DCF OCS Omnichannel RFI

1 Revised: July 28, 2022 Department of Buildings and General Services Agency of Administration Office of Purchasing & Contracting 133 State Street, 5th Floor | Montpelier VT 05633-8000 802-828-2211 phone |802-828-2222 fax http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing SEALED BID REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ISSUE DATE March 13, 2023 QUESTIONS DUE March 24, 2023 – 4:30 PM (EST) RFI RESPONSES DUE BY April 14, 2023 – 4:30 PM (EST) PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT ALL NOTIFICATIONS, RELEASES, AND ADDENDUMS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS RFI WILL BE POSTED AT: http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php THE STATE WILL MAKE NO ATTEMPT TO CONTACT INTERESTED PARTIES WITH UPDATED INFORMATION. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH BIDDER TO PERIODICALLY CHECK THE ABOVE WEBPAGE FOR ANY AND ALL NOTIFICATIONS, RELEASES AND ADDENDUMS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS RFI.

STATE CONTACT: Kyle Emerson, State Purchasing Agent II TELEPHONE: (802) 249-7394 E-MAIL: kyle.emerson@vermont.gov USE SUBJECT: DCF OCS Omnichannel http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php 2 Revised: July 28, 2022 1 PURPOSE This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for the Agency of Digital Services on behalf of the Agency of Human Services, Department of Children & Families, Office of Child Support division to gather input and obtain information and cost estimates in proceeding with proposals to be able to provide its customers with an updated and modernized electronic payment platform solution. Options should consider payments coming from multiple sources, including non-custodial parents and employers, while also addressing the unique child support payment frequency/needs. The Office of Child Support (OCS) intends to evaluate the submissions by respondents to explore how they would meet their needs and understand the cost associated with available solutions. The Office of Child Support shall not be held liable for any costs incurred by the vendors in the preparation of their submission, or for any work performed prior to contract issuance. 1.1 Liability THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This request for information does not commit the State to contract for any materials or service whatsoever. Further, the State is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Respondents are advised that the State will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If an RFP is released, it will be posted on the BGS bid opportunities web site: http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor this site for additional information. 1.2 Confidentiality The State retains the right to promote transparency and to place this RFI into the public domain, and to make a copy of the RFI available as a provision of the Vermont access to public records laws. Please do not include any information in your RFI response that is confidential or proprietary, as the State assumes no responsibility for excluding information in response to records requests. Any request for information made by a third party will be examined in light of the exemptions provided in the Vermont access to public records laws. The solicitation of this RFI does not commit OCS or the State of Vermont to award a contract. This RFI is for information gathering purposes only and no vendor will be selected, pre-qualified, or exempted based upon their RFI participation. 2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION The Office of Child Support (OCS) collects and distributes approximately $40 Million a year of child support money and serves over 14,000 children. Much of this money is collected and remitted by employers in compliance with income-withholding orders. In other cases, payments are made directly by the parent owing support, known as the Non-Custodial Parent (NCP). Thus, the needs of our payment remitters vary greatly -- from global Fortune 500 corporations to seasonal workers without a bank account or smartphone. OCS is interested in a solution that offers a wide variety of payment channels, meeting the needs of all customer demographics with user interfaces that appear modern and easy to navigate, which ideally would reduce operational costs and increase child support collections. Data shows that inefficient payment options often lead to customers using methods like checks that delay payments, require time-consuming manual work, slow revenue collection, and increase costs. Self-service payment channels – including payment by IVR, text, digital wallets, auto- pay, and kiosks at large retailers like Walmart, with efficient user experiences - allow customers to complete payments quickly and easily, driving up usage and adoption. http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php 3 Revised: July 28, 2022 3 RFI DESCRIPTION The State is seeking information leading to a solution to its business goals and will consider any information, including partial responses, received in response to this RFI. These may or may not be configurable off the shelf products or services. The State