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Vendors must have an active, approved master contract under the SITE program and be approved in the

category or categories listed in the RFO document in order to respond to and RFO. Vendor is responsible for

reading all addenda associated with the RFO.

IT Professional Technical Services

SITE Program

T#:14ATM

Request for Offers (RFO) For Technology Services Issued By

Request for Offers (RFO) For Technology Services Issued By

Office of MN.IT Services (“MN.IT”) @ Department of Employment and Economic Development (“DEED”)

Project Title: UI System Modernization Project

Category: Developer / Programmer

Resource Need: seeking a single vendor to provide a team of 4 resources under the Developer/Programmer

category. Vendor must be able to provide the full team of 4 resources. All resources must clearly be submitted

under the Developer/Programmer category of the SITE Program.

Business Need

MNIT@DEED is looking for one vendor to provide four highly experienced developer / programmer resources

with experience/skills as Senior DevOps Engineer (1), Senior Front End Developer (1), and Senior Java Full Stack

Developers (2). These resources will play an integral role in the execution of a UI System Modernization Project

delivering against UI Program goals and objectives. Vendor must be able to provide the full team of 4 resources

in order to be considered.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) System and Program of the Minnesota Department of Employment and

Economic Development (DEED) are widely recognized nationally as leaders in the management and processing

of UI applicant benefits and employer taxes. The UI Program launched a Java/J2EE web application utilizing a

DB2 database approximately ten years ago. The application is still functioning well and the business design

decisions made during its development have proven themselves to be sound and instrumental in achieving the

current level of performance. However, maintenance and enhancement work that has been performed over the

last ten years have exposed opportunities to re-architect some functionality to bring it in line with contemporary

approaches, reduce complexity where possible and to find opportunities to align similar functionality.

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To address these concerns, and to ensure the continued viability of the UI System well into the future, the UI

Program and Minnesota IT Services @ DEED (MNIT@ DEED) are establishing a UI System Modernization Project

for the Unemployment Insurance System/Application to organize, develop and implement strategic and tactical

efforts delivering maximum business value to the UI Program. These four developer/programmers will support

this key effort.

Project Deliverables

1. Work with the State scrum team to perform Application Design and Solution/Application Development

duties as assigned to envision, launch and execute the initial phase of the Modernization Project to drive

and deliver business value.

2. Coach/mentor the State development team(s) on industry development best practices, techniques and

standards. Be a catalyst in continuous improvement toward establishment of processes and best practices

across disciplines such as agile SDLC, automations engineering, application development, and testing and

release management.

Responsibilities Expected of the Selected Vendor

1. Resources will be dedicated 100% to this project meaning they will not be working for other clients at the same time.

2. Resources will participate in Sprint Planning meetings, take ownership for user stories, development tasks and testing.

3. Resources will work with business partners to achieve common understanding of business requirements.

4. Resources will contribute to the automation of development and deployment tasks for this initial phase of a multi-phase project.

Project Milestones and Schedule

Anticipated Project Start Date: October 15, 2017

Anticipated End Date: September 30, 2018

The State will retain the option to extend the work orders in increments determined by the State.

Project Environment

This project is sponsored and funded by the UI Program for the enhancement of business tools used to deliver

program objectives. All goals, milestones and deliverables must be approved by the designee of the UI Program.

The resources will work with project and technical staff from both UI and MNIT@DEED. The resource must be

able to work effectively with both technical and non-technical decision makers. Resources must be able to

manage the relatively high level of ambiguity existing during the initial stages of this project.

MNIT@DEED has narrowed the technology stack to the following technologies. The team will explore various technologies during the project and finalize the direction based on identified business needs and statewide Minnesota IT strategies.

Java Platform, Standard Edition 8

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Node.js

Apache Kafka Distributed Streaming Platform

Amazon Kinesis

Spring Platform

Server less

Docker Software Containerization Platform

AWS Lambda

SQL Database Management Systems

Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon API Gateway

TypeScript Programming Language

Angular Application Development Framework

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Infrastructure Provider

CI/CD

Project Requirements

Work will be done on site at the DEED office at 332 Minnesota St, St. Paul, MN during normal business

hours of 8am – 4:30pm.

Resources will adhere to time keeping and budget reporting practices of MNIT@DEED

Work products must comply with the Statewide Enterprise Architecture Standards.

