91003119R0005.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

STANDARD FORM 1449 (REV. 2/2012) BACK

19.

ITEM NO.

20.

SCHEDULE OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES

21.

QUANTITY

22.

UNIT

23.

UNIT PRICE

24.

AMOUNT

32a. QUANTITY IN COLUMN 21 HAS BEEN

RECEIVED INSPECTED ACCEPTED, AND CONFORMS TO THE CONTRACT, EXCEPT AS NOTED:

41a. I CERTIFY THIS ACCOUNT IS CORRECT AND PROPER FOR PAYMENT

32b. SIGNATURE OF AUTHORIZED GOVERNMENT

REPRESENTATIVE

32c. DATE

41b. SIGNATURE AND TITLE OF CERTIFYING OFFICER 41c. DATE

42a. RECEIVED BY (Print)

42b. RECEIVED AT (Location)

42c. DATE REC'D (YY/MM/DD) 42d. TOTAL CONTAINERS

40. PAID BY

32d. PRINTED NAME AND TITLE OF AUTHORIZED GOVERNMENT

REPRESENTATIVE

32e. MAILING ADDRESS OF AUTHORIZED GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE 32f. TELPHONE NUMBER OF AUTHORZED GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE

32g. E-MAIL OF AUTHORIZED GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE

33. SHIP NUMBER 34. VOUCHER NUMBER 35. AMOUNT VERIFIED

CORRECT FOR

PARTIAL FINAL

37. CHECK NUMBER

38. S/R ACCOUNT NO. 39. S/R VOUCHER NUMBER

36. PAYMENT

COMPLETE PARTIAL FINAL

Attachment Page

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SECTION B, SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

See Attachment “20-Pricing Template”. This template includes instructions, pricing categories, and an opportunity for offerors to include their volume and pricing assumptions.

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 contract is for the Enhanced Processing Solution.

C.1.2 Contract Type

The resulting award will be a hybrid of a firm-fixed priced (FFP) contract and an indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract. Indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity CLINs will be incorporated for the Business Process Operations objectives. The Government anticipates the following periods of performance:

• Solution Delivery (FFP) – no greater than three months after award

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

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

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 financing. Every year, over 18 million students apply for Federal financing and FSA has over 42 million customers across the life cycle of student financing. 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 financing information and services across the full Federal life cycle of student financing, from application through servicing and recovery.

At the beginning of the life cycle, customers apply for federal financing via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (“FAFSA”). FSA uses this information to calculate eligibility for federal student loans. For eligible customers, FSA then originates and disburses loans, primarily through higher educational institutions, to FSA customers.

Once customers enter repayment, customer loans are currently assigned to one of nine servicers, which 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. Each of

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the nine servicers operates its own engagement layer with proprietary branding (e.g., websites, tools, contact centers), utilizes one of four servicing platforms, and maintains certain additional technical systems (e.g., identity and access management solutions). Individual customers may have several loans on different repayment plans and may be enrolled in specialty programs (e.g., Public Service Loan Forgiveness (“PSLF”), Total and Permanent Disability Discharge (“TPD”), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants (“TEACH”), Federal Perkins Loans (“Perkins”), Pell Grant overpayments (“Pell”)).

For customers who fail to pay their loans, currently FSA and private collection agencies share Federal default recovery activities.

Once a loan defaults, FSA transfers the loan to a default management and collection system (DMCS) and attempts to bring the loan back to good standing. If unsuccessful, collections activity is turned over to one of a group of contracted third-party Private Collection Agencies (PCAs) that pursue default resolution. Customers may rehabilitate a defaulted loan by making a series of payments or consolidating their loans out of default. This process often results in rehabilitated borrowers being handed off multiple times between DMCS/PCAs and the servicers.

Today’s fragmented landscape has created many issues across the full life cycle of student financing, including:

■ Inconsistent customer experience: FSA customers move through the life cycle of student financing working with multiple vendors and partners from application to repayment and recovery, each of which has 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 financing journey; and

■ Operational complexity and inefficiency: Across the life cycle, vendors have built redundant technical and operational solutions, creating inefficiencies resulting in a poor experience for customers. Further, across vendors, data management and cybersecurity practices are inconsistent and siloed.

