REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS HOSTED INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE SYSTEM NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Belton, Missouri, (hereinafter referred to as City ) is requesting proposals for a hosted Interactive Voice Response System (IVR). City will receive such sealed proposals in the office of and addressed to: City of Belton 506 Main Street Belton, MO 64012 ATTENTION: Patti Ledford THREE (3) COPIES OF THE PROPOSAL WILL BE RECEIVED UP TO THE HOUR OF 2:00 P.M., FRIDAY, August 2, 2013 Copies of the Interactive Voice Response System Request for Proposal Document are available from the City website at www.belton.org on the Bid Opportunities page or by calling the Finance Department at (816) 331-4331. To receive any addendum you must be registered with Cindy Lockhart, at clockhart@belton.org. All proposals forms must be properly executed and submitted as part of the proposal. The City reserves the right to reject any or all proposals.
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS & INSTRUCTIONS TO BIDDERS Scope It is the intent of this bid invitation to obtain proposals for supplying the materials, supplies and/or equipment listed on the Proposal Sheet. You are requested to submit your bid on the enclosed Proposal Sheet and return the entire package to the Patti Ledford, City of Belton, 506 Main Street, Belton, MO 64012, no later than the time specified in the bid advertisement. Marking of Bid Envelopes Bids must be contained in a sealed envelope, plainly marked, showing the bid name, date, time for opening bids and the bidder's name. Late Proposals Not Considered Proposals received after the stipulated bid opening date and time will not be considered. Compliance With Specifications Your bid must be in strict compliance with the specifications and offer the same or equal materials. Exceptions are to be listed separately in a letter which will become a part of your proposal, otherwise it is fully understood that the materials offered is exactly as specified. The City of Belton reserves the right to allow or disallow minor deviations from the specifications in order to purchase what is best for the City from a standpoint of quality, price and service to be rendered. Shipping All prices are to be quoted F.O.B. delivered, unless otherwise specified. Risk of loss and/or damage shall be upon the seller until such time as the goods have been physically delivered and accepted by the buyer. Unit Prices to Prevail Prices shall be submitted on per unit basis by line item. In the event of a disparity between the unit price and the extended price, the unit price shall prevail.
Proposal Price Corrections All prices and notations shall be written in ink or typed. Changes or corrections made on the bid form must be initialed by the individual signing the bid. No corrections will be permitted once bids have been opened. Withdrawal of Proposals Bids may be withdrawn at any time prior to the time specified for the bid opening upon written or personal request of the bidder. Negligence on the part of the bidder shall not constitute a right to withdraw the bid subsequent to such bid opening. Rejection of Bids The City reserves the right to reject any and all bids. Award Award shall be made to the lowest responsible bidder taking into consideration quality, performance and time specified in the proposal for the performance of the contract. It is the intent of the City to award based upon the greatest value to the City of Belton. Term of Contract and price for that period shall be taken into consideration and assessed for the value of the period. Time of delivery and prompt payment discounts will be considered in breaking tie bids. Addendums The City of Belton shall not be responsible for any oral instructions made by its employees or officers of the City in regards to the bidding instructions, drawings, specifications or contract documents. Any changes to the specifications will be in the form of an Addendum which will be emailed to all bidders who are listed with the Finance Department as having received the invitation or any other bidder who requests an Addendum. Responsibility of Compliance With Legal Requirements The bidder's products, service and facilities shall be in full compliance with any and all applicable state, federal, local, environmental and safety laws, regulations, ordinances and standards or any standards adopted by nationally recognized testing facilities regardless of whether or not they are referred to in this invitation. Taxes The City of Belton is exempt from and will not pay federal, state, or local taxes. An exemption certificate will be furnished upon request.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL SCOPE OF SERVICES 1. Purpose The City of Belton, Missouri is seeking proposals from qualified sources to provide a hosted, state of the art, Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) for the acceptance of credit/debit card and e-check payments, provide other customer account information and automated outbound calling. The objective of the IVR system is to improve the efficiency of customer service operations and provide a higher quality of customer service to our customers. 2. Background We are a water and sewer utility servicing nearly 8,000 customers. The City is responsible for billing and collecting payments. Customer service is considered a critical component to success of the City. Customer service is primarily handled by 5 staff persons that manage the billing and collections of utilities. 3. Technical Specs ( This checklist can be found as Exhibit 1 and shall be included as part of your proposal submittal). The City is seeking an IVR vendor that can provide services with the following requirements: Please indicate compliance to the following items in the table below. If the answer is No please provide the reason in the comment section. Any No responses may result in the VENDOR being nonresponsive to the bid. 4. Time of Completion: The IVR must be fully integrated and functional within 120 days of a notice to proceed from City of Belton. If mutual timeline is not met, vendor will be responsible for liquidated damages in the amount of $125 per day. 5. Bid Tab: The items quoted on the bid tab shall include the price of the hardware/software as well as the installation. All Travel Cost and training costs should be included in the price of the Base Solution. No additional out of pocket expenses shall be paid including but not limited to fuel and other associated travel costs.
