506333 Addendum No 1.docx

ADDENDUM No. 1

FOR

Electronic Payment Processing Services Request for Proposals No. 506333

Addendum Posted and Effective as of: June 12, 2025

The Request for Proposals as stated in the title of this Addendum No. 1 is hereby amended as follows:

Responses to written requests for clarification and additional information can be found at the bottom of this Addendum No. 1 document starting on page 2.

It shall be the Proposer’s responsibility to refer to and attach the corrected pages as included herein to the Proposal submittal.

Proposer shall acknowledge this ADDENDUM by attaching a signed copy of the ADDENDUM to its Proposal.

It shall be the Proposer’s responsibility to have a copy of this ADDENDUM in possession at the time of Proposal submittal.

DENVER WATER

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PROPOSER

Proposer:

By:

Responses to Written Requests for Clarification and Additional Information:

1. Does Denver Water have a target or not-to-exceed budget or pricing model (e.g., per transaction, per user) that proposers should align with?

A. Answer: Denver Water has intentionally decided to not include budget or not-to-exceed information as part of this Request for Proposal.

2. Can Denver Water share who the current payment processing vendor is or if it is managed in house, and whether the services under this RFP will fully replace or complement existing systems?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water. The intent is to fully replace the services provided by that vendor plus enhancements.

3. What proportion of payments are currently processed via SMS, IVR, and guest pay?

A. Answer: SMS Checks 0.17%; SMS Credit Cards 0.05%; IVR Checks 2.06%; IVR Credit Cards 2.62%, we currently don’t have reporting on one-time guest payments. That information is combined with the Web payment information.

4. In the volume section it states that there are IVCC, IVCK, SPCC, SPCK, WECC, WECK SMSCC, SMSCK RECC and RECK payments. What do each of these stand for?

A. IVCC - Interactive Voice Credit Card B. IVCK - Interactive Voice Check C. SPCC - Extranet Credit Card (via Call Center Agent) D. SPCK - Extranet Check (via Call Center Agent) E. WECC - Web Entry Credit Card F. WECK - Web Entry Check G. SMSCC - SMS Credit Card H. SMSCK - SMS Check I. RECC - Recurring Credit Card (AutoPay) J. RECK –Recurring Check (AutoPay)

5. Out of the 58 users using the TPA (CC, Treasury, Sales and IT) – Are all four groups utilizing the same system of record?

A. Answer: The Contact Center, Treasury and Water Sales uses CC&B and our current TPA user portal.

6. Does JD Edwards have open API’s to connect into?

A. Answer: Currently no. We may have this functionality sometime in the future though.

7. Does Customer Care and Billing (CC&B) version 2.9 (or latest version) have open API’s to connect into?

A. Answer: Currently no. We may have this functionality sometime in the future though.

8. Does the Customer Self Service (CSS) portal have open API’s to connect into?

A. Answer: No

9. Please confirm that your team wishes to charge a convenience fee for all transactions (web, IVR, CSR assisted, etc.)

A. Answer: Not for our water/sewer accounts. We would like to have the option to set the convenience fee for certain customer types (e.g. tap sales).

10. Can you elaborate on how your team would like to eliminate the need for paper tap applications?

A. Answer: We understand there are applications in this market that offer the ability for organizations a “builder/developer” profile type with the ability to submit applications for new water supply and pay these applicable fees online. Currently DW accepts paper water supply licenses and check payments and we’d prefer to modernize this experience.

11. Can you elaborate on how you want to allow builders to track their new water tap application status?

A. Answer: Currently DW accepts paper water supply licenses and check payments and we’d prefer to modernize this experience. Ideally, customers would be able to the status of their application as it moves through our approval process, i.e. received, in progress, rejected, approved, etc.

12. Can you explain what you mean by a minimum access rate of 97% in more detail?

A. Answer: CSS system that is user friendly and will not put a burden on Denver Water customers.

13. How many commercial customers do you have? Answer: Approximately 23,000 commercial accounts (not including industrial or government).

A. Would you like your commercial customers to be able to pay via credit card? Answer: We would like to offer ACH as well as credit cards.

B. How many commercial card payments do you receive per month? Answer: Our reporting for payments processed currently does not separate commercial payments from residential payments.

