REQUEST FOR INFORMATION DEBIT CARD PROCESSING FOR FLORIDA RETIREMENT SYSTEM (FRS) PENSION PLAN PAYMENTS RFI NO.: DMS 12/13 - 036
I.
DEFINITIONS Payee – A retiree or beneficiary of a retiree who has received or is receiving a retirement benefit payment ATM – Automated Teller Machine PIN – Personal Identification Number Division – Department of Management Services, Division of Retirement, of the State of Florida. RFI – Request For Information FRS – Florida Retirement System Vendor - “Vendor” shall mean the individual submitting the response to this RFI
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INTRODUCTION The Department of Management Services, Division of Retirement, of the State of Florida (hereinafter the “Division”) hereby issues this Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking information from experienced, qualified vendors offering debit card services as an electronic payment method for FRS payments. The services must also include maintaining retiree data securely, producing, printing, and mailing debit cards, as well as customer service, as specified by the Division in Section V. As used in this document, “Vendor” shall mean the individual submitting the response to this RFI. Such person may be the owner or controlling agent of the company described in the RFI response or an individual duly authorized to act on behalf of an entity responding to this RFI.
III.
PURPOSE OF AN RFI Rule 60A-1.042, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), provides that an agency may request information by issuing a written RFI. Agencies are authorized to use an RFI in circumstances including, but not limited to, determining whether or not to competitively procure a commodity or contractual service, determining what solicitation process to use for a particular need, or researching general, special, and/or technical specifications for a solicitation. A Vendor’s response to an RFI is not an offer and the agency may not use the Vendor’s submission to justify a contract with that Vendor without otherwise complying with Chapter 287, F.S., and Rule 60A1.042, F.A.C. Vendors submitting a response to an agency’s RFI are not prohibited from responding to any related subsequent solicitation.
IV.
BACKGROUND The Division administers the Florida Retirement System (FRS) Pension Plan which includes over 350,000 payees receiving monthly retirement benefits. Currently, approximately 33,000 individuals receive their recurring monthly benefits by paper check. Individuals that receive paper checks are currently being notified of the requirement for direct deposit. As a result, the number of payees enrolling in direct deposit is increasing.
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Currently FRS payments are processed on monthly and weekly payroll cycles. Recurring monthly benefits are processed on the monthly payroll. These benefits are currently paid by direct deposit and paper checks. The weekly payroll is used for one-time payments which are currently by paper checks only. Examples of one-time payments include refunds of employee contributions and retroactive benefit payments. All payroll files are created by the Division and transferred to the Florida Department of Financial Services for issuing state payments via direct deposit or paper checks. V.
STATEMENT OF NEED AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION The goal of the Division is to review and explore debit cards as an electronic payment method for FRS benefits, at no cost (or minimal cost) to payees. The FRS debit card program will target all payees that have not enrolled in direct deposit on a date to be determined by the Division. An actual count of payees that may be paid by debit card is not exact; however, the Division anticipates the program will start with approximately 10,000 – 20,000, with some fluctuation. The payment of FRS benefits involves information that is confidential and exempt from disclosure under Florida’s public records laws. The Vendor shall at a minimum: 1. Provide a debit card program at no cost (or minimal cost) to FRS payees. 2. Have facilities that ensure the physical and electronic security for processing and/or housing FRS debit card account information. 3. Be responsible for employee background checks, including criminal history, that meet or exceed the State of Florida’s Level II background screening requirement. 4. Have the capacity to send and receive electronic data files on a scheduled (weekly/monthly) basis or on an occasional as needed basis. The Vendor will use data encryption methods, such as SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) to meet or exceed industry standards during each transmission. Furthermore, the data file shall be delimited in an agreed upon format. 5. Have the capacity to provide reports via electronic data files and/or database views via a secure interface that only authorized Division staff (and certain vendor staff) can access. 6. Have the flexibility to load recurring monthly and/or one time FRS deposits onto debit cards. 7. Have a solution that allows for rapid processing to avoid delays in the loading of funds to the debit card. 8. Have a solution that allows for rapid processing to avoid delays in inactivating cards as instructed by the Division. 9. Have a solution that refunds, back to the State of Florida, any overpayment amounts, or amounts on cards that are not activated within 365 days. Overpayments may include entire benefit deposit amounts or partial benefit amounts. 10. Have a solution to print and mail debit cards to payees. 11. Have the capacity to allow debit card activations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week both by calling a toll free number and via the internet.