In addition, costs charged directly to the City from SunGard Public Sector will be considered during award of contract. For vendors that are not currently a SunGard Public Sector Approved Solution Provider with a current Approved Solution Provider Agreement, the following additional minimum charges will be billed to the City: A minimum of $4,320 will be charged for startup and integration. A minimum monthly charge of $862.80 for maintenance for an already Approved Solution Provider (more will be charged for a vendor that is not already an Approved Solution Provider). 6. Proposal Submittal Requirements The following should be included in your Proposal, 1 original and 2 copies for a total of 3 proposals shall be submitted. If you are not currently a SunGard Public Sector Approved Solution Provider with a current Approved Solution Provider Agreement for an IVR product, you must provide evidence of at least 2 prior implementations into a new billing/financial system The references should include organization, phone number, address and email address for them. OR If you are currently SunGard Public Sector Approved Solution Provider with a current Approved Solution Provider Agreement for an IVR product please provide information for at least 2 similar projects you completed. Please provide references for these projects and include organization, phone number, address and email address for them. You must include a detailed timeline of implementation to meet a deadline of mutual agreed upon completion within 120 days from time of notification Provide documentation, manuals, or reference guides for the IVR. Provide a copy of your standard warranty and maintenance contracts for our review. Provide 1, 2 and 3 year options on bid tab. A completed Exhibit 1 IVR Requirements Confirmation from Sungard that you are a SunGard Public Sector Approved Solution Provider. The vendor must have a current Approved Solution Provider agreement. OR Vendor must confirm that SunGard Public Sector will work with them to be an Approved Solution Provider and obtain an Approved Solutions Provider agreement. Both must be furnished in writing from SunGard Public Sector and be included in the proposal submittal to be considered. Answers to all of the questions presented in Section 1 Telephone Requirements, Section 2 IVR Functionality, Section 3 Outbound Functionality, Section 4 System Administration and Section 5 Support and Maintenance. A completed proposal sheet (included in proposal document)
7. Evaluation Criteria The evaluation of the proposals will be based on the items listed above in Section 7 as well as compliance to applicable laws and regulations and overall clarity and completeness of response to the proposal. 8. Form of Submission The City will receive sealed proposals in the office of and addressed to: City of Belton 506 Main Street Belton, MO 64012 ATTENTION: Patti Ledford THREE (3) COPIES OF THE PROPOSAL WILL BE RECEIVED UP TO THE HOUR OF 2:00 P.M., FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2013 The proposal can be delivered via U.S. Postal Service, Commercial Carrier or by Hand. 10. Terms and Conditions a) Submission of a proposal indicates acceptance by the agency of the conditions contained in this request for proposal unless clearly and specifically noted in the proposal submitted and confirmed in the contract between the City and the agency selected. b) The City reserves the right without prejudice to reject any or all proposals, to waive any nonmaterial irregularities or informalities in any RFP, to accept or reject any item or combination of items, and to request additional clarification of proposals. c) All proposals received become the property of the City and information included therein or attached thereto, shall become public record upon their delivery to the City. Any information deemed by the bidding agency to be protected as a trade secret shall be submitted separately in a sealed envelope along with a statement supporting this assertion. d) Any and all costs associated with the preparation of a response to this request are the responsibility of the proposer, and are not to be passed on to the City. e) The Proposals shall be valid for 90 days. f) Please see draft service agreement for additional Terms & Conditions 11. Inquiries All questions and requests for clarification concerning this RFP shall be made to Cindy Lockhart, at 816-331-4331 or clockhart@belton.org. The following questions must be addressed in your proposal submittal. Please answer them in the order they appear in the RFP by section.
