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Understand how PSCS Version 4.0 revolutionizes the prequalification process for consulting firms with added security, usability, and process enhancements.
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Professional Services Contracting System PSCS Version 4.0 Prequalification Application Presented by Karen Macdonald Prequalification Engineer, INDOT April 23, 2013
PSCS and ITAP • PSCS is INDOT’s Professional Services Contracting System • External users use PSCS for the Prequalification Application, Letter of Interest (LOI) submittals, and viewing Performance Evaluations. • Internal users use PSCS for processing the Prequalification Application, Request for Proposal (RFP) item development, selection scoring and approvals, contract tracking, and evaluating plan and report submittals in the Performance Evaluation module.
PSCS and ITAP • ITAP is INDOT’s Technical Applications Pathway • ITAP is used to access INDOT programs • Businesses and users have to enroll in ITAP to gain access (external and internal) • The Prequalification Section approves new businesses and name changes to a business • If the business name change involves a new taxpayer ID, then they will need to enroll in ITAP under the new name. • The business primary contact approves users in ITAP
PSCS 4.0 • Why rebuild the PSCS Prequalification Application? • For enhanced security • To enhance PSCS Prequalification • To coordinate changes with the PSCS RFP/LOI and PSCS Performance Evaluation modules • To make the system more user friendly
INDOT Consultant Prequalification • Consultant Selection is a qualifications based process • The Prequalification Application is the first step in the process. The second part of the selection process is submitting a Letter of Interest (LOI) in response to the Request for Proposal (RFP). • Both of these processes are part of PSCS. • If you are not approved in the PSCS system as a Consultant Requiring Prequalification or Consultant Not Requiring Prequalification, then you will not be allowed to submit a LOI for advertised projects.
INDOT Consultant Prequalification • Consultant Prequalification and the RFP/LOI Process • Contracts may be advertised under INDOT’s Request for Proposal (RFP) process with: • Prequalification Required based on work types advertised for the project - All Letters of Interest (LOI’s) for contracts with advertised work types (ie, survey, road design, real estate appraisal, etc.) must have a responsible party for each work type. The prime consultant or a prequalified subconsultant must be prequalified for each advertised work type. • Continued on next slide
INDOT Consultant Prequalification • Contracts may be advertised under INDOT’s Request for Proposal (RFP) process with: • Continued from previous slide • General Prequalification Required- A contract advertised with general prequalification does not specify any work types, but the firms submitting LOI’s must be prequalified with at least one work type. • Prequalification Not Required - Although a contract may be advertised with prequalification not required, the firm still needs to enroll through ITAP and submit the Business Registration Application to be able to submit an LOI.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s different? • What is different with PSCS 4.0? • The way it looks • User friendly guidance • Added security • Separation of the General/Technical Application from the Financial Application • Can no longer submit more than one application of each type • No longer have to submit hard copies of the financial information • Determination of Consultant Requiring Prequalification and Consultant Not Requiring Prequalification now in PSCS
PSCS 4.0 – What’s different? • User Friendly • We have added guidance in the application to make it more user friendly • List of Icons • Quick Steps • Error Messages • Printable copy of application • Help Guides in the application
PSCS 4.0 – What’s different? • Added Security • There is new security for users. The consultant’s primary contact person can set user permissions. If the consultant only wants certain employees to have access to financial information about the company, then a specific user can be designated to have access to that part of the application. Please do not share User IDs and Passwords. Have the user register through ITAP. Each company can have multiple users.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s different? • Separation of Gen/Tech Application from Fin Application • After submitting the Initial Prequalification application, then the financial application and general/technical application will become separate applications. You will no longer have to submit all three parts with each application.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s different? • Can no longer submit more than one application of each type • Consultants will no longer be allowed to submit more than one application. A general/technical modification or renewal application cannot be started if the last application is pending in the system. INDOT will have to process the application before a new application can be submitted. However, the consultant will be allowed to submit a financial update or modification if a general/technical modification or renewal is pending approval, and vice versa.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s new? • What is new with PSCS 4.0? • Some new fields • Approval of Qualifying Persons • Limited Services/Unit Price Financial Levels only on Initial Application • Financial Applications - Who approves? • Financial Expiration Date
PSCS 4.0 – What’s new? • Approval of Qualifying Persons • The Prequalification Application and the Work Type Certificate will now show the approved Qualifying Persons • In the old system, we did not have a way to indicate which QP’s were approved. We kept track of that on worksheets in our files. • The old system allowed for multiple QP’s to be submitted for each work type. • With the PSCS 4.0, we have set minimum and maximum QP’s per Work Type. In most cases the min and max are one.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s new? • Limited Services/Unit Price Financial Levels only on Initial Application • On new prequalification applications, the applicant will be forced to submit for the Limited Services/Unit Price financial levels only. A financial modification application will have to be submitted afterwards to be considered for a full financial level.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s new? • Financial Applications - Who approves? • In addition to processing the Initial Prequalification Application, General/Technical Modification and Renewal Applications, the Prequalification Section will process Financial Applications that involve Limited or Unit Price Services only. The External Audit Section will process the full Financial Applications. Full Financial Levels include CPA Audit, Cognizant Audit, and Self-Certified.