Work products must comply with the State Accessibility Requirements and Guidelines.

This project will be managed using an agile/scrum methodology and it is expected all team members

have experience working in an agile/scrum project.

It is expected team will follow MNIT@DEED and the UI project’s established architecture and will adhere

to the standards for documentation, coding, unit testing and functional testing.

All development must follow industry security best practices and comply with State of Minnesota

security policies and standards and all applicable State, Federal and industry laws and regulations.

Mandatory and Desired Qualifications

Mandatory (pass/fail) and Desired Qualifications for each of the four resources are detailed in the Response

Matrix under the SUBMISSION FORMAT SECTION of this document. Please complete a response Matrix for

each resource being submitted. Mandatory Qualifications are pass/fail and Resources MUST meet all

mandatory qualifications or they should not be submitted for consideration. Responses must propose an hourly

rate at or below vendor’s Maximum Hourly Rate for the Developer/Programmer SITE category for each of the

resources being submitted.

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Mandatory qualifications will initially be scored as pass/fail. Thereafter, proposals where the resources meet the Mandatory Qualifications will be scored in part on the extent to which the resources exceed these mandatory minimums. See RFO Evaluation Process, below.

All resources being submitted must meet mandatory qualifications. If any of the resources submitted do not

meet the mandatory qualifications, the entire submission will be removed from consideration as only one

vendor will supply all four resources.

The state will conduct interviews with candidates as part of the selection process. After interviews, mandatory

and desired scores may be adjusted based on additional information derived during the interview process. The

vendor will be contacted to arrange a mutually agreed upon interview date and time. Only in person interviews

will be held and the entire proposed team must be present. They will take place at the DEED Office location, of

First National Bank, 332 Minnesota Street, St. Paul, MN, and not exceed two hours. If your team is selected for

an interview details will be forthcoming.

Process Schedule

Process Milestone Due Date

Deadline for Questions October 3, 2017, 2:00 PM CT

Anticipated Responses to Questions Posted October 4, 2017

Proposals Due October 17, 2017, 2:00 PM CT

Anticipated proposal evaluation complete November 17, 2017

Anticipated work order start December 1, 2107

Questions

Any questions regarding this Request for Offers should be submitted via e-mail according to the date and time

listed in the process schedule to:

Name: Lynette Podritz Organization: Office of MN.IT Services Email Address: MNITContracts@state.mn.us Subject Line should read: Company name, and RFO0284

Questions and answers will be posted via an addendum to the RFO on the Office of MN.IT Services

(http://mn.gov/buyit/14atm/rfo/active.html) according to the process schedule above.

Other persons ARE NOT authorized to discuss this RFO or its requirements with anyone throughout the selection

process and responders should not rely on information obtained from non-authorized individuals. If it is

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discovered a Responder contacted other State staff other than the individual above, the responder’s proposal

may be removed from further consideration.

RFO Evaluation Process

The Mandatory Qualifications are pass/fail. For those candidates who pass the mandatory qualifications, these

Mandatory Qualifications, along with the rest of the response matrix, will be scored as indicated below:

Criteria %

Clarity of Response (Defined as adherence to requested formats/content specified in Submission Format and Proposal Submission Instructions sections)

5%

Mandatory and Desired Skills 50%

Resource’s response to Questions in Response Matrix 15%

Cost 30%

The State will interview top scoring vendor teams. Mandatory and Desired Skills scores may be adjusted based

on additional information derived during the interview process. The State further reserves the right to remove a

vendor team from consideration if any of the proposed resources are unavailable for an interview as requested

by the State.

The State also reserves the right to contact proposed resources’ references. Mandatory and Desired Skills

scores may be adjusted based on additional information derived from the interview with the references.

This Request for Offers does not obligate the state to award a work order or complete the assignment, and

the state reserves the right to cancel the solicitation if it is considered to be in its best interest.

RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR DEVOPS ENGINEER Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Four (4) years of experience creating and implementing optimal solutions based on a technical design

One (1) year of production experience deploying, automating, monitoring and administering 12 factor applications deployed to AWS, Google Compute Engine or Azure

Two (2) years of experience designing, implementing and supporting CI/CD pipelines

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR DEVOPS ENGINEER Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Two (2) years of experience integrating CI/CD Pipelines with Java and/or JavaScript build tools

One (1) year of experience with Git branching models such as GitFlow or other similar models

One (1) year of experience with Infrastructure as code and configuration management tools

One (1) project utilizing monitoring, metrics and log aggregation tools

One (1) project utilizing languages such as Go/Golang, Python, Java or JavaScript/Node js

Two (2) years of combined experience with Linux and Linux Scripting

If resource being submitted is working under a subcontract agreement, responder must identify each subcontractor

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS: (The ideal candidate for the position would hold these skills at the level listed below. All proposals where the 4 resources meet the Mandatory Qualifications listed will be evaluated to the extent they possess the Desired Skills.)

One (1) project in production utilizing large-scale micro service environments

One (1) project in production utilizing Docker container orchestration engines such as Google Container Engine, AWS ECS, Red Hat OpenShift, Rancher,

One (1) year experience with AWS Lambda

One (1) year with AWS Cloud Formation or Terraform

One (1) year experience with AWS IAM, VPC, VPN, EC2, ELBs, and RDS

One (1) year experience with GitHub or GitLab

One (1) year experience with Gradle

One (1) year experience with NPM or other JavaScript build tools

Two (2) years of experience with Maven repository implementations such as Artifactory, Nexus or other similar tools

One (1) project utilizing Docker container registries such as Docker Hub, GitLab, Artifactory, EC2 Container Registry or other similar tools

One (1) project utilizing monitoring tools such as Amazon CloudWatch InfluxData, Prometheus or other similar tools

One (1) project utilizing Grafana or other similar tools

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR DEVOPS ENGINEER Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

References - Include the names of two technical references for engagements/projects the submitted resource worked on. The

references should be willing and able to speak to the resources work on a similar project.

REFERENCE #1

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

REFERENCE #2

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

RESUME: Provide a resume clearly showing where the candidate meets the mandatory and desired qualifications.

Question: Describe a cloud based architecture you played a large role in engineering. Within the description, focus on components of 12 factor applications and how they were accomplished within the architecture. If there were shortcomings within the architecture describe how you would make improvements. Be sure to include the process and tools used to build, test, deploy and monitor the applications. Response to question is limited to 2 pages, single spaced.

RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FRONTEND DEVELOPER Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Four (4) years creating and implementing optimal solutions based on a technical design

Two (2) years of experience working directly with domain experts to work through ambiguous requirements in order to come up with optimal solutions

Two (2) years of experience with Modern Frontend JavaScript frameworks such as Angular, AngularJS, React, Vue.js or Ember.js

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FRONTEND DEVELOPER Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Two (2) years of experience building Single-page Applications

Two (2) years of experience utilizing RESTful APIs via JavaScript

Four (4) years of experience with HTML

Two (2) years of experience with HTML5

One (1) year of experience on projects utilizing CSS Frameworks and/or Preprocessors

Two (2) years of experience with JavaScript build tools

Two (2) years of experience with JavaScript testing tools

Four (4) years of experience with Version control system(s)

One (1) project integrating web applications with authentication systems

One (1) project utilizing Role based authorization

If resource being submitted is working under a subcontract agreement, responder must identify each subcontractor

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS: (The ideal candidate for the position would hold these skills at the level listed below. All proposals where the 4 resources meet the Mandatory Qualifications listed will be evaluated to the extent they possess the Desired Skills.)

One (1) project using Angular 2 or later

One (1) project using the Angular CLI

One (1) project using TypeScript

One (1) project using Angular Material

Two (2) years of experience with Node.js

Two (2) years of experience with npm

One (1) project using Webpack

Two (2) years of experience using Jasmine, Karma or similar testing tools

One (1) project using Protractor

One (1) project using Reactive programming

Two (2) projects using Responsive design

One (1) project using Domain-driven design

One (1) project integrating with CI/CD pipelines

One (1) year of experience with Git

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FRONTEND DEVELOPER Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

One (1) project utilizing JSON Web Tokens (JWT)

Two (2) years working within an Agile team

References - Include the names of two technical references for each of two engagements/projects that the submitted resource

worked on. The references should be willing and able to speak to the resources work on a similar project.

