RFP 202605096 ReEmployME Case Management System_Final.docx

STATE OF MAINE

Department of Labor Bureau of Unemployment Compensation

RFP# 202605090

ReEmployME Application Support, Maintenance, and Enhancements

RFP Coordinator

MANDATORY

Bidders’ Conference

https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/254027888587255?p=4SLhUSlPNw5RJGVXEk

Submitted Questions Due Date

July 22, 2026, no later than 4:00 p.m., local time

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

A. PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND

B. GENERAL PROVISIONS

C. ELIGIBILITY TO SUBMIT BIDS

D. CONTRACT TERM

E. NUMBER OF AWARDS

A. VENDOR SELF SERVICE SYSTEM (VSS)

B. BIDDERS’ CONFERENCE

C. QUESTIONS

D. AMENDMENTS

E. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

A. EVALUATION PROCESS – GENERAL INFORMATION

B. SCORING WEIGHTS AND PROCESS

C. NEGOTIATIONS

D. SELECTION AND AWARD

E. APPEAL OF CONTRACT AWARDS

A. CONTRACT DOCUMENT

B. STANDARD STATE CONTRACT PROVISIONS

APPENDIX A – PROPOSAL COVER PAGE

APPENDIX B – RESPONSIBLE BIDDER CERTIFICATION

APPENDIX C – QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE FORM

APPENDIX D – SUB-CONTRACTORS FORM

APPENDIX E – TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT FORM

APPENDIX F – PROPOSED SERVICES FORM

APPENDIX G – COST PROPOSAL FORM

APPENDIX H – OVERVIEW OF CURRENT SYSTEM (INFORMATIONAL)

APPENDIX I – ME IT NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT (NDA)

PUBLIC NOTICE

State of Maine Department of Labor

RFP# 202605090

ReEmployME Application Support, Maintenance, and Enhancements

The State of Maine is seeking proposals for the technological support, maintenance, and implementation of enhancements for the ReEmployME Unemployment Case Management Application.

A copy of the RFP and all related documents can be obtained through Vendor Self Service (VSS): https://mevss.hostams.com/PRDVSS1X1/AltSelfService

A MANDATORY Bidders’ Conference will be held on Monday July 13, 2026 at 10:00 AM EST at the following location: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/254027888587255?p=4SLhUSlPNw5RJGVXEk

Proposals must be submitted to the Office of State Procurement Services, via Vendor Self Service (VSS). Proposal submissions must be received no later than 4:00 p.m., local time, on August 14, 2026. Proposals will be opened the following business day.

RFP TERMS/ACRONYMS with DEFINITIONS

The following terms and acronyms, as referenced in the RFP, have the meanings indicated below:

State of Maine Department of Labor Bureau of Unemployment Compensation

RFP# 202605090

ReEmployME Application Support, Maintenance, and Enhancements

PART I INTRODUCTION

A. Purpose and Background

Purpose

The Maine Department of Labor (MDOL) is soliciting proposals from qualified Bidders to provide maintenance, enhancement, and innovation services for the ReEmployME system.

This document provides instructions for proposal submission, describes the evaluation and selection process, and outlines the contractual terms that will govern the relationship between the State of Maine (“State”) and the selected Bidder.

Introduction

ReEmployME is the state’s Unemployment Insurance application, responsible for managing all aspects of Unemployment program operations, including benefits, tax, and appeals. The application was initially deployed in 2017 and is currently hosted within an AWS Cloud environment. Since its implementation, the system has undergone regular updates to comply with evolving state and federal requirements and to support the operational needs of the MDOL and the citizens of the State of Maine.

Maintaining a current, reliable, and fully operational system is critical to supporting the unemployment program requirements of the State. The scope of work defined in this RFP includes application maintenance, operational support, and infrastructure support for the ReEmployME system. The State will retain responsibility for AWS infrastructure procurement and account ownership. The selected Bidder will provide application-level support and may be required to support infrastructure configuration within the AWS environment.

