Questions and Answers - Version 4~1.docx

State of Illinois IL Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security Emergency Notification Software Open Market Bid 26-588IEMA-MGMTA-B-50057 Questions and Answers

All Questions & Answers for this solicitation received by 1/20/2026 are included in the document below.

1. Question: What are the responsiveness requirements for this solicitation?

Answer: Please refer to Section D.2 of the RFP for a complete list of responsiveness requirements. Specifically, Illinois Department of Human Rights (if applicable), Illinois Board of Elections, and Illinois Secretary of State registrations.

• If applicable, Offeror must be registered with the Illinois Board of Elections at time of bid. https://www.elections.il.gov/BEREP.aspx?MID=5kJmo5Vlmig%3d

• If applicable, offeror must have registered, or at a minimum, have applied for an Illinois Department of Human Rights Public Contract Number at time of bid. https://dhr.illinois.gov/public-contracts/idhr-number.html

• If applicable, Offeror must be registered with the Illinois Secretary of State before a contract can be executed. Offeror must be in good standing with another states Secretary of State at time of bid. https://www.ilsos.gov/home.html

2. Question: When must an Offeror be registered with the Illinois Board of Elections?

Answer: Pursuant to Public Act 95-971, effective January 1, 2009, any business entity whose existing State contracts, or whose bids or offers on State contracts exceed $50,000 annually, must electronically register with the State Board of Elections.

3. Question: Which Vendor Disclosure Form should my entity complete?

Answer: The correct Vendor Disclosures must be submitted for a proposal to be considered responsive. If your entity is actively registered in the Illinois Procurement Gateway, the “IPG Active Registered Vendor Disclosure (formerly named Forms B)” can be submitted. Only utilize this form if your entity is actively registered in the Illinois Procurement Gateway. To ensure that your entity is registered in the IPG, search for your business name in the IPG Registered Vendor Directory. If your company does not appear in the search results, then you are not registered in the IPG. In order to utilize this form, you will have to have an active registration approved by the CPO’s office. Instructions for registering with the Illinois Procurement Gateway (IPG) can be found at: https://cpo.illinois.gov/ipgfaqs.html. If your entity is not registered in the Illinois Procurement Gateway, “Vendor Disclosure (formerly named Forms A)” must be submitted with your proposal.

4. Question: In what format should the Vendor Responses to Sections F.1, F.2, and F.3 be submitted?

Answer: The vendor should utilize the RFP Document to complete Sections F.1, F.2, and F.3. The vendor should fill out the check mark boxes and provide page numbers to a separate technical response document, as applicable. Both documents should be submitted with the vendor’s proposal.

5. Question: Section B.2 references support for up to 5,000 registered accounts along with statewide alerting capabilities, including IPAWS. To ensure alignment, can the State confirm whether the 5,000 registered accounts are intended to represent internal users with system access (e.g., administrators and staff who log in to manage profiles, review, and respond to messages), while statewide public alerting via IPAWS is separate from and not limited by this user count? Or, does the State intend for alert notifications to be routinely sent to 5,000 internal employees as an alert audience, in addition to IPAWS-based public alerts?

Answer: Confirming, IPAWS accounts will be separate from this user count of 5000 for internal users and key stakeholders. B.2 is focused on the mass notification system and not the IPAWS capabilities for jurisdictions.

6. Question: Reference A.1/B.2, Overview, and Volumes & Quantities: “This system will enable the IEMA-OHS to deliver public alerts and notifications through various mediums, including but not limited to, telephony, email, Short Message Service (SMS), and FEMA IPAWS.”

The RFP states the system will deliver alerts to citizens of the State of Illinois and requires IPAWS (public warning) capabilities. However, the Volumes & Quantities section specifies support for only up to 5,000 registered accounts and 15,000 outbound phone messages... per hour.

Can the State please confirm that the intended use is for broad public notification to the general population (millions of residents) or if the 5,000 registered accounts limit refers only to internal staff/responders, with the public notification being handled via IPAWS (WEA/EAS) which does not require registration? Can you provide examples of the different types of citizens alerts IEMA would be responsible for sending?

Answer: Please see response of question 5. The 5000 accounts is referring to internal users and key stakeholders. The 15K outbound messages is for the mass notification requirements for the internal users, not the IPAWS capabilities.

The state will be required to send out various emergency notifications to the general public via IPAWS at the jurisdictional or statewide level.

7. Question: RFP Question: F.3.4.22. The Offeror should describe how the system may include additional notification features, such as: 1) notifications via GIS interface/database 2) Citizen Directory notification (i.e. Reverse 911) 3) Data exchange with other alerting systems 4) Data exchange with other State of Illinois applications.

In reference to reverse 911, can you confirm that you wish to use this emergency messaging system for broad community alerts outside of IPAWS criteria and can you provide some examples of what kinds of external alerts to citizens you would be sending?

Answer: We’re requesting additional information from the offeror of alternative means for contacting the general public outside of IPAWS capabilities. This would be used in the event of an IPAWS outage or other if the message is outside the scope of IPAWS requirements.

8. Question: In reference to the document titled "information-and-technology-request-for-proposal-offer-to-the-state-of-illinois-v-25-1-7-29-2025" can you upload this file again, as the file only shows an error when opening.

Answer: Please ensure that your PDF reader is updated. If it does not open immediately, you may want to try opening the file directly from your download folder or using a different browser. An updated document titled “Information Technology RFP Offer to the State of Illinois” has been attached to the solicitation. Both are the same document, and both will be accepted as the Required Quote Attachment “Offer”.

9. Question: In BidBuy, the State requests individual pricing for each county; however, the descriptions currently only list the county names. Could you specify exactly what these line items are intended to account for? (e.g., Is this for per-county licensing, implementation fees, etc.)

Answer: Please refer to Narrative Line Items 12, 116, and 220 in Bidbuy for clarification. These line items detail what is required to be included in the pricing for the counties listed underneath them. All cost associated with opting in to services for each individual county should be included.

10. Question: Regarding the State's previous response concerning community notifications during an IPAWS outage or for non-IPAWS events, we require clarification on the intended operational model:

· State-Level Model: Is it the State’s intent to procure a centralized mass notification system where IEMA can send alerts for any resident statewide who opts in for alerts published by IEMA?

· County-Level Model: Or is it the State’s intent for these individual county line items to allow local agencies to join the State’s system to send independent messages to their own communities?

Answer:

State Level Model: No, the State is not looking for a state-level mass notification system that residents can sign-up for. The state is only looking to utilize IPAWS/WEA at the residential level state-wide. The Mass Notification feature with full signup capabilities is for IEMA-OHS and its partners for internal notifications, not related to IPAWS/WEA.

County-Level Model: The optional county-level model is to only allow for the counties to have a platform to send IPAWS/WEA messages at the jurisdictional level not the State Level. This will be for their county only, unless otherwise indicated. This is to allow for the Counties to have their own account to send IPAWS/WEA alerts to their residents, not a mass notification platform that residents can sign-up for at the County level.