Addendum 1 – Solicitation Inquiries and Responses
1. 2.8.2 states that “Contractor must provide references of at least three customers that have Accela and Accela Citizen Access integrations in production.” Would there be any possibility to have this mandatory requirement dropped from this RFP?
Pinal County strongly prefers Contractors who have successful integrations with Accela and Accela Citizen Access. Pinal County would be willing to remove this mandatory requirement if the vendor can provide references that they have developed APIs for taking payments.
2. In regards to Section 1.2 Background. Can you please provide the number of transactions and break it out by card type (i.e. Credit/Debit)?
We do not track by individual transactions or by debit/credit type; however the majority of transactions are credit.
3. In regards to Section 2.8 Integration / Interfaces, #2.8.2. Would it be acceptable to provide references where we have developed an Application Program Interface (API) with their vendors? Or will the vendor be disqualified by not having interface to Accela?
References from developed APIs to other applications would be acceptable. Accela has an API toolkit available to help vendors create integrations.
4. What is the current POS equipment being used by the County?
IDTECH model IDMB 334112B
5. What is the Cashiering/Financial Application being used that the vendor must interface to?
Treasurer Receipting and Online Collection System (TROCS) which is a custom in-house developed application.
6. Who is the current processing vendor and what are their rates?
The current processing vendor is Point & Pay. Current transaction rates are: Tax Payments: 2.5% of payment with a minimum of $2.00
Visa Debit Tax: $3.95 flat fee
Non-Tax Payments: 2.5% or $2.00 minimum All Echecks: $2.00
Grandfathered services are also being provided by Official Payments and Wells Fargo. Post award, services will come from the awarded vendor.
7. Please provide the software portal or gateway currently being utilized to process the on-line payments?
Each department has a web portal. There are also integrations to Accela Citizen Access. One such
portal is https://client.pointandpay.net/web/PinalCountyPlanningNonACA
8. If using a software to process these transactions, please provide the name and version number currently being used?
Hosted by Point and Pay.
9. What gateway do you currently utilize on your website that takes card payments?
http://www.pointandpay.com/products/api-gateway-payments
10. Please list each department that will process card transactions and the method in which they will transact card payments?
Any County department that accepts payments from citizens will able to use this contract. The departments using the contract could change over the life of the contract. All departments could have both POS and online transactions.
11. What is your population?
Approximately 385,000
12. How many transactions occur monthly (average)?
The County does not currently track this.
13. What is your average dollar amount per transaction?
The County does not currently track this.
14. Regarding pricing, do you prefer a Fixed Cost model or a Cost Plus?
Fixed Cost
15. Are you currently, and do you want to continue, with charging the customer a Convenience Fee? If so, would you be open to an alternative pricing structure?
Primarily we charge the customer a convenience fee. In some instance the County pays the fee. Pricing must be submitted in the format outlined on Response Form 2 – Pricing Sheet.
16. Please provide additional detail related to payment history? How does the $9 million cited in the
Pinal County does not separately track credit card vs debit card transactions. The assumption would be that there are significantly more credit card transactions.
17. Please provide a list of all departments that might be served by the resulting agreement and the
core/billing software used by each.
The following departments could use the resulting contract. This is not a complete list and is subject to change throughout the life of the contract. All departments will use TROCS.
Treasurer’s Office, Courts (Superior Court, Justice Courts, Probation), Community Services, Public Works, Civil Hearing Office, Public Health, Animal Control, Recorder’s Office.
18. What forms of integration will the TROCS system accept (i.e., batch files, API, XML, etc.)?
We send a file each night (text tab delimited) with current tax balances to our current vendor to update their online amounts due. Each day we receive a text tab delimited file in a specified format to process tax payments within TROCs. Other department payments require reporting but are not integrated into TROCS.
19. When does the County anticipate awarding the contract? What does the County anticipate going live
with the awarded vendor?
The tentative award date is June 24, 2015. We anticipate going live prior to October 2015
20. Is a Money Transmitter Licenses required by the County?
No
21. SOW 2.5.1: Who will own the merchant accounts – the vendor or the County? If the vendor, would
statements still need to be provided? The County.
22. SOW 2.6.3: What are the requirements of the vendor to print and/or provide sales tickets and credit vouchers?
A receipt of the payment details, confirmation number and signature line is required for each POS transaction. Availability to print multiple copies would be a plus.
23. SOW 2.7.7: Please provide more detail on this requirement. What are the requirements needed for a full implementation of electronic revenue collection services? Do the RFP requirements satisfy just the “pilot” project?
The RFP requirements satisfy full implementation. A “pilot” project would only be used for those departments who do not currently accept credit/debit card payment.
24. Does the County prefer that the required submittals in addition to Response Form 1 and Response Form 2 (i.e., Offer and Acceptance, Addendum Acknowledgement Form, W-9 and Responder’s Checklist) be submitted as a single PDF file or as separate files?
