Getting the Most from Your RFP

RFP Session of the 2014 WIC EBT User Group Meeting

July 23, 2014

1:30 PM to 2:30 PM

Presented by Cheryl Owens, MAXIMUS

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Agenda

• Major Components of the SOW• Qualifications• Cost Proposal• RFP Suggestions

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Major Components of the SOW

• Implementation Services• Technical Requirements• Functional Requirements• System Related Requirements• Business Requirements• Materials and Hardware• Ancillary Services• Closeout Services

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You are acquiring a service, not a system!

The system has to abide by certain rules.

Systems are configurable and they can be branded.

Unless you have specific needs or wants, new development is not necessary.

Implementation Services

• Implementation– Project management deliverables and

activities– Status reporting– Requirements validation– System deliverables– MIS interface and interface testing– Training– User Acceptance Testing– Operations deliverables – Retailer stand-beside installation and

training – Retailer system testing and certifications

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State Agency Training may include:

•System Administration (user names and passwords, assigning roles)•Reports and Queries •Settlement and Reconciliation•State User Functions•Clinic operations (issuing cards, selecting PINs, issuing and voiding benefits)•Participant use of card•Operating the WIC vendor stand-beside solution

Technical Requirements

• Formal Standards – Industry defined– Message formats– Cards

• FNS Standards and Rules– Operating Rules WIC EBT– WIC Universal MIS EBT Interface– Technical Implementation Guidelines

• Federal WIC Regulations

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Ensuring systems, materials and hardware speak the same language.

These are mandatory!

Functional Requirements

• Interface with the MIS• WIC Food Maintenance – APL, NTE• WIC Vendor Data – Banking

information• WIC Clinic Data (if applicable)• Account Set-up and Maintenance

(online)• Benefit Issuance and Maintenance

(online)• Card and PIN Maintenance (Active

cards and PIN online, hot card list offline)

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What you want the WIC EBT system to do.

• Transaction Processing (meaning transactions originating from the WIC vendor)

• Settlement – Produce files to generate payments to WIC vendors, switch or TPPs (switch and TPPs online)

• Administrative Functions – What do you want State Agency staff to be able to do?

• Produce and Receive Messages and Batch Files

• Reports/Data Requirements

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Functional Requirements (cont.)

Administrative functions may include system administration, ACH requests and ad hoc queries.

Payments flow from the EBT processor in the reverse direction of transaction messages.

System-Related Requirements

• Period of Time Data is Retained• System/Data Security• Failover System and Testing• System Life Cycle Testing• Test Bed• Audits (SSAE 16)

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WIC EBT security requirements are fairly standard but….Don’t forget to have your State IT review the security requirements for compliance to your state’s security standards.

A test bed throughout the contract will allow you to test any interface changes between the MIS and the EBT systems.

Business Requirements

• Performance Standards– Implementation– Operations

• Hold Backs and Liabilities• Invoicing• Change Management• Maintaining Deliverables Throughout the

System Lifecycle

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At a minimum, the system must meet the performance standards as stated in the FNS Operating Rules.

Other performance standards may include providing deliverables on schedule during implementation, IVR response rates, hardware replacement times, etc.

Materials and Hardware

• Cards (may procure in a separate contract; more common with offline)

• Card Sleeves (optional)• PIN Selection Terminals (online, clinic,

optional)• Magnetic Card Swipe Terminals (online,

clinic, optional)• Smart Card Read/Write Terminals (offline,

clinic, mandatory)• Stand-beside Retail Solution (online

mandatory, offline optional)• Training Materials (client brochures, optional)• Training Video for Clinics (optional)

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Approving card design is more time consuming than most states think.

Start early with your WIC EBT service provider or card provider to develop the card design.

Here’s a neat idea:One state let clinics vote on the card design. Clinics were delighted to have a hand in design selection.

Ancillary Services

• Participant IVR (online)• Live Participant Call Center Services

(online)• Client Web Portal (online)• WIC Vendor IVR• WIC Vendor Help Line• WIC Vendor Web Portal• WIC EBT System User Help Desk

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Suggestion: Start working on the IVR message flow early in the project.

