INVITATION TO QUALIFY

RESPONSE TO

IOWA DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL SERVICES

INVITATION TO QUALIFY# BD80200S102, Version 1.0 ISSUED June 8, 2001

FOR

Information Technology Consulting Services

and IT Staff Augmentations

Five Year Multiple Award Contract

STRA TEG IC C O NSULTI NG , I NC .

CAPSTONE™

PO Box 1426Ames, IA 50014-1426Phone 515.663.2774 Fax [email protected]

August 27, 2001

Dear Ms. Ashley Super:

I am pleased to submit Capstone’s response to the ITQ issued by the Department of General Services in cooperation with the State’s Information Technology Department.

Enclosed in this package you will find the original response, two copies of the response, a diskette containing an electronic version of the response, an updated vendor application, and an updated Federal Form W-9.

Capstone Strategic Consulting has been awarded a certification with the Department of Inspection and Appeals as a Targeted Small Business for the State of Iowa. Although our status as a TSB allows us to seek conditional acceptance for non-critical projects, we are submitting this response with the intent of receiving full-qualified status under the ITQ program. Client reference forms have been sent to selected clients and should be received in your office soon.

If you have any questions or if additional clarification is needed for the enclosed response to the ITQ, you may contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Sincerely,

Lisa BonnichsenVice PresidentCapstone Strategic Consulting, Inc.

mailto:[email protected]

Table of Contents

Scope of Desired Work.....................................................................................................................1

List of Clients/Survey Recipients......................................................................................................4

Non-Collusion Statement..................................................................................................................5

Mandatory Agreement Questionnaire...............................................................................................6

Lobbying Certification......................................................................................................................7

Statement of Tax Liability Status......................................................................................................7

Professional/Technical Personnel Questionnaire..............................................................................8

Cost Data Sheet...............................................................................................................................11

Signature Page 1..............................................................................................................................12

Signature Page 2..............................................................................................................................13

Copy of ITQ for IT Consultation Services, BD80200S102, Version 1.0.......................................14

Vendor Application.........................................................................................................................14

Federal Form W-9...........................................................................................................................14

August 27, 2001 Prepared by Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc. Page i

Scope of Desired Work

Project Development CategoryCapstone Strategic Consulting, Inc. submits this application to the ITQ evaluation committee with the intent of becoming pre-qualified as an Information Technology Service Provider for the State of Iowa. The service category of interest for this application is category 1 under Project Development: Strategy/Vision/Consulting. Within that category Capstone offers many services of value to the State.

Business Consultants/AnalystsBusiness Process ReengineeringCapstone offers extensive experience in recommending and implementing process improvements for varied functional areas in numerous industries. Our analysts work side by side with employees to gain a thorough understanding of existing processes and regulations. At the same time, they ask about and observe challenges and shortcomings in the existing process and look for opportunities for greater efficiencies.

Our experience includes reengineering projects in e-commerce, licensing, mass mailings, manufacturing, accounting, and inventory control. Capstone professionals utilize advanced change management methods to maximize the effectiveness of the implementation and adoption of the new processes.

Preparation of Requirements StatementsCapstone will create professional documents that accurately convey the scope of development needs for your organization. This can take the form of RFPs to be distributed to potential vendors to facilitate the bidding process. Our RFPs contain an appropriate amount of detail to ensure that the responders have enough clarification to provide a meaningful and appropriate cost estimate.

Capstone also creates detailed use cases to be used in the development process for clarification of scope, functional needs, and applicable business rules. Use cases are valuable communication pieces that confirm the needs of the organization, provide a definition of those needs to the development staff, facilitate the creation of test plans for ensuring a high level of quality, and establish the basis for training materials and user documentation.

Agency RepresentationUndergoing a system development project can be an overwhelming burden on an agency. The investment of time necessary to communicate current processes and desired improvements is considerable but that’s just the start. The agency also needs to be involved in on-going status meetings, issue resolution, user testing and staff training. That time investment is substantial and creates an additional drain on people who may already be stretched thin with their everyday responsibilities.

