Managed Web Service Solution—Application rationalization initiative

On this page

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Project requirement
• 3. Attestation of assurance
• 4. Methodology
• 5. Reference documents
• 6. Addendum to final report, May 26, 2015

1. Introduction

Samson & Associates was engaged as a Fairness Monitor (FM) to observe the procurement process for the Application Rationalization Initiative – Managed Web Service Solution undertaken by the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada (TBS) as a result of solicitation #G9292-200741/B. Samson & Associates is an independent third party with respect to this activity.

We reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities. We had full access to all aspects of the procurement process and co-operation from all stakeholders.

We hereby submit the Final Report, covering the activities of the FM commencing with the Industry Engagement phase and continuing through to the close of the Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation phase.

This report includes our attestation of assurance, a summary of the scope and objectives of our assignment, the methodologies applied and relevant observations from the activities undertaken.

2. Project requirement

In Budget 2013, the Government of Canada (GC) indicated that it is, “examining opportunities to streamline its web presence by making it easier for Canadians to find and access Government information on the web through a single entry point.” A solutions suite is required to deliver the GC consolidated public website; more specifically, the suite will enable the strategic management of the new GC website and related online services, which will allow for enhanced communication, consultation, and service delivery for Canadians.

For its external public-facing website, the GC currently manages web content using a distributed departmental content management and publishing model. Based on 2011 statistics, it is estimated that the current GC web environment consists of 1500 static websites, 700 social media accounts, 4 million webpages (excluding weather and data.gc.ca). Total Canadian and non-Canadian website visitors are estimated at 30 million and 3 billion page views per year.

The Web Renewal Initiative (WRI) is a key initiative aligned with the GC Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) modernization strategy focused on enabling government organizations to fulfil their mandates. Recognizing that more and more Canadians access information and services online, the goal of the WRI is to standardize, consolidate, and modernize the Government of Canada’s Web management solutions in order to:

• improve the effectiveness of online information and services provided
• improve the efficiency of the GC Web publishing process

The WRI has the following key objectives:

• Establish a unified web content publishing, management and delivery model where individual departments and agencies develop content locally that is published to the GC website using common processes and technologies
• Standardize and consolidate the GC web technology platform into one unified system to reduce the hardware, software and other resources required to support web publishing and measurement across the GC
• Simplify the business and technical processes for web publishing for the GC external-facing website
• Facilitate compliance with Treasury Board (TB) policies on Official Languages, Government Security, Privacy Protection, Information Management, Federal Identity Program as well as the TB standards on Privacy and Web Analytics, Social Media Account Management, Web Accessibility, Web Usability, Web Interoperability, Optimizing Websites and Applications for Mobile Devices, Metadata and Management of IT Security (MITS)
• Lower the total cost of ownership of the GC web presence

The WRI is also meant to respond to the growing number of departments and agencies in the GC that need to modernize their web management systems, but face significant challenges related to resource requirements. A single, common solutions suite and infrastructure for the entire GC public-facing website will enable departments and agencies to provide consistent quality, delivery, reliability and reporting of the collective web experience across the entire GC web domain, to improve information and service delivery to Canadians.

3. Attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the procurement process for the Application Rationalization Initiative – Managed Web Service Solution Initiative commencing with the Industry Engagement phase and continuing through to the close of the RFP evaluation phase.

It is our professional opinion that the activities we observed for the above initiative, was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

4. Methodology

Samson & Associates was engaged as a Fairness Monitor (FM) to observe the procurement process for the Application Rationalization Initiative – Managed Web Service Solution, and to attest to the fairness, openness and transparency of this monitored activity.

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents and observed select activities (for example, Industry engagement day, one-on-one sessions, Request for Information (RFI), draft RFP, RFP and Q&A), identifying fairness-related matters to the contracting and technical authorities, and ensuring that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate.

4.1 Fairness monitoring activities and findings for the industry engagement phase

An Industry Day session was held on July 31, 2013 followed by the publication of an RFI on August 12, 2013. The FM attended the industry day and reviewed the relevant documentation with respect to the RFI.

Following the initial industry day and RFI, a draft RFP was posted on buyandsell.gc.ca on June 30, 2014. The draft RFP was intended to solicit feedback from industry in support of the development of the RFP, and contained specific questions addressed to the industry. There were two amendments made to the draft RFP, the last one being July 11, 2014, which extended the closing date to July 22, 2014. Responses and comments were received and incorporated into the final RFP. TBS hired necessary expertise to help for the comment disposition process. The FM reviewed the comment disposition resulting from the draft RFP process and have not identified any fairness related issues.

Fairness monitor summary of findings

It is the opinion of the FM that the Industry Engagement phase of the contracting process was conducted in a fair manner. In this context, fairness is understood to encompass the elements of openness, competitiveness, transparency and compliance elements.

