AMENDMENT 1.docx

SAP

State of South Carolina

Invitation for Bid Amendment 1

Solicitation:

Date Issued:

Procurement Officer:

Phone:

E-Mail Address:

5400023335 06/07/2022

KELLY COBIAN

803.896.8694 kelly.cobian@schousing.com

DESCRIPTION: SURVEY SERVICES

USING GOVERNMENTAL UNIT: SC STATE HOUSING FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (SC HOUSING)

SUBMIT YOUR OFFER ON-LINE AT THE FOLLOWING URL: http://www.procurement.sc.gov

SUBMIT OFFER BY (Opening Date/Time): 06/20/2022 2:00 PM ET 06/23/2022 2:00 PM ET (See "Deadline For Submission Of Offer" provision)

QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY: 05/27/2022 5:00 PM ET (The question and answer period has ended)

NUMBER OF COPIES TO BE SUBMITTED: One (1) - via the online SCEIS platform

CONFERENCE TYPE: Non-Mandatory Prebid

DATE & TIME: 05/27/2022 10:00 AM ET

(As appropriate, see "Conferences - Pre-Bid/Proposal" & "Site Visit" provisions)

LOCATION: ONLINE

You must submit a signed copy of this form with Your Offer. By signing, You agree to be bound by the terms of the Solicitation. You agree to hold Your Offer open for a minimum of thirty (30) calendar days after the Opening Date. (See "Signing Your Offer" provision.)

NAME OF OFFEROR

(full legal name of business submitting the offer) Any award issued will be issued to, and the contract will be formed with, the entity identified as the Offeror. The entity named as the offeror must be a single and distinct legal entity. Do not use the name of a branch office or a division of a larger entity if the branch or division is not a separate legal entity, i.e., a separate corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, etc.

AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE

(Person must be authorized to submit binding offer to contract on behalf of Offeror.)

DATE SIGNED

TITLE

(business title of person signing above)

STATE VENDOR NO.

(Register to Obtain S.C. Vendor No. at www.procurement.sc.gov)

PRINTED NAME

(printed name of person signing above)

STATE OF INCORPORATION

(If you are a corporation, identify the state of incorporation.)

OFFEROR'S TYPE OF ENTITY: (Check one) (See "Signing Your Offer" provision.)

___ Sole Proprietorship ___ Partnership ___ Other_____________________________

___ Corporate entity (not tax-exempt) ___ Corporation (tax-exempt) ___ Government entity (federal, state, or local)

COVER PAGE - ON-LINE ONLY (MAR. 2015)

SAP

SAP

PAGE TWO

(Return Page Two with Your Offer) HOME OFFICE ADDRESS (Address for offeror's home office / principal place of business)

NOTICE ADDRESS (Address to which all procurement and contract related notices should be sent.) (See "Notice" clause)

_________________________________________________ Area Code - Number - Extension Facsimile

_________________________________________________ E-mail Address

PAYMENT ADDRESS (Address to which payments will be sent.) (See "Payment" clause)

____Payment Address same as Home Office Address ____Payment Address same as Notice Address (check only one) ORDER ADDRESS (Address to which purchase orders will be sent) (See "Purchase Orders and "Contract Documents" clauses)

____Order Address same as Home Office Address ____Order Address same as Notice Address (check only one)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AMENDMENTS

Offerors acknowledges receipt of amendments by indicating amendment number and its date of issue. (See "Amendments to Solicitation" Provision)

DISCOUNT FOR PROMPT PAYMENT

(See "Discount for Prompt Payment" clause)

PREFERENCES - A NOTICE TO VENDORS (SEP. 2009): On June 16, 2009, the South Carolina General Assembly rewrote the law governing preferences available to in-state vendors, vendors using in-state subcontractors, and vendors selling in-state or US end products. This law appears in Section 11-35-1524 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. A summary of the new preferences is available at www.procurement.sc.gov/preferences . ALL THE PREFERENCES MUST BE CLAIMED AND ARE APPLIED BY LINE ITEM, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER AWARD IS MADE BY ITEM OR LOT. VENDORS ARE CAUTIONED TO CAREFULLY REVIEW THE STATUTE BEFORE CLAIMING ANY PREFERENCES. THE REQUIREMENTS TO QUALIFY HAVE CHANGED. IF YOU REQUEST A PREFERENCE, YOU ARE CERTIFYING THAT YOUR OFFER QUALIFIES FOR THE PREFERENCE YOU'VE CLAIMED. IMPROPERLY REQUESTING A PREFERENCE CAN HAVE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES. [11-35-1524(E)(4)&(6)]

PREFERENCES - ADDRESS AND PHONE OF IN-STATE OFFICE: Please provide the address and phone number for your in-state office in the space provided below. An in-state office is necessary to claim either the Resident Vendor Preference (11-35-1524(C)(1)(i)&(ii)) or the Resident Contractor Preference (11-35-1524(C)(1)(iii)). Accordingly, you must provide this information to qualify for the preference. An in-state office is not required, but can be beneficial, if you are claiming the Resident Subcontractor Preference (11-35-1524(D)).

