NEXT GEN FSA

Background and Update

August 26, 2020

NEXT GEN FSA

PROVIDED ON BACKGROUND – DO NOT PUBLISH OR REPRODUCE – CURRENT AS OF 8/24/2020

THE CUSTOMER AND PARTNER EXPERIENCE BEFORE NEXT GEN

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CUSTOMERS

• Register for an FSA ID

• Apply for aid on fafsa.gov

• Use StudentLoans.gov to:

• Complete master promissory note (MPN), entrance, and exit counseling

• Apply for income-driven repayment (IDR) plan and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

• See detailed loan history on NSLDS student access

• Get more information about repayment programs on StudentAid.gov

• Repay loans and file forms with a servicer

• Get out of default with myeddebt.ed.gov or a private collection agency (PCA)


PARTNERS

• Manage participation with the Postsecondary Education Participants System (PEPS)

• Receive files from SAIG mailbox

• View and manage FAFSA-related files on FAA Access to the Central Processing System (CPS)

• Originate, disburse, and reconcile aid on the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system

• View announcements and the FSA Handbook at the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) site

• View loan information and reports at NSLDSfap.ed.gov

…plus use 10+ other systems and sites to manage participation and reporting.

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NEXT GEN MISSION

REIMAGINE HOW FSA SERVES CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS

1. Make it easier for students, parents, borrowers, partners at postsecondary institutions, and others to

engage with FSA’s programs, products, and services

2. Modernize FSA’s technical, organizational, and analytical infrastructure to form a cohesive ecosystem

3. Improve customer experiences and outcomes with the aid programs

4. Establish greater operational flexibility to allow FSA to rapidly develop data-driven responses to new

policies, practices, and challenges


THE CUSTOMER AND PARTNER EXPERIENCE AFTER NEXT GEN

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• Customers use StudentAid.gov or myStudentAid app to:• Register for an FSA ID• Apply for aid via the FAFSA form• Complete MPN and entrance counseling• Review aid history, progress toward PSLF, and

complete the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment• Complete exit counseling, get more information

about repayment, repay loans, apply for IDR, and manage defaulted loans

• Chat with customer service representatives• Get account notifications and manage documents• Electronically submit forms

• Partners manage Title IV participation and training on a modern portal

• Partners and customers can reach an FSA-branded contact center for inquiries that can’t be handled digitally

• Modernized technology allows FSA to implement policies quickly and make data-informed business decisions


CUSTOMER AND PARTNER ENGAGEMENT

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SINGLE FRONT DOOR ON THE WEB

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DIGITAL AND CUSTOMER CARE

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FSA created a single online front door—StudentAid.gov—that consolidates the functionality of our most-visited customer-facing websites that support more than 120 million visits each year.But DCC is more than a website; it also includes platforms for customer care and marketing and communications that allow FSA to provide customers accurate, actionable communications throughout the student aid life cycle.

NEW AND IMPROVED TOOLS

• Mobile-responsive FAFSA allows easier access to the application

• Loan Simulator gives repayment recommendations tailored to borrower goals

• Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment educates borrowers about aid received

• PSLF Help Tool added employer database look up

• Pilots test new features, including AidanSM and Make a Payment

NEW COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS

• All contact centers can be reached by a single toll-free number, 1-800-4-FED-AID

• Notification Center provides personalized reminders online

• Status Center tracks documents and processes

• Mobile app push notifications provide new opportunities for outreach

IMPROVED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

• Dashboard provides snapshot of customers aid, identifies upcoming payments and highlights key content and resources

• Feedback Center makes it easier to submit, track, and upload documentation for complaints

• Customer relationship management solution provides single source of information across the student aid life cycle

PROVIDED ON BACKGROUND

FUTURE ACT IMPLEMENTATION

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FUTURE ActDecember 19, 2019

• The Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE Act) (Public Law 116-91) amends Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to disclose certain federal tax information (FTI) to the U.S. Department of Education.

• Purposes include administering the Free Application for Federal Student Aid(FAFSA®) form, income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, and the total and permanent disability (TPD discharge) programs.

CARES ActMarch 27, 2020

• The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) (Public Law 116-136) contained several provisions that amended the FUTURE Act.

• One amendment eliminates the IRC 6103(p)(4) security requirements for schools, state agencies, and scholarship organizations.

• Schools, state agencies, and scholarship organizations are still required to follow existing FSA and ED security requirements.