14. Can you explain what EFTDBO represents?

A. Payments processed via Checkfree (FISERV)

15. What is your average residential payment amount?

A. Answer: estimated at $54/month

16. What is your average commercial payment amount?

A. Answer: estimated at $604/month

17. What is your minimum and maximum payment amounts?

A. Answer: We are looking for a partner who can support payments up to $999,999.99. There is not a known minimum payment amount, but from a business process perspective, it is rare to make a payment below $20. A low water bill for residential customers is $35. See Section B-12 “CCS - Payment Limits” of the Request for Proposal document for additional information.

18. RFP Main Document – Purpose Section A. Confirm if Denver Water is also looking to replace its current online self-serve portal called Denver Water Online where customers can not only pay? Answer: We are open to exploring that possibility.

B. If so, what specific features in your Denver Water Online portal are you looking for the selected vendor to provide? For example, review water use, manage contact details, submit work requests, etc.? Answer: See Request for Proposal document – Section 1 Statement of Work. 1.6 Scope – 1 “Denver Water electronic payment processing solution requirements”

19. RFP Main Document – Scope section 1.6 A. 1.m.a.8 - Provide online chat capability in order to obtain assistance with the payment process.

B. Please be more specific. For example, is Denver Water expecting an AI chatbot to interact with customers on the payment process, or is it expected DW CSRs could use this feature to communicate with customers when they are having trouble making a payment?

1. Answer: Denver Water is interested in learning what each vendor has to offer with regards to online chat. We are open to possibilities.

20. Exhibit B – Tab 1 A. 4 – Does your proposed solution have the ability to integrate with JD Edwards latest version?

B. What function is Denver Water using JD Edwards for currently?

a. Answer: It is our Enterprise ERP solution for finances, inventory, etc.

21. Exhibit B – Tab 3 A. Section 2.F.xxvi – Can your solution support direct integration with Power BI?

a. What are DW specific expectations for a direct integration with Power BI? Answer: None, it is one of the in house tools we use for reporting.

B. Section 3.C – Pay by Phone/IVR

a. Is natural voice recognition a mandatory requirement for the IVR solution? Answer: No, however to meet our goal which is to provide ADA accessible options for our customers, we assume the solution would have voice recognition. See Request for Proposal Section 2 – General Information “2.19 Technology Accessibility Requirements”

22. Exhibit E A. User Experience Section – “multiple language options and accessibility”

a. What languages specifically is Denver Water asking to be supported? Answer: English and Spanish at a minimum. However, we would be interested in learning what other languages your solution will support.

b. Please define ‘accessibility’ and provide examples. Answer: Our goal is to provide ADA accessible options to our customers. See Section 2 – General Information, 2.19 “Technology Accessibility Requirements” for more information.

B. Management of Customer Self Service Portal – “ability to control customer paid fees, for example credit card transaction fees” C. Can Denver Water clarify this? What are you wanting to be able to change and when? Are you asking about the ability to change the fee within the application? Answer: We would like to have the option to set the convenience fee for certain customer types (e.g. tap sales).

D. Autopay – “the Submit Plan option must be disabled for representatives”

a. What does Denver Water mean by “Submit Pan” option? Answer: Denver Water would like the ability for Customer Care Specialist to be able to assist customers with their autopay plans by creating, modifying or canceling as needed.

23. What does your current contract with your current payment processor?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

24. What needs does the county specifically have in mind based on current transactions?

A. Answer: Please refer to the Scope of Work in the RFP.

25. What wasn't met in your current contract that is a need in the new one?

A. Answer: Due to our existing non-disclosure agreement, we are not able to answer this question.

26. What is the current transactions breakdown, volume and types?

A. Answer: This was provided in the Monthly Volume Report, please see the exhibits.

27. E-Lockbox: Are you using a consolidated solution or multiple vendors? For E-Lockbox, what % of payments come in electronically vs. payments mailed from non-participating banks?

A. Answer: E-Lockbox are electronic payments made from a customer’s on-line bill pay via their bank. Currently 5.7% of our customers pay by using their bank's on-line services. We currently receive approximately 13% of payments via paper checks. Our mail-in payments are out of scope for this RFP.

