10-Specifications and Requirements.pdf

Specifications and Requirements Utility Bill Collection Services

1. Purpose:

Broward County Water and Wastewater Services (WWS) seeks, at no cost to the County, a Utility Bill Collection Service, to reduce its operational costs and increase customer service satisfaction by providing many suitably located and accessible payment locations throughout its geographic service areas. WWS currently provides service to approximately 60,000 customers throughout central and eastern Broward County. WWS operates two (2) customer service payment offices (in Pompano Beach and Lauderhill). Supplemented by a Utility Bill Collection Service vendor, with many payment collection agents throughout its service territory, WWS wants to offer its customers more convenient and cost-effective payment opportunities. WWS Utility customers want to make payments in a timely manner without extensive travel and can combine utility bill payment with a one-stop shopping experience.

Note: Prior to award the vendor being considered for award will be required to effectively demonstrate automation through a scheduled script for sending files through Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). The validation test is to ensure that the Vendor recommended for award can process daily files through computer automation (non-manual process) and deliver the files to WWS. The vendor must demonstrate their delivery automation capabilities to WWS, see Section 16.

2. Scope of Services:

Collect and receipt individual customer’s utility payments for Broward County Water and Wastewater Services (WWS) at no cost to Broward County. Vendor shall charge Utility Customers, who choose to utilize Vendor’s services, a nominal administrative fee, agreed upon by the County and Vendor for each customer payment transaction. WWS would prefer Vendor to provide at least twenty-four (24) locations geographically distributed throughout Broward County, which will accept utility bill payments.

Minimum Number of Locations per City/Town

City / Town Minimum Number of Locations Dania Beach 2 Davie 2 Deerfield Beach 2 Fort Lauderdale 4 Hollywood 2 Lauderdale Lakes 2 Lauderhill 2 North Lauderdale 2 Oakland Park 2 Pembroke Pines/Weston 2 Pompano Beach 2

Remaining locations are to be evenly distributed throughout the Broward County Water and Wastewater Services’ area.

3. Administrative Fees:

Vendor shall collect an administrative fee, agreed upon by County and Vendor, not to exceed $3.00 per transaction. Administrative fees shall remain fixed for the initial contract period. Upon renewal the Vendor may request an increase to the administrative fee, subject to County approval. However, any such increase shall not result in a total administrative fee exceeding $4.00 per transaction over the term of the Agreement.

4. File Transmittal:

Vendor will transmit electronically by Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) payment transactions to Broward County Water and Wastewater Services, 2555 West Copans Road, Pompano Beach, between 12:00 midnight and 2:00 a.m. per the following schedule in comma delimited (.csv) format: as defined by Water and Wastewater Services.

Schedule

Payment received: Payment transmitted:

Friday, Saturday and Sunday No later than 2:00 a.m. the following Monday

Monday No later than 2:00 a.m. the following Tuesday Tuesday No later than 2:00 a.m. the following Wednesday

Wednesday No later than 2:00 a.m. the following Thursday Thursday No later than 2:00 a.m. the following Friday

5. Payment Processing:

Vendor will provide at no cost to the County, WWS customer payments to be processed in real time from Point of Sale to the Vendor server. Vendor will provide the following additional FREE services:

5.1. WWS will have the capability of using a secure website to look up customer payments in real time to provide WWS with the ability to validate customer payments in real time.

5.2. Vendor will provide a unique receipt number for each customer payment. These numbers must be on the customer receipt to provide WWS with the ability to validate customer payments in real time.

6. Automated Transfer:

Vendor will program (and guarantee), at no cost to the County, for the automated transfer of al l funds directly to WWS.

6.1. Vendor will automatically initiate an ACH lump sum transfer for the total customer payments (cash and checks) from all Vendor agents within two (2) business banking days (example: customer pays on Monday; Vendor agents totals all customer payments and initiates an ACH on Tuesday; and WWS receives total funds from Vendor on Wednesday in a bank account defined by Broward County).

