Our clients are two sister Victorian government departments that operationally share resources to achieve their objectives. One department aims to ensure Victorians are safe and healthy, while the other department aims to create a more inclusive society where people feel safe and partake equally.

The departments were in the process of transitioning their financial system from on-premise to cloud-based. Several incompatible custom payment modules that previously facilitated payments for grants and concessions needed to be replaced by a new payment system.

The transition to the cloud-based financial system was due to occur at the commencement of the FY2022. The departments needed to replace two existing custom payment modules prior to this transition. To better facilitate customer needs, the project also had to deliver a digital portal where customers could lodge applications and update personal details.

Failure to meet this deadline would result in grants and concessions unable to be paid to caregiving and energy concession applicants. As the new financial system was Oracle Financials, it was decided that an Oracle payment platform would be used to replace the custom modules.

Terra Firma worked with internal SMEs and stakeholders to develop a detailed RFP to find a suitable delivery partner.

Terra Firma also assisted in the evaluation of vendor responses by building a scoring workbook, enabling evaluation panel members to enter a score for each requirement response. Subsequently, Terra Firma took part in the evaluation of vendor responses as an evaluation panel member.

Terra Firma undertook a step-by-step approach to develop the final RFP. To commence, we evaluated the current state through a series of discussions, one-on-one interviews, and a review of documentation.

Terra Firma set the desired future state through a series of workshops with SMEs and stakeholders from finance, IT, security, and operations. A formal RFP was drafted detailing the current situation, the desired future state, functional and non-functional requirements, and context setting data and information including transaction volumes, number of staff, and high-level workflows.

Terra Firma socialised the draft to the steering committee and other project stakeholders and incorporated all feedback as required. Final approval was gained from the steering committee. The RFP was put to market in line with the departments’ procurement processes.

While the RFP was out to market, Terra Firma worked with the procurement team to build a suitable evaluation workbook. The workbook aligned with procurement scoring requirements and enabled each evaluation panel member to input scores for each vendor response. The individual evaluation panel member scores were then dynamically tallied and weighted to provide a final score outcome for each vendor.

Terra Firma successfully delivered the RFP to market and facilitated the evaluation of each vendor response. Vendors were shortlisted and re-evaluated based on a set of clarification questions. The departments are currently in the process of engaging the preferred vendor.