Attachment A.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 33 KB Posted
- Attached to
- FINANCIAL AID PROCESS & STUDENT INFO SYS State and local contract opportunity
- Solicitation number
- 5400023590
- Issued by
- Richland County, South Carolina
About this file
This is a requirements specification document (Attachment A) for the State of South Carolina's Financial Aid Process & Student Information System procurement. The document outlines comprehensive functional and technical requirements across seven categories: Security & Privacy, Application Processing, Finance, Maintenance, User Interface, Training & Support, and Integration. The state seeks a web-based solution capable of processing Federal Institutional Student Information Records (ISIR), managing student eligibility determinations, tracking grant disbursements, and supporting role-based access for state agency users, school administrators, and students. The system must integrate data from multiple sources including FAFSA records, historical grant information, and applicant data entered by external administrators. Key functional capabilities include automated eligibility calculations, student transfer tracking, document upload and tracking, notification alerts via email and SMS, payment certification and reconciliation, and comprehensive reporting functionality. The solution must accommodate up to twelve years of historical program records and support configuration of college-specific and program-specific eligibility criteria.
The requirements specify critical security and operational standards including role-based authentication, full audit trail logging, encryption of user credentials, and 24/7 technical and security support. All data must remain the property of South Carolina, with contractor responsibility for secure hosting within the continental United States and data return upon contract termination. The system must maintain 99 percent uptime with 100 percent data reliability and support multiple web browsers and mobile device compatibility. Help desk support must respond to high-priority requests within one hour and resolve them within 24 hours. The contractor must provide user manuals, training materials, and self-help resources in multiple formats. Integration capabilities with college student information systems such as Banner, PowerFAIDs, Colleague, and CAMS are desired. The document designates requirements as either Critical (C) or Desired (D) priority levels to guide vendor proposals and system development.
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Other files for this state and local contract opportunity
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| Award Posting Notice 23590.doc | DOC document | |
| Award Extension 23590.doc | DOC document | |
| Amend 1.docx | DOCX document | |
| Solicitation 23590.docx | DOCX document |
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Text version
1.Security & Privacy
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 1.1.1 | Role Definition/Permissions | User authentication must be role-based (admin, primary user, sub-user, manager, etc.) and configurable according to a duties and responsibilities matrix | C | |
| 1.2.1 | Audit Trail/Logging | Ability to provide the agency users with relevant log information. Information must include, but not be limited to, who logged into the system, what was accessed/what changes were made, and the date/time changes were made | C | |
| 1.2.2 | System shall have full audit functionality and capture which change was effectuated by who and when | C | ||
| 1.3.1 | Data Location | All services (webservers, database servers, etc.) must have the ability to be managed by the selected contractor | C | |
| 1.3.2 | Hosting Location: The hosting location (if not in State of South Carolina) shall be in the continental United States of America for the duration of the contract team. Contractor shall disclose hosting location/resources | C | ||
| 1.4.1 | Privacy Standards/Security | System should adher to applicable Privacy Standards (including FERPA, HEA, and NIST Cyber Security Framework) | C | |
| 1.4.2 | System Security: Contractor must provide security of applications, data, and infrastructure and ensure continuity of operations | C | ||
| 1.4.3 | System Security: Contractor must provide 24/7/365 technical and security support | C | ||
| 1.5.1 | Credential | The system must provide a login management system | C | |
| 1.5.1.2 | The system must encrypt user credential information | C | ||
| 1.6.1 | Data Ownership | Any and all data uploaded to and generated within the solution remains the property of the State of South Carolina. If contractor hosted – upon termination of contract, company must be willing to provide all data to the Agency and remove data from contractor’s servers. | C | |
| 1.6.2 | Transference | Source Code: The Agency requires that the source code be available for escrow in the event that Company ceases to exist as a business or forgoes the support or sale of the software acquired | D | |
| *Indicate if customization is required |
2.Application Processing
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 2.1.1 | ISIR/Historical Application Processing | The solution must be able to bring many different sources of data together. The following is an example of applicant data sources (this is not an all-inclusive list): | C | |
| 2.1.1.1 | o FAFSA Data | C | ||
| 2.1.1.2 | o Historical grant recipient information | C | ||
| 2.1.1.3 | o Applicant data entered into system by external roles (college financial aid administrators, commission staff, etc.) | C | ||
| 2.1.2 | The solution must have the ability to convert/import up to twelve years of historical program receipt records for access through lookup and reporting features within the solution | C | ||
| 2.1.3 | System shall retrieve, upload, and post Federal Institutional Student Information Records (ISIR), reconcile and perform batch updates to those records, and make them available for determining eligibility | C | ||
