91003119R0008_0003.pdf

NSN 7540-01-152-8070 STANDARD FORM 30. (Rev. 10-83) Previous Edition unusable Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

Page of Pages AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. Contract ID Code

2. AMENDMENT MODIFICATION NO. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (if applicable)

6. ISSUED BY CODE 7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than item 6) CODE

(x) 9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (NO., Street, Country, State and ZIP Code)

CODE FACILITY CODE

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of offers is extended, is not extended.

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

(a) By completing items 8 and 15, and returning ______ copies of amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OR OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment your desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required)

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS. IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

Check One

A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE

CONTRACT ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority)

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return _______ copies to the issuing office.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible)

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of person authorized to sign)

15C. DATE SIGNED

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

16C. DATE SIGNED

Attachment Page

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The purpose of this amendment is to update the following:

1. Section C

a. Revised Section C.1 – Introduction

b. Revised Section C.2 – Background, Goals, and Vision

c. Revised Section C.3 – Objectives, Requirements, and Milestone

d. Revised Section C.6 – Expected Volumes

2. Section D, Packaging and Marking

3. Section J

a. Revised Attachment 02 ‐ Security Technical Requirements

b. Revised Attachment 08 ‐ Information Resources Program Elements (IRPE) Supplement

c. Revised Attachment 15 – Past Work Experience Questionnaire

d. Revised Attachment 16 ‐ Past Work Experience SLA Track Record Template

e. Revised Attachment 17 – Consumer Protection Compliance Template

f. Revised Attachment 18 – Pricing Template

g. Revised Attachment 19 – Performance Measurement Template

h. Revised Attachment 23 – Responses to Questions

i. Added Attachment 24 – Small Business Participation Plan

4. Section L

a. Revised Section L‐2.2 Proposal Volume Requirements

b. Revised Section L‐2.2.5 – Submission Due Dates

c. Revised Section L‐2.3 Communication with the Contracting Office

d. Revised Section L‐2.4 Information to be submitted as part of the proposal

5. Revised Section M – Evaluation Factors for Award

Additions are underlined. All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

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SECTION B, SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

See Attachment “18 – 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‐ classefficient and effective 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 Business Process Operations solutions. Business Process Operations will support efficient and effective operations, across the entire life cycle of student financing (from application for financing, to origination and disbursement, to processing and servicing and pay‐off or default). Solution for Business Process Operations means the personnel and equipment required to execute the objectives and requirements of the resulting contract, utilizing ED provided established environment and tools.

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. Consistent with the FY2019 Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, ED intends to make multiple awards for Business Process

Operations.

C.2 – BACKGROUND, GOALS, AND VISION

C.2.1 Background

One of ED’s core missions 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 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

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solutions). Individual customers may have several loans and grants made under various Title IV programs 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 Updated” 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

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:

First, FSA intends to provide a world‐class customer and partner experience throughout the life cycle of student financing to that will ensure:

■ Easier, more seamless customer interactions with FSA across the full life cycle of student financing 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 financing 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 the full life cycle of student financing and across all vendors.

Second, FSA intends to improve its operational flexibility across the full life cycle of student financing 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.

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Third, FSA intends to drive greater operational efficiency across the full life cycle of student financing; 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 across the full life cycle of student financing. 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 an world‐ class efficient and effective 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 tohas procured 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 student financing servicing processing solution(s), 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 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.

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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‐classefficient and effective 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 anticipates migrating, through conversion, nearly 200 million loan accounts from existing servicers to the Enhanced Processing

Solution, while minimizing disruptions for customers.

Business Process Operations will need to integrate seamlessly with existing and future solutions provided by FSA or other vendors, across the entire life cycle of student financing. Those solutions include NextGen solutions, such as the FSA‐branded digital platform, contact center technical backbone and support, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enhanced

Processing Solution, Optimal Processing Solutions, 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 high caliber of service is delivered.