6.2. Vendor will make lump sum deposits on each banking business day to the account designated by Broward County for the benefit of WWS. Vendor must NOT combine any daily bank deposits. Each ACH bank deposit must match the individual daily batch file

6.3. WWS will only be required to compare the total of the batch files vs. the ACH to reconcile for in-balance deposits.

6.4. Vendor will transmit to WWS daily a summary of prior day Vendor agent transactions.

7. Programing Responsibilities:

Vendor will program, at no cost to the County, for checks (customer payments made with a check) to be processed using a check consolidation application, WWS customer payments made by check will be converted, to an electronic check according to National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) rules when not honored by the bank. Vendor will provide all instructions necessary for WWS to implement this program.

8. Software Requirements:

Vendor will, at no cost to the County, provide their own software to create a comma delimited file (.csv) in the format and layout provided by Broward County WWS, which is compatible with Broward County’s Customer Information System.

Payment Transaction File layout Field Name Length Data Type

Customer Number 7 Numeric

Payment Amount 10 Numeric, 2 decimals

Payment Code 3 ‘CCS’

Hard Code 1 ‘N’

Receipt Number 30 Numeric

9. Payment Notification:

Vendor is required, at no cost to the County, to immediately notify WWS electronically with the customer’s account number, payment amount, receipt number and payment type when a customer makes a payment for an account on which water and/or sewer service has been disconnected.

10. Software Changes:

Any costs incurred due to changes or requests made by the County to the Vendor’s Software will be paid by the Vendor.

11. Payment Locations:

Vendor must provide electronically a list of all active locations within Broward County, including store number, street address, municipality, telephone number, days and hours of operation, and name of contact person. Vendor must indicate how many locations are North of Broward Boulevard and West of University Drive, South of Broward Boulevard and West of University Drive, North of Broward Boulevard and East of University Drive and South of Broward Boulevard and East of University Drive. Any modification of information, or additions or deletions, to the Vendor list of Agents must be provided electronically to WWS monthly.

12. Publ ic Displa y:

The Vendor w i l l p rov ide s ignage that must be clearly visible to the public at each agent location to attract a minimum of 3,000 utility customer payments for all locations combined per month. The signage provided will specify “BROWARD COUNTY WATER

AND WASTEWATER SERVICES PAYMENT LOCATION” “PAYMENTS MADE WILL

NOT CREDIT TO YOUR UTILITY ACCOUNT UNTIL THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY”.

13. Audit:

Broward County reserves the right to audit records during normal working hours. Vendor must provide with submittal, documentation that describes the process by which vendor selects, pre-screens and authorizes a bill payment location; however, this documentation must be submitted within five (5) business days after County request.

14. Security:

Vendor shall adhere to the Broward County’s Standard Service Level Agreement. (See Attachment)

15. Receiving Files:

Vendor must be able to accept a cash only (negative check) file from WWS through SFTP.

This prevents the acceptance of check payments from customers whose accounts are on a cash only status due to two returned payments within a rolling twelve-month period.

16. Pre-Award Demonstration Requirements:

Prior to award, any vendor being considered for award must participate in a kickoff meeting with County and WWS representatives to review the demonstrations requirements, clarify expectations, and establish timelines for testing. Following the kickoff meeting, the Vendor must successfully perform the following three (3) tests within ten (10) business days from the date the test data is filed:

16.1. Vendor shall create and send test transactions simulating payments and receipts in their system to WWS.

16.2. Vendor shall create their own CSV file compliant with the Specifications and

Requirements. The file must be uploaded to the designated WWS SFTP site for WWS to pick up and process.

16.3. Vendor shall demonstrate the ability to process the cash only (negative check) file provided by WWS, correctly marking the corresponding accounts as cash only within the vendor system.

If any of the test results are found unacceptable by the County, Vendor will be deemed non-responsible for failure to demonstrate capability to meet the required specifications, performance standards, and to manage this scope of work.