MAP RFP-S000000064 Final RFP--v1--2022-01-25-155217--sp(.docx

STATE OF ARKANSAS

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSFORMATION AND SHARED SERVICES

OFFICE OF STATE PROCUREMENT

501 Woodlane St., Ste. 220 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-1023

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (MAP)

SOLICITATION DOCUMENT

SOLICITATION INFORMATION

SUBMISSION DEADLINE AND DELIVERY OF RESPONSE DOCUMENTS

Proposal submissions for this Request for Proposal must be submitted through ARBuy, the State’s eProcurement system. It can be accessed at https://arbuy.arkansas.gov. Proposals received after the submission deadline may be rejected as untimely. See Section 1.2 for information regarding Live Proposal Openings.

TSS OFFICE OF STATE PROCUREMENT CONTACT INFORMATION

Section 1 – GENERAL INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

· Do not provide responses to items in this section unless specifically and expressly required.

INTRODUCTION

This Request for Proposal (RFP) is issued by the TSS Office of State Procurement (TSS OSP) for the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment (“ADEE” or “Department”) to obtain pricing and a contract to operate a Turnkey Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). Any contract that it awards will be awarded to the Prospective Contractor it determines to have submitted the proposal that is the most advantageous to the State. Direct all questions, comments, or concerns you may have regarding this solicitation to the TSS OSP, not the Department.

LIVE PROPOSAL OPENING

Use the information below to view the proposal opening online.

Zoom Meeting Link: https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/82569243764?pwd=OVRhNnpTa0IvTnFXd1BtdHZLUkFVdz09 Meeting ID: 825 6924 3764 Meeting Password: 306528 Dial-In Information: 877 853 5257 US Toll-free 888 475 4499 US Toll-free

TYPE OF CONTRACT

A. As a result of this RFP, TSS OSP intends to award a contract to a single Contractor.

B. The anticipated starting date for any resulting contract is March 21, 2022, except that the actual contract start date may be adjusted unilaterally by the State for up to three (3) calendar months. By submitting a signed proposal in response to the RFP, the Prospective Contractor represents and warrants that it will honor its proposal as being held open as irrevocable for this period.

C. The initial term of a resulting contract will be for two (2) years. Upon mutual agreement by the Contractor and Department, the contract may be renewed by TSS OSP for up to five (5) additional one-year terms or portions thereof, not to exceed a total aggregate contract term of seven (7) consecutive years.

SOLICITATION SCHEDULE

A. For informational purposes, TSS OSP is providing a Solicitation Schedule; however, dates listed and noted with an asterisk (*) are anticipated dates only and are subject to change at the discretion of the State. All times listed are Central Time.

TABLE A: TENTATIVE SOLICITATION SCHEDULE

BIDDERS CONFERENCE

A. TSS OSP will host a bidders conference to provide additional information and clarification regarding the RFP.

1. The conference will take place on the date and time listed in Section 1.4 Table A.

2. The conference is important for Prospective Contractors to understand the tasks a Prospective Contractor shall complete when submitting a proposal (“Submission Requirements”).

3. Prospective Contractors may attend the conference via Zoom.

Zoom Meeting Link: https://arkansas-gov.zoom.us/j/88538014856?pwd=d1pKd1VsWXR3bktpdkRZUDRjRTU3QT09 Meeting ID: 885 3801 4856 Meeting Password: 912272

4. The bidders conference presentation will be posted to the Solicitation posting in ARBuy.

CLARIFICATION OF SOLICITATION

A. Submit any questions requesting clarification of information contained in this Solicitation via the Solicitation posting in ARBuy by the date and time listed in Section 1.4 Table A.

1. For each question submitted, Prospective Contractor should reference the specific Solicitation item number to which the question refers.

2. Prospective Contractors’ written questions will be consolidated and responded to by the State as deemed appropriate. The State’s consolidated written response is anticipated to be posted to the Solicitation posting in ARBuy by the close of business on the date provided in Section 1.4, Table A. If Prospective Contractor questions are unclear or non-substantive in nature, the State may request clarification of a question(s) or decline to answer.

B. The Prospective Contractor should notify the TSS OSP buyer of any term, condition, etc., that precludes the Prospective Contractor from submitting a compliant, Responsive Proposal. Prospective Contractors should note that it is the responsibility of the Prospective Contractor to seek resolution of all such issues, including those relating to the terms and conditions of the contract, prior to the submission of a proposal.

C. Prospective Contractors may contact the TSS OSP buyer with non-substantive questions at any time prior to the proposal opening.

