91003124R0017 Perkins Solicitation Questions and Answers.pdf

91003124R0017 Perkins Solicitation Questions and Answers

Number Question Reference Answer

If the offeror submits both a written RFQ response and the oral PowerPoint presentation (Section 3 General Instructions Proposal volume requirements) will FSA use both response types to evaluate for the award, or will FSA only consider the Oral presentation for the award evaluation?

Section 3 General Instructions Proposal

FSA is not requesting any additional information beyond what is requested in the SF1449:

In accordance with SF1449 (continuation page), Addendum to Provision FAR 52.212-1,(7)(i.)(1), with regard the to the Oral Presentation, “Only the information presented during the oral presentation will be considered for evaluation. Any information or slides not presented will not be considered for evaluation.”

Would the Government consider a technical synch before orals (within 24/48 hours) to prevent possible unforeseen technical issues for the oral presentations. SF1449 Continuation Volume I Orals

Presentation; (4) Equipment

In accordance with (6), "The offeror will be given 10 minutes to set up and be ready to start." No additional time will be provided. The Government will provide a link to a Microsoft Teams video conferencing for the Oral Presentation in a calendar invite with the notice of the oral presentation date/time.

As management and staffing is evaluated as Factor 2, would the governmnet consider allowing a Program Manager to be an evaluated Presenter for the Oral Presentations?

SF1449 Continutation Volume I Orals Presentation; Volume I: Orals Presentation

SF1449 Continuation Addendum to Provision FAR 52.212-1, Section (7)i.(3) has been updated to revise the required Attendees at the Oral Presentation to include the Program Manager.

The instructions within the table under Additional Solicitation Requirements indicates that a Completed Consumer Protection Compliance Template Attachment 8 is to be submitted as part of Volume III, however within the file named “08- Consumer Protection Compliance Template” it is named “Attachment 18 – Consumer Protection Compliance Template” on sheets 2-5 in row 3.

Can you please confirm if Attachment 08 and Attachment 18 are intended to be the same?

Addendum to Provision FAR 52.212- 1; (2) Proposal Volume Requriements, iii, Additional Soliciation

Attachment 08 is the Consumer Protection Compliance Template. The Attachment number within the document has been updated accordingly.

The Consumer Protection Compliance Template indicates a different program name in row 2 on sheet 3 of the Excel workbook. Can you please confirm if the program is intended to be the Perkins Solution on sheet 3, row 2, “Ongoing legal proceedings” tab of the workbook?

Attachment 08 - Consumer Protection Compliance Template;

Tab 3 The program name has been updated on row 2 sheet 3 of Attachment 08.

On sheet 1, row 8, column B, and sheet 3, row 6, column B, it shows “CLIN 0002 Cybersecurity Services - Common Pricing.” Can you please confirm if Common Pricing is required for this CLIN? If so, can FSA please provide what this pricing will be?

Attachment 07 - Pricing Template;

Tab 1 & 3; Cybersecurity Services - Common Pricing Attachment 07 has been updated to remove Common Pricing terminology.

Can you please clarify if there are 1,750 borrowers per month and does that equate to 1,750 calls per month? SF1449 Continuation; i. Volume II:

Price Proposal (2) Our currenct servicer doesn't track the number of calls a single borrowermakes. Please see response to question 8 for more refined call volume numbers

The call volume of 1,750 calls per month may have been influenced by the Onramp period related to the return to repayment. Can you provide call volume statistics for the period prior to the COVID pandemic? SF1449 Continuation; i. Volume II:

Price Proposal (2)

The 1,750 calls per month was during the payment pause and does not apply to today's volume. For the 2 years prior to the payment pause volumes averaged 4,500 per month with a range from 3,500-6,600.

During the first 6 months of payments, the volumes was about 16,000. June 24-Sept 24 has averaged about 9,000 calls per month..

The performance requirement states, “The solution shall utilize a call center to handle customer inquiries to include phone, chat, text, and email.” Can you please provide historical data for chat, text, and email communications from the previous year as well as for 2019 or 2018 prior to the COVID Pandemic?

SF1449 Continutation Section 1.4 Performance Requirements, 3.

Customer Service

The Perkins portfolio provider doesn't perfrom Chat and text capabilities. In addition, very few borrowers have good emaill addresses. Most communication was done via postal mail. The current servicer didn't not keep track of the number of emails and letters they sent out.

"Can you please provide historical data for the previous year as well as for 2019 or 2018 prior to the COVID pandemic for the following performance requirements:

· Number of calls offered.

· Number of calls answered.

· Average call length.

· Number of calls abandoned.

· Number of calls answered.

· Average call length.

· Average speed of answer

· Number of calls answered through the IVR (Interactive Voice Response)" SF1449 Continutation Section 1.4

Performance Requirements, 3.

Customer Service All calls go to the CSR, No self service in current IVR

Under the first bullet, the first sub-bullet states, “Maintain images of documents associated with loans and borrowers provided by institutions, other servicers, or previous servicer.” Can you please provide the current number of images associated with loans and borrowers provided by institutions, other servicers, or the previous servicer?

What is the average image file size of the existing images in the repository?

