RFP 2016-05 Verification of Federal Financial Aid.docx

INVITATION TO BID THIS IS NOT AN ORDER

1. The university is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is exempt from any State tax or Federal excise tax.

2. Responses must be received on or before Monday, March 28th 2016 at 3:00PM in the Purchasing Department, Salem State University, Administration Building, 2ND Floor, 352 Lafayette Street, Salem, MA 01970-5353. FAX to 978-542-6164 or scanned copies will be accepted at ewilson@salemstate.edu.

3. For additional information: Judy Cramer, Director of Financial Aid, Salem State University, 352 Lafayette St. Phone: 978.542.6139 Email: jcramer@salemstate.edu We will answer your questions and send out an addendum to the RFP that will be posted on COMMBUYS and the Salem State University web site.

4. Questions and Responses must be submitted in writing to:

Evelyn Wilson, C.P.M., Director of Purchasing, Salem State University, 352 Lafayette Street Administration Building, 2nd Floor, Salem MA 01970 Phone: 978-542-7321 Email: ewilson@salemstate.edu Please note all questions must be in writing. We will answer your questions and send out an addendum to the RFP that will be posted on COMMBUYS and the SSU web site.

SPECIFICATIONS

UNIT PRICE

TOTAL PRICE

See Attached Specifications

5. Reference: RFP 2016-05 Verification of Federal Financial Aid

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

The contractor agrees not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, sex, color, religious creed, national origin, and/or ancestry. The contractor agrees to post in conspicuous places notices to be provided by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination with respect to the Fair Employment Practice laws of the Commonwealth which are herein made of this contract reference.

Vendor Information

COMPANY

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP

TELEPHONE

AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE

NAME TITLE

FEDERAL EMPLOYER’S ID CODE 9DIGITs RFP 2016-05 Verification of Federal Financial Aid

VENDOR IDENTIFICATION (must be completed)

COMPANY NAME:_______________________________________________________

DBA:___________________________________________________________________

Company's Federal Company Federal ID: ___________________________________ _ Address: ________________________________________________________________ Remit To Address: ________________________________________________________

CITY____________________STATE_____ZIP_________________________________

TELEPHONE NO _______________ Toll Free or"800":__________________________ Fax Number: ____________________________________________________________ E-Mail Address: __________________________________________________________ Web Address: _ ______________________________________________________ Name:__________________________________________________________________ Title:___________________________________________________________________ Authorized Signature:______________________________________________________ Date: ___________________________________________________________________ Main Contact: ____________________________________________________________ Person responsible for proposal (if different): ________________________________________________________________________

Request for Proposal 2016-05 Verification of Federal Financial Aid

Salem State University is requesting responses for services related to assuming the activities required to complete federal aid verification. Proposals will be due by Monday, March 28th 2016 by 3:00PM. Please make sure your responses are in on time. Request for proposal documents are available on the Salem State University Purchasing Website at the following link: http://www.salemstate.edu/3477.php.

All responses must be properly formatted and mailed, faxed or scanned to the address below. Please note: any email with an attached file may not exceed 10MB. Please mark them clearly as: “RFP 2016-05 Verification of Federal Financial Aid” and the name of your company and return to:

Evelyn D. Wilson, C.P.M., MCPPO Director of Purchasing Salem State University 352 Lafayette Street Salem, MA 01970 ewilson@salemstate.edu

Salem State University reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive any informality in bids received when such rejection or waiver is in the best interest of Salem State University. Salem State University reserves the right to accept any bid where it is determined to be in the best interest of the University to do so.

A.) Purpose

The purpose of this procurement initiative is to garner pricing for a single provider to provide services related to assuming the activities required to complete federal verification in a fee for service exchange with Salem State University on behalf of Salem State University Financial Aid. While duration is always subject to available funding, it is the intent to establish a multi-year ongoing arrangement with options to renew.

B.) Scope

The scope of activities included in these specifications include communications with staff, students and their families, accessing, collecting and storing electronic materials, analysis and modification of the aid record and participation in all training, documentation, and reference production required to complete this process in a secure virtual environment. All requirements detailed here must be addressed for the response to be considered complete.

