HANDS Maintenance and Operation Support

The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) is requesting proposals for ongoing technical support, management, operations, and maintenance of the HANDS 2.0 eligibility and data management system, Vendor Web, and Participant Portal under RFP BPM007148, with proposals due November 5, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Arizona time. A pre-proposal conference is scheduled for September 2, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. via Google Meet.

The scope covers the HANDS Consortium, which includes Arizona, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, District of Columbia, Guam, and Navajo Nation WIC programs. The system serves more than 650 state and clinic staff and manages services for approximately 175,000 monthly participants across 157 clinics. The contractor must provide one Operations Manager, one Business Analyst, two Quality Assurance Analysts, three Developers, and three Customer Service Representatives working 40 hours per week. Deliverables include agile iterative development with minimum two major releases annually, quality assurance testing, end-of-day operations monitoring across six production environments, WIC Service Desk support with a toll-free helpline, and transition planning one year prior to contract end. The contractor must furnish computers, VOIP phone systems with automated call distribution, web-based ticket tracking, and text/email/phone reminder services. Service Level Agreements require 95 percent adherence to customer service targets and severity-based resolution timeframes ranging from eight hours for critical issues to 30 days for low-priority items.

Offerors must have at least three to five years' experience with WIC, HANDS 2.0, Microsoft .NET, and Oracle databases; the minimum two years' experience requirement applies to WIC MIS, SNAP, or Medicaid systems implementation and maintenance for state agencies within the last five years. Proposals must comply with Arizona Statewide IT policies and Homeland Security policies.

The contract is fixed-price and federally funded through the WIC program for one year with potential extensions up to seven years total. Pricing must be provided per month or hourly depending on service category across tiered phone minutes, text messages, email, automated phone services, and hourly labor rates for three contract years. The State reserves the right to make multiple awards by individual or group of line items.

Evaluation is based on Experience, Expertise, and Capacity (48 points), Method of Approach (50 points), and Cost. Written questions are due three business days before the RFP due date through the Arizona Procurement Portal Discussion Forum. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the Arizona Procurement Portal; offerors must be registered prior to submission.