WEB-BASED TRAINING CONTENT DELIVERED THROUGH A LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

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ERIE COUNTY
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
TO PROVIDE:
Web-Based Training Content Delivered
Through a Learning Management System
RFP # 2026-035VF
APRIL 13, 2026
Erie County Department of Personnel
Brian C. Bray, Commissioner
EDWARD A. RATH COUNTY OFFICE BUILDING
95 FRANKLIN STREET
BUFFALO, NEW YORK 14202

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COUNTY OF ERIE, NEW YORK
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS ("RFP")
RFP# 2026-035VF
TO PROVIDE - WEB-BASED TRAINING CONTENT DELIVERED THROUGH
A LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
I. INTRODUCTION
The County of Erie, New York (the "County") is currently seeking Proposal Statements from
qualified firms to provide state-of-the-art web-based training content for delivery through a
Learning Management System ("LMS"). Proposers interested in providing these services are
invited to respond to this request.
It is the County's intent to select the Proposer that provides the best solution for the County's needs.
The County reserves the right to amend this RFP. The County reserves the right to reject any or
all of the proposals, or any part thereof, submitted in response to this RFP, and reserves the right
to waive formalities, if such action is deemed to be in the best interest of the County. The County
reserves the right to request additional information from any proposer. The County reserves the
right to award negotiated contracts to one or more proposers.
This RFP is not intended and shall not be construed to commit the County to pay any costs incurred
in connection with any proposal or to procure or contract with any firm.
The County will only contract with firms that do not discriminate against employees or applicants
for employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status,
sexual orientation, citizenship status or any other status protected by New York State and Federal
laws.
II. PROPOSAL PROCEDURES
A. ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE OF PROPOSAL
Issue RFP: April 13, 2026
RFP Informational Meeting: April 27, 2026 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
RFP Informational Meeting will be held via WebEx. Register for the Informational
Meeting by contacting diana.rose@erie.gov by April 23, 2026.
Proposals Due: May 8, 2026
Selection Made by: May 22, 2026
Contract Signed: Following all necessary County approvals.
Requests for clarification of this RFP must be written and submitted to Personnel
Specialist Diana Rose at diana.rose@erie.gov. Questions may be submitted until 4:00 pm
EST on April 22, 2026. Formal written responses will be distributed by the County on
April 27, 2026, and will be available at https://www3.erie.gov/purchasing/requests-
proposals-construction-bids.
B. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

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1. Each proposal shall be prepared simply and economically avoiding the use of elaborate
promotional materials beyond what is sufficient to provide a complete, accurate and
reliable presentation. Proposals shall be limited to fifteen (15) pages. The following items
are specifically excluded from the fifteen-page limit: Transmittal Letter / Signed Proposer
Certification (Schedule A); Table of Contents; Cost Proposal (submitted in a separate,
sealed envelope); MBE/WBE and Veteran-Owned Business Certification letters; Resumes
of key personnel (if provided as an appendix); Proof of Insurance / Standard Insurance
Provisions (Schedule B).
2. One (1) original and three (3) copies shall be submitted. Proposals MUST be signed.
Unsigned proposals will be rejected. One (1) electronic copy of the proposal shall also be
submitted electronically to diana.rose@erie.gov.
3. Submission of the proposals shall be directed to:
Diana Rose
Erie County Department of Personnel
95 Franklin Street, Room 604
Buffalo, NY 14202
All proposals must be delivered to the above office on or before May 1, 2026 at 4:00
p.m. EST. Proposals received after the above date and time will not be considered.
The County is under no obligation to return proposals.
4. NO COMMUNICATIONS OF ANY KIND WILL BE BINDING AGAINST THE
COUNTY, EXCEPT FOR THE FORMAL WRITTEN RESPONSES TO ANY
REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATION.
5. Proposers may be required to give an oral presentation to the County to clarify or elaborate
on the written proposal. Those proposers will be notified to arrange specific times.
6. No proposal will be accepted from nor any agreement awarded to any proposer that is in
arrears upon any debt or in default of any obligation owed to the County. Additionally, no
agreement will be awarded to any proposer that has failed to satisfactorily perform pursuant
to any prior agreement with the County.
7. Certified Minority Business Enterprise/Women's Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE)
proposers should include the Erie County certification letter with the proposal.
8. If proposer is a Veteran Owned Business, proposer should include letter indicating
company is 51% or more Veteran-owned.
All proposers submitting proposals must include a cost proposal in a separate sealed
envelope clearly labeled with the proposer name, due date of proposal, proposal
name "Request for Proposals to Provide Web-Based Training Content Delivered
through a Learning Management System RFP # " and Cost Proposal.
III. SCOPE OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES REQUIRED
A. COUNTY OVERVIEW

