Amendment # 1.pdf

State of South Carolina

AMENDMENT NUMBER ONE

Solicitation:

Date Issued:

Procurement

Officer:

Phone:

E-Mail Address:

Mailing Address:

5400024561

04/6/2023

TERESA LIVINGSTON

18038965310 livingstont@sctechsystem.edu

SC Technical College System

Attn: Procurement Office

111 Executive Center Drive, Suite 106

Columbia SC 29210

DESCRIPTION: Fixed Price Bid for Online Proctoring Services

USING GOVERNMENTAL UNIT: State Board for Tech & Comprehensive Ed

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

SUBMIT OFFER BY (Opening Date/Time): 04/18/2023 10:00 AM, Eastern Standard Time (See "Deadline For

Submission Of Offer" provision)

QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY: 03/21/2023 9:00 AM, Eastern Standard Time (See "Questions From

Offerors" provision)

CONFERENCE TYPE: Not Applicable

DATE & TIME:

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

LOCATION: Not Applicable

AWARD &

AMENDMENTS

Award will be posted on 05/2/2023. The award, this solicitation, any amendments, and any related notices will be posted at the following web address: http://www.procurement.sc.gov

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 sixty (60) 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)

mailto:livingstont@sctechsystem.edu http://www.procurement.sc.gov/ http://www.procurement.sc.gov/ http://www.procurement.sc.gov/

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)

Amendment

No.

Amendment

Issue Date

Amendment

No.

Amendment

Issue Date

Amendment

No.

Amendment

Issue Date

Amendment

No.

Amendment

Issue Date

DISCOUNT FOR

PROMPT PAYMENT

(See "Discount for

Prompt Payment" clause)

10 Calendar Days (%) 20 Calendar Days (%) 30 Calendar Days (%) _____Calendar Days

PREFERENCES - A NOTICE TO VENDORS (SEP. 2009)

Preferences do not apply per 11-35-1524(E)(3)

PREFERENCES - ADDRESS AND PHONE OF IN-STATE OFFICE

Preferences do not apply per 11-35-1524(E)(3)

____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

AMENDMENT # 1

Solicitation # 5400024561–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. [02-2A005-1]

The closing date has been changed to April 18, 2023, there is no change in the opening time.

The award posting date has been changed to May 2, 2023.

Responses to the questions received from the designated date and time are not below:

1. Are we supposed to answer these questions in the PDF and attach the completed PDF for online submission? Or are we supposed to take the deliverables and security assessment questions out of the PDF and answer those in a separate document then attach those documents and submit via the portal online?

Yes, the Service Provider Security Assessment Questionnaire should be completed and uploaded with all potential offers (see page 36 of the FPB).

Yes, potential vendors must provide a response to Section III. B. Deliverable and upload with the offer. Also, the required information as noted in Section IV. Information for Offerors to

Submit must be upload with potential offers (see page 12 of the FPB).

The Appendix A – Fixed Bid Price Rate – Online Proctoring Services is just a detailed summary of the level of services required, which isn’t required to be uploaded with offers.

2. Our offering does not have pop in technology, but we have other approaches to prevent cheating. How should we account for this in the response?

See Appendix A – Fixed Bid Price Rate – Online Proctoring Services for the array of service levels that are acceptable.

The goal is to allow for as many vendors to submit as possible. In the response, please indicate the closest match and what you offer.

3. The pricing matrix includes options for per exam, per student and per FTE. Do we have to offer pricing around all or can we select which options to base our pricing?

Vendors should select the pricing option offered for their services. Multiple options were included to accommodate the variety of pricing models offered by vendors.

4. Can our proctors and support staff be international in their location? Can data temporarily reside offshore while a proctoring session is underway?

See page25 Section VII. Terms and Conditions – B. Special, Offshore Contracting

Prohibiting. No parts of this contract may be performed offshore of the United State by a persons located offshore of the United.

5. Our offering is not an exact match with the matrix in Appendix A. How should we account for this in our response?

The goal is to allow for as many vendors to submit as possible. In the response, please indicate the closest match and what you offer.

6. Do we have to bid on all five levels in the matrix or can we bid on select levels?

Vendors should select the level or levels most applicable to the services offered. Bidding on all five levels is not required unless there are products offered at each level.

