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So, your continuum of care (CoC) thinks it might be time to replace its HMIS. The existing system just doesn’t cut it, and you notice that other continuums are using an HMIS that has more features, is easier to use, and comes with better customer service.
Your community is simply ready to move on and find a better solution.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. The HMIS transition process can be frustrating, difficult, and time-consuming. It requires carefully managing a constellation of policy considerations, stakeholders, technical knowledge, governmental oversight, community expectations, time constraints, and financial pressures. All of these must be brought into balance, so even the most seasoned project managers might shiver at the thought of embarking on such an adventure.
And an adventure it is! Like any journey, it helps to have a guide, map, and compass. Bitfocus has successfully led many clients through the murky waters of an HMIS transition, and we want to share what we’ve learned with you.
That’s why we’ve created the Bitfocus HMIS Transition Guide.
This comprehensive document is designed to help you plan, organize, manage, and assess all the steps as you move toward finding a new HMIS vendor and transitioning to a new system.
Covers the process of RFP creation, proposal and demo assessments, vendor selection, and contracting
Goes over implementation and data migration, training, system administration, and security reviews
Covers establishment of the system administration practices, training, and security policies
Guides the development and formation of HMIS governance committees
We’re here to make the HMIS transition as easy as possible. So how about a simple checklist to keep track of the process? Keep in mind that the order of the steps presented may not necessarily be the same for each CoC. Be sure to shape the resources to meet your unique needs.
S T A G E 1
Objective: Create a vendor selection committee to oversee the procurement process
The vendor selection process is drawn-out, arduous, time-consuming and requires patience, stamina, and perseverance. However, if executed correctly, it yields fantastic outcomes.
So, what's the key to getting positive results and staying on a smooth-sailing path?
A team of good people.
The team that participates in the procurement process should include a multidisciplinary group of people who approach the problem from different angles. This diversity in viewpoints will ensure that you’ll reach a robust and intelligent decision based purely on community needs and stakeholder interests.
|
ROLE |
RESPONSIBILITY |
| IT Professionals |
IT professionals will hone in on all technological things so your team selects a technically sound product. |
|
Project Manager |
The project manager will lead the effort and organize activities to keep everyone on the same page and meet appropriate milestones. |
|
System Administrators / HMIS Leads |
System administrators/HMIS Leads will identify the shortfalls of the current system and envision how to avoid them in the future, as well apply their understanding of the HUD regulations to ensure that the new database meets all the requirements. |
|
Data Analysts & Agency Managers |
Data analysts & agency managers will have excellent insight into the reporting needs and analytics that the community will need to satisfy current and future reporting capability. |
|
HUD Technical Assistance Providers |
HUD technical assistance providers are good folks to have on the committee because they have exposure to other communities and insight into future HUD requirements, which will prove to be an asset during this process. |
|
CoC Representatives |
Having CoC representation is very instrumental in understanding the needs of the CoC, and they will be looking at the situation from a 50-foot view (larger paradigm). |
|
End-Users |
Getting feedback and input from end-users is important in selecting a product that optimizes user experience and has a logical workflow. |
The most important members of the committee will be, arguably, the end-users themselves. They interact with the database on a daily basis and can share ideas on how to make it more efficient. They also provide excellent insight into current shortfalls. Soliciting their input will help you select a product that optimizes user experience and has a logical workflow.
Why is this important?
If the end-users can’t enter quality data, nothing else is achievable. The analyst won’t have reliable data to analyze, the CoC can’t make data-driven quality decisions, and the community won’t be able to gauge its progress in ending homelessness.
Now that you have a fantastic team of people at the table, it’s time to assess the current software and plan for the future.
S T A G E 2
After assembling your Vendor Selection Committee, the next step is to assess your current software. This will help you identify the features that work, detect the ones that don’t, and pinpoint those that are missing. All of these efforts will help you identify your system requirements, which in turn you will use to develop the content of your RFP.
S T A G E 3
Now that you have reviewed your current HMIS and identified its strengths and weaknesses, you’re ready to start developing a list of features and functionality that you want in your new HMIS. The best way to start this process is to petition and survey stakeholders and those members of your HMIS community that use the HMIS on a daily basis to get an idea of their needs, common workflows, and patterns of use. We suggest that you assign members of your Vendor Selection Committee to talk to their respective communities about their requirements.
INFORMATION TO COLLECT FOR YOUR LIST:
COMMON WORKFLOWS:
Outlining the common workflows of prominent organizations in the CoC might also provide useful information about their HMIS needs and their favorite HMIS features.
COMMON DATA ELEMENTS | HUD DATA AND CUSTOM DATA:
The vendor requirements stage of RFP development is also when you need to identify what data will be collected by your new HMIS—both HUD-required elements and also custom data elements. We recommend creating a master list of sorts. The ‘RFP Attachment 4 - Requirement Database’ document (see tools and resources below) could be useful for this task.
