RFQ-26-04862 - Research Operations Support~1.docx

Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Executive Office of Technology Services and Security

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Technology Services and Security

Request for Quotation EOTSS RFQ-26-04862 - Research Operations Support

COMMBUYS Bid Number(ITS60): BD-26-1060-ITD00-ITD00-129035 COMMBUYS Bid Number(ITS75): BD-26-1060-ITD00-ITD00-129034

May 5, 2026

IN ACCORDANCE WITH M.G.L. C. 66 AND M.G.L. C. 4, § 7 (26), THIS RFQ AND ALL RESPONSES HERETO INCLUDING THE WINNING BID SHALL BECOME PUBLIC RECORD, AND CAN BE OBTAINED FROM THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AND SECURITY BY SUBMITTING A REQUEST AT https://www.mass.gov/executive-office-of-technology-services-and-security-prr. ANY PORTIONS OF A RESPONSE THAT ARE LABELED AS CONFIDENTIAL WILL STILL BE CONSIDERED PUBLIC RECORD.

General Procurement Information

A. General Information

Purchasing Entity: Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (“EOTSS”) or (“Agency”)

Address: One Ashburton Place, Eighth Floor, Boston, MA 02108

Procurement Contact: Nelson Wong

Telephone: 617-626-4553

E-Mail Address: nelson.wong@mass.gov

RFQ File Number and Title: EOTSS RFQ-26-04862 - Research Operations Support

Attachments: Attachment A – COMMBUYS Instructions

This Request for Quotes (“RFQ”) does not commit the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (“Commonwealth”) or Agency to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a Bidder’s response to this RFQ or to purchase any products or services. The Agency may: (i) accept or reject any and all bids received as a result of this RFQ; (ii) contract for some, all, or none of the products and services offered by Bidders in response to this RFQ; (iii) negotiate with one or more qualified Bidders; or (iv) cancel, in part or in its entirety, this RFQ if it is in the best interest of the Commonwealth to do so.

The Agency may amend this RFQ at any time prior to the date the responses are due. Any such amendment will be posted to the Commonwealth’s procurement website, CommBUYS (www.commbuys.com).

Bidders must submit their bids through the Commonwealth’s online procurement system, COMMBUYS, as detailed in Attachment A. Bidders are advised to check this site regularly, as this will be the sole method used for notification of changes.

B. Eligible Bidders

This RFQ is restricted to Bidders on the following Statewide Contracts:

ITS60: Cloud Solutions __ ITS75: Software and Services _____________________________________________________________________________________

C. Event Calendar

All times in this RFQ are in prevailing Eastern Time. Responses must be received no later than the response due date and time indicated below or they will not be evaluated. Bidders must have their responses fully loaded and accepted in COMMBUYS prior to the RFQ Response Due date and time listed below. Bidders are urged to allow sufficient time to upload their entire response.

1. Purchasing Agency

The Executive Office of Technology Services and Security is responsible for the development of IT policy and implementation and oversight of all information technology investments for the Commonwealth and its respective agencies. EOTSS has broad statutory authority to effectuate the goals prompting IT consolidation in Chapter 64 of the Acts of 2017, as memorialized and articulated in M.G.L. c. 6A, s. 7A and M.G.L. c. 7D. As the lead enterprise IT and cybersecurity organization for the Executive Branch, EOTSS provides responsive digital and security services, and oversees and manages the enterprise technology and digital infrastructure and services for over 125 state agencies and over 43,000 state employees. EOTSS provides Enterprise Cybersecurity and Risk Management services, Infrastructure and Network services, End-User Support and IT services, Digital and Data services, Strategy Management and Consulting services, and additional IT-focused services to the Executive Branch and other Commonwealth users.

☒ If checked, the contract resulting from this RFQ will be made available to other Executive Department entities for the purchase of products or services. EOTSS may, in its option, require its prior approval for such entities to purchase products or services.

1. Description and Purpose of Procurement

A. Background

Within EOTSS sits Massachusetts Digital Service. Our mission is to help our partners use the best technology, design, and data to make every interaction with Massachusetts government simpler, faster, and more meaningful. Currently underway is the Commonwealth Digital Roadmap program – to provide personal, simple, and secure digital experiences that adapt to a resident’s needs so that every time they engage with any part of their government, they’re getting the most and best of the Commonwealth.

