CITY OF CLEVELAND DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

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1 The proposal due date is Friday, September 22, 2017 by 12:00 p.m. Answers to questions received by the last day for questions: 1. Please confirm the sizes of the Inserts requested in the Fee Table for Bill Print, Insert, and Mail. A-110LB single thickness card for a #10 envelope. 2. Who is your current merchant services/card processor? A- Elavon 3. Do you currently pay interchange and assessments directly? A- Yes. 4. What is the average monthly payment volume by payment type (i.e., credit, debit, ACH, cash)? A-We receive payments from a variety of Tender Sources including our on-line payment option. Currently, we receive approximately 160,000 payments per month through this Source (credit card and ACH). Of the approximately 160,000 monthly payments, approximately 55% are ACH transactions versus 45% credit/debit card. 5. Can DPU provide specifications for the inserts size, paper weight, number of colors, simplex/duplex and quantities of each? A-See question 1 6. Please provide electronic samples and specifications for the envelopes (Mailing, Late Notice, Remittance). A-We will not be providing this information. 7. We need to understand the process for delivering bill files to the Fiserv/CheckFree and FIS/Metavante financial institution network. A-Bill files are only sent to KUBRA. Current vendor maintains those relationships. 8. Is there an inside tin on the #10 s? A-No. 9. Under Bill Layout/Presentation Requirement 9 Describe the capability to design and configure the receipt of core data extract billing files. A-This requirement is design and configure a process to automate the receipt of core data extract billing process. 10. Under the same section requirements 11 and 14 appear to be identical. A-Yes they are identical. Disregard Under Controls/Reporting/Quality Control Requirement 2 The proposer must provide a process that will support pulling bills to prevent printing. If yes, please describe. A- 1

2 Only CPP requires this. Currently they are only pulling a small number each month. CPP has a web tool to identify those to be pulled before printed after the file is sent. This allows CPP to identify what not to print. 12. Page 53, Reminder letters is that 9,000 in addition to the 800,000? Or is this 9,000 daily (22) included in the 800,000. Same for collection letters, are the volumes included or in addition to the daily volume. A-The 9,000 is closer to a Monthly number and not a daily number and is not included in the 800, Assuming we are converting users, do we have a volume? A-Already Supplied. 14. Is there a preference for local vendors? A-YES 15. Will you consider out of state vendors? A-Yes. 16. Can you please define further, what you mean by bulk mail? Are you meaning 5 digit rate? A- Manifest Mail at First Class Automation postal rates 17. Will you accept bill design concepts in the proposal? A-This is not part of the RFP. 18. Current remittance processing location(s) (mailed check payments) A- This is done in house. 19. Would mailed payment processing in either Philadelphia or Chicago be acceptable to CoC? A-mailed payments are done in house and will continue that way. 20. Number of individual lockboxes (PO Boxes) A-Multiple but 3 primary PO Boxes, one for each for Water, CPP and NEORSD. 21. What bank is used for ICL deposits? A- PNC for Water and NEORSD and Huntington for CPP. 22. Please confirm: Average number of mailed payments received monthly? A- CWD/NEORSD 260,000, CPP 45, How are Returned Items (checks) handled? [Paper? Electronic ICL/X9 returns?] A- Returned items are received via multiple methods/reports. Returned items are processed manually in the billing systems. 2