SF1449 Continuation Section 1.2 Scope

As of last December, the current servicer had 2322 standard storage boxes and the electronic data stored is approximately 2 terabytes. Unfortunately, we do not have an average size for the documents sent in by schools or in storage. Schools will include the SF-1845, all promissory notes, plus and appropriate documentation. Therefore, FSA is unable to provide an approximate size.

Under the first bullet, the first sub-bullet states, “Maintain images of documents associated with loans and borrowers provided by institutions, other servicers, or previous servicer.” What are the naming conventions or meta-data associated with the files that links the files to the appropriate borrower or account? SF1449 Continuation Section 1.2

Scope The naming conventions will be finalized between the current vendor and the awardee as part of the transisition plan.

The RFP states, “The Federal Perkins Loan Servicer for the Department-held portfolio reviews the submitted assignment forms, promissory notes and documentation and makes a determination to accept or reject the loans.”

Can you please provide the average handle time associated with this document review and determination for each assignment? SF1449 Continuation Section 1.1

Background FSA does not have the average handle time from the current servicer. However, FSA allows 30 days for the servicer to review the assignment packet and respond to the school.

The RFP states, “The Federal Perkins Loan Servicer for the Department-held portfolio reviews the submitted assignment forms, promissory notes and documentation and makes a determination to accept or reject the loans.”

What is the Government’s expected estimate of new assignment forms to be received annually?

SF1449 Continuation Section 1.1 Background

As of September 30th, appoximately 792,000 loans are still held at schools. 32% of these loans are defaulted. Schools are supposed to assign their loans to the department if the loans have been in default for more than 2 years. In addition, schools can assign their entire portfolio at anytime. FSA expects more schools to liquidate their entire portfolio as the number of loans in their portfolio declines. As of October 16, 2024, our current servicer has recived 48,518 assignments in 2024.

What are the current staffing levels for this project, including back office and contact center?

SF1449 Continuation Section 1.1 Background Currently have 24 CSR/backoffice staff

What are the current customer satisfaction metric ratings of the borrowers?

SF1449 Continuation Section 1.1 Background The current servicer has not been apart of the customer service satisfaction surveys.

Regarding 49002.000: The contractor shall receive the customer's consent for eCorrespondence communications.

Historically, what percentage of borrowers have opted to accept electronic correspondence in lieu of paper correspondence?

Attachment 05 - Business Operations Servicing Requirements ~ 80% of Perkins borrower's have not provided an email addres or have a bad email address.

The RFP states that “Orals Presentations will be scheduled within 5 business days following the due date…”. Please confirm that the intent is for the Orals Presentations to be scheduled and to occur within 5 business days, and not simply to be scheduled within 5 business days and occur later in November.

SF1449 Continuation Section 3 Instructions to Offerors (5) Scheduling

The intent is for Oral Presentations to be scheduled (and occur) within 5 business days following the due date.

Regarding 49006.000: The contractor shall provide support for incoming student loan related inquiries received via the FSA managed and branded social media (i.e., Facebook page and Twitter).

Please clarify how we will be notified of social media that requires support from us? Attachment 05 - Business Operations

Servicing Requirements

FSA will tag the vendor with the borrowers posted concern for awarness on our platform and recommed the borrower make contract via your normal customer service methods. In an extreme case FSA could open a case with the OMBUDSMAN for borrower concerns that remain unresolved.

"The RFP states, “The awardee will be expected to send the following correspondence, at a minimum, to borrowers:

Monthly Billing Welcome Letter (onboarding) At least 3 delinquency letters should the borrower become delinquent Transfer off letter (offloading).” Can you provide the historical amount of additional letters that have been required?

One example of this is 24013.030 of the Business Operations Servicing Requirements states, “These efforts must include, but are not limited to, sending a letter to or making a diligent effort to contact each endorser, relative, reference, individual, and entity, identified in the customer's loan file, including the schools the student attended.”" SF1449 Continuation; Volume II:

Price Proposal (2)

545,000 monthly billing letters (based on current volume) 5,000 Welcome letters (based on average in take for 2024) 1,314,000 delinquency letters (based on the current delinquency rate) 1,864,000 total monthly letters

Please describe what should be included in the column “Relevant Operating Elements,” in Attachment 11.

Attachment 11 The Relevant Operating Elements column is used to describe to identify what tasks each partner will be responsible for

What is the anticipated volume of Assignments the servicer will receive monthly?

SF1449 Continuation; Section 1.4 Performance Requirements, 10 and

11. Assignments.

As of September 30th, appoximately 792,000 loans are still held at schools. 32% of these loans are defaulted. Schools are supposted to assign their loans to the department if the loans have been in default for more than 2 years. In addition, schools can assign their entire portfolio at anytime. FSA expects more schools to liquidate their entire portfolio as the number of loans in their portfolio declines. As of October 16, 2024, our current servicer has recived 48, 518 assignments in 2024.