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The County, including Erie Community College, currently employs nearly 6,000
individuals, including approximately 600 supervisor / management personnel in over 20
departments. Erie County provides a broad range of services through departments such as
Social Services, Public Works, Sheriff's Office, Health, etc.
B. GOALS
The County of Erie is seeking to acquire web-based training content delivered through a
learning management system maintained by a vendor. Our goal is to improve performance
and achieve full compliance in mandated subjects by providing web-based training to all
personnel. Training topics are prioritized as follows:
1. Prevention of Discrimination, Harassment, and Workplace Violence for
Employees and Supervisors;
2. Safety;
3. Supervisory Core; and
4. Management / Leadership.
C. OBJECTIVES
This contract will allow Erie County to support training using an integrated online
learning portal to deliver a rich mixture of elearning courses, videos, books, and
supporting resources that are aligned with industry standards and best-practices.
These objectives include:
* Maintain compliance in mandated topics for 6,000 employees.
* Improve employee performance through engaging courses.
* Provide consistent delivery of content.
* Track employee online and in-classroom training.
* Track employee proficiency in course work.
* Offer training and supplemental opportunities for professional development.
D. WEB-BASED TRAINING REQUIREMENTS OVERVIEW
The contractor shall provide licensed access for up to 6,000 employees to a
hosted online platform that enables user administration and integrated e-learning
content access to include the following courseware areas:
o Legal / Federal Compliance
o Health and Safety Training
o Professional Development, including IT Professional Skills and Digital
/ End User Skills
The solution shall include existing and future title releases for all required content
collections.
The online deployment platform shall function as a learning portal providing
integrated access and tracking across multiple types of learning resources, with
flexible options for content discovery, site administration and branding, and
integration with other HR systems and processes at Erie County.

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The licensed solution shall include program implementation and utilization
support as well as help desk services for end user and administrator technical
assistance.
Courseware must also include a legal, New York state, and federal
compliance courseware collection designed to address compliance training
needs such as Human Resources, employment, and HIPAA issues and
government specific topics, such as, but not be limited to:
* EEO and Preventing Discrimination in the Workplace;
* Information Security Awareness;
* Privacy Awareness;
* Sexual Harassment Prevention;
* Workplace Safety;
* Workplace Violence; and
* Government Ethics.
E. LMS TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS
A Learning Management System with appropriate bandwidth to sustain upto 6,000
employees.
F. CURRENT TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Current standards for Erie County include: Operating Systems: Windows 11 and Microsoft
365.
G. CONTENT REQUIREMENTS
Products and services are to include, but are not limited to the following:
1. Ongoing curriculum and courses based upon compliance requirements and
performance standards for County personnel. At minimum, the core components of
each module should contain:
a. A design for high interaction with the learner;
b. Variety of presentations formats: online course, videos, webinars, etc.;
c. Teaching text supplemented with key principles - presented for laymen
understanding;
d. Teaching material using examples relevant to the lesson;
e. An assessment to determine the learner's comprehension of the lesson;
f. Pertinent written documents the learners may print and keep for review;
g. Ability to customize content for our users;
h. Customized content interfaces;
i. Ability to customize for sight impaired individuals;
j. Ability to develop learning plans for individual units/departments;
k. Includes navigation tools;
l. Ability to approve learning requests; and

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m. Provide learning plans, transcript ability to select courses from libraries such as,
Business Skills, Communication Skills, compliance, Health, Safety and
Wellness, systems and Applications, Project Management.
2. Modules should have bookmarking capability. The individual should be able to leave
the course at any time and have their work saved.
3. Customization of content to include a County & Partner homepage and a link to
applicable County Policy and Procedures, forms, and contact information.
4. Ongoing Program Features:
a. Course updates to reflect changes in case law, government regulations,
legislation, compliance standards, etc. Updates should be available for no
additional cost.
b. Curriculum Updates - Availability to change curriculums and course selections
as needed.
c. Compliance Services Review- Periodic reviews to evaluate usage, measurement
against plan, recommend changes or enhancements to program.
d. Option to change courses periodically during contract term
e. Provide a course evaluation for each course/user
H. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
1. Reporting tools on captured training fields;
2. Provides automatic periodic reports;
3. Ability to create and customize reports;
4. Provide dashboard of usage; and
5. By course asset, department, etc.
I. TECHNICAL AND PROGRAM SUPPORT FOR ADMINISTRATION OF WEB-
BASED LEARNING PROGRAM
1. Provide technical support to Erie County administrators, including:
a. Ability to upload and download personnel changes through batch file processing;
b. Ability to download training history through batch file processing;
c. As needed access to activate/deactivate licenses as employees enter and separate
from Erie County;
d. Ability to export personnel training history in Excel format; and
e. Provide 24/7 technical support to all users.
2. Provide program support to Erie County Administrators
a. Design homepage tailored to Erie County;
b. Develop communication plans and marketing materials for courses;
c. Incorporate Erie County classroom course into application - including
registration, tracking and history; and
d. Provide long-term storage of training records.
J. QUESTIONNAIRE