is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) with the following key objectives: • Provide prospective respondents with information regarding the business needs. • Solicit respondent information to assist the State in determining if identified requirements can be met cost- effectively. • Solicit respondent information to assist the State in determining if identified requirements can be met by available software/hardware COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) alternatives. • Possibly Demonstrate a Proof of Concept. In the future, the State anticipates issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) that has been informed by the results of this RFI. If the State moves forward in the development of an RFP, the RFP process will be open to all respondents regardless of their decision to participate in this RFI. 4 CURRENT STATE OCS currently has a multi-mode payment system known as EZPay4Kids that has been in operation since Spring 2014. 4.1 Reconciliation Overview OCS reconciles EZPay4Kids payment activity daily. To do so, OCS must check and compare data in three areas: • Merchant Services -- confirm the daily credit card and ACH payments processed. • Lockbox Report -- confirm the daily payment activity on the specific cases to which the payments apply. • Bank -- confirm the total daily deposits, credit card receipts and ACH payments processed. OCS enters the total deposit amount for these electronic payments into the State Financial Management system (Vision) per deposit date; this is the date that the funds actually arrive in the bank account. The information is gathered across multiple days to ensure that the numbers all match up with one another: Day 1: payment for a case is initiated in EZPay4Kids. Day 2: payment data is sent to the Lockbox; all jobs processed at SOV at 6:30 pm. Day 3: payment data appears in OCS’s ACCESS mainframe case management system. Day 4+: payments are deposited into a bank account; deposit details are recorded in the State Financial Management System (Vision) based on actual deposit date. 4.2 Current System components OCS Payment Processing Payment options include the following: Cash, Money Order, Check, Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH/E-Check. Electronic payments can be made directly on EZPay4Kids or can be made by phone through OCS staff members. Payments come from multiple sources: Primarily from Employers and Non-Custodial Parents, but can also include Worker’s Compensation Companies, Trustee Process collections, etc. Lockbox – Lockbox Services are provided to OCS a State of Vermont Banking Partner, TD Bank, where they process payments made by check or money order that are mailed to a PO Box address. The payments get scanned along with accompanying remittance coupons that are coded to help identify to which case(s) the payments should apply. Payment data for these payments gets captured throughout the day and, once the daily 4 Revised: July 28, 2022 payment processing is complete, the data gets sent to OCS each afternoon. The payment data for the electronic payments made via EZPay4Kids is included in a separate payment batch and is included in the final data transmission between TD Bank Lockbox and OCS. The data files then get processed each evening at 6:30 pm at which time the individual payments get applied to the appropriate OCS cases in ACCESS. ACCESS – is the case management system used by OCS. OCS staff are able to track all case, court, and payment activities throughout the lifetime of a Child Support Case in ACCESS. Vision – is the Financial Management System used by the State of Vermont. OCS enters financial information into Vision that reflects all receipts, all disbursement, and the transfer of funds from one account to the other. There is no direct link between Vision and ACCESS, so all financial information must be entered manually into Vision. OCS – is responsible for ensuring the proper federal guidelines are followed for all payments received and disbursed across all payment platforms. OCS conducts daily and monthly reconciliations with all payments (incoming and outgoing) and handles any irregularities and issues through manual entry and intervention. 4.3 Context Diagram 5 STATEMENT OF WORK 5 Revised: July 28, 2022 The purpose of this RFI is to identify commercially available products or services that may be capable of meeting both the Department’s and the State’s requirements. Vendors are encouraged to provide alternative approaches consistent with the overall vision of OCS and the State. The State’s discovery efforts to date have resulted in a desire to acquire products or services with the following attributes: 5.1 Business Requirements OCS envisions that the solution will support the following high-level goals: • Provide a robust, accessible, and easy to use multi-channel payment platform that accommodates the diverse needs of OCS stakeholders. • Provide a turnkey and cost-effective product or service that addresses the need for frequent payments with reasonable convenience fees paid by OCS customers. • Interoperate smoothly with existing legacy financial and reporting systems. • Expand, update, and modernize the electronic payment options offered to its paying customers. • Provide modes of payment that are easy to navigate and use for both Payors and OCS staff. • Minimize the need for OCS staff to intervene to verify payment amounts, reply to calls for customer assistance or to troubleshoot and correct issues with payment transactions. • Implement a fee structure for electronic payments that accommodates unique and sometimes irregular child support payments while reducing OCS’s operational costs. 