91003118R0024.pdf

SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD 1. THIS CONTRACT IS A RATED ORDER

UNDER DPAS (15 CFR 7900)

RATING PAGE OF PAGES

2. CONTRACT NUMBER 3. SOLICITATION NUMBER 4. TYPE OF SOLICITATION 5. DATE ISSUED 6. REQUISITION/PURCHASE NUMBER

CODE7. ISSUED BY 8. ADDRESS OFFER TO (If other than item 7)

NOTE: In sealed bid solicitations "offer" and "offeror" mean "bid" and "bidder".

SOLICITATION

9. Sealed offers in original and copies for furnishings the supplies or services in the Schedule will be received at the place specified in item 8, or if hand carried, in the depository located in until local time

CAUTION - LATE Submissions, Modifications, and Withdrawals: See Section L, Provision No. 52.214-7 or 52.215-1. All offers are subject to all terms and conditions contained in this solicitation.

10. FOR

INFORMATION

CALL:

A. NAME B. TELEPHONE (NO COLLECT CALLS)

AREA CODE NUMBER EXT.

C. E-MAIL ADDRESS

11. TABLE OF CONTENTS

(X) SEC. DESCRIPTION PAGE(S) (X) SEC. PAGE(S)DESCRIPTION

A B C D E F G H

I

J

K

L

M EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

INSTRS., CONDS., AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS

REPRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATIONS AND OTHER

STATEMENTS OF OFFERORS

PART IV - REPRESENTATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

PART III - LIST OF DOCUMENTS, EXHIBITS AND OTHER ATTACH.

CONTRACT CLAUSESSOLICITATION/CONTRACT FORM

SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

DESCRIPTION/SPECS./WORK STATEMENT

PACKAGING AND MARKING

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

DELIVERIES OR PERFORMANCE

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

NOTE: Item 12 does not apply if the solicitation includes the provisions at 52.214-16, Minimum Bid Acceptance Period.

OFFER (Must be fully completed by offeror)

12. In compliance with the above, the undersigned agrees, if this offer is accepted within calendar days (60 calendar days unless a different period is inserted by the offeror) from the date for receipt of offers specified above, to furnish any or all items upon which prices are offered at the set opposite each item, delivered at the designated point(s), within the time specified in the schedule.

13. DISCOUNT FOR PROMPT PAYMENT

(See Section I, Clause No. 52.232-8)

14. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AMENDMENTS

(The offeror acknowledges receipt of amendments to the SOLICITATION for offerors and related documents numbered and dated):

10 CALENDAR DAYS (%) 20 CALENDAR DAYS (%) 30 CALENDAR DAYS (%) CALENDAR DAYS(%)

DATEAMENDMENT NO.AMENDMENT NO. DATE

15A. NAME AND

ADDRESS

OF OFFER-

OR

CODE FACILITY 16. NAME AND THE TITLE OF PERSON AUTHORIZED TO SIGN OFFER

(Type or print)

15B. TELEPHONE NUMBER

AREA CODE NUMBER EXT.

15C. CHECK IF REMITTANCE ADDRESS IS

DIFFERENT FROM ABOVE - ENTER SUCH

ADDRESS IN SCHEDULE.

17. SIGNATURE 18. OFFER DATE

AWARD (To be completed by Government)

19. ACCEPTED AS TO ITEMS 20. AMOUNT 21. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION

22. AUTHORITY FOR USING OTHER THAN FULL OPEN COMPETITION:

10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) 41 U.S.C. 253 (c)

24. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 7)

26. NAME OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

IMPORTANT - Award will be made on this Form, or on Standard Form 26, or by other authorized official written notice.

AUTHORIZED FOR LOCAL REPRODUCTION

Previous edition is unusable

23. SUBMIT INVOICES TO ADDRESS SHOWN IN

(4 copies unless otherwise specified)

25. PAYMENT WILL BE MADE BY

27. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

28. AWARD DATE

CODE

ITEM

STANDARD FORM 33 (REV,. 9-97)

Prescribed by GSA - Far (48 CFR) 53.214 (c)

SEALED BID (IFB)

NEGOTIATED (RFP)

(Hour) (Date)

PART I - THE SCHEDULE PART II - CONTRACT CLAUSES

1 53

91003118R0024

MPDSETeam@ed.gov

2 - 12 12 - 14 14 - 15 15 - 16 53

45 - 53

16 - 40

09/24/2018

40 - 45

SECTION B, SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

Information regarding the pricing structure, including attachment 10 – Pricing Template - will be provided via amendment at a later date.