Consistent with its mission, MDOL seeks to enhance the security, usability, and innovation of the ReEmployME system through the implementation of modernized and modular capabilities that improve program delivery. The State is seeking solutions that emphasize operational efficiency, effectiveness, security, and modular architecture.

Background

MDOL administers its statewide Unemployment program through a collaborative partnership with the Federal government, which enabled the replacement of a legacy mainframe-based system with a modern, cloud-hosted application platform in 2017.

Effective December 31, 2025, MDOL has technologically and contractually separated from a prior consortium model and shared application platform. As a result, the MDOL is independently procuring a vendor to provide the services described in Part II of this document.

MDOL is seeking a solution that is simplified, modular, and incorporates security capabilities that meet or exceed industry standards for the ReEmployME system. The MDOL expects the selected Bidder to support this objective by maintaining, enhancing, and modernizing the existing system, while ensuring that all security controls related to system operations and data protection are implemented and maintained in accordance with applicable Federal and State guidelines. (Refer to Appendix E for minimum technical requirements.)

B. General Provisions

1. From the time the RFP is issued until award notification is made, all contact with the State regarding the RFP must be made through the RFP Coordinator. No other person/State employee is empowered to make binding statements regarding the RFP. Violation of this provision may lead to disqualification from the bidding process, at the State’s discretion.

2. Issuance of the RFP does not commit the Department to issue an award or to pay expenses incurred by a Bidder in the preparation of a response to the RFP. This includes attendance at personal interviews or other meetings and software or system demonstrations, where applicable.

3. All proposals must adhere to the instructions and format requirements outlined in the RFP and all written supplements and amendments (such as the Summary of Questions and Answers), issued by the Department. Proposals must follow the format and respond to all questions and instructions specified below in the “Proposal Submission Requirements” section of the RFP.

4. Bidders will take careful note that in evaluating a proposal submitted in response to the RFP, the Department will consider materials provided in the proposal, information obtained through interviews/presentations (if any), and internal Departmental information of previous contract history with the Bidder (if any). The Department also reserves the right to consider other reliable references and publicly available information in evaluating a Bidder’s experience and capabilities.

5. The proposal must be signed by a person authorized to legally bind the Bidder and must contain a statement that the proposal and the pricing contained therein will remain valid and binding for a period of 180 days from the date and time of the bid opening.

6. The RFP and the awarded Bidder’s proposal, including all appendices or attachments, will be the basis for the final contract, as determined by the Department.

7. Following announcement of an award decision, all records and documents regarding this RFP, including bid submissions, will be public records, available for public inspection pursuant to 5 M.R.S. §1825 B (6 &15) and the State of Maine Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) (1 M.R.S. § 401 et seq.). State contracts and information related to contracts, including all records, documents, supporting documents, and bid submissions, are public records unless otherwise excepted by statute (Id).

8. Subject to the above and pursuant to applicable law, in the event that a Bidder believes any information that it submits in response to this RFP is confidential, it must mark that information accordingly, and include citation to legal authority in support of the Bidder’s claim of confidentiality. In the event that the Department receives a FOAA request that includes submissions marked as confidential, the Department shall evaluate the information and any legal authority from the Bidder to determine whether the information is an exception to FOAA’s definition of public record. If the Department determines to release information that a Bidder has marked confidential, it shall provide advance notice to the Bidder to allow for them to seek legal relief.

9. The Department, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to recognize and waive minor informalities and irregularities found in proposals received in response to the RFP.

10. ACCESSIBILITY: All IT applications are required to comply with the Digital Accessibility Policy. In addition, all IT applications and content delivered through web browsers are required to comply with the State Web Standards.

11. STATE IT POLICIES: All IT products and services delivered as part of this Agreement shall conform to the State IT policies, standards, and procedures effective at the time this RFP is published.

12. If awarded a contract resulting from this RFP, vendors shall be required to disclose, in writing and in accordance with applicable Maine law, any actual or potential conflicts of interest. Such disclosure must include any financial, professional, or personal relationships that could give rise to a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest. Failure to disclose a known conflict or appearance of conflict may result in disqualification, contract termination, or other remedies as provided by law.

