hamer enterprises - buffalo, ny

Buffalo, New York

Hamer Enterprises

Vendor-Hosted Proposal

Expressly for the

RFP

for the

City of Buffalo

Enterprise Electronic Payment Processing System

Attention: Dr. Luis E. Tavarez Chief Information Officer

Hamer Enterprises RFP: Enterprise Electronic Payment Processing System

City of Buffalo Electronic Payment Processing System – Hamer Enterprises Response Page 1 of 74 10:53 AM 09/28/18

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TRANSMITTAL LETTER 3

PROPOSED PRODUCT AND VENDOR OVERVIEW 7

OVERVIEW OF COMPANY OFFERINGS 7 OVERVIEW OF PROPOSED PRODUCT OFFERING FOR THE CITY OF BUFFALO 7 OVERVIEW OF COMPLEMENTARY ECOMMERCE OFFERINGS 7 APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACE CONSIDERATIONS 9

Hamer Enterprises Interfacing Standards 9 OVERVIEW OF HAMER ENTERPRISES 11

PROCESS & SYSTEM / AUTOMATION REQUIREMENTS 13

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS 13

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) 25

SERVICE AVAILABILITY: 25 FEATURE RELEASE AND SERVICE UPDATE PROCESS: 26 SERVICE RESPONSE: 26

Severity Level Determination: 26 Support Issue Production Severity Levels - Response and Escalation: 26

IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY 28

AGREE ON EXPECTATIONS 29 TRAIN THE CBDMS PROJECT TEAM 30 TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS 31 FINAL ACCEPTANCE TESTING 32 GO LIVE! 33

PROJECT PLANNING 34

HIGH LEVEL PROJECT PLAN 35

EXECUTION OF CONVERSION METHODOLOGY TASKS 36

REFERENCES 38

HAMER ENTERPRISES’ CONSULTANT STAFF 39

WILLIAM C. HAMER 39 M. G. (MIKE) BRAUN JR. 41 TONY WORLEY 44 KEVIN WARKENTINE 45 JOHN BODDEN 47 REY BANDA 48

EXCEPTIONS / QUALIFICATIONS 50

FINANCIAL INFORMATION 50 REQUESTED DATA CONVERSION 50



ADDENDA 51

CONVENIENCE FEE SCHEDULE 52 MUTUAL NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT 53 SAMPLE HE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT 54 PCI-DSS CERTIFICATION 57 INSURANCE CERTIFICATE 60 NON-COLLUSION BIDDING CERTIFICATION 61 OFFERORS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION STATEMENT 62 APPLICATION FOR CONTRACT WITH THE CITY OF BUFFALO 63 TECHNOLOGY CONFIDENTIALITY AND NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT 66 RFP ADDENDUM I – SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 73 RFP ADDENDUM II – SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 74



TRANSMITTAL LETTER Letter of Transmittal September 28, 2018 City of Buffalo – Department of Management Information Systems Attention: Dr. Luis E. Taveras, Chief Information Officer 65 Niagara Square, Rm. 1201 (City Hall) Buffalo, NY 14202 Voice: 716-851-5450, Fax: 716-851-5472 Reference: RFP “Solution for Enterprise Electronic Payment Processing System”

Dear Dr. Taveras,

Hamer Enterprises (HE) is pleased to submit our all-inclusive vendor-hosted proposal for the City of Buffalo’s Department of Management Information Systems (CBDMS) prospective new comprehensive “Payment Portal” via the use of HE’s proven Application Services Provider (ASP) services solutions. This proposed hosted services solution is comprised of; the eCitizen™ comprehensive portal, in conjunction with our on-line cashiering sub-system; EZ-Cashier™. This highly comprehensive proposed vendor-hosted ASP solution is structurally designed to support all of the CBDMS functional needs [including the request that was in the 2nd Addendum for “electronic delivery of a citizen’s bill”] as well as a seamless implementation of the CBDMS request that the proposed service solution provide mature application program interface(s) with any existing third party CBDMS software. Moreover, it is important to note that the proposed Internet-based, vendor-hosted services suite solution can be installed and made operational (based upon an estimated 10/31/18 award date) well within a February / March 2019 time frame. However, as noted in the “Process & System/Automation Requirements” section of this RFP response, there will be some functions that will require some “M”odifications and/or nominal customization. Nevertheless, given the current knowledge of the CBDMS functional expectations we believe that these modifications should not delay our estimate for operational availability in the February / March timeframe of 2019 (please see the “High Level Project Plan” for this RFP response). In order to visualize this implementation, relative to a requested February / March 2019 operational date, we have provided a high-level Project time line, which also includes the aforementioned effort of M”odifications and customization is represented in the “High Level Project Plan” section of this RFP response. The only indeterminate variable would be in the various data conversions. Since we have not had an opportunity to evaluate the quality of the data, we can only presume that the various databases to be addressed are at a minimum, in nominally good condition. However, if there are significant variants discovered in the data conversion process, then those constructive conversions could conceivably affect a production “Go-Live” date. In order to help ameliorate that concern, we have provided some guidelines; based upon our many prior years of experience for a project of this magnitude, which would materially involve the CBMDS in the conversion process (please see the “Execution of Conversion Methodology Tasks” section of this RFP response for additional details). Finally, the entire installation [including all Implementation services] would be provided to the CBDMS at absolutely no cost to the City of Buffalo. The cost of this all-encompassing proposal would be deferred via the “Convenience Fees” that would be charged to the citizenry of Buffalo as they optionally, choose to avail themselves of the system (please see the “Convenience Fee Schedule” in the “ADDENDA” section of this RFP response for a table of fees).

Beyond the key statements noted above, there are a number of other key factors that should be considered by the CBDMS when considering the HE proposal.

1. First, HE has already completed a comparable installation [of the eCitizen™ portal] in the City



of Rochester and due to its successful implementation is now expanding the eCitizen portal to now take on additional tasks that had not been previously foreseen.

2. Second, HE has over 1100 portals throughout the United States that were designed specifically for various levels of governments; these portals vary in degree of required operational needs. These portals range from property tax portals where citizens can not only pay their taxes on line but can also; view detailed history of their property tax payment history, review key property attributes (including in New York – key RPS property data) or retrieve a live copy of a citizen’s tax bills. Additionally, as stated these HE portals can also grow to a system comparable to the City of Rochester, where citizens can transact their financial obligations with each department within the City. Additionally, HE portals can now even manage a wide array of government administered recreational facilities, these facilities can range from municipal / county park facilities to that of a government sponsored recreational vehicle (RV) park, via our all-encompassing; eReservation™ system.

3. Third, HE for an engagement of this nature should be considered a ‘value-added’ vendor because HE is not only the author various eCommerce portals for governments throughout the United States but is also the original author of many backend management systems for various governments throughout the United States. HE’s experiences in developing backend management system for government dates back over 42 years, and as such has developed a recognize level of subject matter expertise that will be crucial for an engagement of this magnitude (please see the “Overview Of Hamer Enterprises” section of this RFP response for a more in-depth profile of Hamer Enterprises). For instance, HE’s property tax management systems are not only utilized in various large jurisdictions of government in New York State (i.e., Monroe County, Onondaga County, Genesee County, and soon the City of Syracuse), but extend to some of the largest overall property tax management systems in the U.S. (i.e., Los Angeles County, the City and the County of San Francisco, San Diego County and Travis County, just to name a few). Additionally, HE has also authored some well-recognized criminal justice systems (i.e., adult criminal probation systems in such counties as Dallas County, Texas – recognized as one of the largest and most comprehensive adult criminal probation systems in the U.S.). Additional management systems include HE’s EZ-Vote, voter registration and election night reporting system which has now become the foundation of the voter registration system that was deployed by IBM and Hart InterCivic for the entire State of Texas. Because of these very comprehensive areas of application software development, HE has become a recognized subject matter expert in the development of online portals that must support these critical areas of government. Therefore, our portal solutions are designed with an in-depth understanding of what the outcomes should be for a portal that must support a department such as the City’s Assessment & Taxation Department.

4. Fourth, because all HE’s systems are a vendor hosted solution, as new enhancements evolve through our large array of clients throughout the United States, our systems are continually experiencing an ever-changing array of new enhanced functional features. As a result, because our solutions are vendor-hosted, our clients “wake up” each day to the latest and greatest version of that solution, and all of this is performed seamlessly without affecting service to our government clients {please see the “Service Level Agreement (SLA)” section of this RFP response for our proposed Service Level Agreement (SLA) for this engagement}.

5. Fifth, HE’s proposed core system (eCitizen™ portal) includes the following Value-Add subsystems; online-on-demand reports plus an Administrative Console and Settlement Web Pages equipped with Browser-based technologies that have been optimized for the latest AES - 256 bit encryption as well as a highly specialized cloud server configuration that has been custom designed with an integrated Hardware Security Module (HSM) which incorporates the FIPS 140-2 encryption standard (the FIPS 140-2 encryption technology standard is usually reserved for agencies of government that deal with National Security and is the most advanced standard of encryption available). As a result, the City of Buffalo can depend on incomparable online highly secured bi-directional transactional activity between CBDMS citizen-users and the



hosted system. Additionally, CBDMS cashiers can be selectively assigned various levels of authority by CBDMS management via the Administrative Console so that tasks may be limited, i.e., void of a transaction or process a transaction only, which can be affected via this Internet solution.

6. Sixth, all HE portals include all-inclusive on-going maintenance and support in addition to a Service Support team that that have a multitude of years of experience with quickly resolving any discrepancies that may be directly related to the portal – please see the “Service Section” section of this RFP response regarding the Support that is attendant with this proposed offering. (Note: all data ‘source’ issues that relate to any of the CBDMS legacy backend systems that are interfaced with the HE portal will be directed to the appropriate CBDMS department, i.e., property tax calculations that originate in the ‘Assessment & Taxation Department).

7. Seventh, all implementation will include a separate area for testing that the CBDMS will have continual access to. This ‘Test Library’ is securely constructed to only provide access via CBDMS designated personnel. This ‘Test’ area will also be the area that the CBDMS will use in the future if additional functionality is requested in the future (Note: no changes to the system are deployed to the ‘Production’ area until designated CBDMS authorized personnel have tested and approved of the changes – this protocol is also employed in the initial implementation phases of the Project that may require “M”odification to an existing component of the proposed solution – please see the “Implementation Methodology section of this RFP response for details of the Implementation Methodology that would be utilized for this engagement).

8. Eighth, this proposed offering includes a comprehensive array of training that is available both online (as maybe needed following full implementation) and onsite – please see the sub-section “Train The CBDMS Project Team” of this RFP response as it relates to the ‘Training’ that is incorporated with this proposed offering.

9. Ninth, since the proposed solution is a vendor-hosted solution, there will not be any server hardware that the CBDMS will need to attend to. Moreover, because this is an Internet based solution, the CBDMS will be able to utilize all existing City PC/display & printing devices. Moreover, because of the flexibility of the proposed solution design, the proposed offering will also be able to fully advantage the use of the City’s current high-speed network (which is a required infrastructural requirement for this engagement). The only hardware that will be introduced into this engagement will be the 6 additional Point of Sale (POS) devices, which will be offered from HE’s long-standing business partner; M&T Bank (which also happens to be the City’s main depository).