The scope of verification activities not included here that will be performed by the institution includes annual procedural and form development, application review, assignment, notifications and reminders to the student.

C.) Minimum Expectations

The vendor at a minimum must:

1. Perform all verification process for individual financial aid applications per federal statutes, regulations, rules and guidelines.

1. Be capable of performing services for two years simultaneously, at certain points of the calendar.

1. Independently stay informed of the changes to the federal rules for verification and be prepared to collaborate with Salem State University for business processes.

1. Perform all verification processes remotely within Salem State University systems, adding no new barriers or requirements to students.

1. Be compliant with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act in regards to activities related to this institution

1. Provide and carry out a clear and effective federal compliance plan and must notify Salem State University within 24 hours of a change in their or their designee’s compliance plan.

1. Provide and maintain a quality assurance plan to ensure accuracy.

1. Provide a tested infrastructure for the ability to securely access our systems and securely access all data when using it, transmitting it and storing it (e.g., not compromising confidential data, ensuring privacy, preventing any altering of data without cause, etc.). Supporting documentation includes a comprehensive description of the security environment and the process and frequency for performing penetration testing and vulnerability testing.

1. Provide the Salem State University with evidence of industry standard security controls as part of a documented information security program to include technical, administrative and physical security measures including security controls related to program and workflow changes. Such standards include NIST 800-53 and/or the Center for Internet Security 20 critical security controls.

1. Maintain the security of and handle any data provided by the Salem State University in a responsible manner, to include not copying or storing. If printing is required, printed copies must be securely destroyed using a cross shredder. Digital data must be securely destroyed by overwriting with pseudorandom data at least 3 times or physical destruction of storage medium.

1. Show evidence that their systems are secure. Acceptable evidence includes: third party audit report (i.e., SOC 2 or SOC 3) or a comprehensive description of their control environment including:

i. Physical access to the equipment housing the application and data backups

ii. Security Administration procedures for the application and operating system environment.

iii. Logical access controls for the application and operating system environment.

iv. Network security including firewalls, patch maintenance and incident response to breaches, virus and other attacks.

v. System Development and Maintenance procedures including application change management procedures and audit tracking of all changes.

vi. Application, operating system and network security monitoring procedures.

vii. Daily database backup procedures

viii. Written recovery plan for production database and infrastructure environment

ix. User control considerations

1. Encrypt any/all data transmissions. Data transmitted or stored on portable devices must be encrypted using Federal Information Processing standards (see appendix for detail).

1. Enforce segregation between various customers to ensure that the University’s information cannot be accessed by other vendor customers.

1. Agree to notify Salem State University of any breach of security related to data regulated by the most current laws related to Data Breach Notification. A notice must be made within 24 hours of breach, a summary within 7 days and a detailed report within 30 days.

1. Limit access to log into Salem State University's student information system and access Salem State University's imaging system to specified individuals using agreed upon web browsers.

1. Restrict their access to Salem State University's systems to no more and no fewer than the number of static IP addresses required for agreed upon productivity level, allowing Salem State University to open their system only to the internet addresses necessary for the vendor to perform their work. Further, these IP addresses must be maintained on a network which has been secured to industry standards.

1. Show and provide a tested back-up plan for all exchanged data, including the testing frequency and the date of the last test.

1. Ensure daily backups for all Salem State University data.

1. Provide virtual and telephone customer service at least between the hours of M-F, 8:30AM-5:30PM EST to respond to the status of individual applicant files.

1. Provide telephone customer service in compliance to the service standards of the University.

1. Provide file status detail to Salem State University on demand during stated customer service hours.

1. Electronically provide Salem State University a secure status report, at least daily, listing each file transaction status.

1. Provide references who can attest to the successful delivery of requested services

1. Be prepared to offer Salem State University the lowest price charged by the contractor for the same service provided to any other public of private purchaser.

1. Perform contractual and any sub-contractual services purchased by Salem State University within the United States. This includes the locations of the data storage and customer service or help desk.

1. Agree to follow all federal and state security and privacy regulations. Including but not limited to Federal Information Security Management Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Massachusetts General Law 93H.

