Response to Offeror Questions Document 2.pdf

Q&A Document Date: August 18, 2026

Subject: Questions & Answers, 26RFP19895 Part 2

In accordance with the subject Request for Proposal (RFP), the following are answers to questions which have been submitted prior to 5PM, August 11, 2026. These questions are for informational purposes only; they do not alter the requirements specified within the RFP. Any changes to the RFP will be accomplished by the Office of Procurement Management through an addendum.

*The State's response will be in red font following the Vendor's question.

1. Can the State share an estimated budget range or prior-year spend on the legacy South

Dakota Historical Society Press platform, to help offerors size an appropriately scaled solution?

Annual maintenance budget should be separate from website construction on the cost proposal. The budget will be determined from the proposals received. Vendors can propose different cost proposals.

2. Approximately how many products/SKUs and what transaction volume does the Historical

Society Press currently process, to correctly scope the shopping/inventory/tax-tracking requirements?

We have approximately 400 products and PDFs housed on the website. Our media assets would range to about double that, excluding our blog posts. An approximate total for all would be about 1,500 – 1,600.

3. Is there an existing Stripe merchant account and integration in place today, or would this be a net-new setup?

Yes, this is an existing Stripe merchant account in place.

4. Approximately how much existing content (pages, PDFs, documents, media assets) needs to be migrated from the legacy platform?

would be about 1,500 – 1,600.

5. Does the State have any restrictions on the use of subcontractors for specialized functionality

(e.g., e-commerce/payment processing), and if so, what disclosure is required in the proposal?

See Section 12 in Exhibit A

6. Does the fingerprint-based background investigation requirement (Section 5.12) apply to all team members with any system access, or only those with direct access to PII/FERPA/PHI/FTI data specifically? What is the expected timeline and process for completing these investigations relative to contract start?

Fingerprint-based background checks are required for anyone who has access to State data and systems.

7. Is there a preference between vendor-hosted, State on-prem, or State cloud PaaS hosting, or is the State genuinely open to all three with no advantage given to any option?

The State is interested in vendor hosted and State cloud PaaS solutions. State on-prem is not preferred.

8. What were the peak and average page views for the website over the previous 12 months?

The State does not have these analytics.

9. What CMS and shopping cart system are currently used?

Wordpress is the CMS, Stripe is the ecommerce. Plone is the hosting environment.

10. Is there an existing identity provider (e.g., Azure AD/Entra ID) offerors should assume for the

OAuth 2.0 SSO integration, or will this be newly established for this project?

The State utilizes Azure for OAuth 2.0 SSO.

11. Are there any external integrations involving an API or automated data import/export that we should be aware of (other than Stripe)?

The only integrations at the moment are Stripe, Tax Jar (for sales tax), and USPS shipping rates,

12. Does the AI disclosure requirement (Section 4.2.1) apply only to AI functionality embedded in the delivered website, or does it also extend to AI tools used internally by the offeror during development (e.g., coding assistants)?

The Offeror should disclose all use of AI integrated into the product offerings.

13. How much weight does "familiarity with the project locale" (Section 7.1) carry in practice for a statewide digital project with no in-person service requirement?

See Section 7.2 in the RFP.

14. Is there any state preference for or against an open-source CMS and shopping cart solution?

The State has a preference for commercial but will consider open-source solutions.

15. Are email blasts and newsletters expected to originate in the CMS or from an external tool such as Constant Contact or MailChimp?

Newsletters are handled through other divisions of the State Historical Society. The Offeror is not expected to provide this tool. There is not an existing newsletter tool and subscriber list through the current website, There is an information request form and “put me on your newsletter” form, however, and those should migrate over.

16. We are a small company with no regulatory requirement to maintain audited financials. Does that preclude us from participating in this RFP?

The State prefers audited financials but will accept other standard financial documents, eg.

Balance sheet and Income Statement.

17. Prohibited-Entity Certification (Exhibit C). Section 1.4 of Exhibit C defines "Contractor" to exclude "a sole proprietorship or individual natural U.S. citizen," while RFP Section 5.16 directs all offerors to complete and submit Exhibit C. For an offeror that is a single-member limited liability company owned by a U.S. citizen, should Exhibit C be completed and signed, and if so, in what capacity?

Exhibit C should be completed and signed.

18. Hosting models. Sections 4.1, 6, and Exhibit E request responses for a vendor-hosted solution, a

State-hosted on-premises solution, and a State cloud-hosted PaaS solution, "if available" or "if applicable." Does the State require a complete separate technical, security-questionnaire, and cost response for all three models, or does it anticipate a preferred hosting model for this project?

The State is interested in vendor hosted and State cloud PaaS solutions. the Offeror should provide a separate response for each proposed solution and how each solution will meet the requirements in Sections 3 and 4.

19. Single sign-on scope. Section 4.2.3 requires integration with the State's single sign-on. Does this requirement apply only to administrator and staff login, or also to public book purchasers and other end users? And which State identity provider or standard (for example, a specific OIDC endpoint) should offerors plan to integrate with?

Administrator’s and Public users are required to login through State SSO (mySD). The State uses

Azure.

20. Payment processing. Section 3.5 requires the site to connect to the State's current credit-card processor, Stripe. Should the offeror transact through the State's existing Stripe account (for example, via Stripe Connect), or establish its own merchant account? Who owns the Stripe relationship, and which party bears processing fees?

The Offeror will use the State’s existing Stripe account. The State will own the account and handle any processing fees.

21. Sales consolidation. The current sdhspress.com sells individual copies through an on-site cart, but several purchase paths are handled by email or through other websites rather than the storefront — wholesale and reseller orders, library and educator discounts, book-club orders, international orders, and "South Dakota History" journal subscriptions. Should the new sdhspress.com consolidate these into a single transactional storefront, or continue to route some of them to existing channels?

The new sdhspress.com should consolidate these into a single transactional storefront for local\nationwide purchases. However, the international distributor shall be maintained as

Mare Nostrum (Wiley). SDHS Press is not authorized to sell directly to customers outside the

United States.

22. Content migration. We have inventoried the public catalog to size the Data Conversion Plan

(approximately 111 published titles, plus contributor and category pages). Two inputs are not determinable from the public site: (a) the volume of "South Dakota History" journal issues and articles, and any unpublished or archived content held in the current platform; and (b) whether the State can provide a content and catalog export, or administrative access to the legacy platform, for migration. Can the State advise on both?

would be about 1,500 – 1,600. Access to the current system will have to be determined.

23. Cyber-liability insurance term. Exhibit A, paragraph 6, states cyber-liability coverage remains in effect one year after the work is completed, while Exhibit D states three years. Which term governs?

Exhibit D governs

24. Budget. Has the State established an available budget or a not-to-exceed amount for this project?

The budget will be determined from the proposals received.

25. Please provide website transaction volume, order volume, and online sales revenue for the most recent twelve-month period.

The State estimates around 4,000 to 5,000 transactions per year