ESBD_489546_1770938986952_SOL_PST_RFP_25R0017163_.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS

SOLICITATION NO.

405-25R0017163

TYPE OF SOLICITATION

NEGOTIATED - REQUEST FOR

PROPOSAL (RFP)

DATE ISSUED

02/12/2026

FINGERPRINT APPLICANT SERVICES OF TEXAS (FAST)

Vendor must submit electronic responses no later than 5:00 P.M. Central Time on 03/11/2026 to the following address or via the DPS Online Bid Room.

DPS_Solicit_Response@dps.texas.gov Attention: 405-25R0017163

DPS is not currently accepting any in-person solicitation responses. DPS will only accept electronic responses received by the date and time indicated in this document.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

Dawn Kunkel, CTCM, CTCD

Contract Administrator

PHONE: (512) 424-2673

EMAIL: dawn.kunkel@dps.texas.gov

RESPONSE (Respondent must fully complete)

DISCOUNT FOR PROMPT PAYMENT: 10 DAYS

20 DAYS

30 DAYS

___ DAYS

NAME AND ADDRESS

OF RESPONDENT:

RESPONSE DATE

EMAIL AND TELEPHONE NO. (Include area code)

SIGNATURE OF AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE*

NAME AND TITLE OF AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE

CERTIFICATION, DISQUALIFICATION, AND REMEDIES

By signing this document, Vendor represents and warrants that all statements, certifications, and information submitted in response to this solicitation are true, current, complete, and accurate.

DPS may pursue and enforce any available remedies against Vendor for making false statements, including disqualifying the Vendor’s response, immediately cancelling any Contract awarded to Vendor, or recommending State of Texas debarment.

*FAILURE TO SIGN WILL DEEM THE RESPONSE NON-RESPONSIVE.

TERM, PRICING, AND FUNDING

The initial contract term commences on the effective date stated in the signing document or purchase order and expires 5 years from that effective date.

If necessary, at the end of the contract term, DPS reserves the right to extend continued performance of the Contract at rates specified within, by written notification to Contractor for no more than a six-month period, for the purpose of re-advertising, awarding a new Contract, or transitioning into a new Contract.

DPS will not allow changes after Date of Award to terms or pricing during Contract term. The continuation of the Contract for any period is subject to the availability of DPS’s funding source for the Contract.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION A—DEFINITIONS

SECTION B—SERVICES AND PRICES

B.1 PRICING REQUIREMENTS

B.2 INVOICE REQUIREMENTS

B.3 PAYMENTS

B.4 MANDATORY PRICING SCHEDULE

SECTION C - STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 INTRODUCTION

C.2 SCOPE

C.3 MINIMUM CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS

C.4 PROJECT SCHEDULE AND PLAN

C.5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

C.6 EXAMPLE REPORTS

C.7 PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

C.7.1 Implementation Requirements C.7.2 Deliverable Requirements

C.8 FINAL ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

C.9 MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT

C.10 POTENTIAL FUTURE MODIFICATIONS

C.11 TRANSITION

C.12 DPS PERSONNEL

C.13 LIQUIDATED DAMAGES

C.14 VETERAN HEROES UNITED IN BUSINESS (VETHUB)

C.15 INSURANCE REQUIRED UNDER THE CONTRACT

C.16 CRIMINAL HISTORY BACKGROUND CHECK

C.17 GENERAL CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIREMENTS

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C.18 PERSONAL INFORMATION

C.19 CYBER SECURITY CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

C.20 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS AND REQUIREMENTS

SECTION D—INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES TO RESPONDENTS ... 48

D.1 RESPONSE PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

D.2 SOLICITATION ADDENDA

D.3 LATE SUBMISSIONS, CHANGES, AND WITHDRAWALS OF RESPONSES

D.4 RESPONSE ACCEPTANCE PERIOD

D.5 CONTRACT AWARD

D.6 DPS’s RIGHTS

D.7 RESPONSE SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

D.8 PRESENTATIONS

D.9 DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

D.10 SUBMISSIONS SUBJECT TO THE TEXAS PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT

D.11 AGENCY POSTING OF CONTRACTS

D.12 ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

SECTION E—EVALUATION CRITERIA

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SECTION A—DEFINITIONS

The following terms and acronyms used in the Contract have the meanings given in this section unless the context indicates otherwise.

“Business Day” means Monday through Friday except for federal, state, and legal holidays observed by the State of Texas.

“Business Hours” means 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central Time.

“Contract” means this formal, written, and legally enforceable agreement between DPS and Contractor.

“Contractor” means the individual, business entity, or organization awarded the Contract. In the context of submitting a response, “Contractor” also means “Respondent” and “Vendor.”

“Date of Award” means the date the Contract is fully executed.

“Days” means calendar days unless otherwise specified.

“DPS” means the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas, a state agency in the executive branch created under Tex. Gov’t Code Ch. 411.

“Fiscal Year” means any of the one-year periods beginning September 1 and ending August 31 used for annual budgetary purposes by the State of Texas.

