19R0007_RFP_011519.pdf.pdf

RFQ IFB RFP

WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS

(WOSB) ELIGIBLE UNDER THE WOMEN-OWNED

SOLICITATION/CONTRACT/ORDER FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS

OFFEROR TO COMPLETE BLOCKS 12, 17, 23, 24, & 30

1. REQUISITION NUMBER PAGE OF

2. CONTRACT NO. 3. AWARD/EFFECTIVE

DATE

4. ORDER NUMBER 5. SOLICITATION NUMBER 6. SOLICITATION ISSUE

DATE

7. FOR SOLICITATION

INFORMATION CALL:

a. NAME b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (No collect calls)

8. OFFER DUE DATE/

LOCAL TIME

9. ISSUED BY

13b. RATING

14. METHOD OF SOLICITATION

CODE

15. DELIVER TO 16. ADMINISTERED BY CODE

18a. PAYMENT WILL BE MADE BY CODEFACILITY

CODE

CODE

TELEPHONE NO.

17b. CHECK IF REMITTANCE IS DIFFERENT AND PUT SUCH ADDRESS IN

OFFER

18b. SUBMIT INVOICES TO ADDRESS SHOWN IN BLOCK 18a UNLESS BLOCK

BELOW IS CHECKED

SEE ADDENDUM

19.

ITEM NO.

20.

SCHEDULE OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES

21.

QUANTITY

22.

UNIT

23.

UNIT PRICE

24.

AMOUNT

(Use Reverse and/or Attach Additional Sheets as Necessary)

25. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA 26. TOTAL AWARD AMOUNT (For Govt. Use Only)

28. CONTRACTOR IS REQUIRED TO SIGN THIS DOCUMENT AND RETURN

DELIVER ALL ITEMS SET FORTH OR OTHERWISE IDENTIFIED ABOVE AND ON ANY

ADDITIONAL SHEETS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SPECIFIED

29. AWARD OF CONTRACT: REF.

DATE . YOUR OFFER ON SOLICITATION

(BLOCK 5), INCLUDING ANY ADDITIONS OR CHANGES WHICH ARE

SET FORTH HEREIN, IS ACCEPTED AS TO ITEMS:

30a. SIGNATURE OF OFFEROR/CONTRACTOR

30b. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print) 30c. DATE SIGNED

31a. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (SIGNATURE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER)

31b. NAME OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print) 31c. DATE SIGNED

AUTHORIZED FOR LOCAL REPRODUCTION

PREVIOUS EDITION IS NOT USABLE

STANDARD FORM 1449 (REV. 2/2012)

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.212

COPIES TO ISSUING OFFICE. CONTRACTOR AGREES TO FURNISH AND

OFFER

13a. THIS CONTRACT IS A

RATED ORDER UNDER

DPAS (15 CFR 700)

11. DELIVERY FOR FOB DESTINA-

TION UNLESS BLOCK IS

MARKED

SEE SCHEDULE

12. DISCOUNT TERMS

ARE ARE NOT ATTACHED

ARE ARE NOT ATTACHED

27a. SOLICITATION INCORPORATES BY REFERENCE FAR 52.212-1, 52.212-4. FAR 52.212-3 AND 52.212-5 ARE ATTACHED. ADDENDA

27b. CONTRACT/PURCHASE ORDER INCORPORATES BY REFERENCE FAR 52.212-4. FAR 52.212-5 IS ATTACHED. ADDENDA

17a CONTRACTOR/

OFFEROR.

CODE

8 (A)

SIZE STANDARD:

NAICS:

% FOR:SET ASIDE:UNRESTRICTED OR

SERVICE-DISABLED

VETERAN-OWNED

SMALL BUSINESS

HUBZONE SMALL

BUSINESS

SMALL BUSINESS

10. THIS ACQUISITION IS

EDWOSB

SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM

SECTION B, SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

Refer to Attachment 18 Pricing Template/Instructions.

SECTION C, DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 - INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), is embarking on a transformation known as the Next Generation Financial Services Environment (NextGen). Through this initiative, FSA seeks to implement a flexible, world-class financial solution to leverage in supporting its citizens.

Initially, FSA seeks to modernize its technical and operational architecture, in a manner that provides flexibility to expand and support other financial services. This effort will also include creating a new FSA-branded omni-channel engagement approach led by a mobile-first, mobile-complete, and mobile-continuous digital platform to support the complete federal life cycle of student financing. In addition to improving the overall customer experience, the new environment seeks to improve operational flexibility, enhance cost and operational efficiency, and generate better outcomes for customers and taxpayers.

This contract is for the Optimal Processing Solution.