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• Transition and Closeout Plan• Data Cleanup Prior to Data

Transfer• Testing - Trial Runs• Data Transfer• You may Want to Retain

– Production-ready card design– Toll-free numbers used by participants

and WIC vendors

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All data integral to operations must be transferred from one EBT system to another overnight.

Complete cooperation from both WIC EBT service providers is necessary as is the ability to fall back to the original processing system if there is an issue with the data transfer.

Closeout Services

Qualifications

• Qualifications– Prime contractor– Subcontractors

• Project Management and Staffing– Organization chart– Key staff

Confidential 13

WIC EBT service providers do not assign full time dedicated staff to a project unless you require it and are willing to pay for it.

There are only a few WIC EBT processors and a lot of states implementing. Ask for assurances that the offeror has the ability to implement multiple states at one time and have them explain how they plan to do it.

WIC EBT Cost Proposal

• Cost for WIC EBT Implementation Labor– Fixed price milestone payments (e.g.,

approval of work plan and schedule, approval of system design, successful UAT, end of pilot, end of rollout)

• Cost per Case Month (CPCM)– A “case” is a family (one or more

participants) that can access benefits through one account and one card

– If you have 100,000 participants, you will have ~72,000 families or cases; if your CPCM is 80¢, you will pay $57,600 per month

– Tiered pricing works best when other states can join your contract

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The Western States uses tiered pricing, paying a lower CPCM for the combined caseload of Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Wyoming’s contract for offline WIC EBT allows other states to procure offline services from their contract; the CPCM will decrease as the combined caseload increases.

WIC EBT Cost Proposal

• Hardware– PIN terminals– Magnetic card swipe terminals– Smart card read/write terminals– Retailer stand-beside solutions

• Maintain or Replace Hardware?• Options

– Card sleeves (per unit or CPCM)– Expanded live call center services

(CPCM)– Issue replacement cards by mail (online)– Provide printed client brochures– Provide training DVDs for clinics

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You can request ongoing maintenance for your clinic terminals but you may want to consider purchasing replacements as needed.

Consider a clause that will allow WIC vendors to purchase additional stand-beside solutions at the same cost as paid by the state.

The RFP and Its Evaluation

• Responding to a WIC EBT RFP and evaluating the response can be onerous tasks.

• To make it easier on everyone: – Define which sections of the RFP will

require a written response– Ask that the response be provided in the

same order as the requirements have been presented

– Provide evaluation criteria that synchs with the requirements and response – and present them in the same order as the requirements

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Don’t jumble it up!

Example – Do they look the same?They should!RFP Sections

QualificationsBusiness RequirementsImplementation RequirementsDeliverablesTechnical RequirementsFunctional RequirementsTesting RequirementsSecurity RequirementsService RequirementsHardware and MaterialsCloseout Requirements

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Proposal Response Required Sections

QualificationsResponse to Business RequirementsImplementation ApproachDeliverablesTechnical RequirementsFunctional RequirementsTesting ApproachSecurityServices Hardware and MaterialsCloseout Approach

Evaluation Criteria Stated in the RFP

20% Qualifications60% Technical Approach20% Cost

Detailed Evaluator Criteria

15% Corporate Qualifications5% Staffing Qualifications4% Response to Business Requirements8% Implementation Approach3% Deliverables4% Technical Requirements20% Functional Requirements3% Testing Approach3% Security8% Services 4% Hardware and Materials3% Closeout Approach

Make it Easy on Everyone

Chances are the offeror does not want to provide and you don’t want to read:•A description of what the contractor will provide in every single written deliverable

– An agreement to provide each deliverable should be sufficient

•A description or screen shot of every report– An agreement to provide the report and

an indication of how the report is provided (e.g., standard report, standard query, special query, etc.) should be sufficient

•A description of life cycle testing activities•A description of a change management approach

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By submitting a proposal and completing the Deliverable Table, the offeror commits to providing the required deliverables.

REPORT Agreement

Weekly Status Reports Will provide

Communications Plan Will provide

Change Management Plan

Will provide

Security Plan Will provide

Retailer Enablement Plan

Will provide

Training Plan Will provide

Retailer Interface Specifications

Will provide

Test Plan Will provide

Test Scripts Will provide

Still Have Questions?

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Cheryl OwensMAXIMUS

571-218-5214cherylowens@maximus.com