Additional information about FSA can be found in Exhibit 1, below, in the Attachment “01 – As-Is” and the 2018 Annual Report located at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2018report/fsa-report.pdf.

EXHIBIT 1: TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT ACROSS THE LIFE CYCLE OF STUDENT FINANCING

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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 the Enhanced Processing Solution, including:

First, FSA intends to provide a world-class customer and partner experience throughout the life cycle of student financing 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 life cycle of student financing 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 these 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 life cycle of student financing, including both enterprise-wide solutions and solutions specifically for student financing 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 Unified Servicing Platform, existing FSA systems, including legacy systems and those that serve

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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 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 processing activities across various current systems onto fewer new and/or upgraded platforms.

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 life cycle of student financing.

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

In the near term, FSA anticipates the need for multiple loan processing solutions. Long-term, however, FSA’s goal is to move towards the future-state of a single platform operating environment. Most immediately, and on a rapid schedule, FSA intends to migrate, through conversion, nearly 200 million loan accounts from existing servicers to the Enhanced Processing Solution, while minimizing disruptions for customers.

Given that the Enhanced Processing Solution will service existing customers and legacy products, FSA anticipates that this solution will be capable of servicing specialty programs (e.g., TPD, TEACH, PSLF, Perkins, Pell) and specialty claims (e.g., discharge, forgiveness). Solution will need to provide an enhanced environment that supports FSA’s goals and vision more effectively and efficiently than today’s existing environment and continue to deploy enhanced features going forward. Solution will need to integrate seamlessly with existing and future solutions provided by FSA or other vendors. Those solutions include NextGen solutions such as the FSA-branded digital platform, contact center technical backbone and support, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), business process operations, identity and access management, and analytics platform.

Further, FSA may opt to exercise optional tasks for the Enhanced Processing Solution to provide some temporary support activities as other NextGen solutions are implemented, namely a digital engagement layer and imaging, printing and mailing.

Timing for phasing out these temporary support activities will be later determined by FSA. Consistent with the FY2019 Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, FSA intends to make multiple awards for the Business Process Operations.

FSA will have dedicated resources to monitor vendor accountability and performance to ensure a high caliber of service delivery across the operating environment.

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C.3 – OBJECTIVES, REQUIREMENTS, AND MILESTONES

C.3.1 Solution Objectives

The Enhanced Processing Solution (Solution) will serve as the student financing servicing environment for FSA’s existing customers. Solution will provide full “life of the loan” servicing: servicing loans for customer accounts of all statuses, including those that are in default. Solution will rapidly migrate existing loans from current servicers, through loan migration (maintaining dynamic and complete customer historical data) while minimizing customer disruption, per target milestones 2 and 3 (Section C.3.5). Solution will also deploy advanced capabilities to provide customers with a world-class experience, improve automation (i.e., reduce manual processing) and system flexibility, and reduce operational complexity and inefficiency for FSA.

At FSA’s discretion, the solution may also initially and temporarily provide the full suite of current capabilities associated with student financing servicing in the FSA environment, including a digital engagement layer, contact center (personnel support and technical backbone), imaging, printing, and mailing, as well as back-office processing. Solution will phase out those capabilities as new solutions (e.g., Digital Platform, CRM, etc.) are fully implemented, at the discretion of FSA.