10. Tenth, this entire proposed vendor-hosted application software solution is being offered to the City Buffalo at no direct cost to the City as long as an agreement is in place. The cost of this offering will be entirely borne by the ‘Convenience Fee’ that HE will charge to any of the citizens of Buffalo that choose to afford themselves of the use of this comprehensive online portal (please see the “Convenience Fee Schedule” section [in the ADDENDA] of this RFP response for a depiction of the ‘Convenience Fee’ schedule that would be utilized for the use of this payment processing portal). Moreover, it is important to note that this no cost offering to the City also includes; the Annual Support for the proposed solution, the implementation services (including the ‘Training’) that are attendant with this request. Additionally, as also requested in the Request for Proposal (RFP) this service will also provide for ‘real-time’ Transaction Reports, a user managed Administration Console with an attendant Online Settlement Reporting subsystem module. As a result, the only item that the City of Buffalo will need to provide for this service will be their high-speed Internet communications between the City and the HE server farm.

Furthermore, it is very worthy of note that the proposed “Merchant Account Services” solution is a mature and recognized highly dependable system that would securely process the electronic payments provided by the citizens of the City of Buffalo for the identified City of Buffalo departments



identified in the above referenced RFP. This statement of recognized, highly secure services is borne out by the fact that this system has an uninterrupted PCI-DSS Level 1 certification that extends back to 2007 (please see the “PCI-DSS Certification” sub-section this this RFP “ADDENDA” response area for a copy of HE’s current PCI-DSS Level 1 certification).

As evidenced by our proposal response in the ensuing pages, we have attempted to provide responses to all requested information requirements contained within your RFP. Please understand that our response is being provided based on the following assumptions:

We have answered ‘Functional Requirements’ established in section 2.6 “Process & System/Automation Requirements” of the RFP to the best of our ability with the information we currently have regarding the CBDMS’s requirements.

It is our intention to include the response sections of the RFP as an attachment to the HE Standard Services Agreement (please see the “Sample HE Professional Services Agreement”, in the “ADDENDA” section of this RFP response) along with any additional information gained during the evaluation phase before contract approval and signing.

In the event clarification is required to any mutual agreement to the scope of the project or currently defined specifications, a formal Response Change Document is used to provide a clear disclosure, clarification and agreement.

It has been our national experience with our clients that the use of this process provides for a clear set of expectations for both HE and the client.

The enclosed response is subject to successful negotiation of a mutually acceptable Agreement. If HE should become the CBDMS’s preferred vendor for this prospective engagement, HE will review together our Standard Services Agreement and the CBDMS’s terms and conditions in order to adopt a mutually acceptable agreement. Submission of this response does not denote acceptance by HE of the CCPD’s terms and conditions.

We look forward to working with you on your project. If you have any questions, please contact me at 1:800:926-3466 at your earliest convenience.

Respectfully Submitted by:

M. G. (Mike) Braun Jr. Projects Director Hamer Enterprises MGB/ss



PROPOSED PRODUCT AND VENDOR OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW OF COMPANY OFFERINGS

OVERVIEW OF PROPOSED PRODUCT OFFERING FOR THE CITY OF BUFFALO eCitizen Portal (eCTZ):

The eCTZ solution will be the proposed core vendor-hosted solution for this City of Buffalo engagement. The eCTZ solution uses browser-based emerging technology and state of the art dashboards by which to bring the flexibility and convenience of Auto Pay and Automatic billing to an entity’s constituents. The eCTZ product provides an entity’s citizenry with the ability to create their own Billing & Payment Portal. The portal would contain all billing from any department within the entity and allow for a single point of entry for a citizen to retrieve and pay all such billings. The citizen has the ability to control the payment type and method for each individual bill or group of bills to be paid. As a result, citizens can now have the ease of making one-time payments, or sign up for an entity account (i.e., a tax office bill, water utility bill & etc.) that could be enrolled in Auto Pay, thereby making their own customized payment plans, or using recurring and scheduled payments as a means by which to eliminate the concern of missing a scheduled payment that might be necessary to satisfying a billed obligation. In addition, as an added benefit, citizens can also enroll in automated Text Messaging Alerts, or be notified via email for payment receipts, changes to their bill, or other billing notifications and reminders. Lastly, eCTZ provides the citizen with 5 years of billing and payment history, thus becoming the electronic filing cabinet for the entire citizenry of the City of Buffalo.

OVERVIEW OF COMPLEMENTARY eCOMMERCE OFFERINGS

The following will provide a high-level overview of other Hamer Enterprises eCommerce offerings that can serve as a complementary service to the proposed eCitizen portal:

eNetpay (eNPY):

This native browser-based solution is the foundation for a demonstratively proven transactional gateway that allows for the capture of customer (government entity/department) required data such as a Case #, customer ID, property tax account # or some other required data which would be used for the successful completion and verification of an e-commerce transaction. Additionally, this foundational gateway provides the means by which an office counter-based complement to the proposed eCitizen offering can be implemented via use of eCashier. Furthermore, eNPY has provisions for as many as 50 customer-defined unique fields for constituent input. This inbred flexibility permits the customer to capture all the necessary data to insure full compliance with any required information in order to securely satisfy a complete transaction. Finally, this data can then be delivered back to the client governmental entity on a transactional application program interface (API) or via a full file download, all of which can be provided in most any standard file format (such as .txt, .csv, .xls etc.

eNPY is an industry recognized HE product which allows for customization of various customer data driven elements; such as required transaction types, user types, locations, payment methods, receipts and browser headings/graphics to name a few. As a result, funding can be directed to any customer bank accounts based on department, location, and transaction type or payment method.

NACHA/eCheck (eCHK):

The Hamer Enterprises’ NACHA / eCheck service is a secure browser based electronic check payment processing method which is available to all HE clients for paying virtually any transaction type through the eCommerce Suite of Products (eCSP). Also, this service provides its own unique



API, which is natively designed and supported by HE in order to meet any customization required. Moreover, this service is not only very easy to use, but when used in concert with other HE eCommerce products (i.e., the proposed eCitizen solution) provides validation of the financial institution’s routing number, which thereby materially minimizes entry errors.

NACHA – HE has the ability to provide the advanced technology of NACHA file processing to further enhance the process of ACH bank settlements through the Federal Reserve via an Automated Clearing House. The NACHA file is such that it provides electronic files that are pushed or pulled via a securely hardened FTPS server. By using the NACHA file process, it allows the bank to process a single file with multiple batches within the single file. Each batch can represent a different department or different bank account to be funded. Most banks offer a “return” file as well. HE thru its automated processes loads the data from the “return” file for collections or re-processing of those specific returned items. As part of the NACHA process, HE has to create an entity specific file format and layout for importing into virtually any back-office Finance, General Ledger, Case Management, Billing and Account system for reconciliation.

eScofflaw (eSCF):

eSCF is a browser-based solution which empowers a county or city entity to engage in the collection of amounts due the county or City in excess of 90 days. Moreover, eSCF includes a public facing web site which allows for all past due amounts to be summarized and shown to the citizen. For example, if a citizen has past due amount from multiple JP courts, the past due amounts from each court will be summarized and illustrated, all at the same time. This comprehensive view allows for the efficient collection of all past due amounts to be paid at one time. In this instance, each individual case is associated to its specific court, which in turn will then be funded separately for the full amount, which was past due plus any additional fee allowed by law to be collected by the county. Additionally, other complementary agencies of county or city government (i.e., village or town) can participate in this collection process, such as the county or city clerk / district clerk, all of which can be tasked with the collection of past due court fines and fees. The data, which is collected as a result of the payment can then be updated within the backend system based on an API or as a full file download from eSCF. Detailed reporting is available to each jurisdictional court based on its own array of cases. A citizen, who comes into a county or city to transact new business, can be searched within the eSCF system prior to allowing any new transaction to take place such as a motor vehicle license renewal. As a result, if the eSCF system finds a past due amount, it will automatically print a formal letter addressed to the citizen explaining the reason for denial of service and the steps required for immediate removal from the eSCF system.

eReservation (eRES):

The eRES solution uses browser-based emerging technology to offer the ability to quickly and easily locate and book a reservation for an event, park, facility, or other limited-access resource that may require a park reservation. Additionally, the eRES solution supports the issuance of online vouchers, which displays the complete reservation. The voucher can be used by the citizen to present at any required entry point. The voucher along with the on-line reservation allows for greater flexibility for the park and the citizen. In the case of inclement weather or other unforeseen incidents, the eRES solution can send out electronic notifications to anyone with a reservation which may be affected and allow for a “rain check” to a future open reservation for the citizen. Moreover, the eRES solution offers the unparalleled ability for an entity to be in full control as to when entity specific resources can be 'open' for the issuance of reservations. Lastly, a complete backend administration system is also provided, which permits full management of manual bookings, cancellations, refunds, as well as adding restrictions or fees to existing reservations.

Ultimately, the eRES solution can provide a constituent-based portal for reservation for virtually any department or entity, allowing for the constituent a reservation to access the most popular sites provided by a city or county such as City Parks, Camping Sites, Parks & Rec Facilities, Parking sites and even Training Courses.



APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACE CONSIDERATIONS The most prominent consideration as it relates to a Hamer Enterprises’ (HE) Application Program Interface (API) are 2-fold in nature. First, the core API’s that would be utilized for the CBDMS engagement, are highly mature API’s, which date back in development to 2008. Consequently, these API’s have gone through significant iterative modifications and advancements as these API’s have been applied to various legacy financial and back-end systems. For example some of the systems that an HE API has been applied to are; Oracle (JD Edwards financial and ERP systems -these systems became the foundation for PeopleSoft system before they were acquired by Oracle). Other recognized interfaces have been with OneWorld, Microsoft SQL financial databases, as well as other industry recognized back-office primary systems such as Tyler’s Odyssey criminal justice system or ACT’s delinquent property tax collection systems, all of which are recognized instances of where an HE API has been utilized very effectively. In all of these instances, the result was enhanced staff utilization because these API’s effectively provided the programmatic means by which staff intervention in daily transactional activity was dramatically reduced or eliminated, thereby allowing these governmental offices to more effectively deploy their scarce human resources. Second, HE’s R.E.P. (Rapid, Economical and Predictably) implementation methodology (please see the “Implementation Methodology” section of this RFP response) provides the effective and efficient ‘road map’ by which an HE API can be customized and quickly deployed. It is important to note that the R.E.P. methodology is more than just a one-time implementation plan, it’s simply a corporate culture that we transplant to our clients. Ultimately, R.E.P. is a living process of guidelines that is ongoing, even after a solution “goes live”. When fully understood by the client, R.E.P. is a quality thought process that can translate into significant levels of improved productivity in other unrelated areas of a government.

HAMER ENTERPRISES INTERFACING STANDARDS

To fully appreciate HE’s interfacing capability; one must first understand the architectural construct of our Web based solution and how it is enabled for interfacing with not only third-party vendors but all necessary complimentary departmental systems (i.e., the City’s Financial System).