C.1.2 Contract Type

The resulting award will be a firm-fixed priced contract. The Government anticipates the following periods of performance:

• Solution Delivery for Milestone 1 (FFP) – no later than twenty-four (24) months after award o Separate periods of performance will be identified for the Milestone TBDs listed in Section

C.2.5

• Solution Operations and Maintenance (FFP) – a base period of one year, with fourteen (14), one-year option periods

• Business Process Operations (IDIQ) – a base ordering period of five years, with two (2), five-year optional ordering periods

C.2 – OBJECTIVES, REQUIREMENTS, AND MILESTONE

C.2.1 Solution Objectives

Optimal Processing Solution shall be a highly adaptable solution set which supports current and future FSA products and processes across the entire lifecycle of student financing, including but not limited to functions for application for financing, to origination and disbursement, to processing and servicing and pay-off or default. Solution will deploy integrated functions and products over time. Solution shall deliver cost efficiencies through significantly increased automation and a modern technical backbone (e.g., modular code base, cloud operability, microservices, two-speed development compatibility, and/or innovative middleware), aiming for a set of integrated microservices. Solution shall better support changing rules, laws, and regulations with minimal operational complexity through the greater flexibility afforded by having separate rules engine(s) and integrated process workflows.

C.2.2 General Operating Requirements

The Optimal Processing Solution shall satisfy these general requirements across all solutions outlined in Section C.2.3:

Adaptability, flexibility, and ongoing innovation: Solution shall efficiently and effectively adapt to changes in the FSA operating environment (including changing Federal rules, regulations, and laws), innovation in commercial financial services, and FSA’s goals. Solution shall easily scale to handle changes in account and transaction volumes and have the flexibility to enable incremental modifications without necessitating full production implementation efforts or additional costs.

a. Solution shall be severable and portable as modules which, at the discretion of FSA, may be further developed and operated separately. This includes, but is not limited to: separate code management, build and deploy process, support environments, and/or production environment

b. Solution shall be built with a modern architecture (e.g., but not limited to, modular code base, cloud operability, microservices, two-speed development, rules engine, modern language) to deliver best-in-class functionalities and cutting-edge industry practices and products.

c. Solution shall implement DevSecOps infrastructure that automates environment creation, testing, code quality checks, and deployment as much as possible (e.g., automatic issue flagging and event-triggered escalation).

Integration: Solution shall be developed and implemented to ensure easy integration with existing FSA or third-party solutions and NextGen solutions, as necessary to execute required functions, and include features to allow them to easily integrate with existing FSA or third-party solutions NextGen solutions as required to execute required functions. Solution shall include features which enable FSA, other government agencies, and designated third-parties to interface or engage with it as necessary. Solution shall care for broad integration needs including, but not limited to, exchanging and harmonizing business rules for workflows, providing development and test environments, and collaborating with FSA and other vendors to resolve integration issues which arise.

Adherence to and monitoring for changes in laws and regulations: Solution shall meet or exceed existing Federal rules, laws, regulations, agency guidelines or court mandates applicable to the FSA operating environment (including all accessibility elements such as 504/508 compliance). Solution shall establish a process for monitoring new or pending changes to applicable laws and regulations, and then proactively partner with FSA to determine the implications to technical design and/or operational procedures.

Cybersecurity, Hosting and Middleware: Solution shall include robust cybersecurity protections and features to protect customer data. The solution must comply with the conditions in the attached “02 – Security Technical Requirements” at contract award.

- The vendor’s solution shall meet Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), NIST standards, and all cybersecurity regulations and mandates, including Presidential Executive Order (EO) 13800 - Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, to Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. The vendor’s solution shall ensure that all development and management tools, including project management, version control, code repositories, DevSecOps management, monitoring, and cybersecurity, etc., are identified in the technical solution and in the system security boundary.

- Solution shall be hosted in a secure environment. If any aspect of the solution is hosted in the cloud, the solution must be FedRAMP-approved or FedRAMP-“ready”, or must be hosted in a private cloud, per the definition in the attached “02-Security Technical Requirements.” The solution may not be hosted in a shared, multi-tenant environment. Please note the FedRAMP-approved cloud shall require a Department/Agency-level Authorization to Operate (ATO), followed by the FSA-issued ATO for the system, which shall be FISMA and/or FedRAMP-approved at either a FIPS-199 High level or Moderate level, depending on the proposed architecture and corresponding FIPS-199 category of the system.

Special Notices

- Hosting and Infrastructure: All vendors are hereby placed on notice that FSA, in seeking to comply with FITARA, ED’s Strategic IT goals, as well as Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB)-mandated goals established in the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI), may require all new applications and information systems, once created and stabilized, to transition to and leverage common cloud infrastructure services (e.g. through FSA’s Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) or some other FSA-identified services), and/or leverage common enterprise-wide traditional data center services and infrastructure hosting provider (e.g. through FSA’s NGDC or some other FSA-identified services/provider). The NGDC program provides a physical data center structure, access to FISMA High private cloud infrastructure services, and access to FedRAMP High and FedRAMP Moderate cloud infrastructure services, including AWS and Azure.

- Middleware: All vendors are hereby placed on notice that FSA, in seeking to build a future state environment with a consistent, reliable, and scalable architecture; prevent duplication, redundancy, and incompatibility; and reduce costs and complexity, reserves the option to require all new applications and information systems, once created and stabilized, to transition to and leverage a common Enterprise IT Architecture (EITA), FSA’s enterprise middleware architecture program, for middleware and cloud platform services and support. At present, EITA includes Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA) and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), future middleware capabilities, as well Platform-as-a-Service services support in the cloud.