C.3.2 General Operating Requirements:

The Enhanced Processing Solution shall satisfy these general requirements for all operating requirements identified in C.3.3:

a. 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. 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, supporting or re-engineering existing APIs, building and exposing new APIs, 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.

b. 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.

c. Customer experience focus: Solution shall prioritize customer and partner needs and preferences to deliver a world-class customer experience throughout the life cycle of student financing. Helpful additional context can be found in the “05 – Current State Customer Tasks,” “06 – Current State Partner Tasks,” “07 – Top Customer Pain Points,” and “12 – Life of the Loan Servicing Intended State” attachments.

d. 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.

e. Contribution to knowledge and training of Business Process Operations personnel: Solution shall work with the separately-provided 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 Enhanced Processing Solution. The Command Center is responsible for coordinating the development, improvement, maintenance, and distribution of knowledge and training for Business Process Operations and other FSA-designated personnel.

f. 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

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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.

g. Identity and access management: Solution shall eventually implement and 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. The Digital Engagement Layer shall immediately implement FSA’s IAM solutions for customers. In the long-term, it is intended that the Enhanced Processing Solution will also implement FSA’s IAM solutions for its personnel, other vendors or third-parties, and FSA staff – eventual timeline will be determined by FSA. Attachment “10 – FSA Identity & Access Management Solution Overview” provides an overview of FSA’s IAM solutions.

h. Financial accuracy and compliance: Solution shall include 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.”

i. Additional current state technical constraints: In addition to security and financial requirements, vendors also shall understand other categories of current state technical constraints as relevant (e.g., processing, websites, and communications). For a broader informational view of FSA’s current 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.

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─ 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.

─ Life cycle of student financing functions such as application processing (e.g., repayment, consolidation, deferment, forbearance, specialty claims) impact the Enhanced Processing Solution, among other existing and future solutions, and often relate to multiple constraints/requirements.

─ 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 Enhanced Processing Solution, along with other existing and future solutions, and often relate to multiple constraints/requirements.

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

k. Performance management: Solution shall have performance management mechanisms that would enable improved and ongoing achievement of metrics to be defined at award. Example metrics may include, but are not limited to, processing error rates, processing time for account changes, manual processing rates, and speed of complaint resolution.

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

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

C.3.3 Operating Elements and Related Requirements:

a. Customer accounts migration: Solution shall migrate historical and current customer loan and grant accounts from existing servicers and the Default Management Collection System (DMCS). See the “01 - As is Updated” attachment for further details on portfolio breakdown across current servicers and various loan types. This also includes specialty programs (e.g., PSLF, TEACH, TPD, Pell, Perkins).

─ Solution shall ensure the migrations are completed on schedule, aligned with Milestones 2 and 3 (Section C.3.5) that maximizes operational and cost efficiency while minimizing customer disruption.

─ Solution shall ensure that the migration (e.g. conversion, transfer, etc.) successfully converts and maintains complete and accurate (error free) customer data, including, but not limited to, customer’s historical record of balances and transactions, loan consolidation origination records (e.g., underlying loan pay-off, lender detail, funding histories), auto-pay preferences, prior loan transfer imaged records, live and closed DMCS account data, AWG and TOP details, customer service data (e.g., call center audio files or transcripts).

─ Solution shall tag all accounts with a unique FSA account number (FAN) identifier, which will be used to retrieve and share customer/partner data with other solutions enterprise-wide.

─ Solution shall support the development and execution of customer communications about the migration of their accounts before, during, and after the migration, working effectively with the Digital Customer Care solution.

─ Solution shall also demonstrate the capability to eventually effectively and efficiently migrate customer accounts to the Optimal Processing Solution, should FSA so determine.

b. Student financing servicing platform: 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 student financing portfolio, including for specialty programs (e.g., PSLF, TEACH, TPD, Pell, Perkins) and specialty claims (e.g., discharge, forgiveness). Solution shall also provide relevant reconciliation, reporting, and audit support functions for all of FSA’s current portfolio, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness.

─ Solution shall execute relevant functions for the full FSA student financing portfolio which includes, but is not limited to, varying:

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

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

□ Traditional repayment plans (e.g., Standard, Graduated, and Extended) across FFEL, Direct, and Perkins loans;

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□ 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, Pell); and,

□ Outreach and collection on any grant overpayments that have been have been referred to the Department for collection. The system shall have the ability to track grant overpayments that has been reported and ongoing progress of its collection, whether it is being collected by the school, or whether it has been formally referred to the Department for collect;

□ Loan forgiveness and discharge programs (e.g., PSLF, TPD).