C.3 – OBJECTIVES, REQUIREMENTS, AND MILESTONE

C.3.1 Solution Objectives

Business Process Operations will support efficient and effective operations, across the entire life cycle of student financing

(from application for financing, to origination and disbursement, to processing and servicing and pay‐off or default). Business

Process Operations will do so under FSA’s single brand, by providing the personnel necessary to respond to inbound customer

(e.g. student applicants, borrowers, etc.) and partner (e.g. schools) inquiries, execute separately‐developed outbound outreach campaigns, and perform back‐office processing activities that cannot be automated. These personnel will provide an enhanced level of service, across the full life cycle of student financing, beyond today’s environment and one that is consistent with leading financial services providers and other industry leaders recognized for their customer service. Solutions will also support the seamless transition of customers and partners from existing to new solutions, most especially the Enhanced Processing

Solution and/or Optimal Processing Solutions, Digital Platform, and Contact Center. In this context, Solution is defined as all efforts required to deliver Business Process Operations.

C.3.2 General Operating Requirements

Business Process Operations (Solution) shall satisfy these general requirements across all operating elements outlined in

Section C.3.3:

a. Customer experience focus: Solutions shall prioritize customer needs and preferences to deliver a world‐class more efficient and effective customer experience throughout the life cycle of student financing. Helpful additional context on the current state can be found in the “05 – Current State Customer Tasks,” “06 – Current State Partner Tasks,” “07 – Top Customer Pain Points” attachments.

b. Established environment and tools: Solutions shall operate within the boundaries of the environment. Solutions shall only utilize the tools provided by other NextGen solutions (e.g., CRM, contact center agent desktop, printing, mailing, and imaging) or existing FSA solutions, as approved by FSA. Solutions shall not store or use data outside approved solutions. Solutions will be provided access to data and solutions as necessary to execute designated functions.

c. Responsive and collaborative partnership with the Command Center: Solutions shall maintain a productive partnership with the Command Center provider, who will engage with the Business Process Operations vendors on behalf of and based on direction from FSA.

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─ Solutions personnel shall perform work as distributed to them by the Command Center, based on rules and standards defined by FSA.

─ Solutions shall contribute to common agent training and materials (e.g., knowledge resources, contact scripts, agent desktop guides, curriculum content), ensuring that customer/partner‐facing instructions and resolution steps as well as back‐office processing procedures are accurate, effective, and efficient.

─ Solutions shall be responsive to any communications from the Command Center, including but not limited to, requests for staffing capacity, updates on policy/procedure changes, and asks for input.

─ Solutions shall provide feedback to support the continuous improvement of agent materials, training, and toolsas well as front‐end client applications and back‐end systems, which may be operated by different NextGen vendors.

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

e. Performance management: Solutions shall include performance management mechanisms that would enable improved and ongoing achievement of metrics. A set of defined metrics will be measured to determine volume allocations to Business Process Operations vendors and may also be established as service level agreements (SLAs).

Business Process Operations vendors will be measured monthly to determine if they are Green, Yellow or Red. These levels will be defined at award, with additional details provided in a pursuant amendment.

Green ‐ Vendors will keep their assigned customers and will also be assigned an equitable share of new customers.

Yellow ‐ Vendors will keep their assigned customers but will not receive new customers. If they remain yellow more than 6 months, their contract may be terminated for default in accordance with FAR 52.249‐8 at no additional cost to the Government.

Red – If a vendor remains red for 2 consecutive months, a portion of their assigned customers will be reallocated to other vendors. If they remain red for 3 consecutive months, their contract may be terminated for default in accordance with FAR 52.249‐8 at no additional cost to the Government.

A pursuant amendment will be posted with further details about the metrics and associated targets/benchmarks which will be used to determine volume allocations.

Example contact center support metrics may 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, , maximum/longest hold time).

Example back‐office processing may include, but are not limited to, task turnaround time, task completion rate, and task error rate.

