Request for Information-Proposal- RFI RFP for EMIS Emissions Software

  

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 Request for Information- RFI & Request for Proposal-RFP Process Defined for Environmental Emissions Management Information System- EMIS Software: Technical, Security & EMIS Product Capture Considerations

In today’s competitive commodity energy trading and risk management C-ETRM software system vendor space vendors are accustomed to responding to a variety of Requests for Information-RFI and/or Request for Proposals -RFPs for Environmental Emissions Management Information System- EMIS Software. That being the case, it is important to define certain criteria that should be included and important features and benefits that are sometimes overlooked when entities are soliciting quality EMIS products.   With a host of options, features, functions and architectures available in the EMIS software space there remains some important technical, front-office, middle-office and back-office high-level features and functional areas that one should consider in a RFI- RFP proposal for EMIS software:

1. Technical – Is the software compatible with our technical infrastructure. Will it be able to easily integrate into our existing environment? Hint: Look for EMIS software system that has middle-ware technology built in for "Ease of Integration." Is the architecture web-based (thin client). What are the programming language skills that are needed to customize and/or manage change to the product or is the product configurable without the need for expensive coding skills. Hint: Look for newer technologies that are formula-driven and offer the ability to easily Configure (no coding needed) Vs. Customize (coding needed) to meet unique needs; this will drastically lower the cost of implementation and the total cost of ownership
2. Security- Is the security and audit features of the product in compliance with our internal security and audit protocols?
3. Does the platform offer EMIS process automation in the form of programmable work-flow
4. Front-office:
• Environmental/Emissions products-capture:     
• Will the system capture and track all of the products needed
• Can it easily configure to meet the gaps
• Does it feature dashboards and automate regulatory processes
• Does the system provide a means for EMIS professionals to easily configure preferences i.e. input field renaming, moving and hiding
• Does the product promote automation/integration with local regulatory entities           
• Will the system easily manage EMIS change; Is coding needed to modify the product? Precaution: Many EMIS vendors claim this capability, however few can deliver this feature without expensive coding changes, one test is to ask about the underlying code; if it is hard coded with .Net or Java without being configurable leveraging a  formula-driven architecture than it will require coding changes to meet unique requirements
5. Reporting-

• Is the reporting engine all web-based
• Is the EMIS framework compatible with Microsoft Office (import export capability)
• Does the system offer an internal Adhoc reporting capability
• Does the system require coding and/or do I have to  purchase a third party report writer (ex. Crystal reports) to get reports generated
• Does the system offer a simple means for generating reports, for example template-driven means (no coding needed) 
• Does it offer advanced reporting capability like business intelligence -OLAP cube reporting capability