NDERFP260303 - SolicitationAddendumQ&A.R3.docx

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

SOLICITATION NUMBER: NDERFP260303

Grants Management System Opening Date: June 24th, 2026 Q&A Revised: June 15th, 2026

Questions and Answers

Following are the questions submitted and answers provided for the above-mentioned solicitation. The questions and answers are to be considered as part of the solicitation. It is the responsibility of bidders to check the State Purchasing Bureau website for all addenda or amendments.

Attachment A NDE Vendor Cost Sheet

Glossary of Terms Responsible Bidder Definition

Section I.E & III.C Registration & Eligibility

b) Please see Section III.C. within the RFP regarding E-Verify.

c) Please refer to the requirements of the Secretary of State website.

Section I.P Evaluation of Responses

Section I.W Vendor Demonstrations

Section II.T Retainage Clauses

Section III.A & VI.A.1.IX Personnel Requirements

Section III.A Independent Vendor Duties

Section III.B Foreign Adversary Certification

Section III.I Ownership of Deliverables

Section III.J Insurance Requirements

(b) This question is addressed in Section III.J. (Insurance Requirements) of the RFP.

(c) The RFP only addresses "Additional-Insured" requirements in the section related to "Commercial General Liability Insurance"

(d) The RFP does not address any minimum sublimits, however, it is the expectation of NDE that the policy obtained by the vendor will be sufficient to cover each of these risks.

Section V.C Compliance & Audit Support

Single audit tracking and FAC/SAM.gov status capture Period-of-performance enforcement Allowable/unallowable cost rules and budget-category controls Subrecipient risk assessment and monitoring Cash management Grant closeout procedures Audit trail and record retention sufficient for federal review

Best practice would be to share all additonal capabilities or functionalities that would benefit the NDE.

Section V.C Fiscal Management & Reimbursements

Section V.C Fiscal Management & Reimbursements

Section V.C Fiscal Management & Reimbursements

templates and revision rules? If program-specific, can NDE provide example structures from two or three representative grants?

Budget structures are not fully standardized across all ~33 NDE grant programs. Most federal formula programs follow common federal budget-category structures (e.g., Personnel, Fringe, Supplies, Travel, Contractual, Indirect), while certain state-funded and competitive/discretionary programs use program-specific templates and revision rules.

Vendors should propose a solution that supports configurable budget templates, allowable-cost rules, and amendment/revision workflows at the program level.

While NDE is interested in greater standardization over time, the system must accommodate variation across programs, including differing budget categories, levels of detail, and approval requirements.

Representative budget templates will be shared with the awarded vendor during implementation discovery to inform system configuration.

Best practice: Vendors should demonstrate template library functionality that enables program staff to clone, modify, and version budget templates and associated rules with minimal vendor intervention.

Section V.C General System Requirements

annually. Approximately how many distinct application forms, reimbursement workflows, programmatic reporting templates, and closeout workflows are expected to be configured in the GMS at go-live?

Section V.E of the RFP references “approximately 20 existing grants”; however, this figure is outdated. NDE currently administers approximately 33 grant programs disbursing roughly $400 million annually.

The number of active grants may fluctuate year to year based on funding availability, program changes, and legislative priorities. Additionally, some grant programs are currently managed outside of the GMS, with a long-term objective of consolidating all grants into a single system.

NDE’s grant portfolio includes a mix of:

Formula-funded grants Competitive grants Discretionary programs State-funded grants Federally funded grants

These funding types often carry different application structures, reimbursement rules, reporting requirements, and compliance obligations, which contributes to configuration variability within the system.

For planning purposes, vendors should anticipate approximately:

100 internal NDE users 2,600 external users 300 subrecipient organizations

At go-live, NDE expects the GMS to support all in-scope programs, with shared/standardized configurations where feasible and program-specific configurations where required.

While a precise inventory of distinct application forms, reimbursement workflows, programmatic reporting templates, and closeout workflows will be finalized during implementation discovery, vendors should plan for a moderate-to-elevated level of configuration complexity aligned to the current portfolio (e.g., approximately 25–40 distinct application forms and corresponding workflow variants).

