Attachment A TO0001 SOW.docx

ATTACHMENT A

SOLICITATION # ED-FSA-10-R-0055

Task Order 0001 FAFSA On the Web On-line Survey Statement of Work

1. BACKGROUND

Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the Department of Education, plays a central and essential role in America’s postsecondary education community.

FSA’s core mission is be the most trusted and reliable source of student financial aid, information and services to the nation. The programs FSA administers comprise the nation’s largest source of student aid. In fiscal year 2009 alone, FSA provided approximately $109 billion in new student aid to nearly 12.8 million postsecondary students and their families. FSA’s staff of 1,000 is based in 10 cities, in addition to its Washington, D.C. headquarters.

2. SCOPE

FSA needs detailed customer service studies to assess satisfaction with its key aid delivery products and services. FSA is a performance-based organization and as specified in its enabling legislation, is mandated to not only improve service, but to develop the necessary metrics to demonstrate and report its progress and performance to Congress, customers, taxpayers and other critical stakeholders. In addition, to leverage budgetary resources, FSA needs to understand and quantify the effect potential improvements may have on downstream satisfaction and other customer outcomes.

FSA established its current customer satisfaction metric in FY2003 and has conducted annual measurements from that point onward. The results have been reported in the Department of Education’s Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) report as well as the PBO Annual Report. The FY2011 measurement will continue the prior metric and as such, must be based upon a methodology that is comparable or convertible with the baseline metrics developed earlier.

The analytical methodology used to evaluate the survey results is consistent with that used in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI (www.theACSI.org), established in 1994 is a uniform, cross-industry measure of satisfaction with goods and services available to U.S. consumers, including both the private and public sectors. It is provided by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan Business School under the direction of Claes Fornell.

3. REQUIREMENTS

The government expects the contractor to provide valid and reliable analysis of the survey results obtained from FSA’s customers.

The contractor shall meet the following requirements:

a. Provide an electronic surveying capability administered directly to applicants after completing the web-based Free Application for Federal Student Aid or better known as FAFSA on the Web (FOTW).

b. Data collection for this activity is continuous and is provided to a sample of FOTW respondents directly after completing the FOTW. The sampled respondent is invited to participate in an online electronic survey. If he/she accepts, they are directed to an electronic survey instrument, which is developed and maintained by the contractor. The server housing the survey and collected data will be resident at the contractor’s facilities.

c. About 2% of all FOTW filers are sampled; however, the sample draw can be variable as the application cycle is extremely dynamic with a high proportion of applications processed during the January-March timeframe. FOTW data are provided in an attachment by month to help with sample determination and changing requirements as the annual cycle progresses. FSA will need the contractor to manage this process and recommend necessary adjustments to FSA and its FOTW contractor, to ensure its own internal capacity constraints are not exceeded.

d. Non-privacy act protected demographics are passed electronically from the aid application contractor to the customer satisfaction survey contractor for each respondent so that redundant data collection is minimized.

e. The FOTW application cycle begins every January 1 and lasts for 18 months. The contractor will be required to make data available for the prior cycle, as well as the current cycle i.e., 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The incumbent contractor shall provide historical survey data so that the prior cycle can be loaded into the reporting portal.

f. A web-based reporting portal that provides FSA the ability to analyze data is required so that FSA can perform customized analysis. The portal will allow FSA to look at application cycle trends for data elements collected, disaggregate data by key demographics, provide verbatim comments, and sort application by date, and so forth. It will also present standard report views by week of the survey. The reporting portal will be developed and maintained by the contractor. The server housing the survey and collected data will be resident at the contractor’s facilities. Data provided on the portal will be accurate and error-free (see Appendix A for example of reporting portal layout).

g. English and Spanish Versions of the Questionnaire must be available to respondents. The appropriate version will be offered based upon information sent from the aid application contractor that indicates language type.

h. Current data transfer technology and content requirements are attached (Appendix B). High level requirements for the Reporting Portal are also attached (Appendix A). Content requirements are reviewed annually and are subject to change based upon the business need.

i. Utilize an improvement model that can predict with accuracy the necessary measures FSA must undertake to improve its Customer Satisfaction Score in the areas surveyed. From the model predict the extent to which FSA’s Customer Satisfaction Score may improve

j. Use proven survey and analysis methodologies to deliver valid and reliable results based upon widely accepted statistical principals.

k. For benchmarking purposes, provide satisfaction scores for the U.S. general economy and public and private entities that operate within the financial services industry. Scores will be available in a national index that is widely used by marketing research professionals and economist and is available to all, including the general public. The address of the offeror’s website providing this information must be provided.

4. DELIVERABLES

FOTW Activities Phase

Deliverables

Within 5 business days after award.

6. CONSTRAINTS

a. The contractor shall receive and read data in multiple formats.

b. FOTW’s Online Survey Application shall go live on January 1, 2011. The contractor shall work closely with the FOTW contractor (Vangent) in a collaborative manner, in order to meet the tight turn-around time to implement the FOTW on-line survey (See Appendix C, Draft Project Schedule for the anticipated due dates).