As a cornerstone of the Digital Roadmap, we practice user-centered design and conduct research with end-users to understand their experience interacting with state government services and the digital solutions that support those interactions. Interacting directly with end-users is best practice and critical to ensuring that the solutions we pursue will be user friendly and effective. Given the diversity of our state, when testing with end-users, we need to make sure that the people we test with are diverse and represent different experiences, needs, and perspectives.

B. Description of Solution and Services

The Agency is issuing this RFQ to purchase the following:

☐ software: on-premises ☒ software: cloud-based (software as a service) ☐ infrastructure as a service / platform as a service ☐ services: setup / implementation / configuration ☐ services: support and maintenance ☐ services: training ☐ other: _______________________________________________

We are looking to purchase a platform to handle Research participant CRM, communications, scheduling, and incentive distribution.

Expected Usage:

EOTSS reserves the right to procure additional, related products and services as a result of this RFQ.

Estimated Term

The estimated term of any contract entered into under this RFQ shall consist of an initial 12-month term and may be renewed or extended upon written agreement by the awarded Bidder and the Agency. The initial term and all renewals or extensions shall be referred to collectively as the “Term.” The maximum Term length will be governed by the applicable Statewide Contract.

Order of Precedence

The agreement resulting from this RFQ shall consist of the following documents in the following order of precedence:

Data Classification and the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

A. Data Classification

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts collects, manages, and stores information to support its business operations. The Commonwealth is committed to preserving the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information assets. Such information assets may include, without limitation, personal information, confidential information, and information protected under applicable law. Bidder agrees and acknowledges that its access, or potential access, to certain information assets may require certifications, background checks, or other additional requirements. Agency anticipates that the awarded Bidder will have access, or potential access, to the following data types as a result of providing services/products to Agency under this RFQ.

M. G. L. c. 66A

-Commonwealth of Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue background check

NCIC 2000 Operating Manual CJIS Security Policy Title 28, CFR Part 20 -Dept. of Criminal Justice Information certification -background check

NCIC 2000 Operating Manual CJIS Security Policy Title 28, CFR Part 20 -Dept. of Criminal Justice Information certification -background check

5 U.S.C. 552a s. 1106 -background check

Bidder certifies that its products or services, as offered in its RFQ response, meet all applicable legal and regulatory requirements pertaining to the identified data types indicated above. Bidder also agrees to enter into additional agreement(s), as reasonably requested by the Commonwealth prior to gaining access, or potential access, to Commonwealth information assets. Bidder acknowledges that the list above is not exhaustive, and Agency may designate additional data types, applicable laws and regulations, and additional required documentation in the contract resulting from this RFQ or any amendment thereto.

B. Use of Generative AI

The following provisions apply both to Generative AI (“GenAI”) that the Contractor proposes to use or will use to fulfill its obligations under a contract, and to GenAI tools that Contractor will provide directly to the Agency for its own use.

1. Use of GenAI Conditioned on Compliance with These Terms. Contractor shall not use GenAI to fulfill any obligations under the contract with the Agency or provide any GenAI tools to the Agency unless the contract includes terms consistent with this section, “Use of Generative AI”.

2. Use and Deletion of Agency Data. Contractor shall not use Agency Data (defined as data provided by Agency and any data derived therefrom, including metadata (collectively, the “Agency Data”) for training, tuning, or testing the GenAI model unless required for the performance of Services and where the Agency has provided written consent for both the use of the GenAI tool and the Agency Data. Any permitted Agency Data inputs will be strictly limited to the data and inputs provided under this Agreement and will not extend to other Agency intellectual property. If the GenAI system/solution or Contractor’s provision of other services under the Contract require the use of Agency Data as GenAI training data, Contractor shall only use Agency Data as strictly necessary to provide the Services. Both the Contractor and Agency shall retain control over their data and have the ability to delete their data. Contractor shall delete all Agency Data within 30 days of receiving written notification from the Agency and shall confirm in writing that all Agency Data has been deleted.

