from and after the earliest period allowed by law.