Bidder Questions and Answers - 2.26.19.docx

Questions and Answers February 26, 2019

Office of the Treasurer and Receiver General

Address: One Ashburton Place, 12th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02108

Telephone #: (617) 367-3900, ext. 307

Internet Address: https://www.commbuys.com

RFR File Name/Title: 19-TRE-Financial Literacy Curriculum RFQ

RFR Contact Person: Jameel Moore – procurements@tre.state.ma.us

1. With regard to your timeline, can you please tell us when you plan on making a decision on the chosen vendor?

As the purpose of this RFQ is to establish a list of pre-qualified organizations and individuals, the Treasury provides no assurance that any organization or individual chosen to be part of a pre-qualified list will ultimately be retained to provide any materials, products or services. The Treasury intends to select pre-qualified Respondents for a three (3) year pre-qualification list for the services solicited in this RFQ. The Treasury may, at its option, extend the pre-qualified list for an additional one (1) year, under the same terms and conditions.

In accordance with the RFQ calendar, Responses are due March 7, 2019. Thereafter the Procurement Management Team will evaluate responses. The timeline and notification to Respondents will vary based on the number of responses we receive.

2. Would you like for us to break up the pricing for the different populations (i.e. Operations Money Wise, Women’s Empowerment Series, etc.) or would you like for the pricing to be all inclusive?

Please break up your pricing. Also, please note that Respondents are encouraged to submit billing structures other than the one proposed in the cost response template, including but not limited to fixed rates for certain products, materials, or services.

3. Please provide a ball park number with regard to total population and then a break down for each population. Can you also tell us who will have access to this curriculum within those populations?

The statewide college savings account program will be available to approximately 70,000 families annually, based on the current birth rate. In 2018 approximately 1,300 people were served by Operation Money Wise and we anticipate a similar number to be served in 2019.

4. For seniors, are you seeking out an online platform or are you specifically looking for someone to do the workshops? How many workshops are you expecting to have per year? Also, where would these workshops be held?

OEE is seeking both an online platform and potentially workshops for the senior program. Depending on the workshop topics, we may be seeking workshop presenters. Workshops are typically held in senior centers and councils on aging. In addition to workshops currently being held, we may hold another 10-15 depending on the topics being covered.

5. For the Operation Money Wise population, are you looking to offer online tools, courses, and content to them via smartphone, tablet, and/or computer?

Yes, OEE is looking to offer online tools, courses and content to Operation Money Wise participants via smartphone, tablet and/or computer in addition to offline tools, courses and content.

6. Seeing that this is an RFQ, do you plan on sending out an RFP to those vendors that are qualified based on the responses we send in on the 7th? Or is our response to this RFQ the final response given?

It is the goal of OEE to compile a finalized list of pre-qualified vendors based on responses to this RFQ. There will not be a follow-up RFP. Once Respondents are pre-qualified pursuant to this RFQ, the Treasury may, but is not required to, solicit price quotes from all or some of the pre-qualified Respondents when it seeks to retain specific financial literacy curriculum materials and/or services from that vendor. In any such future Request for Quote process, the Treasury will select the response(s) that demonstrates the “Best Value” overall, including proposed alternatives that will achieve the procurement goals of the Treasury.

7. How do you define “engage families through online and digital platforms?” Are you specifying online learning only or is online delivery of curriculum acceptable too?

To “engage families through online and digital platforms” we are seeking both online learning and digital delivery of curriculum proposals.

8. The new CSA program aims to increase the percent of children saving for higher education through financial education for families. Can family education include K-12 education?

No. However, family education can, for example, include education for parents or caregivers who enroll their child(ren) in the new CSA program.

9. How targeted should our proposal be on the 529 plan? Put another way, how broad a range of services is OEE looking to add to its pre-qualified list?

For college savings accounts, we are seeking both curriculums that can target specific populations and broader curriculums on general college savings that can be used statewide.

10. If we plan to partner with other organizations in providing services, to what extent would OEE prefer to see that collaboration detailed in our response?

Any collaboration must be detailed. In accordance with Commonwealth Terms and Conditions, any subcontract entered into by the Respondent for the purposes of fulfilling the obligations under a contract with OEE must be in writing, authorized in advance by OEE and shall be consistent with and subject to the provisions of the Commonwealth Terms and Conditions.

11. Which programs, besides College Savings Accounts (CSA) and Women’s Economic Empowerment Series (WEES), require a digital platform and electronically accessible financial literacy products and services? Operation Money Wise (OMW)? Seniors?

No programs require a digital platform, rather OEE is interested in and open to product and service offerings as we develop all of our programs, including digital platforms and electronically accessible products/services.

