Print_and_Data_Vendor_RFP.pdf

The Beaufort County Treasurer’s Office, professionals serving with innovation and enthusiasm.

Request for Proposal for Printing, Mailing, and Data Services for the

Beaufort County Treasurer’s Office

RFP #: - - - - -

Issued: September 17, 2025

Due: October 17, 2025

Introduction

The Beaufort County Treasurer’s Office (“Treasurer’s Office”) is issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for printing, mailing and data management services. The Treasurer’s Office is seeking to maximize the use of technology to serve citizens, gain internal efficiencies and provide a high-quality customer service experience for both taxpayers and internal users.

About the Treasurer’s Office and Beaufort County Proposers are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the responsibilities and role of the Treasurer’s Office, as well as the needs of our customers. The following links may be used to learn more.

1. Beaufort County

2. About the Treasurer’s Office

Customer Accounts and Volume As of August 29, 2025, the Treasurer’s Office manages 537,685 accounts and mails out approximately 16,500 property tax bills monthly and 206,000 property tax bills on an annual basis, broken out below.

The differences between customer accounts and mailings are due to a customer opting for electronic billing or their payment status being delinquent.

Average Vehicle Bills Monthly 15,000 Average Watercraft Bills Monthly 1,600 Annual Tax Bill Mailing 176,000 Installment Bill Mailings 10,000 Delinquent Tax Bill Mailing 16,000 Certified Tax Notice Mailing 4,000 Various PDF Mailings 11,000 Various Inserts 270,000 Receipts Mailed Annually, as needed 40,000

Monthly bills are mailed between the 1st and 14th day of each month.

Project Objectives and Goals

The Treasurer’s Office seeks to accomplish, at a minimum, the following objectives and goals:

• Seamless Continuation of Services: Beaufort County’s taxpayers rely on hundreds of thousands of documents sent out by the Treasurer’s Office annually. While improvements and efficiencies are sought, it is vital that these communications and services continue without disruption.

• Customized, Data-Driven Document Distribution: All data provided by the Treasurer’s Office is obtained from the tax duplicate and used to drive and dictate outcomes such as the type of communication being generated or the inclusion of one insert over another.

• User-Friendly Platform: It is imperative that the proposer offers a convenient and efficient file delivery process as well as easy access to tracking and historical data so we can best serve our customers.

https://www.beaufortcountysc.gov/ https://www.beaufortcountytreasurer.com/about

• Provision of Useable Files: Generated documents are used to populate the Treasurer’s Office Tax Document Look-up service, used by an average of 20,000 taxpayers monthly. PDFs and other required files of billed documents are necessary for the continuity of those taxpayer services.

• Reliable Tracking and History: The Treasurer’s Office relies on the delivery and remittance scans of the United States Postal Service (USPS) when performing certain functions such as evaluating a request to waive penalties or responding to legal proceedings.

• Maximized Cost and Efficiency Opportunities: As prudent stewards of the public’s resources, the Treasurer’s Office is seeking not just cost-effective solutions but innovative ones that increase delivery success and minimize or eliminate costs.

The initial length of the contract is anticipated to be five years.

Scope of Services

The below is offered as a summary. While proposers should not consider it an exhaustive list, Appendix A provides further details and typical volume regarding the Treasurer’s Office scope of services.

Printing and Mailing Appendix B provides examples of all documents and notifications. Proposers should note that data mapping and file management is utilized and required for all bills as well as the ability to comply with and adapt to lockbox specifications. Customizable, programmable inserts are required, and customized, programmable envelopes are preferred. Proposers are expected to interpret hardcopy documents as data representations and must possess the capability to programmatically control and customize data presentation.

The successful proposer will offer every type of USPS discounts and mailing efficiencies that will increase the likelihood of the mailed item being successfully delivered.

The Treasurer’s Office currently has a separate relationship for online billing and payment services provided via myBeaufortCounty.com. These services are not being replaced unless a net benefit is proposed. Should a proposer wish to include this in their offer, it should be presented clearly and separate from the services requested in this RFP.

Data Mapping and File Management The creation of all documents is driven by data files provided to the vendor by the Treasurer’s Office.

Through customized programing and data use rules, the successful proposer should be able to successfully present data in a user-friendly format and using the appropriate bill or document type. Once generated, electronic copies of all bills, whether mailed or not, must be provided back to the Treasurer’s Office.

The successful proposer must also provide a user-friendly platform to track United States Postal Service (USPS) activity on a per mailed item basis, to be retained and accessible for at least 12 months and possess the ability to export such tracking history for future reference. Additionally, the platform must have the ability to search for mailed items based on Property Identification Number (PIN), taxpayer name, and taxpayer address, as well as offer projections of incoming revenues based on remittances that are in transit.

https://www.beaufortcountytreasurer.com/tax-bill-lookup https://www.beaufortcountytreasurer.com/tax-bill-lookup

At a minimum, a new contract will mirror all current services. However, the Treasurer’s Office is open and supportive of alterations to gain operational efficiency and cost savings.

General Process

Selection Process A selection committee comprised of the Deputy Treasurer, Tax Collector and Data Strategy Manager will evaluate and rank all proper submittals via the scoring and evaluation criteria set forth in this RFP. From these rankings either a recommendation to select the "most suitable" proposer will be made (Phase 1) or leading proposers may be selected for the purpose of interviews (Phase 2).

In the Phase 1 round, respondents will provide written proposals online through Vendor Registry on the County’s Website. Appendix C provides the template outline respondents must use for Phase 1 to offer insight into the overall capabilities of the proposer as well as projected costs. Failure to use the prescribed outline will automatically eliminate the respondent from consideration. If a Phase 2 is needed, those selected will have an opportunity for presentations and to demonstrate services.