3 24. Should mailed full page correspondence be scanned, indexed with account information, and queued for client follow-up action? Please explain current or desired process. A-All correspondence, s, SMS messages are available to our CSRs in the vendor supplied CSR portal. 25. What is the retention period of payment image archive records? A-DPU does this. It is not a part of the RFP. 26. How many concurrent users will be accessing the web-based archive (max/peak)? A- We are currently configured for 300 concurrent connections. 27. Do you require browser based access to an exception payment queue for client decisioning & resolution? A-We do this internally. 28. Do you have your own ODFI and merchant agreements? A-Yes. 29. Can you provide any breakdown of payment data such as average payment amounts, splits between ACH/Credit/debit/ATM? A-Approximately 50% of our payments are received via mail and processed in house. Approximately 30% of our payments are processed via on-line payment vendor. The other 20% are processed via another source. 30. Appendix B: EBPP Requirements, Page 11; "One-Time Payments" Section, Question 7: Describe the ability to provide IVR payment validate and messaging based on the payment and payment parameters selected (e.g., custom messaging if customer is not paying full amount, or ability to redirect based on not paying full amount). Can you provide an example, or scenario, that would illustrate the functionality being requested here? We understand having messages/ s to be invoked based on a wide variety of scenarios (i.e. a message for full payment, partial payment, payment plan, etc. etc.), but is the request seeking more with IVR, for example? In any event, any additional context or an example would be helpful. A-We would like the ability to redirect to CSR if it was a partial payment for a pending disconnect account. We currently do not have this at this time. 31. Appendix B: EBPP Requirements Page 13; "Marketing Content and Imagery" Section Question 2: Describe the system capabilities to preset images supplied from Cleveland Water based on confirmation of accounts and defined criteria. Is this suggesting that we provide different images for accounts within a subset of customers? A-Yes 3

4 32. I cannot find artwork for the envelopes. Can we see a sample of the current envelopes? Are they a double window? Are they all the same? A-Standard envelop is #10-outside, double window. #9-inside, remittance. A-The #10 outer envelopes are double windows. The #9 remittance envelopes do have cellophane in the window. NEORSD envelopes (#9s & #10s) are offset printed in green on both sides. CWD envelopes (#9s & #10s) are offset printed in black on both sides. Artwork differs for all the envelopes as they all have distinct messaging e.g. where to pay online, checklists, etc. 33. Is there an inside tint on the # 10 s. A-No. Plain White. 34. What specific user experience enhancements does the City have in mind? A-This is a general statement that we want a positive user experience and want to enhance our system to maintain that positive experience. 35. When the City says data conversion is there an expectation that credit card data be migrated from the current platform to the new one? A-No. Credit card information will not be migrated from the old system. 36. Can the City illustrate the flow of data for the various vendors that are in use today? A- That will be shared at the time of the contract award. 37. Does the print vendor share the pdf file with the EBPP vendor? A-It is sent back to CWD and then forwarded to the EBPP vendor. 38. How quickly is your current print vendor getting mailings out (in other words, from the point they receive your data, how long until documents are mailed)? A-This is not applicable to responding to the RFP. We are more interested in delivery velocity e.g., how fast it gets into the home. 39. How often are inserts in scope (every month? quarterly, etc.)? A-Varies depending on need. 40. Is the print vendor offering any postage discounts today? A-No. See question Can the City provide the associated evaluation weights and/or points for the 6 evaluation criteria categories listed? (Ex: 10%, 20%, etc.) A-No. 42. Are out of state bidders encouraged to respond? A-Yes. 4

5 43. Are these services the City currently has in place? 1) Communication and Distribution (i.e., electronic transfer of re-formatted information to the processor (e.g. CheckFree/ Metavante) distribution, network for presentment of bill summary information and payment transactions) 2) Presentment of bill detail upon request from the processor (e.g. CheckFree/Metavante) network 3) Support of processor (e.g. CheckFree/Metavante) required security protocols for composing and distributing billing summary data to the processor distribution network. A-No these are not currently in place. There may be a need to add this in the future. This is optional for now but could be provided by another vendor. 44. Please indicate whether it is acceptable to print variable text as black print only aside from application CWD bill? A- Bills have red bolded highlighting for past due amounts. 45. Please indicate specifications for #10 envelope and #9 remittance envelope. A-See addendum 1 for answer. 46. Please indicate volume for 6 x 9 outgoing envelopes. A-None. 47. Please indicate typical specifications for inserts (i.e. 4/4 8.5 x 11, etc.). A-See Addendum 1 for answer. 48. Can a consumer make a payment to all three services as long as the funds are split appropriately for posting purposes? Funds would be deposited in City account to be disbursed. No all are branded separately. 49. Implementation Components mentions a Pilot. Please clarify this requirement. A- Propose how you will test/verify before you move to production. 50. Fee Proposals-How do you want to manage any line items or variances in the method of pricing? A-Please add line items as necessary. 51. Fee Table for EBPP-Credit Card Payment Fee- Addendum 1 question 6 indicates that the City has a separate agreement for Merchant Services, Is the fee placed in Credit Card Payment Fee just to include payment processing and is not inclusive of any credit card fees? A-Please break out any relevant fees that you will charge. 52. Fee Table of Bill Print, Insert and Mail, Page 1, Form reference, How is this item different than page 2 under Consumables stock? A-Use the Form reference if you 5

