City Auditor - City Recorder - Council Ordinance - 176792 eBid Systems on-line EEO certification ExhA

AGREEMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL, TECHNICAL, OR EXPERT SERVICES

EXHIBIT A

Statement of the Work

and

Payment Schedule

OBJECTIVE

Upgrade and enhance the capabilities of the City of Portland (City) Internet bid solicitation system by allowing vendors to complete their EEO certification forms online.

ONLINE EEO CERTIFICATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

E-Bid Systems Inc. will migrate the City's existing web site capabilities and customized features to the latest software platform (BidHost™ Version 3.0). This will provide the City with additional features and facilitate the modifications that are necessary to accommodate the online EEO certification functions.

The additions to the current application will involve creating supplementary online registration forms to capture required EEO information. Based on our understanding of the City's requirements, E-Bid Systems, Inc. envision the basic workflow and functionality of the application to be as follows:

1. Vendors will continue to fill out the current online vendor registration form.

2. An additional link and an initial registration form will serve as the entry point to the EEO certification system. On the initial form, several questions will be asked of the vendor to determine which form is appropriate for their type of business. Vendors will also enter information that is common to all vendor forms here.

3. Based on their answers to the initial questions, vendors will be directed to the appropriate form (C, G,H, or J) that will display the required data fields specific to their business type.

4. Because some of these forms required detailed information, the vendor will be able to save their partially completed information, and come back to complete the process when they have all required information available.

5. When the vendor has completed their data input, they will be directed to a signature and authentication page. This page will display all of the data input and the name, title and address of the user who is logged in. This page will also have a check box next to the appropriate legal language provided by the City indicating that the user is the same person that is identified on the page and that the user is an officer of the company and qualified to sign on behalf of the company.

6. Pressing the submit button will send the form information to the server database and also display all of the submitted information with a Print button suggesting that they print the page for their records.

The City intends to use the online certification data to update other databases operated by the City. Based on a description of data fields required by the City, the online system will do a daily export of required data into a MS Access (Version 97) database that can be accessed by the City.

The system will also be programmed to automatically send e-mail notifications to vendors in advance of their annual certification expiration.

USER AUTHENTICATION:

Consistent with the state of the practice for secure online transactions, the system will use usernames and passwords that are created by each vendor to identify them and log their transactions. This is the same technology that is applied to the authentication of online users engaged in financial transactions. As noted in Item 5 above, in addition to the system validating the user identity from the username and password combination, the user will specifically have to check a box acknowledging that their identity is correctly displayed and their acceptance of other conditions that their signature implies. Thus, someone would have to specifically know the username and password of another individual and fraudulently check the box that they are the person identified on the screen. This would be equivalent to someone forging the signature of another person. The specific date and time when the form is submitted is also automatically stored in the system. This is the same process that is commonly used to signify acceptance of software licensing terms and conditions. E-Bid Systems, Inc. believe that using the technology that mirrors that used in online financial applications will provide acceptable authentication and non-repudiation to that of a signature.

SCOPE OF WORK

To meet the functional requirements above, E-Bid Systems, Inc. will perform the tasks shown below. The approximate time to complete each task and our level of effort is shown in parentheses.

Task 1 - Preliminary Application Development (30 days)

The City's current BidHost™ system functionality will be transferred to the latest version of the application. Then specific customization will be performed to add the functions required for the new EEO certification forms. After testing by eBid Systems, the application will be made available for testing by the City.

Task 2 - Incorporate City Comments (10 days)

After receiving comments based on the City's testing of the application, E-Bid Systems, Inc. will incorporate comments into a revised version of the application. The revised application will be made available for final acceptance testing by the City.

Task 3 - Training (2 days)

E-Bid Systems, Inc. will prepare for and visit City offices to conduct one-half day of training and familiarization with the new version of BidHost™ and the new online EEO certification system.

Task 4 - Web Site Launch (2 day)

E-Bid Systems, Inc. will upload the vendor and solicitation database from the existing web application into the new version of the application just prior to making the web site accessible to the public.

COST

The cost to perform this work is shown below. E-Bid Systems, Inc. will perform this work in accordance with the City of Portland Standard Contract Provisions for Professional, Technical, and Expert Services.