ITN Professional Licensing Platform

The State of Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Division of Professions and Occupations (DPO), is conducting an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) procurement (ITN SJAA 2026-0005) for a comprehensive Professional Licensing and Regulation Platform (PLRP) to serve Denver County and Denver City. The DPO seeks a vendor-hosted, cloud-based, user-centered design solution capable of managing approximately 550,000 licenses, registrations, certifications, and permits across more than 60 professions and 419 license types. The platform must serve 1.7 million contacts and support end-to-end licensing operations including contact management, licensing workflows, permit and inspection processing, enforcement case management (9,953 cases annually), online self-service capabilities, mobile inspection functionality with offline capabilities, comprehensive reporting, and integrated financial processing. The solution must feature an enterprise multi-tenant architecture with separate production and non-production environments, role-based security with encryption for sensitive data, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance at WCAG Level AA standards, and integration with the state's CORE financial system and existing data interfaces (35-50 different interfaces utilizing SFTP, API, and direct platform connections). Key deliverables include configurable workflow management with branching logic, multiple approval tiers, real-time system performance metrics tracking, monthly status reports, business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities with four-hour restoration requirements, and comprehensive training and documentation. Vendors must demonstrate financial stability through audited financial statements from the past two years and provide evidence of three successful implementations of similar enterprise-level scope within the past five years, with at least two references demonstrating statewide, multi-tenant implementations. The written inquiries deadline was March 6, 2026, with responses to inquiries published by March 13, 2026; the original vendor response deadline of March 30, 2026, has been extended to April 13, 2026, at 3:00 PM Mountain Time, with public opening scheduled for April 14, 2026, at 9:00 AM. The State anticipates determining the competitive range by April 15, 2026, and commencing negotiations by April 20, 2026, with anticipated contract execution and performance commencement on September 1, 2026.

The State has established a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) encouragement goal of 3 percent by dollar value; however, no specific set-aside designations or restrictions limiting competition to particular organization types have been identified in the procurement documents. The DPO currently operates the legacy CAVU eLicense version 7.2.78 platform, supplemented by SSRS Reporting Server, SFTP servers, an online public portal, a payment engine, and various supporting applications including a PDMP application, tramway inspection tracking database, electrical and plumbing permitting system, and interim document management solution; the successful vendor must integrate with and migrate data from these existing systems in a single go-live migration. The contract is structured on an entirely transaction-based pricing model wherein the vendor's sole source of compensation derives from per-transaction fees collected during electronic payments (credit card and echeck) made through online services such as initial applications, reinstatements, and renewals, with implementation and build-out costs to be recovered through these transaction fees distributed evenly across the initial years of system functionality before being adjusted downward for maintenance. No other State funding is available for this project, and the successful vendor must absorb all transition, data conversion, and migration costs associated with the legacy system replacement. The contract will be for an initial three-year term with up to seven one-year renewal options, allowing for a maximum ten-year contract period. Service level agreements mandate 99.950% system availability for production environments and 90.000% for non-production environments, measured monthly, with service level credits ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 for availability shortfalls, capped at 10 percent of annual contract payments. No specific budget or award value is disclosed in the procurement documents, as compensation is entirely dependent on transaction volume and the pricing structure proposed by vendors during the negotiation process.