3. Intellectual Property, Accuracy, Bias, Discrimination Mitigation and Quality Control of GenAI. Contractor’s use of GenAI will be specifically limited to the automated creation of the material expressly defined in this Agreement’s scope. All GenAI usage will be configured to strictly align with the Agency’s brand guidelines. Contractor will implement robust quality control measures to review and approve, through non-automated means, all content generated by the GenAI tool before it is published, distributed or used in any business context. The review process must occur prior to any content being deployed or utilized in business operations, and every month thereafter, and must ensure that the content aligns with all the relevant policies, regulations and quality expectations. Additionally, the Contractor must identify, document and mitigate any biases, discrimination or otherwise unlawful outcomes based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law in the AI solution or services.

4. Breach and Termination. Notwithstanding any other terms to the contrary in the Solicitation, or any contract entered by Contractor, Contractor’s failure to meet any of the obligations set forth in this provision “Use of Generative AI” will constitute a breach of the contract entitling the Commonwealth to terminate the contract for cause and without penalty and to pursue damages and any other legal or equitable remedies to which it may be entitled.

5. Amendments to Gen AI Terms. The Commonwealth reserves the right to negotiate an amendment incorporating additional GenAI contract provisions into the contract or terminate in whole or in part any contract that, in the sole determination of the Commonwealth, presents an unacceptable level of risk to the Commonwealth with respect to GenAI.

6. Provision of Evaluative Information. Contractor shall regularly monitor the performance of the GenAI system to detect and rectify system behavior that violates any of these provisions. Contractor shall promptly communicate the discovery of system behavior that violates any of the requirements in this ‘Use of Generative AI’ section to the Commonwealth, including the potential impact to the services.

7. Order of Precedence. This section “Use of Generative AI” will take precedence over any conflicting GenAI contract terms provided by the Contractor to the Agency.

8. Updates to the model/platform. Contractor shall provide reasonable notice to the Agency of any updates to the GenAI model/platform that substantially impact the services prior to the updates taking place.

9. Audit. Contractor certifies that on an annual basis, or upon request of the Agency, its GenAI systems, models, or platforms, and related processes, training materials, training data sets, and its use and management of synthetic data, comply with the requirements of the Agreement. Contractor further certifies that it retains GenAI audit logs consistent with the terms of Schedule F of the Commonwealth’s Records in Common Schedule. Such certification shall be made in writing by an authorized officer of the Contractor and shall be subject to the same confidentiality protections as set forth in the Agreement, except as disclosure is required by law.

10. Control. For GenAI solutions/systems/models developed for the Agency, Contractor shall provide mechanisms through which the Agency can oversee the development and testing of the GenAI and where necessary override its functionality through human intervention.

11. Disentanglement. As of the termination date of the contract, or other date agreed upon by the Parties or determined by the Commonwealth, the Contractor shall cease the use of Generative AI in service delivery to the Agency; disengage Generative AI components; and comply with the transition/termination assistance obligations set forth in the contract.

12. Right to Use. During the term of the contract, Contractor shall ensure that the Agency has access to the full functionality offered by the GenAI systems/solutions used in the scope of services, including without limitation the ability to use the system, develop and test solutions, and make copies (with appropriate commercial mechanisms) without any limitations or restrictions. This clause shall survive the term of the contract if, in the contract, the Agency identifies the use of the Generative AI system as of strategic importance.

13. Localization. GenAI systems/solutions and data shall be hosted and stored in a cloud location controlled or approved by the Agency.

14. Representations. Each representation and warranty set forth in the contract applicable to information technology shall apply with equal force to GenAI solutions/systems. In addition, Contractor warrants that the GenAI that is part of the system/solution shall be accurate and generate unbiased results and, should Contractor fail to deliver on this warranty, it shall remedy, at no cost to the Agency, any such defects in the GenAI system/solution.

Additional Requirements

A. Enterprise Information Security Standards and Policies

All products and services provided to the Commonwealth must comply with all applicable policies adopted by the Agency, which shall be made available to Bidder prior to contract execution. At a minimum, all goods and services provided to the Commonwealth must comply with the Enterprise Information Security Standards and Policies (https://www.mass.gov/handbook/enterprise-information-security-policies-and-standards). Bidders shall provide information that demonstrates that their security practices meet the requirements detailed in these policies.

