COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Human Services Agency

 

DATE:

December 4, 2003

BOARD MEETING DATE:

January 7, 2004

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Maureen D. Borland, Director, Human Services Agency

 

Kathryn Ciamarro, Director of Automation

SUBJECT:

Agreement with Syntellect, Inc.

 

Recommendation

Adopt a Resolution authorizing the execution of an Agreement with Syntellect, Inc. in the amount of $211,000 for the purchase of Hardware, Installation and Support of the Health Information TeleCenter Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System.

 

Background

The Medi-Cal caseload in San Mateo County has increased by 68% over the past five years, and because levels of funding do not allow for an increase in staff relative to the increase in caseload volume, a decision has been made to provide services to over 23,000 Medi-Cal recipient families via a telecenter environment.

 

Discussion

This Agreement with Syntellect, Inc. provides for the following: (1) Vista Software (2) Professional Services, and (3) Maintenance Support. Vista software is built on an open, scalable, standards-based framework to form a unified foundation for many different types of enterprise interactions. The Vista framework supports inbound and outbound telephone (touchtone, voice, and fax), host, and web transactions. The framework provides extensive interface capability and reporting options as well as a standard set of application development, administration and management tools.

 

A Request for Proposal (RFP) was sent to 16 prospective contractors, which included a mandatory "Proposer's Conference" that was held on August 18, 2003. A Question and Answer session was conducted, following the Proposer's Conference, for clarification. Four proposals were received and evaluated by the evaluation team, listed in the RFP Matrix. All four proposed solutions were demonstrated to the review and evaluation team during September 2003. Following initial evaluation, reference checks were conducted and contractors were requested to complete a self-evaluation. Final evaluation was conducted by the evaluation team to determine the top candidate. Based on final evaluation, it is recommended that we contract with Syntellect.

 

Vision Alignment

This Agreement keeps the commitment of: Responsive, effective and collaborative government and goal number 21: County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of services. This Agreement contributes to this commitment and goal since it will aid in providing faster services to a greater number of Medi-Cal families.

 

Fiscal Impact

The term of this Agreement is January 6, 2004 to April 6, 2005. The payment amount of $211,000 has been included in the Adopted Budget for FY 2003-04. This cost will be funded with 47.5% state and 50% federal revenue. The Net County Cost will be $5,275 for FY 2003-04, and there is no additional Net County Cost associated with the approval of this Agreement.

RFP Matrix

1.

General Description of RFP

The purpose of this Request for Proposal was to:

(a) seek information about industry trends and specific company capabilities regarding IVR, ACD and CTI;

(b) select one provider; and (c) negotiate a contract covering the implementation period.

2.

List key evaluation criteria

Compatibility with current infrastructure,

Performance and Scalability, Open Source Solution, Speech and Language Requirements, Cost and

Customer Support, Financial stability.

3.

Where advertised

Independent Newspaper (Redwood City Tribune)

4.

In addition to any advertisement, list others to whom RFP was sent

Used Gartner Magic Quadrant to distribute to most-

capable candidates.

5.

Total number sent to prospective proposers

16

6.

Number of proposals received

4

7.

Who evaluated the proposals

Kathleen Foster, Penni Pavis, Gretchen Nicolas,

Brandon Lau, John Jones

8.

In alphabetical order, names of proposers (or finalists, if applicable) and location

Epos/KRP Communications

NextiraOne

SBC/Nortel

Syntellect