FUTURE ACT IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE

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The implementation of the FUTURE Act is a substantial undertaking that takes significant coordination between FSA and the IRS. The timeline below aligns with that described in the implementation report provided to Congress. Delivery will be heavily dependent on if FSA receives appropriate funding to carry out full implementation.

Fall 2020

• Create a simulator of the FTI-enabled FAFSA form, which will allow FSA to get feedback from students and families about ease of use and clarity of the FAFSA experience when the FUTURE Act solution is fully implemented. This testing will inform the development of the final enhanced FAFSA solution and implementation plan.

Winter 2020/2021

• Create a simulator for the TPD post-discharge monitoring process, which will enable FSA to measure the benefits of the FUTURE Act to borrowers who qualify for TPD discharge.

FY 2021

• Implement TPD post-discharge monitoring using FTI retrieved through the new secure data connection

• Implement the use of FTI to reduce the burden of the IDR application and enable automatic annual recertification

FY 2022

• Implement the new FTI-enabled FAFSA solution with the launch of the 2023-24 FAFSA

PARTNER PARTICIPATION AND OVERSIGHT (PPO)

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• Goal: Serve as a modern, consolidated platform for partners • Establish an integrated and modernized digital presence for partners at institutions• Re-engineer core aid delivery and oversight processes


RELEASE 1.0 IN MARCH 2021 The launch of a new FSA-branded, single partner website Provides “Customized Partner Dashboards” and a “Student View”

that allows partners to view data presented to students on StudentAid.gov

The redesign and integration of the existing IFAP site (and Federal Student Aid Handbook).

Links to all other partner-related FSA websites (e.g. COD.ed.gov, NSLDSfap.ed.gov; etc.)

BUSINESS PROCESS OPERATIONS (BPO)

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Current State

Today, FSA uses 18 contact centers and 13 private collection agencies to provide services to customers and partners. This fragmented approach creates several issues including: • Inconsistent customer and partner experiences

• Varied training and branding practices

• Operational complexity and inefficiency

Future BPO State

As the personnel component of Next Gen FSA, BPO will provide customers and partners with consistent levels of service under a single brand. This will allow BPO to:• Deliver efficient and effective customer and partner support• Improve customer outcomes, overall portfolio performance,

and compliance with consumer protection standards, and• Establish greater operational flexibility.

BPO SCOPE

Contact Centers Inbound and outbound inquiries for across

multiple channels (phone, email, chat, social media, SMS/text, fax, postal mail)

Spanish and English communication Operate 6 a.m.-11 p.m. ET, 365 days/year

Back-Office Processing

Back-office processing tasks that cannot be automated across the entire student financial life cycle, resulting in fewer errors and less duplication of manual work

Additionally, BPOs must adhere to BPO common performance metrics and interact with the DCC command center for training efforts. BPO agents will be trained across the student aid life cycle to ensure customers

receive the right answer with every interaction.


BPO PERFORMANCE METRICS

BPOs will be measured according 41 objective metrics and rated according to this traffic light scorecard.

Green – Performance is at or above the established service-level agreements. These providers will keep their assigned accounts and work and be assigned an equitable share of new accounts and work.

Yellow – Performance is below established service-level agreements, but within the established tolerance. These providers will keep their assigned accounts and work but may not receive new accounts and work.

Red – Performance is below established service-level agreements and below the established tolerance will require urgent action. These providers may not receive new accounts and work. Depending on the severity and demonstrated capacity, a BPO vendor may see a portion of existing accounts and work reduced.

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Strong performance metrics ensure continued high levels of customer satisfaction. Failure to deliver has severe repercussions, including contract termination.


LOAN SERVICING ENVIRONMENT

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PRE-DEFAULT LOAN SERVICING ENVIRONMENT TODAY

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The current state features servicer-branded engagement layers and contact centers, with the Title IV Additional Servicers (TIVAS) running proprietary platforms. The colors of the servicers map to the platform they use to work accounts. Note that FSA also contracts with ECSI for ED-held Perkins loans. School-held Perkins loans, commercially-held FFEL, and HEAL are not included in this environment.Processing and engagement are two distinct functions.

• Processing platforms store all information for a loan, some of which is reported to FSA’s National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). They also contain rules engines that calculate payments, interest accrual and capitalization, etc.

• Engagement describes how servicers interact with customers through written communications, inbound and outbound calls, websites, mobile apps, tools, and other resources.