B. Accessibility for IT Solutions Contract Language

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Enterprise Digital Accessibility Policy drives ongoing efforts to make Massachusetts’ Digital Assets, including those delivered by a third-party, accessible and usable by all persons as required by state and federal laws. Where a Deliverable includes a Digital Asset, such Deliverable must meet the Commonwealth’s Digital Accessibility Standards.

The Commonwealth’s Digital Accessibility Standards include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 level A and AA developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Bidder must comply with the digital accessibility obligations set forth in the Vendor Digital Accessibility Contract Language and Vendor Digital Accessibility Testing Obligations and any subsequent versions or amendments.

During the bidding process and upon request, Bidder shall cooperate and provide the Commonwealth, or any third-party digital accessibility service provider procured by the Commonwealth, access to test its digital products for accessibility at no additional cost to the Commonwealth. The digital products must be available to the Commonwealth for evaluation prior to purchase and on an ongoing basis.

C. Contract Negotiation and Amendments

The Agency may negotiate changes to the original performance measures, quantities, Term length, and requirements identified in this RFQ at any time, provided that such changes are consistent with the scope of this RFQ. The Agency may negotiate and execute contract amendments with the awarded Bidder(s) which the Agency reasonably determines are within the scope of this RFQ and necessary to result in best value to the Commonwealth.

D. Promotional Materials

Bidder must not reference the Agency or the Commonwealth in any promotional or marketing materials, including but not limited to use of the Agency’s or the Commonwealth’s name or logo, without first obtaining the Agency’s prior written approval for such use. Bidder must not use the Commonwealth’s seal in any promotional or marketing materials.

Bidders are discouraged from including extraneous promotional or marketing materials in their responses to this RFQ and excessive promotional or marketing materials may detract from the Bidders’ overall score.

E. Pending Litigation

Bidder must affirm that there is no pending litigation involving the Bidder, Provider, or the Solution provided in the response, that may impair or interfere with the Agency’s right to use the Solution. Bidder must warrant that there are no actual or threatened actions arising from, or alleged under, any intellectual property rights of any third party.

F. Oral Presentations and Demonstrations

In its discretion, the Agency may invite one or more Bidders whose responses have been judged competitive and responsive in the course of the evaluation to participate in a facilitated oral presentation, including a demonstration of the proposed Solution. The Agency may use these demonstrations and oral presentations to clarify aspects of the Bidder’s response or to inquire as to the Bidder’s approach, recommendations, and experience. The Agency may adjust its scoring of a prospective Bidder based on the Bidder’s performance during production demonstration and/or oral presentation.

The Agency reserves the right to apply restrictions to the structure and content of Bidder’s product demonstrations and oral presentations. Demonstrations and oral presentations shall not be open to the public nor to any competitors. The schedule of the demonstrations and oral presentations will be arranged directly with the Bidders selected by the Agency. Failure of a Bidder to agree to a date and time may result in rejection of the Bidder’s response.

Bidders must use publicly released products and operating systems in their demonstration. No pre-production products (e.g., “beta”) should be demonstrated. All Bidder-owned products used in the course of the demonstration must be listed and priced in the Cost Response (Form 3).

G. Review Rights

Responses to this RFQ may be reviewed and evaluated by any person(s) at the discretion of the Agency including non-allied and independent consultants retained by the Agency for the sole purpose of evaluating and analyzing responses.

H. Permitted Copies

At no additional cost, Bidders must authorize the Agency to make, keep and retain a reasonable number of machine-readable copies of all core software components included in the Bidder’s Solution for testing, backup or archival purposes (the “Permitted Copies”).

At no additional cost, Bidders must include the Agency licenses to implement a second instance of all core software components included in the Bidder’s Solution for disaster recovery purposes. In the event of a disaster recovery scenario, Bidder must authorize the Agency to run such second instance without requiring any additional licenses or fees. Bidder must authorize the Agency to make the Permitted Copies available to personnel at its disaster recovery site(s) who require use of such Solution to assist the Agency with disaster recovery exercises.

I. Risk Management

Bidder must indicate the types of system audits or assessments (e.g. SOC 2) it conducts or engages third parties to conduct on its behalf, pertaining to the quoted products or services, and the frequency of such audits or assessments. Any time after submitting its Bid, upon Agency's request, Bidder shall provide audit or assessment reports to the Agency.