─ Solution shall execute 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, including, receipt and applications of cash and non-cash payments accounts as well as research and resolution of lost or misapplied payments;

□ Financial reporting, 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 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 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 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).

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─ 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 and systems as directed by FSA.

─ Solution shall provide real-time data and business rules required to establish enterprise-wide workflows as related to the execution of servicing functions. Solution shall also work with the Command Center, Workflow Management, and Business Process Operations solutions to test, monitor, and continuously improve relevant workflows.

c. Imaging, printing, and mailing: Solution shall have the capability to provide these functions as determined necessary by FSA. This is an optional task, which may be exercised at FSA’s discretion. Solution shall receive, image, and route physical mail to the appropriate destination and be responsible for all printing and outbound mail needs, enterprise-wide, across the full life cycle of student financing (from application through pay-off or default). Solution shall also provide tracking of and reporting on outbound mail items. Solution shall identify cost efficiency opportunities and work with FSA to implement changes to processes and practices (e.g., statement or envelope design).

─ Solution shall enable other solutions, FSA staff, and designated third-parties to submit and track outbound print and mail requests real-time. Other solutions include, but are not limited to, Customer Outreach and Communications, Business Process Operations, Student Financing Eligibility Processing, and Origination and Disbursement Processing.

─ Solution shall image and index inbound mail, including physical checks, and provide access or visibility to the images and metadata to other solutions real-time.

─ Solution shall include functionalities to print in alternative formats (e.g., Braille, large print) to enable accessibility to all customers.

─ Solution shall enable customers, partners, and other relevant third parties to be able to fax materials to FSA, and tag the faxes upon receipt for tracking before routing them to the appropriate solutions to address the inquiry. Solution shall be integrated with Workflow Management, Digital Platform, CRM, among other solutions.

─ Solution shall image and index inbound mail, including physical checks, as well as materials received via fax.

Solution shall then provide access or visibility to the images and metadata to other solutions real-time. Such solutions will include, but not limited to, the Workflow Management, Digital Platform, CRM, Eligibility Processing, Origination and Disbursement Processing, and Business Process Operations.

d. Digital engagement layer: This is an optional task. This optional task may be exercised, at FSA’s discretion, to enable an orderly transition between existing solutions to Next Gen solutions, so that there is minimal disruption to customers. Solution shall provide the temporary digital engagement solution for customers and partners to be able to interact with FSA and complete customer (e.g., view statements, make payments) and partner tasks (e.g., view student loan history, download resources for students) currently provided by existing servicers. Solution shall remain in place until the future state Digital Platform solution is fully implemented or as otherwise determined by FSA. In proposing enhancements, solution shall take into consideration customer pain points (see “07 – Top Customer Pain Points” attachment), customer and partner tasks (see “05 – Current State Customer Tasks,” “06 – Current State Partner Tasks” attachments).

─ Solution shall ensure a seamless transition of customers and partners to digital engagement layer (e.g., customer payment and communication channel preferences).

─ Solution shall present to customers and partners solely under the FSA brand, adhering to FSA’s brand guidelines. Current brand guidelines are detailed in Attachment “08 - FSA Brand Guidelines” – these may change over time at FSA’s discretion, requiring updates to be made to the Digital Engagement Layer.

─ Solution shall implement and 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 of customer and partner online profiles.

□ Vendor shall not utilize FSA’s IAM solutions for non-FSA approved purposes (e.g., authentication for private/commercial products).

□ Further details are included in the “10 – FSA Identity & Access Management Solution Overview” attachment. FSA’s IAM solutions include: FSA ID/Person Authentication Service (PAS), Access and Identity Management System (AIMS), Two-Factor Authentication (TFA); and Privileged Access Management (PAM/CyberArk/ezPIV).

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e. Business process operations: Solution may serve as the sole business process operations (both contact center support and back-office processing) provider for all customer accounts as they are migrated onto the new servicing platform until the multiple vendors to be awarded under the separate Business Process Operations solicitation are fully operational. Once the Business Process Operations vendors are fully operational, no less than 80% of customer accounts will be re-assigned to the separate Business Process Operations vendors. The percentage allocated to this Solution may increase, at the discretion of ED, in the public’s interest.