- Section 6103: All vendors are hereby placed on notice that compliance with the security requirements that are provided in IRS 1075 Publication (See Publication 1075, Tax Information Security Guidelines for Federal, State and Local Agencies) may be applicable and should be considered in the solution design.

- In regards to these Special Notices, any future changes will be managed through the change management process identified in the contract.

Identity and access management: Solution shall use FSA’s chosen identity and access management (IAM) solutions for authorization, authentication, single-sign-on (SSO) via standards-based federation, self-services, and identity management. This will enable FSA to build a future state environment with a consistent and scalable set of security services for provisioning and managing all users, including Optimal Processing Solution personnel, other vendors or third-parties, and FSA staff – implementation timing to be agreed with FSA. Attachment “09 – FSA Identity & Access Management Solution Overview” provides an overview of FSA’s IAM solutions.

Data architecture standards: Solution shall implement the enterprise logical and physical data standards supporting FSA’s master data management initiative. FSA anticipates new standards to be finalized and available in Spring 2019.

Financial accuracy and compliance: Solution shall include robust measures for ensuring the compliance and accuracy of financial transactions and reporting. Technical requirements for current state financial standards are included in the attached “03 –Finance Technical Requirements”. FSA anticipates the Full Life Cycle solution to be able to more efficiently and/or effectively meet requirements as compared to current processes.

Additional current state technical constraints: In addition to security and financial requirements, vendors also shall acknowledge an understanding of other functional categories of current state technical constraints where relevant (e.g., processing, websites, communications, etc.). For a broader informational view of FSA’s current servicing environment, vendors are encouraged to review the attached “04 – Additional Current State Technical Constraints,” which provides a representative, though not comprehensive set of technical constraints. A comprehensive set of binding requirements will be defined post award.

─ These constraints are derived from existing laws, regulations, agency guidance, and business rules, and will change based on acts of Congress, updates to Federal regulatory and non-regulatory guidance, and FSA goals.

─ Vendors may propose solution-relevant alternative, more efficient, accurate, or customer-centered approaches and processes (vs. those detailed in the current state technical constraints) to accomplish FSA’s outcomes.

─ Any lifecycle of student financing function (e.g., application processing, repayment, consolidation, deferment, forbearance, specialty claims) impact Optimal Processing Solution, among other existing and future solutions, and often relate to multiple constraints.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1075.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1075.pdf

─ Specialty programs (e.g., PSLF, TEACH, TPD, Perkins, Pell) and specialty claims (e.g., discharge, forgiveness) require special handling as well as specific and unique processing rules that impact the Optimal Processing Solution, along with other existing and future solutions, and often relate to multiple constraints.

Full lifecycle of student financing portfolio scope: Solution shall provide relevant functions for the full lifecycle of student financing portfolio which includes, but is not limited to, varying:

─ Loan statuses (e.g., In school, In grace, In delinquency, In default, In forbearance, In deferment);

─ Customer segments (e.g., military customers);

─ Traditional repayment plans (e.g., Standard, Graduated, and Extended);

─ Income-driven repayment plans (e.g., Income-Contingent, Income-Based, Pay-As-You-Earn, and Revised-Pay-As-You-Earn);

─ Grant programs (e.g., TEACH); and ─ Loan forgiveness and discharge programs (e.g., PSLF, TPD).

Customer experience focus: Solution shall prioritize customer and partner needs and preferences to deliver a world-class customer experience throughout the lifecycle of student financing. Helpful additional context on the current state can be found in the “05 – Current State Customer Tasks,” “06 – Current State Partner Tasks”, “07 – Top Customer Pain Points”, and “11 – Life of the Loan Servicing Intended State” attachments.

Trained personnel: Solution shall ensure personnel (including FSA staff and other vendors as appropriate) are trained and aware of pertinent changes in laws, regulations, programs, or FSA’s performance expectations.

Contribution to knowledge and training of Business Operations personnel: Solution shall work with the Command Center on common knowledge resources, contact scripts, agent desktop guides, and other training materials, ensuring that customer-facing instructions and resolution steps as well as back-office processing procedures are accurate in relation to Optimal Processing Solution. The Command Center is responsible for coordinating the development, improvement, maintenance, and distribution of knowledge and training for Business Operations and other FSA-designated personnel.

Performance management: Solution shall have performance management mechanisms that will enable improved and ongoing achievement of metrics to be defined at award, potentially as service level agreements (SLAs). Example metrics may include but are not limited to: customer satisfaction (compared to a common index), processing error rates, on-time reconciliation and reporting.

Quality control: Solution shall be supported by documented policies/procedures on vendor quality management system to ensure that best-in-class service can be provided.

Software licenses: Commercial software licenses acquired under this contract shall be licensed to the Government.

Technical support help desk: Solution shall provide a Tier 2 technical support help desk to address technical issues with the solution or data generated by it. Tier 1 support will be provided a separate contact center support solution.

C.2.3 Operating Elements and Related Requirements

FSA envisions Optimal Processing Solution addressing functions across the full lifecycle of student financing, from application to pay-off or default. FSA anticipates that no single technology product can provide best-in-class solutions for all required functions, but rather a set of modular solutions that are seamlessly integrated microservices (e.g., the transfer from origination to servicing should use common data definitions without data loss or errors).

