RFP - Customer Bill and Notice Printing c/w Mailing Appendix B Statement of Work

Transcription

1 RFP - Customer Bill and Notice Printing c/w Mailing Appendix B Statement of Work

2 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction Objective Overview Overview of Saint John Energy s Utility Billing Process Scope of Services Scope of Services - Data Transmission Scope of Services - Document Generation, Printing, Insertion and Delivery Scope of Services - PDF File Storage and Access to PDF Images (Bills and Customer Letters) Scope of Services - Invoicing, Reporting, Quality Control and Issue Management Implementation Plan and Timelines Appendices... 6 Current Bill - Front... 6 Current Bill - Rear... 7 Sample Customer Letter

3 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Objective Saint John Energy is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors to provide a turnkey solution to generate, print and deliver our bills and customer letters by post mail. 1.2 Overview Saint John Energy is a municipal electric utility created in 1922 and located in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John Energy serves approximately 36,000 customers in a service territory approximately 126 square miles (323 sq. kilometers). The service territory covered in the Saint John Energy system is bound by the City of Saint John city limits. The Saint John Energy electric customer profile is made up of approximately 32,000 residential, 1,600 small commercial and 2,400 large commercial customers. 1.3 Overview of Saint John Energy s Utility Billing Process Saint John Energy s Customer Service Support Department provides for billing and collection of all accounts. On average we send 1,740 bills (minimum maximum 3,500) and 200 customer letters daily. In addition, Saint John Energy sends 3,000 bills bi-monthly (on a specific day) and 15,000 bi-annually (March and September) for a third party. Of Saint John Energy s 36,000 customers, 92% of customers receive their paper bill by mail and 8% of customers receive an e-bill. We expect the number of e-bill customers to continue to grow. E-bill customers currently receive an notification from Canada Post via E-Post when their bill is ready for viewing. Today, Saint John Energy s Customer Service representatives can view customer bills (paper and e-bills) in Saint John Energy s CIS system to provide support to customers as required. 2.0 Scope of Services Scope of Services - Data Transmission Supplier must provide a means for secure data transmission of Saint John Energy s data extracts from its CIS billing system in their current file format (either fixed length or csv) via an Internet SFTP secured link using 128-bit SSL and PGP encryption software Supplier will be responsible for monitoring the lifecycle of all files including tracking time arrival of files, file validation and having an automated process to notify Saint John Energy at any stage 2

4 of the file lifecycle if there are transmission issues and/or if the daily data files are not received from Saint John Energy by the time agreed to in the Service Level Agreement Supplier will be responsible for providing Saint John Energy with a report of the number of files, by type, downloaded daily so that there is a reconciliation process to ensure all files were retrieved from the SFTP site Scope of Services - Document Generation, Printing, Insertion and Delivery Customer Invoices Data transmitted to print vendor server Generate bill images on data provided in the files from Saint John Energy Print bills Complete insertion process based on data file requirements and/or insert request from Saint John Energy If customer has multiple bills package multiple bills in oversized envelope If customer only has one bill stuff in #10 envelope If customer requires a return envelope, insert #9 envelope Mail all envelopes in batch Customer Notices Data transmitted to print vendor server Generate letter images on data provided in the files from Saint John Energy Print notices Stuff in #10 envelope Mail all envelopes in batch Supplier must provide programming to implement the design of Saint John Energy s bill and approximately 4 customer letter templates. The bill design must be able to accommodate the use of graphics, bar graphs, colour and calculation of data as required Supplier must provide variable data generation of bills, and customer letters using pre-defined business rules application logic and customer specific criteria Supplier must provide all bills and customer letters in multiple formats including paper and PDF based on Saint John Energy s business rules and requirements Supplier must provide OMR/MICR printing with quality controls in place to ensure character readability and positioning meets the necessary standards required to allow payment processing at financial institutions Supplier must support the printing of Saint John Energy s paper bills and customer letters. Supplier must be able to print the current bill design in black and/or grayscale on a preprinted form. 3

5 Supplier must support double sided printing of bills and customer letters. Supplier must have prescribed processes, agreed to by Saint John Energy, for Saint John Energy to notify the supplier of insert specifications (e.g. time period for insertion) and provide supplier with electronic files of inserts (JPG and PDF) when new campaigns are starting. Supplier must have to ability to insert Z folding. Supplier must use consecutive sequence control numbers for reprints or recoveries should a problem occur at the printing stage. Supplier must provide sorting and packaging to maximize postal discounts Supplier must process files to support multiple bills going to the same postal address in a batch to maximize postal discounts. Supplier must provide and keep in stock oversize envelopes for packaging multiple bills Supplier must provide and keep in stock Window #10 Outer Mailing Envelopes (OME) for mailing paper bills and customer letters. Supplier must support printing campaign and customer program information on the Window #10 OME Customer Return Envelopes must be kept in stock to be inserted based on customer specific data preferences. For Saint John Energy, 7% or less receive the return envelope with their paper bill Supplier must provide and keep in stock preprinted statement paper for printing the current bill design. Stock weight 24 pound Stock size 81/2 X 11 Pre-printed design elements Detachable payment stub on bottom (Horizontal perforation) Supplier must store/warehouse all supplies used to print paper bills and customer letters. Supplier must provide a prescriptive process for managing stock, agreed to by Saint John Energy, which minimizes waste when there is a hard turnover and ensures there is not significant quantities of old stock to be used up when there is a soft roll. Supplier must indicate if a 3 rd party will be warehousing Saint John Energy consumables and what the process will be for disposition of unusable inventory Supplier must support receiving occasional ad-hoc mail merge files loaded to SFTP site to generate targeted customer letters. 4

6 2.1.3 Scope of Services - PDF File Storage and Access to PDF Images (Bills and Customer Letters) Supplier must provide secure online storage, hosting and access for retrieval of all PDF bill and customer letter images generated, at minimum, for a rolling twenty-four (24) month period. Must provide Saint John Energy with a file containing all the historical PDF images at an agreed upon schedule for archiving Supplier must provide the ability for an Administrator role and End User role and must be able to remotely access, search, retrieve, print and the bill and customer letter PDF images. Security access to what can be viewed and retrieved will be defined by the different roles Scope of Services - Invoicing, Reporting, Quality Control and Issue Management Supplier must reconcile that the number of bills, customer letters and collections notices generated match the number received in the daily Saint John Energy data files Supplier must provide itemized invoices to Saint John Energy to show individual quantities of bills and customer letters generated Supplier must provide itemized Canada Post Statement of Mailing to show individual quantities of bills and customer letters Supplier must provide custom reports as per Saint John Energy s requirements. Supplier must be able to provide the reports in a variety of electronic formats including Excel & PDF Supplier must provide an automated process for Saint John Energy to log issues (e.g. ticketing system) and track lifecycle of issue(s) from open to closed status. Supplier must provide support for change requests for development, test, implementation and production validation phases. Supplier will be responsible for inventory management and following the prescribed process agreed to by Saint John Energy. 3.0 Implementation Plan and Timelines Supplier must be ready to go live with the full scope of services on June 4 th,

7 4.0 Appendices Current Bill - Front 6

8 Current Bill - Rear 7

9 Sample Customer Letter 8