Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board

1. Did you have any usage reports on the existing web-site (do you have figures such as hits per day/week/month?

2. What is the anticipated maximum concurrent hit? I am trying to estimate volumetrics, to get some idea as to the extent needed for load balancing etc..

We do not have specific figures for number of hits, however some information is available concerning times of heavier usage and number of users for the application.

The Board receives disclosure reports at various times of the year and has heavier usage during those particular times. In an election (even numbered) year there are anywhere from 4-6 report filings. The due dates for these reports are May 19, five days before the primary election, July 19, October 19, five days before the general election, and January 19 the following year.

In a non-election (odd numbered) year there are 1-2 report filings. The due dates for these reports are July 19 and January 19 of the following year.

There are approximately 275 committees that use the web application to file their reports. Reports are completed within a filing period and then submitted on or before specified due dates.

We have found that the biggest load comes from the larger committees, such as State Parties or Gubernatorial committees, that use our .xml import feature. There may be several hundred transactions imported by a single committee at one time. This usually comes close to or on the due date.

There have been some recent filing capabilities added to the application for which we do not yet have numbers.

3.  All costs being equal, is the preference to have a Service Provider host and maintain the existing applications? Or is the preference to rebuild the applications described?  

At this time there is no preference.

4.  With a rebuild in .Net, is there a preferred language (VB.Net or C#) and is there a preferred version of .Net (1.1 or 2.0)?  

There is no preference in language, however the preferred version of .net would be the latest version.

5.  What type of database is used to support the described applications?

Currently the application database is DB2.

6. A conversion of the described applications to .Net may open an opportunity to convert other components, like database and reporting engines. Has consideration been given to converting these components? If so, what options have been outlined?

The Board will consider options presented for conversion.

7. Will the successful bidder be given access to all source code for the current applications?

Current source code is available on request. Because of size it is distributed on CD.

8. Where are the current applications hosted? What is the date for that contract expiration?  Are there options to extend the existing hosting services or will all applications need to move to new servers?

The application was developed by and is maintained and hosted by the State's IT department.

9. Can you find out how much disk space is currently needed for the existing databases?

• The DB2 database is currently about 725MB excluding backups and logs.
• The Business Objects database is currently about 170MB in size.