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12. Have a toll free contact center number available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer questions concerning the debit card; including, but not limited to: card activation, lost/replacement cards, PINS and PIN resets, account statements. 13. Have the capability to provide quarterly statements to payees via mail or the Internet. 14. Have the capacity to produce and mail debit card information approved by the division. The information shall include, but is not limited to: communication announcing and explaining the debit card program, how to use the debit card without fees (if applicable) and in network ATM locations. 15. Have the capacity to receive state funds to load onto debit cards by means of an EFT to the Vendor’s designated bank account. 16. Have easily accessible ATM locations. VI.
QUESTIONS FOR VENDORS In response to this RFI, and addressing the items identified in the Statement of Need and Technical Information Section, please provide the following information: TAB 1—Introduction: Provide a cover letter, the vendor’s primary point of contact and contact information (name, title, address, telephone number(s), fax number and e-mail address.) TAB 2—Requested Information and Responses: (Please reprint each request with your response.) A.
Describe your organization and the services you provide.
B.
Provide information demonstrating your ability to fulfill the services identified in this RFI. Include three (3) examples of where your organization successfully executed a comparable debit card processing solution. For each example, please identify / describe / provide:
Client’s name
The client’s industry, size and enrollment composition
General description of client’s debit card program, including dates of contracted services, card volume, reloadable or one-time, revenue generating and debit card deposit source (pension, unemployment, etc.)
References for each client identified
C.
Describe the minimum volume of debit cards required for your card processing solution.
D.
Describe your solution’s debit card services available to card recipients. Your response should include, but is not limited to, the accessibility of ATM locations (specifically in Florida), languages that service/information is provided in, card replacements, and whether specific services are free to payees.
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E.
Describe your solution’s debit card processing services available to the client providing the funds for card loads. Please include whether reporting services and technical support are included with your debit card processing solution.
F.
Describe your solution’s debit card communication program. Please include types of information, frequency and timeline of when specific information is sent to card recipients.
G.
Describe your solution’s processes and quality control standards for printing and mailing debit cards and delivering account statement information to card recipients.
H.
Describe any minimal software and hardware requirements needed by the client to facilitate your solution.
I.
Describe your solution’s data transfer processes for receiving payees’ debit card information. Please include transfer methods, typical schedules and time needed to fulfill requests.
J.
Provide detail regarding the quality control standards and measures used by your organization to ensure that debit card information is accurate.
K.
Provide detail regarding the quality control standards and measures used by your organization to ensure the security and confidentiality of payee data. Your response should include, but is not limited to, personnel access, systems risk assessments, hardware/software security controls, system and data access controls, and authentication controls.
L.
Provide detail regarding the customer service practices, standards and measures used by your organization to ensure that your customers (debit card recipients and debit card program clients) are satisfied with services provided.
M.
Provide your company’s procedures for preventing identity theft, responding to fraudulent activities and assistance to payees whose confidential information has been compromised.
N.
Describe your solution’s reporting services.
O.
Describe your company’s redundancy capabilities to overcome emergencies such as power outages, network outages, and hardware/software failures.
P.
Describe your solution’s processes for transferring funds to and from the Division (for loading debit cards and returning funds to the State of Florida). Please include transfer methods, typical schedules and time needed to fulfill requests.
Q.
Describe the common and/or unique characteristics of your debit card. Examples include general length of time before card expiration, whether Visa or MasterCard logo used, any payee naming requirement, etc.
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R.
How much time do you estimate it would take to implement your solution for a project of this magnitude? Include a timeline for each step required.
S.
Describe the oversight, auditing, and managing processes involved with this debit card solution.
T.
Provide the types of revenue generating services that your solution offers for the Division to help defray the cost of the program.
U.
