DCYF Enterprise Payment Solution

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) is conducting a competitive solicitation (RFP No. 24-DCYF-CW-081) to procure an Enterprise Payment Solution (DEPS) that will replace their current Social Services Payment System (SSPS). The project aims to improve payment efficiency, accuracy, and transparency across four primary program areas: Child Welfare, Early Learning, Juvenile Rehabilitation, and Administrative services. Qualified vendors must have minimum annual revenues of $50 million and demonstrate successful completion of three similar public sector financial management projects within the past seven years. The solution must be cloud-based, utilizing either Software as a Service or Low Code Platforms on Platform as a Service, and capable of migrating seven years of historical data from existing systems totaling approximately 4.25TB. Key deliverables include a comprehensive enterprise payment system that can process approximately 150,000 monthly service authorizations and payments, support 3,000 internal users and 15,000 external users, and integrate with multiple state systems. The procurement timeline includes an optional virtual vendor conference on January 15, 2025, vendor questions due by January 29, 2025, and final proposals due by March 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM Pacific Time, with the anticipated successful vendor announcement on September 29, 2025.

The contract has a total budget not to exceed $39.2 million, including $38 million for base contract services and $1.9 million for performance incentives, with potential for two optional one-year extensions through November 1, 2033. There are no specific set-aside designations mentioned for disadvantaged enterprises. The current system is primarily managed on Unisys and IBM Mainframe infrastructure with significant technical debt, including a critical skills shortage as only one COBOL programmer remains. The solution must integrate with existing state systems such as AFRS, Workday (OneWA), FamLink, CCWIS, and various other specialized platforms including MERIT, ATLAS, and Provider Portal. The procurement includes performance-based payments with 5% incentives for early delivery and 5% penalties for late delivery on specific deliverables. Funding will come from both state and federal sources, with no non-governmental funding involved. The system must meet strict security standards, including NIST 800-53 controls and FedRAMP Moderate certification, and support Azure Active Directory and Secure Access Washington (SAW) authentication.