13. All applicable laws, whether or not herein contained, are included by this reference. It is the Bidder’s responsibility to determine the applicability and requirements of any such laws and to abide by them.

C. Eligibility to Submit Bids

IMPORTANT!

READ BEFORE PROCEEDING: Appendix E (Technical Assessment Form), a required part of the proposal submission documents, contains confidential information regarding ReEmployME’s current architecture and supporting software.

To be eligible to submit a bid in response to this RFP, interested Bidders must:

1. Attend the Bidders’ Conference – see Part III, B of this RFP.

2. Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to obtain the complete Appendix E (Technical Assessment Form) for purposes of proposal submission. The NDA is attached for informational and review purposes in Appendix I.

a. The Department will use DocuSign to obtain the signatures on the NDA from interested Bidders. Requests may be submitted via email to RFP Coordinator Suzan McKechnie at Suzan.C.McKechnie@maine.gov after the Bidders’ Conference.

D. Contract Term

The Department is seeking cost-efficient proposals to provide services, as defined in this RFP, for the anticipated contract period defined in the table below. The dates below are estimated and may be adjusted, as necessary, in order to comply with all procedural requirements associated with the RFP and the contracting process. The actual contract start date will be established by a completed and approved contract.

Contract Renewal: Following the initial term of the contract, the Department may opt to renew the contract for two (2) renewal periods, as shown in the table below, and subject to continued availability of funding and satisfactory performance.

The term of the anticipated contract, resulting from the RFP, is defined as follows:

E. Number of Awards

The Department anticipates making one (1) award as a result of this RFP process.

PART II SCOPE OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED

Part II Table of Contents

I: Definitions

II. Bidder Responsibilities and State Priorities

III. Scope of Services

IV: Future State / Planning

V. Production SLAs / KPIs

I. DEFINITIONS

1. Maintenance and Support: the comprehensive management, operation, and sustainment of the ReEmployME application, including all activities other than Perfective Maintenance Activities (Enhancements). Maintenance and Support shall be provided for a fixed annual cost, payable in monthly installments.

2. Support Activities (Production Support): activities required to maintain and ensure the continuous, stable, and secure operation of the production environment. Support Activities include, but are not limited to:

a. Incident response, troubleshooting, and issue resolution

b. Root cause analysis

c. Writing and executing queries

d. Monitoring system performance, availability, and security

e. Running and re-running reports and batch processes

f. System and application administration

g. Managing support tickets and user requests

h. Data corrections (insert, update, delete) within existing data structures

i. Interface monitoring and support

j. Coordination with third-party Bidders and State staff

k. Disaster recovery and database recovery execution

l. Generation of operational reports (e.g., incident trends, risks, performance metrics)

m. End-user and operational support training

n. All Support Activities are included within Maintenance and Support

3. Corrective Maintenance Activities: the identification, analysis, and resolution of Defects. Defects include, but are not limited to:

a. Coding errors

b. Design flaws

c. Integration failures

d. Security vulnerabilities

e. Performance issues

f. Usability issues

g. Software dependency failures

h. All corrective actions must include appropriate documentation, including change records and updates to system artifacts.

i. All Corrective Maintenance Activities are included within Maintenance and Support

4. Defect: any failure, flaw, or error that causes the system to behave in an unintended, incorrect, or unexpected manner in any environment, including testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), or production.

5. Preventive Maintenance Activities: proactive actions taken to reduce the likelihood of future defects, failures, or performance degradation. These include, but are not limited to:

a. Performance tuning and optimization

b. Data maintenance and cleanup

c. Log monitoring and analysis

d. Backup verification

e. Code refactoring and quality improvements

f. Documentation updates

g. Application of patches and updates (excluding major version upgrades unless otherwise specified)

h. Updating libraries, frameworks, and dependencies

i. Security hardening and remediation of known vulnerabilities

j. Configuration optimization

k. All Preventive Maintenance Activities are included within Maintenance and Support