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 support for our customers, school partners, and taxpayers. Initially, FSA will modernize its technical and operational architecture, in a manner that provides flexibility to expand and support other financial services. In addition to improving the overall customer experience, the new environment will improve operational flexibility, enhance cost and operational efficiency, and generate better outcomes for customers and taxpayers.

This solicitation is for a Business Process Operations solution, previously referred to as “Component E” and “Component F” in the Phase I Solicitation dated February 20, 2018.

C.1.2 Contract Type

The resulting award will be an indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract. The Government anticipates a base ordering period of five years, with one five-year optional ordering period. FSA anticipates one or more awards for Business Process Operations.

C.2 – BACKGROUND, GOALS, AND VISION

C.2.1 Background

FSA’s core mission is to ensure that all eligible customers benefit from Federal financial assistance – grants, loans, work-study programs, etc. – for education beyond high school. The programs FSA administers comprise the nation’s largest source of student financial aid. Every year, over 18 million students apply for Federal aid and FSA has over 42 million customers across the student aid lifecycle. FSA’s total lending portfolio is $1.4+ trillion in outstanding loans including $1.1 trillion that is directly serviced. The lending portfolio is growing at 7% per year, driven by nearly $100 billion in annual disbursements across more than 17 million annual loan originations.

In conjunction with institutions of higher learning and third-party vendors, FSA provides student aid information and services across the full Federal student aid lifecycle, including:

■ Application and eligibility determination: Customers learn about their options, then apply for Federal student aid through the FAFSA;

■ Disbursement: For eligible customers, FSA originates most aid through higher educational institutions to FSA customers;

■ Student aid servicing: FSA assigns customer loans, specialty aid programs, specialty claims, and consolidation origination among other processes to be serviced by one of nine loan servicers across four loan technology platforms;

■ Recovery: For those customers who fail to pay their loans and enter recovery, FSA contracts with a debt management vendor and Private Collection Agencies (PCAs) to engage with those customers.

Within student aid processing and servicing, servicers perform a complete set of Federal student loan servicing activities including: customer service; loan counseling; loan consolidation; billing and payment application and processing; repayment plan adjustments and application of benefits such as deferments, forbearance, or loan forgiveness/discharge; outreach and default aversion; quality control; and financial and other data reporting. Individual customers may have several loans on different repayment plans and may have entered special programs (e.g., Public Service Loan Forgiveness (“PSLF”), Total and Permanent Disability (“TPD’), or Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (“TEACH”)).

Each of the nine servicers operates its own engagement layer with proprietary branding (e.g., websites, mobile tools, contact centers), utilizes one of four servicing platforms, and maintains certain additional technical systems (e.g., identity and access management solutions). The separate engagement layers, contact centers, and back-end processing operations limit FSA branding opportunities and increases customer confusion and operational complexity. Across service providers, data management and cybersecurity practices are inconsistent, siloed, and are not optimized. Additionally, the four different servicing platforms perform redundant data processing, further increasing operational inefficiency.

The servicing platforms are customized to service Federal student loans, which include over 30 permutations of repayment plans and additional unique rules related to forbearance, deferment, discharge, loan forgiveness, and recovery reporting. A servicer will typically retain a customer account until it is paid in full, the customer defaults, or the customer receives a loan discharge.

Today’s fragmented landscape has created many issues, including:

■ Inconsistent customer experience: FSA customers move through the student aid lifecycle working with multiple vendors and partners, each of which have different interfaces, processes, and standards;

■ Limited branding opportunities for FSA: The lack of consistent branding can leave customers confused and unclear about the role the Federal government, particularly FSA, plays in their student aid journey; and

■ Operational complexity and inefficiency: Each servicer has built redundant technical and operational solutions.

Additional information about FSA can be found in Exhibits 1 and 2, below, in the attachment “01 – As-Is” and the 2017 Annual Report located at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2017report/fsa-report.pdf.

EXHIBIT 1: TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT ACROSS THE STUDENT AID LIFECYCLE

C.2.2 Goals and Vision

FSA holds one of the largest consumer loan portfolios in the world and believes it should deliver an experience for its customers on par with world-class financial services organizations. To do that, FSA has established four goals for the future state environment that apply to Business Process Operations, including:

https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2017report/fsa-report.pdf

First, FSA intends to provide a world-class customer and partner experience throughout the student financial aid lifecycle to ensure:

■ Easier, more seamless customer interactions with FSA through an enterprise-wide, FSA-branded, omni-channel digital platform, featuring a mobile-first, mobile-complete, and mobile-continuous solution (i.e., allowing FSA to maintain a relationship with its customers throughout the customer lifecycle) to enable customers to receive additional support through the channel most appropriate to their needs;

■ Customers receive an experience informed by a holistic understanding of the financial aid lifecycle and customer needs, refined through ongoing analysis of customer data and feedback and continuously improved through activities like iterative user testing;

■ Customers better understand the financial implications of their student debt and make more informed decisions regarding the various repayment options and protections available to Federal customers; and

■ Customers receive a consistent experience solely under the FSA brand across all vendors.

