LabWare Maintenance & Operations (M&O) / Texas Laboratory Online (TLO) Integration

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is requesting proposals for Maintenance and Operations (M&O) services and Texas Laboratory Online (TLO) system integration for LabWare Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) v.8 at the Department of State Health Services Public Health Laboratory Division, with proposals due August 7, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. Central Time. The pre-proposal conference is scheduled for July 16, 2026 at 11:00 a.m., and questions are due by July 22, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. Central Time.

Respondents must demonstrate five years of business experience or have principals with prior LIMS services experience, maintain demonstrated financial solvency, and comply with extensive HHS data security and privacy requirements including NIST SP 800-53 Revision 5 MODERATE baseline, HIPAA, FERPA, and Texas data protection standards. The contractor will maintain one site license and two batches of 60 concurrent user licenses, establish a Project Management Office, and operate a dedicated helpdesk available 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday with defined service level agreements across four severity levels—critical system outages require one-clock-hour response and four-clock-hour resolution; medium-severity issues require eight-clock-hour response and four-calendar-day resolution; low-severity defects require 36-clock-hour response and 30-calendar-day resolution.

Go-Live is February 28, 2027. The contract term is three years with options to extend for up to two additional one-year terms and one final option not to exceed one year. Historical annual compensation is approximately $407,192 per State Fiscal Year; pricing submitted in the cost proposal (Excel format required) remains firm throughout the contract term and actual compensation is based on historical utilization volumes with no minimum volume guarantee.

Evaluation criteria are weighted as follows: Narrative Proposal (20%), Qualifications and Experience (35%), Technical Proposal (15%), and Cost (30%), using a ten-point scoring scale. Liquidated damages apply for missed deliverable due dates ($200 per calendar day), test case approval failures ($500 per occurrence), unresolved low-severity defects exceeding five percent ($1,000 per percentage point), and severity-specific resolution time violations ($250 to $1,000 per day). Respondents must submit narrative and technical proposals not exceeding 100 pages, company information, references, financial statements, and comply with all HHS affirmations, data use agreements, insurance requirements (including $2 million cyber/privacy liability and $2 million technology professional liability), and federal certifications. Anticipated award is September 2026. Responses remain binding for 240 days.