J. Warranties

Bidder shall provide all warranties listed below. Additional warranties may be agreed to in the contract resulting from this RFQ.

1) Bidder must provide all warranties required by the applicable Statewide Contract.

2) Bidder warrants that all software, software as a service, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and related services (collectively, the “Solution”) shall be provided in accordance with applicable State and Federal laws and in accordance with industry standards.

3) Bidder warrants that all personnel performing services shall act with due diligence and care and are qualified to perform such services in accordance with industry standards. Bidder warrants that it shall be responsible for the actions and omissions of all subcontractors and shall ensure all subcontractors’ compliance with the terms of an agreement resulting from this RFQ.

4) Bidder warrants that for a minimum of six (6) months (the “Warranty Period”) after the Agency accepts any Solution, or for the entire duration of the subscription term to such Solution, the Solution delivered by Bidder under this RFQ will substantially conform to the applicable Specifications. As used in this RFQ, “Specifications” means (i) the requirements for the Solution set forth in this RFQ, (ii) the Solution’s functional, performance, and interoperability requirements set forth in any agreement entered hereunder; (iii) the Solution functionality and description provided in Bidder’s response to this RFQ, and (iv) to the extent not inconsistent with the foregoing, the Bidder’s published specifications and documentation for the Solution. If Agency discovers a non-conformity in the Solution during the Warranty Period, then Bidder shall use commercially reasonable efforts to, at its option, (1) correct the non-conformity, (2) provide a work around or patch that is acceptable to the Agency (a “Fix”), or (3) replace the Solution. If Bidder is unable to remedy a non-conformity within a reasonable period of time, Agency may terminate any agreement related to the Solution effective immediately upon written notice to Bidder. In this event, Bidder shall promptly pay to Agency an amount equivalent to all amounts paid by Agency for (i) Solution license fees; (ii) maintenance, support and service fees; and (iii) all amounts already paid and not yet rendered for the Solution and/or services not yet delivered to and accepted by Agency. Any replacement or error correction will not extend the original Warranty Period. During the Warranty Period, Bidder will not charge Agency for services, parts, labor or transportation.

5) Bidder warrants that all applicable agreements and terms will be provided in Bidder’s response. Bidder further warrants that the sale of the Solution and services, and the Agency’s use of the Solution, will not be subject to any shrink-wrap, click-through, online terms, or similar agreements. Any terms or agreements that are not executed by an authorized signatory of the Agency will be void.

6) Bidder warrants that the Solution does not infringe on any existing intellectual property rights of any third party and that the Bidder has obtained all rights, grants, assignments, conveyances, licenses, permissions and authorizations necessary or incidental to any materials owned by third parties, supplied or specified by Bidder for incorporation into the Solution, including, but not limited to, data used to train GenAI models.

7) Bidder warrants that it has made commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that the licensed copy of the Solution provided to Agency does not contain any virus, Trojan horse, worm or other software routines or equipment components designed to permit unauthorized access, to disable, erase, or otherwise harm software, equipment, or data (“Unauthorized Code”).

8) Bidder warrants that it shall provide all necessary authorization codes necessary for successful installation of the Solution. Bidder also must also provide reauthorization codes to Agency should such codes be necessary for the Solution to remain functional during the Term.

9) All content that may be created by GenAI is a work made for hire under U.S. Copyright law. To the extent any GenAI content may not be considered a work made for hire under applicable law, as part of the Contract, Contractor assigns to Agency, in perpetuity, all right and interest to such GenAI content without the need for further consideration. In addition, content created from the Commonwealth provided prompt is not a derivative work of the GenAI training data. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, in the event a court of competent jurisdiction determines that content created from a Commonwealth-provided prompt constitutes a derivative work of the GenAI training data, Contractor agrees to grant the Commonwealth unlimited, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive right, and license to use, modify, reproduce, perform, release, display, create derivative works from, and disclose the content for any Commonwealth business.

K. The Commonwealth consistently seeks to realize the benefits of new technology, in particular generative artificial intelligence (AI). Contractor must comply with the Enterprise Use and Development of Generative Artificial Intelligence Policy issued by EOTSS on January 31, 2025, as it may be amended from time to time. Please follow this link to the policy: www.mass.gov/doc/enterprise-use-and-development-of-generative-artificial-intelligence-policy/download .