Prior to disbursement, customer inquiries and/or back‐office processing taskings will be randomly distributed to any one of the Business Process Operations (BPO) vendors, which will be responsible for necessary customer inquiries and/or back‐office processing associated with that customer’s account. After disbursement, the customer’s account will be assigned to a primary BPO vendor that is meeting Green metrics. If the primary vendor is not meeting Green metrics, their customers’ accounts may be reallocated to other BPO vendors, who are meeting Green metrics, to ensure customers receive world‐class customer service. A pursuant amendment will be posted with further details about how volume allocations will be determined.

e. Performance management: Solutions shall include performance management mechanisms that would enable improved and ongoing achievement of metrics. FSA will utilize Traffic Light Scorecards or reports to support BPO Performance Management. A set of defined metrics will be measured to determine volume allocations to Business Process Operations vendors and may also be established as service level agreements (SLAs).

– Business Process Operations vendors’ performance will be tracked and measured at a minimum monthly to determine if they are Green, Yellow or Red.

‐ Green ‐ Vendors whose performance is at or above the established service levels. These vendors will keep their assigned customers and will also be assigned an equitable share of new customers.

‐ Yellow ‐ Vendors whose performance is below established service levels, but within the established tolerance. These vendors will keep their assigned customers but will not receive new customers. Vendors may also be subject to additional financial implications at the discretion of FSA. If the vendor is yellow more

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than 3 months within any 12 month period, their contract may be terminated for default in accordance with FAR 52.249‐8 at no additional cost to the Government.

‐ Red – Vendors whose performance is below established service levels and below the established tolerance will require urgent action. These vendors will not receive new customers and may see a portion of their existing customers reallocated to other vendors whose performance is at or above the established service levels. Vendors may also be subject to additional financial implications at the discretion of FSA. Vendors may not remain red for longer than 2 consecutive months. Violation of this provision may result in termination for default in accordance with FAR 52.249‐8 at no additional cost to the Government.

Contact Center and Back‐Office Processing Allocations: Solutions shall include the following allocation methodology for customer/partner inquiries and back‐office processing tasks across the life cycle of student financing:

– Prior to disbursement or in the event a customer cannot be identified, a customer inquiry and/or back‐office processing tasks will be randomly distributed to any one of the Business Process Operations (BPO) vendors.

– After disbursement and if a customer can be identified, the customer’s inquiry and/or back‐office processing tasks will be allocated to a primary BPO vendor assigned to the customer’s account. Otherwise, if the customer cannot be identified, the inquiry will be randomly distributed to any one of the BPO vendors.

– Any time a BPO vendor’s real‐time contact‐center‐hold time exceed established thresholds, FSA may redirect customer inquiries to available contact center agents at another BPO vendor to ensure customers continuously receive efficiency and effective customer service. In such a case, the customer’s account will remain assigned to its primary BPO vendor.

– Contact center and/or back‐office processing tasks from schools and/or trading partners may be randomly distributed to any one of the Business Process Operations (BPO) vendors who are meeting performance metrics (i.e. green status) to ensure that schools and trading partners receive efficient and effective customer service.

– FSA reserves the right to assign calls or tasks to other vendors to ensure efficient and effective customer service.

f. Quality control: Solutions shall establish and maintain an internal quality management system, including documented policies/procedures to ensure that best‐in‐classefficient and effective service will be provided on an ongoing basis.

Additionally, FSA, or other vendors on its behalf, will provide broader quality control/assurance across the enterprise.

g. Integration: Solutions 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. Solutions shall include features which enable FSA, other government agencies, and designated third‐parties to interface or exchange with it as necessary.

Solution shall care for broad integration needs including, but not limited to, exchanging and harmonizing business rules for workflows, providing development and test environments, and collaborating with FSA and other vendors to resolve integration issues which arise.

h. Adherence to and monitoring for changes in laws and regulations: Solutions shall meet or exceed existing Federal rules, laws, regulations, agency guidelines or court mandates applicable to the FSA operationsoperating environment (including all accessibility elements such as 504/508 compliance). Solutions 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.