D. An oral statement by TSS OSP will not be part of any contract resulting from this Solicitation and may not reasonably be relied on by any Prospective Contractor as an aid to interpretation unless it is reduced to writing and expressly adopted by TSS OSP.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

A. Unless otherwise defined herein, all terms defined in Arkansas Procurement Law have the same meaning herein.

B. “Prospective Contractor” means a responsible offeror who submits a proposal in response to this solicitation.

C. The terms “Request for Proposal,” “RFP,” and “Solicitation” are used synonymously in this document.

D. “Requirement” means something required.

E. “Responsive Proposal” means a proposal submitted in response to this solicitation that conforms in all material respects to this RFP.

F. “Shall” and “Must” mean the imperative and are used to identify requirements.

G. “Specification” means any technical or purchase description or other description of the physical or functional characteristics, or of the nature, of a commodity or service. “Specification” may include a description of any requirement for inspecting, testing, or preparing a commodity or service for delivery.

H. “State” means the State of Arkansas. When the term “State” is used herein to reference any obligation of the State under a contract that results from this solicitation, that obligation is limited to the Department using such a contract.

RESPONSE DOCUMENTS

A. All proposal responses must be submitted through ARBuy, the State’s eProcurement system. The system can be accessed at https://arbuy.arkansas.gov.

B. Technical Proposal Packet

1. Responses within the Information for Evaluation and Exceptions sections must not contain the Prospective Contractor’s name or any other identifiers, including without limitation names of staff members, projects, products, and addresses.

2. Prospective Contractors shall utilize the Technical Proposal Packet to submit their responses.

3. The following items are proposal Submission Requirements and must be submitted as part of a Prospective Contractor’s proposal response.

a. Signed Proposal Signature Page. Signature may be ink or digital. (See Technical Proposal Packet.)

b. Technical Proposal response to the Information for Evaluation section included in the Technical Proposal Packet. Proposal response must be in the English language.

c. Completed Pricing Response. Official Solicitation Price Sheet attached to solicitation posting. Pricing must be proposed in U.S. dollars and cents.

d. Proposed Subcontractors Form. The utilization of any proposed subcontractor is subject to approval by the Department.

e. Exceptions Form.

4. The following items, which must be submitted prior to a contract award to the Prospective Contractor, may also be included with the Prospective Contractor’s proposal:

a. EO 98-04: Contract and Grant Disclosure Form.

b. Copy of Prospective Contractor’s Equal Opportunity Policy.

c. Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), if applicable.

5. DO NOT include any other documents or ancillary information, such as a cover letter or promotional/marketing information.

C. Redacted Copy of the Technical Proposal Packet and Completed Pricing Response

1. One (1) redacted (marked “REDACTED”) copy of the Prospective Contractor’s proposal response (see Section 6 of the Solicitation Terms and Conditions referenced in Section 1.10.)

ACCEPTANCE OF REQUIREMENTS

A. Unless a Prospective Contractor expressly and conspicuously identifies any exception or exceptions to any of the Requirements in the Requirements Section(s) of this RFP by listing them on the Exceptions Form (see Technical Proposal Packet), Prospective Contractor understands and agrees its submission of a proposal to represent that its proposal meets all such Requirements.

B. A Prospective Contractor’s proposal may be rejected if a Prospective Contractor takes exception to any Requirements in the Requirements Section(s) of this RFP.

ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

A. This RFP incorporates all of the Solicitation Terms and Conditions located on the TSS OSP website here (Agencies – Forms and Reporting – Solicitation Templates): https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/agencies/forms-and-reporting/.

B. Any special terms and conditions included in this solicitation shall override the Solicitation Terms and Conditions.

C. Unless a Prospective Contractor expressly and conspicuously identifies any exception or exceptions to any of the terms in the Services Contract (SRV-1) Fillable Form by listing them on the Exceptions Form (see Technical Proposal Packet), Prospective Contractor agrees and shall adhere to all terms if selected as the successful Contractor. Items identified as non-negotiable may only be modified if the legal requirement is satisfied and approved by the State. The Services Contract (SRV-1) Fillable Form can be viewed on the TSS OSP website here (Agencies – Services – Forms): https://www.transform.ar.gov/procurement/agencies/services/.

D. A Prospective Contractor’s proposal may be rejected if a Prospective Contractor takes exception to any terms or conditions in the documents listed in 1.10.A and 1.10.C.

SECTION 2 – REQUIREMENTS

· Do not provide responses to items in this section unless specifically and expressly required.

BACKGROUND

Arkansas received emergency funding from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) to administer the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). Federal funds awarded under this grant will be used as part of an overall public health effort to ensure that low-income households have access to drinking water and wastewater services. The funds cannot be used for any other services on a water bill, such as trash collection or landscape water.

LIHWAP’s priorities for low-income residential households are to restore drinking water and wastewater services that have been disconnected, to prevent disconnection of these services, and to assist with current drinking water and wastewater bills.