Second, FSA intends to improve its operational flexibility by creating an environment that can efficiently and effectively integrate new and existing capabilities and features, continuously improve and innovate, and adjust to stay in compliance with changing Federal rules, regulations, and law.

Third, FSA intends to drive greater operational efficiency; reduce complexity; improve the stability, resiliency, enterprise risk management, and cybersecurity of its systems; and ensure effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

Fourth, FSA intends to measure its success in part on how well it improves customer outcomes and facilitates compliance with Federal consumer protection standards and Title IV legal requirements. Examples of improved customer outcomes include:

■ Increased customer satisfaction scores;

■ Better informed borrowing decisions;

■ Decreased percentage of borrowers in delinquency or default;

■ Reduction of borrowers in deferment and forbearance;

■ Increased borrower repayment rate;

■ Increased digital self-service by customers (instead of calls to FSA); and

■ Reduction in mail correspondence and payments (in favor of digital solutions).

FSA intends to accomplish those goals by deploying a new technical and operational architecture that will provide a world-class customer (i.e., student, parent, borrower) and partner (e.g., schools) experience across the entire student aid lifecycle, including both enterprise-wide solutions and solutions specifically for student aid processing and servicing. This architecture will include:

Omni-channel, enterprise-wide customer engagement led by a mobile-first, mobile-complete, and mobile-continuous solution

To enable a world-class customer experience, FSA intends to procure an enterprise-wide, FSA-branded omni-channel digital platform featuring a mobile-first, mobile-complete, and mobile-continuous solution. The digital platform will be FSA’s “digital front door” for all customer journeys to replace FSA’s multiple customer facing websites. To realize this vision, the digital platform will consolidate the functionalities of the multiple websites, mobile applications, and contact centers that currently exist across the full customer lifecycles (from application to school to servicing to default). This will require the digital platform to be closely integrated with the Legacy Servicing Platform, existing FSA systems, including legacy systems and those that serve partners, and be easily able to integrate with future solutions. This layer will provide customers with a personalized, self-service experience across multiple channels, robust self-service options, and seamless escalation to additional support (e.g., Business Process Operations) when needed.

Common, integrated data management

FSA envisions a solution to ensure customer touchpoints feed into a common integrated data management platform which contains all of a student’s information throughout the lifecycle. This common, integrated data management system will allow FSA to:

■ Generate customer and loan portfolio insights through advanced analytics that improve services and reduce risk;

■ Reduce error rates to lessen customer frustration and processing expense; and

■ Lower operating expenses through efficiency gains; and

■ Consolidate loans and grants that are currently processed on four different systems onto new and/or upgraded enhanced platform(s).

Robust cybersecurity and data protection

State-of-the-art cybersecurity protection shall be integrated into all existing and future-state solutions, and enterprise-wide cybersecurity will be holistically assessed and tested on an ongoing basis to ensure customer and FSA data is consistently protected.

Integration across the enterprise and potential to further scale solutions

Solutions will need to be integrated with existing and new solutions and vendors from across the student aid lifecycle.

Accordingly, all solutions will be implemented with both integration and future scalability in mind, ensuring third-parties can “plug in” to use common tools and feed into common interfaces.

Implementation approach that minimizes risk and disruption for customers while deploying world-class solutions

FSA anticipates the near term need for multiple loan processing solutions and in future-state a single platform operating environment, including a legacy portfolio core platform. FSA will need to migrate, through conversion, nearly 200 million loan accounts from existing servicers on a rapid schedule that minimizes disruptions for customers while ensuring complete migration.

Business Process Operations will need to seamlessly integrate with existing and future solutions provided by FSA or other vendors, across the entire student aid lifecycle. Those solutions include NextGen solutions such as the FSA-branded digital platform, contact center technical backbone and support, CRM, Legacy Portfolio Platform, Future State Core Platform, identity and access management, and analytics.

FSA will have dedicated resources to validate vendor accountability by monitoring the operational environment and vendor performance to ensure a higher caliber of service than current state.