6. Adaptive Maintenance Activities: modifications required to ensure continued system operation due to changes in the technical, regulatory, or external environment. These include, but are not limited to:

a. Operating system updates

b. Infrastructure or hosting environment changes

c. Network or security changes

d. Third-party system or interface changes

e. Regulatory or compliance-driven changes (that do not introduce new functionality)

f. Updates to APIs, integrations, or configurations required to maintain compatibility

g. Adaptive Maintenance includes planning, coordination, testing, deployment, and issue remediation necessary to maintain existing functionality.

h. All Adaptive Maintenance Activities are included within Maintenance and Support

7. Perfective Maintenance Activities (Enhancements): the design, development, and implementation of new functionality or improvements to existing functionality. Enhancements include changes requested by users that alter business logic, workflows, or outputs beyond current functionality. If classification is disputed, the State shall make the final determination.

This includes, but is not limited to:

a. New features or modules

b. Functional enhancements

c. User interface redesigns that materially improve usability

d. Business process changes requiring system modification.

e. Perfective Maintenance Activities are excluded from Maintenance and Support and shall be completed per approval from the State or under a separately approved Statement of Work (SOW)

8. Fixed Cost: a predetermined, all-inclusive price for a defined scope of work. Maintenance and Support shall be provided under a Fixed Cost annual fee. Additional project-based work may also be performed under Fixed Cost through a Statement of Work.

9. Time and Materials (T&M): a pricing model under which the State pays for actual hours worked at pre-approved fully loaded hourly rates, plus allowable materials, as defined in Appendix G (Cost Proposal Form).

10. Statement of Work (SOW): a written agreement that defines the scope, deliverables, assumptions, timeline, milestones, acceptance criteria, and pricing for discrete work efforts.

11. Sensitive Data: any information protected from unauthorized disclosure under applicable state or federal law.

This includes, but is not limited to:

a. Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

b. Federal Tax Information (FTI)

c. Nonpublic Personal Information (NPI)

d. Sensitive Personal Information (SPI)

e. Material Nonpublic Information (MNPI)

f. Financial and business-confidential data

12. Cyber Attack: a successful attempt to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the ReEmployME system or its data, consistent with M.R.S.A. Title 10, §1348, as amended.

13. Cyber Security Incident: any actual or attempted event that may jeopardize system security, including unauthorized access attempts, malware activity, suspicious behavior, or misconfigurations.

14. Breach: confirmed unauthorized access to a system, regardless of whether Sensitive Data was accessed.

15. Data Breach: unauthorized access, acquisition, disclosure, alteration, destruction, or loss of Sensitive Data.

16. The State: The State of Maine (in the majority of cases it will refer to the State of Maine, Maine Department of Labor, Bureau of Unemployment Compensation)

17. Minor Upgrade: non-breaking, backward-compatible.

18. Major Upgrade: requires redesign, regression risk, or functional change

19. ReEmployME: the name given to the primary Unemployment Insurance case management application.

20. Technical Requirements:

a. ACCESSIBILITY: All IT products must be accessible to persons with disabilities and must comply with State Accessibility Policy and Standards and the Americans with Disabilities Act. All IT applications must comply with the Digital Accessibility Policy (https://www.maine.gov/oit/sites/maine.gov.oit/files/inline-files/DigitalAccessibilityPolicy.pdf). In addition, all IT applications and content delivered through web browsers must comply with the State Web Standards (https://www.maine.gov/oit/sites/maine.gov.oit/files/inline-files/WebStandards.pdf)

b. STATE IT POLICIES: All IT products and services delivered as part of this Contract must conform to the State IT Policies, Standards, and Procedures (https://www.maine.gov/oit/policies-standards) effective at the time this Contract is executed.