PSCS 4.0 – What’s new? • Financial Expiration Date • The financial expiration date will be set to 18 months after the end of the last submitted fiscal year end date. If a Financial Update is submitted before the Financial Expiration Date has passed, the consultant will still be allowed to submit an LOI.
PSCS 4.0 • Types of Applications • Business Registration (Initial, Modification, Renewal) • Initial Prequalification Application • General/Technical Modification (can submit one part or both) • General/Technical Renewal (must submit both parts) • Financial Renewal (Financial Update) • Financial Modification
PSCS 4.0 – Application Types There are three sections in the Consultant Prequalification Application: • General Information Section – The consultant provides information on the company, including addresses for all offices, a main contact person, a list of owners and officers, list of affiliates, number of employees, etc. The consultant is asked to include a W-9 showing the company’s Federal Tax ID, Secretary of State registration, DBE/MBE/WBE certifications, and certificate of professional liability insurance. • Technical Information Section – The consultant requests the desired work types and provides resumes on qualifying personnel for those work types. The resumes should demonstrate project experience and provide information on education, licenses, and training. If the work type requires a professional license (ie, engineer, surveyor) the qualifying person must be registered in the State of Indiana. • Financial Information Section – The consultant provides information about the prequalification financial level requested. • Consultant Prequalification Application
PSCS 4.0 – Application Types • Business Registration vs the General Section of the Prequalification Application • The General Section of the Prequalification Application will have the information populated from the Business Registration. There are two additional fields that need to be filled out in the General Section: • Information about the Professional Liability or Errors and Omissions Insurance, and • A list of affiliated companies
PSCS 4.0 • Phases of the Application • Draft • Signed • Submitted • Received and Under Review • Approved/Complete • Denied/Incomplete
PSCS 4.0 – Conversion of Data • Conversion of Existing Applications • We have indicated the approved Qualifying Person(s) (QP) for each Consultant’s approved Work Type (WT) as part of the conversion of data. • When submitting your first modification or renewal application, you may find that you will have error messages. You may need to provide additional information, before you can submit the application. • It would be best to print out all QP’s resumes after PSCS 4.0 goes live. Then you can take time to assign WT’s to each project before getting into the system. • Continues on next slide
PSCS 4.0 – Conversion of Data • Conversion of Existing Applications – continued • With your next modification or renewal submission, if the WT was already approved, then you do not have to clean it up; however, if the WT becomes pending, by deleting the approved QP on the WT, or by recalling the WT to resubmit it, then you will have to do the following: • Adhere to QP min/max for the WT • Remove QP’s that are not approved • Assign QP’s to each WT • Assign WT’s to each listed project • Continues on next slide
PSCS 4.0 – Conversion of Data • Conversion of Existing Applications – continued • If you use a previously approved QP for a new WT, then the WT’s will have to be associated to all projects on that QP’s resume. • Continues on next slide
PSCS 4.0 – Conversion of Data • Conversion of Existing Applications – continued • The resume in the old application was not very self-explanatory. Some consultants listed their projects under Typical Project Assignments, while others listed the projects under Experience and Qualifications. We allowed multiple entries in both locations. Because of this we have dumped the info from both locations under the List of Projects. The new system is designed to allow multiple projects, but only one text box entry for Employment History, Experience, and Qualifications Summary. We call that the “Brag Box”. The first time into the QP’s resume, the Brag Box will be empty. You can move information back from the project listing back to the Brag Box. In testing, we also found some certifications that were moved up to the List of Projects, because they had been under the Experience and Qualifications in the old system.