REFERENCE #1

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

REFERENCE #2

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

RESUME: Provide a resume clearly showing where the candidate meets the mandatory and desired qualifications.

Question: Describe a time when you introduced a new technology or best practice into a project. The example could be as simple as a

new library or testing framework or as large as an entirely new technology stack. How did the introduction of that technology or best

practice benefit the team? How was the technology introduced to the team? What were the pain points in adopting the technology or

best practice? What were the lessons learned from that experience? Response to question is limited to 2 pages, single-spaced.

RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #1 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Four (4) years of experience creating and implementing based on technical design

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #1 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Four (4) years of experience working directly with domain experts to work through requirements in order to come up with

Four (4) years designing and implementing resilient backend services

Two (2) years of experience assisting in project’s relational database schema design

Two (2) years of experience with database transactions

Two (2) years of experience with RESTful API design

Four (4) years of experience with Java and/or Node js

Two (2) years of experience with Java/Spring, similar Node js web application frameworks such as Express or server less frameworks running on AWS Lambda

Two (2) years of experience using programmatic database access libraries

Four (4) years of experience with automated unit testing frameworks

One (1) year of experience with Unit test mocking framework(s)

Four (4) years of experience with Version control system(s)

If resource being submitted is working under a subcontract agreement, responder must identify each subcontractor

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS: (The ideal candidate for the position would hold these skills at the level listed below. All proposals where the 4 resources meet the Mandatory Qualifications listed will be evaluated to the extent they possess the Desired Skills.)

One (1) project in production utilizing Microservices

One (1) project using Java 8 Streams and Lambdas

One (1) project integrating with OAuth 2.0 security

One (1) project using a non-blocking, reactive frameworks such as Node.js, RxJava, Spring WebFlux, Vert.x, Ratpack or Akka

One (1) project utilizing a Message-driven architectures

One (1) project utilizing Eventual consistency

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #1 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Two (2) years of experience with message brokers such as Kinesis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ or similar technologies

One (1) year of experience using Kafka, Kafka Schema Registry and/or Kafka Connect

One (1) year of experience with Data streaming technologies such as Kafka Streams, Apache Spark, Apache Beam or others

One (1) project using Domain-driven design

One (1) year of experience with NoSQL data stores such as Cassandra, DynamoDB, MongoDB, Elastic Search or similar technologies

One (1) project using Event Sourcing

One (1) project using CQRS

Two (2) years of experience on projects using CI/CD

One (1) year of experience with Git

One (1) project using AWS Lambda

One (1) year of experience with AWS EC2

One (1) year of experience with AWS RDS

One (1) project utilizing end-to-end test automation

One (1) project implementing and executing load tests

One (1) project using Swagger or other API documentation tools

Two (2) years working within an Agile team

References - Include the names of two technical references for each of two engagements/projects that the submitted resource

worked on. The references should be willing and able to speak to the resources work on a similar project.

REFERENCE #1

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #1 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

REFERENCE #2

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

RESUME: Provide a resume clearly showing where the candidate meets the mandatory and desired qualifications.

Question: Describe a time when you introduced a new technology or best practice into a project. The example could be as simple as a

new library or testing framework or as large as an entirely new technology stack. How did the introduction of that technology or best

practice benefit the team? How was the technology introduced to the team? What were the pain points in adopting the technology or

best practice? What were the lessons learned from that experience? Response to question is limited to 2 pages, single-spaced.

RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #2 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Four (4) years of experience creating and implementing solutions based on a technical design

Four (4) years of experience working directly with domain experts to work through requirements in order to come up with optimal solutions

Four (4) years designing and implementing resilient backend services

Two (2) years of experience assisting in project’s relational database schema design

Two (2) years of experience with database transactions

Four (4) years of experience with RESTful API design

Four (4) years of experience with Java

Two (2) years of experience with Spring

Two (2) years of experience with JDBC or O/R Mapping tools

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #2 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Two (2) years of experience with Junit or other automated unit testing frameworks

One (1) year of experience with Unit test mocking framework(s)

Four (4) years of experience with Version control system(s)

If resource being submitted is working under a subcontract agreement, responder must identify each subcontractor

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS: (The ideal candidate for the position would hold these skills at the level listed below. All proposals where the 4 resources meet the Mandatory Qualifications listed will be evaluated to the extent they possess the Desired Skills.)