____In-State Office Address same as Home Office Address ____In-State Office Address same as Notice Address (check only one)

PAGE TWO (SEP 2009)

End of PAGE TWO

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Amendment One Solicitation No. 5400023335

AMENDMENTS TO SOLICITATION (JAN 2004)

(a) The Solicitation may be amended at any time prior to opening. All actual and prospective Offerors should monitor the following web site for the issuance of Amendments: www.procurement.sc.gov (b) Offerors shall acknowledge receipt of any amendment to this solicitation (1) by signing and returning the amendment, (2) by identifying the amendment number and date in the space provided for this purpose on Page Two, (3) by letter, or (4) by submitting a bid that indicates in some way that the bidder received the amendment. (c) If this solicitation is amended, then all terms and conditions which are not modified remain unchanged. [02-2A005-1J]

QUESTIONS FROM OFFERORS - AMENDMENT (JUN 2017)

This solicitation is amended as provided herein, information or changes resulting from questions will be shown in a question-and-answer format. All questions received have been reprinted below. The "State's Response" should be read without reference to the questions. The questions are included solely to provide a cross-reference to the potential offeror that submitted the question. Questions do not form a part of the contract; the "State's Response" does. Any restatement of part or all, of existing provision of the solicitation in an answer does not modify the original provision except as follows: underlined text is added to the original provision. Stricken text is deleted. [02-2A097-l]

The following prospective offeror questions and agency responses are hereby incorporated into the solicitation.

1. We did not see a questionnaire section about our product...are we missing something here or is this a general bid response within the scope of work provided? Outside of filling in the costs, the electronic submission, doesn’t appear to have areas to provide company information and background, doesn’t include security questions about the infrastructure. So should a responding vendor simply fill in the projected monthly cost by year and provide an attachment of a word document or pdf provide insight into the company, solution and cloud security?

State’s Response, No Change: As listed in the Attachments section of the solicitation, a Service Provider Security Assessment Questionnaire (Attachment B) and a link to the State’s End User License Agreement for Commercial Off-The-Shelf-Software (Attachment C) are part of the solicitation. Both must be submitted along with annual pricing information.

State’s Response, Change: Offerors shall upload information on company letterhead or provide professional cut sheets which contains information for SC Housing to clearly determine that the services offered meet the specifications within this Invitation for Bid.

Award shall be made to the lowest priced responsive and responsible offeror for a Commercial Off-The- Shelf Software as a Service outlined in this solicitation. If additional services are available, Offeror shall upload an itemized price list which includes all optional services.

SC Housing reserves the right to add services based on itemized pricing, for this Invitation for Bid, after award.

2. You mentioned how many Users (10) however how many responses via the survey do you need? I.E 2,000, 20,000 etc.?

State’s Response, Change: SC Housing requires accounts for fifteen (15) authorized users as opposed to the originally stated ten (10) accounts. The bidding schedule has been updated to reflect this important change. Offerors shall input the annual cost of services for fifteen (15) authorized users (15 users x 12 months of service).

State’s Response, Change: SC Housing estimates a projected yield from a survey to be as little as 100 to approximately 6,500 responses, depending on the size of the survey published.

3. Who is in charge of reviewing the data that is collected from the surveys?

State’s Response, No Change: Information collected will be reviewed by internal authorized users and their specific program areas.

4. Do you have a survey solution that you use today?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing currently uses Survey Monkey.

5. Is the System is required to export data? For example, does the Survey Solution need to link to any data base solution (like a CRM system) for data collection and / or data aggregation purposes via an Open API or is an export via CSV and XLS (only) acceptable? If an Open API an appropriate link? Moreover, will the winning vendor need to provide programming or development services to link the Survey Solution to the data base (or CRM) system.

State’s Response, Change: SC Housing requires the capability to export data. As such, API, CSV and XLS are all acceptable. If Open API is the only solution provided, depending on the complexity, the vendor may need to provide support for Open API. The cost of support, if required, for Open API shall be submitted as a separate line item, which has been added to the solicitation.

6. Is there greater definition of the various question formats that are required? The solicitation notes 15 formats are required.