To begin with when building complex browser-based applications, different individuals or groups of developers often need to collaborate. On some projects, you can separate the layers of the system and assign different individuals to develop each layer. For example, programmer A builds the user interface, programmer B and C build the business logic layer, and programmer D is responsible for the database. In the real world however, work is more often split along functional lines where a single developer is responsible for the user interface, business logic, and the database layer of a specific application module. Under these conditions, different programmers cooperate to develop components in each layer concurrently. Their components are then integrated during the build process. This cooperative approach is well suited to the business logic layer. However, the same is not true of elements in the User Interface and Data layers. While one can develop using component technology and techniques in both of these layers, there have in the past, been no pre-existing frameworks that allow the independently developed pieces to be easily integrated into a seamless application. To this end, HE has adapted the J2EE solution standard for the resolution of this problem in the User Interface layer.

When the application development tasks are cut along functional lines, developers are independently building dialogs for the same application. The problem lies in the integration of these screens and dialogs to produce a final consistent application. To this end, HE has adopted an industry standard basic user interface framework that uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.



The Model-View-Controller Pattern

The Model-View-Controller pattern was created out of a need to cleanly separate the display logic, business logic, and data in an application and to properly coordinate their interactions. Take for example a tax apportionment module where the same information can be displayed in two separate documents, one as numeric values and one as a chart. If the data changes, both documents must be automatically updated to reflect the changes.

The MVC pattern has three classes:

The Model represents the underlying data for the application. It can be a series of business objects, or even the database itself.

The View represents the user interface element. It can be a form, a control, or a web page.

The Controller coordinates interaction between the View and the Model. It can validate user-entered data and raise exceptions where necessary. It passes data changes to the Model.

The Model, the View, and the Controller interact with each other using direct method calls and by raising events. The sequence generally follows the following sequence

1. The user inputs data into a View

2. The View notifies the Controller of a change by using the HandleEvent function

3. The Controller modifies the Model directly using its properties

4. The Model sends out events to all its observers to inform them of the change

Implementing the MVC pattern implies also implementing the Observer pattern to allow the objects to send and receive events. The Observer pattern has two classes:

1. A Subject—the source of events.

2. An Observer—which registers with a subject and is notified of changes through events

In the illustration below the Model-View-Controller implies the implementation of the Observer pattern to coordinate events between classes.



There are multiple ways to implement the MVC pattern. Patterns are, by their nature, abstract and open to interpretation. This implementation behaves as follows:

The Model sends events to the View informing it of new or modified data

The View communicates directly with the Controller to inform it of changes made in the user interface

The Controller modifies the Model directly to make changes to the data.

Interdepartmental Interfacing

With this foundational knowledge, one may now embark on an understanding how interfacing in our web-based solution will take place with regard to such complementary areas as the City’s financial system.

OVERVIEW OF HAMER ENTERPRISES Company Name Hamer Enterprises

Headquarters Address 4200-A North Bicentennial Dr., McAllen TX 78504

Key Contact Representatives e itle Telephone Name Title Telephone

Tony Worley National Sales Executive 956:682-3466

M G (Mike) Braun Jr. Projects Director 956:682-3466

Company Information Years that Hamer Enterprises has actively provided tax systems to the government or public sector – 42+ years (Since 1976) The offices that will serve the City of Buffalo is both the McAllen, Texas (Corporate Head Quarters & Main Development center) office and the Fort Worth, Texas (Development Facility and Disaster Failover) facility Years in which these offices have had service to County government: McAllen, Texas office – 42+ years; Fort Worth, Texas office – 10+ years Number of employees for Hamer Enterprises:

Nationwide _________35___________

Personnel in Local Government & Hosted “Cloud” Services Support_________20___________

Offices serving CVCSCD McAllen, Texas__Fort Worth, Texas

Support personnel in offices that would be serving the City_____11______________3_______

Hamer Enterprises (HE) draws upon over 42 years of experience in both hardware and software system integration and implementation related to automated government management solutions (including all levels of Property Tax Management systems, Adult Criminal Justice Probation



and Supervision Systems, Justice of the Peace Court Management Systems and various vital records management for a County Clerk’s department). Because of this firsthand knowledge in these multiple disciplines of Public Sector management, HE enjoys a unique underlying understanding of why these divergent departments work the way they do and therefore what these departments need with regard to handling Credit Card and Internet Check (the “iCheck” service is only available through public on-line access) payment functions. Moreover, company associates have been instrumental in authoring and instructing numerous automated governmental office related publications and curriculum which today is becoming industry standard literature and documentation. As a result, it is important to note that such international authorities as IBM and Computer World have also cited HE for its exceptional underlying [subject matter] expertise in real of product development for Government. In the case of IBM, Hamer Enterprises was recognized as being the best in breed [Internationally for Government] through the receipt of IBM’s most coveted honor, the “Beacon Award”. With regard to Computer World HE was awarded its “Lauerate Award” in the realm of product development for Government, particularly as it relates to web development for the visually impaired. Complementing this product development expertise is the fact that HE is also a leading remarketer for numerous software and hardware systems and components. This complex array of expertise enables HE to offer a comprehensive, highly coordinated total solution to state and local government offices of all sizes throughout the U.S. Pairing this software and hardware mastery with our proven automated data and back-office management methodology and technical expertise we have over the years, amassed a unique ability to offer a superior total solution in the realm of supporting portal systems.

HE is a McAllen, Texas based corporations with a branch office in Fort Worth, Texas both of which provide products and services to state and local governments as well as school districts throughout the United States. Our development and support centers offer the highest degree of immediate 1-800 “Live” SUPPORT to our end users. HE has enjoyed years of experience in developing, implementing and supporting automated government office solutions offering turnkey hardware, software, conversion and maintenance solutions throughout their specialized industries.

Most often when software is developed the “end user” and data processing personnel are unable to speak “the same language”. This causes a loss in translation and needs go unfulfilled. We feel it is essential for software systems, particularly comprehensive portals such as the proposed eCitizen portal are designed from the ground up to efficiently solve the day to day challenges that face government professionals and do so with ease without wading through screens and screens of unrecognizable computer programming terms. With that in mind, data processing personnel far removed from the day-to-day “workings” of a government discipline did not develop our systems. All of our solutions are painstakingly designed and developed by authors and users of the actual curriculum. No other firm in our industry can make such a claim. As a result, our eCitizen™ portal solution is much more than just a clearinghouse for electronic payments. Stated more precisely, HE designs and implements many of the back-office systems (i.e., property tax collection, justice of the peace & etc.) used by city and county governments. Consequently, the proposed eCitizen™ vendor-hosted solution is actually a solution that is intrinsically designed to complement the existing key back-office systems [that were identified in the RFP] with reporting tools that are designed specifically for supporting these various departmental subdivisions of the City of Buffalo.

Today HE has an extensive computer programming and support staff with the average analyst holding an extensive number of years of designated application experience. Because of our exclusive specialization in state & local government, our experience in this arena is considered exceptionally unique.

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PROCESS & SYSTEM / AUTOMATION REQUIREMENTS

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS The following sections describe the key processes, procedures and system features/functionality that will be required to deliver the City’s new Process & System Solution for Enterprise Electronic Payment Processing. The following values should be used in response to each individual specification. Place a “Y” in the response column if this is a standard feature/function of the solution/system offered in your base system price to the City. These features must be currently in use at other client sites, and no user programming or use of a supplied report writer is required. For this response, the City will assume that the specification is met by the package, the requirement can be demonstrated by the Offeror, and will hold the Offeror responsible for delivering that feature or function in its proposed package.

Place a “Z” in the response column if this is not a standard feature/function of the current release of the solution/system but the Offeror is willing to customize/configure the system/solution to include this feature at no additional cost or the feature / function will be available in the next release of the solution/system.

Place an “M” in the response column if this is not a standard feature/function of the current release of the solution/system but the Offeror is willing to customize/configure the system/solution to include this feature at an additional cost.

Place an “N” in the response column if this is not a standard feature/function even with custom modifications and is not in the next release of the solution/system. Requirements therefore cannot be provided. Place a “T” in the response column if this feature/function will be provided by a third party.

Xrf – Enter reference code number where a comment has been entered to provide additional clarification to the response.

Column Title DescriptionReference # The reference number is used for reference purposes

only. Requirement In this column is where the functionality requirement is

located that the Offeror must provide a response to in the

Response (Y,Z,M,N,T) Enter in this column a value listed above for eachindividual specification.



Xrf Enter in this column a reference code number where acomment has been entered to provide additional clarification to the response.

2.6.1 PROCESS AREA - Collections and Receivables

This service is a group of processes that manage the collection and application of payment for City services, fees, fines.

2.6.1.1 PROCESS - Bills to Reconciliation

The purpose of this process is to collect and apply Customer payments and Fees to the appropriate subsidiary customer and General Ledger accounts.

2.6.1.1.1 PROCEDURE – Integrate Bills for Payment

The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that the Electronic Payment Processing Solution has an accurate record of bills in order for customers to make payments online.

Reference# Requirement Requirement Type Response(Y,Z,T,N)

Xrf

2.6.1.1.1.1 The ability to accept a bill file in the .txt or .csv file format containing billing information specified by the City

System Interface/Data Integration Y (1) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises will only require the

preferred format – this is an active function that is part of the proposed solution

2.6.1.1.1.2 The ability to associate/register multiple bills to a user of the portal

System Interface/Data Integration Y

2.6.1.1.1.3 The ability to query real time billing information via web service

System Interface/Data Integration Y (2) The proposed solution has various means by which to provide

queried data. However, if the City can provide more specifics to this request, then if necessary, HE will be happy to make any modification’s [if found to be necessary] in order to accommodate the City’s needs.




2.6.1.1.2 PROCEDURE - Transfer Credit Card Information The purpose of this procedure is to provide credit card payment information to the credit card processor. This is done currently by swiping a credit card at a point of sale/credit card device for processing.

Reference# Requirement Requirement Type Response

(Y,Z,T,N) Xrf

2.6.1.1.2.1 The ability to process Credit Card transactions using a point of sale/credit card terminal

Hardware/Equipment Z (3) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo. Once this determination is finalized by the City’s depository, then HE can modify its solution to accept the data that would originate from this terminal device.

2.6.1.1.2.2 The ability to swipe or manually enter Credit Card information at a provided point of sale/credit card terminal

Hardware/Equipment Z (4) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo. Once this determination is finalized by the City’s depository, then HE can modify its solution to accept the data that would originate from this terminal device.

2.6.1.1.2.3 The ability to integrate the point of sale/credit card terminal with the City's cashiering or other 3rd party system

System Interface/Data Integration Z (5) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend

that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo. Once this determination is finalized by the City’s depository, then HE can modify its solution to accept the data that would originate from this terminal device.

2.6.1.1.3 PROCEDURE - Verify Credit Card Payment for Terminal Reference# Requirement Requirement Type Response

(Y,Z,T,N)Xrf

2.6.1.1.3.1 The ability for a point of sale/credit card terminal to verify that the credit card information provided is valid and funds are available for processing

System Interface/Data Integration T (6) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend

that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo.

2.6.1.1.3.2 The ability for a point of sale/credit card terminal to return a message or prompt to a cashier that credit card information has been rejected

System Interface/Data Integration M (7) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend

that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo. Once this determination is finalized by the City’s depository, then HE can modify its solution to accept the data that would originate from this terminal device.



2.6.1.1.4 PROCEDURE - Generate Receipt The purpose of this procedure is to produce accurate receipts of the credit card transaction that has taken place.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.4.1 The ability to provide a receipt of payment from the point of sale/credit card terminal

Hardware/Equipment M (8) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo. Once this determination is finalized by the City’s depository, then HE can modify its solution to accept the data that would originate from this terminal device.

