Amendment Two.pdf

SAP

State of South Carolina

Request for Proposal

Amendment Two

Solicitation:

Date Issued:

Procurement Officer:

Phone:

E-Mail Address:

Mailing Address:

5400028087 05/01/2025

VALERIE SMITH

803.896.5346 smithv@sctechsystem.edu SC Technical College System Attn: Procurement Office 111 Executive Center Drive, Suite 106 Columbia SC 29210

DESCRIPTION: Net Price Calculator

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): 05/14/2025 @ 10:00 AM, EST (See "Deadline For Submission Of Offer" provision)

QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY: 04/28/2025 @ 10:00 AM, EST (See "Questions From Offerors" provision)

NUMBER OF COPIES TO BE SUBMITTED: ONLINE SUBMISSION (See “Online Bidding Instructions” provision)

• If submitting confidential information, include a separate redacted copy with your online submission marked

“REDACTED.” (See “Disclosure of Your Bid / Proposal and Submitting Confidential Data” provision in Section IIA.)

Initial here if no redacted copy is necessary ______

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 06/18/2025. 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 one hundred and twenty (120) 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)

http://www.procurement.sc.gov/

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

PREFERENCES - ADDRESS AND PHONE OF IN-STATE OFFICE PREFERENCES DO NOT APPLY

____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 Number Two

Net Price Calculator

Solicitation # 5400028087

AMENDMENTS TO SOLICITATION (JANUARY 2006) (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.

QUESTIONS FROM OFFERORS - AMENDMENT (JUN 2017) THE 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 AN EXISTING PROVISION OF THE SOLICITATION IN AN ANSWER DOES NOT MODIFY THE

ORIGINAL PROVISION EXCEPT AS FOLLOWS: UNDERLINED TEXT IS ADDED TO THE

ORIGINAL PROVISON. STRICKEN TEXT IS DELETED. [02-2A097-1]

(The sections of the solicitation listed below have been revised and now read as follows)

III. SCOPE OF WORK/SPECIFICATIONS

TRAINING (MODIFIED)

The contractor shall demonstrate equipment within 30 days after delivery. [03-3080-1]

Training on the proposed solution will be provided to all 16 colleges, with additional sessions available as needed to ensure comprehensive support.

VIII. BIDDING SCHEDULE / PRICE-BUSINESS PROPOSAL

BIDDING SCHEDULE (MODIFIED)

Notwithstanding any other instructions herein, you shall submit your price information as a separate tab/section in your RFP response. All pricing information must be in one single section and not throughout your RFP response.

Offeror shall submit as part of their pricing section the summary chart below. This will be placed after the cover/first page of their detailed price proposal.

Offeror’s Price Proposal shall include the following information (at a minimum): Line-item pricing and a break down by line item to completely supply, install, integrate, implement, test, commission, train, support, professional services, and warranty. In addition to the summary chart (attachment 3), the Offeror shall break out and show separately all costs for each item, including the hourly rate for services that may be performed throughout the contract term. All submissions must provide pricing for the total cost of ownership to include all work associated with the RFP. All costs associated with the offer must be listed and then totaled to state the total fixed cost for the entire contract period. The total cost of the proposed services must include all related and required items.

Total cost shall include the initial term of the contract and all renewal years for a total potential contract term of five (5) years.

Your price proposal must be submitted as a separate document from your technical submittal.

Additionally, be sure to include page 1 of the solicitation document in your price proposal submission.

The total cost will be provided for all 16 colleges within the SCTCS as a single, aggregated amount rather than individual costs for each college.

The price proposal shall be attached separately from the technical submittal. All pricing information must be in one single section and not throughout your RFP response.

Costs must be itemized by year and by line item on the Excel spreadsheet provided as a separate attachment to this document. The spreadsheet should provide a detailed breakdown of all applicable expenses necessary for delivering services.

Vendors must include all relevant costs for their specific solution. The following list is not exhaustive, and some items may not apply to your solution. It is provided as an example of the level of detail expected in the breakdown of pricing. Relevant costs would include services/items such as development, deployment, labor, materials, supplies, equipment, user licenses, installation, integration, testing, commissioning, training, professional services, warranty, maintenance, ongoing support, and any other necessary expenses.