6 have a roll-fed printer. Use Consumables stock if you have a cut-sheet printer. 53. Page 2, Vendor Provided Print Services, Can you confirm size, paper and quantities for the inserts pricing? A-See addendum 1 for answer. 54. If there is repetition in questions from section 8 and Appendix C can we simply refer the reader to the previously answered question(s) or should they be answered in both sections? A-Yes. 55. Are the outgoing and return envelopes printed in 1 color for all entities? And the return envelopes? A-See addendum 1 for answer. 56. Addendum one stated that the City would not provide envelope samples. As such, will we be provided specifications for no.9 and no.10 envelopes for each business unit (size, number of colors front/back, is there an inside tint, window size and placement) as well as monthly envelope volume? A-See addendum 1 for answer. 57. Is the City of Cleveland willing to sign a direct agreement with Fiserv/Checkfree and FIS/Metavante so that other EBPP vendors will be able send bills to their bill distribution network? Most major utilities like The City of Cleveland have these agreements in place. It provides these utilities like The City of Cleveland more control over their selection of EBPP vendors and eliminates being tied to a particular EBPP vendor. Most EBPP vendors are not able to deliver to the Fiserv/Checkfree network because Fiserv/Checkfree will not give access. In addition, The City of Cleveland will be billed directly by Fiserv/Checkfree and FIS/Metavante eliminating mark-up on the services. A-No, not at this time. 58. Do you receive any cash in mailed payments? A-No. Mailed payment type percentages A-Not available, but majority are single check-only. 59. Can the pricing pages of the RFP be provided in word format? A-You can recreate the fee tables to make it easier to enter in the numbers. Try to keep it in the same general format and same order. 60. Can you clarify what the "Electronic Bank Check Conversion Fee" is? For reference, it is listed in the EBPP Fee section. A- Electronic check conversion is a process in which your check is used as a source of information for the check number, your account number, etc. The information is then used to make a one time electronic payment from your account as an electronic fund transfer. The 6

7 check itself is not the method of payment. This is not something we do or authorize but other payment vendors may. 61. Can you provide IVR volume? A-See Table below. IVR Approved Payments by Entity for Period Jan 1, 2017 June 30, 2017 CWD 126,431 NEORSD 94,935 CPP 45, Can you provide average payment amounts by entity? A-See Table Below. Average Payment Amount by Entity CWD Residential $60 CWD Commercial $500 NEORSD Residential $70 NEORSD Commercial $1,200 CPP Residential $80 CPP Commercial $2, Metavante, CheckFree, MasterCard RPPS Please clarify the processes to be performed, as described: Communication and Distribution (i.e., electronic transfer of re-formatted information to the processor (e.g. CheckFree/Metavante) distribution network for presentment of bill summary information and payment transactions) A-There is no presentment to Metavante. Currently that file is available to CWD via our EBPP FTP site. Bills are only presented through KUBRA. Presentment of bill detail upon request from the processor (e.g. CheckFree/Metavante) network. A-There is no presentment for Metavante. Support of processor (e.g. CheckFree/Metavante) required security protocols for composing and distributing billing summary data to the processor distribution network. A-This will be answered when the contract is in place. The capturing and processing of remittance data specific to the processor (e.g. CheckFree/Metavante) network. If Kubra maintains the agreement then The City of Cleveland would need to sign agreements with Fiserv 7

8 and FIS so that the vendor could develop the integration into those bill delivery networks. A-Correct 64. For the outer envelope, is the requirement a double or single window? A-Double window. 8