2.6.1.1.5 PROCEDURE – Settle Daily Receipts The purpose of this procedure is to reconcile cash, check, and credit card payments to entries made in the cash register or POS system


Xrf

2.6.1.1.5.1 The ability for credit card machine to automatically settle at a City specified time

Hardware/Equipment T (8) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo.

2.6.1.1.5.2 The ability for credit card machine to be settled manually by a cashier

Hardware/Equipment T (9) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo.

2.6.1.1.5.3 The ability to print out a settlement report from the credit card machine on demand

Hardware/Equipment T (10) For this functional request, Hamer Enterprises would recommend that the City of Buffalo speak directly to their depository facility since this request is a functional service that the City’s depository is more suited to provide to the City of Buffalo




2.6.1.1.6 PROCEDURE – Generate Payment Files The purpose of this procedure is for the payment processor to generate payment files indicating the bill type, customer identifier, and payment amount to be applied to the City's bank account.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.6.1 The ability to generate a daily Payment File indicating all credit card payments made at the point of sale credit card terminal or made via online portal

Decision Criteria/Business Rule Y

2.6.1.1.6.2 The ability to generate payment files in alignment with the bank's cut off times and deposit rules


2.6.1.1.7 PROCEDURE – Apply Payment to Bank The purpose of this procedure is for the payment processor to generate payment files indicating the bill type, customer identifier, and payment amount to be applied to the City's bank account.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.7.1 The ability to deposit payments into bank accounts used by the City

Other Y

2.6.1.1.7.2 The ability to specify which bank accounts credit card deposits are made to


2.6.1.1.8 PROCEDURE – Create/Modify Customer Payment Account The purpose of this procedure is to establish a complete and accurate payment account to be used for submitting electronic payments.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.8.1 The ability to create a Customer Payment account which can be used to submit electronic payments and store payment information for scheduled/recurring payments.

Business Form/User Interface Y



2.6.1.1.8.2 The ability to establish scheduled or recurring payments for both ACH and credit cards on dates specified by the Customer


2.6.1.1.8.3 The ability for Customers to select an option to be notified when scheduled or recurring payments are being made.


2.6.1.1.8.4 The ability to set up notifications when Customer payments are due and/or when payments are made in full through a variety of communication options (i.e. Email, Text)


2.6.1.1.8.5 The ability to modify Customer Payment Account information at any time with changes reflected real-time.


2.6.1.1.8.6 The ability to notify the Customer in real-time if the ACH Account Information or Credit/Debit Card information entered is valid or invalid.

Decision Criteria/Business Rule Y (11) For this functional request, it is important to note that ACH

processing cannot validate an account, only the routing number.

2.6.1.1.8.7 The ability to retain customer contact information, whether a one- time guest or customer account, in order to follow up with Customer at a later point if necessary.


2.6.1.1.8.7 Ability to pay by third party services


2.6.1.9 PROCEDURE – Access Payment Page The purpose of this activity is for a Customer to access the payment page in order to make online payments.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.9.1 The ability to incorporate City of Buffalo branding and link to the City's website page to reassure Customers that the payment is associated with the City of Buffalo




2.6.1.1.9.2 The ability for a customer to access the payment processor as a one-time guest user


2.6.1.1.9.3 The ability for a customer to access the payment processor as a logged in user with saved billing and payment information





2.6.1.1.10 PROCEDURE – Submit Electronic Payment The purpose of this procedure is to allow Customers to make electronic payments to the City


Xrf

2.6.1.1.10.1 The ability to submit a credit card, third party pay application, (PayPal, Apple Pay, etc.), debit card, or ACH payment electronically

Business Form/User Interface Y (12) Depending on the 3rd parties selected by the City, this functional

request may require some modifications. However, this is a functional request that HE can accommodate.

2.6.1.1.10.2 The ability to verify that Customer provided ABA number for ACH payments is valid


2.6.1.1.10.3 The ability to have customer make a partial payment


2.6.1.1.10.4 The ability to restrict the customer to only pay up to the amount owed


2.6.1.1.10.5 The ability to pay for multiple bill & fee types in one payment transaction


2.6.11.10.6 The ability to restrict when a payment can be scheduled for processing

Decision Criteria/Business Rule Y (13) Depending on the City’s business rule guidelines will determine if

a modification for this function is necessary. However, this is a functional request that HE can accommodate.

2.6.1.1.11 PROCEDURE – Verify Credit Card Payment The purpose of this procedure is to verify and process a credit/debit card payment for the amount specified by the Customer


(Y,Z,T,N)Xrf

2.6.1.1.11.1 The ability to verify that customer-provided Debit/Credit Card information is valid and that funds are available for the payment amount

System Interface/Data Integration Y (14) All transactions will receive either an approval or disapproval,

which in turn will determine if funds are available.

2.6.1.1.11.2 The ability to provide real- time notification of an invalid card if it cannot be verified


2.6.1.1.11.3 The ability to provide a reason for failed verification




2.6.1.1.11.4 The ability to redirect Customer to Customer Payment Account to modify stored payment information or redirect Customer to Submit Electronic Payment to provide an alternate form of one-time payment

Y

2.6.1.1.12 PROCEDURE – Display/Send Confirmation The purpose of this procedure is to show confirmation for the Customer that the payment transaction is successful. This can be done through a page loading showing the information and/or a confirmation email is sent to Customer and associated Department if desired.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.12.1 The ability to display a confirmation of payment after successful payment is made


2.6.1.1.12.2 The ability for customers to receive notification of payments received via email and/or other electronic messaging


2.6.1.1.12.3 The ability to define what is printed on the customer’s credit card bill for each receivable type. The bill should show the amount paid

Configuration T (15) This request is entirely controlled by a cardholder’s bank and the processor that that supports that cardholder’s bank. The processor’s foundational setup (i.e., the data field length will be the driving influence in this request).

2.6.1.1.12.4 The ability for the City to specify the text that is included in the payment confirmation message page, e-mail and other electronic notifications

Configuration Y




2.6.1.1.13 PROCEDURE – Generate & Send Payment Files The purpose of this procedure is for the payment processor to generate payment files indicating the bill type, customer identifier, and payment amount to be applied. Payments will be applied to the customer subsidiary account (for billed types: tax, user fee and general) and General Ledger (for all types).


(Y,Z,T,N) Xrf

2.6.1.1.13.1 The ability to generate a payment file indicating the Payment Type, Payment Amount, Payment Method, Customer Identifier, Account Identifier, and Unique Invoice/Bill Identifier


2.6.1.1.13.2 The ability to generate one or more payment files based on City specified cut off time periods and in alignment with amounts deposited to the bank


2.6.1.1.13.3 The ability to access/view Payment Files for reference and reconciliation purposes


2.6.1.1.13.4 The ability by the City to define the frequency of payment file transmissions which includes all files for different receivables


2.6.1.1.13.5 The ability to resend a file if a transmission fails (i.e. corrupt file, missed timeframe to receive file)


2.6.1.1.13.6 The ability to format a payment file or interface to update the City's financial general ledger


2.6.1.1.14 PROCEDURE – Collect ACH Payments The purpose of this procedure is for payment processor to collect ACH payments by verifying and clearing payment transactions


Xrf

2.6.1.1.14.1 The ability for the City to specify how NSF rejections are handled (attempts to re- collect)




2.6.1.1.14.2 The ability to collect ACH payments by verifying and clearing payment transactions


2.6.1.1.14.3 The ability to transfer received payments to the City’s specified bank account(s) on the same day as the final processing of the credit card or debit card transaction

Decision Criteria/Business Rule T (16) This request is entirely controlled by a cardholder’s bank and the

processor that that supports that cardholder’s bank.

2.6.1.1.14.4 The ability to specify different City Bank Accounts for each Service Type (i.e. User Fee, Tax Bill)


2.6.1.1.14.5 The ability for the Bank(s) specified by the City to credit the entire amount total for a given day (i.e. not deposit by deposit)

Decision Criteria/Business Rule T

2.6.1.1.15 PROCEDURE – Cancel Electronic Payment The purpose of this procedure is to allow the Customer to cancel an electronic payment that has not already been processed


Xrf

2.6.1.1.15.1 The ability to permit customers to cancel an electronic payment up to the City's specified payment cut off times


2.6.1.1.16 PROCEDURE – Contact Customer Support The purpose of this procedure is to provide the Customer with the ability to contact the Payment Processor if issues occur when attempting to make an electronic payment. Examples include receiving a site error, payment is not accepted, etc.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.16.1 The ability for Customers to contact the Offeror’s Customer Support instead of internal City staff via multiple communication modes if issues arise while attempting to submit electronic payment (i.e. email, chat, text and/or phone).




2.6.1.1.17 PROCEDURE – Issue Credit Card Refund The purpose of this procedure is to complete a customer refund for a payment initially done through a credit card.


Xrf

2.6.1.1.17.1 The ability to allow City designated users the ability to issue a full refund for a credit card transaction


2.6.1.1.17.2 The ability to issue a partial refund for a credit card transaction


2.6.1.1.17.3 The ability to query credit card transactions by payment type, date, or customer

Reporting Y

2.6.1.1.17.4 The ability to restrict by user/role the capability to complete refunds

Security (User Permissions/Access, Compliance)

Y

2.6.1.1.18 PROCEDURE – Bank Billing Import


Xrf

2.6.1.1.18.1 Accept electronic payments from bill payer servicing companies generated from your individual bank’s (Bank Billing Import)

Business Form/User Interface Y (17) If this is a bank payment file then this might require some

modification (depending on the exact bank file formatting). However, this is a function that HE can accommodate.

Addendum #II


Xrf

Addendum # II In addition to sending notifications we would like the ability to allow residents to opt into electronic delivery of their bill.

Business Form/User Interface Y (18) Hamer Enterprises can accommodate this request via the proposed

solution; eCitizen. In order to configure this option for the citizen, HE will require additional details on the business rules and security controls that the City would like for this citizen option.



SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) The vendor hosted eCitizen System [along with any of its complementary supporting service solutions; eCashier] are being offered with an underlying Service Level Agreement (SLA) that these system will perform with a 99.9% uptime. This attestation can be made based on the years and months of actual prior operational experience. The basis of this SLA is predicated on the following “detailed plan”:

SERVICE AVAILABILITY: Hamer Enterprises’ (HE) Service Availability commitment for a given calendar month is 99.9%. Service Availability is calculated per month as follows:

Total – Unplanned Outage – Planned Maintenance X 100 > 99.9% Total – (Planned Maintenance+ All other Exclusions illustrated under “Exclusions:” of this document)

Definitions:

• Total is the total minutes in the month • Unplanned Outage is total minutes unavailable in the month outside of the Planned

Maintenance window • Planned Maintenance is total minutes of planned maintenance in the month.

In an effort to avert a reactive approach to maintenance, Hamer Enterprises (HE) provides for regular review and examination of all systems on a monthly basis. This Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) is achieved by HE via daily review of various logs as well as prompted security messaging from HE’s various system software resources. Foundational to these reviews are the constant vigil and awareness that there are often operating System or application software updates that must be affected in order to maintain compliance with the PCI Council’s PCI-DSS constantly evolving standards and requirements. Generally, all planned Maintenance is performed before or after normal business hours (8 AM to 5 PM CST, Monday through Friday) and prior to the start of the next business day’s normal hours. Electronic notification to the client of a planned maintenance event will be at least 5 working days before this maintenance is performed. Additionally, an electronic notification shall be sent confirming successful completion of planned maintenance. To that end, HE always attempts to affect these kinds of updates to the System so as to best ensure that only the least possible disruption of business could happen during these Maintenance updates.

