Addenda #2 January 23, 2015
Request for Proposal (RFP): Banking Services - Vendor Questions
Questions:
1. The Table of Contents includes an entry for “Appendix C Investment Portfolio”, however there is not an Appendix C included in the RFP. Please provide a copy of Attachment C.
Answer: For a digital copy of PCC’s Investment Portfolio via email, contact Jordan Petrusich at [email protected], 971-722-2810.
2. Please provide the College’s electronic transfer specifications.
Answer: PCC primarily uses Secured FTP processing to/from restricted (via firewall) destinations with encrypted Shared Keys to insure protected delivery to our partners. As needed, PGP/GPG data encryption may be used to provide additional levels of security. A form of ‘Shared Secret’ keys may be used if online Single SignOn (SSO) authentication is required.
3. This item refers to “Appendix F – Proposed Services & Pricing,” however there is not an Appendix F included in the RFP. Similar references to Appendix F are made in the following sections:
2.3.3 (page 19)
2.3.3.4 (page 20)
2.3.4.2 (page 24 and 25)
2.3.14 (page 28)
Can the College confirm that each of these references should be to “Appendix E – Proposed services & Pricing?”
Answer: Yes, Appendix F is actually a reference to Appendix E.
4. What specific information is the Proposer expected to include in this section of the proposal with regard to a system demonstration and tour of the investment and safekeeping services? Answer: The College would be interested in a demonstration via the web showing your systems and functionality. Please include information about how the college would monitor investment
activity and the type of reporting and analysis tools provided. We are appreciative of other value added data.
5. Please provide addresses for all of the College’s locations that do vault and branch deposits. Answer:
Cascade campus: 705 N. Killingsworth St. Portland, OR 97217 Sylvania campus: 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219
Rock Creek campus: 17705 NW Springville Rd. Portland, OR 97229 Southeast campus: 2305 SE 82nd and Division, Portland, OR 97216
6. Please provide addresses for the College’s locations that have armored courier pick up to a vault?
Answer:
Cascade campus: 705 N. Killingsworth St. Portland, OR 97217 Sylvania campus: 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219
Rock Creek campus: 17705 NW Springville Rd. Portland, OR 97229 Southeast campus: 2305 SE 82nd and Division, Portland, OR 97216
7. Is there any middleware software or gateway solutions that are being used today for any of the campus deployments? If so, can you provide a list for us?
Answer: PCC supports software distribution and deployments through Dell KACE K1000 Management Appliance and Ghost
8. Are there any standalone terminals or card readers being utilized today and if so are these models EMV capable or enabled?
Answer: PCC's card readers are EMV compatible and capable but EMV is not being used today. EMV - (Europay, Master Card and VISA)
9. Are these terminals pin based debit capable?
Answer: Only some terminals in specific venues are capable of accepting PIN debit.
10. Can you provide the name and model #’s of these terminals? Example: Verifone or Ingenico type terminals and their model #’s.
Answer:
Ingenico iSC 250 Verifone MX 850
Integrated Register Swipes
11. For the business unit processing volumes listed below can you provide each of the entitlement breakdowns specifically for each? Visa, MC, Discover, Pin Based Debit and AMEX that make up these respective volumes:
Students: Transaction Processing Volume = $43,014,875 and Average Ticket = $312 Non-Student: Transaction Processing Volume = $301,949 and Average Ticket = $18 Bookstore: Transaction Processing Volume = $8,543,748 and Average Ticket = $215
Answer:
Following is more recent data showing calendar year-to-date figures for 2014.VISA Amount VISA Count MasterCard Amount MasterCard Count Debit Amount Debit Count Student & E-Commerce $26,924,097 90,730 $4,803,639 15,968 $2,859,366 13,289 Food Service $1,740,221 384,654 $280,264 60,840 0 0 Bookstore $2,156,187 24,683 $541,979 5,798 $3,202,765 78,831 Parking $363,657 92,515 $55,277 13,596 0 0
12. Regarding the request for credit facilities, please indicated the type (i.e. line of credit, letter of credit, equipment finance, bank loans, etc) and amount of credit PCC would require, and for what purpose?
Answer: The only time I have ever used a line of credit in the past was when there was a delay in the payment of our state funding and it was used for short-term cash flow purposes. Under current economic conditions I do anticipate having to utilize a line of credit, but things can change over time. Twenty million should be sufficient for a line of credit. Equipment loans are possible but none are planned at this point in time. Technology replacement would be a potential area, other possibilities could include high dollar pieces of equipment in our health sciences, fire safety, or aviation programs. Potential loans could be in the $5 to $10 million range. Other bank loans would likely be used for major capital improvements as a bridge loan until we passed the next bond issuance, for example to supplement the funds available for the addition of the health sciences building. The potential loan amount could be $25 million. 13. What is the market value of the assets that would be held in the investment safekeeping
account?
Answer: The market value of investments that are held in various safekeeping accounts is $205,254,338, as of 12.31.2014. This change on a daily basis, depending on purchases and maturities. Securities are currently held in three safekeeping accounts.