Appendix: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsFIPS.html

D.) Specific written responses or confirmations are required for respondent consideration:

1. Licensure:

i. Must be licensed by the State the business is in or be licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, if services requested require such licensures.

2. Systems:

i. Confirm that vendor can gain remote access to the school’s financial aid management (FAM) system, allowing vendor to make real-time changes in FAM without file integration requirements or batch process requirements.

ii. Confirm financial aid verifications run on real time.

iii. Confirm use of other systems required or recommended to facilitate verification processing. Include systems used to make required changes to the ISIR record based on verification results. Preference is to make changes in Salem State University’s system but you are welcome to recommend another approach.

3. Security/Safeguards:

i. Describe Security and Management capabilities including compliance with State and Federal regulations and mitigation of fraud instances

ii. Describe onboarding, credentialing, performance evaluation processes and exiting of employees.

4. Reporting:

i. Describe any/all reporting and assessment tools available for use by school related to reconciliation, exceptions processing, response time, verification data

ii. Describe process to develop new reports requested by the college

5. Measurement and Adaptability:

i. Define how your services are measured both for the end user (the student) and the college.

ii. Explain how you meet ADA requirements relative to employees and clients. Explain accessibility of product for visual impaired and hearing impaired.

iii. Demonstrate adaptability to and compliance with to new local, state and/or federal requirements/regulations.

6. Communication:

i. Describe your communication strategy and the specific mechanisms used for communication between financial aid leaders at the university and your company; for both routine and urgent communications.

ii. Describe your communication strategy and the specific mechanisms used for communication between your company and students.

iii. Describe your communication strategy and the specific mechanisms used to facilitate an environment that supports evolving and responsive business practice changes.

7. Processes:

i. Describe from both the prospective/current students’ perspective and the university’s perspective how the verification process works using your services; i.e., what the student does, what we do, what you do, the types of timeframes involved, etc.

ii. Recognizing that verification is not completed by all selected applicants, describe how your company could increase the completion rate of verification for the number of ISIRs selected.

iii. Describe process used for escalation of issues by your company including escalation to or from a call center or financial aid office. Describe your plan for interface with Salem State University staff.

iv. Furnish any case studies that help us understand your business model for verification including other solutions your company currently provides to streamline financial aid business processes in addition to verification.

v. Describe how your company may or may not utilize document management within its business process.

vi. Describe how your company would interface with document management systems provided by Salem State University.

vii. Describe annual process to crossover to new year as it related to the regulatory environment, forms, processes and training.

8. Training

i. Vendors must describe start up process in full, and detail how training is provided for both the vendor’s employees as well as what training is required for college financial aid staff.

ii. Describe training methodologies offered, including options for on-site training, web-based training, participation at regional training seminars, sustainability of training, compliance training, etc.

iii. It is important to understand how vendor staff will maintain their level of understanding relative to local, state, and federal regulations and corresponding changes.

iv. It is also important to understand how college staff will be trained on your practices.

9. Support, Warranty and Maintenance

i. Describe the options and levels of support, warranty coverage, and types of maintenance agreements that are available for the proposed system.

10. Package Pricing

i. Describe in detail your company’s pricing model and all options associated with that model.

ii. Please submit pricing range inclusive of all the requirements to support a modular package of services for implementation as well as on a turn-around basis (48, 72, 5 day etc) and any alternative non-modular packages.

iii. Include pricing and describe any ancillary solutions and services offerings your company may provide that would further enhance Salem State University’s financial aid business processes.

iv. Describe annual reevaluation of pricing based on verification changes made by the Department of Education.