5.2 Technical Requirements 5.2.1 State IT Platforms The State has designated several technology platforms as preferred technologies in its technology modernization strategy. Does your product or service employ any of the identified platforms listed below? • Salesforce – customer relations management, workflow automation, case management • OnBase – content / document management • MuleSoft – data integration services • Okta – authentication services • NIC (a subsidiary of Tyler Technologies) – electronic payment services / merchant services 5.2.2 Disaster Recovery • What are your backup and recovery policies and procedures? • Describe any disaster recovery or continuity of business practices and policies that support your product or service. • Does your product or service have standard RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective)? 5.2.3 Security What standards does your product or service conform to with regard to the following classes of information? 6 Revised: July 28, 2022 • Personally Identifiable Information (PII) • Information related to health, HIPAA • Credit card payments • Information related to minors • Other sensitive, confidential, or non-public information 5.3 Questions 1. Do you have any recent experience with other child support agencies? Please describe. Which agencies, for example? 2. What modes of payment transaction does your product or service implement? • Phone (IVR that would be PCI compliant) • Website • Mobile Apps (payment portal specific app, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay) • In person or kiosk in store • Other 3. Which types of payment method does your product or service support? • Credit / Debit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) • Electronic check • Venmo • PayPal • Apple Pay and Google Pay • Checks / money orders by mail • Other 4. Are ACH payments verified or validated in real time by your product or service? Please describe your payment validation process. 5. Please describe your product or service’s messaging options. • Email • SMS Text • Voice • Online chat / AI capability • Other 6. Please describe your product or service’s reminder capabilities • Email • SMS Text • Voice • Online chat / AI capability 7 Revised: July 28, 2022 • Other 7. Which pricing model options are available for your product or service? • Implementation fees • Account initiation fees • Transaction fees • Convenience fees • Supplemental fees • Bad transaction fees • Fixed fee • Fixed fee + per user license • Other (Please describe) 8. What support for operations and maintenance can you provided? • To OCS customers • To OCS staff • Describe the product or service’s reporting capabilities • Describe the product or service’s billing capabilities 9. Does your product or service offer e-Billing or e-Statement Options? 10. Please list any relevant certifications and technical standards your company holds. 6 REQUESTED INFORMATION SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT: All communications concerning this RFI are to be addressed in writing to the State Contact listed on the front page of this RFI. Actual or attempted contact with any other individual from the State concerning this RFI is strictly prohibited and may result in disqualification. Each submission prepared in response to this RFI must include the elements listed below, in the order indicated. The vendor, when presenting the response, must use the following outline: 1. Cover page with Vendor information 2. Responses to RFI questions 3. Cost estimates 6.1 Cover Page The first page of the vendor’s RFI Response must be a cover page displaying at least the following: 1. Response of RFI Title 2. Vendor’s Name 3. Contact Person 4. Telephone Number 8 Revised: July 28, 2022 5. Address 6. Fax Number 7. Email Address All subsequent pages of the RFI Response must be numbered. 6.2 Responses to RFI questions Please provide your answers to the stated questions related to the project. Additional information that may supplement your answers is welcome and must be attached to the RFI response. 6.3 Cost estimates Please refer to Appendix A, below. 7 RFI RESPONSE SUBMISSION 7.1 Closing Date The closing date for the receipt of RFI Responses is listed on the front page of this RFI. Responses must be delivered to the contact email address listed on the front page of this RFI prior to the closing time. RFI Responses or unsolicited amendments submitted after that time will not be accepted and will be returned to the vendor. Responses should be labeled, “Response to RFI IT/OCS Omnichannel Payment Platform.” 7.2 Explanation of Events 7.2.1 Issuance of RFI This RFI is being issued by the Office of Purchasing & Contracting, Department of Buildings and General Services Department. Additional copies of the RFI can be obtained from the State Purchasing Division web site http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing or directly from the State Purchasing Agent. 