Exclusions: HE allocates 2-6 off-peak hours once a month, usually Sunday morning between

1:00am - 7:00am Central Time, for PCI-DSS Compliance security vulnerability patch assessments and application of any available security patches and/or reconfiguration of TLS SSL encryption ciphers.

Internet backbone DNS outages, Card Processor and/or Bank outages are not under the control of Hamer Enterprises and as such are not included in the 99.9% availability.



This SLA does not apply in circumstances or factors that could be reasonably said to be outside of HE’s control, i.e., floods, war, and acts of God and so on.

If outages not under control of HE were to occur, HE would proactively act to remedy this kind of occurrence by notifying its customers of such events.

If actual maintenance exceeds the time allotted for Planned Maintenance, it is considered an Unplanned Outage.

FEATURE RELEASE AND SERVICE UPDATE PROCESS: The proposed eCitizen™ solution [and all its complementary eCommerce solutions] are 100% Cloud based. Therefore, the City of Buffalo’s Department of Management Information Systems (CBDMS) users can count on receiving new features automatically without the need to physically install any application software. HE is always excited to bring our customers the newest features as soon as they are ready, however, HE also understands that the CBDMS does have a complex IT environment and as such will closely plan all releases in close consultation with CCPD IT Management in order to ensure that all APIs in place are not disrupted.

SERVICE RESPONSE: HE Service Response time commitment for daily transactional activity is an average of two (2) seconds or less. Service Response time of the application includes all functions of the application, but excluding any latency caused by a failed or low-performance CBDMS network.

SEVERITY LEVEL DETERMINATION: The CBDMS shall reasonably self-diagnose each support issue and recommend to HE an appropriate Severity Level designation. In the event of a conflict regarding the appropriate Severity Level designation, each party shall promptly escalate such conflict to its management team for resolution through consultation between the parties' management, during which time the parties shall continue to handle the support issue. In the case of a conflict requiring management discussion, both parties shall be available within one hour of the escalation.

SUPPORT ISSUE PRODUCTION SEVERITY LEVELS - RESPONSE AND ESCALATION: Response Time is the period from the time the Production case was logged in the HE Call Center until HE responds to the CBDMS.

SEVERITY LEVEL 1:

Definition: The Service is unavailable for all users: • HE Response Commitment: HE will respond within 1 hour of receipt of case. • Resolution: If resolution requires an HE bug fix to the proposed vendor-hosted

Cloud-based solution, then HE will work to resolve the problem until the vendor-hosted service solution is returned to normal operation. The CBDMS will be notified of status changes every hour.

• Escalation: If the problem has not been resolved within two (2) hours, HE will escalate the problem to the next level of appropriate management and assign a named incident manager. The escalated problem will have higher priority than ongoing support, development or operations initiatives. The CBDMS will receive updates every 2 hours.



• City of Buffalo Response Commitment: The CBDMS shall remain accessible by phone for troubleshooting from the time a Severity 1 issue is logged until such time as it is resolved.

SEVERITY LEVEL 2:

Definition: The HE vendor-hosted Cloud service’s solution; contains a bug that prevents the CBDMS from executing one or more critical business processes with a significant impact and no workaround.

• HE Response Commitment: HE will respond within two (2) hours of receipt of case.

• Resolution: If resolution requires an HE bug fix to the proposed vendor-hosted Cloud-based solution, then HE will work to resolve the problem until the vendor-hosted service solution is returned to normal operation. The CBDMS will be notified of status changes.

• Escalation: If the problem has not been resolved within four (4) hours, the CBDMS may request that HE escalate the problem to the appropriate organizational service tier where the escalated problem will have higher priority than ongoing development or operations initiatives.

• City of Buffalo Response Commitment: The CBDMS shall remain accessible by phone for troubleshooting from the time a Severity 2 issue is logged until such time as it is resolved.

SEVERITY LEVEL 3:

• Definition: The HE vendor-hosted Cloud service’s solution; contains a bug that prevents the CBDMS from executing one or more business processes. A workaround exists but is not optimal.

• HE Response Commitment: HE will respond within four (4) hours of receipt of case.

• Resolution: If resolution requires an HE bug fix to the proposed vendor-hosted Cloud-based solution, then HE will add the bug fix to its development queue for future Update and suggest potential workaround until the problem is resolved in a future Update. The CBDMS will be notified of status changes.

• Escalation: If progress is not being made to the CBDMS’s satisfaction, then the CBDMS may request that HE escalate the problem to the to the appropriate organizational service tier of HE.

• City of Buffalo Response Commitment: The CBDMS will respond to HE requests for additional information and implement recommended solutions in a timely manner.

SEVERITY LEVEL 4:

• Definition: The HE vendor-hosted Cloud service’s solution; contains an issue that may disrupt important business processes where a workaround is available or functionality is not imperative to the CBDMS’s business operations.

• HE Response Commitment: HE will respond within twenty-four (24) hours of receipt of case.

• Resolution: If resolution requires an HE bug fix to the proposed vendor-hosted Cloud-based solution, then HE will add the bug fix to its development queue for future Update and suggest potential workaround until the problem is resolved in a future Update. The CBDMS will be notified of status changes.

• Escalation: If progress is not being made to the CBDMS’s satisfaction, then the CBDMS may request that HE escalate the problem to the to the appropriate organizational service tier of HE.

• City of Buffalo Response Commitment: The CBDMS will respond to HE requests for additional information and implement recommended solutions in a timely manner.



IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY

Hamer Enterprises’ 7 STEP Rapidly, Economically and Predictably (R.E.P.)

METHODOLOGY and

How these steps translate to the Implementation of the proposed Vendor-Hosted solution

eCitizen™



This section of this RFP response provides an overview of Hamer Enterprises’ (HE) R.E.P. Methodology. It has been developed by HE in an effort to help the City of Buffalo’s Department of Management Information Systems (CBDMS) understand how they will achieve their business objectives as it relates to the installation and execution of HE’s all-encompassing eCitizen™ service for CBDMS in as Rapidly, Economically and Predictably manner as possible. A more detailed and in-depth use of our REP philosophy should begin with our Project Strategy Workshop (PSW) implementation task. During any future planning sessions, the project team’s estimates would be jointly modified by both the CBDMS and the HE teams.

The above does not imply that all implementations will be rapid, economic or predictable. It is simply a proven commitment by HE to provide our professional guidance to our clients that implementation will be as rapid, economic and as predictable as possible, given the information that would be provided to the HE Team on CBDMS’s requested needs. The REP methodology represents guidelines, not absolutes.

For this prospective engagement there are fundamentally four (4) major tasks that must be performed; installation of the core eCitizen vendor-hosted services solution, implementation of support functions for the proposed vendor-hosted services solution, technical modification / customization and then the training of City’s staff. In order to support these 4 major tasks, HE follows a fundamental framework of processes that as identified below, are proven processes that have endeared HE to its entire client base.

AGREE ON EXPECTATIONS

The purpose of the Agree on Expectations task is to determine or confirm the Project Size and Scope as well as to create the organization and structure needed to complete the implementation successfully and within the time parameters that are envisioned in the Project Plan. Implicit to this stage of action is the necessity to perform a Project Strategy Workshop (PSW) or “Kickoff meeting”. During this time, HE consultants will facilitate a planning session where precise detail will be gleaned from CBDMS management staff regarding the larger issues of Implementation as well as putting a fine point on those items that were outlined in the RFP at a so-to-speak, High Level, thereby providing finite definition to the actual final scope of the Project. In this stage of implementation HE and the CBDMS senior Project Team will work together to define and identify Concerns {Concerns are Project issues that may inhibit project success but can be overcome with effort and are manageable (i.e., prospective City staff assigned to this Project could be tasked with conflicting job obligations before the project is completed thus impacting completion date)}. In addition to ‘concerns’ HE will also identify any Constraints to the Project {Constraints are Project factors that a project team has no authority to change, and if not planned for could severely impact project success or completion date expectations (i.e., City requires specific completion date with given client resources, but the project will be delayed due to lack of available City staff or time available from the staff)}.

Key tasks for a successful Implementation:

Introduce and Inform the CBDMS to HE’s Client Services

Setting Realistic Expectations: This task is the key to a successful implementation and relationship.

Confirm Solution Strategy, Implementation Strategy and Project Work plan

Develop overall Proposed Strategy

Conduct Product Strategy Workshop (PSW)

Assign Project Teams and responsibilities



Document agreements and understandings

Clearly define the project scope from the efforts of HE and the CBDMS Project Team

Define and structure open objective communications

Discuss ownership of concerns / constraints as it relates to anticipated Project results

Discuss current user issues for CBDMS and its current user community as it relates to its current legacy system

Discuss local hardware issues such as display device operating system version(s), and browsers that are currently installed in the CBDMS as well as a listing any special printer demands that might be required for this engagement

Verify the Project on-going means of later transfers of data to the HE server farm (i.e., FTP)

When all involved parties agree on expectations, it is easier to handle communication and project control. HE sets a firm foundation for the ongoing relationship that HE wants to maintain with our clients.

TRAIN THE CBDMS PROJECT TEAM

HE has found that the best method to ensure positive attitudes of user personnel is through extensive training. HE feels that the success of the installed system is highly dependent on the attitude of the personnel using the system and the environment in which they are trained. The objective of this step is to accurately identify and meet CBDMS’s training needs. Training is important to prepare CBDMS’s Project Team for the System Test Scripts (STS) and give HE another opportunity to identify project concerns or constraints.

Key tasks to be completed during training:

Develop and Communicate the Training Plan

Prepare Training Instructors (‘Train-the-Trainers” – key City staff that will in the future be the prime conduit for knowledge transfer of the system to future new City staff after the System goes “Live”)

Perform BASIC Training with the use of the eCitizen vendor-hosted environment

Debrief Instructor

Plan Trainer Training

Train the Trainer

It is very important that training not only emphasize the mechanics of the system operations, but also the basic goals of the new City portal system and the way in which the portal will enhance the ability of CBDMS’s personnel to ensure citizen satisfaction. HE would approach and define training by addressing each software module [of the eCitizen™ System] with a key person or audience. This training methodology is known as; “Training the Trainer”. All preliminary HE training sessions for the eCitizen™ installation will be via an on-line collaborative session. However, optional on-site training is available, should there be a mutual agreed to determination that this additional type of training is deemed necessary.

End User Training

The End User Training stage will be following both the Train-the-Trainer stage of training and any “Technical Development” (i.e., modifications to the core eCitizen™ System. Consequently, at this



stage of implementation, it would be envisioned that the majority of End User Training following implementation could be now be performed on site by CBDMS personnel that were effectively trained by HE personnel during the initial stage of Project Team Training, with HE staff also possibly in attendance. There are instances where clients request that HE supplement this training stage with additional on-line classroom assistance from HE trainers, should this be a request of CBDMS, then HE would be happy to return and perform this training at no cost to the CBDMS.

TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

Any project may be a mixture of technical services which can include conversion assistance, interface development (i.e., interface with other City supporting vendors), program modification, new development, and the attendant technical documentation associated with the implementation of the eCitizen™ system that would be modified for the City of Buffalo installation.

For this engagement Technical Services will be confined to the review and prospective modifications / customization to the eCitizen™ core application software and any optional complementary support application software; i.e., eNetPay™’s gateway solution; eCashier™ which can provide for an optional office counter-based environment that can run in simultaneous tandem with the eCitizen portal.

Technical Development Solutions services present a system of procedures for successfully completing technical services projects. This methodology utilizes prototyping as its foundation. The three basic stages, which comprise this method of development, are:

Planning

Analysis

Minor modification to baseline Application Software

There are several tasks that HE follows during this stage of implementation to ensure that all relevant aspects are covered and met. The highly relevant tasks are as follows:

Study Business Requirements against original Specifications

Clarify expectations and schedules for “Go Live” [of core application software] date

Perform any Conversion Services that may be specified by CBDMS, which in this instance will be the City’s property parcels, vehicles and etc. In this instance there will be a few critical requirements that must be provided by the City, those items are:

1) The data from the existing system should be in a ‘text delimited’ format (or some mutually agreeable format by which HE technical conversion specialists can work with.

2) A layout of the current system that fully describes in detail all of the data fields. For example, in some instances this may require more than a vendor’s high-level data dictionary. These data dictionaries, (depending on how well maintained they are) may only provide field names and a very abbreviated description, i.e., Address 2 = second address line, when in reality this may be a special address line for dealing with a suite or office address in a building.

3) Hash total reports [where deemed necessary] – these are reports from the County’s existing solution that will provide any critical data totals that are in current use



FINAL ACCEPTANCE TESTING

The CBDMS Project Team would be responsible for the creation of the final acceptance test plan and the execution of the test. The final acceptance test plan would define the procedure for demonstrating all functions of the software [eCitizen™] during the HE-Product Training stage of implementation. To accomplish this task CBDMS staff would be called upon to define System Test Scripts (STS) that will illustrate to the City staff that the new eCitizen™ System comports with the operational needs of the City.

System Test Scripts (STS)

The overall concept of the STS stage is to use the installed/modified HE eCitizen™ software and some actual prior CBDMS data in a controlled environment to model the normal business functions of CBDMS. The STS allows HE to:

Address the CBDMS’s business requirements using the installed eCitizen™ system.

Validate the CBDMS’s business requirements

Enhance the CBDMS and their user’s knowledge of the eCitizen ™ application software

Helps to identify software and process areas, which require further attention.

The STS would be facilitated by an HE team, knowledgeable in the use of the eCitizen™ System, and the CBDMS personnel that have completed HE’s eReservation™ training. The CBDMS personnel must also have a thorough knowledge of their business processes and the capability to make decisions about concerns or constraints that may be identified during the development of the Test Scripts.

Key tasks to be conducted for STS:

CBDMS staff to develop user-defined Scripts

Select Data for scripted tests

Setup Test Area on eReservation™ Hosted Server

CBDMS to designate Test participants

Execute Test of the System via STS

Review results of System Test

Post STS Review

Once the STS is completed, a Post STS Review is conducted as part of the overall process of Acceptance Testing. The philosophy behind the Post STS Review is to checkpoint the work performed during the actual scripted system test to ensure that all critical business concerns have been addressed.

During the STS Review individual concerns are reviewed to ensure that they are really ‘concerns’ and that they need further action to be resolved. For all concerns that are deemed open, a plan of action is developed outlining the following:

The action to be taken

The action’s prerequisites to be completed

An anticipated schedule



The assignment of responsibility for each action

An estimate of time to complete

Project Scope and Expectations are revisited during the STS Review to ensure that all critical business concerns have been addressed. This involves the following tasks:

Review the details of the project to date

Focus on the success and any obstacles of the project to date

Determine how any obstacles observed will be resolved

During this near final stage of Implementation, the following would occur:

CBDMS’s personnel would operate the eCitizen system during this acceptance test period, while supported by HE personnel for problem resolution or additional on-the-job training as necessary.

Formal acceptance of each significant System function that was first identified in the Project Strategy Workshop (PSW) and later translated to the County defined test scripts.

A “Go Live for baseline application software” date would be evaluated and agreed to between HE and the CBDMS.

GO LIVE!

The objective of this task is to begin the use of the eCitizen™ portal system in the day-to-day operations of CBDMS’s business. This requires that all the pieces are in place to ensure success and to minimize the impact on CBDMS’s business functions.

Going live is a process, not a milestone. Going live is the process of making sure that all preparations are complete and working through any new concerns that may arise. HE is very supportive of the CBDMS at this time. At no other time is CBDMS more disposed to error than when their staff begins the operational implementation of the system for the day-to-day operations. The process begins with live data entry, continues with performance of daily and weekly processes and ends when the CBDMS comfortably completes all processes in their various business cycles for the departments that are in the scope of eCitizen use.

Key tasks to be performed during Go Live!:

Prepare Production Environment

Process Final Conversions

Begin Live Processing

Evaluate and Close Project via final sign off




PROJECT PLANNING

The skill sets for project planning should not be confused with the preliminary investigative processes necessary for the actual creation of a project plan. For example, in the prior sub section of this RFP response the RFP requests that the vendor, “describe in details of the implementation project plan” in which case we provided a brief characterization of the Implementation Methodology that would be followed in this engagement for the City of Buffalo’s Department of Management Information Systems (CBDMS). In this instance we have attempted to describe the means by which Hamer Enterprises (HE) plans to deliver “the comprehensive technical services” that would be required in order to “install and maintain” the proposed core solution, the eCitizen© system. The illustrated Implementation Methodology begins with a description of its first step of Implementation; that being “Agree On Expectations”. Implicit to this first step of action is the necessity to perform a Project Strategy Workshop (PSW). During this time, HE consultants will facilitate a planning session where precise detail will be gleaned from the CBDMS management staff [as well as any other departmental leadership that will be utilizing the eCitizen© solution] regarding the larger issues of Implementation. Ultimately, the PSW will essentially facilitate putting a fine point on all items that were outlined in the RFP at a so-to-speak, High Level, thereby providing finite definition to the actual final scope of the Project. Here HE and the CBDMS will work together to define Concerns and Constraints (please see the aforementioned section of this RFP response; “Agree On Expectation” regarding a definition of ‘Concerns’ and ‘Constraints’). For example, individual City staff members that may be recommended for a specific area of the Project, that upon further investigation and analysis are now found to not be able to allot enough time on a daily basis so that the Project can be concluded at the time that the City may desire (i.e., February of 2019). This is one of many very important aspects of HE’s Implementation-Planning functions. During this aspect of the PSW process, HE staff may directly interview assigned City staff as well as their Management staff to determine if ‘Concerns’ or ‘Constraints’ exist that would directly impact the time-line of the Project.

In the example mentioned above one of the first obligations of HE Project Management, staff would be to determine what is the “overhead” of assigned City staff? By that, we mean what are the ongoing tasks of a City employee (professional functions for which they were originally hired) and how much time a day does that function actually entail. To understand the gravity of this aspect of planning one must first understand that during the PSW, the City management will be called upon to commit some of their staff to tasks that will be correspondent to HE staff members so that crucial element in the Project Plan can be completed. If upon more in-depth investigation (and time management calculations) it is found that either this individual or individuals cannot support the Project with enough daily activity, one of two things must happen. Either, more City resources must be assigned, or the Project date may have to be stretched out. In either case, the results of this investigative research could prove to be not only a ‘Concern’, but when viewed against a completion date that the City would like to attain, it could prove to now be a ‘Constraint’.

As the reviewer can see the art of planning a project constitutes countless unanswered questions with regard to the construct of even a very perfunctory Project Plan (which at best may not even come close to the final representation of what a Plan would ultimately look like). Consequently, at this juncture there is simply a myriad of direct questioning that may entail extensive hours of intensive one-on-one analytical inquiry, such that even a preliminary plan might prove meaningful. Therefore, to offer a truly credible Plan at this point in time would likely prove to be highly premature. Nevertheless, what we can provide is an example of a descriptive ‘high-level’ plan that reflects an off-the-shelf installation (an installation of the core application software eCitizen© as well as an estimated timeline for the conversion of data) which was constructed when the precepts of the proposed Implementation Methodology were followed. The following page will illustrate just such a Sample “High-Level Project Plan”, all of which is predicated on the RFP’s projected “contract approval date of 10/31/2018.



HIGH LEVEL PROJECT PLAN



EXECUTION OF CONVERSION METHODOLOGY TASKS

In order to approximate the City of Buffalo’s requested production date, the following would be required of the City of Buffalo’s Department of Management Information Systems (CBDMS).

1. The CBDMS would need to create the mapping of the participating individual departmental legacy databases to be converted to corresponding HE files.

2. The CBDMS will need to provide the individual data dictionaries for the participating departmental legacy databases that will be supported in the eCitizen vendor-hosted system.

3. The data files to be converted will need to be provided in a ‘text delimited’ format.

HE CBDMS 1.

After the preliminary receipt of the various CBDMS databases that will be used with the eCitizen system, HE will then document any conflicts that may exist with the CBDMS mapped layouts relative to HE file layouts that were provided to the CBDMS for mapping. At this step of the conversion phase, HE staff will begin the process of validating the CBDMS’s mapping to the corresponding individual HE data fields.

During HE’s analysis of the CBDMS mapped data base layouts and file structure, HE will need the assistance of in order to correct any anomalies identified between the converted data and the CBDMS mapping to the corresponding HE file layouts. The specific staff and time requirements for this process step will be determined in the Project Strategy Workshop (PSW) or “Kickoff” session.

2.

After this secondary analysis of the CBDMS’s data, HE will then refine its prior documentation of any conflicts that may exist with the information provided in the original file layouts. At this step of the conversion phase, HE staff will proceed to the process of validating any modified mapping to the individual HE field layouts.

During HE’s analysis of the live database(s), HE will continue to need the assistance of CBDMS staff for this step of analysis and data refinement. During this process step, CBDMS staff will be called upon to confirm HE’s conversion team’s interpretation of data fields as it relates to the finalized mapping process.

3.

During this next process of the conversion phase, HE staff will run sample data outputs for various previous periods of time so as to ascertain some preliminary analysis of the quality of the data as it relates to individual labeled fields. This reconciliation of data [from the participating databases] will possibly involve a review of data as it was structured perhaps even prior to legacy program development for the original legacy application(s).

CBDMS staff and their current server environment(s) will be necessary to confirm the results of HE’s data base reconciliation analysis. During this step, data samples that are still viewed to be at odds with actual field layout definitions will be identified and addressed. This stage of conversion will require personnel from the participating departments that are well acquainted with their departmental data in order to provide feedback to HE’s database conversion team leadership.

4.

During this next step of the conversion phase, HE conversion experts will generate their first “pass” at executing the individual database conversion(s). An actual data record sample will be generated. Experience indicates that this first pass will generate a 55% to 75% confidence level in the initial conversion.

During this first pass CBDMS staff and existing server environment will need to be necessary for confirming HE’s preliminary conversion(s).

5.

