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April 27, 2009
Covalent Proposal for the City of Clearwater
Covalent was founded in September 2003 by Peter McHugh. Since then our
customer base has expanded rapidly from just four in January 2004 to over 125 local
government organizations by Q4 2008. Over the same time period, we have grown from
just six staff to over 30.
As this is our only market, product development is totally dictated by local government
needs, and there is no conflict with the demands of customers from other vertical sectors.
Furthermore, our staff is highly knowledgeable and understands the particular issues
facing local government organizations. Indeed, a large and growing number of our people
have themselves previously worked for a public sector body.
This means with Covalent you know you are getting a specialized public sector
performance management provider with your specific interests driving the company's
agenda.
Many local governments have a very skeptical view of software suppliers and distrust
most of what they say. All sorts of promises are made which are never borne out upon
implementation and rollout. Covalent wants to be different and surprise customers by
actually doing what we say we will.
"Genuine and honest attempts to meet customer requirements"
"They keep the customer well informed, do what they say they are going to do"
"The software is excellent, it does exactly what it says on the tin"
100% of customers that use Covalent would recommend the software to
other organizations.
Based on responses from 68 customers in the last 3 year's annual customer survey
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Covalent Proposal for the City of Clearwater
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Covalent is pleased to provide the following proposal to the City of Clearwater for
a pilot implementation of Covalent's Corporate Performance Management
software. It is our understanding that the pilot implementation will include a
limited number of named users with access to enterprise-level data with City-level
scorecards, snapshots and reports. Covalent will also provide implementation and
training services as outlined below. The initial agreement will be for one year,
with options to renew subsequent years. Should the City decide to expand the
implementation beyond the pilot, Covalent will work with the City to determine
and quantify project scope to include additional users and required services.
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Covalent is licensed on a Subscription model basis whereby the City would enter
into a 1 year contract and the software license, support and hosting costs are
included in the annual fee. The amount of the annual subscription is determined
by the total number of named users (with an individual login) that would have
access to the Covalent software. The pricing below reflects 30 named users.
The Services package (Implementation & Training) is invoiced as incurred and
applies only to the first year set-up. Since your Account Manager lives in
Clearwater, there will be no travel expenses associated with this implementation.
A discount off list price has been applied to the annual subscription charge.
Annual charge
Implementation & Training
Expenses
Total Year 1 charge
Discounted price
$10,000
$10,000
N/A
$20,000
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Covalent Proposal for the City of Clearwater
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?m? w ul would be as outlined below. Invoices are due for payment within 30
Si scription Charge for Year 1 wig be invoiced upon signing of the contract,
i,. , and, Training will be invoiced when the training is complete;
U For subsea ant years the Annual Subscription Charge will be invoiced upon the anniversary of the
%OnLIUCtsigq ,I ig date.
Peter McHugh
GEC
D;
. , If of the City of
William Horne II
City Manager
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Attest:
i
r Goudeau
City ; irk
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Covalent Proposal for the City of Clearwater
APPENDIX
Details of each component
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Once the Covalent system is live and fully operational, the customer is then managed by
our Support team. They provide an ongoing Support & Maintenance Service that includes
a large number of components:
• All upgrades to software functionality released during the year, to cover all enhancements
made to the existing functionality and new features added. Covalent releases a new software
version every quarter, so over a typical three year period this equates to 12 upgrades to the
software, for which there is no separate charge.
• Pre- and post-implementation technical support and user helpdesk call handling for
reporting and resolution of any technical and software usage issues. Covalent handles
customer contacts over four "channels":
• Telephone calls; we have a dedicated tech support phone number to avoid having to go
through the main switchboard. Standard helpdesk hours for telephone support are 9am
to 5pm
• Email to helpdesk@covalentsoftware.com where any member of the helpdesk can pick
up the contact and deal with it accordingly
• Web based support, providing direct access to status of calls logged already with the
helpdesk and ability to add new calls.
• Online Discussion Forums, where discussions on suggested and planned enhancements
and known issues can be dealt with
• The activities associated with the offsite hosting service covering all the associated
software (database, operating system) and server platform infrastructure. This also includes
all supporting system administration services such as data back, resilience, system
performance monitoring, as well as purchase of related operating system and database
licenses.