“Parties” means Contractor and DPS.

“Respondent” means the individual, business entity, or organization that submits a response in response to this solicitation with intent to contract with DPS.

“Vendor” means the individual, business entity, or organization at any stage in the procurement or contracting process (prior to response, during response, and after contract award).

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SECTION B—SERVICES AND PRICES

B.1 PRICING REQUIREMENTS

B.1.1 Pricing Instructions

A. Respondent must submit proposed pricing on the Mandatory Pricing Schedule that includes all costs, fees, licenses, and all expenses for Contractor’s delivery and performance of the commodities or services requested. The final negotiated, contracted pricing and payment structure will represent Contractor’s sole compensation under the Contract. DPS guarantees no minimum compensation under the Contract.

B. DPS will negotiate pricing prior to award of the Contract if the pricing offered appears that it may not be best value to DPS.

C. Contractor must deliver and provide the commodities and services described in compliance with all requirements of the Contract on a no minimum, as needed, as requested basis. Notwithstanding anything else to the contrary in the Contract, DPS will not make any payments of any amount to Contractor or any other entity or person, and Contractor will not submit any invoices, until Contractor has received approval from DPS’s Contract Monitor specifically stating that DPS accepts the commodities or services, and Contractor is authorized to submit an invoice. If DPS does not accept the commodities or services, the Contract will involve no payments of any type for any amount.

B.1.2 Financial Rating Report, Financial Resources, and Ability to Perform

A. Respondent must provide evidence of its financial resources and its ability to provide the commodities or perform the services for which Respondent is submitting a response.

This includes information Respondent believes is pertinent to demonstrate its financial capability, financial solvency, and capacity to fulfill the requirements of this solicitation.

B. Evidence of financial stability include providing audited financial statements for each of the last two years of Respondent’s operations or, in the alternative, financial statements compiled, reviewed and attested by an independent certified public accountant or certified public accounting firm. Respondents may submit a copy of its Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Business Information Report. If a D&B Report is submitted the report must include Respondent’s Viability Score and the Portfolio Comparison Score or similar ratings.

C. In lieu of providing financial statements in its Proposal, a Respondent may provide a statement regarding the Respondent’s financial stability and viability to perform under any resulting contract. If Respondent elects this approach rather than audited financial statements, the Respondent must submit a statement, with appropriate supporting documentation, sufficiently detailed to demonstrate financial solvency, and to verify the capacity to fulfill the requirements of this solicitation.

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D. Respondent must provide information, and any other financial information reasonably requested by DPS consistent with the services provided by Respondent or otherwise required by the then applicable DPS policies for similar contracts.

E. Selected Contractor must also submit its financial rating information with their response.

F. DPS reserves the right to investigate and determine the financial integrity and responsibility of a Respondent and to reject a response on the grounds of Respondent’s lack of financial soundness, or if DPS reasonably concludes, after reviewing the information submitted by Respondent as well as all other relevant information obtained by DPS, that significant issues exist that could jeopardize Respondent’s full and timely performance. DPS also reserves this same right throughout the life of the Contract, including before executing any optional renewal with Contractor.

B.2 INVOICE REQUIREMENTS

A. Invoices are Contractor’s billing for commodities or services rendered. DPS will pay

Contractor based on itemized invoices submitted to and approved by DPS. The invoices must be itemized and clearly identify the actual commodities and services provided.

B. Contractor’s invoice must include the following: the Contract/Purchase Order number, the remittance address, and any prompt payment discount offered. Contractor must email the invoice to the Contract Monitor listed in the Contract and to apinvoices@dps.texas.gov.

The State of Texas will not incur any penalty for late payment if the invoice fails to conform to the requirements of this section or if Contractor did not email the invoice to the appropriate email addresses identified in this section.

B.3 PAYMENTS

A. DPS recommends that Vendor receive payments by electronic funds transfer (EFT), also known as direct deposit. If Vendor elects to be set up for direct deposit payment, Vendor must submit a completed Direct Deposit Authorization Form (74-176).

B. Regardless as to whether Direct Deposit is chosen, Vendor must submit a completed Application for Texas Identification Number (AP-152) and Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certifications Form (W-9) with its response.

C. If Vendor has previously submitted a completed Direct Deposit Authorization Form and Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certifications Form to DPS for another separate contract, Vendor is not required to submit another form.

mailto:apinvoices@dps.texas.gov

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B.4 MANDATORY PRICING SCHEDULE

Respondent must submit pricing within the Pricing Schedule Tables below, replicating, as necessary, in this exact format.

Table 1: FAST Program Implementation

The Respondent must submit pricing within the table below that is all-inclusive, including training, and supporting details of how the cost for the FAST solution is developed, as specified in the schedule below.

Table 2: FAST Fingerprinting Services

Item No Description % of Total Cost Milestone Cost

2-001

Location Acquisition, Facility Preparation and Personnel Planning Complete;

DEL-23 through DEL-28; Contract Section C.5.2.A and Section C.7.2.5.

