Agency Human Services Dept

Contractor The Improve Group

SWIFT Contract Number 180816

Project Name DHS HCBS Labor Market Reporting

Project Number (if applicable) {Empty}

Summarize purpose of the contract, including why it was necessary: This contract was for the Improve Group to develop and execute the HCBS Labor Market Reporting that was mandated by the legislature. Due to the nature of the work of the contractor and available staff time, the management of this Reporting requirement was moved internal in the Summer of 2021.

Project Duration

Start Date Sat, 08/01/2020 - 00:00

Original end date Thu, 06/30/2022 - 00:00

Actual end date Wed, 06/30/2021 - 00:00

Did project finish on time? No

Total billable hours utilized (if applicable) {Empty}

Contract Amounts

Original contract: $408806

Amendments {Empty}

Contract total $199981

Did project finish within budget? Yes

What was the funding source? H5532827

Is this a sole source contract? No

If this was a single source contract, explain why the agency determined there was only a single source for the services (if applicable) {Empty}

Evaluator Name Meghan Lindblom

Evaluator Email Address meghan.lindblom@state.mn.us

Evaluate the contractor's timeliness Overall the contractor provided deliverables on time or communicated that they would be late. In some cases the communicated lateness still delayed the overall project timeline. Timeliness was one of the considerations that factored into cancelling the contract with this vendor.

Evaluate the contractor's quality The quality of the vendor was below the expectations of the project team and was discovered to be even lower than previously thought when all project documents were sent to DHS. Quality of the work was the main consideration that factored into cancelling the contract with this vendor. Luckily, DHS took over the project before the low quality work was distributed publicly.

Evaluate the contractor's cost Given the quality and timeliness of the work, the cost of the vendor was higher than the value of the work. Over-billing did not occur, but that would have been difficult given the deliverable-based contract. However, billing was sent early for deliverables that had not been submitted or were not signed-off by DHS staff. Multiple billing requests had to be sent back until work was completed.

Evaluate the contractor's overall performance The overall performance of this contractor was poor. The DHS project team decided to cancel this contract before the first year of work was complete due to poor quality of the deliverables and difficulty of working with the vendor.

Would you engage the contractor's services again? No

Describe any negative action taken during the duration of this contract (i.e., termination, pursuit of suspension, etc.): This contract was cancelled under clause 18.1. This cancellation was initiated because of the poor work done by the contractor. The main focus of this contract was large-scale data collection and the data received by DHS was incomplete and lacking many of the required tenets that were discussed with the vendor. In the year since cancelling the contract DHS staff has taken on the contracted work and produced a higher quality output. DHS continues in 2022 to respond to questions about the quality of the work done by this vendor. In the scope of data collection, survey development, and data analysis, the DHS project team would not recommend this vendor.

Please rate the overall experience with the contractor 2 - dissatisfied