One (1) project in production utilizing Microservices

One (1) project using Java 8 Streams and Lambdas

One (1) project using the Java Concurrency Libraries

One (1) year of experience with Spring Boot

One (1) project using Spring Security

One (1) project using a non-blocking, reactive frameworks such as RxJava, Spring WebFlux, Vert.x, Ratpack or Akka

One (1) project utilizing a Message-driven architectures

One (1) project utilizing Eventual consistency

Two (2) years of experience with message brokers such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ or similar technologies

One (1) year of experience using Kafka, Kafka Schema Registry and/or Kafka Connect

One (1) year of experience with Data streaming technologies such as Kafka Streams, Apache Spark, Apache Beam or others

One (1) project using Domain-driven design

One (1) year of experience with NoSQL data stores such as Cassandra, DynamoDB, MongoDB, Elastic Search or similar technologies

One (1) project using Event Sourcing

One (1) project using CQRS

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #2 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Two (2) years of experience on projects using CI/CD

One (1) year of experience with Git

One (1) year of experience with AWS EC2

One (1) year of experience with AWS RDS

One (1) project utilizing end-to-end test automation

One (1) project implementing and executing load tests

One (1) year of experience with the Spock testing framework

One (1) project using Swagger or other API documentation tools

Two (2) years working within an Agile team

References - Include the names of two technical references for each of two engagements/projects that the submitted resource

worked on. The references should be willing and able to speak to the resources work on a similar project.

REFERENCE #1

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

REFERENCE #2

Company name

Company address

Reference name (indicate whether they

are business or technical reference)

Reference email

Reference direct phone number

Brief description of the project and the

part the resources played

RESUME: Provide a resume clearly showing where the candidate meets the mandatory and desired qualifications.

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RESPONSE MATRIX SENIOR FULL STACK DEVELOPER #2 Resource Name: Dates # Years

Provide Company Name/brief project description where the resource has demonstrated the qualification

Question: Describe a time when you introduced a new technology or best practice into a project. The example could be as simple as a

new library or testing framework or as large as an entirely new technology stack. How did the introduction of that technology or best

practice benefit the team? How was the technology introduced to the team? What were the pain points in adopting the technology or

best practice? What were the lessons learned from that experience? Response to question is limited to 2 pages, single-spaced.

Submission Format

The proposal should be assembled as follows:

1. Cover Page

Master Contractor Name

Master Contractor Address

Contact Name for Master Contractor

Contact Name’s direct phone/cell phone (if applicable)

Contact Name’s email address

Name of each Resource submitted & which position

2. Experience, Resume, Response Matrix:

Complete the required Response Matrix for each resource being requested. Vendors must submit a resource for each of the four positions.

3. Cost Proposal

Cost proposals submitted in response to this RFO must contain a separate proposed hourly rate for each of the four consultant roles being sought herein. All resources submitted must fall under the Developer/Programmer category of the SITE Program. Submission of candidates other under categories will not be considered.

Please do not submit cost ranges as the State requires singular hourly cost for each role in order to make a fair comparison of costs between the responders. If, despite this directive, costs ranges are provided, the State will utilize the highest cost in the range for purposes of cost scoring. Cost proposals will be evaluated based on the average hourly rate of the four (4) consultant roles as follows:

Senior DevOps Engineer hourly rate Senior Front Developer hourly rate Senior Full Stack Developer #1 hourly rate

+ Senior Full Stack Developer #2 hourly rate = Combined Rate Combined Rate ÷ 4 = Average Hourly Rate

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Lowest cost will be determined by the Average Hourly Rate submitted by the Responder. The Proposal with the lowest cost will receive 100% of the available points. The other Proposals will receive points using the following formula: Lowest Average Hourly Rate -------------------------------------------------- x Maximum Points = Points Awarded Responder’s Average Hourly Rate EXAMPLE: (Using 30 points as maximum): If Responder A submitted the lowest combined rate of $500.00, and Responder B submitted a combined rate of $600.00, Responder A would receive 30 points and Responder B would receive 33.33 points (500.00 ÷ 600.00 x 30 = 25)

4. Additional Statement and forms:

1. Conflict of interest statement as it relates to this project 2. Workforce Certificate Information (required if vendor proposal exceeds $100,000, including

extension options) 3. Equal Pay Certificate (required if vendor proposal exceeds $500,000, including extension

options) 4. Affidavit of non-collusion 5. Certification Regarding Lobbying (required if vendor proposal exceeds $100,000, including

extension options)

The STATE reserves the right to determine if further information is needed to better understand the information

presented. This may include a request for a presentation.