HUD DATA STANDARDS: The required elements are included in HUD’s data standards. These are updated frequently and described in detail in HUD’s Data Standards Manual and Data Dictionary (both are included in this toolbox, but you can also find them on the HUD Exchange website).
B E E N T H E R E , D O N E T H A T : G E T T I P S F R O M O T H E R C O M M U N I T I E S
Finally, be sure to contact other CoCs to get insight and advice from them. Many have been through the HMIS transition process and have hard-won wisdom to share that will help you avoid roadblocks and time-wasting dead ends.
S T A G E 4
Selecting a new vendor is a monumental task. It can be complicated and stir up intense emotions across the continuum. To reduce the complexity and remove the emotional component, the process should be conducted equitably and methodologically.
This stage of the ‘RFP and Vendor Selection Toolkit’ comprises two steps:
Research the marketplace to make sure you know who is doing business in the market (e.g., create a list of viable HMIS vendors).
UNDERSTAND THE RFP PROCESS:
Talk to other communities and the experts (HUD TA’s). Collect RFPs from other
communities, research RFP creation, gather current and historical requirements, and use the CoC Assessment.
Once you have done your due diligence and have increased your understanding of the marketplace and the RFP process, it’s time to develop the RFP. This is one of the most critical components of the process. The RFP should clearly define your business needs, the desired functional requirements, and the technical requirements for the product or service.
Do not take RFP development lightly. You’re laying the groundwork for the future success of your CoC. The community should engage in a thoughtful process and take the time to ensure that all requirements are collected, analyzed, and evaluated. Make sure all the appropriate parties are at the table, such as system administrators, IT personnel, stakeholders, and super-users (see ‘Section 1. Building a Vendor Selection Committee Stage’ for guidance and tips on gathering stakeholders and other members of the HMIS community).
You’ll use the information documented in the ‘Develop Vendor Requirements Stage’ to write your RFP. Here are some tips on how to go about creating the RFP:
S T A G E 5
Objective: Once the RFP document is complete, it’s time start thinking about how you will evaluate the respondents. We recommend creating standard evaluation rubrics for the following elements.
|
EVALUATION TOOL |
DESCRIPTION |
|
Proposal Evaluation Tool |
Include the basic instructions of your RFP. Examples:
|
|
Requirements Database Evaluation Tool |
Include all of the the elements of the Vendor Requirements Database you created in Stage 3. Basically, did the respondents document that they could meet the communities’ requirements based on the Vendor Requirements Database? These should be scored in a tiered manner. Example:
|
|
References Check Evaluation Tool |
Identify questions your community would like to ask other communities that use the respondent's product. Examples:
|
|
Demonstration Evaluation Tool |
Quality tools will keep users engaged during the demos and increase their focus on what’s important. You should write a presentation schedule and “script” to ensure that all vendors have roughly equal amounts of time for their demos and that they cover the same topics. As much as possible, you want to compare apples with apples, and a well-organized event will help you do this by setting shared expectations and standard parameters. These tools will keep evaluators engaged during the demos and give them a quantifiable and generic list for assessing the user interface (UI) and the user experience (UX). |
IMPORTANT: Each element should have numeric values associated with the fulfillment of its instruction, so that you can generate a score for each respondent.
The key to creating rubrics is to ensure that the evaluation tools hit on the community requirements. The evaluation tools/scoring rubrics should use the RFP as their basis.
Tip from the pros: The scoring rubrics associated should primarily evaluate the user interface (UI) and the user experience (UX). Why is all this important? Because the main goal is to select a product that optimizes both UI and UX. Doing so will lead to better data quality and more reliable information, which will ultimately improve your community's ability to make informed decisions.
The development of the RFP is completed, and all the rubrics have been created, it’s time to send out the RFP and wait for your responses.
The tools included in this folder will help you accomplish each of the tasks above. We've created some of the items; others come from different sources, and we have referenced them as weblinks so that you can access them online.
S T A G E 6
You have successfully written a Request for Proposal (RFP) and are ready to distribute it to the HMIS vendors. This is no small feat.
The next step is to make a list of vendors that you’d like to notify about your RFP. Once you’ve compiled your vendor list, email each company alerting them that you’ll soon start an HMIS procurement process. The email should explain when and how the RFP will be released and outline the process for submitting responses. Keep in mind that you don’t have to wait until your RFP document is complete to alert vendors of the upcoming procurement process—actually, it’s best to tell them as early as possible, since it gives them time to prepare.
Once you’ve stamped the RFP document as “completed,” it’s time to send the official document to the vendors, and post it on your website. Some communities create an ‘RFP hub’ or landing page dedicated to their procurement process. This makes it easy to post announcements and addendums in a manner that is accessible to all vendors.
After you’ve sent your RFP, make the best use of the response period by preparing for the RFP reviews and identifying resources you'll need for the HMIS transition. (See next toolkit.)