Federal guidelines make certain groups categorically eligible for LIHWAP assistance based on enrollment in another means-tested program, including current recipients of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Eligibility for all others is based on federally established income limitations by household size.

The Arkansas Energy Office (AEO), an entity of the Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment (ADEE), is designated by Governor Asa Hutchinson to administer the program in Arkansas.

ADEE plans to begin accepting customer applications by the end of first quarter of calendar year 2022. LIHWAP funding is available to obligate through September 30, 2023, and must be fully expended by December 31, 2023.

OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

ADEE is seeking the services of a third-party Contractor to implement a comprehensive turnkey operation of LIHWAP.

A web site must be developed to include easy-to-understand information about this new program and enable visitors to the site both to estimate their own household's eligibility and to complete and submit an online application through a web portal. Spanish and Marshallese languages must be an option. Contractor shall be responsible for eligibility determination, benefit calculation, applicant notifications, and payments to the water utility companies.

The web portal must include a mobile means to apply for LIHWAP and will specify required documentation, the means to upload it, and a way for the applicant to track the status (approval/denial), benefit amount, and when payment is made to the water utility company.

Applicants who lack the skills or technology to apply through the web portal must be served by a Contractor call center. The Contractor may engage community-based organizations in Arkansas to assist applicants in their own communities.

The web portal must allow for the upload of overdue residential account information by almost 700 water utility companies as well as pertinent information enabling these companies to receive benefits payments on behalf of customers. The web portal must enable benefits to be pledged on each eligible customer account and payments to be made to each utility by aggregating the benefits pledged according to water utility company. The Contractor shall track payments to ensure that customer accounts are credited as specified and provide a clear audit trail and other reporting for these federal funds.

The Contractor's system must provide the means to match overdue customer accounts listed in the portal to listings of Arkansas recipients of other assistance programs; this process will enable identification of automatically eligible households and provide a significant form of outreach for this new program as well as simplify the application and eligibility determination process for categorically eligible individuals.

All partners in this new program will use the application and water company web portal: applicants, water utility companies, and the ADEE’s Arkansas Energy Office. The web portal must provide electronic platforms to streamline all processes from engaging almost 700 water utilities to providing outreach to potentially eligible Arkansas residents to enabling benefits to be entered and paid to providing data necessary for tracking funds and aggregating applicant demographic information for reporting to the federal funding agency. The web portal must enable all partners to use the technology without leaving their offices or homes and provide a fast start to the program once the technology is in place.

PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTOR MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

A. The Prospective Contractor shall have provided turnkey eligibility-based assistance services for at least one (1) public entity of similar size and scope and awarded in the last five (5) years. ADEE may request references from any program(s) presented as qualification at their discretion.

B. The Prospective Contractor shall have the financial resources necessary to make contractor-financed weekly payments and receive reimbursement from ADEE.

C. The Prospective Contractor shall not have been sanctioned or debarred by a federal entity.

D. The Prospective Contractor shall be licensed to do business in the State of Arkansas at time of Contract Award.

LIHWAP REQUIREMENTS

A. The Contractor shall implement a comprehensive Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP).

B. The Contractor shall provide management, staffing, oversight, and operational administration of the program post implementation and for the life of the contract.

C. The Contractor shall be responsible for providing all technology required to successfully meet the requirements of the RFP. This must include but is not limited to an Arkansas-specific web portal and any software needed to access/interface to provide the required functionality. For the purposes of this RFP, required technology may be referred to collectively as "web portal" or "system".

D. The Contractor shall work with utility companies, community-based organizations, and other State agencies to establish and maintain an effective program.

E. The Contractor shall have the capability to implement outreach to underserved rural and low-income areas to promote the program and ensure that residents in these areas have the necessary information and assistance to apply for LIHWAP.

F. The Contractor shall develop and maintain a website with online and mobile means to apply for LIHWAP, as well as a telephone option for users without technology.

G. The Contractor shall provide a system to accept and process electronic and paper applications that results in eligibility determination. This must include a call center to provide support to applicants throughout the process.

H. The Contractor shall provide management and staffing of a call center (which may include remote personnel) sufficiently staffed to ensure that each caller receives an immediate automated response and a service response within one (1) minute of the automated response during the hours of 7am to 7pm Central Time, seven (7) days a week.

I. The Contractor shall engage as many water utility companies as possible that will identify and provide electronic information for customers who have past due balances on drinking water and wastewater bills.

J. The system must enable the Contractor to view past due water bill accounts electronically and make pledges for LIHWAP benefits based on a non-disclosure agreement between the Contractor and water utility company.

K. Contractor shall be responsible for eligibility determination, benefit calculation, applicant notifications, and payments to the water utility companies.

L. The Contractor shall make payments to water companies and track payments and credits to water bill accounts.

M. The Contractor shall maintain the necessary documentation to assist with any audit or legislative requests from State or Federal agencies.