In #2 Data Quality Control Plan, the Government states this plan is due within the proposal, but this is not mentioned within the Instructions and Evaluation criteria. Is it the intent of the Government to include this during the proposal phase or is this intended post-award? And if this is to be included, would the Government please give direction for what volume, and applicability of page count considering the oral presentation layout? Deliverables Chart (Attachment 4) and SF1449 Continuation page SF1449 continuation Addendum to Provision FAR 52.212-1 Section has been updated to include the Data Quality Control Plan as part of the Additional Solicitation Requirements Volume

Can you describe the current borrower authentication approach?

SF1449 Continuation Section 1.2 Scope

Section 3003 of the requiresments and the minimum IT requirements section of the PWS detail FSAs authentication approach in detail

Are there any credential conversions required as part of the transition to the new servicer and their borrower platform? SF1449 Continuation Section 1.2

Scope Yes borrowers would need to have the credentials converted if they are moving to a different servicing platform

All of our Representation and Certifications have been recently updated in SAM. If there are no amended Representations as identified in Section 6 (b)(2), can we simply assert that there are no amendments with our submission?

SF1449 Section 6 Representations and Certifications

Section K of the solicitation contains further applicable provisions and requirements that may require further information to be submitted in this volume such as certifications applicable specifically to this solicitation.

In proposing a Team/Subcontractor response, do we include assertions from all parties identiifed or only the Prime Contractor?

SF1449 Section 6 Representations and Certifications Representation and Certifications are required from the Prime vendor.

Will FSA allow the loan servicing application to run on the servicer's on-premise platform? Yes, as long as the requirements for managing Perkins loans are met, our cybersecurity standards are in place, and the ED and commericial data is not comingled in the platform used is up to the vendor.

Please confirm that the reference for PWS 1.4.3.1 for the Intial Task Order Pricing should be 1.5.3.1. Attachment 07 - Pricing Template has been updated to reflect PWS Section 1.5.3.1.

Please provide FSA's Cloud Architecture Requirements.

SF1449 Continuation Section 1.5.1.3 Attachments 15 - FSA Integrated Cloud Strategy and 16 - FSA Architecture Standards Template have been incorporated.

FSA refers to implementating a default aversion plan.

Currently, the servicer has been required to transfer accounts to DMCS at 91 calendar days. Does FSA intend for the requirement to stay at 270 calendar days as identified in the Business Operations Servicing Requirements 14000.000? SF1449 Continuation

Correct. Perkins loans will default at 91 days to DMCS. However, we still require a plan to help borrowers avoid default. Attachment 07 - Pricing Template has been revised to remove pricing beyond 91 days.

The current servicer does not send or receive data from COD today. Can you confirm these requiremetns do not apply to Perkins today?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 4000.00 Common Origination and Disbursement Interface This requirement has been removed.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (5000.00 - 5013.020) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 5000.00-5013.020 Repayment Plans

Perkins doesn't have as many repayment options as a Direct loan servicer, but there are more than one repayment option in the Perkins regulations and borrowers need to be able to choose from them.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (6035.000-6035.070) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 6035.000-6035.070

The vendor will be required to provide a monthly report of their Perkins activity in line with the listed requirements in section 6035 of the requirements document.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (6040.000-6049.000) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 6040.000-6049.000 Disbrusement Detail

The vendor will be required to provide a monthly report of their Perkins activity in line with the listed requirements in section 6040 of the requirements document. 6049 does not apply and has been removed.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (6062.000-6070.020) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 6062.000-6070.020

The vendor will be required to provide a monthly report of their Perkins activity in line with the listed requirements in section 6062 of the requirements document.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (6074.000-6074.090) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 6074.000-6074.090

The vendor will be required to provide a monthly report of their Perkins activity in line with the listed requirements in section 6074 of the requirements document.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (7032.000) do not apply to Perkins.

Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 7032.000 FMS Purchase Funding Request This requirement has been removed.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (8015.000-8028.000) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm? Busines Operations Servicing

Requirements - 8015.000-8028.000

The vendor will be required to provide a monthly report of their Perkins activity in line with the listed requirements in section 8015 of the requirements document. We do not anticipate volume for this requirement. The only time this is necessary is in the event of a school audit.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (8065.00-8112.000) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 8065.00-8112.000 This requirement has been removed.

Can you please provide Perkins PWS Attachment 4 - IT Requirements Repository as referenced in this attachment? Busines Operations Servicing

Requirements - 19002.020 IT Requirements Repository has been provided as PWS Attachment 14 in AMD 0002. The Business Operations Servicing Requirements Document has been updated to reflect the reference.

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (22011.000-22011.37) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements - 22011.000-22011.37

FSA is looking into the feasibility of adding Perkins loans into future loan discharges. These requirements will establish this capability should FSA determine they want to proceed

Based upon the current servicing requirements, we assume these requirements (23018.000-23018.200) do not apply to Perkins. Can you please confirm?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements -23018.000-23018.200

FSA is looking into the feasibility of adding Perkins loans into future loan discharges. These requirements will establish this capability should FSA determine they want to proceed

Are these reports (48000_01-48000_AA Reporting) expected as of Go Live or can they be implemented as a phased in approach post-Go Live?

Busines Operations Servicing Requirements -48000_01 - 48000_AA Reporting They are expected as part of "Go-Live".

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