S T A G E 7
(Phase I Review)
You’ve done the heavy lifting. You’ve gathered requirements, created the RFP, and released it. Now, your responses are coming in, and it's time to conduct a thorough review.
As before, be methodological. In the home stretch, your attention to detail is going to pay off. This stage comprises three steps.
Preliminary Evaluation: Did they follow the basic directions outlined in the RFP?
Scoring Rubric: How does their software match up with your scoring rubric?
Reference Check: What do their current customers have to say about them?
Feel free to use the tools below to support your efforts.
The first step in reviewing the responses is to ensure that the respondents have followed the directions outlined in the RFP. If the respondents can’t follow the response directions, can you trust them to support other community directives?
Use the Preliminary Vendor Evaluation Tool you created in Stage 4 (sample below) to complete this step.
Next, examine the requirement responses and evaluate if the respondents can satisfy the community requirements.
Use the Requirements Database Evaluation Tool you created in Stage 4.
At the end of this stage, you'll be able to quantify the respondents' ability to satisfy the community’s demands.
Last but not least, solicit feedback from the vendors' customers. Use the References Check Evaluation Tool you created in Stage 4 to conduct calls with the respondent's customers.
Tip from the pros: It’s important to select from the reference list that the respondent provided, but it’s also a good idea to talk with customers that may not appear on the respondent's list. Maybe select two that they offered and two they didn’t provide. This process will give you a good cross-section of feedback. Make sure that all the question reactions have values associated with them.
At the end of the reference checks, each respondent should have a score.
S T A G E 8
(Phase II Review)
Grab some popcorn, sit back, and let
the show begin—it’s time for demonstrations! Now that you’ve received and scored all the RFP responses, it’s up to vendors to fire up their HMISs and show what they can do.
By now you’ve created your shortlist of vendors based on the scores generated by the evaluation tools in Stage 7. The next step is to notify the vendors who were selected for the next round and those who were not.
S T A G E 9
S T A G E 10
Your CoC board has decided on the vendor and has communicated the decision to the community. The level of excitement is over-the-top, and everyone is looking toward the future and envisioning an excellent HMIS experience. The users feel like they are getting a product that is easy to use, and the data geeks are elated. The last and final step in the RFP process is to contract with the vendor.
The goal of any contract negotiation is to acquire the right software that meets the CoC requirements at an affordable price with little risk to the community. Contracting can be daunting: There is “legalese” to interpret, and all the t’s must be crossed and the i's dotted. For many without a legal background, this will not be the most pleasant experience. First and foremost, make sure you have access to legal advice.
In general, the contract components should include a performance warranty (availability guarantee/uptime and downtime), contract termination data ownership provisions, data security and privacy provisions, a clear disaster and recovery plan, and response times for problem resolution. Resolution times will vary with the severity of the problem; different severity levels might have different response times—become familiar with them.
You may also want to include fix times and remedies in the contract and escalation procedures. Remedies should be associated with things that fall short of expectations.
Having a Service Level Agreement (SLA) is essential as well. It establishes the foundation for the ongoing relationship between the vendor and the community. Read the SLA and negotiate when necessary, and keep the best interest of the community in mind.
Take your time; don’t rush. This process is important because it dictates the terms of the agreement and sets the foundations for a productive and healthy relationship. Involve the necessary stakeholders in the process and make sure that the IT folks or the system administrators are at the table. The system administrators typically interface with the vendor on a daily basis. They will be responsible for SLA monitoring, achievements, and/or shortfalls. Having a diverse audience engaged in this process helps you cover all your bases. Again, be methodological. This attention to detail will pay off.
Once you’ve negotiated and signed the contract, you’re on your way. Let the games begin!
You've built an all-star vendor selection committee. You've discussed the shortcomings of your current HMIS and what you'd like to see from a vendor. You've developed RFPs, sat through demonstrations, and evaluated all your options. It all culminated in selecting a qualified vendor that will streamline your systems of care. Pop that metaphorical (or literal, if you so choose) champagne!
We hope that this guide and collection of toolkits and resources helped you along in the process. Such an important decision requires diligence and education, and you rightfully deserve a celebratory break.
But it's only the beginning of the journey. The real work starts when the ink on the contract dries. It's one thing to have the right tools to help you serve the homeless population in your community; it's quite another to use them and achieve significant, life-changing results.
At Bitfocus, we know firsthand the kinds of challenges you face. We hold the distinction of being both a system administrator and vendor and can lend a unique point of view as a result. We believe in leveraging the latest technologies and our own experience in the field to deliver user-friendly, human-based solutions.
So thank you for spending time learning from us. If you're interested in learning how Clarity Human Services can satisfy and exceed your HMIS and Case Management solution needs, we invite you to schedule a chat with us by clicking here.
We look forward to hearing from you!