Proposal Submission Instructions

Each vendor is limited to the submission of 1 (one) 4 (four) person team

The proposal response and required forms must be transmitted via e-mail to:

Lynette Podritz, email address MNITContracts@state.mn.us

Email subject line must read: Company Name, RFO0284 Project Title: UI System

Modernization Project

Submissions are due according to the process schedule previously listed.

All responses are time and date stamped by the State’s email system when they are received.

Responses received after Proposals Due Date above will not be considered. The State shall not be

responsible for any errors or delays caused by technology-related issues, even if they are caused by the

State.

Please set your email to “request a delivery receipt” as the contracts team will NOT be contacting

vendors to tell them their proposal was received.

Vendor must copy MNIT.SITE@state.mn.us on any responses submitted for this RFO. Vendors that do

not intend to submit a proposal must send an email notification of a no-bid on the request to

MNIT.SITE@state.mn.us . Failure to do either of these tasks will count against your program activity and

may result in removal from the program.

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General Requirements

Proposal Contents

By submission of a proposal, Responder warrants that the information provided is true, correct and reliable for

purposes of evaluation for potential award of this work order. The submission of inaccurate or misleading

information may be grounds for disqualification from the award as well as subject the responder to suspension

or debarment proceedings as well as other remedies available by law.

Indemnification

In the performance of this contract by Contractor, or Contractor’s agents or employees, the contractor must

indemnify, save, and hold harmless the State, its agents, and employees, from any claims or causes of action,

including attorney’s fees incurred by the state, to the extent caused by Contractor’s:

1) Intentional, willful, or negligent acts or omissions; or

2) Actions that give rise to strict liability; or

3) Breach of contract or warranty.

The indemnification obligations of this section do not apply in the event the claim or cause of action is the result

of the State’s sole negligence. This clause will not be construed to bar any legal remedies the Contractor may

have for the State’s failure to fulfill its obligation under this contract.

Disposition of Responses

All materials submitted in response to this RFO will become property of the State and will become public record

in accordance with Minnesota Statutes, section 13.591, after the evaluation process is completed. Pursuant to

the statute, completion of the evaluation process occurs when the government entity has completed

negotiating the contract with the selected vendor. If the Responder submits information in response to this RFO

that it believes to be trade secret materials, as defined by the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minn.

Stat. § 13.37, the Responder must: clearly mark all trade secret materials in its response at the time the

response is submitted, include a statement with its response justifying the trade secret designation for each

item, and defend any action seeking release of the materials it believes to be trade secret, and indemnify and

hold harmless the State, its agents and employees, from any judgments or damages awarded against the State

in favor of the party requesting the materials, and any and all costs connected with that defense. This

indemnification survives the State’s award of a contract. In submitting a response to this RFO, the Responder

agrees that this indemnification survives as long as the trade secret materials are in possession of the State.

The State will not consider the prices submitted by the Responder to be proprietary or trade secret materials.

Conflicts of Interest

Responder must provide a list of all entities with which it has relationships that create, or appear to create, a

conflict of interest with the work that is contemplated in this request for proposals. The list should indicate the

name of the entity, the relationship, and a discussion of the conflict.

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The responder warrants that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, and except as otherwise disclosed, there

are no relevant facts or circumstances which could give rise to organizational conflicts of interest. An

organizational conflict of interest exists when, because of existing or planned activities or because of

relationships with other persons, a vendor is unable or potentially unable to render impartial assistance or

advice to the State, or the vendor’s objectivity in performing the contract work is or might be otherwise

impaired, or the vendor has an unfair competitive advantage. The responder agrees that, if after award, an

organizational conflict of interest is discovered, an immediate and full disclosure in writing must be made to the

Assistant Director of the Department of Administration’s Office of State Procurement (“OSP”) which must

include a description of the action which the contractor has taken or proposes to take to avoid or mitigate such

conflicts. If an organization conflict of interest is determined to exist, the State may, at its discretion, cancel the

contract. In the event the responder was aware of an organizational conflict of interest prior to the award of the

contract and did not disclose the conflict to OSP, the State may terminate the contract for default. The

provisions of this clause must be included in all subcontracts for work to be performed similar to the service

provided by the prime contractor, and the terms “contract,” “contractor,” and “contracting officer” modified

appropriately to preserve the State’s rights.