A single PDF is preferred.
25. Will the Responder’s Checklist be updated given that the submission is electronic or is it acceptable to mark the last five items as N/A?
The last five items can be marked as N/A.
26. Page 14, Section 2.7.3: We have a support structure that includes a dedicated Strategic Account Manager, a dedicated Client Services Manager as well as a Support group but they are not local to Pinal County. Is that a requirement?
Pinal County does not require the vendor to be physically local, but must provide technical support during Pinal County’s normal business hours.
27. How many current payment processing vendors does the county utilize? Please identify those vendors, the dates that their contracts expire and, if they utilize the convenience fee model, please advise the current rates charged to the consumer.
Current vendors are Point and Pay, Official Payments and Wells Fargo. The Point and Pay contract will expire in June. Official Payments and Wells Fargo are granfathered services that can be canceled at any time with proper notice.
28. Are the current checks “guaranteed” or “non-guaranteed”? What is the convenience fee for e-checks?
Pinal County is currently not accepting e-checks. E-checks would only be accepted if the funds could be guaranteed. The current convenience fee for e-checks is $2.00
29. Please identify all departments currently taking credit cards that comprise the $9M/year charges mentioned in 1.2.
See answer to question 17.
30. Is it possible to break down the number of transactions and dollars per department?
The County does not currently track this.
31. Are there additional departments, currently not taking credit cards that want this service?
32. Does the County currently utilize POS equipment? If so, how many in which departments? Does the County own or lease those terminals? What model is being utilized today? Does the County absorb these fees or is a convenience fee charged? If a convenience fee is charged what is the fee to the consumer?
POS equipment is currently located in the Treasurer’s Office, Public Health, Community Development, Public Works, Civil Hearing Office, Animal Control, Recorder’s Office. The County does not own or lease the terminals. They are provided free of charge by the current vendor. A convenience fee is charged. See answer to questions six for fees.
33. Will the IVR be utilized for all departments or just for tax collection?
IVR will primarily be used for tax payments, however other County departments may want this option.
34. What is the County’s expectation as far as implementation times and department priorities?
Implementation will need to be completed by October 2015. Department priorities will be determined after award.
35. Please clarify 2.7.2: “Contractor must have the capability to operate from the keyboard POS terminals located at various locations.”
Diagnostic and problem resolution, report support.
36. Relative to the “pilot program” mentioned in 2.7.7 does this apply only to the POS application?
No
37. 2.8.2 states that “Contractor must provide references of at least three customers that have Accela and Accela Citizen Access integrations in production.” Would there be any possibility to have this mandatory requirement dropped from this RFP?
See answer to questions one and three.
38. For each application/department (e.g., property tax payments, special assessment fees, permit fees, court fees and fines, animal control fees, civil hearing, alarm-related fees, etc.), please specify whether the e-payment solution and related transaction processing will be funded via:
• Fees paid to the vendor by the Pinal County (“Client-funded”), versus • Fees paid by the end-user payer/customer (“Convenience Fee-funded”)?
Fees will primarily be paid by the end-user payer/customer (“Convenience Fee-funded”)
39. For each application/department (e.g., property tax payments, special assessment fees, permit fees, court fees and fines, animal control fees, civil hearing, alarm-related fees, etc.), please provide projected annual transaction volumes (by both the number of transactions (#) and by value of
transactions ($-amount)), distributing the transaction volume across the • Payment methods (e.g., credit/debit card or e-check/ACH)
• Payment channels (e.g., Web, IVR, Pinal county Customer Service Representative (CSR), vendor’s Call Center, Recurring, Point of Sale, etc.)
that are envisioned for each application.
Pinal County currently does not track this information and it would be difficult to project what these numbers would be.
40. For each application/department (e.g., property tax payments, special assessment fees, permit fees, court fees and fines, animal control fees, civil hearing, alarm-related fees, etc.) for which electronic bill presentment is desired, how many bills are expected to be available for electronic presentation annually? (Please consider whether electronic bill presentment will be available to all payers or only a subset of payers that opts into the service.)
Electronic bill presentment is limited to tax payments. The entire bill is not presented, only the current amount due (see #18). Based on current year tax bills mailed that could be 200,000 for a year.
41. For each application/department (e.g., property tax payments, special assessment fees, permit fees, court fees and fines, animal control fees, civil hearing, alarm-related fees, etc.) for which on site card payments are desired, how many Point of Sale (POS) credit card terminals are desired?
A minimum of one per department. The Treasurer’s Office will require nine.
42. How will you evaluate competing proposals from a price perspective? For example, will you ask us what the cost would be based upon an assumed number of transactions at various transaction amounts?
Pricing must be submitted in the format on Response Form 2 – Pricing Sheet. Points will then be awarded on a sliding scale. The proposal with the lowest price will be awarded full points for cost. All other vendors will be awarded a percentage of the available points in relation to the lowest price proposed.