7. Do you have any information on the number of proctored exams currently offered through the SC

System?

The volume of proctored exams is unavailable. However enrollment and FTE information is as follows: Annual Enrollment (2021-2022): 100,124; Annual FTE (2021-2022): 51,817; Fall 2022

Enrollment: 77,533; Fall 2022 FTE: 48,078

8. Please explain criteria behind specific price ( Example $1.5 per student based on FTE) for each level in “APPENDIX A - FIXED BID PRICE RATE - ONLINE ROCTORING SERVICES”

The prices listed were determined based on the quoted or contract amounts provided by colleges and those available from other institutions. Market research was conducted in September 2022.

Based on this information, we were instructed to establish maximum prices for each offering level. The prices were selected based on pricing that member institutions were recently quoted or billed for products or services of that type. We assume that pricing that aggregates multiple institutions should be as good or better than what we are each able to get through individual agreements.

9. What is the breakdown of exam volume for each level (Level 1 to 5) for the current and last two years?

The volume of proctored exams is unavailable. However, enrollment and FTE information is as follows: Annual Enrollment (2021-2022): 100,124; Annual FTE (2021-2022): 51,817; Fall 2022

Enrollment: 77,533; Fall 2022 FTE: 48,078

10. If it is not confidential, who is the current provider(s) for online proctoring?

Colleges use multiple vendors for online proctoring. The intent of this FPB is to accommodate multiple vendors to meet the variety of needs for the colleges.

11. Are you looking for a single vendor to provide all proctoring services, Level 1 to 5?

1) The requirements and feature requests for this FPB are specific to Honorlock, even to the smallest of details. Are you expecting/wanting other vendors to respond, and if so, why was the FBP structured this way?

This FPB was designed with different levels to allow as many vendors as possible to submit.

2) Tiers 3 and 4 in the Appendix include branded and proprietary features specific to Honorlock, such as “Pop-in proctoring”. Why was the request structured in a way that excludes licensing models that might be more competitive?

The FPB includes multiple methods of remote proctoring as they are numerous – technology which prevents opening another website, recorded/automated proctoring, proctoring monitored by AI and the pop-in, proctoring with manual review, fully live proctoring. We believe there are other vendors that offer online proctoring where a live proctor can intervene

(or pop-in) to assist a student/verify any concerns. The specifications were determined looking at the technologies available 6-9 months ago, based on the knowledge of products of the collective knowledge of the Distance Education Peer Group, which has likely followed the rapid changes in distance education in the past few months. The pop-in feature is not proprietary. The patented feature of Honorlock is the secondary device detection.

3) What involvement did Honorlock have in the writing of this FPB?

There was no involvement from Honorlock in the writing of the specifications of the FPB.

12. Identify and explain how institutions interact with remote proctoring sessions (i.e. is there "

Colleges use remote proctoring to ensure students in online or hybrid courses can complete exams away from campus. Remote proctoring allows the colleges to ensure integrity is being maintained for the assessment portions of the course.

13. As a global services provider we do subcontract offshore labor as part of our business model which allows us to scale for demand and reduce service costs to clients. We do utilize Amazon

Web Services data centers and all data is processed and stored locally in the US. We are requesting clarification on whether or not we would be ineligible to bid based on this guideline.

We do have several higher education clients in the state of South Carolina, including the

University of South Carolina where we have not been limited by this guideline.

Same response as question 4. See page 25 Section VII. Terms and Conditions – B. Special, Offshore Contracting Prohibiting. No parts of this contract may be performed offshore of the

United State by a persons located offshore of the United.

END OF THE AMENDMENT

ALL OTHER TERMS, CONDITIONS, BIDDING INSTRUCTIONS, AND SPECIFICATIONS

REMAIN UNCHANGED. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS OR IF ANY CONFUSION OR

UNCERTAINTY ARISES AS A RESULT OF THIS AMENDMENT, IT IS THE SOLE

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OFFEROR TO CONTACT THE PROCUREMENT OFFICER FOR

CLARIFICATION. CONTACT INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND IN THE TOP RIGHT

HAND CORNER OF THE COVER PAGE OF THIS AMENDMENT. REFERENCE THE

“DUTY TO INQUIRE” CLAUSE IN THE ORIGINAL REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL.