SPECIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Document and Media Scanning Services

1. SCOPE OF SERVICES:

The Records, Taxes and Treasury Division (“RTT”) is seeking a qualified vendor (“Contractor”) to furnish all labor, materials, equipment, services and incidentals to provide Document and

Media Scanning Services for RTT and various other Broward County agencies that may have need of these services, which include pickup and transportation, preparation, scanning, indexing, conversion and other related services.

2. SPECIFICATIONS:

2.1. The primary records to be scanned shall be letter and legal size pages, and may also include other formats, such as microfiche, microfilm, drawings or other record media.

2.2. Document imaging/scanning and media conversion of microfiche, microfilm or other media to Portable Document Format (PDF) with large size drawings and standard size documents converted at a minimum of 300 dots per inch (dpi).

3. DIGITAL SCANNING REQUIREMENTS:

3.1. Document scanning and conversion must be in accordance with Florida Administrative

Code, Rule 1B-26.003 - https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleNo.asp?id=1B-26.003.

3.2. The Contractor shall maintain optimum image quality with continual monitoring and adjustment of the imaging process to accommodate the varying characteristics of different document populations.

3.3. Contractor shall be responsible for the preparation of documents prior to scanning.

Preparation of documents shall include, but not be limited to, the removal of staples, unfolding pages, repair of any ripped pages with transparent tape, and orientation of pages.

3.4. Documents shall be scanned in the same order as they are physically batched, regardless of size and weight.

3.5. Contractor shall scan images to PDF at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Image is defined as a single side of a page.

3.6. Documents containing text shall be converted into a searchable PDF using Optical Character

Recognition (OCR).

3.7. Documents shall be rotated to provide maximum readability (e.g., letters shall be in proper orientation when document is displayed without rotation.).

3.8. Software intelligence shall automatically delete blank documents.

3.9. The scanned images produced should normally be done in black and white; however, some documents may require grayscale or color depending on the information contained within the documents. If grayscale/color conveys information, and producing black and white documents would cause the loss of information conveyed, adjustments must be made accordingly.

3.10. If a document contains information on both sides of the document, both sides shall be scanned.

3.11. Wide format documents (e.g., engineering drawings, etc.) shall be scanned in color and black and white depending on the information contained within the documents.

3.12. Contractor shall provide automated daily, weekly, and monthly document imaging reports.

3.13. Automatic contrast control for scanned documents is required.

https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleNo.asp?id=1B-26.003

3.14. Frame/Border control and auto cropping on all sizing perimeters is required.

3.15. Capability to provide output to a DVD, external hard drive, encrypted transfer to off-site repository, or other appropriate approved media to be returned to the County.

4. SERVICE ORGANIZATION CONTROLS:

4.1. Contractor must be Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 or SOC 3 Type I or II certified.

4.2. Contractor should provide Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 or SOC 3 certification/report with their submittal. If not provided with submittal, the Contractor must submit within three (3) business days of County’s request. Contractor may be deemed non-responsive for failure to fully comply within stated timeframes.

4.3. Contractor agrees to provide an updated SOC report annually for the duration of the contract.

5. SCANNING FACILITY:

5.1. To maintain the County's standard of security for the prevention of possible loss or theft of private, confidential and/or privileged information contained in documents which may be scanned, Contractor shall perform all scanning in a facility as follows:

5.1.1. All scanning work is performed in a secure facility with twenty-four (24) hour surveillance and access control including a security system that is monitored and employs cameras, motion detectors, smoke detectors, security check-in area, inspected and tested fire suppression system, backup power generator, etc.

5.1.2. Facility shall be NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) and local code compliant.

5.1.3. Contractor must have formal security policies and procedures in place.

6. SECURITY STANDARDS:

6.1. Contractor shall be in full compliance with HIPAA regulations relating to the handling of

Protected Health Information (PHI). Contractor shall ensure that information is protected from disclosure from the time it is picked up until it is returned to the County.

6.2. Contractor shall enter into a Business Associate Agreement with Broward County to provide services related to the operation of certain activities/programs that involve the use or disclosure of PHI.

6.3. All scanning work shall be performed by employees who possess appropriate credentials to handle PHI. This shall include preparation, capture, indexing, quality control and output.

6.4. Contractor shall be held responsible for lost, stolen and/or damaged original documents.

6.5. Documents in the Contractor's custody become the Contractor's sole responsibility and shall be secured in a manner to protect them from potential natural disasters, acts of theft, acts of burglary and any other criminal acts.

6.6. While the County’s documents are in the Contractor's custody, such media shall not be accessible to the general public, nor to anyone that is not directly associated with completing the scanning project.