C.3 – OBJECTIVES, REQUIREMENTS, AND MILESTONE

C.3.1 Solution Objectives

Business Process Operations will support the efficient and effective operation of the environment under FSA’s single brand by providing the personnel necessary to initiate engagement with FSA’s customers and partners, respond to inbound customer and partner inquiries, and perform student aid back-office processing activities that cannot be automated. These personnel will provide an enhanced level of service beyond today’s environment and one that is consistent with leading financial services providers and other industry leaders recognized for their customer service. This solution will support the seamless transition of customers and partners from existing to new solutions, most especially from existing servicers to the new Legacy Portfolio Platform and/or Future State Core Platform, Digital Platform, and Contact Center.

C.3.2 General Operating Requirements

Business Process Operations shall satisfy these general requirements across all solutions:

a. Customer experience focus: Solution(s) shall prioritize customer needs and preferences to deliver a world-class customer experience throughout the student aid lifecycle. Helpful additional context on the current state can be found in the “05 – Customer Tasks,” “06 – Partner Tasks,” and “07 – Top Customer Pain Points” attachments.

b. Established environment and tools: Solution(s) shall operate within the boundaries of the environment. Solution(s) must utilize the tools provided by other NextGen solutions (e.g., CRM, contact center agent desktop, printing, mailing, and imaging) or existing FSA solutions, and data shall not be stored or used outside such approved tools and systems.

c. Trained personnel: Solution(s) shall ensure personnel are trained and aware of pertinent changes in laws, regulations, programs, or FSA’s performance expectations.

d. Integration: Solution integrate and use existing FSA or third-party solutions and future state solutions from NextGen or otherwise. Solution shall engage with FSA, other government agencies, and other vendors as necessary.

e. 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.

f. Cybersecurity: Solution shall include and demonstrate robust cybersecurity protections and features to protect customer data. Technical requirements for existing security standards are included in the attached “02 – Security Technical Requirements”.

– The contractor shall comply with the security requirements that are provided in IRS 1075 Publication: Publication

1075, Tax Information Security Guidelines for Federal, State and Local Agencies. This impacts the IRS DRT and the 6103 exemption process.

g. Financial accuracy and compliance: Solution(s) shall include and demonstrate robust measures for ensuring the compliance and accuracy of financial transactions and reporting. Technical requirements for existing financial standards are included in the attached “03 – Finance Technical Requirements”. Business Process Operations may be required to leverage customer-specific data to enable this reporting.

h. Additional current state technical constraints: In addition to security and financial requirements, solution(s) also must understand other categories of current state technical constraints where relevant (e.g., processing, websites, and communications).

– 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.

– 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.

– Student aid lifecycle functions (e.g., application processing, repayment, consolidation, deferment, forbearance, specialty claims) impact Business Process Operations, among other existing and future solutions, and often relate to multiple constraints.

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

i. Performance management: Solution(s) shall have performance management mechanisms that would 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); goal completion rate (e.g., “Was your issue resolved?”); first contact resolution rate; complaint volume and speed of resolution; manual processing rates; and error rate.

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

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

C.3.3 Operating Elements and Related Requirements (see attachment 12: Life of Loan Servicing Intended State: Continuous, frequent, and tailored customer engagement):

a. Contact center support: Solution(s) will be equipped to provide world-class customer and partner experience in responding and resolving inbound customer inquiries across multiple channels (e.g., phone, email, chat, social media, SMS/text).

– Solution(s) shall execute contact center operations while within the system boundaries of the agent desktop solution provided by the contact center technical backbone and any other solutions prescribed by FSA.

– Solution(s) shall provide personnel (“trainers”) to be trained by the Command Center. These trainers will then coordinate onboarding and refresher training for respective solution’s other personnel.

– Solution(s) shall regularly contribute to the development and maintenance of contact scripts, training materials, and training curriculum as coordinated by the Command Center, and provide proactive feedback relating to insights generated from customer contacts.

– Solution(s) shall continuously update customer and partner data, when direct engagement occurs (e.g., phone calls) or through routine outreach asking customers and partners to update their data (i.e., contact information, communication preferences, change in circumstances).

– Solution(s) shall provide tailored customer assistance throughout the life of the loan to ensure that no borrower ever becomes a defaulted borrower, to the maximum extent practicable. This may be accomplished by activities that include, but are not limited to: making targeted outbound calls to assist customers with resolving loan management/payment issues, frequent outbound calls, early engagement for delinquent borrowers, skip tracing, etc.

b. Student aid back-office processing: Solution(s) will efficiently execute servicing and other back-office activities across the full student aid lifecycle, as assigned, especially those cannot be automated within other relevant solutions.

