Posted: 9/25/2024

Type of Addition: Addendum No. 1

Overview: Addendum #1 is attached. It includes a list of questions received and answered. It also includes a table of proposed changes to the contract and/or solicitation. The County's responses to these proposed revisions are included in table. 

Documents:

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Posted: 11/19/2024

Type of Addition: Presentations From Top Scored Companies

Overview: The four top-scored companies will be scheduled to conduct presentations/interviews. The top four companies were AutoAgent Municipay, PayIt, LLC, PayStar, and Best Digital Solutions Billtrax. Individual evaluator scoresheets (with comments) and a score tabulation will be published when a letter of intent to award is sent to the selected offeror.

Documents:

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Posted: 9/10/2024

Question: Would Dorchester County be willing to send monthly and yearly processing statements? This would be valuable for underwriting to help secure the lowest possible processing rate

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/10/2024

Question: Are there any seasonal peaks or variations in the transaction volume that we should be aware of, and if so, could you provide historical data that reflects these fluctuations?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/10/2024

Question: Could you clarify any specific performance metrics or service level agreements (SLAs) that the County expects to be met regarding transaction processing times, uptime, or customer support response times?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/10/2024

Question: Can you provide the anticipated award date, the expected timeframe for implementation, and the target go-live date for the new credit card processing services? Additionally, are there any critical milestones or deadlines we should be aware of during the implementation process?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/11/2024

Question: Scope of Work requirements include “Receive a pdf image of the tax bill to populate on the County’s website”. Currently, County taxpayers are able to view their tax bill on the County’s hosted webpage. Will the County continue to host this functionality? Is it required for the selected vendor to also enable users to view bills?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/11/2024

Question: Scope of Work includes “provide avenue to update billing address information”. This functionality is already supported on the County’s hosted webpage. Will the County continue to host this functionality?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/11/2024

Question: Does the County currently process each card payment with 2 transactions, ie one transaction for the amount due to the County and the second transaction for the amount of the Service Fee due to the payments vendor? If no, does the County currently receive settlement into its bank account for both the amount due to the County plus the amount of the Service Fee?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/11/2024

Question: Would Dorchester County be open to looking at a solution that also provides support with accounts payables as well?

Response: No.

Posted: 9/12/2024

Question: Will the County provide merchant statements and/or a break down of that reflects the type of payment accepted, the number of transactions by payment type and the average ticket size by payment type?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/12/2024

Question: Please describe what information the County requires in a posting file from your Tax Bill? Please provide an example (i.e. Tax Bill or Notice Number, how many numbers is maximum).

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/16/2024

Question: Is the County expecting vendors to apply for a Dorchester County business license as part of the submission process, or is this only expected of the awarded vendor(s)?

Response: Vendors need not have a County business license to respond to the solicitation. The successful Offeror will be expected to hold a business license before commencing services.

Posted: 9/17/2024

Question: In reference to Section Twenty-Four: Termination (page 23), to allow for a responsible transition of services, would the County be open to moving the notice of termination to 90 days from 7 days?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/17/2024

Question: In Section Twenty Two: Owner of the Documents (page 23 of the RFP document), we would like to clarify that this does not directly pertain to all data created to our processing motions, but rather the data provided by the County in service to the County will remain the County’s data.

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/17/2024

Question: Can the County provide more detail on the total annual collections for payments in-scope for this RFP? For example, the total transaction count and volume of transactions for each payment method (Credit Card, Debit Card, E-Check).

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/18/2024

Question: Per RFP p. 5, #3. Qualifications: In this section, the County requests three references AND three recent samples of work. Does the County expect these two sections to be mutually exclusive (i.e., a total of six unique clients), or can there be overlap (i.e., our named references are also used as our work samples)?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/18/2024

Question: Will the County accept the use of a Remote Online Notarization platform for proposal forms requiring notarization?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/18/2024

Question: Are respondents expected to use the highly secure FedRAMP cloud environment for processing, or are lower security environments sufficient?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/18/2024

Question: Does the County have any goals related to reducing walk-ins, calls, or checks and increasing transactions online? If yes, what are they?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/18/2024

Question: When is the County anticipating to launch these services?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/18/2024

Question: For PDF bill presentment on the online portal, is the PDF bill sent to the prospective vendor by the billing/bill printing vendor or is the prospective vendor expected to generate it on their own?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Requirement: County needs blocking capabilities for certain account types and customers. We can block Credit verse Debit card and also include state-of-the art fraud detection. Do you have examples of other account types and customers who would need to be blocked?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Can you provide how many credit card payments are made in person?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: How many e-checks made online per year?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: How often will you upload bills per month?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: What file format is needed for that information on the AS 400?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Is the County looking to replace the current search features on their website?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Does the County currently offer an inhouse IVR system?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: In the General Terms and Conditions, Section 13.2 State and Local Taxes, "The successful Proposer shall calculate that portion of the Contract which is subject to the seven percent sales and/or use tax ...". Would any of the Successful Proposer's revenue from this contract be subject to sales and/or use tax? percent (7%) sales and/or use tax

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: What tender types (e.g. e-checks, credit card, debit card) are currently accepted for the advanced installment payments?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: What type of data will the selected payment provider need to include in the tax files provided to the AS400 tax system?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: The scope of work mentions that respondents must provide an avenue for taxpayers to change their billing address. Will this billing address be used as the address to mail paper bills to?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Who provides the IVR service? Is it the current payment vendor, and the new payment vendor would need to provide a replacement?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: The County’s current tax search page (https://dorchestercountytaxesonline.com/taxes.html#/WildfireSearch) appears to be provided by Vision, a Granicus company. Will this still be provided by Granicus, or is the new payment provider required to replace this page?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Are the requirements regarding “electronic billing” fulfilled by the current vendor, or are these upgrades that the County is hoping to introduce from this procurement?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Are the blocking capabilities for certain account types and customers expected to be fully provided by the new payments provider, or are confidential accounts flagged in the tax system and only expected to be recognized and appropriately blocked by the payments provider upon receiving the flags?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: Which in-person cashiering software(s) (if any) is used?

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.

Posted: 9/19/2024

Question: If known, please supply the number of e-check returns in the last 12 months.

Response: Question is answered in Addendum #1.