21. Technical Acronyms and Abbreviations:

Acronym

22. Initiative Acronyms:

II. BIDDER RESPONSIBILITIES AND STATE PRIORITIES

1. General Obligations

a. Unless otherwise specified herein, the selected Bidder shall furnish all material, Labor, facilities, equipment, and supplies necessary to perform the services required herein.

b. The selected Bidder shall provide ongoing maintenance, support, enhancement, and innovation services for the ReEmployME application in support of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Maine Department of Labor (MDOL). All services shall be delivered in accordance with the requirements set forth in this RFP and to the satisfaction of the State.

c. The selected Bidder shall perform all activities necessary to operate, maintain, and support the application, including but not limited to:

i. Resolving defects and system issues

ii. Performing routine and preventive maintenance

iii. Implementing approved enhancements and improvements

iv. Ensuring continued alignment with applicable security requirements, including those defined in Appendix E

v. Adhering to recognized industry best practices for performance, reliability, and maintainability

d. The selected Bidder shall also proactively identify and recommend innovative solutions to improve system functionality, performance, scalability, and long-term sustainability. Innovation activities may include, but are not limited to:

i. Designing, developing, or integrating microservices

ii. Expanding and optimizing cloud-based architecture

iii. Enhancing infrastructure performance and scalability

iv. Evaluating and implementing appropriate artificial intelligence (AI) or automation capabilities

2. State Objectives and Priority Areas In partnership with the selected Bidder, the State seeks to achieve the following objectives:

a. Modernization: Modernize the existing ReEmployME application codebase and system architecture to improve maintainability, scalability, and performance.

b. Agility for Regulatory Change: Collaborate with the selected Bidder to enhance system flexibility and reduce the time required to implement federal and state statutory or regulatory changes.

c. Scalability and Resiliency: Improve system resiliency and scalability to effectively handle significant fluctuations in user demand and transaction volume.

d. Automation and Efficiency: Increase the use of automation to:

i. Reduce manual processing and associated errors

ii. Improve operational efficiency

iii. Minimize reliance on batch processing where feasible

e. Security Enhancement: Strengthen system security by:

i. Limiting and isolating access for external vendors

ii. Reducing attack surfaces

iii. Protecting against emerging cybersecurity threats

f. Sustainable Maintenance and Support: Establish and maintain robust, proactive maintenance and support practices to ensure consistent system performance, reliability, and availability.

g. Interface and Authentication Modernization: Modernize application interfaces and authentication mechanisms to:

i. Reduce reliance on legacy backend connectivity

ii. Improve interoperability with external systems

iii. Enhance security and user experience

h. Priority Focus Areas:

3. Preferred Bidder Experience and Organizational Qualifications The following preferred experience may be satisfied through the Bidder’s organizational experience or through the experience of staff employed by the Bidder.

If employee turnover occurs between the time of bid submission and the commencement of work, the successful Bidder must identify and assign replacement personnel with equivalent qualifications and experience to fulfill the applicable role(s).

The Department prefers the successful Bidder satisfy the following experiential requirements:

a. Recent past (within the last five (5) years) and current proficiency and experience providing maintenance and support for an application with the technology stack, size, and scope of the ReEmployME system. Refer to Appendices E and H for additional details on the current system.

b. Experience with two (2) prior projects (within the last five (5) years) relevant to these criteria.

c. Three (3) years demonstrated proficiency and experience in the design, development, and support of microservices and transforming monolithic apps into modular microservices using container technology.

d. Five (5) years of demonstrated proficiency and experience in developing applications for the cloud.

e. Demonstrated proficiency and experience of at least one (1) year in developing applications using AI, ML, U/X, C/X to enhance user experience.

f. Demonstrated proficiency and experience of at least five (5) years’ working with a state or federal government system.

g. A minimum of five (5) years of experience in all of the following: Java, Spring, DB2, Angular

h. Demonstrated proficiency and actual experience and/or staff with skills and qualifications, including the number of years and the scope of such experience, supporting, maintaining and/or developing a state Unemployment Insurance system.

i. Demonstrated proficiency in Agile development standard.

j. Demonstrated proficiency and experience managing applications in the AWS Cloud.

k. Demonstrated proficiency and experience with Kubernetes, containerization, and data streaming.

l. Demonstrated successful deployment and evidence of artifacts of two (2) significant microservices projects within an enterprise application.