PROCESSING SYSTEM

ENGAGEMENT LAYER

Great Lakes

PHEAA

Navient

Nelnet

Great Lakes

Nelnet

Navient

CornerStone

OSLA

EdFinancial

PHEAA

MOHELA

Granite State

ECSI (ED-held Perkins)


POST-DEFAULT LOAN SERVICING ENVIRONMENT TODAY

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PROCESSING SYSTEM

ENGAGEMENT LAYER

Maximus Federal Services

Debt Management

and Collections

System (DMCS)

Action Financial Services

Alltran Education

Bass & Associates

Central Research

Coast Professional Inc.

Credit Adjustments Inc.

FH Cann & Associates

Immediate Credit Recovery

National Credit Services

National Recoveries Inc.

Pioneer Credit Recovery

Professional Bureau of Collections of MD

Reliant Capital Services

• After customers default, they are transferred from their pre-default servicer to DMCS, which initiates the default process. After approximately 60 days, borrowers are assigned to a private collection agency (PCA) that pursues collection activities.

• When a borrower completes rehabilitation or consolidation out of default, their account is transferred back into the pre-default servicing environment.

• The post-default environment shares some of the same challenges for borrowers as the pre-default environment. PCAs have their own websites, contact centers, and protocols, though federal law does lay out rules for their engagement. Unlike pre-default servicers, PCAs plug into a common platform, the Debt Management and Collections System (DMCS), though they also have proprietary systems they use.


PLANNED NEXT GEN TRANSITIONAL SERVICING ENVIRONMENT

Next Gen will bring all of FSA’s customers onto a single digital platform and no more than two core processing systems, giving FSA more control over the information customers receive, greater opportunity for enhanced oversight, and more ways to hold vendors accountable.

FSA-BRANDED ENGAGEMENT LAYERS Digital and Customer Care (DCC) and Partner Participation and Oversight (PPO)

CORE PROCESSING PLATFORMS Interim Servicing Solution

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Interim Servicing Solution (ISS)

CONSOLIDATED CUSTOMER AND

PARTNER RECORDDigital and Customer Care (DCC)

FSA-BRANDED CONTACT CENTERS BPOs

Business Process Operations (BPO)


PLANNED NEXT GEN END STATE ENVIRONMENT

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FSA-BRANDED ENGAGEMENT LAYERS Digital and Customer Care (DCC) and Partner Participation and Oversight (PPO)

COMMON CORE PROCESSING

PLATFORMEnd-state processing solution

CONSOLIDATED CUSTOMER AND

PARTNER RECORDDigital and Customer Care (DCC)

FSA-BRANDED CONTACT CENTERS BPOs

Business Process Operations (BPO)


BENEFITS OF THE NEXT GEN LOAN SERVICING ENVIRONMENT

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• Customers conduct all student aid business at StudentAid.gov, from FAFSA completion to loan payoff, and partners conduct all business through a single portal;

• Uniform branding makes it clear that the entity contacting them is Federal Student Aid; • All federally-held loan borrowers and institutional partners have access to consistent information

and self-service tools;• Consolidated core processing platforms improves FSA’s ability to quickly implement policy changes,

oversee contractor performance, and run detailed analytics on the portfolio;• Single customer and partner record allows customer service representatives to have a complete

view of customer interactions with FSA;• Unified communications ensures customers and partners receive clear, consistent information

directly from FSA;• All BPOs receive consistent training so customers and partners get the right answer and world-class

customer service regardless of the contractor they’re assigned to;• Measurable and objective service-level agreements hold contractors accountable to a high standard

of performance.


THE PATH AHEAD

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NEXT GEN IN THE COMING MONTHS

• Publish a request for information for the replacement for the Award Eligibility Determination Processing System (AED)

• The solicitation will be posted later in fall 2020

• Post a Next Gen page on the FSA Data Center • This page will include the BPO contracts should filed protests be dismissed by GAO • Fact sheets • Briefings • Images • Frequently Asked Questions

• Host a pre-solicitation conference for vendors interested in the Interim Servicing Solution (ISS) • The solicitation for ISS will be posted in early Fall 2020

• Updates to StudentAid.gov and the myStudentAid mobile application

• Present detailed information about recent and upcoming launches at the virtual 2020 Federal Student Aid Training Conference Dec. 1—4 with pre-conference events on Nov. 30