Following the first pass at conversion, modifications to the conversion program(s) are constructed for extracting the remaining majority of data from the participating departmental databases that will be support in the eCitizen system.

CBDMS staff will confirm the data sampling extracted during the second pass. Experience indicates that there is usually one more adjustment to the conversion program before a confidence level in the approximate 95% range is ascertained.



HE CBDMS 6.

After changes to the conversion program(s) are executed and a confidence level of approximately 95% is attained, an exception report is generated on data that is generally viewed to be orphaned data. This is data that over the years has generally been found to be mistakenly entered in fields that do not bear a relationship with the field identifier.

CBDMS staff will now review this nearly completed phase of implementation. During this process step, CBDMS management staff will be called upon to render a business decision as to the feasibility of extending the conversion effort regarding the remaining 3% to 5% of data that does not bear a relationship to the previously defined fields. At this stage of conversion there must be a mutually agreed to decision between the City and HE as to the value of committing the additional man hours that may be necessary in order to only yield a marginal effect, at which point conversion may then be deemed to be completed.




REFERENCES Kevin Tubiolo Tax Collector Monroe County Treasury 39 W. Main St., B-2 Rochester, NY 14614 (585) 753-1168 [email protected] Kim D. Jones City Treasurer City of Rochester Department of Finance 30 Church St., Room 111A Rochester, NY 14614-0270 (585) 428-6705 [email protected]

Niagara County Shannon Giove, MBA Systems Accounting Manager Niagara County Treasurer's Office 59 Park Ave, Lockport, NY 14120 (716) 439-7209 [email protected]

Stephen Dowling, ERP Support Analyst Erie County Comptroller’s Office 95 Franklin Street Buffalo, NY 14202 716-858-8345 [email protected]

Additional Remarks: It should also be noted that the eNetPay™ [which is the foundational gateway for the proposed system; eCitizen] has been in operational use in Erie County since 2015, and has been very effectively providing services for the following divisions of the County:

1. Erie County – Public Health Laboratory 2. Erie County – Bureau of Weights & Measures 3. Erie County – Clinical Health 4. Erie County – Park, Recreation & Forestry (eReservations) 5. Eric County –Probation Department 6. Eric County – County Clerk 7. Erie County – Department of Personnel 8. Erie County – Real Property (eCashier and Online API to back office system) 9. Erie County – Comptroller’s Office



HAMER ENTERPRISES’ CONSULTANT STAFF

INTRODUCTION

The following staff is anticipated to be assigned at various Stages and Phases of this prospective Project. We are predicating this selection of prospective staff based upon an anticipated start date of no later than 10/31/18. Should any of these projected dates change that could affect the final assignment of staff to this project.

WILLIAM C. HAMER

1976 - Present

Majority Owner and President of:

HAMER ENTERPRISES:

A National computer hardware and software solutions specialist, consultant and trainer, predominantly for state and local governments in the areas of judicial and correction applications, real estate and personal property appraisal, voter registration, tax billing and collections applications and Internet based payment solutions.

Majority Owner and CEO of:

EASY ACCESS INC

Computer software developer and solution specialist for voter registration, real estate appraisal and tax billing & collection for state and local governments

President and Majority Owner of:

TEXAS LOGIC INC:

Computer software developer and solution specialists for state and local governments predominantly with judicial and correction applications


DATA REPORT SERVICE:

An accounting practice with data processing services


CASCO INC:

Remarketing firm for computer supplies and special forms


B.J. INVESTMENTS:

Computer hardware and software leasing firm




ADAP COMMERCIAL DIVISION INC:

On-line data Processing Service Bureau for Municipalities and commercial entities

1982 - 1992

Co-Owner of:

SUCCESSFUL ATTITUDES INC:

A regional publication firm providing a monthly magazine dedicated to the promotion of South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley

Co-Owner of:

MYTHMAKERS:

A commercial advertising production agency

1970 - 1975

Worked in Public Accounting for the local CPA firm of Johnson, Smith & Company

EDUCATION:

B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Texas Pan American University

Other Technical Training 1. IBM - OS/400 2. Windows 9x, 2000 3. MS Projects 4. Ethernet – TCP/IP

5. IBM – COBOL Debugger 6. Complete MS Office Suite 7. Microsoft Access 8. Seagate – Crystal Reports 9. Web product development – Websphere

Profile:

William C. Hamer has over 40 years of professional experience with the development and management of large State & Local government enterprise environments. William Hamer’s experience has been especially exemplary in the realm of Product Development, Project Management and Implementation. Through out William Hamer’s career, whether it be the implementation of a large County Assessor’s Office to that of a small school district tax collection office, all have provoked his native interest in developing and managing programmatic solutions that will complement a public sector office environment. To this extent many of the library of application software solutions that are offered by his companies have either been directly authored or co-authored by Mr. Hamer himself. As a result, Quality Assurance is tightly adhered to because of his integral knowledge of all the solutions provided in his companies. As a result, Mr. Hamer’s top-down personal attention to application software development and implementation provides a very fertile ground for success for all of his clients.



M. G. (MIKE) BRAUN JR.

June, 1995 to Present

Projects Director of:

HAMER ENTERPRISES (Parent Company):

Hamer Enterprises is a national computer hardware and software solutions specialist, consultant and trainer, predominantly for state and local governments in the areas of judicial and correction applications, real estate and personal property appraisal, voter registration, tax billing and collections applications and hosted collection systems.

EASY ACCESS INC (Subsidiary division of Hamer Enterprises):

Computer software developer and solution specialist for voter registration, real estate appraisal and tax billing & collection for state and local governments

February 1995 - June 1996

Hospital Assistant Administrator for:

McAllen Medical Center

McAllen Medical Center is a large South Texas Hospital (496 beds, including a remote rehabilitation facility) that began as city owned public health facility and later became a private for-profit hospital. Responsibilities included various departmental management (including managed-care reimbursement), team development of a new integrated computer network to replace existing departmental fragmented networks. Business development, third party contract negotiations, international patient services (both Mexican and Japanese) and Managed Care contract development. Collateral responsibilities also included the creation of responses to all Federal Contract Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) for supplemental medical services, i.e., the Veterans Administration for outsourced medical services.

July 1974 - February 1995

Retail Furniture Executive Management for:

J Edelstein Furniture:

A large South Texas retail furniture business – Chief Operations Officer

May 1971 to July 1974 (original active duty service)

U.S. Navy:

Aviation - Fighter Pilot, Surface Warfare Officer - Weapons Systems and Ships Engineering Systems, (South East Asia Campaign - Viet Nam war), software development - Surface Warfare Inventory System (in conjunction with the civilian contractor, Bunker Ramo). 1990, recalled to active reserves (South West Asia Campaign – “Iraqi” war), Reserve Liaison Officer (Weapons Systems).



EDUCATION

1966-67

Lee College

1969-71

Rice University - Certificate of Naval Science - Naval Ships Engineering Systems

1967-71

University of Houston - B.S. Political Science

2006-Present

University of Texas – RGV:

Completed dual Master’s degree program(s) –

(a) Masters of Public Administration (MPA)

(b) Masters of Arts Inter-Disciplinary Studies (MAIS) - Global Security Studies and Leadership (GSSL) (International Intelligence Analysis) – this advanced discipline included an ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) sponsored Internship with the FBI as Global Security Intelligence Analyst which also included training as a Cyber-Security Intelligence Analyst

Completed both programs as a top honors graduate with a 4.0 in both programs of study

Graduate Instructor University of Texas RGV – MPA Program

Security Clearance level

Top Secret and SCI (Secured Compartmentalized Information) for the FBI – Full Scope Poly

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Chairman of Rio Grande Valley Muscular Dystrophy Telethon (1975-76)

Chairman of McAllen Special Olympics (1976-77)

President McAllen South Rotary Club (1979-80)

Treasure McAllen International Museum (1980-82)

President McAllen Housing Services (1983-84)

Secretary McAllen Affordable Housing (1984-93)

Board of Trustees for Rio Grande Cancer Center - (1984-86)

Board of Governors McAllen General Hospital - Finance Chairman (1978-80)

Board of Governors Methodist Hospital, McAllen - Chairman of Finance (1980-85)



Board of Governors McAllen Medical Center - Vice President (1985-94)

South Texas Community College – Information Technology Curriculum Advisory Board (1999-Current)

State of Texas - Higher Education Information Technology Curriculum Advisory Committee

Certified IBM Series “i (currently branded as IBM System “i”) Specialist (2006 certification & 2009 certification)

HONORS

Rice University Commendation in Academics and Leading Midshipman N.R.O.T.C. (1971)

McAllen Jaycees - Commendation of the Year (August 1974)

Diploma De Honor Almerito - Rotary Clubs of Monterrey, N.L. Mexico (1979)

McAllen Jaycees - Outstanding Young Man of McAllen (1981)

McAllen Chamber of Commerce - Man of the Year Award (1982)

United States Jaycees Outstanding Young Men of America (1983)

Iron Man Award – U.S. Naval Reserve (1991)

Phi-Kappa-Phi: National Academic Honors Society, inducted on April 11, 2008: graduated with a 4.0 Grade Point Average (while maintaining a 45 to 55 hour per week work schedule) in both the Masters of Public Administration (MPA) program as well as the Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS): Global Security Studies and Leadership (GSSL)

Phi-Alpha-Alpha: National Academic Honors Society for Public Affairs and Administration, inducted on May 5, 2009: graduated with a 4.0 Grade Point Average (while maintaining a 45 to 55 hour per week work schedule)

Other Technical Training

1. IBM - OS/4002. Windows 9x, 2000 3. MS Projects 4. Ethernet – TCP/IP

5. IBM – Autocoder Language 6. Complete MS Office Suite 7. GERS Retail Systems (UNIX) 8. Medical Manager (UNIX) 9. IBM Power Systems Certified Technical Expert (also includes common certification for both IBM i and AIX)



Profile:

Mike Braun has over 35 years of professional experience with the development and management of large enterprise environments. Mike’s experience has been especially exemplary in the realm of Project Management and Implementation. Throughout Mike’s career, whether it be the implementation of a large health care facility’s contractual services group (back end business office systems to medical records), a large regional retail furniture inventory and financials system implementation or a County Assessor’s Unsecured (business personal property) solution such as San Diego County. Mike has always been able to utilize his diverse experiences in orchestrating a successful project implementation. In the realm of the public sector, these projects have included such projects as the previously mentioned San Diego County Unsecured Assessor’s System and the Treasury Systems for Monroe County in Rochester N.Y and Onondaga County in Syracuse N.Y. Additionally, Mike was the team member that created the schema that was eventually used by IBM and Hart InterCivic in building the State of Texas’s current State-wide Voter Registration System.

In his capacity as Projects Director for Hamer Enterprises, Mike has also built upon his prior skills of management, System design/development and implementator by assisting in the project management and implementation of the California Hamer Enterprises property tax solutions (Counties of; San Diego, Los Angeles County, The City and County of San Francisco and San Mateo County). Moreover, because of Mike’s extended experience with IBM’s System “i” as well as the attendant management and maintenance of these systems he has been able to provide value added assistance regarding the specialized nuances of designing the configurations for High Performance Computing (HPC) hardware platforms (i.e., IBM’s Power System platform for a WATSON installation). Additionally, because of Mike’s comprehensive implementation experience, he has also provided insightful assistance regarding the development of technical documentation for some of the various software applications created by Hamer Enterprises for its users.

