Amendment Two Q and A.pdf

State of South Carolina Solicitation:

Date Issued:

5400026512 02/28/2024

Procurement Officer: Daniel W. Covey

Amendment One Phone:

E-Mail Address:

(803) 898 - 8176 Daniel.covey@dss.sc.gov

Mailing Address: SC Department of Social Services Attn: Procurement Office - Room 421/3 PO Box 1520 Columbia SC 29202

DESCRIPTION: SaaS Foster Parent Licensure Solution

USING GOVERNMENTAL UNIT: SOCIAL SERVICES DEPT

SUBMIT OFFER BY (Opening Date/Time) 3/1/2024 - 2:00 PM 3/11/2024 – 2:00 PM (See "Deadline for Submission Of Offer" provision)

QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY: 2/12/2024 - 5:00 PM (See "Questions from Offerors" provision)

NUMBER OF COPIES TO BE SUBMITTED: One (1) on-line submission and One (1) Redacted Copy submitted online, (See “Submitting Redacted Offers” provision Section IV & “Submitting Confidential Information” Section II.A.)

Initial here if NO redacted copy is necessary

CONFERENCE TYPE: NONE MANDATORY

DATE & TIME: 02/09/2024 at 11:00 ET

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

LOCATION: Microsoft Teams Meeting.

To joint on the web: Join on the web Enter Meeting ID: 238 478 576 538 Passcode: vYwxSv

AWARD &

AMENDMENTS

Award will be posted on 4/15/2024. 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 ninety (90) 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)

SUBMIT YOUR OFFER ON-LINE AT THE FOLLOWING URL: http://www.procurement.sc.gov mailto:Daniel.covey@dss.sc.gov http://www.procurement.sc.gov/ 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): 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 Procurement Services (sc.gov). PREFERENCES DO NOT APPLY TO REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS PER SOUTH CAROLINA PROCUREMENT CODE SECTION [§11-35-1524(E)(5)(b)]

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)). )).PREFERENCES DO NOT APPLY TO REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS PER SOUTH CAROLINA PROCUREMENT CODE SECTION [§11-35-1524(E)(5)(b)]

N/A In-State Office Address same as Home Office Address N/A In-State Office Address same as Notice Address (check only one)

PAGE TWO (SEP 2009) End of PAGE TWO

AMENDMENTS TO SOLICITATION (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: https://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.

A. CHANGES TO REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

1. The Submit Offer By (Opening Date/Time) from 3/1/2024 – 2:00 PM to 3/11/2024- 2:00 PM ET, respectively.

2. VI. AWARD CRITERIA, EVALUATION FACTORS -- PROPOSALS (JAN 2006),

Evaluation Criteria (Phase I) is amended as shown.

Criteria Maximum Points

Technical Proposal The completeness and suitability of the Offeror’s proposal, as well as Offeror understands of scope of work and ability to meet or exceed all the technical and functional specifications for the RFP

45 50

Qualifications, Experience The Offeror's experience and references must provide evidence of its depth and breadth of experience, and evidence of successful past performance with projects of this comparable size and scope.

35 40

Price Proposal The total itemization of all costs to include, but not limited to, implementation, training, maintenance, and support.

B. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. 3.6.3.e) The Web Portal shall meet the following requirements: Must be compliant with relevant security and data protection regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, PUB-75, or Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) as required. – Can DSS confirm if these regulations like PUB-75 and CJIS are mandatory, or they are good to have?

State's Response These requirements are mandatory given the sensitivity of the data accessible via the portal.

2. Please clarify if the agency has a preferred public cloud vendor for hosting the solution?State's Response The state has two vendors on its Cloud Brokerage contract: AWS and Azure.

3. Can you provide a list of the standard reports that need to be created on a regular basis?

State's Response https://procurement.sc.gov/

This information is not available; however, information about required reporting capabilities of the system is in sub-section 3.3 Specific functions of the software of the RFP.

4. Do you prefer we use your existing advanced reporting/analytics software, and if so, can you please provide the software name? Or do you prefer that the vendor bring their own embedded within the solution?

State's Response The state has multiple reporting and analytics options; however, the state expects the vendor to bring their own embedded solution, if available.

5. Would the State consider allowing offshore resources to do work on the project if they only have access to development and testing environments with no access to production systems or production State data? (Only US-based staff will perform migrations of applications from test into production environments and will be responsible for any data migration of State data.)?

State's Response The state is not opposed to offshore development; however, all data access, and remote access to our network or interface must be contained within the continental US. In addition, all controls limiting access must be validated.

