Vendor Questions and Responses_092526.docx

Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

ASSISTANCE

FAQ: E2W Marketplace RFI

Answers to questions below are posted in blue.

QUESTIONS

Does DHE anticipate issuing the resulting procurement as an open-market Request for Responses posted to COMMBUYS, or as a Request for Quotes limited to holders of an existing Commonwealth statewide contract? If a statewide contract will be required, can DHE identify the anticipated category, for example ITS75 Software and Services, ITS78 Data and Related Services, or a Human and Social Services vehicle? Onboarding to a statewide contract carries a lead time that respondents would need to begin now rather than after the solicitation is released.

A: The DHE will conduct a solicitation based on the information received from this Request for Information. An existing Statewide Contract has not been currently identified under which this solicitation will occur.

Does DHE anticipate a single award to one prime vendor covering the full bundled scope of outreach, technology, coaching, and analytics, or separate awards by component? If a single award is anticipated, will DHE consider a prime with named subcontractors to be a responsive bundled solution, or does DHE expect all components to be delivered by a single organization?

A: DHE anticipates selecting one vendor. A vendor may include subcontractors to fulfill pieces of the work it does not have expertise in.

Section 4 asks respondents to describe experience implementing statewide initiatives focused on learners with some college credit and no credential in one or more states. In the future solicitation, will such experience be treated as a mandatory minimum qualification, or as an evaluated factor within a broader technical assessment? If it is to be evaluated, will DHE consider adjacent statewide experience, for example career and workforce data platforms, adult learner advising systems, or statewide education data integration, as relevant qualifying experience? Confirmation on this point would allow organizations with directly applicable capability but a different delivery history to determine whether they are eligible to compete.

A: The responses to this RFI will help to inform minimum, mandatory qualifications in a vendor if a Request for Proposal or Request for Quotes is issued in the future.

Does DHE anticipate including a Supplier Diversity Program Plan requirement or an evaluation preference in the future solicitation? If so, will certifications issued by the Commonwealth's Supplier Diversity Office be required, or will federal and other state certifications, including Woman-Owned Small Business and Veteran-Owned Small Business designations, be recognized for participation credit?

A: The evaluation rubric associated with any associated solicitation will clearly state how proposals will be reviewed. The resulting solicitation from this Request for Information will be subject to the review of Supplier Diversity information. Please review the document attachment included in this solicitation, “Supplier Diversity Plan Form.xlsx.”

The Commonwealth values meaningful supplier diversity commitments and encourages Bidders to develop strong SDP Plans. To count toward a Vendor’s SDP Commitment, spending must be with an eligible SDP Partner listed in the SDO Directory of Certified Businesses or in SBA Small Business Search (VOSB or SDVOSB only). Spending with Partners outside of these directories will not count toward meeting a Vendor’s SDP Commitment.

Will participation by the fifteen community colleges, nine state universities, and five University of Massachusetts campuses be directed by the Board of Higher Education, or will participation be voluntary and determined institution by institution? If participation is voluntary, how many institutions does DHE expect to participate in the first year of operation?

A: All 28 underserving institutions are expected to participate, though individual participation by students will be voluntary. The RFI should speak to a plan to encourage participation.

Does DHE have a current estimate of the Massachusetts population of stopped-out residents with some college credit and no credential? How does DHE define this population, specifically the minimum earned credit threshold and the recency of last enrollment that qualify a learner as in scope?

A: Massachusetts has an estimated 766,000 students who have earned at least 3 credits, have not enrolled in a higher education institution for the last three consecutive semesters, and have not earned at least an associate’s degree. This data is obtained from National Student Clearinghouse.

Q7. Reference: RFI Section 4, Background; Section 4, Data Analytics and Outreach What outcome targets does DHE expect this initiative to achieve, expressed as learners reengaged, enrolled, persisted, and credentialed, and over what performance period? Does DHE anticipate tying any portion of vendor compensation to those outcomes through milestone payments or performance-based pricing?

