<p> LAMAR UNIVERSITY</p><p>REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)</p><p>RFI Number –0734RESLIFE2008001</p><p>Housing Software System for Cardinal Village at Lamar University</p><p>ISSUED DATE:</p><p>February 22, 2008</p><p>RESPONSE DUE DATE: 2:00 P.M. March 7, 2008</p><p>SHOW RFI NUMBER, OPENING DATE AND TIME ON RETURN ENVELOPE</p><p>NOTE: RESPONSE must be date and time stamped in the LU Purchasing Department before the hour and date specified for receipt of response.</p><p>LATE RESPONSES WILL BE REJECTED</p><p>Contact:</p><p>David Stanley Purchasing Agent [email protected] (409) 880-8379 (office) (409) 880-8247 (fax)</p><p>Or</p><p>Jack Tenner Director of Purchasing [email protected] (409) 880-1783 (409) 880-8247 (fax) RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS</p><p>1.0 GENERAL INFORMATION</p><p>Cardinal Village at Lamar University, hereafter referred to as the Department of Residence Life, invites vendors to submit information for hardware and related software as needed to partner with LU for our Sungard Banner ERP and Luminis Portal standardization efforts. Full implementation of Banner Student is expected to be completed in 2009.</p><p>1.1 PURPOSES AND SCOPE</p><p>This Request for Information (RFI) seeks responses from vendors to provide specific hardware, software, maintenance support, training, installation, and configuration services based upon Lamar University’s general specifications provided in Appendix A. </p><p>The purpose of this RFI is to secure a partnership with a Housing Software System that has a partnership with Sungard Banner. The Sungard Banner ERP product suite provides significant functional and technological advancements over the present system for campus administration functions to better serve Lamar University, Lamar Institute of Technology, and Lamar State College Orange faculty, students, and staff. The Banner solution also provides for the campuses a base for continued improvement as technology and the market place advance. The Housing Software System should be considered in the overall design of the product to allow for:</p><p> Ease of students and staff regarding all procedures conducted within the Department of Residence Life.  Service level improvements  Touch-net payments  Centralized database for retrieval and entry of resident information.</p><p>1.2 TIMETABLE</p><p>Event Completion Date</p><p>RFI to prospective responders 02/22/2008</p><p>Responder’s response due 03/07/2008 (scheduled presentation by 2:00 PM vendors) 1.3 AGENCY REQUIREMENTS</p><p>Lamar University Purchasing Department issues this RFI, which is the sole point of contact for communication.</p><p>1.4 CLARIFICATION AND/OR REVISIONS TO THE SPECIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS </p><p>Responders are expected to raise any questions, exceptions, or additions they have concerning the RFI at this point in the process. If a responder discovers any significant ambiguity, error, conflict, discrepancy, omission or other deficiency in this RFI, the responder should immediately notify in writing the above named individual of such error and request modification or clarification of the RFI.</p><p>1.5 HUB Requirements</p><p>HUB requirements: In accordance with the State of Texas policy of encouraging the use of Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs) in state procurement, Lamar University shall make a good faith effort to utilize HUBs in contracts for commodities and services. Lamar University will achieve the annual program goals by contracting directly with HUBs or indirectly through sub-contracting opportunities. Therefore, any business that contracts with Lamar University shall be required to make a good faith effort to award sub-contracts to HUBs. </p><p>In order to meet the current Banner implementation needs of LU, the response presented is to consist of providing hardware, software, maintenance support, installation and configuration services as defined in RFI.</p><p>1.6 PROPOSER SHALL PROVIDE:</p><p>A 5 year plan for hardware, software, and maintenance support, training and installation.</p><p>Project implementation should conclude within 120 days from start date.