Response to Offeror Questions document.pdf

25RFP17800 - Questions and Answers for Slate Software Implementation

1. Project Budget: Does BHSU have an anticipated budget for this project?

We would like to keep under $75,000

2. Timeline Feasibility: The tentative deadline is May 1, 2026. With proposals due in November

2025, this is an approximate 6-month timeline. Has BHSU assessed this timeline against the project's scope and complexity? Is the deadline firm, or is there any flexibility?

a. We feel like this is a reasonable timeline.

b. Goal deadline to be fully live in Slate is May 1, 2026. FIRM date by which BHSU must be fully live in Slate is June 1, 2026. That timing will provide one month of overlap/redundancy of old and new CRMs systems. Old/existing CRM will fully sunset on July 14, 2026.

3. Evaluation Process: In your evaluation process, are each of these criteria in the 4.4 matrix weighted equally?

a. Technical Capabilities

b. Functional Capabilities,

c. Training and Support

d. Project Approach

e. Project Team

f. Experience and Qualifications

g. Additional Considerations

4. Evaluation Criteria: If a firm cannot mark “Yes” on each criteria in the 4.4 matrix will their proposal still be considered? Or is it a requirement to be able to mark “Yes” for each.

a. Yes, each submission will be considered

5. BHSU Primary Stakeholders: Who are the primary stakeholders and decision-makers from

BHSU for this project (e.g., project sponsor, project manager, technical lead, functional leads from different departments)

a. Graduate Admissions Rich Loose, Assistant Provost

b. Graduate Admissions Samantha Clauser, Graduate/Athletics Coordinator

c. Undergraduate Admissions Joe Rainboth, Admissions Director

d. Undergraduate Admissions Liz Kinsella, CRM & Communication Coordinator

e. International Admissions Kaitlin Palmer, Director of International Relations

f. IT Ven Thompson

g. ???

6. BHSU Project Team: What level of time commitment (e.g., full-time, part-time) will be available from the BHSU project team members during the implementation?

a. A graduate admissions specialist will be available full time

b. Additional IT and admissions team members will be available part time.

7. Data Volume & Complexity: Could you provide an estimate of the data volume to be migrated (e.g., total number of prospect/applicant records, communication records, etc.)

from the last five years?

a. Priority historic data migration will be on past application records – quantity of approximately 2,500 to 3,000 application records per year/cycle for the past 5 years.

Lower priority, if any at all, will be placed on historic prospect/inquiry record migration.

8. Data Volume Forms: How many forms are you expecting to migrate over from your existing CRMs?

a. Approximately 15 forms will need to be migrated over from existing CRM. Current forms are built primarily in Form Assembly, and have been using Salesforce Connectors to import data into TargetX.

9. Data Scope: Beyond application data, what other data objects and records are in scope for migration from Salesforce and TargetX? (e.g., communication history, event attendance, staff user notes, documents/attachments).

a. Beyond Application data, other Salesforce Objects that may be in scope could include: Contact/Student, Enrollment History/Education History, Inquiries, Event History, Financial Aid, Relationship.

10. Application Complexity: The RFP lists multiple applications to be built (Undergrad, Grad, International, etc.) . How many distinct application forms does this represent?

Currently we will be creating an undergraduate

1. One Slate instance will be used.

Within the single Slate instance, 2 distinct applications/Levels will need to be built:

Undergraduate & Graduate Within each application, will need to be distinct Student Type options for: First Time, Transfer, Transfer System, Readmit/Returning, Non-Degree Seeking, High School Dual Enrollment, Teacher Certification

a. Within the Graduate application specific workflows to individual degree programs will need to be programmed; i.e.: different Graduate-level applications will have different submission/completion requirements and/or supplemental document upload needs.

b. International – within both Applications (Undergraduate & Graduate), logic will need to be build specific to defined Citizenship, Student Visa type, and available degree program and campus location options.

c. Are the underlying review processes (e.g., workflow bins, reader forms, permissions) significantly different for each? N/A

11. Communications Plan Replication: The sub proposal in Section 3.6.1 asks to replicate "a curated set of communication plans". Approximately how many communication plans, and how many unique email/SMS templates per plan, are in scope?

1. Undergraduate Admissions currently has 3 primary communication plans built: Pro/Inq, Applied, Admitted. Cumulative, across those 3 UG communication plans, there are approximately 80 different email templates existing

ii. Will BHSU provide all content, branding, and assets?

1. Yes.

12. Multiple Proposals: Section 5.2.4 notes that "Offerors may submit multiple cost proposals".

Is BHSU looking for different options based on scope (e.g., a phased approach), support levels, or other variables?

i. We are willing to consider a phased approach, as long as the required May/June fully-live deadlines can be met.