50%

2-002 Staff Preparation and Training Complete;

DEL-29 through DEL-30; Contract Section C.5.2.A and Section C.7.2.6.

15%

2-003 Go-Live Readiness;

DEL-31 through DEL-32; Contract Section C.7.2.7.

35%

Total cost for establishing FAST Fingerprinting Services 100%

Item No Description % of Total Cost Milestone Cost

1-001

Planning and Discovery Phase Completion Approval;

DEL-01 through DEL-13; Contract Sections C.7.2.1 and C.7.2.2.

25%

1-002 Execution Phase Completion Approval;

DEL-14 through DEL-21; Contract Section C.7.2.3.

35%

1-003

Final Acceptance of implemented FAST Program, including FAST Fingerprinting Services DEL-22; Contract Sections C.7.2.4 and C.8.

40%

Total cost for FAST Program Implementation 100%

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Table 3: FAST Program Support

Program support pricing begins after DPS's final acceptance of the solution. Costs will be prorated accordingly to account for partial-year maintenance. Contractor must provide pricing according to the requirements outlined in Section C.5.1. through C.5.4.

Table 3.1: C.5.2: Applicant Scheduling, Support and Services Requirements

Requirements per Section

C.5.2 UOM Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

C.5.2.A Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.2.B Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.2.C Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.2.D Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.2.E Annual $ $ $ $

Table 3.2: C.5.3: Technical Submission and System Requirements

Table 3.3: C.5.4: DPS Solution and Support Requirements per Section

C.5.3 UOM Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

C.5.3.A Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.3.B Annual $ $ $ $

Requirements per Section

C.5.4 UOM Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

C.5.4.A Management Application

Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.4.B Subcontractor Management Requirements

Annual $ $ $ $

C.5.4.C Reporting

Annual $ $ $ $

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Table 4: Potential Future Modifications

Respondent must use Table 4 in this section to identify hourly rates and positions for future potential modifications to the FAST service, to include but not limited to, changes resulting from legislative or regulatory updates, billing and payment systems modifications, audit recommendations, customizations and other services related to the authorized user interface within the scope of this Contract. Vendor must provide firm fixed hourly rates and a complete and detailed listing of its technical staffing positions by title and description of duties, and hourly fixed rates for services performed during normal business hours. These will be used in the Change Order process outlined in Section C.10 for any agreed-upon modifications.

Table 4 – Hourly Rate Pricing for Modifications Vendor/

Subcontractor Company

Name

Position Title and Description of

Duties Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

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SECTION C - STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 INTRODUCTION

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) invites all eligible and interested parties to submit proposals for a contract to support the DPS Fingerprint Applicant Services of Texas (FAST) program. This RFP seeks to engage a qualified contractor to deliver a modern, secure service that fulfills the requirements of the FAST program.

Under Texas law, individuals applying for specific regulated industries or authorized roles must be fingerprinted and undergo certain criminal history checks, typically for purposes such as employment, licensure, and volunteer service. For this Contract, an “applicant” refers to any individual required by an authorized entity to submit fingerprints and demographic details to DPS, enabling access to Texas or national criminal history record information (CHRI), which will be provided to the authorized entity.

The FAST program was established to provide fingerprinting services for applicants and authorized entities. FAST aims to provide efficient, high-quality fingerprint acquisition services statewide through a professional, secure process. Its objectives include fingerprint collection; customer service; appointment scheduling, fee processing, acceptance of electronic and hard-card fingerprints, and submission of the fingerprint data to DPS.

The current FAST service processes approximately one million applicant submissions per year with an anticipated annual growth rate of 5%. Applicant information is received from over 200 (148 public and 90 non-public facing) locations throughout Texas, excluding out-of-state and out-of-country collection capabilities.

The FAST program is governed in statute via Texas Government Code. Section 411.0865 specifically address contracts for fingerprinting services. Vendors contemplating a response to this RFP are encouraged to familiarize themselves with this Section as well as other sections of the Government Code.

C.2 SCOPE

DPS requires the Contractor to provide statutorily authorized services with convenience, accessibility of locations, timeliness, accuracy, and the secure submission of fingerprints.

Services include appointment scheduling, fee collection, reconciliation, billing, remittance, fingerprint acquisition, biographic and demographic collection, and data submission to DPS.

The Contractor must provide fingerprint services to multiple locations articulated in Section C. The Contractor must comply with the terms of this Contract and perform as directed by DPS, ensuring adherence to all applicable state and federal laws, rules, regulations, and policies that relate to the obtaining, use, storage, dissemination, and destruction of criminal history record information

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(CHRI), as well as any future amendments. Additionally, the Contractor must accommodate any DPS-directed changes within the scope of FAST services or locations, the FAST public facing scheduling and appointment site, or the Admin portal/dashboard, as specified in this Contract.

DPS seeks a vendor to provide a Contractor-provided, cloud-hosted solution that meets FedRAMP Level High or TX-RAMP Level II certification standards, although DPS will determine during the initial project planning stages whether certification is required. The vendor will be responsible for managing the cloud database services and providing technical support, secure web portals, interfaces, business continuity, and a cloud-based disaster recovery solution.