Bidder Responses

Bidders must complete the attached RFQ Response Form (Form 1), a Cloud Terms Table (Form 2) if providing cloud-based products or services (a “Cloud Solution”), a Template Statement of Work (Form 3) if providing professional services, and a Risk Management Form (Form 4).

The responses to this RFQ will be evaluated based on the criteria listed below, in descending order of importance with the most important criteria listed first. The procurement management team may remove from further consideration non-responsive bids and bids that do not include all required items listed in Section VII (Bidder Responses). Prior to such an exclusion, the Agency may request one or more clarification(s) from Bidder. A Bidder’s response may be excluded for failure to meet the Agency’s budgetary thresholds. Should this RFQ result in a contract with an annual spend amount of less than $250,000, bids from certified small businesses are highly desired, in accordance with ReOrg Plan S.2937 “An Act to Elevate the Supplier Diversity Office to Ensure Equal Opportunity in State Contracting,” and Agency will follow guidance provided by the Supplier Diversity Office in evaluating Bidder responses.

Any remaining responses will be evaluated based upon:

1. Fit to Requirements of the RFQ

2. Quality of product functionality

a. For Researchers

b. For Participants

3. Price as provided in the Cost Table

4. Fit with existing Research toolset (Email Campaign Applications, Enterprise Software, and other UX Research related applications) ATTACHMENT A – COMMBUYS Instructions Interested Bidders must submit their response using COMMBUYS.

Useful links:

1. Job aid on how to submit a quote: https://www.mass.gov/doc/how-to-create-a-quote-in-commbuys/download

1. Webcast: How to Locate and Respond to a Bid in CommBuys, which will familiarize bidders with CommBuys terminology, basic navigation, and provide guidance for locating bid opportunities in CommBuys and submitting an online quote.

1. Bidders MUST have their complete bid fully loaded and submitted prior to the time and date listed in the calendar. COMMBUYS will not allow for bids to be submitted after the posted time.

Bidder may contact the CommBuys Help Desk at CommBuys@state.ma.us or call during normal business hours (8AM – 5PM, Monday – Friday) at 1-888-627-8283 or 617-720-3197.

Written questions via the Bid Q&A on COMMBUYS The “Bid Q&A” provides the opportunity for Bidders to ask written questions and receive written answers from the Strategic Sourcing Team (SST) regarding this Bid. All Bidders’ questions must be submitted through the Bid Q&A found on COMMBUYS (see below for instructions). Questions may be asked only prior to the Deadline for Submission of Questions stated in the Procurement Calendar. The issuing department reserves the right not to respond to questions submitted after this date. It is the Bidder’s responsibility to verify receipt of questions.

Please note that any questions submitted to the SST using any other medium (including those that are sent by mail, fax, email or voicemail, etc.) will not be answered. To reduce the number of redundant or duplicate questions, Bidders are asked to review all questions previously submitted to determine whether the Bidder’s question has already been posted.

Bidders are responsible for entering content suitable for public viewing, since all of the questions are accessible to the public. Bidders must not include any information that could be considered personal, security sensitive, inflammatory, incorrect, collusory, or otherwise objectionable, including information about the Bidder’s company or other companies. The PMT reserves the right to edit or delete any submitted questions that raise any of these issues or that are not in the best interest of the Commonwealth or this Bid.

All answers are final when posted. Any subsequent revisions to previously provided answers will be dated.

It is the responsibility of the prospective Bidder and awarded Bidder to maintain an active registration in COMMBUYS and to keep current the email address of the Bidder’s contact person and prospective contract manager, if awarded a contract, and to monitor that email inbox for communications from the Purchasing Department, including requests for clarification. The Purchasing Department and the Commonwealth assume no responsibility if a prospective Bidder’s/awarded Bidder’s designated email address is not current, or if technical problems, including those with the prospective Bidder’s/awarded Bidder’s computer, network or internet service provider (ISP) cause email communications sent to/from the prospective Bidder/Awarded Bidder and the Purchasing Department to be lost or rejected by any means including email or spam filtering.