4. State Suggested Key Personnel and Roles

a. Product/Program Manager – Responsible for oversight of the products being developed and maintained by the Consortium State(s).

b. Project Manager Lead – Responsible for leading the successful Bidder project team and coordinating with stakeholders to organize, track, and execute work.

c. Senior Architect – Responsible for designing, overseeing, and guiding the architecture of the application.

d. Business Analyst Leads – Responsible for overseeing the business analyst process for the application development process. Business Analyst Leads are required for both the tax and benefits side of the application in each Consortium Member state.

e. Quality Analyst – Responsible for overseeing the Quality Assurance process for the application.

f. Test Lead – Responsible for overseeing the System Testing process for the application and assisting Consortium Member States with User Acceptance Testing needs.

g. Lead Developers – Responsible for leading a team to design develop and maintain the application. They are responsible for serving as the technical leader within the development team. Lead developers are required for both the tax and benefits side of the application in each Consortium Member state.

h. Database Administrator – Responsible for ensuring that the database effectively supports the functionality and data needs of the application. Their focus is primarily on the design, maintenance, and performance optimization of the databases specifically used by application development teams.

i. Backup/Disaster Recovery Administrator – Responsible for designing, implementing, and managing the disaster recovery strategies of the application system. These responsibilities may include but are not limited to: assessing application vulnerabilities, developing application Disaster Recovery Plans, Designing recovery architectures, Testing and Validation of application Disaster Recovery plans, monitoring application performance for potential issues that could impact recovery capabilities, leading incident response teams, overseeing data backups, management of data replication, ensuring data consistency for timely recovery, and collaborating with application developers to integrate disaster recovery considerations into new application development projects.

j. Security and Compliance – Responsible for overseeing the security practices within the application. These responsibilities may include but are not limited to: Conducting regular security reviews of applications to identify potential vulnerabilities and risks including code reviews, penetration testing, and threat modeling, ensuring applications comply with relevant data privacy regulations and industry standards, collaborating with developers to embed security practices into the development process, including secure coding standards, input validation, and access control mechanisms, and working with the appropriate Consortium State(s) regarding all security and compliance requirements.

k. Analytics/ Reporting – Responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of data analytics and reporting systems within an application development team. These responsibilities may include but are not limited to defining data collection and storage strategies, designing and building dashboards, reports, and visualizations to present key application development metrics, conducting in-depth analysis of application data to generate actionable insights for Consortium Member State(s), and collaborating with Consortium Member State(s) to identify their data needs.

l. Contact Person – The awarded Bidder shall designate a contact person who shall serve as the awarded Bidder’s contact and shall be the liaison between the awarded Bidder and the State by no later than five (5) business days after authorization to proceed.

5. Workforce Governance and Staffing Requirements

a. Personnel Management

i. The State may request removal of any Bidder personnel

ii. Replacement staff must be approved and equally qualified

iii. NDAs may be required

b. Background Checks and Training Requirements

i. Prior to providing services under the contract, accessing state data, or accessing the state network, the selected Bidder must ensure personnel (including any third-party personnel) pass standard background checks equal to those required per Security Requirements in Appendix E.

ii. The selected Bidder’s personnel must complete the following department trainings:

(1) IRS Disclosure Awareness Video

(2) Any state-required cybersecurity training

(3) IRS Pub 1075 – Selected Bidder personnel must maintain familiarity with this publication

(4) 508 compliance – Selected Bidder personnel must maintain familiarity with 508 requirements, as part of support of a web-based application. This requirement includes the need to be able to use various tools to maintain compliance (for example, WAVE [Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools] browser extension).

c. Employee Location

i. Only onshore resources will be considered.

ii. Onshore resources do not need to be physically located in Maine.

d. Facilities and System Access

i. The State will provide facility access at their discretion and maintain physical or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

ii. The State shall establish secure access protocols for its respective state system.

iii. The State will assist the Bidder’s employees with secure access to the ReEmployME and necessary State IT systems, for both on-premise and remote workers.

iv. Bidder-provided equipment must meet ME IT and the State’s IT requirements including, but not limited to, security requirements.