28. Is Denver Water currently receiving monthly Interchange reports, if available, can these reports be provided, related to this, Is the preference to be Interchange Pass Through plus a Transaction fee, or a flat rate % to simplify budget management?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

29. Can you please provide more detail around TPA?

A. Answer: Please refer to Section 1.2 Background in the RFP.

30. Is this RFP to replace TPA, or would we be required to work with them?

A. Answer: The intent is to fully replace the services provided by the TPA.

31. Who is TPA’s e-bill partner?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current e-bill partner, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

32. Is the integration to JD Edwards a real-time or file integration?

A. Answer: It’s a real time integration

33. Can you please share at least 3 month’s of processing statements from any providers of your current services?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

34. Denver Water requests offers for tolls that manage multiple properties and tenants, including automated billing and account maintenance tracking for move in/outs. Can Denver Water please describe how you currently track move in/outs and how these are updated in your CIS?

A. Answer: Our current online portal does not offer a customer the ability to manage move in/move outs. Customers have to contact Denver Water’s Contact Center to request name additions or removals to the account. We are a premise-based utility and the account belongs to the property owner, however, we do offer the ability to add management companies, tenants, or multiple owners to an account so that they all can receive their own copy of the water bill and make payments. In this scenario, there is a single account number but each individual who is listed separately (receiving their own bill), will have a unique customer ID number. The customer ID # is autogenerated by our system and we track move in/moves outs using the property owner's customer ID. We would like to see what capabilities your online portal has regarding how a customer can manage move in and move outs on their own.

35. Denver Water requests an integration with existing property management software. What property management software does Denver Water require integration with?

A. Answer: We look to the proposer to provide information as to those software systems with which the solution is compatible.

36. Denver Water requests the ability for Customer Care Specialists to create or modify autopay plans. Denver Water also requires that representatives be only allowed to search, view, and disable autopay plans with the "submit plan" option disabled. Can Denver Water please confirm that Customer Care Specialists are different from representatives and require the "submit plan" option to create an autopay plan, and that representatives do not?

A. Answer: Customer Care Specialist and representative are one in the same. The desire is that a CSR can help a customer with creating, editing, or deleting an autopay plan as long as we can meet PCI DSS compliance standards.

37. How does Denver Water currently manage autopay plans today? Are these processed via Speedpay or via a preferred banking partner?

A. Answer: They are processed by our current TPA. Daily files are sent to notify the partner which accounts to process payments based on billing cycles.

38. Denver Water requests the ability for customers to customize autopay plans including split payment across multiple users and on a percentage basis. Can Denver Water please provide a use case to help us better understand the solution needed? For example: are these multiple payers autopaying the same bill each month? How is this currently managed?

A. Answer: Split payment for autopay is not currently available with our current partner. An example of this situation would include a 3-unit building with a shared meter, and a shared bill. Currently only one of the units is able to set up autopay, which draws the full amount owed. The other two units are not allowed to set up an autopay plan for their portion of the bill. The request is to allow each unit to set up an autopay plan with set percentages of the total bill assigned to each unit. Ideally, the customers would also have the ability to set and edit those percentages. This is a preferred requirement per Exhibit E.

39. Denver Water requests multi-tenancy to serve multiple customers from a single instance for your CSS. Can Denver Water please clarify this request for single instance, multi-tenant functionality? Is this based on landlord/tenants where a water bill may have multiple parties involved with tracking and paying the balance due on a property?

A. Answer: Correct, we have accounts that may have multiple people financially responsible for the bill and each customer should be able to create and access an online portal but should not be able to see or access each other's information. For example, a tenant should not be able to see the property owner's contact information or saved payment information with the property owner's wallet, and vice versa. Each person should be able to see the account history (billing, payment, consumption) that matches the length of time they have been tied to the account. For example, a tenant who is added to an account in January 2025 should only be able to see that account history from January forward, or until they are removed from the account, then their access should be automatically disabled for that premise. Here are a few examples of multiple user accounts: 5-unit complex with a shared water meter/account. Each property owner should have their own customer ID on that one account. A single-family home with a property owner and a tenant listed. The account belongs to the owner, but the tenant is responsible for the water bill payment per their lease. A commercial property with multiple units for lease may have a single property owner, a management company, and several tenants listed on the account.

40. What is the current structure for how credit card fees are paid? (ie. Denver Water absorbs these fees or the customer pays as a service fee at checkout) B. Answer: Currently we have two separate fee schedules with our current partner. The first fee schedule for payments related to regular water/sewer billing which are processed via the Web, IVR, SMS Extranet, fees are absorbed and paid by Denver Water. The second fee schedule is for Water Sales team; those fees are passed to the customer and are collected at the time payment is made. Our current partner passes funding only for the payment portion and keeps fees.