Best practice: Vendors should propose a reusable form and workflow library with strong cloning, inheritance, and versioning capabilities to efficiently support current programs, annual fluctuations, and future expansion—minimizing long-term configuration and maintenance effort.

Section V.C Integration & Data Exchange

Section V.C Programmatic Monitoring

what functional areas/programs must be in Phase 1?

Per Section V.D, a phased go-live is acceptable provided core capabilites required by July 1, 2027 are operational. This includes migration of existing grants to the new system. As new grant cycles occur following the execution of the contract with the vendor, strong proposals would incoporate onboarding of new grant cycles in the system prior to July 1, minimizng the migration of grants. Details of any phased go-live and migration will be negotiated during the contract drafting phase.

Section V.C Subrecipient & Grantee Management

NDE’s current process relies on grantee-provided data with manual validation, and the RFP does not require a specific validation method. Vendors should describe how their solution can support both data capture and validation of entity eligibility throughout the grant lifecycle.

NDE is interested in solutions that can support:

Validation of active UEI registration during applicant onboarding (pre-award) Verification of SAM.gov status prior to award execution Verification of SAM.gov status of reimbursement/payment processing Identification and handling of inactive, expired, or excluded (suspended/debarred) entities Retention of timestamped validation history for audit purposes

System-to-system integration (e.g., SAM.gov APIs, including entity validation or status services) is a desirable capability but is not required. Vendors should describe:

Available API-based validation approaches (real-time or near-real-time) Options for scheduled/batch synchronization or periodic refresh How the system supports alerts, holds, or workflow controls when entity status is invalid or expired

At a minimum, vendors should demonstrate how the solution supports flexible validation approaches that can evolve from current manual processes to more automated controls over time.

Best practice: Clearly distinguish whether validation capabilities are native, configurable, or require integration, and describe how the solution balances compliance, performance, and external system dependencies.

Section V.C Training and Support

Section V.C Workflow & User Roles

Vendors should plan to support approximately 2,600 external users across approximately 300 subrecipient organizations. External roles typically include: authorized organizational representatives, program contacts, fiscal contacts, application preparers, internal reviewers/approvers within the subrecipient, and read-only stakeholders. Final counts will be confirmed during implementation. Best practice: support organization-level delegated user administration so subrecipients manage their own users with NDE oversight. Step-function increases may occur with new federal/state grant programs added during the contract term. Concurrent peaks typically align with application open/close windows, reimbursement cycle deadlines (often month-end and quarter-end), and federal reporting periods.

Section VI.A.1 Corporate Overview Instructions

Section VI.A.1.II Financial Statements

Training Model: NDE anticipates a "train-the-trainer" approach, where the vendor trains NDE staff, who will then train external users (~2,600). However, a strong proposal would also include:

NDE-specific training materials reflecting actual configured workflows and screens Recorded training content for ongoing reference and onboarding Materials developed in collaboration with NDE program staff to ensure accuracy

The number of active grants may fluctuate year to year based on funding availability, program changes, and legislative priorities. Additionally, some grant programs are currently managed outside of the GMS, with a long-term objective of consolidating all grants into a single system.

NDE’s grant portfolio includes a mix of:

Formula-funded grants Competitive grants Discretionary programs State-funded grants Federally funded grants

These funding types often carry different application structures, reimbursement rules, reporting requirements, and compliance obligations, which contributes to configuration variability within the system.

For planning purposes, vendors should anticipate approximately:

100 internal NDE users 2,600 external users 300 subrecipient organizations

At go-live, NDE expects the GMS to support all in-scope programs, with shared/standardized configurations where feasible and program-specific configurations where required.

While a precise inventory of distinct application forms, reimbursement workflows, programmatic reporting templates, and closeout workflows will be finalized during implementation discovery, vendors should plan for a moderate-to-elevated level of configuration complexity aligned to the current portfolio (e.g., approximately 25–40 distinct application forms and corresponding workflow variants).

Best practice: Vendors should propose a reusable form and workflow library with strong cloning, inheritance, and versioning capabilities to efficiently support current programs, annual fluctuations, and future expansion—minimizing long-term configuration and maintenance effort.

