Addendum 1.pdf

Rev. 07/28/2016-Addendum 1.doc

Finance Department David P. Schmiedicke, Finance Director City-County Building, Room 406 Purchasing Services 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard Madison, Wisconsin 53703 Phone: (608) 266-4521 Fax: (608) 266-5948 finance@cityofmadison.com www.cityofmadison.com/finance/purchasing

DATE: Friday, December 19, 2025

RE: ADDENDUM 1

RFP-14092-0-2025-TJ

PDF Remediation Services

Notice to All Bidders:

Please note the following responses to the questions received:

Bidders must acknowledge receipt of this addendum accordingly on RFB Form B, Receipt Forms and Submittal Checklist.

Question 1:

The RFB states that work must be performed in the US, but would the City be open to public, web-based documents being remediated by our employees in our international offices, to derive significant cost savings?

Answer 1:

We will be open to employees not based in the U.S., as long as they are subject matter experts, can provide reports that guarantee compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA or beyond, and can meet the other requirements of the RFB (such as ability to communicate during regular US Central Time business hours). Our usual business hours are 8:30am – 4pm Monday-Friday US Central Time.

Question 2:

“Description of Services/Commodities” is marked as N/A for submission on the Form B Submittal Checklist.

Can you please confirm that the City is not looking for a narrative response to the scope of work for this RFB, and bidders are to complete and submit Forms A to E only?

Answer 2:

This is regarding section 2 of the RFB document, and we are confirming that you do not need to submit a copy of the RFB main document, but you are required to complete Forms A to E.

Question 3:

Would the City consider a 2-week extension to the due date to allow time for issuance and review of Q&A?

Answer 3:

We will change the RFB deadline to Friday, January 16 2:00pm CST to accommodate vendor requests.

mailto:finance@cityofmadison.com http://www.cityofmadison.com/finance/purchasing

December 19, 2025

12/19/2025-Addendum 1.doc

Question 4:

Is there an incumbent for these services? If yes, who is the incumbent and what is the corresponding contract value, contract number and period of performance?

Answer 4:

There is no existing document remediation contract.

Question 5:

What is the estimated contract Award date?

Answer 5:

This is to be determined and will likely be negotiated with vendor.

Question 6:

What is the estimated contract Start date?

Answer 6:

This is to be determined and will likely be negotiated with vendor.

Question 7:

The solicitation references a local preference granting a scoring preference to local suppliers. What scoring preference (i.e. additional points) will be applied to proposals from local suppliers?

Answer 7:

For Request for Bids, there is a 1% preference given: if a local vendor submits a bid within 1% of the lowest non-local bidder, the purchase is awarded to the local vendor.

Please see section 1.14 of the RFB for more information on local vendor preference or visit our website www.cityofmadison.com/business/localPurchasing .

Question 8:

Can the initial 12-month contract period be extended if needed to complete the work?

Answer 8:

The contract length is dependent on cost and document inventory, both TBD until we complete inventory and fully understand per page cost options. We’re open to long-term contracts based on the selected vendor’s performance and the needs of the City.

Question 9:

What percentage of the ~10k documents represent Tier 1 documents vs Tier 2?

http://www.cityofmadison.com/business/localPurchasing

Answer 9:

We are still working to archive, transfer and/or inventory the number of documents on our website. We are unlikely to have estimates or exact numbers ready when this work begins. The work will ebb and flow throughout the engagement and has potential to be ongoing.

Question 10:

Approximately how many batches (of ~150 documents each) will be provided on a weekly basis?

Answer 10:

This is TBD until we complete inventory. If a vendor believes the number of documents will impact their ability/resources to complete the work or impact their bid, they should outline this in the Optional section on Form D Cost Proposal, including proposing your own process, a timeline for completion (i.e., the maximum number of Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 pages that can be completed during a week), etc.

Question 11:

What percentage of documents are estimated to be scanned documents?

Answer 11:

See response to question 9 above.

Question 12:

What is the City’s budget for this project?

Answer 12:

Budget is dependent on cost. We need to understand cost per page before we can assign final budget for 2026 and subsequent years. We’re still working to inventory the current web documents so we can better understand what needs to be remediated. This RFB is part of that inventory process.

Question 13:

Is this project funded?

Answer 13:

See response to question 12. In general yes, but the budget is dependent on several factors.

Question 14:

What are the proposal evaluation criteria and how will proposals be evaluated?

Answer 14:

The requirements in section 2.1 Scope of Work, 2.2 Minimum Vendor Requirements and Tier 1 and Tier 2 Pricing will be used to determine the award.

Question 15:

Does the City intend to award this contract to a single vendor, or are multiple vendors anticipated due to volume and timeline considerations?

Answer 15:

We hope to award a single vendor but won’t have a firm answer to this question until we know cost per page and have inventory identified.

Question 16:

Can the City provide an estimated monthly or quarterly document volume to help vendors plan staffing and capacity?

Answer 16:

See responses to questions 9 & 10.

Question 17:

Is there an anticipated budget range or target spend for this 12-month engagement?

Answer 17:

See response to questions 8 & 12.

Question 18:

Will PDF submissions originate from multiple City departments, or will they be coordinated centrally through the IT department?