41. If absorbed by Denver Water, what is that structure? (ie. Flat fee vs interchange plus model where card interchange fees are passed directly to Denver) A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

42. If the service fee is paid by the customer, what is that structure? (ie. Customer pays a flat fee per transaction or percentage of the total bill amount) A. Answer: Percentage of the total bill amount.

43. What other costs does Denver Water have for current functionality to support IVR services? Fiserv 3rd party bank bill-pay aggregation? Monthly maintenance fees? E-bill delivery fees?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

44. Can Denver Water please provide 2 more months of the Monthly Volume Schedule? (ideally May & June 2024 or August & September 2024?) 3 months in total would help with seasonal fluctuation for usage.

A. Answer: Yes, the August and September 2024 Monthly Volume Reports have been uploaded to BidNet with this Addendum document.

45. Please provide more information on what this is and how you envisage using it – A. Do you offer a solution for our CSRs to accept and research payments? Is this a single tool that covers all payment channels and payment methods? Please provide a detailed response.

B. Answer: Yes. Our CSR can use our current partner's user portal to accept and research all types of payments processed by this provider. All other payments, such as paper checks, are researched separately in other systems.

46. Our firm supplies PCI DSS Level 1 compliant payment solutions for taking payments over the phone, online or in a call center environment. Does this question lead into a different payment type than listed? Answer: Denver Water expects that the selected solution will be PCI compliant for all channels where payment cards are accepted.

A. Describe how CSRs enroll customers into EBP and recurring payments from the agent tool during a call to help customers that do not have web access. Answer: We currently do not have the functionality but would like to add that with the new partner.

47. Please provide detail of what access and restrictions is required A. Describe the user administration capabilities for internal users of the CSR interface. Can access levels be completely tailored to the users’ needs by us?

B. Answer: We currently have 4 different roles created within our current payment vendor interface. The administrator role has access to create/edit/delete user profiles, along with the access the rest of the roles have. The supervisor role can edit passwords for existing users, refund payments, pull payment data reports, and remove ACH blocks, in addition to the access the remaining roles have. The CSR role can process payments, research one-time payments, view & disable autopay & pay-by-text plans, cancel or edit (payment amount or processing date) payments that are in a pending status still. The Water Sales Rep role has the same functions as a CSR except their roles have higher payment limits and have a built-in convenience fee for credit card payments. The CSR role does not have a convenience fees tied to the payments they collect. A desired state would be that CSRs have the ability to edit or create autopay or pay-by-text plans as long as this set up meets PCI DSS compliance standards.

48. How many brands are there? What is “Customer” in this document Answer: Please refer to section 1.2 Background for the various meanings of Customer.

A. Please provide detail of what access and restrictions is required Answer: Customers should not be able to see PI or PII information, for example.

49. Is an App required? Answer: Not required but should be mobile-compatible.

A. Describe how your solution supports mobile services for each of the following: mobile-friendly version of web payment page, downloadable application, and SMS Answer: Denver Water currently does not have an app but the payment page is mobile-friendly, CSS is not an app currently, and SMS mobile-friendly.

50. How many accounts can be supported under one user? Answer: Our ideal solution would support unlimited accounts under one user. This would facilitate account management for those customers with multiple accounts.

A. Part of the document says we should integrate to your web portal and later it says the below. Is the selected firm to build a full web portal that allows logins and manages invoices/payments etc or just a singular payment page integrated to your web portal? Either is fine, we just need to confirm Answer: Both, the web portal should allow customers to self-service, which includes making payments and managing their account, accessing bills/payment/consumption history, etc, however, it may be necessary for a customer to be linked back to the Denver Water website for things like: submitting a rebate application, submitting a leak adjustment form, requesting a pitcher/filter, to review other payment options available to them, etc.

51. Biller Direct EBP A. What part of this is supplied by Oracle? Answer: Not provided by Oracle currently.

52. Who is the current PSP and will they remain?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water. We anticipate using the same partner for all processes.

53. Please clarify implementation start dates and when Denver Water would like to be fully transitioned to the new vendor.