Solution will be held to the same performance measures, as well as the common pricing, as the separate Business Process Operations vendors (to be defined at award of the Business Process Operations vendors). Example metrics include, but are not limited to, customer satisfaction (e.g., post-interaction survey rating), accuracy/quality (e.g., quality review score, first call resolution, customer callbacks, and complaint rate), and availability/responsiveness (e.g., average speed to answer/response, abandonment rate, agent available time, and maximum/longest hold time).

Servicing-related contact center support: Solution shall be equipped to provide world-class customer experience in responding and resolving servicing-related inbound customer inquiries across multiple channels (e.g., phone, email, chat, social media, SMS/text, fax) across the entire financing lifecycle, and executing outbound outreach as directed.

This includes servicing-related support currently provided by multiple current FSA call centers, including but not limited to, FSA Information Center (FSAIC), Default Resolution Group, Borrower Defense Customer Support, servicers, and private collection agencies (PCAs). Refer to Attachment “13 – Existing FSA Contact Centers (Not Exhaustive)” and https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/contact for a broader list of current contact centers.

─ Solution shall establish and maintain operations 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, and 365 days/year.

─ Beyond the Student Financing Servicing Platform, and once customer account conversions are complete, Solution shall utilize the tools provided by other NextGen solutions (e.g., CRM, contact center agent desktop, printing, mailing, and imaging) or existing FSA solutions, as designated by FSA. Solution shall not store or use data outside the Student Financing Servicing Platform or other FSA-approved tools and systems.

─ Solution shall have personnel capable of addressing servicing inquiries.

─ Solution 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, executing outbound call campaigns (as prescribed by the Customer Outreach and Communications solution), frequent outbound calls, early engagement for delinquent borrowers, skip tracing, etc. Refer to Attachment “12 – Life of the Loan Servicing Intended State”.

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

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

Servicing-related back-office processing: Solution shall efficiently execute servicing back-office activities as assigned, especially those that cannot be automated within other relevant solutions.

─ Solution shall provide processing capabilities as required by the Enhanced Processing Solution. This includes, but is not limited to, review, validation, and processing associated with enrollment, applications, and status adjustments for various financing programs, including but not limited to:

□ 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;

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

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

□ Resolution of credit bureau disputes filed by customers or initiated by the credit bureaus; and,

□ Support rehabilitation, Title IV reinstatement eligibility, certification for Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG) and Treasury Offset Program (TOP), and preparing litigation referrals and other related processing functions.

─ Solution 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.

─ Solution shall not only be able to process data primarily in digital formats, but also other formats (e.g., print).

─ Beyond the Student Financing Servicing Platform, and once customer account migrations are complete, Solution shall utilize the tools provided by other NextGen solutions (e.g., CRM, contact center agent desktop, printing, mailing, and imaging) or existing FSA solutions, as designated by FSA. Solution shall not be store or use data outside the Student Financing Servicing Platform or other FSA-approved tools and systems.

Transitional servicing-related communications support: Solution shall care for outbound servicing-related communications currently handled by existing servicers or as determined by FSA.

─ Solution shall define and care for a standard set of servicing communications.

─ Solution shall develop and execute customer and partner communications related to customer account migration, if so determined by FSA, should the separate Customer Outreach and Communications solution not yet be operable.

─ Solution shall ensure that communications shall be tailored to customer needs to ensure they are properly and timely informed of options and actions to take.

C.3.4 Deliverables

C.3.4.1

Deliverables shall be provided electronically whenever possible, via email, 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, COR, and Program Manager.

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

Three weeks after award

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FSA Deliverable Table Deliverable Description Due Date and

Frequency Acceptance Criteria

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.

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 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/Migration)

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

Within thirty days of award

Solution Architecture and Detailed Design Document

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

• Includes description and diagrams of infrastructure,…