– Solution(s) shall provide processing capabilities as required by the Legacy Portfolio Platform and Future State

Core Platform. This will include, but is not limited to, review, validation, and processing associated with enrollment, applications, and requests for various borrower programs and loan status adjustments such as:

□ All repayment plan processing (e.g., income-driven repayment), including application and eligibility review, income checks and payment calculations, and annual recertification activities;

□ Processing associated with military service members, including requests for deferment and forbearance, SCRA benefits, and hostile pay benefits;

□ School and customer enrollment processing, including manual entry of hard-copy applications;

□ Deferment and forbearance application processing;

□ Loan consolidation origination applications and request processing;

□ Specialty programs (e.g., TEACH grants, TPD, PSLF) processing;

□ Specialty claims processing (e.g., discharge and forgiveness, based on bankruptcy, school closure, borrower defense, among others); and

□ Rehabilitation, Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG), Treasury Offset Program (TOP), and other related processing.

– Solution(s) shall perform financial-related functions, including, but not limited to:

□ 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; and

□ Effective internal financial controls.

– Solution(s) shall conduct error and dispute resolution investigation and processing, including:

□ Direct and indirect credit bureau disputes filed by customers or initiated by the credit bureaus;

□ 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.

C.3.4 Deliverables

C.3.4.1

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 and the COR.

C.3.4.2 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 Reports

Status report on progress, performance metrics, schedule, incidents, action and issue log, and risk log/risk register.

Weekly

Integrated Master Project Schedule

Planned dates to start and complete tasks and milestones, 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 operational 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

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

• Final version for each

FSA Deliverable Table Deliverable Description Due Date and

Frequency Acceptance Criteria release delivered prior to Requirements Stage Gate

Implementation Documentation

• Release Version Description Document

• Management Plan

• Training Plan

• Standard Operating Procedures

• Configuration Management Plan (plan should be focus on call center desktop/network/equipment configuration)

• Transition Management Plan (plan should include contract and/or of call center operations transition)

Prior to receiving Authorization to Operate

Training Materials and Procedures

• Catalog of all training manuals and procedures

• Copies of all training manuals and procedures

• Procedures and training materials two weeks prior to o Initial Test Readiness Review, o Release Test readiness review, o and annually thereafter

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 and Response

Plan

Security Risk Assessment Artifacts:

• Security Assessment Plan

• System Security Documentation

Prior to receiving Authority to Operate

FSA Deliverable Table Deliverable Description Due Date and

Frequency Acceptance Criteria

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

• Equipment Retirement Plan

• Equipment Disposal Plan

Updated as changes occur or directed by FSA

Transition Support (Phase-Out)

Phase-Out Plan Six months after award, updated annually.

Security Reports CyberScope Report Clearance and Suitability Report Application Access Report Staffing Change Report Recertification of User Access and Authenticator Activation

Monthly

Contractor PIV and PIV-I Card Deliverable

Monthly Vendor Employee Report (FAR 35-9 deliverable)

First business day after the close of each month

C.3.5 Target Milestone

FSA has identified an important target milestone for Business Process Operations solutions, based on broader NextGen goals and needed integration across new solutions and existing solutions. It is critical that solutions are designed and implemented against the following milestone to ensure FSA can achieve its goals. Solutions must consider three specific dependencies: large scale, complexity, and an aggressive timeline.

C.3.5.1 Milestone 1 – Begin scaling operations in parallel with the start of existing customer accounts migration: upon establishment of the Transitional Digital Engagement Layer (no later than six months of award)

Solution must begin scaling operations concurrently and at pace with customer account conversion to the Legacy Portfolio Platform, once the Transitional Digital Engagement Layer is established, no later than six months after award.

C.4 - EXPECTED VOLUMES (For Informational Purposes)

FSA expects that many of the customer and partner engagement figures will significantly change in the future as new solutions are implemented (e.g., a digital platform with greater self-service functionality will create less need for inbound calls and outbound postal mailings). These are NOT guarantees of work or volume in the future.

Illustrative, but not comprehensive volumes relevant to today’s loan servicing environment include the following:

■ Size of business

– >37 million customers being serviced in the FSA environment (with an additional 5 million serviced through the

FFEL program outside of the FSA environment)

– Lending portfolio that exceeds $1 trillion in outstanding principal

– Over 18 million loans assigned to servicers last year with a significant portion (58%) assigned between August and October

– Customer base projected to grow over 40% between 2017-26

– ~6,000 Partners plus state agencies, accreditors, States Attorneys General and other relevant entities that support Title IV disbursement, administration, and compliance/enforcement

■ Servicing customer engagement: the current servicing environment supports a high volume of inbound and outbound customer engagement.