The FAST solution must provide ready access to the data in compliance with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) Security Policy, DPS Information Technology (IT) Standards and Requirements, DPS Cyber Security Contract Requirements, and industry best practices.

DPS requires that all costs related to cloud hosting must be borne within the pricing provided in section B.4. Under no circumstances will DPS remunerate any cloud hosting service fees to contractor directly or to any third-party provider, nor at a variable rate.

C.3 MINIMUM CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS

To be eligible to submit a proposal for this RFP, the Contractor, at a minimum, must meet each of the following minimum mandatory requirements:

A. The RFP response must include a minimum of three qualified references for the provider’s solution as required in the RFP. All three references must be from the public sector.

B. The contractor must provide a fully integrated and managed solution. The proposed solution must utilize a cloud model that is CJIS-compliant and approved by the State of Texas. The contractor will be responsible for managing all aspects of the service proposed.

C. Solution data must be solely owned by DPS and the State of Texas.

D. All work performed to satisfy the requirements of the contract resulting from this RFP must be performed in the United States.

E. The proposed solution must be compliant with the most current version of the FBI

CJIS Security Policy and must maintain compliance with the CJIS Security Policy throughout the life of this Contract.

F. The proposal’s primary contractor must assume responsibility for the overall solution and its components.

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C.4 PROJECT SCHEDULE AND PLAN

The Contractor must include in its response a draft Project Management Plan (DEL-01) and Integrated Master Schedule (DEL-02) Gantt chart detailing how the Contractor will provide or implement the requirements of this solicitation. The draft project plan and schedule must include:

A. A description of the project organization.

B. A plan to DPS within 14 days of the contract's effective date to address the fingerprint capture and submission needs for out-of-state applicants submitting electronic fingerprints to DPS, while meeting all contract requirements.

C. The plan must include a breakdown and detailed description of the different deliverables.

D. A plan for one or more Contractor’s staff to be housed at DPS headquarters in Austin, Texas, to provide onsite assistance and resolution for customer support escalation, billing, remittance, reconciliation, or other issues covered by this Contract.

E. A proposal for the location by city and zip code of each FAST location to meet the distance and availability requirements including the number of appointments to be available at each location each week.

F. A plan for accomplishing fingerprinting services for out-of-country applicants.

G. A plan that details the process and outputs of billing, accounting and reconciliation of fees.

H. A plan for walk-in applicants that would address ongoing location availability and a description of how customers can be served without an appointment if availability exists at the location.

I. Expected dependencies, caveats, or risks that exist within the project plan and schedule.

J. A schedule and work plan for the different deliverables of the project.

K. A Gantt chart illustrating a high-level timeline for the project, including start and end dates and dependencies.

L. Delegation of duties to each party for each of the tasks.

M. Information regarding maintenance and support.

N. Standard project management components such as a risk management plan and a change management plan.

O. The methodology the Contractor will employ to ensure adherence to the project schedule.

P. A plan for the timely provision and implementation of goods or services by required dates and ongoing support for these goods or services.

Q. A draft Response Plan to address instances where the Contractor may fail to meet contractual requirements.

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C.5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

A. Respondents must provide, in their response, narrative descriptions and images as appropriate detailing how their proposed solution would meet the requirements and deliverables articulated in this solicitation.

B. The solution requirements outlined below are for procurement purposes only and are not representative of the detailed design specifications necessary for successfully delivering a fully functional solution. By submitting a proposal in response to this RFP, Respondents recognize that the awarded Contractor will be responsible for preparing the necessary design specifications, system requirement specifications, and related deliverables necessary for fully specifying, configuring, and delivering the system to DPS.

C. DPS will provide additional system requirement details after Contract award. The additional requirements remain within the stated scope of this project but are fully outlined after contract award in the project development / design process in collaboration with the awarded Contractor.

C.5.1 Requirements Organization Requirements outlined below are grouped into the following areas, with specific requirements outlined in the subsections that follow:

FAST Subsection Requirement Areas and General Description

C.5.2: Applicant Scheduling, Support and Services Requirements

C.5.2.A Location Coverage and Availability Requirements

Provide coverage for all Texas, out-of-state, and out-of-country applicants.

C.5.2.B Applicant Registration and Scheduling Website Requirements

Develop a secure website for registering applicants and setting fingerprinting appointments.

C.5.2.C Fee Collection and Processing Requirements

Establish systems for fee collection, reconciliation, billing, and remittance.

C.5.2.D Applicant Customer Service Requirements

Provide support for applicants engaging with the FAST system.

C.5.2.E DPS FAST

Program Customer Service Requirements

Provide DPS support, maintain service standards, and ensure employee training.

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C.5.3: Technical Submission and System Requirements

C.5.3.A Fingerprint Collection and Submission Requirements

Manage the entire fingerprint collection and submission process.

C.5.3.B Technical Requirements Adhere to and fulfill all technical requirements and standards.