Proposed changes (the most important is the new helpdesk email for the US. Some others are
only typographical, nit-picky stuff and may not be appropriate):
• Pre- and post-implementation technical support and user helpdesk call handling for reporting
and resolution of any technical and software usage issues. Standard helpdesk hours are 8am to
6pm, during which Covalent handles customer contacts over three "channels":
o Telephone: We have a dedicated tech support phone number to avoid having to go
through the main switchboard.
o Email: helpdesk@covgov.com where any member of the helpdesk can pick up the
contact and deal with it accordingly.
o Online Discussion Forums: Where discussions on suggested and planned
enhancements and known issues can be dealt with.
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Covalent Proposal for the City of Clearwater
HOSTED SERVICE
Covalent is delivered as a hosted solution with the software and supporting performance
data managed within Covalent's specialized datacenter (in Rackspace Hosting, Texas) for
the duration of the contract. Covalent is responsible for all aspects of system
administration such as backups, technology upgrades/ fresh, system testing and
maintenance.
The hosting service that Covalent delivers includes the following:
• The Network which includes all datacenter network infrastructure including routers,
switches and cabling, and the services and software running on our server
• The critical infrastructure systems which includes functioning of all power and HVAC
infrastructure including UPSs, PDUs and cabling
• The hardware components including the Processors, RAM, hard disks, motherboard, NIC
card and other related hardware included with the server;
• All customer data is routinely backed up overnight and a full copy of each database is
stored on another server. There is also a rolling program of off-site data backup on a
weekly/ monthly cycle.
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Covalent Implementations & Training programs are delivered on a guaranteed fixed price
basis so there are no hidden extras or surprises. The price quoted above includes the
following Implementation Services and Site Admin Training.
Implementation Services
The service package would involve the following key milestones:
? A project kick-off at your office to discuss the project plan in detail, review sample data
and agree project sequencing and resourcing
? Agreement of data to be loaded and dispatch of such data by customer to Covalent in
whatever the current formats are (e.g. Word, Excel).
? Loading of all customer data by Covalent team
? Configuration of customer site, setting of preferences and default settings
? Ongoing project management by telephone, email and visit to customer offices where
necessary.
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Covalent Proposal for the City of Clearwater
Site Admin Training
This training is delivered to the prime users of Covalent (what we call "Site
Administrator") and covers a series of pre-defined training lessons that are tailored to
each customer's requirements. The training is delivered in your offices and structured as
a "hands-on" session, i.e. each user is working on their own version of Covalent on our
training site.
The Training package covers the full set of Site Administration training lessons over a two
day period.
It also provides for comprehensive one-on-one sessions and mentoring.
Additional End-User Training
Many customers would adopt a train-the-trainer approach with Covalent providing all the
training materials to the Site Administrators, or other Trainers, so that they can train
other staff within the customer organization. If you prefer that Covalent deliver End User
training, the types of training and associated costs are below:
Broadly there are three types of User Training sessions, -
? Active Users. Typically these sessions take 2 to 3 hours (depending on the precise content
that the customer wants), so if required we can do two sessions in one day.
? Data Inputters. Typically these sessions take 1 to 2 hours (depending on the precise
content that the customer wants); if required we can do up to three sessions in one day.
? Managers & Senior Staff. A "demo" style session that overviews how Covalent works and
focuses on the types of reports Covalent produces. If required we can do up to three
sessions in one day.
Active Users - 1 session a day $1,500
Active Users - 2 sessions a day $2,500
Data Inputters - 1 session a day $1,500
Data Inputters - 3 sessions a day $2,500
Managers/ Members - 1 session a day $1,500
Managers/ Members - 3 sessions a day $2,500
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It is realistic to think in terms of Covalent being live within 3 months of project start.
Broadly a Covalent project will pass through 5 major milestones on the way to
completion:
Project Kick-Off To finalize project scope and detail of information to be loaded Week 1
Familiarization Customer uses the initial training guide and workbook to Weeks 2-3
familiarize with Covalent in advance of the initial scheduled on-
site training.
Site Admin The two-day Site Administrator training is completed and the Week 3
Training customer's Covalent site is accessible, with relevant data
loaded and preference settings configured.
Consultant visit The remaining data loading should now be completed. Week 5
A refresher training session is delivered if necessary and
general guidance and advice provided over one day.
Project Live Any final data loading and configurations are completed, as are Week 6-8
all the acceptance tests.
Project Completion Document is sent to customer, which
outlines the work that has been completed and the data that
resides on the customer site.
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