Eligibility processing: Solution shall accurately and efficiently determine eligibility for federal financing, based on applicable laws and regulations, by intaking various data sources to calculate an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) which financial aid offices at postsecondary schools use to determine student financing.

─ Back-end application management: Solution shall provide back-end services in support of the front-end execution of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (“FAFSA”). Solution shall effectively integrate with the future state digital platform, through which customers and partners will primarily engage with FSA, including the application portion of the lifecycle of student financing.

□ Solution shall provide back-end infrastructure required to collect applications submitted through multiple channels, including web, mobile, and paper forms, in addition to third-party software applications via Electronic Data Exchange.

□ Solution shall receive and implement FAFSA changes and error fixes requested through the digital platform, or other channels, by applicant, FSA, partners (e.g., schools), or designated vendors.

□ Solution shall provide back-end services and data to enable application status and plain language rationale for rejections or declines to be tracked and accessible to applicants and other approved parties.

□ Solution shall expose relevant services through FSA-designated solutions, e.g., Responsive Web Applications (RWA), Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).

□ Solution shall include the back-end functionalities to enable a demonstration tool to be made available through the digital platform to enable FSA staff or contact center agents to demonstrate how to use the solution to applicants, school partners, or other relevant parties, in addition to a debugging tool that enables the recreation, identification, and testing resolution of technical issues in a simulated production environment.

─ Eligibility determination: Solution shall receive completed applications, perform edits, execute matching, calculate the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), and conduct verification selection.

□ Solution shall collect and process new, renewal, or correction applications based on eligibility rules.

□ Solution shall process inputs from, but not limited to, the FAFSA, school partners, other federal agencies (match results from DHS, DOD, DOJ, SS, SSA, VA), other existing and future FSA solutions (e.g., COD, NSLDS, EDWA, CRM), and external sources.

□ Solution shall enable eligibility rules to be easily modified as needed by FSA staff or designated parties without requiring a major system overhaul and at no cost for minor changes.

□ Solution shall include the capability to re-process past eligibility determinations as deemed necessary by FSA.

□ Solution shall include demonstration/practice and testing functionalities which can be used by FSA staff, school partners, or other designated third partners.

─ Results distribution: Solution shall generate eligibility determination results for applicants, school partners, and other authorized recipients

□ Solution shall enable results to be shared, as close to real-time as possible, with appropriate parties through secure file exchanges, interface files, and/or APIs.

□ Solution shall support the dissemination of the results through communications executed by separately provided solutions (e.g., digital platform, Customer Outreach and Communications, digital marketing, printing and mailing)

─ Data sharing: Solution shall ensure the secure exchange of feed files between FSA solutions and with relevant parties (e.g., but not limited to, schools, other agencies, third-party servicers, and Guarantee Agencies).

□ Solution shall apply data format, usability, access, and management standards in accordance with industry best practices and FSA requirements.

□ Solution shall provide services to enable continuous, real-time or near real-time exchanges of data with FSA’s NextGen solutions, existing FSA solutions, and external parties to support the administration of FSA programs (e.g., accessing student inquiries, enabling record requests, and reporting applications and corrections) by schools.

□ Solution shall integrate with and use existing and future identity and access management solutions as determined by FSA. Refer to Section C.2.2.e and attachment “09 - FSA Identity & Access Management Solution Overview”

□ Solution shall support problem and incident management for those issues requiring collaboration in a multi-vendor environment.

─ Statistical analysis support: Solution shall provide statistical analysis of eligibility determination rules and processing logic to ensure accuracy and consistency as well as support compliance and reporting needs.

□ Solution shall conduct analyses to drive continuous and consistent improvement of eligibility rules.

□ Solution shall prepare data samples for analysis and inclusion in reports including, but not limited to:

• Requirements and Verification Analysis which conducts a post-mortem analysis of the effectiveness of the business rules and the verification model (by comparing an immune group to verified filers);

• IRS Statistical Study which evaluates the accuracy of applicant reporting and determines potential Pell misallocated awards;

• Fraud Detection Analysis which compares FAFSA data to IRS data to determine discrepancies and identifies suspicious patterns that may indicate potential fraud rings;

and

• End of year reporting which provides end-of-year data on Title IV applicants, Federal Pell grants, and TEACH grants.

─ Development, implementation, and integration: Solution shall be designed flexibly to accommodate rapid changes and effective integration with other FSA solutions.

□ Solution shall have a flexible architecture which can be easily and rapidly adapted for changes in eligibility requirements, data sources, and additional business rules as determined by FSA.

□ Solution shall be architected to minimize the effort and time required to implement changes each award year.

□ Solution shall maintain and provide access to the prior years of FAFSA data, in accord with federal records management regulations, in a user-friendly manner for designated users.

□ Solution shall proactively analyze applicant behavior and solution functionality to identify enhancements that could be made to realize NextGen goals.

─ Administration: Solution shall provide operational upkeep and maintenance for all aspects of the solution, including, but not limited to, operational interfaces and tools to be used by FSA staff and partners, and databases.