C.5.4: DPS Solution and Support Requirements

C.5.4.A DPS FAST

Management Application Requirements

Provide and maintain management for the FAST service, including dashboards, reports, contractual compliance tracking.

C.5.4.B Subcontractor Management Requirements

Oversee subcontractors to ensure compliance with contract standards, as applicable.

C.5.4.C Reporting Requirements

Generate comprehensive reports on FAST enrollment availability, applicant details, and various activity metrics (including service activity, agency appointments, coupon usage, invoice accounts, daily activities, and rejection notifications). Ensure reports are accessible digitally and in print.

C.5.2 Applicant Scheduling, Support and Services Requirements

C.5.2.A Location Coverage and Availability Requirements

Coverage

The Contractor must ensure that 90% of Texans are within 25 miles of a physical fingerprinting service location, and that all Texans are within 50 miles of a physical fingerprinting service location.

2 The Contractor must ensure that all Texas locations have appointments available within five business days.

The Contractor must provide the ability to increase appointment availability by expanding service hours or adding locations if mileage and scheduling requirements are not met.

4 The Contractor must accommodate walk-in and same-day appointments at DPS designated locations.

The Contractor must provide the ability to receive, digitally scan, and submit to DPS, manual (hard card) fingerprint cards for cases such as, but not limited to, out of state applicants.

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Hours of Operation

The Contractor must obtain the prior written approval of DPS for all days and hours of operation at all FAST locations. Any adjustments to days and hours of operation at any location will be mutually agreed upon by the parties. At a minimum, the Contractor must maintain coverage and appointment availability requirements.

The Contractor must provide availability for DPS designated locations, spread across various regions to include some rural, but primarily metropolitan areas, on Saturday’s for at least 4 business hours within their designated time zones.

8 The Contractor must jointly, with DPS, maintain a list of operational availability by location.

Closures/Openings

The Contractor must provide written notification to DPS, in advance, for all anticipated permanent, temporary, and same day closings of locations accessible to the public.

Written notification is also required whenever possible in the instance of emergency closings as well. Details of the written notification to be provided to DPS must include information regarding the duration of the closure, the closure reason, proof of rescheduled appointments, and the impact of the closure relative to DPS’s location and coverage requirements during the closure.

The Contractor must provide permanent closure notifications to DPS in writing for all permanent closings of locations not less than 45 Days prior to the location permanently closing.

The Contractor must provide temporary closure notifications to DPS in writing for all anticipated temporary closings of locations not less than 72 hours prior to the location temporarily closing.

The Contractor must notify DPS in writing within 24 hours or as soon as feasibly possible if a location is unable to operate due to a technical issue, force majeure, or a declared emergency.

The Contractor must provide DPS with written notification of same day closures within 2 hours of the scheduled opening time or 2 hours prior to closing the location of a planned midday closure.

The Contractor must establish a location as a replacement for any temporary closure planned for more than two weeks in duration. The location must be established and operational within 5 business days of the temporary closure.

The Contractor must ensure all scheduled appointments are rescheduled at another reasonably nearby location prior to the identified closure date and submit proof of rescheduling in writing to DPS.

The Contractor must provide electronic notification to the designated DPS PM (See Section C.12.3)of any previously cleared and now separated Contractor, and Subcontractor, employees and within 72 hours of separation.

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Emergency Coverage

18 The Contractor must provide an initial Emergency Plan of Action (see DEL-05) document to DPS for approval within 60 days of the contract execution.

The Contractor must, in the event of a declared emergency, and with DPS’s expressed approval, execute the approved emergency plan within 12 hours of an emergency declaration.

The Contractor must have an emergency communications system or protocol, approved by DPS, that can communicate emergencies by location through email, SMS messages, and voice communications.

Facility Standards

The Contractor must ensure all FAST location facilities meet DPS required exterior signage specifications, permanent or semi-permanent (Ex: business park marquee, secured post signs visible to the street). DPS will provide specifications following contract award.

The Contractor must ensure that all FAST locations maintain a clean waiting area with sufficient seating and a private area for conducting fingerprinting services that is separate from the waiting area.

23 The Contractor must sign any FAST location agreements in use at DPS sites annually or as authorized by DPS.

The Contractor must provide, install, secure, and maintain all equipment at FAST locations including Livescan devices, networking, telephone, supplies, furniture, and workstations.

25 The Contractor must be able to repair or replace malfunctioning solution components at any FAST location within 48 hours.

The Contractor must provide each enrollment center with back-up networking capabilities (ex: cellular hotspots) to ensure the delivery of transactions in the event of a production networking outage.

Appointment Check-In and Wait Time Measurement

The Contractor must establish an appointment check-in process that captures time of applicant check-in at the location, time of appointment initiation, and time of appointment completion.

The Contractor must report to DPS in aggregate, average, and individual transactional detail wait times and appointment duration by location, region, statewide (or other DPS defined variables) on a frequency to be defined by DPS.

Staffing Requirements

The FAST locations must be staffed with trained Fingerprint Technicians that must be able to perform all aspects of the applicant fingerprinting process; including, but not limited to, applicant check-in, document verification, fingerprint collection, taking applicant photos and collection of payments.

