RFP process review for users and vendors Peter van Muyden

EPCOR Power (EDTI) EPCOR's power distribution business distributes power to customers within its distribution franchise service territory comprising the City of Edmonton. EPCOR’s power transmission business owns and operates high voltage substations and high voltage transmission lines and cables that are primarily situated within the City of Edmonton and form part of the Alberta provincial power grid.

EPCOR GIS Background Started in 1979 Complete initial conversion in 1985 Accurate base map controlled by the Government GIS files shared between the utilities and city departments (GeoEdmonton partners) EPCOR Power (EDTI) maintained their GIS data using MicroStation GeoGraphics with Oracle Spatial as the datastore GeoEdmonton received the 2004 GITA Innovation award

GIS sharing is a success in Edmonton

Support for GeoSpatial data GeoEdmonton files (1800 tiled MicroStation files per utiltity Consultants drawings (AutoCAD and MicroStation) Trimble GPS data GeoEdmonton MicroStation tile production Raster format (GeoTiff, MrSid, etc)

Business goals The new GIS solution provides a single source of data and a consolidated record system enabling more timely and accurate updating of EDTI’s mapping and drawing records for all areas within EDTI. The solution will provide the initial foundation for the SmartGrid program initiatives. Work packages are issued more timely and in a consistent standard across the BU. Users have greater visibility on existing and proposed projects. The as-built recording timelines are greatly reduced. Provide accounting functions for asset retirement tracking. Business users are able to use the new solution to create and update engineering designs. The new solution is more efficient than the current technology and manual processes.

Customer & Land Services and Engineering Services: Automate capital project design, project estimation and material requirements. Automated issuance and approval of work orders. Automate the Job Hazard Assessment (JHA) design drawing document process.

System Planning Integration of GIS and SynerGEE to create models showing current flows populated by system data. Provide planners an opportunity to analyze and optimize system flows to reduce line losses, optimize equipment loading and prevent damage from overloading.

Field Operations including underground and aerial Provide the ability to query for asset attributes Identify facility locations Gathering utility information on rights of way, circuits, lines and owners. Provide ability to “red-line” in the field. Provide electrical circuit tracing capabilities in a mobile tool. Automate the update of circuit prints. Provide precursor for an Outage Management System which will identify outage locations and automatically helps develop system restoration plans.

Asset Management including Inspection Increased effectiveness of planning EDTI’s capital improvement. Ability to perform life cycle maintenance, monitoring and repair of assets on an operational basis. Provide improved inspection processes. Provide visibility of maintenance and repair work requirements.

Approach The project has been structured in two phases: The first phase encompasses detailed requirements analysis and detailed plans for implementation, data preparation and data conversion. The vendors were required to provide a firm fixed price bid for the first phase of the project along with an estimate for the second phase. At the end of phase one, the vendor was expected to confirm a fixed price for the second phase. EPCOR reserved the right to go to market for the second phase. The second phase covered the full scope of the project implementation.

Expected Future State The project goal was to establish a connected GIS consisting of a connected electrical model, an integrated suite of GIS and engineering tools and an industry standard data model with a comprehensive asset schema. In particular, immediately following deployment of the connected GIS, EDTI expects to select and deploy an Outage Management System (OMS) and Distribution Management System (DMS). In addition, EDTI is currently planning the deployment of other Smart Grid initiatives such as Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI). These projects require a foundation of a connected GIS.

RFP Process With IT and business input, a comprehensive RFP document was created by the EPCOR Supply Chain Management department. The document contained detailed sections for the following areas: EPCOR’S TERMS & CONDITIONS Current State As-Is Context Current System Overview Current GIS Deficiencies Data Preparation and Data Conversion Requirements Expected Future State at Project Completion High Level Business Requirements Functional Requirements Non-Functional Requirements Vendor and Operational Support Questionnaire

RFP Process Response Template – Requirements Software Product Description Template Future Requirements Evaluation GIS Database Questionnaire Response Template – Pricing (CDN$) EPCOR Technology Architecture Standards Response Template – Hardware Costing (CDN$) EPCOR Password Standards EPCOR Security Event Standards

RFP Process This RFP document was forwarded to 6 potential GIS vendors. A response template with detailed instructions and expectations was provided to the candidates. Some of the vendors had questions and to provide a consistent approach all questions and answers were handled by the same person in the EPCOR supply chain department. The EPCOR IT department reviewed all the RFP responses and recommended to the EDTI company to invite 3 vendors for on-site demonstrations. The other 3 vendors were notified by Supply Chain that they were not successful.

RFP Schedule Step Date Comments/Details RFP Issued February 5, 2009 1. RFP Issued February 5, 2009 The RFP has been posted and made available to interested vendors. 2. Deadline to Submit Questions February 24, 2009 Submit questions to EPCOR. All vendors will receive a response within 48 hours from receipt. 3. RFP Closing Date February 27, 2009 at 16:00 Vendor proposals must be received on or before this date/time. 4. Vendor Shortlist prepared March 13, 2009 Vendors selected for the shortlist will be contacted and advised of the specific time for their on-site presentation. 5. On-site Vendor Presentation March 23-27, 2009 The vendor project manager and key members of the vendor project team will attend and conduct a presentation of the proposal. 6. Contract Negotiation and Award March 30-Apr 3 EPCOR will notify the preferred vendor of its intent to initiate contract negotiations. 7. Project Start March 30, 2009 Vendor resources are on-site and commence work.

On-site demonstration All three vendors were provided with the full EPCOR EDTI dataset on a memory stick upon signing a non-disclosure agreement. The vendor was limited to the number of people they could bring to the onsite demonstration and at least 5 people involved with the project had to attend. EPCOR provided the vendor with a Power Point template. The on-site demonstration consisted of a one day demonstration for the business unit users using the vendor’s software and EPCOR’s data and a half day meeting with the EPCOR project team.

On-site demonstration Four circuits were identified for the vendor to prepare and use with their proposed software solution. A demonstration script was provided to the vendor weeks prior to the demonstration. This detailed script created a level playing field and made it easier for the business users to rank the vendors. To prevent the creation of a canned demonstration the vendors were advised that minor changes would be made to the script on the day of the demo. The successful vendor was selected based on the ranking by the business users. LINK TO SCRIPT

EPCOR Lessons learned Limit the amount of advertising vendors can include in the RFP response. Have an in-person meeting with all vendors prior to the on-site demonstration. Allow more time for vendors to prepare their on-site demonstrations. Some took short cuts. Provide EPCOR server and client hardware for the on-site demonstration and have EPCOR personnel watch the installation of the software.

Suggestions for vendors Use utility industry expert for demonstrators. The EPCOR business users were asking field type questions. Stick to the demo script if one is provided. State you limitation prior to demonstration. Bring more experts and less sales people. Avoid making negative comments about your competitors. Don’t ask the client about the competition. Have somebody proof read your RFP response. In one of the responses the answers to the questions were one row lower. (cut & paste errors) Don’t bad mouth a particular customer’s technical requirement.

Conclusion Creating a structured RFP process was the fairest and the most efficient way to select the GIS vendor for the new GIS for EPCOR EDTI.

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