Project Responsibilities: Provide overall Project Management guidelines and methodology engagement for all Projects nationally.

TONY WORLEY

2002 - Present

National Sales Executive for:

HAMER ENTERPRISES / EASY ACCESS INC:


2000 - 2002

Founder/CEO of:

WORLEY COMPUTER CONSULTING



1998 - 2000

Instructor for:

SOUTH TEXAS COLLEGE

EDUCATION:

Arts Degree from Indiana VT College Profile:

Tony brings multiple skill sets to Easy Access, his tasks range from presenting software at tradeshows or conferences to signing up clients at council meetings and commissioner’s courts. He has also worked with Adobe teams creating interactive PDF’s with accessibility features. Tony provides training to clients utilizing the eCitizen™, eCashier™, eNetPay™

eRES™, and eJUSTICE™ Systems.

Project Responsibilities: Provide local eCitizen, eCashier™ and eNetPay Project management and Implementation (which includes all training for all users). This will also include high level transactional resolution functions for both City users and credit card holders.

KEVIN WARKENTINE

2005 – Present

Senior Software Engineer and Web Developer / Database Analyst for:

HAMER ENTERPRISES


2003 – 2005

Level III Software Engineer

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and the President’s Cabinet.

EDUCATION:

1999 – 2003

University of Texas Pan American – B.S. Computer Science / Physics




1. MCSE – Test #70-064 Implementation, support and internetworking with Windows

2. COMPTIA A+ Certified Service Technician – Computer hardware troubleshooting/repair

3. Platform proficiencies: JIRA, GIT, Visual Studio, Python, C/C++, Java, PHP, VBA and Google protocol buffers

4. Tool Platforms: IBM Rational, Eclipse, SQL Server, IBM Power Systems for i, IBM Websphere, IBM DB2, Crystal Reports

5. Networking – TCP/IP, Ethernet, Router, Security, Firewall implementation, network configuration analysis 6. Windows – various versions through Windows 2012 7. IBM - OS/400, IBM i 8. Complete Microsoft Office Suite 9. Demarc Intrusion Detection System 10. WIN 32 API’s 11. J2EE Architecture 12. JSP, Struts, JSF and XML technologies

Security Clearance level

Top Secret / SCI (Secured Compartmentalized Information) / Full Scope Poly

Profile:

Kevin has over 14 years of professional experience in various areas of computer automated systems as well as the complementary network solutions, network hardware components, Server-host hardware and the attendant peripheral components. Kevin’s experience extends to the complete spectrum of compute technology, beginning with application software design and culminates with the maximization of application performance relative to the current maxims of network security. Examples of this holistic approach to system design can be seen in his highly secure and performance sensitive interactive Internet payment solutions. Complimenting this experience is Kevin’s efforts in developing the necessary prerequisites for the deployment of client defined Internet web sites for our property tax management solutions as well as our Voter Registration / Election Night Reporting solutions as well as our entire eNetPay™ gateway of Services solutions; eCitizen™, eCashier™, eRES™, and much more. Most notables of these recent projects have been Kevin’s contributing expertise in the individual configuration - design of our custom designed web servers, which handle the rigorous concurrent demands associated with the 1100+ payment portals that are managed by this Company’s hosted server farm, one of which also includes our optional hosted Election Night Reporting Web environment. Finally, Kevin has been the principle Engineer and Architect for various J2EE “cloud-based” constructs, which have included tax billing & payment applications which utilize JSP, Struts and EML technologies for both back-end data processing as well as the previously mentioned web-facing electronic tax filing applications.



Honors:

Kevin’s expertise in cloud-based security was acknowledged during his tenure with the CIA when he and his team won the John A. McCone Award. This award is one of the most coveted awards that the CIA can provide in recognizing one’s contributions to advanced science and technology.

Project Responsibilities:

Provide the overall lead development of any modifications for the proposed eCitizen™ and/or eCashier™ vendor-hosted solution.

JOHN BODDEN

1987 - Present

Director of Product Development for:

HAMER ENTERPRISES / EASY ACCESS INC:

A National computer hardware and software solutions specialist, consultant and training firm, predominantly for state and local governments in the areas of judicial and correction applications and real estate appraisal, tax billing and collections applications.

1983 - 1986

Programmer/Analyst for:

SAN ANTONIO FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK

EDUCATION:

A.A. Degree in Computer Science from Texas Southmost College


1.RPG 2.COBOL, MS/COBOL 3.Pascal 4.Fortran 5.Assembler 6.Basic 7.Complete Microsoft Office

Suite 8.Human Computer

Interaction – GUI, Workstation layout

9.Seagull 10. Screenview 11. Token Ring, TwinAx 12. HP 3000

1.Network – TCP/IP, Ethernet, Router

2.Windows 9x, NT, 2000 3.OS/400 4.Dec VAX/VMS 5.Macromedia Flash 6.Apex 7.DB2, Access, VAX

RDBMS 8.SQL – Inner/Outer Joins

DDL, DML, Seagate – Crystal Reports

9.JD Edwards Interface development

10. AIA: ITP



Profile:

John Bodden has over 25 years of professional experience with the development of Public Sector Property Tax Management System development. John experience is especially exemplary in the realm of California Property Tax Management Systems. John has been the lead authored for Assessor solutions in Los Angeles County, City and County of San Francisco (Unsecured) and San Mateo County. Additionally, John has provided Project Management and solution development for property tax management in Travis County (Austin Texas), property tax interfaces to JD Edwards suite of Enterprise Resource Programs as well as solution development for clients in Arkansas and Louisiana. Beyond application software solution development, John has also been instrumental in the analysis, design and implementation of disaster-recovery plans as well as the master conversion plans for various clients of Easy Access and Hamer Enterprises. Attendant with these client skills has been John’s native experiences of providing Cadre’ training for key client staff members.

John’s experience has also included the management of multiple IBM HPC super-compute platforms as well as multiple clustered Windows servers and the attendant management and maintenance of the supporting System software components. Within that division John also provided skilled assistance in the technical documentation of many of the various software applications created by both Hamer Enterprises and Easy Access. Recently, John completed his design and development as the lead developer for Easy Access’s new eFiling solution (electronic business personal property filing system), that was simultaneously launched in both Los Angeles and San Diego. Within this project it is worth noting that John has also been instrumental in the development of Easy Access’s web-based tax payment solution. Because of John’s extensive and diverse experience in the realm of California property tax solution development, John is called upon to not only provide technical guidance, but also assist the CEO and the senior management of Hamer Enterprises / Easy Access in planning the Company vision for the future of both Hamer Enterprises and Easy Access.

REY BANDA

1997 - Present

Chief Technical Officer for:

HAMER ENTERPRISES

Hamer Enterprises is a national computer hardware and software solutions specialist, consultant and trainer, predominantly for state and local governments in the areas of judicial and correction applications, real estate and personal property appraisal, voter registration, tax billing and collections applications and vendor-hosted eCommerce collection systems.

1982- Present

Hamer Enterprises

EDUCATION:

1982

Texas State Technical Institute



Industrial Data Technology


1. CASE Tools and 4GL –Genexus 2. Seagull – JWalk, Wireless-to-Host and GUI/400 3. Human Computer Interaction – GUI, Workstation layout 4. Citrix 5. Database Management systems 6. Web product development –WebSphere, HTML, HTTP, FTP & E

7. Networking – TCP/IP, Ethernet, Router, Security, Firewall implementation, network configuration analysis 8. Windows – various versions through Windows 2012 9. IBM - OS/400, IBM i 10. Complete Microsoft Office Suite 11. Seagate – Crystal Reports 12. IBM - Query/400, Web Query

Profile:

Rey has over 35 years of professional experience in various areas of computer-automated systems as well as the complementary network solutions, network hardware components, Server-host hardware and the attendant peripheral components. Rey’s experience extends to complete network design, specification and Implementation and includes the associated skill sets necessary for designing and implementing an interactive Internet web site. Complimenting this experience is Rey’s efforts in developing the necessary prerequisites for the deployment of client defined Internet web sites for our property tax management solutions as well as our Voter Registration / Election Night Reporting solutions and all of our eNetPay™ gateway ASP vendor-hosted solutions. In addition to his networking skills, Rey has also performed the tasks of testing and benchmarking the performance of our Java based front-end presentation screens for the various solutions that Easy Access and Hamer Enterprises provide. Most notables of these recent projects have been Rey’s individual configuration - design of a web server that would handle the rigorous concurrent demands associated with an Election Night Reporting Web environment. Additionally, Rey has been instrumental in the design and implementation of some of our criminal justice web solutions such as the eCMS™ (browser based - Adult Probation System) and eJustice™ (browser based - Justice of the Peace / Scofflaw module), which is currently being used by Texas Counties to manage its comprehensive Scofflaw demands.

Project Responsibilities: Network supervision regarding all Hamer Enterprises (HE) based Hosted systems. All network security supervision between the HE server farm and all client networks. Provide national eNetPay Project network supervision.



EXCEPTIONS / QUALIFICATIONS

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Concerning the direct release of Company financial information [as requested in section 3.6.2, “Company Profile” of this RFP], there is one caveat to that request. Because of the highly confidential nature of this information; it is HE’s policy to execute our Mutual Nondisclosure Agreement (please see the Addenda Section, “Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement”, of this RFP response for a copy of the Mutual Nondisclosure Agreement) before information of this nature is released. Consequently, should HE be “selected” as the preferred vendor or “consultant” for this project (and with the execution of the Mutual Nondisclosure Agreement), HE would be happy to provide the requested information to the proper County officials.

REQUESTED DATA CONVERSION

In order to approximate the City of Buffalo’s requested production date, the following would be required of the City of Buffalo’s Department of Management Information Systems (CBDMS).

1. The CBDMS would need to create the mapping of the participating individual departmental legacy databases to be converted to corresponding HE files.

2. The CBDMS will need to provide the individual data dictionaries for the participating departmental legacy databases that will be supported in the eCitizen vendor-hosted system.

3. The data files to be converted will need to be provide in a ‘text delimited’ format.



ADDENDA

Please see the following support documents of these addenda as it relates to the overall response to this RFP by Hamer Enterprises.




CONVENIENCE FEE SCHEDULE

The proposed vendor-hosted solution will be provided to the City of Buffalo at no cost to the City (this will also include all implementation services; i.e., data conversion, customization to the specifications of the RFP and training).



MUTUAL NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT



SAMPLE HE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT



PCI-DSS CERTIFICATION

The certificates [on the following pages] illustrates the PCI-DSS certification that is held by Hamer Enterprises which illustrates the required underlying security for the underlying payment gateway; eNetPay™, which supports the proposed vendor-hosted eCitizens™ comprehensive solution. This proposed vendor-hosted solution has been tested and maintained in order to hold this level of security as it relates to all Hamer Enterprises electronic payment processing.




INSURANCE CERTIFICATE



NON-COLLUSION BIDDING CERTIFICATION



OFFERORS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION STATEMENT



APPLICATION FOR CONTRACT WITH THE CITY OF BUFFALO



TECHNOLOGY CONFIDENTIALITY AND NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT



RFP ADDENDUM I – SEPTEMBER 7, 2018



RFP ADDENDUM II – SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

hamer enterprises - buffalo, ny

Documents