30 The Contractor is responsible for hiring, including completing DPS background checks, training and staffing all FAST locations.

31 The Contractor is responsible for managing all employee relations with the FAST- Fingerprinting Technicians.

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C.5.2.B Applicant Registration and Scheduling Website System Requirements

Applicant Data Entry

The Contractor must establish a secure Applicant Registration and Scheduling Website (Applicant Website), supporting multiple language options (including, but not limited to English and Spanish), no later than 60 days of agreed upon go-live date, for applicants to register for appointments.

2 The Applicant Website must prompt the applicant to enter the entity provided code to designate the type of applicant.

The Applicant Website must prompt the applicant to enter information including, but not limited to, the following:

a. Legal name information

b. Demographic information

c. Contact information

d. Citizenship information

e. Use of maiden/alias information

f. Residential and mailing address information

All required fields must be provided by DPS after contract award.

The Applicant Website must prompt the designated applicant to determine whether resultant records are to be returned manually or electronically, and provide the appropriate instructions associated with the choice.

5 The Applicant Website must prompt the applicant to provide any coding related to payment where an employer/agency may have pre-established billing arrangements.

The Applicant Website must present the applicant with a list of valid forms of identification and inform the applicant that the name on the identification document must match the enrollment registration.

7 The Applicant Website must notify the applicant of any transaction specific documentation that needs to be brought to the appointment.

Location Lookup and Calendaring

The Applicant Website must provide the applicant the ability to look up fingerprinting locations using DPS designated search criteria such as by listing, proximity, map, wait times, available appointments (minimum of 30 days into the future), or other methods.

For transactions requiring a hard card submission with the State of Texas (i.e. name changes, or others to be defined by DPS), the Applicant Website must display distance information to hard card capture locations to the applicant.

The Applicant Website must provide the applicant the ability to select a location from the search criteria view for more detailed location information to include, but not limited to, the ability to:

a. View photo(s) of the exterior of the business

b. View a more detailed map

c. Acquire directions from an applicant entered origin location

d. Send the location information to a mobile device.

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Appointment Confirmation and Summary

The Applicant Website must provide the applicant with summarized registration, appointment, and applicable notice information, to include, but not limited to, the following:

a. Registration Type (Employment, Full, Adoption, etc.)

b. Registration Details (Registration Date, Confirmation Number, etc.)

c. Appointment Details (Location Name, Address, Appointment Time, etc.)

d. DPS Approved Notices (Documents/Forms to bring, Calculated Fees [if not a pre-paid by/billed to employer], Acceptable Forms of Payment, etc.)

The Applicant Website must allow an applicant to cancel or reschedule the appointment from the appointment summary page.

13 The Applicant Website must send an e-mail and/or SMS to the applicant with appointment summary information.

14 The Applicant Website must offer the applicant a downloadable calendar link for Outlook, Apple, and Google calendars.

Appointment Management

The Applicant Website must provide the applicant the ability to look-up an existing appointment for purposes of viewing appointment details, rescheduling, or cancelling.

The Applicant Website must send an appointment cancellation message (email and/or SMS) to a customer that is ten minutes late from the scheduled appointment time.

The Applicant Website must provide automated reminders by email and text, with appointment details and links for editing, canceling, or rescheduling.

The Applicant Website must provide applicant with notices of any appointment cancellation via e-mail, phone, and SMS.

The Applicant Website must reschedule FAST appointments within five business days in the event of an unplanned closure and waive the FAST fee to all applicants affected by such closures. All other fees remain applicable.

20 The Applicant Website must provide the applicant with transaction receipt options (i.e. paper, email, or text).

C.5.2.C Fee Collection and Processing Requirements

The Contractor’s FAST solution must collect, report, invoice, remit, and account for all fees, including those from entities such as the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT).

The Contractor’s FAST solution must route collected fees daily to the Texas Comptroller, as instructed by DPS, for deposit into DPS’ and other state agencies’ accounts. DPS will provide details for all approved fees, including those from entities like TEA and HAZMAT.

3 The Contractor’s FAST solution must interface with the Texas.gov application for fee collection, billing, remittance, and account reconciliation.

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The Contractor’s FAST solution must establish and maintain the collection and processing of all authorized fees, ensuring consistency across Texas and regardless of the physical location of fingerprint capture, or services requested.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must accept various payment methods approved by the Comptroller, including business checks, money orders, credit cards, or other approved methods.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must capture payment information during appointment scheduling for hard card submissions and process the fees at the time of fingerprint capture. For all other submission types, the proposed solution must capture and process the payment at the time of fingerprint capture.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must be configurable by the Contractor to update fee schedules and implement any fee changes within 30 days of notice from DPS or on the effective date of the change, whichever is later, ensuring the FAST service enforces the collection of the updated fees.