13. Alternate Proposal Pricing: Should the "sub proposal for replicating a curated set of communication plans" be priced as an optional, separate line item in the cost proposal?

a. No, please include in the original pricing plan.

14. What was the catalyst for migrating to Slate from Salesforce and TargetX?

a. Cost of Salesforce and TargetX

b. Mandate from our Regental System leadership

c. Expanded functionality

15. Are there specific data retention policies or compliance constraints beyond those listed in sections 3.10 or 3.8.5 of the RFP that must be factored into the migration?

a. No additional retention requirements

16. What is the current state of data quality? Are there known issues with duplicates or missing data points?

a. We do have some duplicate records within our system.

b. BHSU’s internal Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) team is equipped – and able – to support a significant part of the data migration needs of this CRM transition.

c. Priority historic data migration will be on past application records – quantity of approximately 2,500 to 3,000 application records per year/cycle for the past 5 years.

Lower priority, if any at all, will be placed on historic prospect/inquiry record migration.

d.

17. Has there been any discussion of system level branding for external-facing assets(forms, portals, etc.)?

a. We have not discussed system level forms and branding. We are a part of a system, however, are also competing for similar pools of students. This new Slate instance will be specific to BHSU branding, visual imagery and marketing assets, which will all be provided from institutional teams.

18. Do you have dedicated technical staff or project managers assigned to this initiative?

a. BHSU’s internal Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) team is equipped – and able – to support a significant part of the data migration needs of this CRM transition.

b. Key internal stakeholders and project managers for the CRM transition will include:

c. Graduate Admissions Rich Loose, Assistant Provost

d. Graduate Admissions Samantha Clauser, Graduate/Athletics

Coordinator

e. Undergraduate Admissions Joe Rainboth, Admissions Director

f. Undergraduate Admissions Liz Kinsella, CRM & Communication Coordinator

g. International Admissions Kaitlin Palmer, Director of International Relations

h. IT Ven Thompson i.

19. If so, how many hours per week can they commit?

a. We have not yet discussed specific amount of hours, but for other implementations have found their contribution more than sufficient for the task at hand.

20. Will they be consistently available throughout all phases of implementation up to May 1?

a. Yes, I anticipate the AIMS team and other institutional stakeholders to beavailable through the entire implementation process.

21. Will they be available during the summer months if needed?

a. Yes, they are 12-month contracted staff.

22. Do you intend for any members of your implementation team to serve as Slate Captains in an ongoing capacity?

a. Our Director of Admissions, Undergraduate CRM & Communication Coordinator, and

Graduate Admissions Coordinator will be among the primary institutional Slate Captains after initial implementation.

23. Are there particular milestones or external deadlines beyond student recruitment needs driving the current timeline that we should be aware of?

a. Goal deadline to be fully live in Slate is May 1, 2026. FIRM date by which BHSU must be fully live in Slate is June 1, 2026. That timing will provide one month of overlap/redundancy of old and new CRMs systems. Old/existing CRM will fully sunset on July 14, 2026.

24. Are there other departmental systems (not mentioned under Integrations) that will require integration with Slate? For example, will financial aid, student services, advancement, and/or the registrar need access and connectivity to Slate beyond what is indicated in the

RFP?

a. Slate’s ability to communicate directly with Banner should provide sufficient data for each of these other offices.

25. Do you plan to release financial aid information through Slate?

a. We are currently not using Slate for that purpose, however,are considering that type of communication for future cycle needs.

26. Do you foresee the need for certain aspects of the implementation and training to be onsite?

a. Not necessarily onsite, but ensuring that we have the tools moving forward to troubleshoot the system will be critical.

27. For 3.6.1, how many additional communication plans would you like us to build? Can you provide an estimate of how many mailings would be included in each plan/campaign?

i. Undergraduate Admissions currently has 3 primary communication plans built: Pro/Inq, Applied, Admitted. Cumulative,. Across those 3 UG communication plans, there are approximately 80 different email templates existing. The communication plan build will not be wholly on the vendor;

BHSU has internal Communication & Marketing staff that will be available to assist with some of the communication plan and template building, in Slate.

All BHSU branding, logos, imagery, and other visual assest will be provided by institution.

28. Is Black Hills open to streamlining the number of unique application forms, where possible?

i. Yes.

29. Can you provide more details regarding the data to be integrated with StarRez? Will this be a one-way or bi-directional integration?

i. The two primary data points that would be desired to integrate between StarRez and Slate are: Housing Application Submitted/Received and Housing Deposit Paid. Would be one-directional, from StarRez into Slate.