| 2.1.4 | System shall track each ISIR record at the time it is loaded using a unique identification number. System shall link related ISIR records for the same student and enable reporting of all ISIR transactions received from the Federal Processing Center | C | ||
| 2.1.5 | System shall accept, convert, and use data from multiple sources in the determination of student eligibility for financial aid programs and award packaging and disbursement including federal government student aid systems | C | ||
| 2.2.1 | Application Review | System shall separate Applications from General Student Records based on valid ISIR record and eligible school code; Maintain all received Student Records for review | C | |
| 2.2.2 | System shall re-determine student eligibility once information has been updated by school administrators | C | ||
| 2.2.3 | System shall enable school administrators to submit student transfer information to the State | C | ||
| 2.2.4 | System shall accommodate student transfers between schools and enable all relevant State, school, or student users to report information pertaining to the transfer. System shall enable State to configure rules governing eligibility calculation and award disbursements for transfers. System shall automatically recalculate eligibility and awards as students transfer and/or their eligibility information changes | C | ||
| 2.3.1 | Grant Eligibility | System shall display explicitly the reasons why a student may be ineligible for grant | C | |
| 2.3.2 | System shall offer the flexibility for school users to conduct needs analysis based on student profiles according to institutional requirements | D | ||
| 2.3.3 | System shall automatically calculate or recalculate student eligibility for award programs for each ISIR record received. System shall enable Agency to configure reaction rule-sets to automate how and when eligibility and award calculations should change when a student’s data changes | C | ||
| 2.3.4 | System shall track and display to all users explanatory reasons for student ineligibility by award program, including for historical ineligibility statuses. System shall enable State to configure and display to all users deadlines by which ineligibility issues must be resolved | C | ||
| 2.4.1 | Notification Alerts (SMS/Email) | System will have the capability to send e-mail or SMS alerts to students notifying them of award decisions and document submission requirements | D | |
| 2.4.2 | System shall have the capability to send e-mail or SMS alerts to school administrators notifying them of award decisions and document submission requirements | D | ||
| 2.4.3 | System shall provide ability to send notifications, alerts, reminders, and messages to customizable groups of users via system message, email, or text. System shall enable Agency to schedule the deployment of messages to users with user-specific content, such as each student’s eligibility or award amount by award program and school | D | ||
| *Indicate if customization is required |
3.Finance
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 3.1.1 | Fund Sources | System shall allow configurable fund source codes (i.e., State, Lottery, Endowment, etc.) for accurate tracking of expenditures | C | |
| 3.2.1 | Award Disbursements/Student Certification | The system must contain grant disbursement reporting, eligibility auditing, and payment functionality for users in various roles | C | |
| 3.2.2 | The solution must process grant payments and enable users to search/sort payments | C | ||
| 3.2.3 | System shall allow school administrators to perform, on a term basis, certification of eligibility for payment to students who have been awarded | C | ||
| 3.2.4 | System shall enable school administrators to perform online reconciliation of previous payment batches and indicate whether or not actual payments have been paid to students’ accounts on a per term and on an academic year basis | C | ||
| 3.2.5 | System shall provide “save progress” functionality for schools in the certification process | C | ||
| 3.2.6 | System shall enable Agency and School users to indicate student enrollment and eligibility status as part of the certification process. System shall track the statuses of student enrollment by school and award program to facilitate payment, and enable Agency to set deadlines for the certification process | C | ||
| 3.3.1 | Voucher Creation | The solution must allow a user to manually update a roster of grant recipients in the system to report disbursement and other information fields | C | |
| 3.3.2 | System shall assign a batch identification number to each payment cycle that it generates and assign the number to a given payment made to a given student in a given semester | C | ||
| 3.4.1 | Refund Tracking | System shall track the status and amounts of payments and outstanding refunds owed, as well as reconciliation performed on payments by schools. System shall apply any net balance (positive or negative) to the current payment to the school such that no remaining payments or refunds must be made by the school to reconcile with State. System shall enable Agency to withhold future payments to schools based on flexible conditions, such as whether a school has reconciled past payments | C | |
| 3.5.1 | Simulations | The solution must be able to provide a means to project future program costs based on applications received and program eligibility criteria | D | |
| *Indicate if customization is required |
4.Maintenance
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 4.1.1 | College Information Tables | The system must contain configuration tables that enable adjustment of college-specific program eligibility criteria (maximum semester award, maximum annual award, etc.) | C | |
| 4.1.2 | The system must contain configuration tables that enable adjustment of college profile data, such as Cost of Attendance for various categories, maximum grant eligibility, disbursement percentages, etc. | C | ||
| 4.1.3 | System shall enable Agency users to add new and modify existing school accounts and profiles | C | ||
