26-8670_Solicitation.pdf

COLLIER COUNTY

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

INVITATION TO BID (ITB)

FOR

ANSWERING SERVICE FOR PUBLIC UTILITIES

DEPARTMENT

SOLICITATION NO.: 26-8670

EMILY JACKSON, PROCUREMENT STRATEGIST, II

PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION

3295 TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST, BLDG C-2

NAPLES, FLORIDA 34112

TELEPHONE: (239) 252-8947

Emily.jackson@collier.gov (Email)

SOLICITATION PUBLIC NOTICE

INVITATION TO BID (ITB)

NUMBER:

26-8670

PROJECT TITLE: ANSWERING SERVICE FOR PUBLIC UTILITIES

DEPARTMENT

DUE DATE: August 13th, 2026, 3:00 P.M. EST

PLACE OF BID OPENING: PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION

3295 TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST, BLDG C-2

NAPLES, FL 34112

All bids shall be submitted online via the Collier County Procurement Services Division Online Bidding System:

https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/collier-county-fl.

INTRODUCTION

As requested by the Public Utilities Department (hereinafter, the “Division or Department”), the Collier County Board of County Commissioners Procurement Services Division (hereinafter, “County”) has issued this Invitation to Bid (hereinafter, “ITB”) with the intent of obtaining bid submittals from interested and qualified Bidders in accordance with the terms, conditions and specifications stated or attached. The Bidders, at a minimum, must achieve the requirements of the Specifications or Scope of Work stated herein. All references to “Bidder” are also referred to as “Contractor” and “Vendor.”

Historically, County departments have spent approximately $60,000 annually, however, this may not be indicative of future buying patterns.

BACKGROUND

Collier County Public Utilities Department is responsible for maintaining service in the following product lines: potable water, irrigation quality water, wastewater, solid waste collection, utility billing and customer service and Public Utilities Engineering and capital improvement project management. The County wishes to establish an agreement for an after-hour, weekend and holiday telephone answering service to assist with customer concerns and questions related to the Public Utilities services and support.

TERM OF CONTRACT/AGREEMENT

The contract term, if an award(s) is made is intended to be for three (3) years with one (1) two (2) year renewal options.

Prices shall remain firm for the initial term of the awarded contract.

Surcharges will not be accepted in conjunction with the awarded contract, and such charges should be incorporated into the pricing structure.

AWARD CRITERIA

ITB award criteria are as follows:

The County’s Procurement Services Division reserves the right to clarify a Bidder’s submittal prior to the award of the solicitation.

It is the intent of Collier County to award to the lowest, responsive and responsible Bidder(s) that represents the best value to the County.

For the purpose of determining the winning bidder, the County will select the Bidder with the lowest price as outlined below:

• Lowest Total Bid https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/collier-county-fl

Collier County reserves the right to select one, or more than one Bidder award on a line-item basis, establish a pool for quoting, or other options that represents the best value to the County; however, it is the intent to:

• Single awardee

The County reserves the right to issue a formal contract or standard County Purchase Order for the award of this solicitation.

DETAILED SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor, at a minimum, must achieve the requirements of the Specifications or Scope of Work stated herein.

The intent of this solicitation is to establish a Primary Contractor to provide Public Utilities Dispatch Professional Answering Services.

1. SERVICE SPECIFICATIONS

1.1. The services under this contract are to answer the Public Utilities Department (Department) 24-hour service request line during certain hours. The successful contractor will answer the telephone, dispatch calls to various Collier County employees, log phone calls, provide information to customers utilize frequently asked question handouts from each of the commodity areas, and provide reports to the appropriate County Division.

1.2. The Collier County Public Utilities Department provides the following services:

• Potable Water

• Irrigation Quality Water

• Wastewater

• Solid Waste Collection

• Utility Billing and Customer Service

• Public Utilities Engineering and Capital Project Management

2. WORK HOURS

2.1. Normal business hours shall be 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Monday through Friday and 24 hours per day during weekends including County observed holidays (currently 11 observed holiday days, subject to change).

2.2. County observed holidays currently include:

• New Year’s Day,

• Martin Luther King Day

• President’s Day

• Memorial Day

• July 4th

• Labor Day

• Veterans’ Day

• Thanksgiving (2 days),

• Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

o In the event a Holiday falls on a weekend the next weekday off is observed. Services shall also be required during unscheduled office closures (storms, hurricanes, etc.).

3. DISASTER PLAN

3.1. The awarded Contractor shall provide a written emergency response plan prior to the issuance of a Purchase

Order from Collier County for County approval. The emergency response plan will allow for the answering of calls in multiple locations when an event occurs in the primary service location. Use of third-party Contractors during a an emergency event must adhere to all the terms and conditions of this contract, including the security of the County’s data. The types of events the emergency response plan should cover is hurricanes, fires, and loss of computer service.