For Year 1, costs must cover everything required to establish the system, any one-time costs, along with pro-rated maintenance and support. Pricing for Years 2-5 should reflect ongoing maintenance and support costs and any other necessary expenses.

Travel expenses to and from scheduled meetings with SCTCS will be the responsibility of the Contractor. Travel time on the part of the Contractor is considered part of the cost of doing business. SCTCS will not pay for travel time to include transportation, gas, food, lodging, etc. for any member of the Contractor’s team, including subcontracted vendors.

Disregard the Bid Schedule below and Attachment 3, both have been replaced by the excel workbook, titled

Calculator Cost Sheet in SCEIS for you to complete.

Initial Contract

Period (include one-time implementation costs)

Renewal 1

Renewal 2

Renewal 3

Renewal 4

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

TOTAL COST (Summation of all costs reflected above)

Attachment 3 (Price Proposal) show ALL items/equipment costs associated with this RFP.

Solicitation question(s) – State Board for Technical Comprehensive Education (SBTCE)/SC Technical College System

(SCTCS) responses are detailed below (Questions from offerors are presented in the original format received):

Question 1 - Has SCTCS identified a budget for this work? An accurate estimate will help us build a proposal for services that does not over or under-scope our activities and fits within SCTCS's resources.

Response – 1: Approximately $160,000 per year for all 16 colleges which includes implementation.

Question 2 - What external vendor, if any, has SCTCS or the colleges engaged previously to provide a net price calculator?

Response – 2: Colleges have only utilized the free template released by ED.

Question 3 - Does SCTCS or the colleges envision the selected vendor traveling to complete this work, or can it be done remotely?

Response – 3: Work can be performed remotely.

Question 4 - Is the SC Technical College System and its colleges open to a phased workplan whereby the 16 colleges’ net price calculator projects are segmented into 3-4 waves?

Response – 4: A phased work plan will work.

Question 5 - Does the SCTCS envision individual weblinks deployed on each of the 16 colleges webpages or one housed by SC Tech that allows users to differentiate by school to obtain NPC information?

Response – 5: Each of the 16 colleges will need their own link.

Question 6 - What are the current Institutional Enrollment Management Systems and Student Information

Systems that SCTCS deploys?

Response – 6: TargetX, Banner, Colleague, Anthology Reach.

Question 7 - The solicitation indicates a desire to create real-time APIs to access scholarship databases and financial aid. In our experience, the best practice is to use known institutional scholarship criteria and develop logic to determine typical aid awarded by the financial aid office and provide links to other possible sources of aid. Would this approach satisfy this criterion? If not, is SCTCS’s desire to allow linkage between systems for students to determine additional aid that is then returned to the net price calculator output?

Response – 7: That solution to use known institutional scholarship criteria and develop logic to determine typical aid awarded by the financial aid office and provide links to other possible sources of aid would satisfy the criterion.

Question 8 - The solicitation requires the ability to compare other institutions or previous years’ net prices. Is there a preference for one or the other? If the preference is for other institutions to be compared to SCTCS’s schools, in our experience community colleges often share similar costs at the public flagship, would that satisfy this requirement? Or, would the individual colleges provide a list of competitors that they would like to be compared to on a net cost basis?

Response – 8: There is no preference to one or the other. If colleges are compared to other institutions, there is preference that it be with local and surrounding institutions versus a comparison to other technical colleges. Using public flagship data would be fine.

Question 9 - The RFP states “Compatibility with current institutional software platforms. Access to institutional and state financial aid data as well as federal programs such as Pell Grants” is a requirement.

Is there a need for net price calculator software to integrate directly with your existing institutional platforms (if so, all or which?), or are you referring to access to financial aid data for import into our system?

Response – 9: No, the NPC does not need to integrate directly into student systems. Colleges want the ability to download the data from the NPC; however, colleges want to be able to download data from the NPC to import into their systems. Colleges do at a minimum want to be able to use generic State and Federal funding amounts, as applicable.

Question 10 - Has the South Carolina Technical Colleges System identified a budget capacity to be allocated toward this investment for net price calculators?

Response – 10: Refer to Question/Response #1.