Locating Bid Q&A Log into COMMBUYS, locate the Bid, acknowledge receipt of the Bid, and scroll down to the bottom of the Bid Header page. The “Bid Q&A” button allows Bidders access to the Bid Q&A page.

FORM 1 – RFQ RESPONSE FORM

Bidders should avoid including additional components in their responses which are not expressly requested in the RFQ. If multiple options are available and responsive to the RFQ, Bidders must clearly identify the differences in cost and functionality of each option.

I. Statement of Interest and Contact Information

Company or Organization Name:

_______________________________________________ (“Bidder”)

Bidder Address:

Bidder Contact(s):

By submitting this RFQ Response, the Bidder hereby agrees and acknowledges that any agreement resulting from the RFQ will be subject to the documents incorporated therein, as provided in Section IV (Order of Precedence) of the RFQ. The Bidder agrees to all terms of the RFQ including all documents incorporated into the agreement.

II. References

_X__ If marked, Bidder must describe three references to the Agency illustrating examples in which Bidder has provided similar hardware, software, maintenance, and services to organizations of comparable size to the Agency within the last five to ten years, if applicable. Bidder must provide the name and contact information for an individual employed by the customer. Bidders are encouraged to provide references of government organizations within the Commonwealth. Bidder agrees that the Agency or its agents may contact any individual(s) named as references hereunder. References must be submitted in the format specified on the OSD business reference form, which is available at https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/wd/business-reference-form_0.doc?_ga=2.37941354.891907013.1563542725-372871650.1562964984.

III. Data Classification

A. Bidder must describe its information security practices and policies with respect to the Data Types identified in Section V (Data Classification) of the RFQ. Additional documentation may be attached to this Response form.

IV. Business and Technical Response

A. Description of the specific products/service offered: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ B. Description of warranty, maintenance, and support applicable to the products and services listed. Note that warranty, maintenance, and support must be consistent with requirements set forth in the applicable statewide contract. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. Provide an estimate timeframe for delivery of products, and commencement and completion of services once a Purchase Order is issued. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

D. If Bidder is providing services, provide a list of assumptions on which it is basing its bid. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

E. Attach an unlocked, editable copy of any relevant license agreement, subscription agreement, warranty or maintenance agreement, technical support description and any other forms or agreements related to the procurement of the Bidder’s proposed solution, in MS Word format.

F. Describe how you currently source your participant population and the processes instituted to continuously grow your participant population. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ G. Describe any special process you conduct to assist in recruiting hard to find participants based on geographic location, industry, income, etc.

H. Describe any features currently in development that may improve the Researchers experience executing participant recruitment. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I. Describe any features currently in development that may improve the Participants experience signing up for studies, participating, or receiving incentives. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ J. Describe your User Management model and any related Data Security features such as Private Workspaces, Access control to projects, etc. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ K. Data Portability and Ownership: How can we export our data from your service, and in what format?

L. Data Portability and Ownership: Can you provide the terms regarding data ownership and usage?

M. Data Encryption and Segregation: How is data encrypted in transit and at rest?

N. Data Encryption and Segregation: What encryption standards and algorithms are employed?

O. Data Encryption and Segregation: How do you ensure that our data is logically segregated from other customers' data?

P. Data Center Security: Where are your data centers located?

Q. Application Availability and Performance: Is your application available to users 24/7/365?

R. Application Availability and Performance: What is your SLA for application availability?

S. Application Availability and Performance: What is your SLA for application performance?

T. Logging and Auditing: Do you maintain logs for user activities and system events?

U. Software Updates and Patching: How frequently do you release software updates and security patches?

V. Software Updates and Patching: Are software updates and security patches applied without impacting the production workloads? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ W. Single Sign-On (SSO): Does your application support SSO from external identity platforms? (e.g., Azure/Okta/etc.)

If yes, what protocols do you support? (e.g., OIDC/Oauth/SAML) X. Access Controls: How do you manage user access controls?

Y. Access Controls: Can your application enforce multifactor authentication for user accounts?

Z. Customer Support: Is customer support available 24/7/365?

AA. Customer Support: How do you verify the identity of customers seeking support?