4. ASSIGNMENT OF WORK

4.1. Normal service may include up to 20 incoming calls at a time.

4.2. At extraordinary times for service, calls may exceed 100 calls per hour.

• The contractor shall have the necessary means to accommodate a sudden, large influx of calls. A County approved recording may be used during a period of extraordinary service calls to provide the Caller with pertinent information possibly related to the reason for their call. If a recording is approved by the County during a designated period, the Caller shall still have the option to speak with an operator.

4.3. The County will issue a purchase order (or blanket purchase order), and it shall be considered as a “Notice to Proceed”. No work shall be performed until the Contractor is in receipt of an approved purchase order.

4.4. Types of calls to be handled include, but are not limited to:

• Pipeline failures

• Service Breaks

• Water off

• Billing issues such as non-payment resulting in suspension of service

• High water pressure calls

• Low water pressure calls

• Sewer backups

• Odor concerns emitting from wastewater lift stations

• Irrigation Quality water concerns, including leaks

• Solid Waste service concerns, including, but not limited to, trash not being picked up, missing trash cans, a request for bulk pick-ups

• Concerns with an on-going capital project

5. SERVICE / REQUIREMENTS

5.1. A report on all calls received in the last 24 hours shall be available to the Department electronically by 9:00 am each day on every weekday.

5.2. If the County is closed for the weekend or an observed Holiday the report will be submitted on the next business day for all calls received while the County offices were not open.

• The List will be updated by the Department Project Manager, as needed. The report shall include the customer’s name, phone number, reason for the call and the time the call was received. The report shall be broken down by division affected.

6. RESPONSE TIMES

6.1. Calls are to be answered within 4 live rings and the following information shall be collected electronically for each call:

• Name of customer

• Address of issue

• Subdivision of issue

• Contact phone number and email for customer

• Area of concern (water, wastewater, irrigation quality, capital projects, or solid waste)

• Issue (different questions will be asked depending on information the customer provides) – scripts will be provided for different issues to the chosen Contractor, after a Purchase Order has been issued.

• Emails will also be received from a payment processor to restore water services.

6.2. Once a call/email is received it shall be dispatched to a service technician within ten (10) minutes of receipt of the call/email, if it regards a concern with water and/or sewer service and/or irrigation quality water Depending on the Division, calls will be directly relayed to a cell phone that is manned twenty four (24) hours a day. The service technician is required to call back for the information within ten (10) minutes. If a call is not answered by the designated service technician, a set escalation policy will be followed.

Escalation policy will be provided for each commodity area at the time a Purchase Order issued for service.

Time is of the essence with respect to all provisions within the awarded contract. Any delay in performance, not approved in writing by an appropriate County representative shall constitute a material breach of the contract.

7. GENERAL REQUIRMENTS

7.1. Contractor shall have the ability to record incoming calls for use of the Department.

• The recordings are utilized to help resolve customer complaints. The Contractor must notify the caller they are going to be recorded before the recording can commence as required by Florida State Statue.

The recording service must be able to be searched by incoming phone number or other method that makes retrieval able to occur in a timely fashion. Calls must be stored for a period of 90 days. Calls involving billing issues or dissatisfied customers requiring follow-up by the Department shall be recorded. Recorded calls should be retrievable by the Department via telephone dial in and/or online systems access.

7.2. Daily a shut off list of customers not authorized to have service due to non-payment issues will be provided to the Contractor.

• When a customer on the list calls they shall be directed to log into the IVR payment system located on the Department’s web page. When a payment is made in that system an automatic email will be sent to the Contractor that will authorize the Contractor to initiate a service request to Department’s technician to restore service.

7.3. The awarded Contractor shall provide contact information for a Project Manager who will be responsible as the County Liaison for the Department. The contact information for the Liaison must include, at a minimum:

• Business phone number

• Email address

• Company Address

• Emergency contact information for 24 hour a day contact.

7.4. Contractor shall be able to provide bilingual assistance in English and Spanish.

• This may be accomplished by use of translation software or by use of bi-lingual staff that are available whenever the service is accepting calls for Collier County.

8. PRICE BREAKDOWN

8.1. Base Price:

• Price for monthly service that will include up to 5,000 incoming and outgoing dispatch calls, will be included in the base price.

o To clarify, taking an incoming call is counted as one and calling staff to report the incident would be considered a second call. If the Contractor must escalate the call to reach a person each call made counts as an additional call.

8.2. Additional calls per month

• The price for calls processed above 5,000 will be priced at a rate for each additional 1,000 calls.

o A report will be submitted monthly with the invoice detailing all calls processed for the month broken down by incoming calls and outgoing dispatches. Contractor will maintain a list of all calls received that may be audited by phone number/customer name/customer address by the Project manager as requested.

8.3. No charges shall be billed for hang ups, wrong number(s) or telephone testing call(s).

REFERENCES

The County requests that the Bidder submits three (3) references using the County’s Reference Form. Include up to two additional pages per project to illustrate relevant experience. The references must be for projects within the last five (5) years whose projects are of a similar nature, size, scope and complexity of this solicitation.