A: This is a fixed cost contract; funding is not tied and there will not be additional compensation for results. The concept is that this is an opportunity to provide institutions to partner with a vendor to engage with this population for one-year. If they see a value to the work, then they will choose to engage in a business-to-business contract outside of the contract successful bidder has with DHE. DHE expects successful bidder to demonstrate that more students with some credits and no credential re-enroll in a Massachusetts public higher education institution, persist, and graduate (depending on how many credits they are away from earning a degree).

Will DHE provide statewide records and contact information for stopped-out learners from a state longitudinal data system or from institutional student information systems, or is the vendor expected to source records independently through the National Student Clearinghouse or commercial data providers? Will DHE execute a single centralized data-sharing agreement under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act on behalf of participating institutions, or will each institution execute its own agreement with the vendor?

A: DHE can facilitate the signing of one master data sharing agreement that allows each selected institution to agree upon and sign.

What existing systems must the solution integrate with or operate alongside, including student information systems, constituent relationship management platforms, advising and early-alert tools, and the workflows supporting MassReconnect, MassEducate, and MassTransfer? Does DHE contemplate that this solution would replace any currently licensed institutional tool, or coexist with it?

A: There is no expectation to integrate with any existing tools, platforms, or workflows. A data sharing agreement between successful bidder, DHE, and institutions that allows DHE to match who returned to higher education as a result of this work and existing DHE data systems is all that will be needed.

The Commonwealth announced a one-year learner re-engagement pilot in December 2025 providing direct outreach and coaching at six public institutions. Will DHE make the outcome data from that pilot available to all respondents, including learners contacted, learners engaged, re-enrollment and persistence rates, and cost per re-enrolled learner? Would the future initiative continue, expand, or replace that pilot? A common performance baseline drawn from Massachusetts experience would allow all respondents to propose outcome targets and pricing against the same evidence rather than against assumptions drawn from other states.

A: DHE could provide deidentified, aggregate data from last year’s pilot to successful bidder. The FY27 contract, if put to bid through an RFP or RFQ, is intended to be a standalone project that will engage up to 6 new institutions to engage students from their institutions who are no longer enrolled and encourage them to return through the methods that the successful bidder has demonstrated expertise in.

Does DHE expect the vendor to directly employ and deploy a coaching staff serving learners statewide, or to equip and train existing institutional advising staff through the platform? If vendor-employed coaches are expected, does DHE have an expectation regarding Massachusetts residency, on-campus presence, or in-person service delivery? The two models differ substantially in annual cost at the same enrollment volume, and a common assumption is necessary for respondents to present comparable budget information.

A: This initiative is intended to increase the limited capacity of current college and university staff through the use of vendor provided coaches. DHE would not have a residency or in person requirement for this. Bidder should propose the plan it thinks is best to serve students in a delivery system that can be provided within budget.

Is the approximately two million dollars in annual funding referenced in Section 4 an appropriated and available amount, and does that figure encompass all components of the initiative, including technology licensing, coaching personnel, paid outreach and media, analytics, and institutional training? What total contract term and option-year structure should respondents assume for planning purposes?

A: The funding is not fully secured at this time. A solicitation will only be issued once a funding source has been identified. Bidders on any RFPs related to this initiative should be prepared to propose a budget that encompasses all components of the project.

Section 8 provides that all responses become public record under M.G.L. c. 66, s. 10 regardless of any confidentiality notice. Will DHE consider a response that provides pricing ranges, unit structures, and methodology in place of proprietary rate detail to be fully responsive to Section 4, or does DHE expect specific rate-level pricing disclosure?

A: All responses to this RFI will be public record under the Commonwealth’s Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 66, s. 10. Any response to this RFI will inform the subsequent solicitations, subject to the same M.G.L., and must provide the information requested in Section 4, including the requested Budget and Pricing Information.