– Inbound communications

- ~43 million online accounts accessed each month, of which 30 million access via desktop and 12 million via mobile or tablet

- ~3 million inbound calls per month with an average handle time of ~7 minutes

- ~400,000 incoming physical mail items per month

- ~125,000 incoming emails per month

- ~40,000 customer complaints per month

– Outbound communications

- ~45 million outbound emails per month, 30 million of which are non-collections related and 15 million are collections

- ~25 million outbound calls initiated per month, 2 million of which are non-collections related and 23 million are collections

- ~18 million pieces of outbound mail per month, 13 million of which are non-collections related and 5 million are collections

■ Loan payments processed

– Over 200 million payment transactions are processed per year

■ Student aid processing

– Over 450,000 customers submit annual re-certifications for an income-driven repayment plan each month

– Over 300,000 loans are closed or discharged each month due to death, disability, payment in full, or other reasons (not including consolidation)

– Over 250,000 customers change their repayment plan each month, impacting the status of ~1.3 million loans

– On average, over 350,000 loans are transferred from servicing to FSA’s Debt Management and Collection System

(DMCS) each month

– ~75,000 customers submit certification for TEACH grants each month

– ~70,000 customers consolidate their loans each month impacting an average of five loans per borrower

– ~35,000 customers submit certification for PSLF each month

– Over 10,000 customers submit certifications for TPD each month

■ School partner participation oversight

– ~500 program reviews in process at any given time

– ~5,500 eligibility applications processed annually

- 1,200 re-certifications

- 2,100 acknowledgments

- 2,200 other

– ~4,000 compliance audits processed annually

- ~1,600 deficient audits

– ~3,000 financial statements processed annually

- ~950 flagged financial statements

– ~1,200 method of payment packages processed annually

- ~650 schools on HCM1

- ~135 schools on HCM2

– ~7,000 student/school complaints processed annually

– 60 adverse actions initiated annually

– 60 FAD or FPRD appeals processed annually

– 10 debarment/suspension actions initiated annually

– 350 administrative action referrals, concurrences, preliminary evaluations, or extensive research completed annually

SECTION D, PACKAGING AND MARKING

FSA 27-1 Labeling of Documents (JUN 2007)

The Contractor shall not label any data produced in performance of this contract in a way that would restrict the Government's right to use or release the information. If applicable, the Contractor shall include a legend that identifies sensitive data that should not be released for security reasons. Under FAR clause 52.227-14, Rights in Data-General (or 52.227-15, -16, -17) clause, this data may be used for any purpose the Government deems appropriate. Deliverables shall not contain vendor-specific logos, mottos, watermarks, or holograms.

The Contractor shall not use, particularly for proposals, U.S. Government logos, such as the U.S. Department of Education or Federal Student Aid.

(End of Clause)

SECTION E, INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

52.246-4 Inspection of Services – Fixed Price (AUG 1996)

SECTION F, DELIVERIES OR PERFORMANCE

52.242-15 Stop Work Order (AUG 1989) 52.242-17 Government Delay of Work (APR 1984) 52.247-55 F.O.B. Point for Delivery of Government-Furnished Property (JUNE 2003)

FSA 37-2 CONTINUATION OF MISSION CRITICAL CONTRACTOR SERVICES (OCT 2012)

(a) Definition. As used in this clause—

(1) Mission Critical Contractor System or Other Services are defined as a system or other services that have a material impact on the accomplishment of the Federal Student Aid mission.

(b) The services under this contract are vital to the mission of the Department of Education (ED). The Contractor shall be responsible for the availability of all systems operated, or other services performed by the Contractor for ED, regardless of location. This clause applies to all or any part of the contract that includes services that directly support the agency's mission.

(c) The Contractor shall provide, implement, and maintain a Continuation of Mission Critical Services Plan (also referred to as Contingency Plan, or “The Plan”) for continuing performance of services no matter the circumstances. The Plan shall describe the processes and procedures that will be followed to ensure continued availability of services under this contract. Any alternate site used as part of Disaster Recovery shall be fully operational within 48 hours of a declared disaster. The Contractor shall identify in the Plan the provisions made for the acquisition of mission critical personnel and resources, if necessary, for continuity of operations for up to 30 days or until normal operations can be resumed.

(d) The offeror shall provide with its offer a written preliminary plan describing how it will continue to perform the contractor services listed in Section C.