12. Does OEE want the digital platform to be open or closed? By “open” we mean there is no gatekeeper controlling access, and anyone finding the platform on the web can freely access the materials. By “closed” we mean that a user wishing to access the materials can register for access by providing limited personal information (such as name and e-mail address).

OEE has the need for both.

13. Which programs besides CSA require broader (additional) personal finance topics? WEES? OMW? Seniors?

OEE seeks to offer participants in each of the current programs a broad range of personal finance information and education.

14. Which programs would benefit from K-12 financial literacy programming? CSA? WEES?

OEE is not seeking K-12 financial literacy programming.

15. Would OEE consider funding face-to-face, as well as digital delivery, for the financial literacy components of its programs (WEES, OMW, and Seniors apparently appear to already include face-to-face delivery of some components)? If so, for which programs? CSA? WEES? OMW? Seniors?

OEE is not seeking presenters or “face to face” delivery for WEES, Operation Money Wise, and college savings accounts. We are open to face to face delivery for senior workshops. We are open to digital delivery for all programs.

16. Can a single RFQ submission include a unified coordinated response from separate providers or should the coordinated providers create a single entity for application purposes?

Please see answer to Question 10 above. The purpose of this Request for Qualifications (“RFQ”) is to allow the Treasury to obtain information and establish a pre-qualified list of organizations and/or individuals to provide, on an as needed basis: financial literacy curriculum, related products, services and/or materials to supplement one or all of the above-described financial literacy programs. An organization or individual responding to this RFQ may respond with respect to one or all of the above-listed programs offered by OEE and may ultimately be selected to provide materials, products and/or services for one or more such programs. It is the intent of the Treasury that this RFQ result in a list of pre-qualified organizations and individuals qualified to provide financial literacy curriculum and/or services on an as needed or project-specific basis. The Treasury reserves the right to negotiate with any and all qualified organizations and individuals.

17. Does the Commonwealth prefer to identify vendors offering targeted products (e.g., serving specific audiences and/or topics) or does it prefer more comprehensive offerings serving broad population profiles with broad topic offerings? In other words, how is the tradeoff viewed between specialization and general applicability?

We are seeking both broad topics offerings that can be used by residents statewide and those with offering products for target populations.

18. When do you anticipate issuing the next RFQ?

Please see Answer to Question 6 above.

19. What goals and metrics will you use to measure success from the financial programs implemented?

All OEE programs has its own unique metrics to measure success. Typical measurers include number of participants, knowledge gained, and confidence gained.

20. What are your rollout plans/expectations over the first few years?

The goal is to expand the services currently being offered through this process and serve more residents of the Commonwealth. OEE current hosts two websites, MyFinancialLifeMA.org and EqualPayMA.com that are able to help support the financial literacy rollout. If necessary grants funding may be sought to support to the expansion of the financial literacy programs.

21. Do you have any technology plans to support financial literacy rollout?

Please see Answer to Question 20.

22. How do you expect to budget for the financial literacy programs?

Please see Answer to Question 20.

23. Yesterday you told me that this RFP has no media requirements. The confusion comes because though we are a Media company, what we are suggesting is not media. Rather non-media assets we have that can engage stakeholders in schools and hospitals to disseminate information to parents and kids in Massachusetts regarding the programs.. Can you please confirm if these assets would be considered Media? If so, then should we assume there would be no reason to submit. If not considered Media, then I think it would be valuable for your committee to see our recommendations.

We are not seeking product information dissemination with this RFQ.

24. How often do you want to engage the community with information/materials- Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?

We will engage the community with information at various times. Engagement schedules are dependent on the program structure and needs.

25. In the document named “RFQ Financial Literacy - Final,” section IV(B)(2) "Acquisition Method” indicates that “Outright Purchase” and “Fee for Service” are the methods that apply for this RFQ. Given that our program is offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), what acquisition method would be applied in this case?

The acquisition method for this RFQ will be either outright purchase or fee for service depending on the product or service being offered. If you are offering SaaS, we suggest that your cost proposal include all relevant costs such as software licenses, services, hosting, etc. Respondents are encouraged to submit billing structures other than those provided in the sample Cost Response template, including but not limited to fixed rates for certain products, materials, or services.

26. In the event that we should be called upon to make an oral presentation or come in for interviews as provided for in section III(C)(2) of the same document, are there any limitations on who may be sent to represent the Respondent? More specifically, must the oral presenter or interviewee be the Respondent’s Primary Contact as indicated in the "Financial Literacy Curriculum – Response Template - Final” document? Ordinarily, as General Manager, I would be the Respondent’s Primary Contact, and our CEO would make oral presentations or come in for interviews. Is this acceptable?

Yes, that would be acceptable. There is no limitation on who the Respondent designates to represent them in interviews or presentations.