□ Solution shall be operated cost efficiently and at the appropriate scale as eligibility determination volume fluctuates throughout the year. Solution shall effectively work with other providers to implement required modifications for peak periods.

□ Solution shall include a robust maintenance and troubleshooting approach to ensure minimal customer and operational disruptions. Solution shall respond to, escalate, and resolve identified issues or requested modifications in a timely manner.

─ Eligibility back-office processing: This is an Optional task. Solution shall efficiently execute eligibility determination and support other back-office, exception and manual activities, as assigned by ED, especially those that cannot be automated within other relevant solutions.

Solution shall provide processing capabilities as required by the Optimal Processing Solutions. This includes, but is not limited to, review, validation, and processing associated with aid applications, and requests for various borrower, trading partners, and FSA manual activities.

o Solution shall provide capabilities for FSA to review, grant, and resubmit aid eligibility applications deemed ineligible that require additional manual intervention with, but not limited to, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration and Incarcerated applicants.

o Solution shall provide capabilities to process paper aid applications (i.e. age limit and incarceration restrictions) o Solution shall provide capabilities to support and submit applications for re-processing as instructed by ED.

o Solution shall provide support for school and trading partner interfaces (i.e. EdExpress, Participation Management, SAIG enrollment) including any manual loading of software releases when applicable.

o Solution shall provide support to resolve student identity conflicts.

Origination and disbursement processing: Solution shall execute and document origination and disbursement (O&D) of loans and grants to students, ensuring schools participating in FSA programs receive appropriate funds during given time periods. Solution shall also account for awarded grants, reconcile school cash drawdowns from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, effectively integrate with the digital platform and other solutions to provide information to students and other parties, and drive comprehensive funds management and reconciliation processes.

─ Core origination and disbursement: Solution shall serve as the O&D processing engine, managing the origination of loans/grants and disbursement of those funds to schools based on eligibility determinations.

□ Solution shall be able to view and edit school-, individual, award-, and disbursement-level data in order to assess validity and suitability for O&D processing.

□ Solution shall interface with customer-facing system to collect, store and edit on student requirements (including, but not limited to, Master Promissory Note [MPN], loan counseling completion).

□ Solution shall add, edit, validate, and process loans/grants, (e.g., direct loans, Pell Grants, Iraq Afghanistan Service Grants [IASG], the Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship [CFH], and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education [TEACH] Grants).

□ Solution shall perform disbursement-related school eligibility determination (e.g., based on adherence to annual loan limits) for processing originations and disbursements and identify students or schools where awards/award usage need to be adjusted (e.g., due to schools closing, disaster relief). Solution shall also correct student information where applicable in order to enable successful disbursement.

□ Solution shall edit and process school-generated (e.g., XML) batch files containing the student- and award-identifying information and revert such batch files to schools to report individuals’ disbursement data.

□ Solution shall allow FSA, CSRs, schools, third-party service providers, schools, and other designated vendors to search and update both school and student records to effectively create, award, and disburse loans/grants, as well as to process award adjustments.

─ Funds management and reconciliation: Solution shall enable schools to reconcile, on an aggregate and recipient-level basis, the amount of funds received from returned to various funds (e.g., Title IV, Higher Education Act (HEA), Federal grant, and Direct Loan funds) for disbursements made to, or on behalf of, eligible students. Solution shall reconcile school cash drawdowns from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to schools’ reported disbursements, thereby ensuring schools receive the appropriate amount of funds. Solution shall also perform other related tasks.

□ Solution shall set initial authorizations and authorization adjustments for schools

□ Solution shall calculate funds drawn or returned by schools.

□ Solution shall enable FSA to view and process Administrative Cost Allowances (ACA), which schools leverage to administer their respective aid programs.

□ Solution shall support school- and project-level financial processing functions, including but not limited to, cash balancing and system balancing, school-level financial transactions sent to FSA’s Financial Management System (FMS), and school funding updates from FMS.

□ Solution shall provide financial support for the Campus-Based programs (including, but not limited to, closeout, reallocation, and supplemental processing).

─ Processing for other Campus-Based Title IV programs: Solution shall conduct processing for campus-based programs, which are Federal Work Study (FWS), Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), and Perkins Loan Program.

□ Solution shall collect, edit, and store data provided by schools for the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP), Reallocation Form, Work Colleges Application, Work Colleges Expenditure Report, and Students with Intellectual Disabilities Expenditure Report.

□ Solution shall collect requests from schools for FISAP data corrections. Solution shall enable FSA to collect FISAP data and calculate the Federal Share of Perkins funds that must be returned to the Department of Education (ED).

□ Solution shall enable FSA staff to respond to FISAP data correction requests.

□ Solution shall enable FSA to calculate awards for schools based on data collected through

FISAP.

□ Solution shall enable schools to complete the six steps required to liquidate their Perkins loan portfolios. Solution shall also enable FSA to collect information about and calculate the amount of Perkins funds schools must return to the US Treasury.

□ Solution shall enable the ability to search, view and process all activity, including Perkins transactions, submission logs and tracking events for program and audit purposes.