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Your RFP response must answer all of the following questions. Please use these questions
as a guideline for the type of information needed in the RFP response, not as the entirety
of what should be included.
Course Content
1. How many concurrent users can the online training support?
2. To what extent can content be customized?
3. What is the turnaround time for submitted customization to be implemented?
4. Can the training be customized to fit the unique needs of the end user (hearing/
visually impaired)? If so, what are cost and maintenance implications?
5. Can modules include customization for courses and curriculum to ensure certain
modules are specific for the unique needs of County personnel? For example,
Bloodborne Pathogen for Law Enforcement/Corrections, Bloodborne Pathogens
for Healthcare, and Bloodborne Pathogens for a general office audience.
6. What is the upgrade schedule for the training content as a product?
7. What types of teaching aids are included in the lesson content: graphics, videos,
case studies, etc.
8. Does the content provide multiple levels? (i.e. a clinical person would not need
the level of training as a system maintainer)
9. Does the content provide boilerplate compliance content
reviewed/certified/endorsed by any third-party? If so, by what
agency/organization?
10. How many libraries and courses are available?
11. Does each module have a resource library? If so, are the materials printable?
12. Is the learner given the opportunity to evaluate the course?
13. Is the tracking of non-proprietary courses available?
Implementation:
1. What is the implementation schedule?
2. How long does it typically take to implement the web-based content from the
time of the signed contract?
3. How is the end user instructed in the use of the program?
4. Is application administration training required?
5. Does the proposal cost include the training of County personnel to administer the
program?
6. Who is the account manager? What is the project management model? For
example, is communication done by phone or email on a weekly basis?
7. Is the account manager available for support when needed?
8. What post implementation support is included in the cost?
Licensing
1. Are there different licensing models available?
2. What are the requirements for a licensed user?
3. Can licenses be added or reduced? If so, what are the cost implications?
Technical
1. Does the online training solution support a centralized authentication mechanism,
such as LDAP, Kerberos, or Active Directory authentication?
2. Are there any restrictions on the number of times a user can go over a specific
area of training?
Reporting

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1. What reports are generated by the content provider?
K. PRICING
The Proposer will provide web-based content with detailed breakdowns of proposed
process, licensing fees, annual maintenance fees, and rate schedules for all development,
upgrades or enhancement; and rates for all services offered, including , but not limited to
installation and setup and implementation support and consultation, data/database services,
maintenance, operational training support, technical training support, system and
operational documentation and manuals, etc., and including an explanation for any
additional costs for each of the following:
Prices are to be no higher than those offered to any other governmental or commercial
consumer. If a proposer has a municipal, New York State or a Federal GSA contract for
any of the items covered in this proposal or any similar items, proposer shall so indicate
that proposer has said contract(s) and supply a copy of the rates charged pursuant to
such contract(s).
IV. STATEMENT OF RIGHTS
UNDERSTANDINGS
Please take notice, by submission of a proposal in response to this request for proposals, the
proposer agrees to and understands:
* that any proposal, attachments, additional information, etc. submitted pursuant to this
Request for Proposals constitute merely a suggestion to negotiate with the County of Erie
and is not a bid under Section 103 of the New York State General Municipal Law;
* submission of a proposal, attachments, and additional information shall not entitle the
proposer to enter into an agreement with the County of Erie for the required services;
* by submitting a proposal, the proposer agrees and understands that the County of Erie is
not obligated to respond to the proposal, nor is it legally bound in any manner whatsoever
by submission of same;
* that any and all counter-proposals, negotiations or any communications received by a
proposing entity, its officers, employees or agents from the County, its elected officials,
officers, employees or agents, shall not be binding against the County of Erie, its elected
officials, officers, employees or agents unless and until a formal written agreement for the
services sought by this RFP is duly executed by both parties and approved by the Erie
County Legislature, the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority, and the Office of the Erie
County Attorney.
In addition to the foregoing, by submitting a proposal, the proposer also understands and agrees
that the County of Erie reserves the right, and may at its sole discretion exercise, the following
rights and options with respect to this Request for Proposals:
* To reject any or all proposals;
* To issue amendments to this RFP;
* To issue additional solicitations for proposals