Capstone is available to serve as a liaison for issue escalation and resolution during the development cycle, for coordinating and leading user testing efforts, and for user training prior to system implementation. Utilizing a third party independent of the development team guarantees that the agency’s needs and

August 27, 2001 Prepared by Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc. Page 1

desires are fully represented. Capstone will keep the agency updated every step of the way while minimizing the use of the agency’s time.

Usability EvaluationsOften applications are developed within tight timeframes that require the design and development teams to focus heavily on meeting functional requirements without giving proper time and attention to the usability of the system for the intended audiences. Capstone offers usability evaluations for integrated systems to create recommendations for improving the ease of use for each user group. These evaluations can be done for existing systems, system prototypes and newly implemented systems. This service would apply to both internal systems as well as web-enabled systems that are used by the general public.

Marketing Strategy Development and ExecutionCapstone offers wide-ranging expertise in developing innovative marketing strategies that deliver measurable results for our clients. We utilize leading edge marketing personalization techniques along with proven customer relationship management strategies to maximize the return on investment that our clients make in their marketing initiatives.

In addition to strategy development, Capstone also offers a full suite of design and production capabilities to seamlessly execute the marketing plan. Whether the plan calls for creating a comprehensive customer care process or catchy, effective customer acquisition and retention programs, Capstone will deliver superior marketing support services.

Subject Matter ExpertsMarket ResearchCapstone professionals stand ready to help you conduct customer needs analysis, execute customer surveys, scope and determine market size, conduct a pricing analysis, establish a competitive differentiation, and keep track of customer trends. When you need in-depth research and analysis, Capstone is ready to deliver.

Address StandardizationAddress Standardization is the process of updating addresses to comply with USPS standards. As shown in the following example:

Existing Non-Standardized Address: Standardized Address:Mary Smith Mary Smith123 East Maple 123 E Maple AveWest Des Moines, Iowa 50265 West Des Moines, IA 50265-1234

Address Standardization will allow for more efficient mailing and improves the rate of deliverability. In addition, this processing is critical in order to allow the following data processing steps to operate at maximum efficiency.

NCOA ProcessingNCOA Processing involves matching the client file to the USPS National Change of Address File. This file contains all change of addresses submitted to the USPS as recently as the past month. Again, this processing enhances the efficiency with


which the mail is delivered and minimizes the volume of undeliverable mail. With NCOA Processing complete, mass mailings to this audience may qualify for lower postage rates as well.

Purge Duplicate Records This processing step involves matching duplicate records within the client file with the goal of returning a file containing only unique records. Matching criteria are based upon a matching logic that utilizes elements of each record’s name and address. The final file includes unique records as determined by the matching logic. Completing this processing step will save in distribution costs to this audience by reducing the number of duplicate communication pieces reaching one customer.

Identification of Deceased PersonsDeceased File processing includes matching the client file to a National Deceased Suppression File using proven, tested matching logic. Records that are matched to the file are flagged as such or are removed from the output file leaving the client with an up-to-date file. This processing step will save unnecessary costs of communication to these former customers and will eliminate the cost of maintenance of these records.

TSB Status

Capstone Strategic Consulting holds a current certification as a Targeted Small Business with the State of Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals. A copy of the current certification is available if needed.

List of Clients/Survey Recipients

The following companies and organizations have been asked to submit a completed Reference Survey Form:

Ella Mae BairdIowa Board of NursingRiver Point Business Park400 SW 8th Street, Suite BDes Moines, IA 50309-4685

Mark LukeHy-Vee, Inc. 13400 West 87th ParkwayLenexa, KS 66215

Rick TerrillPixels on Parade616 Billy Sunday Road, Ste. 102 Ames, IA 50010


Non-Collusion Statement

I, the undersigned, am the person responsible for the preparation of this response and the cost data it contains as submitted to the STATE in response to this ITQ and certify that:

Cost data has been arrived at independently and without consultation with any other party.

No information regarding this response content has been disclosed to any other party that may be or may potentially be responding to the ITQ with a response.

No attempt has been made to induce or to refrain any other party in responding to this ITQ or to influence the content of their response.

This response and subsequent proposal(s) submitted by my firm to RFPs referring to this ITQ is made/will be made in good faith and not pursuant to any discussions/agreement with any other party.