V. Security, Hosting, and Compliance

· Platform must be consistently available and reliable, with minimal downtime at 99.9% for non-critical public services

· Participant data must be securely handled during transmission and storage

· Supports Identity Management and SSO with Azure AD (active directory)

· Hosted in AWS or Microsoft Azure

· All data must be hosted and stored within the United States and must not be transferred or stored outside of the U.S.

· Platform should be easy to manage and maintain from an administrative perspective.

· High security (encryption at rest and in transit)

VI. Data Protection All customer data use must be purpose-limited, instruction-bound, and auditable

Describe how your platform ensures that all customer data is processed strictly in accordance with customer instructions, including:

· Technical and organizational controls that restrict data processing to defined purposes

· Policies preventing use of customer data for any secondary purposes (e.g., product improvement, model training, analytics) without explicit authorization

· How operational data use is limited to platform management (e.g., logging, monitoring, security, incident response), and how such use is governed, audited, and minimized”

VII. Requirements

Agency may request a product or service by manufacturer name (see section IV) and omit this section. If Agency does not request a product or service by manufacturer name, Agency will complete the following tables regarding requested functionality. Bidders may only propose product versions that are fully released for the open market by the RFQ response deadline.

Software, Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service

· Centralized participant tracking / database across UX research studies

· Ability to segment and filter participants using customizable metadata collected via panel sign-up and study activity

· Configurable participant profiles, including custom fields and participation history

· Support for importing and managing participant records

· Ability to manage and execute recruitment email campaigns from within the platform

· Access-controlled panels, segmented to support data segregation across state organizations

· Advanced, customizable filtering and targeting criteria for participant selection

· Integrated participant screening workflows, including screener creation and participant communications

· Ability to intercept and recruit live users within digital experiences (ex: web intercepts)

· Integration with researcher calendars (ex: Outlook) for scheduling sessions

· Configurable scheduling workflows, including booking rules and availability controls

· Integration with meeting platforms (Teams, Zoom) for session hosting

· Streamlined participant scheduling experience – requiring minimal effort to sign up and participate

· Overall participant experience should be intuitive, accessible, and reduce friction across scheduling and session set up

· Ability to send targeted communications to segmented participant groups

· Library of reusable communication templates (ex: invitations, confirmations, reminders, follow-ups, thank-you messages)

· Support for both email and SMS communications for participant outreach and confirmation

· Communication history tracking at the participant level

· Support for distributing participant incentives (ex: digital gift cards)

· Ability to track incentive distribution and completion status

· Flexibility in incentive types, with support for commonly accepted U.S.-based vendors

· Ability to configure or restrict incentive types based on organizational or compliance requirements

· Webforms for capturing and onboarding new participants into the research panel

· Support for native forms, third-party integrations, or custom form uploads

· Ability to route and store incoming participant data directly into CRM

· All bids including a cloud-based Solution must include a completed Cloud Terms Table (Form 2).

Services: Setup, Implementation, Configuration

Services: Support and Maintenance

· No support or maintenance fee increases will be permitted during the initial term. Bidder must hold support and maintenance rates fixed (no price increases) for a period of three years following the initial term. Thereafter, the costs of support and maintenance for each successive year will not increase more than [3%] of the costs of support and maintenance for the previous year.

Services: Training

VIII. Cost Response

The Cost Response listed below must be completed by Bidder and inclusive of any reseller markup. If the response is submitted through a reseller, the reseller must state its markup on each product and service. EOTSS strongly prefers that the services be provided by resources located in the United States. If the resources are not located in the United States, please specify their location in the table below.

Software, Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service

Services: Setup, Implementation, Configuration

Location from where services are provided (Country)

Services: Support and Maintenance

Location from where services are provided (Country)

Services: Training

Location from where services are provided (Country)

Reseller Markup Bidder must identify the maximum mark-up under the applicable Statewide Contract:

Bidder must identify the proposed mark-up for this bid proposal, if lower:

FORM 2 – CLOUD TERMS TABLE

The following terms shall apply to Cloud Solutions, which may include software and services, purchased by the Commonwealth. Bidder must provide a response indicating the manner in which the proposed Cloud Solution meets each term or provide justification as to why a term is not applicable to the offered Cloud Solution. These terms may be negotiated between Agency and the awarded Bidder and shall take precedence over any conflicting terms provided by the Cloud Solution Provider.