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* To waive any irregularities in proposals received after notification to proposers affected;
* To select any proposal as the basis for negotiations of a contract, and to negotiate with
one or more of the proposers for amendments or other modifications to their proposals;
* To conduct investigations with respect to the qualifications of each proposer;
* To exercise its discretion and apply its judgment with respect to any aspect of this RFP,
the evaluation of proposals, and the negotiations and award of any contract;
* To enter into an agreement for only portions (or not to enter into an agreement for any) of
the services contemplated by the proposals with one or more of the proposers;
* To select the proposal that best satisfies the interests of the County and not necessarily on
the basis of price or any other single factor;
* To interview the proposer(s);
* To request or obtain additional information the County deems necessary to determine the
ability of the proposer;
* To modify dates;
* All proposals prepared in response to this RFP are at the sole expense of the proposer,
and with the express understanding that there will be no claim, whatsoever, for
reimbursement from the County for the expenses of preparation. The County assumes no
responsibility or liability of any kind for costs incurred in the preparation or submission
of any proposal;
* While this is a RFP and not a bid, the County reserves the right to apply the case law
under General Municipal Law 103 regarding bidder responsibility in determining
whether a proposer is a responsible vendor for the purpose of this RFP process;
* The County is not responsible for any internal or external delivery delays which may
cause any proposal to arrive beyond the stated deadline. To be considered, proposals
MUST arrive at the place specified herein and be time stamped prior to the deadline
EVALUATION
The following criteria, not necessarily listed in order of importance, will be used to review the
proposals. The County reserves the right to weigh its evaluation criteria in any manner it deems
appropriate:
* Proposer's demonstrated capability to provide the services.
* Evaluation of the professional qualifications, personal background and resume(s) of
individuals involved in providing services.
* Proposer's experience to perform the proposed services.
* Proposer's financial ability to provide the services.

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* Evaluation of the proposer's fee submission. It should be noted that while price is not the
only consideration, it is an important one.
* A determination that the proposer has submitted a complete and responsive proposal as
required by this RFP.
* An evaluation of the proposer's projected approach and plans to meet the requirements of
this RFP.
* The proposer's presentation at and the overall results of any interview conducted with the
proposer.
* Proposers MUST sign the Proposal Certification attached hereto as Schedule "A".
Unsigned proposals will be rejected.
* Proposers may be required to give an oral presentation to the County to clarify or elaborate
on the written proposal.
* No proposal will be accepted from nor any agreement awarded to any proposer that is in
arrears upon any debt or in default of any obligation owed to the County. Additionally, no
agreement will be awarded to any proposer that has failed to satisfactorily perform pursuant
to any prior agreement with the County.
CONTRACT
After selection of the successful proposer, a formal written contract will be prepared by the County
of Erie and will not be binding until signed by both parties and, if necessary, approved by the Erie
County Legislature, the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority and the Office of the County
Attorney. NO RIGHTS SHALL ACCRUE TO ANY PROPOSER BY THE FACT THAT A
PROPOSAL HAS BEEN SELECTED BY THE COUNTY FOR SUBMISSION TO THE ERIE
COUNTY LEGISLATURE AND/OR THE ERIE COUNTY FISCAL STABILITY AUTHORITY
FOR APPROVAL. THE APPROVAL OF SAID LEGISLATURE AND/OR AUTHORITY MAY
BE NECESSARY BEFORE A VALID AND BINDING CONTRACT MAY BE EXECUTED BY
THE COUNTY.
The term of the contract shall be for a three (3) year period commencing July 19, 2026, and
terminating July 19, 2029. The County, in its sole discretion may extend the agreement beyond is
initial term for up to three (3) additional one (1)-year periods at the same prices and conditions.
INDEMNIFICATION AND INSURANCE
The proposer accepts and agrees that language in substantially the following form will be included
in the contract between the proposer and the County:
"In addition to, and not in limitation of the insurance requirements contained
herein the Consultant agrees:
(a) that except for the amount, if any, of damage contributed to, caused by or
resulting from the negligence of the County, the Consultant shall indemnify and
hold harmless the County, its officers, employees and agents from and against any