□ Solution shall collect waiver requests from schools and enable FSA staff to respond to such requests

□ Solution shall include the Default Reduction Assistance Program (DRAP) process which allows schools to communicate with defaulted Perkins Loan borrowers.

□ Solution shall allow the upload of program specific data from external sources such as state agencies and other Department of Education offices. Currently, data including but not limited to Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory (TCLI) data from state agencies and Title III/V Waiver data from OPE must be uploaded.

□ Solution shall interface with NSLDS, the Perkins loan servicing solution) and FMS to receive critical Perkins Loan data for liquidation and Distribution of Assets processing

□ Solution shall effectively interface with credit bureaus to enable the execution of credit-checks (e.g., for PLUS loans).

□ Solution shall effectively share its outputs with the existing- and future-state CRM solution to make case details available to users (e.g., credit checks).

□ Solution shall enable schools to calculate the earned and unearned Title IV financing amounts for which students are eligible (currently called “Return to Title IV” or “R2T4”).

─ Loan Distribution: Solution shall distribute direct loans and servicing-related data to FSA’s chosen servicing solutions.

□ Solution shall distribute booked loans and grants (e.g., TEACH) based upon FSA-defined rules.

□ Solution shall process borrower/loan transfer notifications from solutions and share updates and servicing-related data with FSA and appropriate third parties as near real-time as possible.

□ Solution shall track the status of all files and records transmitted and received.

□ Solution shall process response files received.

□ Solution shall distribute relevant updates and data to servicing solutions.

─ Data reporting and analytics: Solution shall provide analysis of origination and disbursement data to ensure accuracy and consistency of service, as well as support FSA reporting and compliance needs.

□ Solution shall provide services to enable continuous, real-time or near real-time exchanges of data with FSA’s NextGen solutions, existing FSA solutions, and external parties to support the creation of ad-hoc reports.

□ Solution shall ensure the secure exchange of files between FSA solutions and with relevant parties (e.g., but not limited to, schools, other agencies’ tools including the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT), and guarantee agencies).

□ Solution shall ensure the secure exchange of files with other FSA systems (e.g., but not limited to, the Central Processing System [CPS], National Student Loan Data System [NSDLS], and Student Aid Information Gateway [SAIG]).

□ Solution shall create, store and send standardized reports to FSA, schools, and third parties.

Such reports include, but are not limited to: student account reports, funding reports, school reconciliation reports, credit decisions for plus borrowers, and eligibility requirements.

─ Communications and other support: Solution shall generate processing events/results that will then be disseminated to applicants and schools in communications executed by separately provided solutions. Solution shall also enable the execution of other customer-related processes, including credit checks and select eligibility determinations (e.g., confirming whether a financing recipient is a citizen or permanent resident eligible for financing).

□ Solution shall support the dissemination of O&D results through customized and global communications executed by separately provided solutions (e.g., Digital Platform, customer outreach and communications). Such communications will be directed to applicants, schools, and other authorized recipients (e.g., third-party service providers).

Student Financing servicing: Solution shall execute the full range of “life of the loan” servicing functions, including consolidation origination and default support. Solution shall provide these functions across FSA’s full lifecycle of student financing portfolio, including for specialty programs (e.g., PSLF, TEACH, TPD, Perkins, Pell) and specialty claims (e.g., discharge, forgiveness). Solution shall also provide relevant reconciliation, reporting, and audit functions, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness.

─ Solution shall execute lifecycle of student financing servicing functions, including, but not limited to:

□ Loan status tracking;

□ Eligibility requirement assessment and annual recertification, and payment recalculation for income-driven plans tied to a customer’s income, family situation, and other characteristics that may fluctuate;

□ Loan consolidation origination, including application, pay off, booking new loans, maintaining account histories, performing all reconciliation and financial reporting, among other activities;

□ Switching between repayment plans; and

□ Retroactive processing, (e.g., retroactive application of deferments, forbearances, payments).

─ Solution shall perform financial functions, including, but not limited to:

□ Payment processing and applications to accounts;

□ Financial reconciliation and variance research;

□ As needed support of audits (e.g., annual audit reports such as the Service Organization

Controls Type II Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE18));

□ Research and resolution of treasury issues;

□ Comprehensive cash management;

□ Dynamic loan portfolio management; and,

□ Effective internal financial controls.

─ Solution(s) shall conduct error and dispute resolution investigation and processing, including, but not limited to: Account maintenance, including manual correction of errors identified through data integrity scans and in response to FSA change requests; and, Payment processing, including researching lost or misapplied payments and payment reapplication at the request of customers or FSA

─ Solution shall have the capability to receive and transfer accounts onto and off one or multiple general ledgers.

─ Solution shall track, project/forecast, and provide servicing functions for delinquent and defaulted customer accounts. Solution shall collaborate with the Digital Platform, Business Process Operations, and other relevant solutions to enable more tailored customer assistance and improved repayment outcomes. Activities include, but are not limited to:

□ Executing rehabilitation processes;

□ Reporting statuses and other data to credit bureaus;

□ Processing Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG) and Treasury Offset Program (TOP) initiation, tracking and reporting, and research (e.g., processing customer payments to reflect offsets, initiating transmission of required customer due process notices); and,

□ Identifying defaulted accounts for litigation referral, as required by law, and working with Business Process Operations to prepare litigation packets and Certificates of Indebtedness

(COI).