INDOT Consultant Prequalification • Limited Services • Unit Price Services • Full Financial Levels: • Self-Certified • CPA Audited • Cognizant Audit • With an Initial Prequalification Application, the consultant can only request for Limited Services / Unit Price Services. You will be asked to specify the total wages and salaries and the associated fiscal year end date. • After approval of the Initial application, then the consultant can submit a financial modification for a full financial submittal. Prequalification Financial Levels:
INDOT Consultant Prequalification • The consultant selection capacity is an annual limit on services. • The capacity is based on 200% of the total wages and salaries of the firm. • For the Limited Services financial level, the capacity will be limited to a maximum of $150,000. • For firms with a Self-Certified financial level, the capacity is limited to a maximum of $250,000. • Consultants with less than $75,000 in annual total wages and salaries are limited to annual services of no more than $150,000. • Consultants are allowed to divide the amounts of their contracts over multiple years when determining available capacity for selections. The unearned work should include all INDOT and LPA contracts that are incomplete. Consultant Selection Capacity:
INDOT Consultant Prequalification • We will update the Consultant Prequalification Manual to reflect changes to the following: • PSCS 4.0 • The addition of the new Limited Services financial level • We are also currently working on revisions to some of the work types Consultant Prequalification Manual
INDOT Consultant Prequalification Locating Our Website • Go to www.in.gov/indot • On the left, click on Doing Business with INDOT • Click on Consultants/Pre-Construction • Click on Consultants Prequalification • Direct link to the Consultants Prequalification webpage is at http://www.in.gov/indot/2732.htm
INDOT Consultant Prequalification Links Some important consultant links available on our website- • Online Consultant Prequalification • This is a memo that provides information on enrollment in the INDOT Technical Applications Pathway (ITAP). Enrollment in ITAP is the first step in submitting the Prequalification Application. INDOT only accepts Consultant Prequalification Applications that are submitted online. • Consultant Prequalification Manual • Contains information on all aspects of Consultant Prequalification including specific requirements for work type approval. • List of Prequalified Consultants • An Excel spreadsheet listing all currently approved consultants and their approved work types. The sheet may be searched and sorted by work type. • DBE Subconsultants Not Requiring Prequalification • A list of services that do not require INDOT prequalification but may provide subconsultant opportunities to fulfill a DBE goal. The list includes various DBE codes for services that are sometimes required in our engineering services contracts. • Audit Information • A direct link to our External Audit Section’s webpage, which includes helpful checklists for required financial documentation.
INDOT Consultant Prequalification Contacts • Prequalification Engineer - Karen Macdonald • Phone: 317-232-5094 kmacdonald@indot.in.gov • Consultant Prequalification Research Analyst - John Leming • Phone: 317-234-4917 jleming@indot.in.gov • Prequalification Coordinator – Blaine Hayden • Phone: 317-234-8114 bhayden1@indot.in.gov • Administrative Assistant - Daphne Widdifield • Phone: 317-232-5095 dwiddifield@indot.in.gov • If you have any questions regarding the consultant prequalification process or application, send an email to ConsultantPrequalification@indot.in.gov
INDOT Consultant Prequalification Questions? • If you have any questions regarding the consultant prequalification process/application, please submit questions to the Prequalification Section’s email box at ConsultantPreQualification@indot.in.gov or contact John Leming at or Karen Macdonald. • If you have any questions regarding full financial application submissions, please submit questions to External Audits email box at ExternalAudit@indot.in.gov.