Answer 18:

They will originate (be submitted) from multiple departments and IT will coordinate the remediation effort centrally with the vendor.

Question 19:

Is there an existing inventory of 10,000+ PDF documents, including page counts and associated departments, that vendors will have access to?

Answer 19:

See responses to questions 9 & 10.

Question 20:

Will the City identify high-priority or legally required documents that must be remediated first, or does the City expect the vendor to:

1. Perform an initial assessment and prioritization, and

2. Recommend which PDFs require remediation in alignment with DOJ guidelines, to support cost optimization and faster compliance?

Answer 20:

The City will determine the prioritization of high-priority documents, and those documents will be submitted to the vendor first. The vendor will not make these determinations.

Question 21:

Does the City anticipate or encourage other Wisconsin municipalities to utilize this contract through cooperative purchasing?

Answer 21:

The City does allow cooperative purchasing please see section 1.23 of the RFB.

Question 22:

What is the City’s preferred invoicing structure?

Answer 22:

Invoicing can happen monthly based on number of fully compliant remediated pages. Vendors should feel free to propose other invoicing structures.

Question 23:

Is this engagement intended to be a single 12-month contract, or does the City anticipate possible extensions or renewals?

Answer 23:

See answer to question 8.

Question 24:

The RFB does not specify a defined project budget. Has the City established a budget or funding allocation for this engagement? If so, can it be shared?

Answer 24:

See response to question 12.

Question 25:

The evaluation criteria do not clearly define the weighting of proposal sections (e.g., minimum qualifications

vs. desired qualifications). Can the City clarify the weightage assigned to each evaluation section?

Answer 25:

This is a request for Bids which is different from our request for proposals. The requirements in section 2.1 Scope of Work, 2.2 Minimum Vendor Requirements and Tier 1 and Tier 2 Pricing will be used to determine the award.

Question 26:

Are there any local vendor participation requirements or preferences, including:

1. Minimum participation goals for local vendors or subcontractors

2. Evaluation points associated with local vendor participation

3. Preference given to local vendors as prime contractors or subcontractors

Answer 26:

See response to questions 7 & 14. Local preference is given to the prime contractor only.

Question 27:

Who will serve as the primary point of contact for approvals, feedback, and overall coordination during the project?

Answer 27:

A City of Madison Information Technology project manager will be the point of contact.

Question 28:

Is the use of subcontractors acceptable for completing specific tasks outlined in the scope of work?

Answer 28:

Yes, as long as their work is guaranteed to meet WCAG 2.1 AA or above compliance. We would also need to know and approve the subcontractors and the specific tasks they will be performing prior to selection.

Question 29:

As per our understanding of the RFB, there is no expectation for training services (such as in-person training, video tutorials, or remote training for future readiness). Please confirm.

Answer 29:

That is correct—we do not expect this engagement to include training.

Question 30:

Will the City provide pre-classified Tier 1 and Tier 2 documents, or is the vendor expected to assess and confirm document tiers upon receipt?

Answer 30:

See response to question 20.

Question 31:

Does the City require a formal accessibility validation report (e.g., checklist or testing evidence) to be submitted along with remediated PDFs?

Answer 31:

A validation report should be provided upon request for any document. The criteria for bids include guaranteeing that the work complies with WCAG 2.1 AA or above requirements.

Question 32:

What is the expected distribution of documents between Tier 1 (low complexity) and Tier 2 (high complexity)?

Answer 32:

See response to question 9.

Question 33:

Approximately what percentage of PDFs are scanned documents requiring OCR?

Answer 33:

See response to question 9.

Question 34:

Will the City assign document tiers, or should the vendor classify document complexity as part of the remediation process?

Answer 34:

Costs should be based on the tier descriptions we provided in the RFB. We will work with the vendor in case of disagreement on tiers. Note: We do have a handful of staff trained in basic document remediation, and they are helping to identify what should be in each tier.

Question 35:

What is the expected weekly or monthly document submission volume?

Answer 35:

See response to question 10.

Question 36:

What is the maximum batch size the vendor should be prepared to process at any given time?

Answer 36:

See response to question 10.

Question 37:

What secure file transfer or document management method does the City prefer (e.g., SFTP, SharePoint, secure portal)?

Answer 37:

We’re looking for the vendor to identify their process/workflow. We currently have access to SharePoint but want to also consider the workflows or secure portals vendors propose.

Question 38:

In addition to WCAG 2.1 AA, does the City require compliance with PDF/UA standards?

Answer 38:

Ability to meet PDF/UA compliance is preferred. The current Federal requirement for a municipality is that web content align with WCAG 2.1 AA. We strive to meet additional or higher standards as able.

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

Question 39:

Are there any preferred accessibility testing tools (e.g., Acrobat Accessibility Checker, JAWS, NVDA) that the City uses for internal verification?

Answer 39

We currently use PAC (IT staff-only access), Acrobat Pro, JAWS, and NVDA to test for accessibility. We’re also testing/considering adoption of additional tools.

Please direct any other questions to the Purchasing contact person below.

Tammy Jones City of Madison Purchasing Services tjones@cityofmadison.com