</p><p>2.0 PREPARING AND SUBMITTING A RESPONSE</p><p>2.1 PROPRIETARY INFORMATION</p><p>As the University is a state agency, any proprietary restrictions on the data contained within a response submitted must be clearly noted. </p><p>RESPONSE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENT In order to be considered in the evaluation process and to ensure confidentially of this RFI, all responses must be submitted in hard copy, packaged, sealed and show the following information on the outside of the package: Responder’s Name, Title and Address, RFI# 0734RESLIFE2008001 due March 7, 2008 2:00 PM. The response must be delivered to: David Stanley Lamar University Plummer Admin. Bldg, Room 120 MLK Parkway @ Virginia Street Beaumont, TX 77705</p><p>Or</p><p>David Stanley Lamar University PO Box 10003 Beaumont, TX 77710</p><p>Responses must be received in the above office by the specified time stated above. Late responses will not be accepted. Responses not stamped by the stated time will not be accepted. </p><p>2.2 RESPONSE ORGANIZATION AND FORMAT</p><p>Responses should be typed and submitted on official vendor letterhead. The RFI sections, which should be submitted or responded to will contain the following sections: Cover page Introduction Response to General Requirements Vendor Responsibilities University Responsibilities Description of Equipment and Quantities Recurring Maintenance Timeline Vendor References Other Recommendations </p><p>3.0 RESPONSE COSTS </p><p>The University is not liable for any cost incurred by responders in replying to this RFI. Lamar University will not accept multiple responses.</p><p>3.1 WITHDRAWAL OF RESPONSES</p><p>Responders may withdraw a response in writing at any time. To accomplish this, the written request must be signed by an authorized representative of the responder and submitted to the Director of Residence Life. </p><p>4.0 PRELIMINARY EVALUATION The responses will be reviewed initially to determine if requirements are met. Failure to meet requirements may result in rejection of the response. In the event that all responders fail to meet one or more of the requirements, the University reserves the right to continue the evaluation of the responses and to select the response, which most closely meets the requirements, specified in this RFI.</p><p>4.1 The University reserves the right to accept or reject any part of any response, or to request modification or clarification of any part of a response, and to accept or reject any or all responses without penalty. </p><p>4.2 EVALUATION CRITERIA</p><p>The University will evaluate accepted responses. Evaluation and selection of a response will be based on the analysis of the product, marketing, general requirements, vendor certifications, technical support & services, support location and personnel, and good standing financially with the State of Texas. Appendix A – Request for Information General Requirements</p><p>1) The out-of-the-box software must be able to successfully manage housing assignments for undergraduate students, families and graduate students, guests and conference groups within the same system even though these assignments follow very different business processes. 2) System is easily expandable with new modules and technology to allow for internal growth, please indicate innovations with new technology that vendor has developed in recent years. 3) A high quality product available at a competitive cost in the industry 4) Flexible security user access levels definable to the field level with multiple groups of users that have varying access rights to the system. Ability to have customized fields that new field labels viewable in reporting. Ability to enter notes with user defined types for various categories that can be saved, edited or deleted. 5) Comprehensive audit trails of critical changes to records and transactions. 6) Automatic nightly and weekly back up feature. 7) System administrator utility that allows for maintaining of key system configuration. (What functions are allowed by the system administrator in the software? How are the different roles defined in the software for the following functions: performing software updates, setting up user security, defining reports, running reports, etc.) 8) Allow fast and easy customizable reports on system configuration such as rooms, profiles, accounts, rate codes and more. 9) Integration with SunGard Banner (version 7) and Luminis III.3.3. Will this program also interface with any other Banner product or auxiliary product we have installed? If so, we may want to mention this here with the version numbers. Did you mention getting pictures from the Photo ID system? 10) The system has a web directory program that can be accessed through any computer anywhere through a web browser anywhere for the administrators on the Housing System. 11) The system must also have a maintenance and student judiciary component. 12) Describe the security that is built into the product to assist us in protecting the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data? 13) Hardware, software and database specifications 14) Fee assessment and credit card payment within the application for pre-applicants who are not yet defined in Banner Student system. 15) Single sign-on capability thru the University Portal. 16) Synch with handheld devices (Which handheld devices, and how is the communication done</p>