N. The Contractor shall, if requested, provide support to ADEE in the form of live in-person testimony in legislative committee if requested, as well as provide assistance in the form of data and draft responses to legislative inquiries

O. The Contractor shall maintain client and financial data to enable ADEE to report to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

P. The Contractor shall be capable of issuing payments via Automated Clearing House (ACH), Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), or by check.

Q. The Contractor shall approve or deny applications and pledge benefit payments within seventy-two (72) hours of receipt of completed applications.

R. The Contractor shall approve or deny applications and pledge benefit payments for life-threatening crisis situations as indicated on the application within eighteen (18) hours of receipt of complete applications.

S. The Contractor shall notify applicants of their application status, including approval, denial, and when payment is pledged or made.

T. If notified that additional funds are not allocated or that funding will be depleted, the Contractor shall continue in its duties until funding is depleted.

U. The Contractor shall be responsible for managing allocated funds under the program and ADEE shall not be obligated to reimburse the Contractor for costs that were incurred in excess of the allotted funding or after funding has been spent.

V. Authorized State Admin Users shall have the ability to login and conduct desktop (remote) monitoring of applications. Monitors will review processing including, but not limited to, the timeliness of application approval and denial, payment accuracy, and client notifications.

W. The Contractor shall be subject to review and audit by ADEE, the State of Arkansas, and the federal government.

BENEFITS REQUIREMENTS

A. The Contractor shall make payments to water utility companies on a weekly basis.

B. The Contractor shall collect information from water utility companies to verify that payments have been applied to customer accounts as directed.

C. The Contractor shall provide payment verification information to ADEE and other authorized entities (if applicable), including notification of any exceptions found from each water utility’s process of crediting payments to customer accounts.

D. The Contractor shall provide ADEE with customer payment lists to review and to serve as documentation for funds reimbursed to the Contractor after making LIHWAP payments to water utility companies.

CUSTOMER CONTACT REQUIREMENTS

A. If requested by ADEE, the Contractor shall use phone numbers and email addresses of utility customers in rural and underserved low-income areas with overdue accounts (provided by utility companies) to reach out to inform them about LIHWAP.

B. The Contractor shall develop text, email, and voicemail messaging about LIHWAP for these customers directing them to the LIHWAP website.

WEB PORTAL & SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

A. The Contractor shall develop and maintain an Arkansas specific informational website for users who are potentially LIHWAP-eligible, including a screening feature for users to estimate their own eligibility for LIHWAP based on a chart giving income limits by household size.

B. The website must serve as a source of user-friendly and easily understood information about LIHWAP to promote the program.

C. The website and portal must allow users to choose Spanish or Marshallese as alternative languages.

D. The web portal located on the website must provide an online application that may be submitted electronically.

E. The Web Portal must inform users of documentation required with the LIHWAP application.

F. The Web Portal must provide security checks for attachments uploaded to the system (i.e., malware/virus protection).

G. The Web Portal must allow users to check their application status, amount of benefit, and when payment has been made.

H. The system must allow for the secure uploading of bank account information for each utility where LIHWAP payments are to be received in a format that would allow for Automated Clearing House (ACH) fund transfers.

I. The system must not require utility companies to have specialized software and must allow them to provide data in the following formats, at a minimum: comma delimited, tab delimited, and XML.

J. The system must allow for the secure upload of customer account data for overdue accounts, including, but not limited to:

· Account Holder's Name

· Account Number

· Service Address

· Account Holder Phone Number

· Account Holder Email Address

· Amount Owed on Each Type of Service on the Account, Itemized by Service Type

· Amount of Balance Current and Past Due

· Disconnected Date or Planned Disconnection Date

· Due Date for Current Bill

K. The web portal must accommodate requests by utility companies to remove or update accounts because of a change in status.

L. The system must allow for an aggregation of payment amounts by water utility company, listing each customer name, account number, payment amount for drinking water, and payment amount for wastewater service.

M. The system must have data fields for payment amounts and payment method (e.g., check number, electronic transfer).

N. The system must have data fields for credit verification files from water utility companies on customer accounts.

O. The system must allow matching of customer accounts with lists of Arkansas residents who are categorically eligible as recipients of benefits from other means tested programs.

P. The Web Portal must provide data fields for the Contractor to enter LIHWAP funds to be paid (referred to as pledging) to the water utility company separately for drinking water and wastewater services on each customer account.

HOSTING

A. All servers and data associated with the Arkansas instance of the Contractor Hosted system must reside in the continental United States.

B. The State prefers the proposed system be hosted on a private cloud or a virtual private cloud. For the purposes of this RFP, a private cloud is either a single-tenant environment where the hardware, storage, and network are dedicated to the State, or a virtual private cloud, a multi-tenant environment with network isolation and private subnets. Contractors may propose other types of cloud in their proposal, but preferential scoring will be given for private or virtual private cloud.