Section III.N & V.C Technology Access Standards

Section V.C Security, Privacy & Accessibility

file exchange, SSO, etc.), and whether NDE can provide specs or sample files.

Specific financial system(s) and interface mechanisms will be confirmed during implementation discovery. The GMS should support standard integration methods, including APIs, file exchange, and SSO. Specifications and sample files will be provided to the awarded vendor during implementation and are not available during the proposal period.

whether ‘support within 24 hours’ means initial response or resolution.

Per Section V.C, support is required within 24 hours of a request. NDE expects business-hours support (Monday–Friday, 7:00 AM–6:00 PM Central) for routine issues, with 24x7x365 coverage for Severity 1 (production-down) incidents and after-hours escalation paths for critical issues affecting fiscal-cycle or compliance deadlines. The expected production uptime SLA is 99.5% minimum, with 99.9% preferred, measured monthly and excluding scheduled maintenance windows communicated in advance. Vendors should propose a tiered severity model with defined response and resolution targets per severity. Best practice: propose a service-level matrix specifying response time, restoration target, and credits/remedies for missed SLAs.

Section V.C Security, Privacy & Accessibility

Vendors should plan to support approximately 2,600 external users across approximately 300 subrecipient organizations. External roles typically include: authorized organizational representatives, program contacts, fiscal contacts, application preparers, internal reviewers/approvers within the subrecipient, and read-only stakeholders. Final counts will be confirmed during implementation. Best practice: support organization-level delegated user administration so subrecipients manage their own users with NDE oversight.

Section V.C Security, Privacy & Accessibility

Section V.D & V.E Work Plan & Current Env.

including: number of active and historical subrecipients; number of historical applications, awards, and amendments; number of reimbursement requests and payment records; number of documents and total storage size; number of programmatic reports; and the typical retention horizon of historical records that must be migrated to the new GMS?

NDE estimates approximately 300 subrecipient organizations; tens of thousands of applications, awards, and amendments; hundreds of thousands of reimbursement and payment records; tens of thousands of monitoring records; dozens of reports; and hundreds of thousands of document attachments. Historical data is expected to include recent records (approximately 3–5 years), with additional historical data within a 5–10 year horizon. Final volumes and retention scope will be confirmed during implementation discovery.

Section V.D & V.E Work Plan & Current Env.

Vendors should plan to support approximately 2,600 external users across approximately 300 subrecipient organizations. External roles typically include: authorized organizational representatives, program contacts, fiscal contacts, application preparers, internal reviewers/approvers within the subrecipient, and read-only stakeholders. Final counts will be confirmed during implementation. Best practice: support organization-level delegated user administration so subrecipients manage their own users with NDE oversight.

Section VI.A.1.VIII Corporate Experience

Specific pain points will be further validated with the awarded vendor during implementation discovery.

selected vendor.

Specific systems requiring integration will be identified during implementation discovery. Interface specifications, APIs, and technical documentation will be provided to the awarded vendor during implementation and are not available during the proposal period.

number of internal users by role type, including administrators, program staff, finance staff, reviewers, and auditors.

Vendors should plan to support approximately 100 internal NDE users across roles including: program administrators, program staff, fiscal staff, monitoring staff, reviewers/approvers, reporting/read-only users, and system administrators. Final role-by-role counts will be confirmed during implementation. Best practice: propose role-based access with separation of duties out-of-the-box plus configurable custom roles.

expected to access the platform.

Vendors should plan to support approximately 2,600 external users across approximately 300 subrecipient organizations. External roles typically include: authorized organizational representatives, program contacts, fiscal contacts, application preparers, internal reviewers/approvers within the subrecipient, and read-only stakeholders. Final counts will be confirmed during implementation. Best practice: support organization-level delegated user administration so subrecipients manage their own users with NDE oversight.

required.

Migration scope will be confirmed during implementation discovery and will include data from the current GMS and related sources. Approximate data volumes and primary data entities will be provided for planning purposes, while detailed field structures and document types will be defined during implementation.