223159 Supplemental Letter 1.pdf

CITY OF SALEM

FINANCE DEPARTMENT

CONTRACTS & PROCUREMENT DIVISION

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION LETTER #1

April 21, 2023

RFP NO. 223159

FOR: Enterprise Payment Platform

CLOSING DATE: April 28, 2023, AT 4:00 PM (LOCAL TIME)

The attached are questions and answers to this RFP.

Shawna Self, NIGP-CPP, CPPB

Contracts & Procurement Manager cc: File

Questions and Answers

RFP Number: 223159

1. Q: Spec 12 in Attachment A appears to be specific to respondents who intend to integrate with US Bank for payment processing and not those who are also able to respond as a payment facilitator. If we've misinterpreted, can you provide related use cases where the City would expect to leverage a vendor's

API?

A: There is no assumption that the selected provider works with US Bank. The City is looking for a full processing solution that will result in final payments arriving in the City’s US Bank account. The City’s IT staff also needs access to utilize the selected processor’s API to integrate with custom applications within the City.

2. Q: Could the City please provide a device list including make, model, and quantity of the point-of-sale terminals that are currently in use?

A:

Make Model

Quan tity

Department Using

Device

Ingenico Desk/5000 2 Center 50+

Ingenico Desk/5000 1 Police

Ingenico Lane/5000 8

Customer Service

Center

Ingenico Lane/5000 6 Building & Safety

Ingenico Desk/5000 1 PW Permitting

The one for PW Permitting will be updated to Lane/5000

3. Q: Are you currently using NACHA format for your online batch files?

A: No, we are not currently using NACHA format for online batch files.

4. Q: Will you accept DocuSign signatures as a legitimate “wet” authorized signature?

A: Yes.

5. Q: Will the City accept electronic signatures such as DocuSign on proposal forms requiring signature?

A: See question #4.

6. Q: Will the City please clarify which departments, other than utility, that are considering using the payment platform in the future?

A: The City is considering all departments and divisions for possible Phase II rollout, including Planning, Building Safety, Municipal Court, Parks, Recreation, Police, Fire, etc.

7. Q: Please break down last year's volume for Credit Card and Debit Card and the total amount.

A: The ‘Est. Yearly Qty’ column in the Fee Proposal section of the RFP for credit and debit card transactions reflect actual (rounded) FY 2022 data.

8. Q: Please provide the average ticket price.

A: In 2021 the average monthly bill across all account types was $200.00.

9. Q: What is the CIS system being used?

A: The City is implementing SpryPoint and selected provider will need to integrate with them.

10. Q: What are your current credit card and debit card processing fees that are being absorbed?

A: The City currently absorbs processing fees and is not open to changing that practice.

11. Q: What are some challenges you are running into that are pushing you to look for another solution?

A: The current provider doesn’t allow full control of customer status using the

API. There have been multiple service interruptions. Customers have reported poor user experience with the IVR with issues including dropped calls, ease of use, and audio quality. The City is also looking to move away from a piecemeal solution to a single consistent model used across our service portfolio.

12. Q: Can you please provide 3 months of transaction statements?

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

13. Q: Can you provide the amount of customers/accounts you have?

A: The City has approximately 58,000 unique utility accounts in addition to other

City accounts.

14. Q: Are you open to replacing your POS devices? If so, how many does the city need?

A: Yes, we are currently leasing them and are open to replacing. Please refer to question #2 for quantities.

15. Q: Does the city currently have kiosks?

A: The City uses 3 kiosks for the Library via a third party vendor. The City has 4 computers that are set up as a “kiosk” type environment where customers can click on a button and go to a “link” for online payments.

16. Q: How many customers has the City enrolled in paperless billing to-date? What percentage of paperless customers compared to your total customer base?

A: 29,709 customers are enrolled in paperless billing, which is about 48% of our total.

17. Q: How many late notices does the City typically send in any billing cycle?

A: This is outside the scope of the RFP.

18. Q: How much does the City pay to print and mail paper bills? What does this cost per paper bill sent?

A: This is outside the scope of the RFP.

19. Q: How many ACH payments does the City currently receive per billing cycle?

A: On Average about 15,000 ACH payments per month.

20. Q: How does the City process these ACH payments?

A: ACH transactions are processed through our current payment processor.

21. Q: How much does the City pay to process ACH payments? What is the fee per

ACH payment?

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

22. Q. How much does the City currently pay to receive IVR payments? What is the fee per payment?

A. The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

23. Q: Does the City absorb payment fees or pass these fees to the customer as a convenience fee?

A: The City currently absorbs processing fees and is not open to changing that practice.

24. Q: If absorbing fees, is the City open to switching to a convenience fee model?

A: The City currently absorbs processing fees and is not open to changing that practice.

25. Q: What is the City’s current payment cap and payment minimum?

A: The City doesn’t have an overriding policy for minimum/maximums so it would be program dependent. For the Utility we do not have a minimum and the maximum is $200,000. We may establish a minimum in the future.