C. Contractor shall perform all work on the system from within the continental United States of America. The web portal must not be accessed from outside of the U.S.

D. The Contractor shall be responsible for the acquisition and operation of all hardware, software, and network support related to the hosting services being provided.

E. The Contractor shall develop and implement the system and all dependent hosted hardware in such a manner that allows for direct network communications with the Contractor’s Solution and the exchange of data via approved industry standard protocols for interfacing with other State of Arkansas systems as deemed necessary.

F. The Contractor shall keep all hosting related software current and up to date.

1. The Contractor shall notify the State of all software and security upgrades within three (3) business days of upgrade availability. The Contractor shall provide all software and security upgrades at no additional cost to the State.

2. The Contractor shall provide ADEE’s designee with a proposed implementation plan for approval with implementation timelines for all software and security upgrades within seven (7) business days of upgrade availability.

SYSTEM UPTIME AND PERFORMANCE

A. The web portal must be available 99.9% of the time each month, excluding scheduled down-times.

B. The web portal must have an average internal response time of less than two seconds from receiving a request and sending a response back through the webserver 99.9% of the time.

C. ADEE will not provide dedicated bandwidth for the proposed solution and the system must not negatively impact or interfere with services from ADEE’s other existing systems.

D. The Contractor shall provide a monthly System Usage and Performance Report which shall include, at minimum, data related to the requirements set forth in this section of the RFP. The System Usage and Performance Report must be provided to ADEE’s designee on the first business day of the month following the previous reporting period in a Microsoft Excel format.

SYSTEM ACCESS

A. The Contractor shall provide user access to the system through a secure, web-based portal.

B. The web portal must be browser and operating system neutral for all user types and function accurately on common modern browsers such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

C. The web portal must not require additional browser plug-ins, add-ons, or helper applications.

D. The web portal must have a Responsive User Interface (RUI) and be accessible and function normally from mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones, and chrome books. This must include, but is not limited to, iPhones, iPads, and Android based phones and tablets.

E. End User authentication for ADEE employees must utilize adeq.state.ar.us. The Contractor shall provide and maintain the necessary API between the proposed system and adeq.state.ar.us.

USER ROLES

A. The system must authenticate and assign the appropriate level of access to users based on the appropriate user roles.

B. ADEE must have the ability to administer access rights.

C. System Administrators must be able to create custom user roles with security parameters that define access

D. The system must support multiple access levels within the system (i.e. read-only, read/write, approval, etc.

E. Configuration parameters must be editable and extendable without system redeployment.

F. The system must be capable of central management by virtual location.

REPORTING AND AUDIT FUNCTIONALITY

A. The Contractor shall provide Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Reporting as detailed in this section of the RFP.

B. The Contractor shall provide at least bi-weekly reporting for reimbursement purposes.

C. The Contractor shall provide monthly reporting no later than the fifteenth (15th) of the month following the month being reported.

D. The Contractor shall provide quarterly reporting no later than the fifteenth (15th) of the month following the end of the federal fiscal quarter.

E. The Contractor shall provide annual reporting no later than November 30 following the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30.

F. At least bi-weekly and for reimbursement purposes, the Contractor shall submit to ADEE an aggregated list of payments made, sorted by utility company and client account. ADEE will desk monitor a random sample of client applications in order to approve reimbursement.

G. The Contractor shall provide Monthly Reporting detailing the following information:

· Number of applications by county

· Benefits paid aggregated by county

H. The Contractor shall provide Quarterly Reporting detailing the following information:

1. Total Households Assisted

a. Unduplicated number of households assisted

b. Total cumulative households assisted (unduplicated number)

2. Number of Assisted Households by Service Type

a. Restoration of Services

· Water and/or wastewater

· Multiple water services

· Other water services

b. Prevention of disconnection of services

· Water and/or wastewater

· Multiple water services

· Other water services

c. The full or partial payment of a currently due bill

· Water and/or wastewater

· Multiple water services

· Other water services

3. LIHWAP Implementation Information

a. Indicate changes to portions of Arkansas that are accepting applications and implementing LIHWAP. If not at 100 percent of implementation, explain the plan for getting to full implementation, including which areas have not begun accepting applications and why.

b. Notable accomplishments achieved by LIHWAP implementation/ participant success stories. (These might include accomplishments related to implementation, partnerships, innovations, policies, procedures, outreach, and/or outcomes.)

c. Unmet water and wastewater needs in the service area (may include needs related to administering LIHWAP or the needs of beneficiaries).