4.2 Fairness monitoring activities and findings up to the request for proposal phase

Following the industry engagement phase, a RFP was published on October 17, 2014 via buyandsell.gc.ca. Proponents were able to submit questions up to December 17, 2014 or 25 calendar days before bid closing. There were 17 amendments, the last one being December 23, 2014. The 14th amendment extended the closing date until January 12, 2015. There were 266 questions submitted during the process.

During the RFP phase, the FM reviewed the RFP and communications by TBS in response to industry questions to ensure fairness-related considerations were satisfactorily addressed.

Fairness monitor summary of findings

It is the opinion of the FM that the RFP phase of the contracting process was conducted in a fair manner. In this context, fairness is understood to encompass the elements of openness, competitiveness, transparency and compliance elements.

4.3 Fairness monitoring activities and findings for the request for proposal evaluation phase of the process

A detailed evaluation plan was developed and presented to evaluators at the time that proposals were distributed for evaluation. The bids were evaluated by a separate technical and security team. Once the security requirements were met, the technical team (five evaluators) conducted their evaluation and met on January 26, 27 and 29, to collectively arrive at consensus. All technical evaluators were present at the consensus meeting, as was the FM.

Of the three bids received, one proponent was deemed qualified following evaluation. As a result of the Financial Evaluation a successful proponent was identified on February 2, 2015.

As a part of the evaluation there was a requirement to conduct a Proof of Proposal to validate the content of the successful proposal selected. The Proof of Proposal validation was carried out on February 11 and 12, 2015 and was attended by the FM. A consensus meeting was held on February 12, 2015 to finalize the results of the Proof of Proposal and the successful proponent was selected.

The instructions and tools of the evaluators were complete, respected the terms of the RFP and were consistent with the principles and practices of fairness, and they were executed fairly. Evaluation criteria, weighting, points and passing notes complied fully with what had been established in the RFP. The evaluation was performed as described by the RFP and the scoring was performed in strict accordance with the criteria. Consensus discussions were open, all evaluators were present, and a consensus was reached for all the criteria.

Fairness monitor summary of findings

It is the opinion of the FM that the RFP Evaluation phase of the contracting process was conducted in a fair manner. In this context, fairness is understood to encompass the elements of openness, competitiveness, transparency and compliance.

5. Reference documents

The following documents are referenced by number in this report and unless otherwise indicated, are all available through PWGSC.

Industry engagement day documents by publication date

No.	Documents	Date
1	Industry Engagement Day Notice	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 22, 2013
2	Industry Engagement Day Notice – Amendment 1	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 31, 2013
3	Industry Engagement Day Notice – Amendment 2	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on August 6, 2013

Request for information documents by publication date

No.	Documents	Date
4	RFI	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on August 12, 2013
5	Industry Engagement Day – One-on-one Sessions	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca
6	Industry Engagement Day – Questions and answers	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca

Draft request for proposal documents by publication date

No.	Documents	Date
7	Draft RFP	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on June 30, 2014
8	RFI – amendment 1	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 10, 2014
9	RFI – Amendment 2	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 11, 2014

Request for proposal documents by publication date

No.	Documents	Date
10	RFP – Managed Web Service Solution	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on October 17, 2014
11	RFP – Amendment 1	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on October 24, 2014
12	RFP – Amendment 2	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on November 6, 2014
13	RFP – Amendment 3	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on November 13, 2014
14	RFP – Amendment 4	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on November 17, 2014
15	RFP – Amendment 5	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on November 24, 2014
16	RFP – Amendment 6	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on November 27, 2014
17	RFP – Amendment 7	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 1, 2014
18	RFP – Amendment 8	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 3, 2014
19	RFP – Amendment 9	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 3, 2014
20	RFP – Amendment 10	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 5, 2014
21	RFP – Amendment 11	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 8, 2014
22	RFP – Amendment 12	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 10, 2014
23	RFP – Amendment 13	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 15, 2014
24	RFP – Amendment 14	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 15, 2014
25	RFP – Amendment 15	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 17, 2014
26	RFP – Amendment 16	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 17, 2014
27	RFP – Amendment 17	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on December 23, 2014

6. Addendum to final report, May 26, 2015

Addendum to fairness monitor final report dated March 6, 2015 procurement process for the application rationalization initiative—Managed Web Service Solution

This addendum to the FM final report covers the period following the conclusion of the evaluation phase.

Fairness monitoring activities related to contract award and debriefings

There were three bids submitted in response to the Request for proposal. Only one proposal was deemed compliant.

The successful bidder was advised of contract award on March 3, 2015.

No debriefings were requested.

Fairness monitoring attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the procurement process for the Application Rationalization Initiative – Managed Web Service Solution.

It is our professional opinion that the competitive selection process we observed, was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.