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

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

Solution shall be hosted in a secure environment. If any aspect of the solution is hosted in the cloud, the solution must be FedRAMP‐approved or FedRAMP‐“ready”, or must be hosted in a private cloud, per the definition in the attached “02‐Security Technical Requirements.” The solution may not be hosted in a shared, multi‐tenant environment.

‐ Please note the FedRAMP‐approved cloud shall require a Department/Agency‐level Authorization to Operate (ATO), followed by the FSA‐issued ATO for the system, which shall be FISMA and/or FedRAMP‐approved at either a

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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.

j. Financial accuracy and compliance: Solutions shall support the Processing Solution vendors to ensure the compliance and accuracy of financial transactions and reporting. For information regarding the technical requirements for existing financial standards, see Attachment “03 – Finance Technical Requirements”. Business Process Operations may be required to leverage customer‐specific data to enable this reporting. Solutions shall provide the robust internal controls and audit support.

k. Additional current state technical constraints: In addition to security and financial requirements, solutions 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. A comprehensive set of binding requirements will be defined post award.

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

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

– Life cycle of student financing 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, TPD, Perkins, Pell) 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.

C.3.3 Operating Elements and Related Requirements:

a. Contact center support: Solutions shall be equipped to provide world‐classefficient and effective customer and partner experience in responding and resolving inbound customer inquiries across multiple channels (e.g., phone, email, chat, social media, SMS/text, fax, mail) across the entire financing lifecycle for FSA’s entire financing portfolio, and executing outbound outreach as directed for various loan and grant types. This includes support currently provided by multiple current FSA call centers supporting the entire life cycle of student financing, including but not limited to, FSA Information Center (FSAIC), Student Loan Support Center, Default Resolution Group, FSA Ombudsman Group, FSA Feedback Center, Borrower Defense Customer Support, COD School Relations Center, loan servicers, and private

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collection agencies (PCAs). Refer to attachment “10 – Existing FSA Contact Centers (Not Exhaustive)” and https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/contact for a broader list of current contact centers.

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

– Solutions shall execute contact center operations while within the FSA environment boundaries provided by the contact center technical backbone, CRM agent desktop, and any other solutions prescribed by FSA. Solutions may not use or keep data in any other solutions than those provided.

– Solutions(s) shall have personnel capable of addressing all inquiries from customers and partners (e.g. schools), across the full life cycle of student financing.

– Solutions shall provide tailored customer assistance throughout the life of the loan to make it unlikely borrowers would ever become 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 “09 – Life of the Loan Servicing Intended State”.

– Solutions 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.

– Solutions 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.

– Solutions 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).

b. Student financing back‐office processing: Solutions will shall efficiently execute back‐office activities that cannot be automated within other relevant solutions, across the full life cycle of student financing, as assigned, especially those cannot be automated within other relevant solutions.

– Solutions shall provide processing capabilities as required by the Enhanced Processing Solution and Optimal Processing Solutions. This will include, but is not limited to, review, validation, and processing associated with enrollment, applications, and requests for various grant and loan programs and loan status adjustments such as, but not limited to:

‐ All repayment plan processing (e.g., income‐driven repayment) across all loan types and statuses, 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, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (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, TPD, PSLF, Perkins, Pell) and Title IV reinstatement processing;

‐ Specialty claims processing (e.g., cancellation, forgiveness, and discharge and forgiveness, based on bankruptcy, school closure, borrower defense, false certification, unpaid refund, disaster discharge, among others); 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.

– Solutions shall pProvide technical help desk support to Schools for Origination and Disbursement Processing for the Direct Loans, Title IV Grant Programs (i.e. Pell, TEACH etc.), including but not limited to, origination and disbursement data submittal issues, Program funding issues, Program funds to disbursement reconciliations, Subsidized Usage Limit (SULA) escalations, Grant overpayment processing, and borrower credit appeals. For the purposes of Origination and Disbursement help desk support, customer interactions are classified as Tier 1 while interactions from schools, FSA, and trading partners are classified as Tier 2.