6. In addition to our development team in the US, we have a fully managed/owned offshore office in Ankara, Turkey where all employees are CJIS certified. The development office in Ankara works as an extension of our US operation. We do have other state contracts and it hasn't become an issue in our other contracts if all data and hosting/computing remains in the US.

State's Response To be considered, a full listing of employees, certifications, tenure, vetting process, and CV’s, must be furnished and reviewed. Additional controls, like item 5 above, must be considered and enforced.

7. The RFP Document mentions in 3.4.1 - (k), that all 8,000 users will have access to live chat, including foster parents, and prospective foster parents. Is the live chat function for technical support only, or is it going to provide customer support on the general processes and procedures? In addition, will the chat function only interface with our personnel or is it the intention of the DSS office to be part of the online support effort?

State's Response Live chat function must provide customer support on the general processes and procedures. It must include DSS staff, foster parents, and prospective foster parents as part of the online support effort.

8. Page 16 of the RFP reflects a pre-proposal conference on 6/3/2021. Will the state be (re)scheduling a pre-proposal conference for this solicitation?

State's Response No, the state will not reschedule the pre-proposal conference. The date of the pre-bid conference on page 16 was in error; however, all the information on page one of solicitation 5400026512 regarding the pre-bid conference is correct (the date, time, meeting ID, and passcode.)

9. Given the complexity of the RFP, extensive requirements, desire for answers from vendor questions that impact proposals within a timeframe reasonable, etc. can the proposal due date by at least 2-4 weeks?

State's Response See page one of Amendment Two.

10. Section 4.2 requests qualification and experience information from offerors. Please elaborate what qualifies as “services substantially similar”. If an offeror has significant experience implementing licensing systems for state government regulatory agencies, yet not specifically supporting Foster Parent, Kinship Foster Parent, Group Home Licensing, nor placement, would that offeror not be considered?

State's Response Please refer to QUALIFICATIONS - SPECIAL STANDARDS OF RESPONSIBILITY (MAR 2015) on page 27 of the RFP, parts (a) and (b).

11. Is DSS open to a phased implementation approach? If a phased implementation approach is acceptable, what is the desired order for which DSS Programs / Areas / functionalities are to be implemented? Please elaborate upon any timing considerations for when specific programs / areas / functions will need to be fully transitioned to the new solution.

State's Response Yes, the state is open to a phased implementation approach; the required order is the licensing part of the system followed by placement. Both must be fully operational by the go live date.

12. What legacy systems is DSS migrating from, and can DSS describe their database administrators' ability to particulate in the data migration?State's Response:

This RFP is for a new system, not a replacement. DSS does not have a legacy system.

13. What costs has DSS incurred for the initial setup, ongoing maintenance, hosting, software licensing, support, and enhancements (i.e., “change orders”) over the lifetime of the current systems to be replaced by the new solution?

State's Response See answer to question 12.

14. What presentations, software demonstrations, and/or estimates / quotes have DSS programs received related to the SaaS Solution project, and from whom?

State's Response SCDSS is aware of Binti’s solution because some foster care agencies in South Carolina already use the system and has received a software demonstration from the company.

15. Is the previously selected vendor from SDSS’s 2023 RFP precluded from responding to this RFP?

State's Response No, the previously selected vendor from SDSS’s 2023 RFP is not precluded from responding to this RFP.

16. What background can SDSS give as to the reason for the protest and cancellation of the 2023 award?

State's Response The Chief Procurement Officer’s opinion that includes the background the reason for cancellation is located at the following URL. The protest was withdrawn.

CPO Written Determination File No.: 2024-211

17. Is DSS desiring to have the option for staff to be trained on application administration to make changes, updates, and add new capabilities to the system after go-live? Or is DSS anticipating the vendor to perform future updates and changes (such as addition of new license types, form configuration, business rule changes, etc.) to the system?

State's Response The vendor must provide all training (on-line, virtual, and pre-recorded training is acceptable) customer service, technical support, maintenance and operations, and regular updates as available. The vendor is expected to perform future updates and changes to the system.

https://procurement.sc.gov/files/cpo/File%202024-211%20Determination%20DSS%20Reg%202085C%20Request.pdf

18. Will the selected vendor have the opportunity to provide exceptions and/or alternative contract language during contract negotiations, or will offerors need to provide those within their respective proposals?

State's Response While the state is likely to engage in negotiations during this procurement process, it cannot guarantee that negotiations will take place. Pursuant to the DISCUSSIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS – OPTIONS clause on page 29 of the RFP document, “Your proposal may be evaluated, and your offer accepted without any discussions, negotiations….”