I. The Contractor shall provide annual reporting detailing the following information:

1. Reporting on funds obligated and funds expended by individual funding source (Consolidated Appropriation Act, 2021 and American Rescue Act, 2021) for the following:

a. Type of LIHWAP assistance by priority

· Restoration of services

· Prevention of disconnection

· The full or partial payment of a currently due bill

b. Type of water and wastewater assistance funds

· Water and/or wastewater

· Multiple services that include water and other non-water services

· Other water services

c. Outreach/Eligibility - Contractor

d. Administration – Contractor

2. Household Data: Reporting on the number of LIHWAP households served in total and by various categories, including:

a. Total unduplicated household applicants

b. Total unduplicated households assisted

c. Total waitlisted households for non-availability of funds

d. Number of assisted households by assistance type (restoration/prevention of disconnection/rate reduction)

e. Number of assisted households by poverty level and assistance type

f. Number of assisted households by vulnerable population and assistance type

g. Number of assisted households:

· applicants by race and ethnicity

· members by race and ethnicity

h. Number of assisted households:

· applicants by gender

· members by gender

3. Performance Measures

a. Average water benefit payment by assistance type (restoration of service/prevention of disconnection/rate reduction)

b. Pre-water burden average by assistance type

c. Post-water burden average by assistance type

d. Number of all LIHWAP-assisted households that had:

i. Restoration of service (unduplicated count) by service type (water or wastewater, multiple services, other waster services)

ii. Restoration of service (duplicated count) by service type

iii. Prevention of disconnection (unduplicated count) by service type

iv. Prevention of disconnection (duplicated count) by service type

v. The full or partial payment of a currently due bill charged to a household for drinking water or wastewater services, (unduplicated count) by service type

vi. The full or partial payment of a currently due bill (duplicated count) by service type

J. ADEE shall have the right to modify Quarterly and/or Annual Reporting requirements as needed over the life of the contract to meet current needs or address changes in legislation, policy, or program requirements.

K. The system must allow authorized ADEE users to access and run reports as described in L-N below.

L. The system must be able to execute read-only (“Select”) queries.

M. The system must be able to store and label read-only queries for future use and/or modification.

N. The system must allow users to access data for ad hoc query and reporting not specified in this requirements document.

O. Audit Functionality The system must track all inquiries and data changes including, but not limited to, the following:

· Date and time of inquiry/modification

· Type of activity

· Identification of the user

· All fields inquired and/or modified

P. Provide data export functionality in the following formats, at a minimum: comma delimited, tab delimited, and XML.

Q. Provide a robust reporting feature that includes data extraction to meet state and federal requirements, as noted previously.

R. Authorized State Admin Users shall have the ability to login and view the audit details.

STAFFING

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a Staffing Plan during the Discussions phase.

B. Project Manager The Contractor shall include in the Staffing Plan a Project Manager. The Project Manager shall, at a minimum:

1. Be PMP Certified and have one (1) year project management experience working with the implementation of projects of similar size and scope to this RFP.

OR

2. Have two (2) years of project management experience working with the implementation of projects of similar size and scope to this RFP.

3. Coordinate with ADEE through a staff team to finalize a solution, implement technology components, and manage needed changes to project scope.

C. The State shall have the right to approve or reject proposed staff members prior to the finalization of the plan after Contract Award.

D. The Contractor shall include, in the Staffing Plan, a provision to address the vacancies of the Project Manager or other key personnel. In the event of the vacancy of a key person, the Contractor shall provide replacement candidates to the State for the State’s review within fifteen (15) days of the Contractor learning of the vacancy. The State shall have the right to approve or reject proposed replacements if they do not meet the minimum requirements set forth in the RFP.

E. The Contractor shall provide and maintain sufficient staffing resources to provide timely service for the life of the contract.

F. Background Checks

1. At commencement of contract award and prior to the hiring of staff, the Contractor shall conduct Federal and State Criminal Background Checks for the state of jurisdiction where the employee is located on all personnel involved in any aspect of the process described in this RFP.

2. Upon request, the Contractor shall provide ADEE with access to Criminal Background Checks (including fingerprints) on all key personnel and subcontractors who perform or supervise work on this contract for purposes of auditing. Criminal Background Checks shall be provided to ADEE within 72 hours of the request from ADEE.

3. ADEE shall have the right to refuse personnel based on results of the criminal background checks.

4. The State shall have the right to terminate the entire contract should Criminal Background Reports show evidence of being tampered with, i.e. sections blocked out, dates of greater time than 72 hours, etc.

PROJECT WORK PLAN

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a Project Work Plan during the Discussions phase. The Project Work Plan must address all aspects of the project, including the implementation and testing of the technology components.

TRAINING

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed Training Plan during the Discussions phase.