What additional information or value added services does the Division need to know about your company’s debit card processing solution?
TAB 3—Sample Pricing Information: Provide general pricing information (not a specific price quote) for variables impacting the price, and other fees/charges for debit card processing services. Please also provide specific details about how the vendor is compensated for the services provided. PLEASE DO NOT PROVIDE A SPECIFIC PRICE QUOTE. To preserve your ability to bid on a future procurement related to this RFI it is important to provide general pricing information only (i.e., competitive ranges and variables impacting price; not a specific price quote.) TAB 4—Additional Information: Provide additional information Vendor believes will be helpful in evaluating whether and how to contract with an exceptional service provider. VII.
TIMELINE Listed below are important dates/times on which actions must be taken or completed. If the Department finds it necessary to update any of the dates/times noted, it will be accomplished by an Amendment to the RFI. All times listed below are local time in Tallahassee, Florida. DATE
VIII.
TIME
05/01/2013
RFI Release
05/08/2013 5:00 p.m. ET
Questions are due to the Procurement Officer
05/15/2013
Answers to questions received are posted on the Vendor Bid System (VBS)
05/22/2013 3:00 p.m. ET
Vendor responses are due
AMENDMENTS TO THE RFI The Department will post amendments to this RFI on the Florida Vendor Bid System at: http://vbs.dms.state.fl.us/vbs/search.criteria_form. Each Respondent is responsible for monitoring the VBS for new or changing information.
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IX.
RFI QUESTIONS AND CONTACT WITH THE STATE Questions regarding this RFI shall be submitted in writing to the Procurement Officer identified in Section XII. by the date and time specified in the Timeline or as amended by the Department. Questions may be submitted via email. Questions will not be answered via telephone. The Department will post answers to questions received on the Vendor Bid System by the close of business on the date stated in the Timeline. Please direct any questions or issues regarding this RFI to the Procurement Officer identified herein.
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VENDOR RESPONSE SUBMISSION Please submit three bound hardcopies and one electronic copy on CD via mail to the Procurement Officer noted below no later than the time and date noted in the Section VII. Timeline. Responses must reference the RFI No.: DMS 12/13-036 in the subject line of the email response submission. The Respondent shall organize their response submittal contents as follows:
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Tab 1
Introduction
Tab 2
Requested Information and Responses
Tab 3
Sample Pricing Information
Tab 4
Additional Information
CONFIDENTIAL, PROPRIETARY OR TRADE SECRET MATERIAL The Department takes its public records responsibilities as provided under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes and Article I, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution, very seriously. If Respondent considers any portion of the documents, data or records submitted in response to this RFI to be confidential, trade secret or otherwise not subject to disclosure pursuant to chapter 119, Florida Statutes, the Florida Constitution or other authority, Respondent must also simultaneously provide the Department with a separate redacted copy of its RFI, on CD, and briefly describe in writing the grounds for claiming exemption from the public records law, including the specific statutory citation for such exemption. This redacted copy shall contain the Department’s RFI name, number, and the name of the respondent on the cover, and shall be clearly titled “Redacted Copy.” The Redacted Copy shall be provided to the Department at the same time Vendor submits its response to the RFI and must only exclude or obliterate those exact portions which are claimed confidential, proprietary, or trade secret. The Vendor shall be responsible for defending its determination that the redacted portions of its RFI response are confidential, trade secret or otherwise not subject to disclosure. Further, Vendor shall protect, defend, and indemnify the Department for any and all claims arising from or relating to Vendor determination that the redacted portions of its RFI response are confidential, proprietary, trade secret or otherwise not subject to disclosure. If Vendor fails to submit a Redacted Copy with its response, the Department is authorized to produce the entire documents, data or records submitted by Vendor in answer to a public records request for these records.
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PROCUREMENT OFFICER Lori Anderson, FCCM, FCCN Departmental Purchasing 4050 Esplanade Way, Suite 380.9Y Tallahassee, FL 32399-0950 Telephone No.: (850) 488-0510 Fax No.: (850) 414-8331 E-mail to:
[email protected] This contact person is the only authorized individual to respond to RFI comments and questions.
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