Section 1 Telephone Integration 1. Provide information on the recommended number of phone lines/simultaneous callers your proposed IVR system can support, based on our call center s call volume. 2. Describe the proposed system s expansion capability, including both hardware expansion as well as new interfaces/applications/product features. 3. Explain how the proposed IVR system prevents callers from being hung in a loop (unable to escape from a routine). 4. Explain how the IVR system supports analog, digital, and/or VoIP integration for inbound and outbound calls. 5. For future integration purposes, describe the level of your VoIP integration experience. 6. How many VoIP integrations have you performed? 7. What VoIP protocols are supported? 8. How many native VoIP integrations have you implemented? 9. Detail all the telephone-related services that the City of Belton will be responsible for, in support of the proposed IVR system. 10. Demonstrate your experience with our current phone system. Section 2 IVR Functionality 1. Describe the platform and architecture used to develop your IVR solution. 2. Describe the customer information (Account balance, past due balance, due date, etc.) that can be provided to the caller during a call. 3. Describe how the proposed system supports a combination of voice, fax, e-mail and text messaging through a single platform. 4. Describe how callers can dial through the voice prompts and how your proposed solution allows this functionality to be disabled for certain prompts? 5. Describe how the proposed system handles call transfer routines during normal business hours and outside of normal business hours. 6. Explain how your proposed system ensures that callers are transferred to the correct person/department.
7. Does your system offer the proposed services in Spanish? Must have option to select English or Spanish. 8. What components are required to implement multiple languages? 9. Does your proposed system have limits to the number of prompts that can exist within the system? If so, how many? Are there limits to the number of menu items and/or menu inputs? 10. Describe how the proposed solution ensures that City of Belton s business rules are correctly supported and enforced. 11. Describe security options available to ensure that customers are hearing information for the correct account, as well as to ensure that callers cannot randomly access other customers account information. 12. Describe how your solution will support integration to our 3rd party credit card, debit card, and electronic check payment processing vendors (AMS credit cards and AMS for e-checks.) 13. Is a gateway like Paypal required to interface with the processing vendors? For e-checks? Credit cards? 14. Describe the reporting options available within the proposed system. 15. What data export methods are available? 16. Describe how your proposed system will allow administrators to schedule automatic delivery of reports. 17. What process exists to add additional reports? 18. Are there limits to the quantity of reports that can be run on your system? 19. Please provide an overview of your proposed system s standard implementation methodology including timeline. 20. Please describe your relationship with our billing system vendor Sungard-Naviline. 21. Does the proposed system include the ability for the City of Belton to offer general informational messages and static documents to the customer? 22. Please describe how your system allows the City of Belton to update these messages and/or documents, as well as the order in which the information is presented on an as-needed basis. 23. Describe the technical requirements our personnel must possess to administer these functions. Section 3 Outbound Functionality
1. Provide examples of outbound dialing applications and the functionality you currently support. 2. Describe your process for providing custom outbound dialing campaigns. 3. Explain how the proposed system initiates, processes, and concludes an outbound call. 4. Does the process differ if the outbound call is received by a person or an answering machine? 5. Describe your systems ability to transfer a call to live staff or a third party during an outbound call campaign. 6. Describe how your system interfaces to the host database to create an outbound campaign list. 7. Does your system have the ability to notify the agency if an outbound call results in change to an account s status? If so, how are administrators or agency users notified? 8. Will your system provide the ability for administrators to configure what constitutes a successful outbound call? 9. What options are available for administrators based on the above configuration? 10. Describe the reporting available within the system and what level of detail is provided relative to how the call was answered and related call events. Section 4 System Administration 1. Describe in detail the utilities available for system administration functionality. 2. Describe how administrative access is controlled. 3. Describe how database passwords are set up, maintained and changed. 4. Provide a description of the proposed solution s standard call traffic reports, including fax request information. 5. Describe the reporting options available within the proposed system. 6. What data export methods are available? 7. Describe how your proposed system will allow administrators to schedule automatic delivery of reports. 8. What process exists to add additional reports? 9. Are there limits to the quantity of reports that can be run on your system?
