Request for Proposal (RFP) for Student Information System Development Partnership Closed without Award: Context and Next Steps

After more than 10 months of proposal, review, consideration and discussion, the current Request for Proposal (RFP) for a student information system (SIS) development partnership has been closed without award. Instead, we will pursue a new RFP that can better meet current needs.

Significant work has been done by stakeholders throughout the university to get to this point in defining our needs and the best way forward. Additional work on and preparation for the project is still ongoing. Continue reading for more information about this decision and its implications for the project and the university.

About the Decision
The SIS Project was launched in February 2019, as part of our campus Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) effort with the goal of implementing a comprehensive, modern solution to support academic and business transactions throughout a student’s academic lifecycle and to provide analytics to help improve the student experience and student educational outcomes.

After closing the initial RFP for a new SIS without award in May 2021 due to not finding a solution sufficiently aligned with our progressive vision for an SIS, a second RFP was opened in October 2021, this time seeking a vendor to partner with UC San Diego to develop a SIS capable of meeting the ever-evolving needs of our complex academic enterprise.

Vendors participating in this second RFP submitted responses to a series of questions ranging from overall philosophy and approach for a design partnership to specific details such as resourcing, feature availability and change management. Then the vendors met with a scoring team composed of the project core team and selected members of the project governance committee to answer further questions. Following these meetings, scores for each vendor were tabulated, and the scoring team and the ESR Procurement team worked to determine viable paths forward, which were then presented to project governance and the project sponsor, Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons.

The decision to move forward without an award for a second time was made after careful review of not only the proposals of the participating vendors, but also with a mind to safeguarding the student experience and our ongoing business operations. At this time, the risks of committing to a partnership to develop a student information system with a vendor, especially the risks of not being able to meet project deadlines or deliverables, are too great. This is why we have closed the second RFP without award.

Next Steps
While pursuing a development partnership would have presented certain risks, there are also very real risks in remaining on our current SIS. This is why our next step will be opening a new RFP seeking a mature system that can meet our current needs.

The scope of our needs has changed since we released the first RFP in early 2020; for example, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has added new, unique requirements to the functions we need in a SIS and the new financial aid system we are implementing has removed the need for a SIS to provide those functions. Because of this, the questions we ask the RFP respondents and the functionality we expect them to demonstrate will be different.

Through this approach of opening another RFP, we will be able to address the risks of remaining on an aging system, avoid the risks inherent in partnering to develop a system, complete the due diligence of ensuring whichever new system we choose meets our evolved needs, and continue to make improvements to the student, faculty and staff experience.

The SIS Project team will immediately begin the process of opening a new RFP with the expectation of going live with a new student information system in Winter 2025. The team will also continue to take the necessary steps to prepare university stakeholders and systems for the upcoming transition to whichever system is selected through this third RFP.

The project executive sponsor, governance committee and core team thank the entire university community for their continued participation and support of this ongoing effort.

Please subscribe to the SIS project newsletter to keep apprised of the latest news from the project, and visit https://esr.ucsd.edu/projects/student/ to learn more about the project.

Carlos Jensen
Associate Vice Chancellor, Educational Innovation
Chair, SIS Project Governance Committee