E.) Prospective vendors for this verification service must provide a response to each of the requirements listed below, describing how they are achieved with specific regard to the needs outlined above:

1. Scope of Services

i. Vendor must be able to send/receive Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR); through an electronic data exchange for processing

ii. How does your solution integrate with our Enterprise Resource Product Systems (ERP), for information exchange.

iii. Describe the security features of your proposed solution to protect student data.

iv. Provide detailed information regarding any system requirements needed to meet the functionality of your solution.

v. Evaluate all materials received for inconsistencies and mistakes.

vi. Verification actions

vii. Coding of ISIR’s as file verification completed and reported to Salem State University as such. Incomplete applications must be reported as well; with their status or error codes and progress report.

viii. Process Corrected applications through an electronic data exchange for approval by the Federal Student Aid program

2. Statement of Work: Services to be performed and/or commodities to be provided:

i. Remote Processing: Connecting to Salem State University financial aid processing system remotely through a virtual private network, (typically via VPN and/or Remote Desktop Connection), performing live updates to verification items in PeopleSoft. Internal systems will transmit corrections and retrieve corrected FAFSA’s once reprocessed by the Central Processing Systems (CPS). Coding individual student records as file verification completed.

ii. Vendor will customize their processing solution to communicate with our ERP; [FAMS]

iii. Alternatively, or perform the verification process as specified by the verification regulations.

3. Minimum performance characteristics of services and/or commodities once project is launched:

i. Verify connection between Agency and Salem State University computer systems.

ii. Agency manager receives verification procedures from Salem State University.

iii. Set weekly performance goals

iv. Review and approve verification procedures.

v. Participate in Salem State University training for verification procedures.

vi. Agency deploys procedures with individual verification agents.

vii. Receive data-load or spreadsheet of records to be verified for Salem State University.

viii. Assign records to be verified to team members.

ix. Transmit a weekly report of activity identifying completed, incomplete, and files pending review.

x. Services based on approximately 2300 verifications are processed annually.

xi. 15: Performance time, delivery dates, implementation task timelines: remote process training for file verification will begin within 30 days of an executed contract.

xii. Provide and ensure efficient, streamlined, and timely verification processing

xiii. Assessment Plan and Quality Control plan - Accurate and timely processing is the required outcome.

xiv. Review the project, goals, and expectations with agency verification agents.

xv. Review the project, goals, and expectations with agency supervisors and internal staff.

xvi. Provide team members with a checklist of items required to verify.

xvii. Familiarize team members for all parts of SSU specific process.

xviii. Conduct random checks of work performed by each verification agent.

xix. Schedules regular training and review sessions with each verification agent.

xx. Communicates verification agent questions to Salem State University.

xxi. Maintain a database/spreadsheet of all files to be verified.

xxii. Maintain a database/spreadsheet of all verified files and agent who completed file.

xxiii. Communicate progress with Salem State University on a weekly basis.

xxiv. Communicate exception processing with Salem State University within 24 hours.

xxv. Create monitoring systems to ensure regulatory compliance.

F.) Please provide the following information:

1. List any litigation against your firm within the past five years, including a brief description of the cause of action and the final outcome.

2. List any awards or recognition your firm has received within the past five years. These may be professional, technical, or charitable in nature.

3. A brief profile outlining the history, philosophy, and target market of the firm.

4. List policies and procedures your firm follows to maintain service excellence. List any awards or recognitions your firm has received for good service.

5. Provide an organizational chart, which includes key personnel and indicate the level of professional and service staff assigned to delivery services to Salem State University.

6. Provide a minimum of three (3) but not more than five (5) client references for which equipment and services of a comparable nature, scope and complexity have been completed by your firm. References must be for services performed in the name of the company submitting the Proposal; work performed by employees, subcontractors or representatives while engaged by another company does not qualify as an acceptable reference.

7. A brief discussion of your firm’s background and experience in providing the requested goods and services for academic institutions.

8. Describe your firm’s ability to meet project deadlines and budgetary requirements including your plans to meet current and future service commitments.

9. Describe how your service meets each of the requirements outlined in Attachment A, “Scope of Services”.

10. Reporting capabilities that will provide Salem State University with data and information necessary to monitor performance of this engagement

11. Provide and ensure efficient, streamlined, and timely financial aid processing

12. Create monitoring systems to ensure regulatory compliance

13. Summary Report of associated school Audit Findings – Vendor should demonstrate readiness to assist Salem State University in reporting any necessary information to ensure program compliance in accordance with Federal Student Aid Program regulations

14. Vendor should be able to price their service on a pay per use basis, and provide a detailed breakdown of their cost structure and any associated fees. All associated fees should also be listed on Attachment D, “Proposal Pricing Schedule.”

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