10. Explain how the City s system administrator is notified should a problem occur with the proposed solution. 11. Describe how calls are handled when the City s network or host database encounters a failure. 12. Define the City s responsibility for recording the initial set of prompts. 13. After implementation, describe how voice prompts are added, changed and deleted? Section 5 Support and Maintenance 1. Describe how your organization handles support of this application and the support options available to the City. 2. Do you have any proactive monitoring tools that allow the City of Belton to be notified if the system is experiencing an issue? 3. Explain how the IVR system allows application changes while in production. 4. Describe the procedure for installing new software releases into a production environment. 5. Describe ongoing maintenance routine responsibilities, including any telephony related services. 6. Will any routine maintenance require the IVR system to be out of service? If so, please describe. 7. Describe the backup procedures for the IVR system. 8. What is the warranty period? 9. Explain how the maintenance agreement and warranty periods are administered. Exhibit 1 IVR Requirements
Service No Comments Ability to process current work load with additional growth capacity. The City processes approximately 2,500 credit/debit card (VISA/MasterCard) payments per month. Ability to process E-Checks Ability to offer additional account information to customers upon request, such as account balance, due date. The IVR system must be compatible with the City s current phone system, must be fault tolerant for backup protection and must be fully PCI compliant. This must be an external solution, hosted off-site. The system must also be able to fully integrate with host billing platform (Sungard-Naviline). The vendor must confirm that they are a SunGard Public Sector Approved Solution Provider. The vendor must have a current Approved Solution Provider agreement OR Vendor must confirm that SunGard Public Sector will work with them to be an Approved Solution Provider and obtain an Approved Solutions Provider agreement. Both must be furnished in writing from SunGard Public Sector and be included in the proposal submittal to be considered. You must accommodate the following interfaces with current SunGard billing system. VC-CIS Voice Response Interface-Allows the IVR to get information about the account such as payment history, current balance, etc. CS/IVR-CIS IVR Credit Card Interface-Allows the vendor to post credit card payments to the SunGard database in real-time. CS/IVR-CIS Delinquency Callout listing-allows the IVR to query the database and build a callout
list for delinquent accounts. Interface to billing system must show real -time payment activity. System availability must be 24/7. Ability to use touchtone and/or speech recognition.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL PROPOSAL SHEET Please submit prices as per the Bid Tab below. All Travel and Training Cost should be included in the base costs. No additional fees shall be paid for travel or training. Interactive Voice Response Base Solution Included Functionality: List details of information that will be available to customer when accessing IVR in comments section Number of ports included in Base Solution in comment section Professional services (if included in base solution please write included in base solution in cost column Design and development Project Management On-Site Installation Warranty-Hardware Warranty-Software Maintenance Contract-1 Year Option Maintenance Contract-2 Year Option Maintenance Contract-3Year Option System Documentation Any other implementation costs Hardware and Software Included set-up and configuration costs Processor, hard drives, and any other required equipment costs Additional functionality required to meet technical specs not included in base cost List all details and costs Cost $ Comments
Integration costs List all costs associated with integration to SunGard Public Sector software: Voice Response Interface IVR Credit Card Interface Delinquency Callout Listing Interface Any other integration or implementation costs Any costs associated with any upgrades Optional Functionality Not included in Scope Additional ports Licensing and Hardware Payment Extension List any other optional services and costs Please provide the following information on your company: BY (Signed): BY (Printed): TITLE COMPANY: ADDRESS: TELEPHONE: FAX NUMBER:
EMAIL Bidder s company is: Corporation Partnership/Proprietorship If corporate name is different from above, please show in full. What state is corporation incorporated in?