8 The Contractor’s FAST solution must provide no-cost fingerprinting services for designated applicants.

9 The Contractor’s FAST solution must allow for manual waiving of fees for applicants on an ad-hoc/as needed basis.

C.5.2.D Applicant Customer Service Requirements

Customer Service Call Center

1 The Contractor must provide a customer service call center for servicing applicants.

2 The Contractor must establish, no later than 60 days prior to agreed upon go-live date, a toll-free applicant customer service phone number.

The Contractor’s call center must be staffed with trained customer service representatives that must be able to answer questions pertaining to scheduling, website navigation, and must be able to assist applicants with a variety of tasks regarding appointments including scheduling on behalf of the applicant.

The Contractor’s call center must provide an after-hours messaging system that directs applicants to the scheduling website and allow an applicant to leave a message for a call-back.

5 The Contractor’s call center must use a system to log the date and time of all applicant service calls related to an individual person and/or transaction.

Call Center Availability Requirements

The Contractor’s call center must operate during the hours of 7 AM to 9 PM, Monday through Saturday.

7 The Contractor’s call center must answer 90% of service calls within four minutes.

Professionalism

8 The Contractor’s customer service representatives must maintain professional engagement with applicants.

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Compatibility

9 The Contractor’s call center must provide customer service options compatible with devices used by hearing impaired applicants.

10 The Contractor’s call center must provide applicant support in English and Spanish.

Other

The Contractor must, with input from DPS, provide notification to the applicant via text or email to fill-out a customer satisfaction survey. The survey must be auto populated with details of the applicant and their transaction.

The Contractor must provide DPS with a method to track, audit, and measure support for all inquiries related to the applicant’s submission of the biometric data to the FAST Program.

C.5.2.E DPS FAST Program Customer Service Requirements

Customer Service Call Center

1 The Contractor must provide a technical support call center for servicing DPS and/or designated agency-level business partners.

The Contractor’s call center must be staffed with trained technical service representatives, hired, appropriately cleared and fully trained by the Contractor, that must be able to answer questions pertaining to technical support of the overall FAST solution and assist with a variety of tasks regarding the FAST program and Contractor provided solutions and services.

3 The Contractor’s call center must provide and actively use a DPS approved call logging and ticketing system with all common capabilities.

4 The Contractor’s call center must utilize the ticketing system to minimally capture and track call purpose, status, resolution, and related information.

5 The Contractor’s call center ticketing system must include clear definitions for levels of severity for incidents reported to the vendor.

6 The Contractor’s call center ticketing system must allow DPS to set the severity and priority measures for submitted tickets.

7 The Contractor’s call center ticketing system must be accessible to DPS Program staff and designees at any time.

Technical Support Availability

8 The Contractor’s call center must operate during the hours of 7 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday.

9 The Contractor’s call center representatives must engage in the resolution of the problem within 90-seconds of call initiation.

10 The Contractor’s call center must provide service via a toll-free number.

The Contractor must provide one or more Contractor staff to be onsite at DPS headquarters in Austin, Texas, to provide assistance with resolution for customer support escalation, billing, remittance, reconciliation, or other issues covered by this Contract.

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C.5.3 Technical Submission and System Requirements

C.5.3.A Fingerprint Collection and Submission System Requirements

Submission

The Contractor’s FAST solution must ensure collected fingerprinting transactions are received by DPS within 1 hour following the conclusion of an appointment for fingerprints collected via livescan.

Retention and Confirmation

2 The Contractor’s FAST solution must retain the applicant's NIST record until DPS confirms successful receipt.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must delete the applicant’s NIST record after a DPS designated time period and after receiving acknowledgement of successful receipt from Tx DPS.

4 The Contractor’s FAST solution must notify DPS if acknowledgment of NIST file record receipt is not provided by DPS within 24 hours of FAST solution submission to DPS.

If no DPS acknowledgment is received within 24 hours, The Contractor’s FAST solution must delete the NIST record after a DPS designated time period after providing notification to DPS.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must retain and include the applicant/Contractor consent and authorization form as required by the FBI to enable future notifications of updates to criminal history records.

7 The Contractor’s FAST solution must transmit hard card-based transactions DPS no later than 72 hours after receipt of the hard card at the Contractor’s processing location.

Quality Verification

The Contractor’s FAST solution must use the FBI EBTS as the transmission standard, modified for Texas Type 2 requirements, ensuring photos and images meet NIST standards. Documentation related to the Texas Type 2 specifications will be provided after the contract award if needed.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must verify fingerprint quality using Livescan devices and allow the technician to recapture individual palmprints or fingerprints not meeting quality standards.

When quality standards on the captured finger or palmprints are not met, the Contractor’s FAST solution must allow a minimum of three recaptures during the same appointment.

Fingerprint Rejection

11 The Contractor’s FAST solution must include the FBI Transaction Control Number (TCN) in the NIST record for retakes if fingerprints are rejected.

The Contractor’s FAST solution must generate a notice to the applicant in the event their hard card submission is being returned to them (i.e. rejected for quality or other reasons).

13 The Contractor’s FAST solution must provide applicants with two opportunities to reschedule and retake fingerprints within 24 hours of rejection notification.