─ Solution shall automate all possible servicing and other functions to minimize manual processing. Solution may only rely on streamlined manual processing by the separately provided Business Process Operations in the cases where automation is not feasible;

however, Solution shall provide personnel to do manual processing related to financial functions and error/dispute investigation and processing to be performed at the portfolio level (refer to prior two bullets for those functions and tasks).Solution shall maintain a robust data history, including retroactive processing (e.g., “as-was” vs “as-is”), and tracing loans through consolidation transactions. This data shall be available and shared with other solutions as directed by FSA.

Additional functions: The pursuant additional functions are optional tasks. At FSA’s discretion, these optional tasks may be individually exercised at a later time. Solution shall care for the functions of the following existing systems and tools. FAA Access to CPS Online, which is currently a website used by financial aid administrators (FAAs) to perform functions that assist them in administering FSA programs.

□ Solution shall enable FAAs to enter or correct application data and conduct student inquiries.

□ Solution shall enable FAAs to request and view Institutional Student Information Record

(ISIR) information and provide Identity Verification Results.

─ Solution shall include demonstration/practice functionality .EDExpress, which is currently a

Windows software separately installed and used by schools, enabling them to process, package, and manage Title IV student financial application data submitted to FSA.

□ Solution shall process origination and disbursement data for students receiving the following loans/types of financing: William D. Foard direct loans, Pell Grants, and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants (TEACH Grants).

□ Solution shall enable financial aid administrators to package students’ financing, awarding assistance without exceeding the student’s financial need.

□ Solution shall permit Direct Loan schools to reconcile the School Account Statement (SAS) to loans and actual disbursements.

C.2.4 Deliverables

C.2.4.1 Deliverables shall be provided electronically whenever possible. Electronic delivery via e-mail shall be acceptable, with the deliverable files in both Acrobat.pdf and a current Microsoft Office format suitable for the report (Word or Excel) unless FSA requests a different format.

Deliverables shall be submitted to the Contracting Officer, the COR, and the Project Manager.

C.2.4.2 The Contractor shall furnish deliverables specified herein in accordance with the delivery schedule and requirements, to the delivery point(s) specified in the table below:

FSA Deliverable Table Deliverable Description Due Date and

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria

Project Kick-Off Meeting

Kick-off meeting to begin discussions on detailed requirements and the project schedule.

• Presentation Meeting Minutes

Within five business days of award

Project Management Plan

Detailed project management plan and project schedule for the complete contract scope.

Includes Scope Management Plan, Cost Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, Quality Management Plan, Resource Management Plan, Schedule Management Plan, Communication Management Plan, Performance Management Plan, and Performance Monitoring Plan.

Three weeks after award

Status Meetings and Status report on progress, Weekly

FSA Deliverable Table Deliverable Description Due Date and

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria

Status Reports performance metrics, schedule, incidents, action and issue log, and risk log/risk register.

Integrated Master Project Schedule

Planned dates to start and complete tasks and milestone, including work to be done by FSA as well as any vendors participating in the project.

Updated weekly

Requirements Management Plan

Defines how requirements will be elicited, structured, and prioritized; how requirements will be recorded; how requirements will be modified;

and how requirements will be traced and reconciled.

• Initial plan to cover all system functionality at least five days prior to Requirements Stage gate and annually thereafter

• Updated for each release; Final version for each release delivered prior to Requirements Stage Gate

Requirements Documents

• High Level Requirements

• Product backlog

• Requirements Traceability

Matrix (RTM) – requirements mapped to test cases

• Initial documents to cover full system functionality at least five days prior to Requirements Stage gate and annually thereafter

• Final version for each release delivered prior to Requirements Stage Gate

Data Migration Plan (Does not apply to Initial Conversion)

Defines processes associated with completion of data migration effort, including conversion strategies, data mapping requirements, data clean up, and testing.

• Updated for each release;

• Final version for each release delivered prior to Requirements Stage Gate

Conversion Plan Defines processes associated with completion of data migration efforts, including

Within thirty days of award

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria conversion strategies, data mapping requirements, data clean-up, and testing.

Solution Architecture and Detailed Design Document

Combines both a high-level and detailed view of the solution architecture

• Includes description and diagrams of infrastructure, network, security, data, and application architectures

• Addresses all Technical Quality Control (TQC) factors and sub-factors identified as applicable and in scope

• Includes mitigation strategies for all risks identified in the Technical Quality Control reviews

• Includes Interface Control Documents (ICDs) to document all interfaces between systems and subsystems, including APIs, data required, data returned, error handling, and communications, etc.

• Conveys detail necessary to allow coders to develop the system, and to support critical design reviews before beginning development

• Initial documents to functionality at least five days prior to Design Stage gate and annually thereafter

• Final version for each release delivered at least 5 days prior to Design Stage Gate

Developers Integration Guide

Documents how internal and external parties will integrate with and consume the APIs/services that are exposed.