7.2.2 Question and Answer Period Any vendor requiring clarification of any section of this RFI or wishing to comment on any requirement of the RFI must submit specific questions in writing no later than the deadline for questions indicated on the first page of this RFI. Questions may be e-mailed to the point of contact on the front page of this RFI. Questions or comments not raised in writing on or before the last day of the question period are thereafter waived. At the close of the question period, a copy of all questions or comments and the State's responses will be posted on the State’s web site http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php . Every effort will be made to post this information as soon as possible after the question period ends, contingent on the number and complexity of the questions. 7.2.3 Changes to this RFI Any modifications to this RFI will be made in writing by the State through the issuance of an Addendum to this RFI and posted online at http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php . Verbal instructions or written instructions from any other source are not to be considered. 7.2.4 Submission of Responses 7.2.4.1 CLOSING DATE http://bgs.vermont.gov/purchasing http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php 9 Revised: July 28, 2022 Responses must be received by the State by the due date specified on the front page of this RFI. Late responses will not be considered. The State may, for cause, issue an addendum to change the date and/or time when responses are due. If a change is made, the State will inform all bidders by posting at the webpage indicated on the front page of this RFI. 7.2.4.2 BID DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS E-MAIL RESPONSES. Only emailed responses will be accepted. Responses will be accepted via email submission to SOV.ThePathForward@vermont.gov. Responses must consist of a single email with a single, digitally searchable PDF attachment containing all components of the response. Multiple emails and/or multiple attachments will not be accepted. There is an attachment size limit of 40 MB. It is the Bidder’s responsibility to compress the PDF file containing its response, if necessary, in order to meet this size limitation. USE SUBJECT: DCF OCS Omnichannel FAX RESPONSES: Faxed responses will not be accepted. 7.2.5 Deadline for Written Questions Potential respondents may submit questions regarding this RFI. Questions must be submitted by email, to the contact email address listed on the front page of this RFI and must be received by the date and time listed on the front page of this RFI. 7.2.6 Review and Evaluation of Responses The review and evaluation of responses to the RFI will be performed by the Office of Child Support and their designees. The evaluation process will take place the week following the response due date. During this time, the RFI Manager or other ADS/OCS representatives may, at their option, initiate discussion with respondents for the purpose of clarifying aspects of their responses. 7.2.7 Vendor Demonstration of Their Product Vendors of interest may be called on to demonstrate their product or service offering. Vendors will make arrangements with the Office of Child Support to make any such presentations. OCS shall not be liable for any costs incurred by the vendor in preparation of its demonstration; all costs incurred shall be the vendor’s sole responsibility. All demonstrations are for planning purposes only and do not constitute a legal bid. 7.2.8 Vendor Product Test Trial Certain Vendor products and/or service offering may be selected after review process to be trialed by OCS, if this is an option allowable by the vendor. The test trial can last up to 90 days. Up to 2 vendors products selected will be involved with the test trial. OCS staff will provide feedback to the RFI Manager. The selection of vendor products for a test trial does not commit the OCS or the State of Vermont to award a contract. This test trial is for information gathering purposes only and no vendor will be selected, pre- qualified, or exempted based upon their RFI or test trial participation. All costs occurred are the vendor’s sole responsibility. All product test trials are for planning purposes only and do not constitute a legal bid. 8 APPENDIX A: COST ESTIMATE WORKSHEET We are asking for a total cost estimate (low and high estimates) comprised of software, hardware, and necessary implementation services. We understand that the cost figures provided are for planning purposes only and will not be binding in any way. mailto:SOV.ThePathForward@vermont.gov 10 Revised: July 28, 2022 8.1 Cost Estimate Table Item General Requirements Description Cost 1 Design and development cost 2 Implementation costs 3 Licensing costs 4 Training costs 5 Fee Structure (convenience fees and any other fees) 6 On-Going Maintenance / Service Level Requirements 8.2 Additional Materials (Optional) Please provide any other materials, suggestions, cost, and discussion you deem appropriate.