26. Q: How many payment-related calls does the City typically receive from customers in any given billing cycle? How long does each call take to resolve on average?

A: The City doesn’t have this data. Our Customer Service team doesn’t take payments over the phone.

27. Q: Admin Portal < Issue Logging: Please clarify if this a place for payers to submit tickets that are reviewed by the city staff?

A: This is for City staff to submit tickets and track the current status of outstanding issues with the payment processor.

28. Q: API < Full feature API: please clarify the use case. What is the level of integration required or may be required?

A: Potential use case examples are in the Description column which include extracting information from the payment processor for information such as customer details, payment schedules, and signing up customers for recurring payments. This is not a comprehensive list. At a high level, the City wants the ability to build custom applications and integrate with the selected payment processing solution. If your API functionality has limitations, please list them in your proposal.

29. Q: Payment Method < Auto Pay (variable recurring payment) without online profile: Please clarify use case. What information will the city require to track payments?

A: A utility customer wants to have their full bill balance automatically paid each month without creating a profile for the customer portal. We are using the

Customer Account Number and a unique PIN printed on the customer’s bill for validation. This takes the customer to our payment processor’s landing page where they can enroll or edit Auto Pay settings. This is something the

City is currently offering.

30. Q: Hardware: What Ingenico devices does the currently City use for utility credit card payments in person? How many locations are in use?

A: See question #2 for full list of Ingenico devices. The 8 at the Customer

Service Center are used for Utility payments.

31. Q: Line 30 – Does the City own the Ingenico devices? How many Ingenico devices are currently in use across the City? Will that number change? What is the model of Ingenico payment devices currently in use?

A. See question #2 for device list. They are leased.

32. Q: Line 59 – Is the Oregon Trail Card network branded? If yes, which one?

A: The City does not currently accept payment via Oregon Trail Card. We are not sure what network they use.

33. Q: Line 60 – How many kiosks does the City currently have? Does the City own the kiosks? Who is the current provider of the kiosks? Please provide more details about the kiosks and what is required of the new vendor.

A: The City uses traditional kiosks administered by a third party provider as well as a kiosk model for utility by having dedicated computers that customers can use to make payments. The City is interested in exploring kiosk concepts that can offer multiple services through the kiosk as well as taking payments.

34. Q: Line 67 – How will the cashiering software integrate with the vendor’s payment platform? Use vendor’s APIs? Provide more detail around the cashiering modules used.

A: The City currently enters the payments manually in the cashiering software and the various systems. The utility billing software currently being implemented is SpryPoint that will integrate will with the new payment platform. All other potential integrations would be handled using an API model.

35. Q: Line 73 - Provide additional detail on how the Auto Pay (Variable Recurring

Payment) without Online Profile currently complies with Nacha notification requirements?

A: The endpoint dictates the file format. The enrollment process uses the Customer Account Number and a unique PIN printed on the customer’s bill for validation. This takes the customer to our payment processor’s landing page where they can enroll or edit Auto Pay settings. This is something the City is currently offering.

36. Q: Is the City receptive to new technology and innovations beyond the scope of the RFP? Is there a place in the RFP where vendors can introduce such technology and innovations?

A: Yes, the City is open to new technology solutions.

37. Q: Other than the sunsetting of US Bank’s eBill & ePay solution, are there other drivers around issuing this RFP? Any other issues you are trying to resolve?

Are there process improvements the City would like to see with a new vendor? Productivity improvements desired?

A: The City would like to eventually consolidate all departments on the same payment processor to reduce the amount of systems being supported by our

IT teams and streamline processes for operations and finance. Yes, the City also hopes to have process and productivity improvements through this change.

38. Q: It is unusual for us to see a 10-year contract. Is there any specific reason why the contract is for 10 years?

A: It is the City’s understanding that 10-year contracts are not unusual for this type of service.

39. Q: Please provide their current transaction count and dollar volume broken down by department and by Credit Card / Debit Card/ electronic check.

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

40. Q: Which departments are currently absorbing the processing fees and which departments are passing the processing fees? Please provide historical merchant statements for 6 months.

A: The City currently absorbs processing fees and is not open to changing that practice. The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

41. Q: What collection modes are used (card, check, POS, IVR, etc.) per department?

A: All collection modes are used by all departments to varying frequencies.

42. Q: Line 23: The ability to migrate payment history, schedules, etc. would be nice to have and save our customers some work. Please clarify. How many years of history? Are you asking about migrating a past system to the new system?

Or from the winning bidders system forward?

A: Three years of history. We are asking for transitioning payment schedules from our current payment processor to the newly selected provider, if possible.

43. Q: Line 30: What model of Ingenico devices is the City using? Do you own or lease this equipment? How many devices do you have?

A: The equipment is leased. See question #2 for device list.

44. Q: Line 42: Existing full featured integration into Tyler Technologies Solutions.

Which Tyler Solution is the city using?

A: We are not currently using any Tyler solutions, but we are exploring multiple offerings including Municipal Court.

45. Q: Line 60: Ability to support processing payments utilizing payment kiosks. Is the city using kiosks today? What is the make/model of the kiosk, and what payment devices (brand) are on the kiosk?

A: Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover, Cash, and Coins are accepted on Library kiosks. The utility kiosks model we have uses computers customers can use to make an online payment. https://www.cityofsalem.net/community/payments

46. – 69.:

City of Salem

Clairification Quesitons

Page #/Section Question

Exhibit A – Payment

Methods - Kiosk

Q: What software are you using for your Kiosk today?

A: Third party vendor software for library kiosks as well as Windows with custom web pages developed by the

City for utility kiosks.

Exhibit A - Payment

Methods - Kiosk

Q: What gateway is your Kiosk using to run transactions?

https://www.cityofsalem.net/community/payments

A: Using the City’s existing gateway solutions. There is not one sole provider.

Exhibit A -

Integrations –

SpryPoint

Integrations

Q: What are the existing use cases for this software within your present configuration?

A: SpryPoint is the Customer Information System that our utility is transitioning to for tracking usage and billing customers. They also provide the citizen portal that utility customers can access their accounts, view balances, and make payments.

Exhibit A -

Integrations – Tyler

Technologies

Q: What are the existing use cases for this software within your present configuration?

A: We are not currently using any Tyler solutions, but we are exploring multiple offerings including Municipal

Court.

Exhibit A - Payment

Methods - Payment in Apps

Q: Please explain what apps will be used for making payments.

A: These are the existing apps that are used for making payments:

https://www.cityofsalem.net/community/payments

Exhibit A - Payment

Methods - Auto Pay

(Variable Recurring

Payment) without

Online Profile

Q: Please provide details on how auto pay without a profile is envisioned. We would like to understand how the payer would maintain their auto pay without this.

A: The City using the Customer Account Number and a unique PIN printed on the customer’s bill for validation. This takes the customer to our payment processor’s landing page where they can enroll or edit Auto Pay settings. This is something the City is currently offering.

Exhibit A – Reports

- Canned Reports

Q: What is the existing system where the required reports are supported?

A: This is a requirement from our selected payment processor.

Exhibit A –

Integrations -

Granicus

Government

Solutions

Integration

Q: Please explain the expected integration with

Granicus. What features is the City using with this solution that would integrate with payments?

A: Currently the City is using the Amanda product for a custom solution called the PAC Portal and the City’s website. We are intereted in seeing what integrations vendors have natively.

Exhibit A -

Hardware -

Compatibility

Q: Which Ingenico devices are you currently utilizing?

(Make and Model) Are these currently integrated with your software or stand alone devices?

A: See Question #2 for device list. This equipment is associated with our current merchant provider. They do not integrate with our software. Amounts are manually entered into our systems.

Exhibit A - Payment

Methods - Kiosk

Q: Who is the manufacturer of the Kiosk? (Make and

Model)

A: Pulse Ultra AIO J3455 are our Library kiosks. Our utility kiosk model is run on Windows based computers with custom web pages developed by the

City.

Exhibit A - Reports

– Canned Reports

Q: Would this data need be made available to integrate into an accounting system?

A: No. There would be an integration into the accounting system, but it wouldn’t be utilizing the canned reporting function.

Exhibit A - Reports

– Canned Reports

Q: Do you currently utilize any data warehouse such as

Snowflake?

A: No.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Is the volume provided for debit all card-not-present? If not, please provide your card-not-present vs card present volume?

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Please provide your Visa and Mastercard Signature

Debit volumes.

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: What % our your signature debit is Regulated vs

Unregulated?

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Does the City have special pricing from Visa or

Mastercard for Signature Debit? If so what is that rate today?

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Does the City have special pricing from any networks?

A: The City curretnly receives Public Sector pricing from

American Express as well as utility rates and level three discounts from other carriers.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Does the City keep card on file information today? Can a user save their payment type to their profile so they can select that payment type next time they go to make a payment? (Do you tokenize)

A: The City doesn’t save cards on file within the City hardware or network. Customer payment details are managed by the payment processor so that they are manage in PCI compliant manner.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: If the City tokenizes:

a. Please provide total number of pans\cards which merchant has stored in its vault (how many unique cards do they have on file).

b. Current approval rate for eCom transactions.

c. Number of Visa cards only (For Network Tokens)

A: This is all managed by the payment processor. The

City does not have this data.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Does the City use network tokens? If so, who is your current provider?

A: The City does not use network tokens.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Does the City want the new vendor to host their payment page or consumer facing platform?

A: The City is open to both models. The Utility will be hosted by Spry and would be API integrated.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Does the City plan to use our hosted payments, or would the City code direct, or use a gateway?

A: The City would like to avoid using a gateway, if possible.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Is the City considering using a convenice fee model?

A: The City is not interested in a conveniece fee model.

RFP Section 3. D –

Fee Proposal

Q: Can the City provide a current Merchant Card

Services Statement?

A: The City will not be providing the requested information at this time.