30. For 3.8.5.7, can you provide details regarding the “day one” reports (including number and type) that are needed for the initial go-live?

i. Highest priority would be to have “day-one” reports built and ready for:

Summary visualization of Enrollment Funnel for current cycle, Applications (total and by territory), Admitted (total and by territory), Housing Deposits, Campus Visit registered roster.

31. For 3.8.5.11, can you provide details regarding the total number of communication plans/flows needed for the initial go-live? How many mailings are included in each plan/flow?

i. Undergraduate Admissions currently has 3 primary communication plans built: Pro/Inq, Applied, Admitted. Cumulative,. Across those 3 UG communication plans, there are approximately 80 different email templates existing. The communication plan build will not be wholly on the vendor;

BHSU has internal Communication & Marketing staff that will be available to assist with some of the communication plan and template building, in Slate.

All BHSU branding, logos, imagery, and other visual assest will be provided by institution.

32. The project completion deadline is listed as May 1, 2026. Is this a go-live date or a completion of implementation date (including post-launch support and stabilization)?

i. Goal deadline to be fully live in Slate is May 1, 2026. FIRM date by which

BHSU must be fully live in Slate is June 1, 2026. That timing will provide one month of overlap/redundancy of old and new CRMs systems. Old/existing CRM will fully sunset on July 14, 2026.

33. The RFP notes open recruitment process during migration (3.10.1). How does BHSU expect to manage live application data migration—will cutover period or dual system usage be required?

i. Goal deadline to be fully live in Slate is May 1, 2026. FIRM date by which BHSU must be fully live in Slate is June 1, 2026. That timing will provide one month of overlap/redundancy of old and new CRMs systems. Old/existing CRM will fully sunset on July 14, 2026.

34. Are all five years of data expected to be fully migrated, or can some historical data be archived or migrated in phases?

i. Priority historic data migration will be on past application records – quantity of approximately 2,500 to 3,000 application records per year/cycle for the past 5 years. Lower priority, if any at all, will be placed on historic prospect/inquiry record migration.

35. For Pre-Professional applications (Business and Education) should these be live at go-live or can they follow in a later phase?

i. At go-live.

36. Does “replace all functionality in the current deployment with Slate functions where possible” (3.8.5.6.1) mean that custom functionality (e.g., from TargetX modules) must be rebuilt in Slate, or can some be deprecated?

i. Some can be deprecated. Functional go-live, along with operational efficiencies will be desired.

37. Does “Banner ingress and egress” mean real-time API integration, nightly flat-file imports, or another method?

i. Flat-file imports.

38. Regarding Slate Payments (3.8.5.5.1.9): is the intent to use Technolutions Payments or a third-party PCI-compliant gateway through Transact?

i. Slate Payments

39. The RFP calls for integration with Banner, Transact, StarRez, Scholarship Manager, and ILTS/ACT/SAT scores. Which of these integrations already exist institutionally, and which will the vendor need to design from scratch?

i. Integrations already exists between Banner and current Salesforce/TargetX CRM for most. StarRez and Scholarship manager data integrations will be new.

40. How does BHSU define “post-launch support”—is it limited to 90 days or through the first recruitment cycle?

i. BHSU is open to various vendor proposals in this regard.

41. Is there an internal project team or steering committee that will participate in configuration workshops and UAT?

a. Graduate Admissions Rich Loose, Assistant Provost

b. Graduate Admissions Samantha Clauser, Graduate/Athletics Coordinator

c. Undergraduate Admissions Joe Rainboth, Admissions Director

d. Undergraduate Admissions Liz Kinsella, CRM & Communication Coordinator

e. International Admissions Kaitlin Palmer, Director of International Relations

f. IT Ven Thompson

42. Section 3.8.5.7 calls for recruiter dashboards, reports by status, and recruitment templates.

Does BHSU expect these reports to be created solely within Slate or integrated with external reporting tools such as Power BI or Tableau? Are there specific key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics that BHSU wants visible on recruiter dashboards at go-live?

i. Highest priority would be to have “day-one” reports built and ready for:

Summary visualization of Enrollment Funnel for current cycle, Applications (total and by territory), Admitted (total and by territory), Housing Deposits, Campus Visit registered roster.

ii. BHSU uses Cognos reporting, internally, and separate from CRM.

43. On page 15 of the RFP, Section 5.0 'Proposal Response Format,' Subsection 5.2.3.2 'Detailed

Response,' you state: 'A specific point-by-point response, in the order listed, to each requirement in the RFP. The response should identify each requirement being addressed as enumerated in the RFP.' Could you please confirm whether the point-by-point requirements you are referring to are those listed in the matrix chart in Section 4.4 on page 13? If not, could you clarify where in the RFP we can find the specific list of requirements you would like us to address?"

i. Yes. Those listed in the 4.4 scope of work.