Client Overview
The Indiana Office of Technology is a trusted enterprise technology provider for the State of Indiana. IOT enables partner agencies to securely deliver high-quality services to citizens by providing measurable, secure, consistent, reliable, and cost-effective enterprise technology services.
Industry
Public Sector
Engagement Size
$300,000
Engagement Summary
RFP Strategy and Requirements Development for a Large-Scale State Government Digital Platform
The Indiana Office of Technology needed to solicit new competitive bids for the end-to-end management of IN.gov, the state’s central digital platform for citizen services and agency information.
Because of the size, complexity, and visibility of the program and a lack of bandwidth, IOT needed support developing an RFP that would attract viable, technically qualified, and competitively differentiated responses. Through a competitive RFP process, IOT selected BCforward to develop the RFP content and supporting requirements.
BCforward provided the strategy, analysis, stakeholder discovery, technical documentation, service requirements, and business environment research needed to support a complete RFP bid cycle.
Geographic Scope
State of Indiana
The engagement supported IN.gov, a statewide digital platform serving Indiana residents, agencies, and government stakeholders.
Business Challenge
IOT was preparing to rebid the end-to-end management of IN.gov, a high-visibility, enterprise-scale government digital platform. The program included web design, platform management, application management, payment processing, privacy, security, quality assurance, testing, infrastructure technology, support, maintenance, and enhancement requirements.
The scope was too large and complex for a basic procurement document. IOT needed an RFP that accurately reflected the operational, technical, functional, and service expectations of the IN.gov program. Without a clear and comprehensive RFP, the state risked receiving responses that were incomplete, difficult to compare, poorly priced, or not technically viable.
IOT also needed to capture stakeholder input from across state agencies, identify service and support gaps, and provide vendors with enough insight into the current business and technical environment to generate realistic solutions and pricing.
Strategic Requirements
The RFP development effort needed to support several critical priorities:
- Document the full IN.gov business, technical, and operational environment
- Review and analyze thousands of pages of contractual and technical documentation
- Identify program requirements related to the incumbent vendor and current-state environment
- Gather stakeholder input from key state agencies
- Identify functional gaps and service support issues
- Develop mandatory service and technical requirements
- Define requirements for web design, management, and marketing
- Capture application management requirements
- Document payment processing, privacy, and security needs
- Define quality assurance and testing expectations
- Document infrastructure technology requirements
- Translate support objectives into a high-level SLA
- Include expectations for emergency break-fix support, ongoing maintenance, and incremental enhancements
- Provide vendors with enough information to prepare accurate, competitive pricing
- Support a complete and competitive RFP bid cycle
BCforward’s Approach
BCforward began with a comprehensive discovery and documentation review. The team analyzed thousands of pages of contractual, operational, and technical documentation related to the IN.gov program and incumbent vendor. This work helped clarify the structure, scope, dependencies, risks, and service expectations of the existing environment.
BCforward then conducted stakeholder meetings and interviews with nine key state agencies. These conversations helped identify functional gaps, support issues, service needs, and agency expectations that needed to be reflected in the RFP.
Using this discovery work, BCforward built a comprehensive set of mandatory service and technical requirements. These requirements covered web design, website management, digital marketing, application management, payment processing, privacy and security, quality assurance and testing, and infrastructure technology.
BCforward also researched and documented the full IN.gov business and operational environment so vendors could better understand the program they were bidding on. The team also analyzed and documented the technical environment to support more accurate pricing and reduce ambiguity for respondents.
To strengthen the support model, BCforward captured requirements for emergency break-fix support, ongoing maintenance, and incremental enhancements. These support objectives were translated into a high-level SLA that respondents could use to price ongoing support costs.
Implementation Timeline
BCforward managed the strategy and RFP development effort through a structured timeline designed to move IOT from current-state discovery to a complete, market-ready RFP package.
The implementation included:
- Project kickoff and alignment with IOT stakeholders
- Review of contractual and technical documentation
- Analysis of the incumbent vendor and existing IN.gov program
- Stakeholder meetings with key state leaders and agencies
- Interviews with nine state agencies
- Functional gap and service support issue identification
- Business and operational environment documentation
- Technical environment analysis and documentation
- Mandatory service and technical requirement development
- Web design, management, and marketing requirement definition
- Application management requirement definition
- Payment processing, privacy, and security requirement definition
- Quality assurance and testing requirement definition
- Infrastructure technology requirement definition
- Emergency break-fix, maintenance, and enhancement support requirement development
- High-level SLA development for ongoing support pricing
- RFP content development and refinement
- Final RFP deliverable support for the bid cycle
This structured process helped IOT create a clearer, more complete RFP that allowed vendors to understand the IN.gov environment, price their services more accurately, and submit viable competitive proposals.
Solution Delivered
BCforward delivered the strategic RFP content, technical requirements, service requirements, and supporting documentation needed for IOT to execute a competitive bid cycle for IN.gov management.
The solution included:
- Comprehensive current-state documentation review
- Stakeholder discovery and agency interviews
- Analysis of functional gaps and support challenges
- Mandatory service and technical requirements
- Business and operational environment documentation
- Technical environment documentation
- Requirements for web design, management, and marketing
- Application management requirements
- Payment processing requirements
- Privacy and security requirements
- Quality assurance and testing requirements
- Infrastructure technology requirements
- Break-fix support expectations
- Ongoing maintenance requirements
- Incremental enhancement requirements
- High-level SLA for ongoing support pricing
- RFP content designed to support viable, competitive, and technically qualified bids
Business Outcomes
Using the pre-work and deliverables produced by BCforward, IOT executed a complete RFP bid cycle and received multiple viable, technically qualified responses with compelling competitive alternatives.
The work helped the State of Indiana enter into a strategic agreement that improved how millions of Hoosiers interact with their state government.
IN.gov has collected several accolades since 2016, including but not limited to:
- Government Experience Awards, 2nd Place 2017, “Overall State Government Experience”
- 2017 Communicator Awards, Award of Excellence, Website, User Experience
Refer to https://www.in.gov/core/awards.html for further information.
Client Quote
“The BCforward team partnered with the State of Indiana and helped us to successfully solicit support for a large-scale enterprise program. As a result of our partnership with BCforward, the State was able to enter into a strategic agreement that has made it easier for millions of Hoosiers to interact with their state government.”
Key Results
- Complete RFP bid cycle executed
- Multiple viable and technically qualified responses received
- Competitive vendor alternatives created for IOT
- Clearer service, technical, operational, and support requirements defined
- High-level SLA created to support ongoing support pricing
- Strategic agreement enabled for a large-scale enterprise government program
- Improved digital access for millions of Indiana residents
- IN.gov recognized for overall state government experience and website user experience