B. The Contractor shall provide training to approximately fifteen (15) ADEE users prior to system deployment. Training must include, but is not limited to:

1. How to access and use the system

2. How to navigate the system

3. How to grant and remove access

MAINTENANCE & SUPPORT

A. The Prospective Contractor shall provide a proposed Maintenance & Support Plan during the Discussions phase.

B. The Prospective Contractor shall be responsible for providing ongoing maintenance of the system for the life of the contract.

C. The Contractor shall furnish to the State, fourteen (14) calendar days prior to go-live, Quality Assurance Guidelines for testing new updates, patches or upgrades to the software solution.

D. The Contractor shall ensure that system changes or system upgrades are accompanied by a System Upgrade Plan which includes a timeline, milestones, and adequate testing to be completed prior to implementation. The Contractor shall notify and provide such plans to the ADEE Designee upon request in the timeframe and manner specified by the ADEE Designee. All maintenance or updates to the solution that require scheduled down-time must occur at scheduled times, with fourteen (14) calendar day written notice being provided to the Contract Administrator and must only commence after the Contract Administrator’s approval of the requested timeline in the System Upgrade Plan. Approval will not be unreasonably withheld from the Contractor.

E. The Contractor shall ensure that any System updates or maintenance will not compromise or negatively impact or interrupt any configurations or customizations made by the Contractor to the solution.

F. The Contractor shall provide corrective action regarding problems or issues that are identified and logged by AEO or its designee

G. The Contractor shall provide ongoing user and technical support via telephone and email to ADEE staff beginning at the time of Go Live and continuing for the life of the contract. The Contractor shall:

1. Provide Emergency Support twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. Emergency Support shall include but not be limited to an event such as a complete system failure.

2. Provide Standard User and Tech Support to ADEE staff via toll free telephone and email, at minimum, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Central Time, excluding State Holidays (https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/news/state-holiday-calendar/).

3. Provide English speaking Telephone Support Staff.

4. Provide properly trained User and Technical Support staff in sufficient quantities to support ADEE.

H. Technical Issues must be designated Emergency, High, Medium, or Low Priority. The Contractor shall provide proposed response/resolution times to ADEE for approval during the Discussions Phase.

I. The State and the Contractor shall mutually agree upon the definitions of Emergency, High, Medium, and Low Priority Issues during the Discussions Phase.

J. The Contractor shall dedicate a resource after four (4) business hours of down time.

DATA SECURITY

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed Data Security Plan during the Discussions phase. The Data Security Plan must, at minimum, meet the requirements set forth in this section of the RFP.

B. The Contractor shall provide the name and contact information for an employee who shall serve as the State’s primary security contact and be available to assist the State twenty-four (24) hours per day, seven (7) days per week as a contact in resolving obligations associated with a Security Breach. The security contact must be able to give a detailed explanation of the breach and the impact of the breach. The security contact must also provide a detailed resolution so that the breach will not be repeated.

C. Any data located on servers must be physically and virtually secure from any unauthorized access using the strictest of accepted principles adhering to the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium ((ISC)²) body of knowledge.

D. The Contractor shall notify the State of a security breach as soon as practicable, but no later than four (4) hours after the event is identified and the Contractor becomes aware of it.

E. Third parties or personnel from the Contractor that are not directly involved with the development shall not be allowed information relating to statistics or demographics of the State of Arkansas. Only staff with a need to know shall have access to such data.

F. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) must be handled in accordance with the Arkansas Personal Information Protection Act (A.C.A. §4-110-101 et al) and the GSA Rules of Behavior for Handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

G. At the end of the contract period, or at any time a hard drive is removed from use within the scope of this contract, the Contractor shall erase, destroy, and render unrecoverable all data and certify in writing that these actions have been completed within thirty (30) days of the termination of this agreement or within 7 days of the request by the State, whichever comes first. At a minimum, a “Clear” media sanitization must be performed according to the standards enumerated by the National Institute of Standards, Guidelines for Media Sanitization, SP800-88, Appendix A - see http://csrc.nist.gov/.

H. The system (software and hardware) must not store any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of any Arkansas resident for any time longer than required by Arkansas State Law and the requirements of this RFP.

I. The system must meet or exceed applicable Federal and State privacy and security standards, including but not limited to, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA).

J. The Contractor shall ensure all logs are encrypted using AES-256.

K. The Contractor shall ensure all data being transmitted is encrypted and all stored data is encrypted at rest. Encrypting must be done with AES-256.

L. The Contractor shall ensure all the authorized Users have a unique user-id and password to access the Contractor’s solution.

M. The Contractor shall ensure the system has role-based access levels for authorized Users.

N. The Contractor shall ensure ADEE as the final authority to grant access to any user from other State Entities.

O. The system must be configurable to lock out an operator after a State-assigned number of failed attempts to log in.

P. The system must include a complex or strong password requirement that includes the following at a minimum:

· Minimum of eight (8) characters for State Admin Users.