My firm and its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors and employees are not currently under investigation and have not been convicted for any act prohibited by federal law involving conspiracy or collusion with respect to bidding on public ITQ and related Pos, except as follows:

No exceptions.

I understand that any misstatement in this affidavit is and shall be treated as fraudulent concealment from the STATE of the true facts relating to the response submission for this ITQ.

Signature: ________________________ Date: _______________Name: Lisa Bonnichsen Position: Vice President

Representing: Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this day ___________________ of 20_____.

Notary Public _________________________ My commission expires: _____________


Mandatory Agreement Questionnaire

1. Do you agree that the contents of your proposal(s) will become part of any resulting ITQ and related Pos and cannot be held confidential? YES ____ NO ____

2. Do you agree to submit one original of your proposal, together with two (2) copies and an electronic soft copy on diskette? YES ____ NO ____

3. Will you include at least three (3) client references and agree you must attain acceptable scores from references for each service category you are attempting to qualify for? YES ____ NO ____

4. Do you agree that you must maintain an acceptable rating by each agency you do work for in order to remain pre-qualified for each service category? YES ____ NO ____

5. Do you agree to abide by agency specific requirements as outlined in section 1-25? YES ____ NO ____

6. Do you agree that your response will remain valid for at least 120 business days and duration of ITQ and related Pos? YES ____ NO ____

7. Are you a TSB or do you currently have or have had a contracting role in three (3) projects for each of the categories you are attempting to qualify for? YES ____ NO ____

8. Do you agree that if the STATE finds any part of your response to be false, you will be placed on temporary suspension from doing business with the STATE? YES ____ NO ____

9. Do you accept the requirements stated in sections 1-19 and 1-21? YES ____ NO ____

10.Will you provide all documents of proof of insurance as required by this ITQ and any related Pos? YES ____ NO ____

11.Are you aware that the STATE will conduct any and all background checks it deems necessary? YES ____ NO ____

Completed by: Lisa Bonnichsen


Lobbying Certification

FOR ITQ AND RELATED POSS, GRANTS, LOANS, AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS

The undersigned certifies, to the best of her or his knowledge and belief, that

No federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of the undersigned, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress in connection with the awarding of any federal contract or agreement, or the making of any federal grant, loan, or co-operative agreement.

If any funds other than federal appropriated funds have been paid to any person for influencing or attempting to influence the making of federal contracts or federal grants, loans, co-operative agreements, the undersigned will submit full disclosure of lobbying activities showing all details and supporting documents.

The undersigned will require any or all subcontractors to submit a separate lobbying certification and disclosure accordingly.

Signature: ____________________________ Title: Vice President

Company: Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc. Date: ____________________

Statement of Tax Liability Status

The undersigned certifies, to the best of her or his knowledge and belief, that the firm is not currently delinquent in the payment of taxes or other obligations to State government, nor under suspension or otherwise debarred from doing business with the State of Iowa, any other State, or federal government.

Signature: ____________________________ Title: Vice President

Company: Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc. Date: ____________________


Professional/Technical Personnel Questionnaire

1. How do you intend to provide the resources required by this ITQ?

Capstone employs professionals with proven business success sustained over several years. Our consultants are available to work on-site at our clients’ offices or can utilize Capstone offices and produce the desired deliverables off-site. Either way, you’ll get the results you want. On time. Within budget. With measurable effectiveness.

In addition to utilizing our full-time employees, the Capstone Success NetworkSM provides top-notch expertise in a variety of areas to supplement Capstone’s core competencies. By keeping our payroll to a minimum and leveraging experts from outside our company, Capstone can deliver excellent results without charging excessive fees.

2. Identify the SP contract administrator and describe the functions that person will perform.

The contract administrator for Capstone will be Lisa Bonnichsen. In that capacity, Ms. Bonnichsen will be the primary contact for any and all questions or issues related to this contract including but not limited to bid dissemination, RFP submission, determination of contract terms, and account management activities.