v. If a State revokes facility privileges for selected Bidder’s staff member, the selected Bidder will retain only the necessary access to that state’s system to fulfill the selected Bidder’s obligations. However, in the case of imminent or immediate risk to MDOL or State of Maine (SOM) systems, the State reserves the right to terminate the appropriate access forthwith.

vi. The State reserves the right to revoke the selected Bidder’s employee’s facility access and adjust access as needed at any time and with no notice for violations of facility, security, or other state policies. See OIT Building Access Procedures.

e. Workforce Operations

i. Workforce Payment: State will only pay for completed authorized work, not headcount. Estimates for the proposed scope of work should correspond to projected, completed authorized work.

ii. Scaling: The selected Bidder must plan to scale up or down to meet demand but bill only for approved hours used.

iii. Sprint Velocity: Baseline sprint velocity after 180 days; State will notify the Bidder of adjustments needed for demand fluctuations.

iv. Resource Removal: The State may request the removal of any selected Bidder resource without notice. The selected Bidder must replace the resource promptly without undue delay.

f. Sub-Contractor Staffing Requirements

i. Sub-Contractors must comply with all contract terms

ii. Selected Bidder is fully responsible for Sub-Contractors performance

iii. State must approve Sub-Contractors (if not pre-identified)

iv. Sub-Contractors must follow all data access and security rules

v. Appendix D must be completed if Sub-Contractors are used

6. Organizational Partnership and Public Service Commitment

Overview: The selected Bidder will establish and maintain a long-term partnership with the Department of Labor in support of the services and objectives of this contract.

To demonstrate meeting this requirement, Bidders must describe their organizational culture, values, and commitment to supporting the Department's mission beyond the technical requirements of this procurement. The response to this section must include:

a. The Bidder’s philosophy regarding its relationship with the Department, including how it collaborates with agency leadership, business stakeholders, technical staff, and other partners to achieve successful outcomes.

b. The Bidder’s approach to serving as a trusted advisor, including methods for communication, transparency, accountability, continuous improvement, and proactive identification of risks and opportunities.

c. The Bidder's understanding of the public-service mission of the Department and how its services, decisions, and operational practices support the Department's responsibility to serve citizens effectively, equitably, securely, and reliably.

d. The Bidder's commitment to maintaining a constituent-centered perspective when managing and enhancing critical information systems, including considerations related to service quality, accessibility, availability, privacy, security, and public trust.

e. Examples of how the Bidder has successfully fostered collaborative relationships with public-sector clients and delivered measurable benefits to the citizens or constituents served by those organizations.

III. SCOPE OF SERVICES

1. Overview

a. The selected Bidder shall provide comprehensive application development, maintenance, operations, and infrastructure support for the State’s case management system (ReEmployME application) and all supporting components, regardless of original developer. Services include:

i. Perfective (enhancement) maintenance

ii. Corrective, adaptive, and preventative maintenance

iii. Production support and monitoring

iv. Change Management

v. Security and compliance

vi. Infrastructure and cloud operations (AWS)

vii. Audit and reporting support

2. Perfective Maintenance (Enhancements)

a. General Terms

i. Enhancements may be delivered via:

(1) Time & Materials (T&M), or

(2) Fixed-price Statement of Work (SOW)

ii. The State will not pay for estimates or SOW preparation

iii. The State may:

(1) Perform work internally, or

(2) Engage other Bidders at its discretion

iv. State will determine:

(1) Prioritization of enhancements, including backlog of enhancements

b. Enhancement Delivery Lifecycle/System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) (also see section 4: Change Management))

i. Analysis: The selected Bidder must perform analysis as development tasks are assigned. Selected Bidder personnel must work directly with state agency personnel and business teams to develop strategies and design specifications that must provide optimal performance, usability, and effectiveness of customer facing interfaces.

ii. Development / Coding: The selected Bidder must perform all development work in the Development Environment provided. The selected Bidder must follow the established coding and development standards and guidelines including revisions identified by the State to be critical and effective immediately. The selected Bidder must incorporate JUnit when making code changes.