14. Please provide an asset listing. Answer:
Federal Agencies: 127,829,156 42.32% Corporate Notes: 55,113,816 18.24% Certificates of Deposit: 920,000 0.30% Local Govt Investment Pool: 44,770,834 14.82%
Bankers' Acceptances: 0 0.00%
Local Commercial Paper: 0 0.00%
U. S. Treasuries & Muni: 24,796,695 8.21%
Bank Deposits: 48,648,465 16.10%
National Commercial Paper: 0 0.00%
TOTAL: 302,078,967 100.00%
15. If an asset listing is not available what type of assets are allowed to be held in the investment safekeeping account?
Answer: Please view our current assets listing above. A copy of the College's investment guidelines is available upon request.
16. What is the anticipated transaction volume for the investment safekeeping account? Answer: Transaction volume varies with cash flows, liquidity requirements and issuance of bonds etc. During normal months, purchases and maturities could each vary between 1 to 5 per month. The volume could be higher during busy months. Additionally, there are coupon
payments. Investments are normally held to maturity, but swaps may be done if market conditions are favorable.
17. Section 2.1, Definitions, indicates that a proposal bond is not applicable for this RFP. However, question #3 of Appendix A refers to a proposal bond. Can the College confirm that a proposal security is not required for this procurement, and that this question should be marked “Not required”?
Answer: A proposal security is not required.
18. Since the Contractor will be expected to implement the specific requirements of the College’s Affirmative Action Policy, please provide a copy of the College’s Affirmative Action Program. We were unable to locate the policy on the PCC website.
Answer: Appendix B, page 9, Article 23 of the RFP details the laws, mandates, and objectives of our Affirmative Action Policy. If you would like more detail, you can visit our Equity and Inclusion website: http://www.pcc.edu/about/equity-inclusion/
19. Can you explain what wire payee advising entails?
Answer: If available, the College would like notification via your online treasury system or email when there are outgoing or incoming wires.
20. Does the College have a need for full reconciliation?
Answer: Yes. The bank will provide the necessary data for PCC to complete our internal reconciliation for Depository and Merchant Services accounts.
21. Please explain the difference between RDS image processing vs. RDS online image storage. Answer: The College needs the ability easily view images captured when deposited using the bank's remote deposit system.
22. Please explain the current use of UPIC (or future planned use) and on which accounts/estimated volumes.
Answer: UPIC or Universal Payment Identifier is used to receive ACH credits into PCC's main account. This allows the College to provide a unique account number and routing number to vendors, and not release confidential account data.
Credits are received daily in our main concentration account using the UPIC number. During peak periods around the start of our academic term, there can be as many as 100 transactions totaling $250,000 or more. During non-peak periods, we see about 5 transactions with totals around $50,000. Transaction volumes and amounts fluctuate and could increase with time. The College also reserves the right to use the UPIC number for current or future contacts that may involve large and frequent transactions.
Answer: No.
24. What is the Average Collected Balance maintained in the Master Concentration Account on a monthly basis?
Answer: The College maintains an average collected balance of around $500,000 in the master concentration account.
25. If our bank were to waive check cashing fees for students and employees, please provide an estimate of how many checks this may include on a monthly basis.
Answer: Over the past year, the College issued about 15000 student refund checks and 21000 payroll checks. We would estimate that approximately 10% of student and 5% of employees would take advantage of free check cashing, or approximately 200 checks per month.
26. You have requested a BAI Code that is most commonly associated with this type of transaction. How will you use this information? Will it be used for an apples-to-apples pricing comparison? Will it be used to code your internal system to receive a BAI file? Other?
Answer: BAI Code information will be used to determine the size of the internal computer system conversion project. The BAI Codes are pivotal in mapping the bank transactions to internal financial processing.
27. Description of Services, ACH Services. What "Standard" ACH reports do you currently receive? What are included in "Optional Reports?”
Answer: Please view our pricing matrix to see the types of ACH transactions the College uses. Standard ACH reports would be Previous Day summary and detail, Current Day summary and detail, ACH origination reports, ACH NOC reports, ACH return item reports, ACH receipts reports etc. Optional reports would be any custom reports that the College would like to create, such as reports based on payee names, amounts etc. It will be desirable to see a list of ACH blocks and filters.
28. Description of Services, EDI Services. Please describe "EDI Invoices Received." What do you receive and how it is used?
Answer: Electronic data interchange (EDI) is an electronic communication method that provides standards for exchanging data via any electronic means. By adhering to the same standard, two different companies, even in two different countries, can electronically exchange documents (such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices etc.). There are many EDI standards, some of which address the needs of specific industries or regions. With our current bank, "EDI invoices received" specifically applies to ACH credits received or debits taken from PCC main
account. This data is available on the bank's cash management web-site and via email. Examples of funds received include veteran’s benefits, state scholarships, third party billing payments, and direct loans. Examples of payables are health benefits, federal and state taxes, and retirement payments.
29. Can you share who the current Merchant Services provider is? Answer: bank of America
30. Can you outline where the College is with EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) adoption? Answer: The College has the necessary equipment to accommodate EMV capable cards at some locations. We will work with the new banking and merchant services provider to start accepting EMV enabled cards at all locations by October 2015.
31. Do the 15 MIDs represent all locations, across all campuses, accepting payments? Answer: Yes.
32. You specify that answers are limited to 2,000 characters maximum (less for tables). Can you please clarify your limitations regarding responses with tables?
Answer: The formatting requirements and size limitations are specified to help the evaluation committee make proper comparisons of all responses to the RFP. It is the committee’s belief that 2,000 characters provide adequate space to fully respond to the topic and brevity will simplify the evaluation process.