3. Describe how you plan on providing additional personnel, if it becomes necessary, to properly staff projects.

Capstone’s Success NetworkSM provides top-notch expertise in a variety of areas to supplement Capstone’s core competencies. These experts are called upon on an as-need basis to provide services at which they excel. By doing this Capstone avoids the often-used practice of keeping consultants on a project even days when they aren’t needed just to avoid bench time. This approach to servicing our clients allows us to deliver high quality, timely and cost-effective results.

4. Describe your company’s ability to uniquely address problems and issues related to the service category.

Capstone professionals offer an impressive breadth of experience across several functional areas and in varied industries. Along with this breadth of experience, Capstone also possesses depth of expertise in several areas such as system development methodology, business process reengineering, client services, and customer relationship management.

Each project we undertake includes up-front determination of measurements for success between Capstone and our clients. We do this to make certain that we understand what is most important to our client and to establish criteria that can be used for making decisions as the project progresses. This approach eliminates the potential for miscommunication of expectations and improves client satisfaction dramatically.

5. Describe your company’s practices in adopting client policies and methods.

Capstone adheres to four guiding principles that keep us focused on delivering excellence to our clients. These guiding principles are


partnership, enrichment, entrepreneurship and commitment. We truly believe that the client’s success is our success. Rather than offering “cookie cutter” solutions, Capstone teams with each client adapting to your unique needs and expectations. All that we do is done in the spirit of complying with our clients’ standards and policies.

In addition to our guiding principles, Capstone’s culture is driven by four dominant characteristics that define who we are. Experience, expertise, teamwork and excellence remain at the forefront of everything we do. By striving to exemplify these characteristics at all times, Capstone professionals are committed to partnering with our clients to surpass their expectations on each and every project.

6. List each type/brand of operating system/communication system you are experienced with in each category below and make comments.

The services we offer are not tailored to any specific platform although we do have design and development experience in mainframe, client server and desktop solutions.

7. Describe your products/experience with Databases.

The services we offer do not include database administration or any products used by developers and DBAs. We do, however, work closely with the data modelers and DBAs to ensure that the proposed database solution will meet the functional requirements of the system being developed.

8. What general software applications have you experience in?

Capstone’s experience includes work in manufacturing, accounting, inventory control, licensing, insurance, financial services, Internet-based commodity exchanges, customer relationship management, help desk management, statistical analysis, contact management, address standardization, merge/purge software, and general data manipulation.

9. Please describe any experience and deployed solutions in each of the following specific technologies below.

Help desk solutions – Capstone has worked with organizations to develop customer centric frontline support that surrounds the customer to achieve superior levels of service and satisfaction.

Data analysis – Capstone is frequently involved in analyzing data from existing activities to find trends and make insightful recommendations on what future actions should be taken to reach the desired objectives.

Facilitating and consulting – Capstone’s approach to most client projects is to meet with the organization’s leaders to understand the current operating environment, competitive advantages, specific challenges, and short term and long term goals. From there Capstone formulates an overall strategy along with specific plans to help bring that strategy to life. Often Capstone is called upon for execution of the plan to help achieve the organizational goals.


Data collection and clean up mapping – Capstone’s data collection projects involve compiling data gathered through market research and other types of marketing or customer relationship activities. We can house the data in a database created by Capstone and stored within our facilities or we can transfer the data to the clients warehouse. Clean up mapping and data conversions are often part of this process.

Electronic commerce – Capstone has experience in working with Internet-based commodity exchanges which involved partnering with clearinghouse vendors for financial management of the exchange and for electronic exchange of the documents needed to complete the trades. In addition, Capstone has been heavily involved in the enterprise licensing system for the State.

Graphic/ web design – Capstone offers design, development and deployment of web sites as well as usability studies for existing sites and applications.


Cost Data Sheet

COST DATA SHEET for ITQ Number BD80200S102 Version 1.0

FOR SERVICE CATEGORY: 1 – Strategy/Vision/Consulting

COMPANY NAME: Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc. DATE: 8/10/2001

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE OFFERINGRATE PER HOUR NOT TO EXCEED

Business Process Reengineering $95 per hour

Preparation of RFPs $95 per hour

Preparation of detailed requirements, use cases and other technical documents

$95 per hour

Business analysis and methodology review and recommendations

$95 per hour

Agency representative serving as liaison between agency and development team

$95 per hour

System usability analysis $95 per hour

Creation of customer relationship management strategy and/or overall marketing strategy

$95 per hour

Market research $95 per hour

Address cleansing and standardization including NCOA processing, LACS processing and USPS standardization. Minimum charges apply.