· Minimum of twelve (12) characters in length for all other user types.

· Maximum password length: no limit

· Have at least one (1) upper case.

· Have at least one (1) lower case.

· Have at least one (1) number.

· Have at least one (1) special character for passwords with minimum length of 8 characters.

· Lock the user ID after five (5) sequential incorrect password attempts.

· Password reuse prohibited for 6 generations.

· Require the password to be changed every 120 days.

· Notify the user to change the password at 110 days and 115 days after password creation.

· Reset the user ID if the password is not changed at 120 days after creation.

Q. The system must use Two-Factor Authentication.

R. The system must have the ability to establish “timeout” and terminate session” limits by User Role.

DISASTER RECOVERY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY

A. The Prospective Contractor shall be required to provide a proposed Disaster Recovery Plan during the Discussions phase. The Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan must, at minimum, meet all requirements set forth in this section of the RFP.

B. The Contractor shall include backup and recovery procedures which will allow recovery of the system and all data up to the moment of the disaster and successfully resume functioning within four (4) hours of any disaster.

C. The system must frequently and automatically back up data. All backup servers and backup data associated with the Arkansas instance of the Contractor-hosted solution must reside in the continental United States. The Contractor shall include data back-up provisions adhering to the following requirements and principles in their proposed Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan:

1. The system must backup and completely restore key system data files. Backup media should be common media readable by readily available hardware.

2. If access to backed-up information depends on Contractor-owned hardware that is scheduled for discontinuation or prolonged downtimes, or if for any other reason the Contractor believes that its hardware or software may inhibit the State’s access to backed up information at any point in time, the Contractor shall immediately notify and present a remedy in writing to ADEE that the Contractor and ADEE must mutually agree upon.

3. The Contractor shall maintain a data backup schedule in accordance with the following requirements:

a. A weekly cycle providing a full backup of system information that reflects all project components, configurations, and data at the completion of that week’s cycle, run on Sundays.

b. A daily backup reflecting that day’s processed information, Monday through Sunday.

c. The Contractor shall furnish to the Contract Administrator or their designee an electronic daily report delineating the completion of that day’s backup, the status, and catalog of items backed up.

D. The Contractor shall ensure the proposed system meets NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) standards for disaster recovery and contingency planning.

E. The Contractor shall be required to test the Disaster Recovery Plan by doing a complete fail over of all test/production systems during the final testing stage and after initial rollout.

DATA OWNERSHIP AND END OF CONTRACT TRANSITION

A. The State shall retain sole ownership, right, title and interest to all data stored in the Contractor-hosted solution. At the end of the contract the Contractor shall transfer 100% of State-owned data back to the State or to another Contractor at the request of the State. At the end of the contract and after confirmed transfer of 100% of State-owned data back to the State or their designee, the Contractor shall destroy all copies of the State-owned data the Contractor possesses.

B. The Contractor shall ensure all data received as part of the Contract must be used solely for the purpose of this contract and not shared, reused, or disseminated to any other party or entity without the express written consent of ADEE.

C. Upon termination or expiration, should any subsequent contract for LIHWAP be awarded to a provider other than the awardee of this RFP, the then current Contractor shall, to the greatest extent possible and reasonable, cooperate with ADEE in initiating a smooth and orderly transition to the next Contractor.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

A. State law requires that qualifying contracts for services include Performance Standards for measuring the overall quality of services that a Contractor shall provide.

B. The State may be open to negotiations of Performance Standards prior to contract award, prior to the commencement of services, or at times throughout the contract duration.

C. Performance Standards shall not be amended unless they are agreed to in writing and signed by the parties.

D. Failure to meet the minimum Performance Standards as specified will result in the assessment of damages.

E. In the event a Performance Standard is not met, the Contractor will have the opportunity to defend or respond to the insufficiency. The State has the right to waive damages if it determines there were extenuating factors beyond the control of the Contractor that hindered the performance of services. In these instances, the State has final determination of the performance acceptability.

F. Should any compensation be owed to the Department due to the assessment of damages, Contractor shall follow the direction of the Department regarding the required compensation process.

SECTION 3 – selection

· Do not provide responses to items in this section.

SELECTION PROCESS

A. TSS OSP will review each Technical Proposal Packet to verify submission Requirements have been met. Technical Proposal Packets that do not meet submission Requirements will be rejected and will not be evaluated.

1. The State may conduct cost checks based on the cost submitted by each Prospective Contractor on the completed Pricing Response.

a. Prospective Contractors submitting Responsive Proposals with a proposed cost that falls twenty-five percent (25%) or more from the average submitted cost may be asked to justify their submitted cost.

b. Should TSS OSP request clarification and/or additional information regarding cost, Prospective Contractors shall provide clarification and/or additional information as specified by the request.

B. A…