19. Page 27, “Service Provider Assessment Questionnaire – Required (FEB 2015) If you have a properly qualified third-party report or certification, you believe we should accept in lieu of those identified in item (5), submit a question identifying same pursuant to the clause titled Questions from Offerors.”

QUESTION: Can we submit a copy of our SOC 2 Type 2 Audit performed by our third-party auditing firm in lieu of those items listed on Attachment C?

State's Response Yes, SOC 2 Type 2 is acceptable; however, the state would prefer offers to complete the Service Provider Security Assessment Questionnaire in full including details of all third-party accreditations and the scope of those assessments (e.g., HITRUST, NIST, ISO 27001, PUB 1075.) Regardless, SCDSS cannot contract with any offeror until they have verified offeror’ proof of accreditation and compliance.

20. Page 56, Attachment Service Provider Security Assessment Questionnaire, Item E.

List any reports or certifications that you have from properly accredited third parties that demonstrate that adequate security controls and assurance requirements are in place to adequately provide for the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information systems used to process, store, transmit, and access all government information. (For example, an ISO/IEC 27001 compliance certificate, an AICPA SOC 2 (Type 2) report, or perhaps an AICPA SOC 3 report (i.e., a SysTrust or WebTrust seal)).

For each certification, describe the scope of the assessment performed. Will these reports / certifications remain in place for the duration of the contract? Will you provide the state with most recent and future versions of the applicable compliance certificate / audit report?

QUESTION: Similar to other States and local governments deploying Child Welfare systems, is the State of South Carolina requiring proof of SOC2 compliance at bid submission or the contract start date for security purposes?

State's Response The State prefers to receive proof of SOC2 compliance and all other third-party accreditations and the scope of those assessments (e.g., HITRUST, NIST, ISO 27001, even PUB 1075) with offerors’ proposal submission. Regardless, SCDSS cannot contract with any offeror until they have verified offeror’ proof of accreditation and compliance.

21. Is SOC2 TYPE 2 compliance a mandatory criterion within the scope of this RFP?

State's Response Yes, SOC2 TYPE 2 compliance is mandatory.

22. Would there be interest in exploring pattern analysis/data analysis techniques to improve insights and decision-making processes within foster care home management?

State's Response This is not a requirement but if the capacity exists, vendor may describe its capabilities along with price as an appendix to your offer. This information will not be used for evaluation purposes.

23. Could details on the workflow for the fire inspection process within the Licensing Flow be provided?

State's Response The RFP does not the fire inspection process to be work flowed through the solution.

24. Can the current CAPPS portal support integration via RESTful services with the new system outlined in the RFP?

State's Response Yes, the current CAPSS portal can support integration via RESTful services with the new system outlined in the RFP.

25. What is the current data retention policy?

State's Response Child Welfare records are currently not purged from the CAPSS Database at this time, although the agency is working on refining our archival and retention policy. For this RFP, SCDSS requires archival and retention of record for the duration of the contract.

26. Is there a state-managed document management system implemented that should be taken into consideration?

State's Response The state has OnBase a document management system and a file server used to store files uploaded to its child welfare information system. The vendor’s solution must have a document upload capability and connect to the state’s database or file storage.

27. Can calendar access for users be extended to allow scheduling of calendar events based on appointments scheduled within the system? If so, could details regarding the extent of this access be provided?

State's Response Yes, the state use Microsoft 365 for email and calendaring, O-365 Accounts are only issued for DSS Employees and authorized contractors. The state will need to evaluate, from the security standpoint, to open the ability for the proposed system/solution to allow appointments to be scheduled on DSS Users calendars.

28. For the requirement, "At a minimum, the application must be configured in English and Spanish" does the system need to display items like instructions, labels, etc. in multiple languages or does it also need to allow users to complete things like licensing applications in both languages?

State's Response The solution must have English and Spanish instructions and allow users to complete all documents in either language.

29. For the requirement to have live chat available, is it acceptable to have live chat available through an AI assistant or does live chat need to also include live chat with vendor support staff?State's Response Live chat must include vendor support - not AI assistant.

30. For the requirement "Must be compliant with relevant security and data protection regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, PUB-75, or Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) as required." - which of these will be relevant and required for the new solution? For example, there doesn't appear to be a requirement for processing credit card transactions and so PCI-DSS may not apply.

State's Response HIPAA and IRS Pub 1075 relevant and required for the new solution.

31. The document refers to e-signature capabilities in section 3.4 - 3.4.1 - (f). Does the state have a preferred e-signature vendor and are the e-signature costs expected to be covered in the proposal or will they be billed separately?

State's Response Adobe Sign is our preferred e-signature vendor. The State expects costs to be covered in the proposal.

END OF AMENDMENT TWO