Question 11 - Are all requirements listed in Section III considered mandatory, or is there flexibility to meet core net price calculator requirements/functionality?

Response - 11: Yes. Section IV. Information For Offerors to Submit under Implementation/Work Plan states, “Respond to each requirement outlined in Section III. Scope of Work/Specifications contained in this solicitation, point-by-point….” Basically, Section III allows you to elaborate or explain how you will build your system using information from Section III. It is important to note that Federal Requirements must be followed..

Question 12 - The RFP references “real-time” access, calculations, and integrations. Please clarify what level of real-time functionality is expected (e.g., live API access, daily syncs, batch uploads), and whether specific thresholds or timing requirements for data currency are defined. What are some use cases for needing technical support for real-time updates/calculations?

Response – 12: The real-time calculations refer to an immediate SAI/aid eligibility calculation. However, if the NPC could pull basic data points from the colleges’ recruiting and application management portals, that would be ideal.

Question 13 - Deep integration with SIS and Enrollment Management systems is not typically part of standard net price calculator implementations. To better understand your needs, please share any specific use cases or goals driving this integration request.

Response – 13: Deep integration is not a requirement for the NPC. Colleges at a minimum would like to be able to export data collected in the NPC and then integrate into their own SIS and enrollment management systems. Ideally, the NPC vendor will need to offer real-time updates for tuition, fees, and scholarships to the college. Additional needs include fully customizable pages with the ability to collect prospective student information in an effort to provide recruiting opportunities to the colleges. NPCs should include all estimated federal and in-state aid, scholarships, and other applicable student aid custom to each technical college as well as the colleges’ tuition, fees, and other associated costs. Preferably, the selected vendor will provide data dashboards that highlight NPC usage, as well as provide lead generation information. Other needs as identified by colleges are:

• Residency

• GPA (if applicable)

• Dependency

• College-specific pricing for special funding opportunities

• Academic program with funding options

• Enrollment Calculations (half-time, full-time)

• Scholarship-specific determination

• Veteran status and eligibility

• Question logic

• Direct connection to Federal FAFSA

• User-friendly interface, mobile and desktop versions

• Multi-lingual

• ADA compliant

• Fully customized in look and calculations

• Real time calculations

• Anonymous option with the ability to add personal contact information if desired

• Overview of payment options

• Glossary of terms

Question 14 - What are some use cases for compatibility with current institutional software platforms? What are the platforms?

Response – 14: TargetX and Anthology Reach are examples of platforms used. The use would be to download/import data from the NPC to generate leads.

Question 15 - What are some use cases for college-specific pricing for special funding opportunities?

Response – 15: This is not a required need at the colleges.

Question 16 - What are some use cases for including program/certificate term limits as an input feature?

Response – 16: Certain aid programs are only eligible for 1-2 years based on the level (for example, LIFE

Scholarship and SCWINS).

Question 17 - Please clarify whether you are requesting the cost broken out for each institution or the total aggregated cost for all 16 institutions to purchase the product?

Response – 17: Total aggregated cost for all 16 institutions.

Question 18 - What is the anticipated budget or funding range for this project and the full five-year contract term? Does this budget include implementation?

Response – 18: Refer to Question/Response #1.

Question 19 - Can you confirm that Attachment 1: Demonstration Script does not need to be completed as part of our submission and is only for informational purposes at this time?

Response - 19: The Demonstration Script does not need to be completed as a part of your submission. It is recommended that you complete the Demonstration Script to assist you during your presentation if you are selected to move forward in the solicitation demonstration process.

Question 20 - Has SCTCS identified a budget for this initiative, and if so, is it possible to share? Is there a price above which proposals would not be accepted?

Response – 20: Refer to Question/Response #1.

Question 21 - Are aid policies set at the campus level or at the system level?

Response – 21: Policies are set at the campus level.

Question 22 - In regard to Question 21 in the Scope of Work/Qualifications, are you seeking a vendor who can compare net prices within the system or with institutions outside of the system? What format are you looking for this data to be provided in?

Response - 22: We are seeking a vendor that would compare net prices with institutions outside of the system, specifically any local or surrounding college. Colleges do not want to compare prices to other technical colleges within the state. The format is flexible.

End of Amendment Two