IT Accessibility Standards

All documents and other work products delivered by the vendor must be accessible in order to conform with the

State Accessibility Standard. Information about the Standard can be found at

http://mn.gov/mnit/programs/policies/accessibility/.

Preference to Targeted Group and Economically Disadvantaged Business and Individuals

In accordance with Minnesota Rules, part 1230.1810, subpart B and Minnesota Rules, part 1230.1830, certified

Targeted Group Businesses and individuals submitting proposals as prime contractors will receive a six percent

preference in the evaluation of their proposal, and certified Economically Disadvantaged Businesses and

individuals submitting proposals as prime contractors will receive a six percent preference in the evaluation of

their proposal. Eligible TG businesses must be currently certified by the Office of State Procurement prior to the

solicitation opening date and time. For information regarding certification, contact the Office of State

Procurement Helpline at 651.296.2600, or you may reach the Helpline by email at mmdhelp.line@state.mn.us.

For TTY/TDD communications, contact the Helpline through the Minnesota Relay Services at 1.800.627.3529.

Veteran-Owned Small Business Preference

Unless a greater preference is applicable and allowed by law, in accordance with Minn. Stat. § 16C.16, subd. 6a,

the Commissioner of Administration will award a 6% preference in the amount bid on state procurement to

certified small businesses that are majority owned and operated by veterans.

A small business qualifies for the veteran-owned preference when it meets one of the following requirements.

1) The business has been certified by the Department of Administration/Office of State Procurement as being a

veteran-owned or service-disabled veteran-owned small business. 2) The principal place of business is in

Minnesota AND the United States Department of Veterans Affairs verifies the business as being a veteran-

owned or service-disabled veteran-owned small business under Public Law 109-461 and Code of Federal

Regulations, title 38, part 74 (Supported By Documentation). See Minn. Stat. § 16C.19(d).

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Statutory requirements and certification must be met by the solicitation response due date and time to be

awarded the preference.

Foreign Outsourcing of Work Prohibited

All services under this contract shall be performed within the borders of the United States. All storage and

processing of information shall be performed within the borders of the United States. This provision also applies

to work performed by subcontractors at all tiers.

Work Force Certification

For all contracts estimated to be in excess of $100,000, responders are required to complete the Affirmative

Action Certificate of Compliance and return it with the response. As required by Minnesota Rule 5000.3600, “It

is hereby agreed between the parties that Minnesota Statute § 363A.36 and Minnesota Rule 5000.3400 -

5000.3600 are incorporated into any contract between these parties based upon this specification or any

modification of it. A copy of Minnesota Statute § 363A.36 and Minnesota Rule 5000.3400 - 5000.3600 are

available upon request from the contracting agency.”

Equal Pay Certification

If the Response to this solicitation could be in excess of $500,000, the Responder must obtain an Equal Pay

Certificate from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) or claim an exemption prior to contract

execution. A responder is exempt if it has not employed more than 40 full-time employees on any single

working day in one state during the previous 12 months. Please contact MDHR with questions at: 651-539-1095

(metro), 1-800-657-3704 (toll free), 711 or 1-800-627-3529 (MN Relay) or at compliance.MDHR@state.mn.us.

Certification of Nondiscrimination (In accordance with Minn. Stat. § 16C.053)

The following term applies to any contract for which the value, including all extensions, is $50,000 or more:

Contractor certifies it does not engage in and has no present plans to engage in discrimination against Israel, or

against persons or entities doing business in Israel, when making decisions related to the operation of the

vendor's business. For purposes of this section, "discrimination" includes but is not limited to engaging in

refusals to deal, terminating business activities, or other actions that are intended to limit commercial relations

with Israel, or persons or entities doing business in Israel, when such actions are taken in a manner that in any

way discriminates on the basis of nationality or national origin and is not based on a valid business reason.