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing, at minimum, requires the following formats and all pricing received shall be evaluated on the price only for the following formats. Open-ended response; close-ended; nominal; yes or no; true or false; like scale; multiple choice; ordinal scale; interval scale; ratio scale and rating scale. If other formats are available beyond what is required, offerors shall include an itemized price list for formats which could be added to the basic services requested, and SC Housing reserves the right to add services based on itemized pricing, for this Invitation for Bid.

7. Are there any budgetary restrictions or what budget has been allocated against this procurement?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing estimates a budget of $9000.00, annually.

8. Why is 24X7X365 support required? Are there mission or life critical surveys that need to be supported?

State’s Response, Change: Support for SC Housing shall be 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. M-F, ET.

State’s Response, Change: Help desk support must be available 24x7x365 for respondents who may have issues using the system.

9. Any HIPAA requirements?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing does not maintain nor request protected health information; thus, no HIPPA requirements.

10. Can companies from Outside USA can apply for this? Or, can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA? (like, from India or Canada)

State’s Response, No Change: To clarify according to SC Housing’s specific needs, Section VIIB, INFORMATION SECURITY – LOCATION OF DATA (FEB 2015) & OFFSHORE CONTRACTING PROHIBITED (FEB 2015), no information may be stored, transferred or filtered through offshore, non-continental US accounts, and no part of this contract may be performed outside of the continental United States.

11. Can we submit the proposals via email?

State’s Response, No Change: Emailed proposals will not be considered for award.

12. Does SC Housing have an estimated number of surveys it intends to create each year?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing estimates twenty (20) – forty (40) surveys per year.

13. Can SC Housing provide an estimate of the number of transactions they will be processing each year i.e., how many persons they intend to send surveys to every year?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing estimates it will send approximately 40,000- 50,000 surveys to “persons”, per year.

14. Whether we need to come over there for meetings?

State’s Response, Change: This Invitation for Bid is for a Commercial Off- the- Shelf, Software as a Service, meetings may be conducted online, if requested. It is not anticipated travel will be required.

15. Would SC Housing be interested in having the ability to electronically sign survey submissions or documents generated as a result of the submission as part of the platform offering?

State’s Response, No Change: The ability for a respondent to sign survey submissions is not necessary for SC Housing’s purposes.

16. Does SC Housing wish for the Survey platform to have workflow capabilities?

State’s Response, Change: SC Housing prefers a survey solution to have workflow capabilities. SC Housing prefers survey logic or workflow. However, a survey solution is not required. Offerors shall provide an itemized cost for survey logic or workflow capabilities as part of the written portion of their offer. SC Housing reserves the right to add services based on itemized pricing, for this Invitation for Bid.

17. Can SC Housing provide additional clarification as to the multiple delivery options requirement? How does SC Housing intend to request recipients to fill out a survey? Will they be sending out the survey to multiple recipients simultaneously in a batch method? Or will they be sending the survey individually to users and directing them to a specific URL to complete the survey?

State’s Response, Change: Recipients must be able to fill out the survey using a SaaS online product. Notification will go out to multiple recipients simultaneously but to a single recipient without seeing any other email addresses. Sending to an individual must also be an option. All recipients must be sent a specific URL to complete the survey in any notification process.

18. What options for survey delivery does SC Housing need?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing shall be able to deliver surveys in both mass emailing and or by providing a static link.

19. What end-user data will be collected?

State’s Response, Change: The commercial off the shelf survey solution shall provide SC Housing with the means to create anonymous surveys in which respondent’s information is completely blind to SC Housing, and surveys which will also collect respondent’s information. The service should provide either option

20. Would there be a possibility of requesting attachments along with survey responses?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing does not require a service that allows for attachments along with survey responses.

21. Will there be a need for any Data Migration? If so, what will need to be migrated?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing does not require data migration.

22. What is the estimated amount of storage needed, if any?

State’s Response, Change: Upon completion of each survey data should be deleted or extracted/exported/archived to an internal csv, XLS, pdf or database internally and the results are not going to be retained in the survey system itself for more than a couple of months. Therefore, storage is minimal and considered temporary.

23. In regard to acquisition of a software – Is the state willing to acquire a license to a platform that provides custom solutions and performs all necessary functions?

State’s Response, No Change: SC Housing is not willing to acquire a license to a platform which provides custom solutions. SCHA is specifically contracting for a Commercial Off-The-Shelf Software as a Service.

24. Scope of Work/Specifications, G. multiple delivery options such as (SMS, email, etc.) – Please clarify (a) what is being referred to in “etc.” and (b) if SMS is a requirement.

State’s Response, Change: SC Housing requires delivery options such as print, web portal, email and download and all pricing shall include the minimum required. SMS is not necessary; however, if offered, Offeror shall include itemized cost for SMS capability as part of the written portion of its offer. SC Housing reserves the right to add services based on itemized pricing, for this Invitation for Bid.

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