(e) Within 60 days after contract award, the Contractor shall submit its Plan for approval, which shall be consistent with and further detail the approach contained in the offeror's proposal. The Plan, as approved by the Contracting Officer, shall be incorporated into the contract as a compliance document. The Plan must, at a minimum, address:

1. Name of company’s officer overall responsible for the maintenance, management, exercising and execution of the Plan;

2. Plans and procedures;

3. Identification of mission critical functions;

4. The time lapse associated with the initiation of the acquisition of mission critical personnel and resources and their actual availability on site;

5. Delegations of authority, planned order of succession, and cross-training to ensure personnel are available to provide services and make key decisions;

6. Proposed alternate operating facilities, interoperable, connectivity and emergency communications approach;

7. Critical records or data storage procedures;

8. Protection of human capital;

9. Testing approach for annual tests;

10. Training plan;

11. Delegation of control and direction;

12. Reconstitution and resuming normal operations plans; and

13. Schedule for periodic review and revisions of Plan.

(f) The Contractor shall maintain and update its Plan as necessary and adhere to its requirements throughout the contract term.

The Contractor shall not materially alter the Plan without the Contracting Officer's written consent.

(g) As directed by the Contracting Officer, the Contractor shall participate and collaborate with ED and its contractors in training events, exercises, and drills associated with Government efforts to test the effectiveness of continuity of operations procedures and practices with internal and external entities. Results of the exercises shall be delivered to the Contracting Officer or other designated representative within 30 days after the exercise.

(h) In the event the Contractor anticipates not being able to perform any of the mission critical contractor services identified in the paragraph above, the Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer or other designated representative immediately and use its best efforts to cooperate with the Government in the Government's efforts to maintain the continuity of operations. In no way does (h) relieve the contractor of financial responsibility in meeting the contract terms and conditions.

(i) The Government reserves the right to use Federal employees of other agencies or support from other parties or to enter into new contracts for mission critical contractor services. Any new contracting efforts would be conducted in accordance with OFPP letter, “Emergency Acquisitions'' May 2011 and FAR Part 18, respectively, or any other subsequent emergency guidance issued.

(j) The Contractor shall include the substance of this clause, including this paragraph (j), in subcontracts for the mission critical services.

(End of clause)

FSA 37-3 Disruption of Mission Critical Contractor System or Other Services (SEP 2012)

(a) Definition. As used in this clause—

(1) Mission Critical Contractor System or Other Services - are defined as a system or other services that have a material impact on the accomplishment of the Federal Student Aid mission.

(b) The contractor is required to coordinate all changes to mission critical contractor systems or other services used to implement Federal Student Aid IT operations and services with the individual(s) identified in (c) at least five business days prior to the changes, absent exigent circumstances. Emergency changes require immediate notification of the individual(s) identified in (c) as soon as the charge requirement is known, but prior to the change. If the continuity of such systems or services is disrupted as a consequence of the Contractor’s failure to adequately coordinate these changes with FSA, the Contractor may be subject to contractual remedies available to the government pursuant to the terms of the contract or as authorized by law.

(c) The Contractor shall contact the following individuals to coordinate all changes to mission critical contractor systems or services:

Contracting Officer and Contracting Officer’s Representative

SECTION G, CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

FSA 32-3, Invoice and Contract Financing Requests Submission – Invoice Processing Platform (December 2017)

(a) Payments shall be rendered in accordance with the identified payment schedule(s), and any other incorporated payment clause(s), specified rates, and/or fixed price amounts.

(b) The contractor shall submit invoices electronically by means of the web-based system, Invoice Processing Platform

(IPP) that can be accessed at: http://www.ipp.gov/. All submitted invoices must be accompanied by supporting documentation in accordance with the contract’s terms and conditions. The supporting documentation shall be submitted in the following formats: Adobe Acrobat (pdf), Microsoft Word (doc), Pictures (jpeg), Microsoft Excel (excel), or Microsoft Outlook message (msg). The invoice processing platform limits 25 attachments per invoice at 10 MB per attachment.

(c) If the Contractor does not have an IPP account that was established by either the Department of Education or another Government agency, an IPP account will be created for the Contractor by the FSA IPP Systems Administrator, using the Contractor’s Designated Primary Administrator that is identified in the “Accounts Receivable POC” Section of the Contractor’s System for Award Management (SAM) located at https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/.

(d) Within ten (10) business days of the Contractor entering or updating the “Accounts Receivable POC” information within the Contractor’s SAM registration, the Designated Primary Administrator will receive an email from the IPP Customer Support Team containing the Designated Primary Administrator’s IPP username. Within 24 hours of receiving the initial email, the Designated Primary Administrator will receive a second email containing their IPP password. Once both emails have been received, the Designated Primary Administrator must log into IPP and complete the registration process.