Does DHE have a page limit, required file format, or preferred organizational structure for the RFI response? Should the response be uploaded under the Attachments tab of the COMMBUYS quote, and should respondents complete the Items tab or select the no-bid indicator, given that this is an information request rather than a priced solicitation? Section 4 states that no vendor is expected to answer every question, while Section 5.f asks for responses to each question in Section 9, and confirmation of the expectation would help respondents submit on a common basis.

A: For this RFI, DHE does not have a preferred page limit or file format. Generally, RFPs are no longer than 8 pages. RFI respondents should answer the questions it would like to respond to as succinctly as possible while giving enough information to inform a possible future RFP.

Kindly upload all documentation as attachments, in addition to filling out the required fields on the COMMBUYS bidder response page. For more Instructions for Locating and Responding to Bid Solicitations in COMMBUYS, please review the guidelines linked below:

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/locating-and-responding-to-bid-solicitations-in-commbuys#responding-to-bid-solicitations

Section 5 of the September 9 RFI says responses are due October 2 at 5 PM Eastern, while the COMMBUYS bid header shows September 30 at 12:00 AM. Could you confirm the controlling deadline and whether the portal will remain open through the October 2 cutoff?

A: Responses are due on October 2, 2026, by 5 pm.

Would DHE welcome a response focused on a technology component, such as governed workflow automation, document and credential evidence handling, and integration with institution-operated coaching? We would address at least one question in each Section 4 category and clearly distinguish proposed architecture from delivered statewide SCNC experience. We would not present ourselves as an established statewide coaching operator.

A: For this RFI, any interested respondents should answer as they see fit.

Are there any restrictions or disclosure requirements for AI-assisted preparation using only the public RFI and our non-confidential response material, with human review?

A: Not at this time. DHE encourages interested respondents to disclose such use to the extent they are willing or able. Whether such disclosures are made will not materially impact DHE’s assessment of the response provided the response otherwise meets all required criteria.

For planning and pricing purposes, does DHE envision the selected vendor directly staffing student outreach and coaching, or may the platform support coaches employed by DHE, participating institutions, or a subcontracted service partner?

A: If a future RFP is put out to bid, the selected vendor would be expected to directly staff the project. The vendor could subcontract with a service partner as part of its submitted bid.

Please provide available estimates for the statewide SCNC population, annual outreach cohort, anticipated active student caseload, participating institutions, and institutional administrator or coach users.

A: There are an estimated 766,000 Massachusetts residents who have some credits and no credential. There are 28 undergraduate serving public higher education institutions in Massachusetts, though some of these may already be contracting with a vendor providing similar services. The respondent should include their proposed caseload, number of institutions it could support, and number of coaches.

What existing SIS, CRM, identity-management, transfer-articulation, financial-aid, statewide longitudinal-data, and labor-market systems should respondents assume will require integration, and what interfaces or data-exchange methods are currently available?

A: DHE receives data at least annually from the community colleges and state universities through its HEIRS system. DHE uses secure data exchange methods that it would also use with a successful bidder.

What vendors, platforms, or institution-level processes currently support SCNC identification, outreach, advising, coaching, and longitudinal reporting, and should a future solution include migration or transition from those systems?

A: DHE procured the services of ReUp Education in FY26 to engage SCNC residents. That work is independent of any future Education to Workforce Marketplace funding and initiative since the FY27 funding will be used to partner with new institutions.

Should the approximately $2 million annual budget be treated as inclusive of implementation, integrations, messaging charges, third-party data, and coaching labor, and is DHE considering a phased pilot, multiple awards, or a consortium model for the future solicitation?

A: Funding should be treated as inclusive of implantation, integrations, messaging, data, coaching, and any other resources or services needed to support the SCNC population to re-enroll in higher education. Proposals can include a phased pilot or consortium model for future years, but funding can only be secured on an annual basis and no future funding can be confirmed until budget is signed by the Governor.

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