| 4.2.1 | Student Information Tables | The system must contain configuration tables that enable/restrict program and student data that users in various roles can input, update, and view | C | |
| 4.2.2 | System shall accept inbound certification data and simultaneously process data element changes | C | ||
| 4.2.3 | System shall allow certain data fields in the student records to be locked once updated by an Agency user, school user, or student user so as not to allow any further updates to those specific fields in the ISIR load process | C | ||
| 4.2.4 | System shall allow state and school users to annotate the student record without jeopardizing the integrity of the record | D | ||
| 4.3.1 | Program Information Tables | The system must contain configuration tables that enable adjustment of program eligibility criteria (maximum semester award, maximum annual award, filing deadline, etc.) by program | C | |
| 4.3.2 | The solution must be able to integrate new programs within a short timeframe | D | ||
| 4.4.1 | Acadmic Year Set-up | The solution transitions from one year to the next with minimal technical (IT) work required | C | |
| *Indicate if customization is required |
5.User Interface
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 5.1.1 | Document Upload/Tracking | Solution has capability to upload and index documents to student records annually. Not only must the software be able to upload data, but it must provide a means to download data to another computing venue, such as Excel | D | |
| 5.1.2 | System shall have a document tracking dashboard, where requests for specific eligibility documentation can be recorded, along with a status indicator (requested, received-pending review, received-processed, illegible – resubmit, review complete) that auto-generates notification to student of requested documentation/status updates | D | ||
| 5.1;5.4 | System shall provide to students a dynamic checklist to monitor eligibility requirements real-time along with a status flag for eligibility | C | ||
| 5.1.3 | System shall enable school administrators to upload documents required for state grant aid including batch student rosters | C | ||
| 5.2.1 | Agency Portal | System shall provide an Agency user portal which will be available 24/7 and enable Agency users administrators to update relevant student record information | C | |
| 5.2.2 | System shall enable users to search for students and associated data elements based on multiple criteria, which is configurable | C | ||
| 5.3.1 | School User Portal | System shall provide an online student portal which will be available 24/7 and enable students to update information in a self-service manner | D | |
| 5.3.2 | System shall provide an online school administrator portal which will be available 24/7 and enable school administrators to update relevant student record information | C | ||
| 5.3.3 | System shall provide to school administrators a dynamic checklist to monitor eligibility requirements real-time along with a status flag for eligibility by student, by term | D | ||
| 5.4.1 | Student Portal | System shall allow students 24/7 access to review eligibility, historical records of disbursements, provide access to document upload/requirement tracking, and complete transfer requests from one eligible school to another | C | |
| 5.5.1 | System/Web Browser Compatibility | The system must be web-based and support multiple browsers to include Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, etc. | C | |
| 5.5.2 | System will be mobile device compatible | D | ||
| 5.6.1 | Data/Report Exports | System shall have robust reporting capability for school administrators, enable the generation of configurable reports in CSV and PDF format by Student, by term, by eligibility status, and by ineligibility reason where appropriate | C | |
| 5.6.2 | System shall allow users to save and export reports in numerous user-friendly formats, including CSV | C | ||
| 5.6.3 | System must allow the ability for agency and/or school users to create queries using any data-field (interactive reporting tool) | D | ||
| 5.6.4 | System shall provide standard reports accessible as defined by the Agency. Standard reporting shall include award payment disbursements, refunds, with the ability to drill down to student-, institution, transaction-, and date-level for auditable historical and reconcilation purposes, and export report data into commonly accepted formats | C | ||
| *Indicate if customization is required |
6.Training & Support
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 6.1.1 | Portal Access | Solution must support full remote administration of all components | C | |
| 6.2.1 | Response Time | Data exchange shall be maintained at level of 99% uptime and 100% data reliability. Contractor shall provide report identifying system outages and unavailability of web-based application system | C | |
| 6.3.1 | Helpdesk for System Issues | Contractor must provided help-desk support with realistic business hours with the average response time to High priority request shall be within 1 hour; the average response time to normal and low priority requests shall be 4 hours, and all resolution times shall not exceed 24 hours for "high" priority requests; all other issues resolutions shall be resolved within 12-72 hours. | C | |
| 6.4.1 | User Manual | Contractor shall provide self-help materials (including annotated screen shots, descriptions of business processes, hints and tips, and screen level support) - these materials shall be in the form of manuals, videos, other online content or any combination thereof | D | |
| *Indicate if customization is required |
7.Integration
| Number | Area | Preference Description | Priority (Critical or Desired) | Comments* |
| 7.1.1 | College Student Information Systems | System shall enable interoperability with school ERP systems to facilitate and streamline certification (such as, but not limited to Banner, PowerFAIDs, Colleague, CAMS, etc.) | D | |
| *Indicate if customization is required |
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