$4 per thousand records

Purge duplicate records from file. Minimum charges apply. $4 per thousand records

Identification of deceased persons (charge applies only to the number of records identified as deceased). Minimum charges apply.

$95 per thousand records

Other strategy, vision and consulting activities not mentioned above

$95 per hour


Signature Page 1

I/we as undersigned agree to the terms and conditions of the aforementioned ITQ #BD80200S102 and if our response is accepted, to furnish any and all services upon which cost data has been submitted. Any material misstatement in our response shall be treated as fraudulent concealment from the STATE of the facts relating to this ITQ.

Name of Entity/Person Submitting Proposal: Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc.

Mailing address: PO Box 1426 Ames, IA 50014-1426

Phone: 515-633-2774 Fax: 515-956-3505 Email: [email protected]

Corporate ID#: 42-1511049 State: Iowa

Signature: _____________________________ Date: ___________________

Name and Title: Lisa Bonnichsen, Vice President

I/we consent to service of process by certified or registered mail addressed to our designated legal agent as required by Part 2-13-I of the Terms and Conditions of the ITQ. I/we appoint Lisa Bonnichsen at 3829 Highway 69 Ames, IA 50010 as our agent to receive service of process.

WITNESS SIGNATURE & TITLE: _________________________ Date: __________

The STATE of Iowa, acting through the undersigned officer(s), hereby accepts the foregoing response to the ITQ and pre-approves the SP named for agency requests for proposals using this agreement. This acceptance and the SP’s response for the above referenced ITQ and related Pos, including the terms and conditions of the ITQ constitute a binding contract between the STATE and the SP.

CT ___________ Vendor ID# ________________ CONDITIONAL TSB

Evaluation Committee Chairperson ___________________________ Date: __________

DGS Purchasing Div. Administrator___________________________ Date: __________

Purchasing Agent / Issuing Officer __________________________ Date: __________



Signature Page 2

I/we as undersigned agree to the terms and conditions of the aforementioned ITQ #BD80200S102 and if our response is accepted, to furnish any and all services upon which cost data has been submitted. Any material misstatement in our response shall be treated as fraudulent concealment from the STATE of the facts relating to this ITQ.

Name of Entity/Person Submitting Proposal: Capstone Strategic Consulting, Inc.

Mailing address: PO Box 1426 Ames, IA 50014-1426

Phone: 515-633-2774 Fax: 515-956-3505 Email: [email protected]

Corporate ID#: 42-1511049 State: Iowa

Signature: _____________________________ Date: ___________________

Name and Title: Lisa Bonnichsen, Vice President

I/we consent to service of process by certified or registered mail addressed to our designated legal agent as required by Part 2-13-I of the Terms and Conditions of the ITQ. I/we appoint Lisa Bonnichsen at 3829 Highway 69 Ames, IA 50010 as our agent to receive service of process.

WITNESS SIGNATURE & TITLE: _________________________ Date: __________

The STATE of Iowa, acting through the undersigned officer(s), hereby accepts the foregoing response to the ITQ and pre-approves the SP named for agency requests for proposals using this agreement. This acceptance and the SP’s response for the above referenced ITQ and related Pos, including the terms and conditions of the ITQ constitute a binding contract between the STATE and the SP.

CT ___________ Vendor ID# ________________ CONDITIONAL TSB

Evaluation Committee Chairperson ___________________________ Date: __________

DGS Purchasing Div. Administrator___________________________ Date: __________

Purchasing Agent / Issuing Officer __________________________ Date: __________



Copy of ITQ for IT Consultation Services, BD80200S102, Version 1.0A full copy of the ITQ received from the Department of General Services follows.

Vendor Application An updated vendor application is included in this package as an enclosure.

Federal Form W-9An updated W-9 form is included in this package as an enclosure.