A. Answer: The RFP states in section 1.5 Timeline that we anticipate an implementation start date in late Q2 or early Q3 2025. Given the current schedule, a more realistic implementation start date would be Q4 2025. The desire is to be fully transitioned to the new vendor in 2026.

54. Section J - Can DW please clarify the data source of your non-water fees and charges? Are they from CC&B or another system? Does DW impose a convenience fee for these payments or are the costs absorbed by the utility?

A. Answer: Non-water charges are billed in JDE. We currently charge fees to the customer based on a percentage of the total payment to the customer.

55. Under Project Requirements "v" - Can DW please clarify what your expectations are for "whitewater support"?

A. Answer: We would like a dedicated individual to work with after go-live to sort out any minor issues and bugs. Please provide information on what this would look like with your solution if selected.

56. Under User Experience Requirements "iv" - You've included 'merchant fees' in the requirements. Are these payment processing fees that you are charging customers? If so, when would those fees be charged?

A. Answer: Yes, those are credit card fees paid by the customer at the time payment is made. We would like to have the option to set the convenience fee for certain customer types (e.g. tap sales).

57. Could you confirm whether the SSAE 16 report is a mandatory requirement for proposal submission, or if alternative documentation demonstrating appropriate internal controls and data security practices may be acceptable?

A. Answer: Refer to Section 1.3 – Minimum Qualifications of the RFP.

58. Who is the current payment provider for Denver Water?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

59. We noticed the RFP mentions DTMF technology for IVR but doesn’t specify requirements for DTMF masking or call recording. Could you clarify if DTMF masking is required, or if there’s specific PCI-DSS language that would apply?

A. Answer: We look to the proposer to provide information as to how their solution is compliant with PCI-DSS.

60. Would Denver Water accept a proposal that includes multiple vendors in one response, or do you prefer a single prime vendor with potential subcontractors?

A. Answer: Denver Water is open to receiving proposals from multiple vendors. Please be sure to provide information about all vendors, explain the relationship, and clarify those roles and responsibilities for which each vendor will be responsible.

61. If our firm is ISO 27001 and PCI Compliant – is SSAE & SOC2 a mandatory requirement?

A. Answer: Refer to Section 1.3 – Minimum Qualifications of the RFP.

62. Does Denver Water intend to award this RFP to a single vendor or multiple vendors? Does Denver Water use a single vendor for customer portal and payment processing?

A. Answer: See response to question 60.

63. What is driving the release of this RFP?

A. Answer: Please refer to Section 1.1 Purpose and Section 1.4 Objectives of the RFP.

64. When does your current provider(s) contract end?

A. Answer: For information about Denver Water’s current payment processing vendor, please submit a CORA request to Denver Water.

65. Can you elaborate on the differences between the various payment channels such as Speedpay, E-bill, Recurring, and Web?

A. Answer: E-bill payments are made via a link on the paperless bill. Recurring payments are those on autopay. Web payments are made via the one-time guest pay on the Denver Water website. Other payment methods include IVR, which is made by phone, and SMS or pay-by-text.

66. Are 'EFTDBO' transactions payments from customers online/home banking?

A. Answer: EFTDBO are payments made via My Checkfree.com (FISERV)

67. What is the number of commercial accounts vs residential accounts?

A. Answer: Commercial accounts total 21,190. Residential accounts total 211,493. Multi-Family accounts total 11,238. We have a total of 245,296 active water service agreements and this number includes other customer types, such as irrigation only accounts.

68. Could you please clarify your preferred method for accepting in-person payments? For example, are you envisioning a self-service kiosk, a point-of-sale (POS) system, or a third-party location such as Western Union?

A. Answer: Mail-in payments are out of scope for this RFP. We are interested in the proposer's solutions for in-person cash only payments. We currently do not take walk in payments at our location and use a partner for cash payments at designated locations.

69. Can you please provide more information regarding your existing property management software. (What is the existing property management software) A. Answer: See response to question 35

70. Tab 3: Supplemental Questions- In an effort to standardize the format of all proposals, responses should be provided to all items in the order given. Please list each item number and restate the question before each individual response. Can you please clarify the formatting in which you are looking for the responder to follow? i.e.- Due to the 25-page limit, is Denver Water okay with the response being completed under the requirement in a different color to identify the response to the requirement?

A. Answer: Proposer’s are welcome to submit proposals in whatever format works for them while still meeting those specifications outlined in the RFP.

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