PROVIDED ON BACKGROUND – DO NOT PUBLISH OR REPRODUCE – CURRENT AS OF 8/24/2020 20

https://StudentAid.gov

Slide 1: This presentation was delivered to press and stakeholders on August 26, 2020. Slide 2: Over the years, FSA has made big strides to simplify the process to apply for, receive, and manage federal student aid. Still, we know from our customers, school partners, and others that the process can be confusing for students, parents, and borrowers – who we refer to as our “customers” here at FSA. And, we know from listening to the financial aid community that schools find it challenging to navigate multiple sites to administer the federal student aid programs. This slide describes just some of the various sources of information and tasks that need to be completed by students, parents, borrowers, and schools just to participate in the Title IV programs. Slide 3: Before Next Gen launched, we conducted substantial research into the pain points faced by our customers and by institutions. Some of our findings are probably obvious to all of us, like the fact that we have lots of websites with all different kinds of branding, but we wanted to make sure that we were really laser-focused on creating a new ecosystem that works better for the people and partners we serve. And that became the foundation for the Next Gen mission. The initiative is designed to make it easier for our customers and partners to access and manage our programs, improving our customers’ outcomes while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. We also want to make sure that when it comes time to update technology platforms, that we’re really keyed into modernizing them so that they work better for our customers, are secure, and work well together. These new systems should also be responsive to the things we know happen all the time – changes in policy, practice, and guidance intended to better serve our customers. And finally, we want to make sure that our operational decisions are well-informed by the wealth of data that we have available. Slide 4: So, the outcome of Next Gen will a single front door on the web for customers – that’s StudentAid.gov – and a portal for our partners, which is a concept we introduced at last year’s FSA training conference. If someone can’t get their questions answered through digital tools, that we provide easy access to a support center operated under the FSA brand. And we also want to make sure that as we bring on new technology, it’s—first and foremost—secure, as well as responsive to this new infrastructure. Slide 5: I’m going to start by describing some of these customer and partner-facing engagement-focused projects. Now, one of the things you’ll notice about Next Gen is that it can be hard to put a project into a box. There’s really not much that can just be partitioned off and described as, for example, a loan servicing project. Almost every Next Gen project dips into all different functions across FSA, and this is necessary if we’re going to make things as seamless as possible

for our customers. So, while I’ll be classifying some projects going forward, know that they all touch on the customer and partner experience, technology, and oversight. Slide 6: You may remember in December 2019, we made an announcement that our four most-visited public-facing websites were consolidated into one: an all new, StudentAid.gov. This was a huge step forward and really the kickoff of many of the improvements you’ve seen to our site over the last 9 months. Whether someone is learning about federal student aid for the very first time, visiting our site to fill out the FAFSA form each year, or coming back more regularly to for information, tools, and resources, we want the experience to modern, streamlined, and intuitive. Slide 7: That web consolidation, and frankly, much of what you’re seeing built out on StudentAid.gov, is under the Digital and Customer Care (DCC) project. It’s actually a bit overwhelming to think about all that we’ve accomplished with DCC alone. We’ve launched pilot programs for making a payment and a virtual assistant, named Aidan. We have a completely new way for customers to figure out the best way to repay loans with a tool called Loan Simulator; we have a single phone number—1-800-4-FED-AID—where you can reach all of our contact centers, including loan servicers; there’s an intuitive dashboard that provide tons of information about aid received, including PSLF payment counts for folks who have filed Employment Certification Forms, and we even just launched a searchable employer database for the PSLF Help Tool. There’s a lot more to come with the DCC project, including new Entrance and Exit Counseling modules, a completely revamped mobile app, and more enhancements to the PSLF Help Tool, and we’ll continue to share information about those as it becomes available. Slide 8: The implementation of the FUTURE Act is a good example of a project that has significant customer-facing impacts, as well as interconnectivity with other Next Gen projects. As many of you know, the FUTURE Act allows FSA to receive federal tax information, or FTI, directly from the Internal Revenue Service to administer certain programs, including the FAFSA form, income-driven repayment (IDR) income certification and recertification, and total and permanent disability (TPD) post-discharge monitoring. In order to access FTI, FSA has to be compliant with IRS publication 1075, which lays out very strict requirements for the protection of this information. In the CARES Act, there was a provision added to ensure that schools, states, and other entities don’t have to become 1075 compliant, as that would put substantial financial and resource burdens on those entities. So, we’re going to make sure that we’re protecting that information, but also making sure that implementing a 6103 exemption is truly going to be possible considering all of the entities that need access to, for example, FAFSA data. We’ve been working very closely with the IRS since the passage of the FUTURE Act, and we delivered the first implementation report to Congress last month. That report will be posted