Proposals will be evaluated based on the solutions offered and the respondents’ overall capabilities but may require demonstration of the technology offered. The Treasurer’s Office reserves the right to select a proposer based solely on the written response to the evaluation criteria. The Treasurer’s Office will be the sole judge of the "most suitable" firm.

This solicitation does not commit the Treasurer’s Office to award a contract, to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a proposal, or to procure or contract any goods or services. The Treasurer’s Office reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals received as a result of this request, to negotiate with all qualified offers, or to cancel in part or in its entirety this proposal, if it is in the best interests of the Treasurer’s Office to do so.

RFP Contact Upon request, the Treasurer’s Office is available to answer any questions, give examples of data and work, or provide any other information the offeror needs to prepare a comprehensive proposal. Questions and requests should be sent via e-mail or through Vendor Registry to David Thomas, Beaufort County Purchasing Director, at dthomas@bcgov.net.

Answers to questions received that change and/or clarify this solicitation will be posted on the County’s website at www.BeaufortCountySC.gov and accessed by clicking on the Bid Opportunities option. If it becomes necessary to revise any part of this RFP, an addendum will likewise be posted on the County’s website. Offerors must acknowledge in writing, receipt of all addenda in the text of their proposals.

All official correspondence regarding the requirements, terms, and conditions should be directed to and will be issued by the Purchasing Department. Offerors are cautioned that Beaufort County and the Treasurer’s Office assumes no responsibility for oral explanations or interpretations of solicitation documents.

All material submitted in response to this RFP shall become the property of the County and will not be mailto:dthomas@bcgov.net returned to the Offeror. The content of each Offeror’s proposal shall become public information once a contract has been awarded.

Submitting a Proposal Proposals should be creative and innovative, presenting the best possible experience for the Treasurer’s Office’s and our taxpayers, and clearly address the project’s objectives and goals. This document provides the outline of services sought. If a responding entity wants to propose services it deems to be superior or more appropriate than those being requested, the responding entity should make the case, provide appropriate pricing, and an example of how it would provide a net benefit.

The pricing portion of the proposals must breakout costs such as redesign costs from maintenance costs.

By submitting a proposal, the offeror agrees to the Treasurer’s Office’s requirements, including, but not limited to:

• The offeror meets the needs of the Treasurer’s Office as outlined in this RFP document.

• The offeror has reviewed Exhibit E, the Treasurer’s Office preferred contractual language, with their legal counsel prior to submitting a proposal and has included any requested contractual changes in their proposal. Any contractual changes requested will be considered in Phase 1 scoring and taken under advisement should your company reach the negotiation stage. Acceptance of your proposal is not acceptance of your contractual terms.

• All services and products can be fully transitioned and implemented within 6 to 9 months of executing the contract.

• Any drafts, designs, formats, content, and other similar work product created in the course of completing this process will be used at the discretion of the Treasurer’s Office and may not be used by the offeror on any projects, work, products, or deliverables for clients and/or customers outside of the Treasurer’s Office without first receiving written approval from the Treasurer’s Office.

• In addition to any other reasons for termination listed in this document or resulting contractual agreement, those reasons include but are not limited to:

o Failing to make satisfactory progress in the execution of the agreement and/or service, o Endangering the performance of this agreement, o Any work or service deemed sub-standard by the Treasurer’s Office.

• The offeror understands that the Treasurer’s Office is prohibited by South Carolina State Law from indemnifying or saving harmless the offeror, its officers, agents, or employees from and against any and all liability, claims, demands, damages, fines, fees, expenses, penalties, suits, proceedings, actions and cost of actions, including attorney’s fees for trial and on appeal of any kind and nature arising or growing out of or in any way connected with the performance of the Agreement.

• The offeror agrees that they will honor the pricing, discounts, and/or terms set forth in their proposal for any other Beaufort County departments seeking similar services, without charging any implementation, setup, onboarding, or similar one-time fees.

Appendix C provides a template outline for the respondent’s proposal. Respondents must structure their proposals in this manner to be considered. Failure to do so will make them automatically ineligible for consideration.

Scoring Phase 1: Based on the submitted proposals, the total possible points is 100 and weighted as follows:

● Service Capability: 30 points

● Innovation: 20

● Ease of Use: 20 points

● Pricing: 20 points

● References: 10 points

Phase 2: If further information is deemed necessary by the selection committee, Phase 2 will be in-person presentations with the total possible points of 100 and weighted as follows:

● Service Capability: 30 points

● Innovation: 30 points

● Ease of Use: 30 points

● Pricing: 10 points

Examples of the scoring sheet for each are provided in Appendix D.

Selection Criteria The winning vendor will be selected based on best overall value. Price will be a factor in this decision, but will not be the sole, nor necessarily, the most important factor. Experience, customer service, corrective action processes, technological advancements, as well as other factors will be considered.

Schedule of Events The following schedule details key dates and times related to this RFP. The Treasurer’s Office reserves the right to revise this schedule as needed to ensure process integrity.

Date Time Activity September 17 N/A RFP issued.

October 8 4:00 pm Phase 1 questions submitted. Answers provided continually through end of day October 9 *

October 17 4:00 pm Phase 1 responses due.

October 24 4:00 pm Preliminary finalist notified, or Phase 2 finalists will be notified.

*All questions submitted will be answered with questions/responses provided to all respondents.

Appendix Summary

● Appendix A: Detailed Scope of Services

● Appendix B: Document Samples

● Appendix C: Printing, Mailing, and Data Services Proposal Outline Requirements

● Appendix D: Sample Scoring Sheets (Evaluation Form)

● Appendix E: Treasurer’s Office Preferred Contractual Language