– Solutions shall conduct error and dispute resolution investigation and processing, including, but not limited to:

‐ Direct and indirect credit bureau disputes filed by customers or initiated by the credit bureaus, within timelines established by law; and

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‐ Account maintenance, including manual correction of errors identified through data integrity scans and in response to FSA change requests; and,.

– Solution shall efficiently execute eligibility determination and support other back‐office, exception and manual activities, as assigned by FSA, especially those that cannot be automated within other relevant solutions.

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

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

‐ Solution shall provide capabilities to process paper aid applications (i.e. age limit and incarceration restrictions)

‐ Solution shall provide capabilities to support and submit applications for re‐processing as instructed by ED.

‐ Solution shall provide support for school and trading partner interfaces (i.e. EdExpress, Participation Management, SAIG enrollment)

‐ Solution shall provide support to resolve student identity conflicts.

– Solutions shall not only be able to process data primarily in digital formats, but also other formats (e.g., print) as needed.

– Solutions shall not implement separate imaging, printing, and mailing solutions in the execution of back‐office processing tasks. Refer to C.3.2.b for further details in regard to established environment and tools.

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, 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. Note that the Contractor shall only furnish deliverables related to call center security, network, telecommunications, data, desktops, and equipment configuration:

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

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FSA Deliverable Table

Deliverable Description Due Date and Frequency

Acceptance Criteria

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

Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) – requirements mapped to test cases

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

Final version for each release delivered prior to Requirements Stage Gate

Solution Architecture and Detailed Design Document

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

Includes description and diagrams of infrastructure, network, telecommunications, security, data, desktop, and other equipment

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

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

Includes Interface Control Documents (ICDs) to document all interfaces

Conveys detail necessary to support critical design reviews before installation and configuration

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

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

Includes System, User Acceptance, Performance, Inter‐system, etc. Test Plans

Final version for each release delivered prior to Test Readiness Review

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Frequency

Acceptance Criteria

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

Testing Documentation

Testing documentation.

Test Suites ‐ test scenarios, test cases and test scripts for a component or system under test

User Acceptance Test Summary Report

System Test Summary Report

Defect Management Report

QA and QC records

Final version for each release delivered prior to Test Readiness Review

Implementation Documentation

Release Version Description Document

Management Plan

Training Plan

Standard Operating Procedures

Configuration Management Plan (plan should focus on call center security, network, telecommunications, data, desktops, and equipment configuration)

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

Prior to receiving Authorization to Operate

Lessons Learned Reports

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

Within two weeks after each update to call center changes, such as desktop software upgrades

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:

Prior to receiving Authority to Operate

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Frequency

Acceptance Criteria

Security Assessment Plan

System Security Documentation Checklists

Security Assessment Report

Plans of Actions and Milestones (POAMs)

Data Retention Schedule

Security Documentation Post‐

ATO

Property Management Plan

FISMA Metrics Report

Annual Self‐Assessment (if not in OSA program)

Incident Response Test Plan and Test Report

Contingency Test Plan and Test Report

Standard Operation Procedures

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 FSA 35‐9 deliverable)

First business day after the close of each month

Technology Business Management (TBM) Data Report

Completed TBM Data Report Template.

Percentage of total Cost of the investment into the required appropriate TBM IT Towers and IT Cost Pools Report formats.

August 15 – annually and whenever the contractor determines that the percentages must be changed.

Small Business Participation Plan

(SBPP)

Completed SBPP submitted in accordance with the instructions in Section L‐2.4.5.

At Award In accordance with Section L‐

2.4.5. (Vendor shall not propose acceptance criteria for this deliverable)

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 once the

Enhanced Processing Solution is fully operational and ready to start migration (no later than six months of award)

Solution must begin scaling operations concurrently and at pace with customer account conversion to the Enhanced Processing

Solution, no later than six months after award.

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C.6 ‐ EXPECTED VOLUMES (For Informational Purposes)

FSA expects that many of the customer and partner engagement figures will significantly…