publicly on the FSA Data Center, but I do want to highlight what the implementation timeline looks like, as that’s a question that’s at the front of a lot of folks’ minds. Slide 9: Over the next year we are going to be introducing simulators that allow us to test and iterate the FTI-enabled user experience. After we gather that valuable information, we’ll take it back as we develop the full tools. TPD and IDR will be implemented first, and the new, FUTURE Act-enabled FAFSA will launch on October 1, 2022, for the 2023-24 FAFSA cycle. Slide 10: Now is a great time to shed some light on our Next Gen plans for our partners, which includes more than 5,500 postsecondary institutions. Financial aid professionals spend so much time navigating a patchwork of systems and websites and conducting heavily manual processes, and we want to provide them with a better experience as well. So, as part of our Partner Participation and Oversight (PPO) project, we’ll be launching a single partner portal in March 2021. I won’t provide more details today, but if you attend the virtual FSA conference in December, you’ll get a nice sneak peak of what the first release will look like. Slide 11: Moving on. So, let’s say you’re a customer and instead of using StudentAid.gov or the myStudentAid mobile app, you just want to talk to someone, so you call 1-800-4-FED-AID. Or you’re a financial aid administrator with a question about an error code in COD, and you call our contact center for support. Now, we’re talking about the Next Gen project known as Business Process Operations or BPO. Today, our customers’ and partners’ experience involves 18 different contact centers and 13 private collection agencies that all have different training, branding, and operational hours. But we’ve taken steps to turn the current experience into a Next Gen experience. In June, we signed contracts with five BPO vendors. When we announced those contract awards, lots of folks thought they were loan servicers, but that’s not the case. The BPO vendors are really the people supporting our customers and partners. In other words, the BPO vendors will be managing and staffing contact centers for both customers and partners across the entire student aid life cycle. They’ll also be responsible for any manual processing that has to happen. So yes, the BPO vendors will be handling some responsibilities currently covered by today’s loan servicers, like answering customer questions over the phone and processing IDR forms, but they’ll also be helping folks reset their FSA ID password and helping schools navigate the Return to Title IV Funds process. The role of BPOs will be huge, and they’re going to be an integral part of how customers and partners experience the aid programs. Right now, we’re doing a lot of work internally to get ready for BPOs to start working, as we can’t move forward until protests that have been filed with the Government Accountability Office have been resolved.

BPO is also a good example of the interdependencies of Next Gen. These vendors can only be successful if they’re provided with the tools they need to get comprehensive information about customers and partners, and training on the many, many programs they’ll need to understand and answer questions about. So, the DCC project fills a gap there, by enabling us at FSA to provide comprehensive training to the BPOs and allowing us to oversee them through a command center that lets us ensure contact centers are operating to our standards of practice. A priority in all of the contracts behind this vision is measurable, actionable performance metrics. Slide 12: In fact, BPO provides a good example of a Next Gen performance management framework. We have 41 service-level agreements, or SLAs, that measure specific aspects of BPO performance, and we evaluate their behavior and rate them accordingly each month. If they’re in the Green zone, largely meeting those SLAs, we’ll reward them with more accounts and work. Vendors that operate in the red, however, may see accounts removed or even their contract terminated. We’ll be able to execute on this framework because we’ll have our partners and customers reaching vendors under the FSA brand at single points of contact, like a common phone number, so a vendor losing a contract won’t disrupt the customer or partner experience. Slide 13: Another area of great interest that impacts customers is loan servicing. There are a lot of important changes happening to the loan repayment environment through Next Gen projects. Let’s take a look. Slide 14: In the current environment, we really need to think of the pre-default environment as very distinct from the post-default environment. We currently have 9 loan servicers of federally-managed loans, and one servicer for federally-managed Perkins loans. Each servicer has its own engagement layers – things like websites, mobile apps, and phone numbers. But they also work off of processing platforms that are provided by the Title IV Additional Servicers (TIVAS). The colors on this diagram map to which servicers use which platforms. It’s not always easy for borrowers to navigate today’s loan servicing environment. There are different brands, tools, and information available depending on who your servicer is, and there are variations across the platforms. These differences mean loan transfers aren’t always seamless for the systems involved or the borrower’s repayment experience. We want to do everything we can to make sure we can provide rigorous oversight to all aspects of our customers’ experience—including loan transfers when they are necessary. Slide 15: Today’s post-default loan servicing environment works differently, where we have a servicer, Maximus, managing the transition from pre-default servicing to when an account is assigned to a private collection agency. From listening to our customers, we know that this can be really