14 The Contractor’s FAST solution must provide fingerprinting retakes at no additional charge to applicants whose fingerprints are rejected by DPS or the FBI.

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C.5.3.B Technical Requirements

Standards Compliance

1 The Contractor must produce, deliver, and iteratively update until approved by DPS, all technical and project related deliverables as outlined in this RFP.

2 The Contractor must obtain and maintain the appropriate certification of all approved Livescan and Cardscan devices.

System Maintenance

3 The Contractor must provide and conduct routine preventive maintenance as it applies to any Contractor provided equipment and software; schedule for DPS review.

4 The Contractor must provide a preventive maintenance plan and schedule for DPS review and acceptance.

5 The Contractor must perform system enhancements and routine maintenance outside of applicant enrollment operating hours, unless otherwise directed by DPS.

6 The Contractor must notify DPS of any planned or unplanned system enhancements and routine maintenance activities ahead of time.

Standards Adherence

7 The Contractor must comply with prevailing version of the FBI CJIS Security Policy and associated addenda.

The Contractor provided solution must format the applicant’s record to adhere to the requirements of the prevailing version of the NIST Data Format for The Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, and Other Biometric Information.

The Contractor must accommodate FAST Solution updates corresponding to updates of the NIST Data Format for The Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, and Other Biometric Information standard throughout the contract's duration at no additional charge to

DPS.

10 The Contractor provided system must format fingerprint images in the ANSI/NIST Type 4 records format.

11 The Contractor provided solution must comply with the prevailing version of the FBI Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS).

The Contractor provided system must submit transactions to DPS using the DPS standard and approved method of connectivity through the DPS Crime Records Division Store and Forward device. This connectivity could include SFTP or web services, etc.

13 The Contractor must maintain a 98% classifiable rate for all fingerprint submissions, as measured by DPS.

The Contractor provided solution must create and provide a unique identifier for each applicant, including a transaction control number (TCN) linked to the applicant’s ID number and the time and date of the fingerprint capture.

The Contractor provided solution must digitally capture an applicant's biometric attributes (i.e. fingerprints, palms, and iris [as directed by DPS]), photograph, authorizations (presented in English and Spanish), waivers, and identification documentation.

The Contractor provided solution must capture biometric Images, including fingers and thumbs (must be rolled nail-to-nail and plain impressions), at a minimum 500 pixels per inch (PPI).

17 The Contractor provided solution must ensure Livescan devices network to a central host with a single connection to DPS.

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The Contractor must provide DPS with a testing terminal, to be stored at DPS Headquarters, and to be used for transaction testing, verification and validation activities throughout the life of the contract.

C.5.4 DPS Solution and Support Requirements

C.5.4.A DPS FAST Management Application Requirements

General

The Contractor must provide a secure FAST management application (FMA) that provides DPS and designated authorized entities the ability to review solution dashboards, generate reports, and monitor the FAST service in real time.

The FAST Service management application must be extendable to interface with the future e-commerce initiatives of DPS, the federal government, and the State of Texas. DPS will provide the Contractor with written instructions relative to any future e-commerce initiatives throughout the life of this Contract that are within the scope of FAST services provided under this Contract and relevant Texas and federal laws.

3 The FMA must update background data regarding location, appointments, and closures on a near real-time basis.

4 The FMA must allow DPS program staff the ability to look up and browse individual FAST transactions using varying search criteria to be defined by DPS.

The FMA must allow DPS program staff the ability to look up and inspect individual transactional information details to include the ability to view submitted live-scan fingerprints and full images of hard card submissions. Transactional details and images must be exportable subject to user rights, in a format to be designated by DPS.

The FMA must allow DPS program staff and designated partners to see where an application is in the processing lifecycle singularly and in aggregate. This function must be limited for designated partners to view their transactions only.

The FAST solution Contractor must provide DPS with the appropriate application programming interface (API) for use by current and future authorized entities to interface with the FMA as needed. Specific use cases must be determined during the planning phase of the project.

Dashboards

8 The FMA must provide a customizable dashboard with features, visualizations, and maps to be determined by DPS.

The FMA must provide a single mapped view of all FAST locations with the ability to drill down into all location variables (i.e. availability, closures, address, hours of operation, etc.), and provide the ability to launch reports from this view.

10 The FMA must allow DPS program staff to view FAST location closure and location availability information by DPS region, county, and city.

11 The FMA must allow DPS program staff to display total appointments and appointment wait times by specified filters.

The FMA must allow DPS program staff to specify start and end dates to view appointment availability for all appointment sites, including site, location, DPS region, date, appointment slots, appointments, and the percentage of site appointments that are full.

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13 The FMA must provide FAST location details that show location name, location ID and the days and hours of operation for all locations.

14 The FMA must provide dashboard visualizations with weekly appointments by region for all service areas with the ability to drill down on the top ten service types.

The FMA must provide dashboards and map visualizations that show location closure information and corresponding visualizations to include all current and historical closures based on DPS user selectable criteria and date-ranges.

16 The FMA must provide a dashboard showing applicant pre-enrollment information.

The FMA…