YorkU is inviting Proponents to share information that will inform the upcoming procurement process for a research management system. In the information gathering stage, YorkU is open to all types of Solutions that are available on the market. Canadian clientele and company stability are important; in order to have longevity with the new Solution and to ensure that it can support the needs of a Canadian university, the respondent should have a track record of supporting Canadian clients and have a stable history. The proposed Solution (or Solutions) should ideally meet most of the desirable requirements listed below. We are looking for vendors that can provide in whole or in part the requirements listed below. Note: Requirements listed with ** are considered the most desirable.
Desired Technical Requirements
• Application to be compatible with either a Virtual Server or Cloud based solution – the proposed Solution should be able to run within a virtual or online environment. Note: Servers should be located within Canada.
• Support for York’s Database Management Systems – the Solution must be compatible with Oracle, ExaData, MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server.
• **Ability to integrate into York’s Identity Management System- Ability to integrate with York’s Active Directory infrastructure. The ability to provide a thorough access control mechanism to facilitate multiple users and groups with different access privileges.
• ** Application Programming Interface: The Solution should have a robust Application Programming Interface (API) preferably that conforms to the constraints of REST (representational state transfer) architectural. This API should have capability to integrate with PeopleSoft HR and Finance.
• Ability to integrate and/or extract data from other key York systems- Ability to integrate and/or extract data from the Solution to other enterprise systems, as well as extract data from enterprise systems to the Solution. These systems include; for example, PeopleSoft HR and Finance modules, Student Information System (SIS) Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Electronic CV (e-CV)/ Research outputs systems, business intelligence systems (Power BI), Business Process Management System (Workflow), operational reporting tools and data-warehousing systems. In addition, the Solution should have the ability to extract information for reporting using SAS.
• Scalability – the Solution should allow for scalability in the storage and performance space as York’s research applications, grants and awards increase. Cost differentials, if any, for different capacities should be noted in the response.
• **Workflow Management – Ability to capture approvals, chronicle correspondence (using E-mail) and log interactions during the grants and contracts process, while displaying stages of the process to the end user. Alternatively, the Solution should have the ability to integrate with a BPMS that can provide this functionality.
• French-Canadian Capability – Ability for the system to store records in French-Canadian, in the content, as well as in the menu and help features. Also interested in any Solution that has native dual language capabilities.
• Data extract from current system – the Solution should have the ability to import data from the current system to ensure current records and historical data are not lost
Desired Functional Requirements
• **Grants and contracts – the ability for the Solution to manage the lifecycle of grant applications and comprehensive contracts that fund research as well as contracts
that do not have monetary implications such as Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs), Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Confidentiality Agreements (CAs), etc.
• Award and prizes – the ability to track the nominations for awards and prizes and allow for internal competitions including adjudication.
• Research proposal creation – a functionality which allows York’s internal and external funding competitions to be managed through the Solution; i.e., the researchers may develop on-line applications within the Solution and submit the applications electronically to York’s external funding organizations as well as to York’s internal awards. The Solution could also integrate with an electronic CV solution for research proposals.
• Technology transfer – ability to track invention disclosures and other Intellectual Property (“IP”) information such as patents and marketing plans.
• Research ethics – ability to manage all research ethics approval processes and workflows prior to issuing a Notice of Award.
• Electronic document repository – ability to retain electronic documents associated with grants and contracts.
• Accessible user interface – user-friendly interface is required as there will be several types of users, with different roles and responsibilities, accessing the Solution.
• Report creation – the ability to produce reports and metrics that will be used to measure research performance based on various data, (for example but not limited to number applications submitted/awarded, number of faculty, industry partners and sectors etc.). In addition, the Solution should be able to create ad-hoc end-user queries, i.e.: design our own reports. Ideally the Solution would also be able to directly integrate with business intelligence tools like PowerBI.
• Form and letter creation – the proposed Solution should be able to automatically generate key application forms and letters (such as Notice of Awards, Notice of Results, Budget and Applications Forms) using Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat.