• Initial document to cover full integrations at least five days prior to Design Stage Gate and annually thereafter

• Final version for each release delivered at

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria least 5 days prior to Design Stage Gate

Configuration Management Plan

An overview of the organization, activities, overall tasks, and objectives of configuration management; addresses:

baseline work products, describes the mechanism to track and control changes/change requests, and the mechanism to establish and maintain baseline integrity

• Initial plan to cover full system functionality at least five days prior to Test Readiness Review and annually thereafter

• Final version for each release delivered prior to Test Readiness Review

Master Test Plan Details high level and overall test planning and test management

• Includes System, User

Acceptance, Performance, Inter-system, etc. Test Plans

• Master Test Plan includes objectives for the security control assessment and procedures for testing each security control

• Initial test plan to cover full system functionality at least five days prior to Test Readiness Review

• Final version for each release delivered prior

Testing Documentation

• Test Suites - test scenarios, test cases and test scripts for a solution or system under test

• User Acceptance Test Summary Report

• System Test Summary Report

• Defect Management Report

• QA and QC records

• Initial testing documentation to cover full system functionality at least five days prior to Test Readiness Review

• Final version for each release delivered prior

Solution Source Code Provided in a usable/human readable format as approved/agreed to by FSA

• Initial Source code to functionality at least five days prior to Test Readiness Review

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria

• Prior to each release and available upon request

Database detail • Data Dictionary: Field name, field definition (in simple to understand terms), valid values for the content, field format/length for data stored in the servicing system (i.e. databases, access databases, tables, and spreadsheets).

• Dictionary includes:

Historical transactional data for all actions (financial and non-financial) taken on an account including but not limited to payments, refunds, schedule histories, credit reporting, and communication (Paper, email, fax, etc.) data

• Volume of Data

• Procedures and Training

Materials (Catalog and actual documents.

• Data Dictionary/documentati on thirty days after award and yearly thereafter to include volume of data or Upon Request

• Procedures and training materials prior to o Initial Test Readiness Review, prior to each o release Test readiness review, o annually thereafter

Implementation Documentation

• Release Version Description

Document

• Solution User Manual

• Implementation Plan

• Transition Management Plan

• Training Plan

• Operations and Maintenance

Plan

• Standard Operating

Procedures

• Production Readiness

Prior to receiving Authorization to Operate

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria

Review (PRR)

• Implementation Plan (Hour x

Hour)

Lessons Learned Reports

All aspects of the project or project stage are analyzed, and results and opportunities for improvement are documented

Within two weeks after each release

System Security and Privacy Documentation

Privacy Artifacts:

• Privacy Threshold Analysis

(PTA)

• Privacy Impact Assessment

(PIA)

• System of Records Notice

(SORN)

External Data Exchange Artifacts:

• Memorandum(s) of

Understanding (MOUs)

• Computer Matching

Agreement(s)

• Interconnection Security

Agreement(s) (ISA)

Continuity of Services Artifacts:

• Business Impact Assessment

(BIA)

• IT Contingency Plan (Includes

Test Plan)

• Disaster Recovery Plan

System Security Documentation Artifacts:

• Data Sensitivity Worksheet

• System Authorization

Boundary

• System Security Plan (SSP)

• Incident Response Plan (IRP)

• Breach Notification Policy

Prior to receiving Authority to Operate

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria and Response Plan

Security Risk Assessment Artifacts:

• Security Assessment Plan

• System Security

Documentation Checklists

• Security Assessment Report

• Plans of Actions and

Milestones (POAMs)

• Data Retention Schedule

Security Documentation Post-

ATO

Property Management Plan

• FISMA Metrics Report

• Annual Self-Assessment (if not in OSA program)

• Incident Response Test Plan and Test Report

• Contingency Test Plan and

Test Report

• Standard Operation

Procedures

• System Retirement Plan

• System Disposal Plan

Updated as changes occur or directed by FSA

Transition Support (Phase-Out)

Phase-Out Plan Sixty calendar days prior to the completion of this contract (to include option periods)

Database Actual system databases for all functionality, including all historical data and transactions

Sixty calendar days prior to the completion of this contract (to include option periods)

Security Reports • CyberScope Report

• Clearance and Suitability

Report

• Application Access Report

• Staffing Change Report

• Recertification of User

Monthly

Frequency *Acceptance Criteria

Access and Authenticator Activation

Contractor PIV and PIV-I Card Deliverable

Monthly Vendor Employee Report (FAR 35-9 deliverable)

First business day after the close of each month

Contractor Solution Development Processes

• Contractor’s System Development Lifecycle

• Contractor’s Software Development Lifecycle

• Contractor’s Software Engineering Handbook

Upon request

Quality Control Plan • In/out personnel processing

• Subcontractor management

• Training

• Document/control management

• Control of non-conformances/corrective and preventative actions

• Internal auditing

• Development and testing of systems

Work Breakdown Structure

• Graphical hierarchical format that is deliverable based beginning at Level 1 (highest level) and ending at Level 4

• Submit using Microsoft Project Schedule (version 2010 or newer)

Technology…