(e) The Contractor’s Designated Primary Administrator will be authorized to further designate other administrators under the Contractor’s IPP account who may submit invoices on behalf of the Contractor.

(f) The Contractor must ensure that the “Accounts Receivable POC” Section of its SAM registration is accurate and up-to-date.

(g) In the event that an invoice is rejected, the contractor shall make the necessary corrections and resubmit the invoice by means of IPP. Any questions, concerns, or issues regarding the use of IPP should be directed to IPP Customer Support Team, as identified at http://www.ipp.gov/

FSA 43-1 Change Request Modifications (NOV 2013)

This contract includes one or more Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINS) that will be used to fund Change Requests (CR). A CR may take the form of either a contract modification or other written documentation of the change. All CRs will be issued by a numerical sequence and date (CR95, 11/20/13) and further provide indication of the CLIN that provides an appropriation to fund the CR. In the event a CR is issued via written communication other than an SF-30 contract modification, the Contracting Officer will issue an SF-30 unilateral contract modification that summarizes all CR changes. Change request modifications issued http://www.ipp.gov/ https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/ http://www.ipp.gov/ on a more frequent basis are solely at the discretion of the Contracting Officer. CR summary modifications are for administrative convenience and confer no extra rights to the parties to the contract.

(End of Clause)

SECTION H, SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

FSA 16.505 Fair Opportunity Provisions – Specialized Performance Terms (JULY 2015)

(1) Fair opportunity.

(i) For orders under designated multiple-award contracts each awardee will be provided fair opportunity based upon measured performance on task orders awarded.

(ii)The contracting officer shall provide each awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for additional work, or task orders, over the guaranteed minimum task order amount as follows:

(A) The contract will specify performance metrics and procedures that will provide each awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for additional work, or task orders, during task order performance based upon the awardee’s performance when measured against its competitors performing similar task orders.

(B) The fair opportunity to perform will be the mechanism for awarding additional work, or task orders above the base award amount each performance period. Each awardee has a fair opportunity to compete for additional work or Task Orders based upon the measured performance.

(C) The contract will measure performance for fair opportunity based upon the following procedures and metrics:

____TBD_____

(D) If the order does not exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, the contracting officer need not contact each of the multiple awardees under the contract before selecting an order awardee if the contracting officer has information available to ensure that each awardee is provided a fair opportunity to be considered for each order. The competition requirements in FAR Part 6 and the policies in Subpart 15.3 do not apply to the ordering process.

FSA 31-1 Contractor Travel Expenses (APR 2013)

Local travel is not an authorized direct expense under this contract. Local travel is defined as travel within a 50-mile radius of the official duty station; and includes such things as regular commuting to and from the place of employment; parking, mileage, and fuel expenses; and any other items that are incidental to local travel.

Other-than-local Contractor travel may be required in performance of this contract. The Contractor shall secure authorization to travel in writing from the Contracting Officer prior to incurrence of any costs associated with other-than-local travel. Costs incurred by contractor personnel on authorized travel will be considered allowable for payment as long as the costs are reasonable and consistent with FAR Subpart 31.205-46, as follows:

I. Costs for per diem, lodging, and incidental expenses are allowable up to the extent such costs are actual costs and do not exceed the maximum daily travel limitations effective for the city and fiscal year, as identified in the Federal Travel Regulations at http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104877. The costs shall be downward adjusted when travel does not take an entire day.

II. Costs for airfare are limited to the lowest price available to the Contractor during normal business hours unless such airfare would require travel during unreasonable hours, via circuitous routing, that is not reasonably adequate to meet the traveler’s medical or physical needs or that would result in unreasonable costs that would https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/FARTOCP06.html#wp280339 https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/Subpart%2015_3.html#wp1088864 not be offset by travel savings. In order for travel costs to be allowable in the above circumstances, the basis of the exception must be documented and justified.

All receipts for any travel cost incurrence, above $75, are submitted as supporting documentation, and travel expenses include the following:

a. Date and place of the travel (city, town, or other similar destination);

b. Purpose of the trip; and,

c. Name of the person who incurred the expenses, and the relationship of that person to the Contractor.

FSA 39-5 Monthly Vendor Employee Report (AUG 2017)

The Monthly Vendor Employee Report template (hereafter referred to as “report”) is included as an attachment to the contract. This report is a monthly deliverable under this contract. The contractor shall complete all fields of the report and provide timely delivery consistent with the instructions contained in the report.

H-1 Service Level Agreements (SLAs) – Incentive Payments

The Contractor agrees that any payment of incentives for exceeding an SLA is conditioned on continued compliance by the Contractor with all laws governing loan servicing and collection practices.