iii. Testing: The selected Bidder must perform successful unit and system testing. Once the selected Bidder has identified code to change, the selected Bidder must add to the testing scenarios identified by the State when applicable to ensure proper testing is identified for both the selected Bidder and the State. The State will coordinate internally to perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) after the selected Bidder has performed successful unit and system testing.

iv. Deployment: The selected Bidder must follow the State’s established migration procedures to move items from the development, system test, test and prod environments. The migration procedures shall include all state-required security scans. State agency staff will determine when to deploy and will perform deployments in all environments with assistance from the selected Bidder, unless otherwise agreed to by the State.

v. Documentation: The selected Bidder must make updates to system documentation (technical documents, design documents, user manuals) as changes are made to the application. The selected Bidder must work with the State for documentation approval. The Bidder must maintain and update on-line help screens. The selected Bidder will be responsible for updating the State’s case management application, IBM ELM/Jazz every time updates to enhancements are made or work on enhancements is done.

vi. Standards: The selected Bidder must follow all processes defined by the State as they perform development and work through the system development life cycle (SDLC), including but not limited to processes such as development, testing, implementation, etc.

vii. The selected Bidder must collaborate with the State to ensure the security standards are met per the State’s and ME IT requirements (refer to Appendix E).

c. Enhancement Volume Drivers

i. The State engages in projects to continually modernize the system. In addition to modernization and system optimization, a portion of perfective maintenance activities result from public emergencies and new or updated state and federal requirements. The volume of perfective maintenance activities relates directly to federal and state funding, state and/or federal law changes, external conditions, emergencies, upgraded system functions, and efficiency of Bidder performance.

(1) Implementation of new federal or state programs may occur at any time, are outside of the control of the State, and are mandatory for the states to implement, usually by a specific deadline.

(2) New federal or state funding opportunities may occur at any time, shall be sought out by the State at its sole discretion, contain strict timelines, and if received by the State are mandatory.

d. Strategic Enhancement Priorities The selected Bidder must provide perfective maintenance activities either consistent with the current initiatives or with innovative alternatives. Current initiatives underway and the goals of each include:

i. Microservices & Modularity: Develop apps more rapidly and allow greater portability of the apps.

ii. Artificial Intelligence (AI)/BOTS: Utilize BOTS (RPA and others) and AI to reduce manual workloads and streamline processes without human intervention.

iii. Mobile Technology: Enhanced apps should deliver better responsiveness while accommodating customer’s expanding use of mobile devices.

iv. Reporting: Increase self-service analytics, adapt fraud analytic tools, and move to more agile analytic tools.

v. Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Utilize customer data known by the system to integrate with call center functions using artificial intelligence or other tools to provide an enhanced user experience, focusing on interoperability of the systems.

3. Maintenance and Support Services

a. Scope

i. The State owns the code that the selected Bidder shall maintain, support, and provide adaptive maintenance for said code. As such, the selected Bidder shall support all of the code of any type that comprises the ReEmployME system without regard to the vendor that created it.

ii. The selected Bidder must provide maintenance services, including analysis, development/coding, testing, deployment and documentation. The selected Bidder will be responsible for updating the State’s case management application, IBM ELM/Jazz every time updates to defects, tasks or enhancement items are made. The maintenance services include the ReEmployME application, as well as the supporting software components. Maintenance services shall be defined as all services required to maintain the current system functionality. Maintenance services shall also include anything that is a required change, such as typical legislative changes, updates to versions of software, etc. References to the “system” should be understood to include all support components.

b. Corrective Maintenance

i. Corrective Maintenance Activities related to new perfective maintenance activities will be covered under the standard corrective maintenance activities of this RFP no matter if the perfective maintenance activity was developed under T&M or a SOW.

ii. Any defects resulting from the implementation of an enhancement that are due to selected Bidder error will be resolved under maintenance and support and not be the responsibility of the State to pay for.

c. Adaptive Maintenance

i. Includes:

(1) Software…