confusing transition point for a borrower. We’ve heard our customers express that as their account moves around they don’t always know who to call for assistance. And, when borrowers successfully rehabilitate a loan or consolidate out of default, their account goes back into regular servicing, marking yet another transition. Navigating a complex path during a stressful financial period isn’t an optimal customer experience by any stretch. One of the major goals of Next Gen will be to significantly streamline the post-default experience, making it much easy to navigate for borrowers, and making sure we can hold vendors accountable for good performance every step of the way. Slide 16: The loan servicers that make up the pre- and post-default servicing environments are contracted through December 2021 and March 2022. Let me explain. Though we haven’t exercised our options yet, the Title IV Additional Servicers’ (or TIVAS, as they’re commonly called) period of performance can be extended through December 2021. And, the Not-for-Profit Servicers (or NFPs) period of performance can be extended through March 2022. The strategic roadmap that will take us from today’s pre- and post-default loan servicing environments to the Next Gen environment has evolved over the last few months. In July, we canceled the Enhanced Processing Solution (EPS) solicitation. The Interim Servicing Solution or ISS (that dark green box), will effectively replace EPS. We can’t say much about this now because we cannot discuss procurement-sensitive information, but there will be a solicitation out within the next 8 weeks or so that describes that solution. We’ll make sure that we offer you another briefing, as well as a fact sheet, that explains the servicing solution and exactly what we’re soliciting for our customers. This diagram is vastly oversimplified, but I think it gives the gist. Essentially, when we have the ISS operational, we’ll be able to leverage DCC and the BPOs to provide support to borrowers while they’re in repayment. So for example, DCC will be providing StudentAid.gov, which customers will be able to use to manage their repayment account, but if they use a live chat function on StudentAid.gov to ask a question about PSLF, that person responding will be part of a BPO. Slide 17: It’s important to note that we have designed the ISS to provide us with a bridge to our end-state servicing solution, which will have a common core processing platform that provides a long-term solution for loan servicing. Again, this diagram is vastly oversimplified, but we want to make sure you have a sense of where we’re going on this journey. Our goal through these briefings is to update you more clearly, more regularly through the evolution of Next Gen. Slide 18:

What I can tell you today is what we expect from this end-state. Customers will manage everything related to their loans – whether they’re current or in default – on StudentAid.gov. We’ll have consistent processing and records information that allow customer service representatives to have a 360-degree view of a customer or partner’s account, so that they can get their questions answered with just one call, e-mail, or chat. Slide 19: So, I’m going to stop there for today. I do think it’s important to note that there are other Next Gen projects that I haven’t covered yet, in part because they are deep in the weeds or will be implemented farther into the future. We’ll be providing more information about those as time goes on—but we really felt it was important to provide y’all with a solid foundation of the Next Gen initiative that you can build upon as you take this journey with us. Slide 20: We have a lot planned over the next few months. For those who pay attention to solicitations on beta.SAM.gov, one of the projects that I haven’t mentioned, a replacement for the Central Processing System (CPS), will publish a request for information describing the project and our tentative requirements. That RFI will be out for a bit so we can get feedback, which we’ll then use to publish a solicitation later this year. We’ll also have a Next Gen page up soon on the FSA Data Center. This is where you’ll be able to find fact sheets on a variety of Next Gen tools and projects, contracts for some of the vendors, links to solicitations, event notifications, strategic plans and congressional reports, and a lot of other authoritative information about Next Gen. We’ll also be hosting a pre-solicitation conference for that Interim Servicing Solution in early September; that invite will also appear on beta.SAM.gov, as we want to make sure all interested vendors are able to attend, provide input, and ask questions. We’ll take this feedback in and incorporate it into a final solicitation, which will be posted before the end of October. Also keep an eye out for updates to StudentAid.gov and our myStudentAid mobile app. A good place to look for information and updates is on StudentAid.gov/announcements, where we post information about Next Gen releases that impact customers. And follow FSA’s chief operating officer, Mark Brown, on Twitter at @FSACOO. And finally, I wouldn’t be doing my part unless I plugged our virtual training conference, where we hope we’ll have a huge amount of participation since folks won’t have to travel to participate live. Keep an eye on our conference page, fsaconferences.ed.gov, for registration info. I’ll also remind everyone that public comments are due on the FSA 5-year strategic plan on October 31. Thanks for joining us, and see you next time.

Documents

NEXT GEN FSA