6.7. Contractor shall not divulge any information present on the County’s documents.

6.8. Contractor shall hold all information in strict confidence.

6.9. Contractor shall not use the confidential information for their own benefit or for the benefit of others.

7. TRACKING AND INVENTORY:

7.1. The Contractor shall inventory and acknowledge the receipt of all items received. It is intended that the Contractor shall maintain an automated tracking system to allow for the retrieval of any document that is in process.

7.2. Any discrepancies between the County’s inventory transmittal and the items received by the

Contractor are to be resolved in ten (10) business days.

8. QUALITY CONTROL/ASSURANCE:

8.1. The Contractor shall sight verify a random sampling of the resulting output for clarity and faithful reproduction. All documents and data that fail this quality assurance process are to be rescanned at no additional cost to the County until the prescribed quality is met.

8.2. After the scanning/media conversion services have been completed on a pick up from the

County, the Contractor shall be required to perform a final quality control step that compares the final output to the manifest the County provided the Contractor to ensure that every document has been digitized and indexed.

8.3. The Contractor shall be required to provide to the County a report comparing the documents provided to the final output with each product delivery.

9. INDEXING:

9.1. It is expected that a minimal amount of basic document indexing may also be required, including, but not limited to, entry of the document number, the document date, author, and perhaps a few other fields, such as file name or document title, or document type.

10. PICK-UP AND TURNAROUND TIME:

10.1. The Contractor shall be responsible for document pick-up from a County Agency location.

10.2. The County requires that the work be done within sixty (60) business days of being picked up by the Contractor.

10.3. Upon receipt of the purchase order, Contractor shall notify the County prior to document pick-up if, due to the voluminous nature of the project, the length of project shall exceed sixty (60) business days.

10.4. Upon scanning project completion, Contractor shall be responsible for returning all documents to the originating County Agency location.

11. TRANSPORTATION:

11.1. All documents must be transported in closed, preferably climate-controlled vehicles. If magnetic media is involved, all transport must be placed in magnetic containers within the vehicles.

11.2. Contractor shall be required to be in full compliance with HIPAA regulations relating to the handling and transportation of PHI.

12. RECORDS ACCESSIBILITY:

12.1. In the event a document is needed, the County will require designated County staff to have access to original County documents supplied to the Contractor. The Contractor will provide the ability to locate and return to the County department any original document that is in the possession of the Contractor within forty-eight (48) hours from the time of request by an authorized County representative.

12.2. After the County has fulfilled its need, the Contractor shall pick up these documents and return with them to the Contractor’s site to either complete the scanning, indexing or conversion process, whichever applies.

13. OPTIONAL DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION SERVICES (AT COUNTY ELECTION):

13.1. At the County’s sole discretion and upon written authorization from the originating County

Agency, Contractor shall provide secure destruction of original documents after successful completion of all scanning, indexing, quality control, and final acceptance of digital deliverables by the County.

13.2. No documents shall be destroyed unless the County expressly authorizes destruction in writing for each pickup, batch, or project. If no such authorization is issued, Contractor shall comply with Section 10.4 and return all original documents to the County.

13.3. When destruction is authorized, the Contractor shall:

13.3.1. Destroy documents in a manner compliant with the NAID AAA destruction standards.

13.3.2. Ensure destruction occurs within a secure, access-controlled facility meeting all requirements in Sections 5 (Scanning Facility) and 6 (Security Standards).

13.3.3. Ensure destruction is conducted by employees who meet the same credentialing, confidentiality, and PHI-handling requirements listed in Section 6.

13.4. The Contractor shall provide the County with a Certificate of Destruction for each batch destroyed. The certificate must include:

13.4.1. Date and location of destruction

13.4.2. Method of destruction

13.4.3. Unique project, batch, or manifest identification numbers

13.4.4. Contractor’s authorized representative signature

13.4.5. Confirmation that destruction was performed in compliance with all applicable standards

13.5. The Contractor shall maintain a complete chain-of-custody record from receipt of documents through destruction. The tracking and inventory requirements in Section 7 shall apply until destruction is completed and certified.

13.6. All destruction of documents containing PHI or other confidential information shall adhere to HIPAA requirements and any applicable Business Associate Agreement provisions, as required in Section 6.

13.7. The Contractor shall not destroy any original documents without prior written County approval. Unauthorized destruction shall constitute a material breach of contract and may result in damages, penalties, termination for cause, or other remedies available to the

County.

14. PRICE:

14.1. Pricing for each order will be determined by the order quantity and in accordance with the order amounts and price structured on the Bid Response Form. NOTE: Quantities listed are estimates only. Actual purchases shall be based on need.

14.1.1. Pricing Structure Example (Line Item 1):

The County needs 5,000 letter-sized documents scanned. Pricing shall be within the 1 – 10,000 range as quoted on the Item Response Form. The unit price to enter is your unit price at a quantity of 5,000 each (i.e., 5,000 x $0.10 = $500).