RFI - Utility Invoice - Management, Processing and Payment Service

OBJECTIVE: Utility Invoice - Management, Processing and Payment Services SCOPE: The purpose of this RFI is to gather information on Utility Invoice - Management, Processing and Payment Service capable contractors. Period of Performance (PoP): The performance period will be a 12 month base year plus four 12 month option years. Requirements The government anticipates an award made via a firm-fixed-price order per any solicitation following the results of this RFI posting. The government (GSA) anticipates services in accordance with the attached draft Performance Work Statement RFI RESPONSES: Vendors shall submit responses to the RFI via email, no later than 10:00 AM ET, Friday, 12 January 2024. Responses shall be submitted to the POCs listed on page 1. Responses shall not exceed 10 pages. All responses shall be typewritten and presented in MS Word or PDF format, including a minimum of 12 point, Times New Roman or Arial font. The Vendor must address in their response the following questions: Small Business socioeconomic status. Provide Cage Code and Unique Entity ID. Provide pre-established contract vehicle information that services can be provided under (contract/Schedule # and vehicle). FEDRAMP Certification status. Capability to provide Utility Invoice - Management, Processing and Payment Services IAW Draft Performance Work Statement. Can the contractor offer a web-based managed software solution, hosted in the contractor's own facilities? Does the contractor solution meet the GSA IT Security requirements for FISMA Moderate? Is the Contractor considered a small business under NAICS 541519? Can the contractor provide and maintain a dedicated workforce to meet all managed service requirements outlined in the statement of work, to include but not limited to: Working with the government to maintain all utility service account records (GSA Utility Masterfile) with defined data elements for approximately 800 vendors and 3,400 active utility accounts? Performing immediate utility vendor outreach to resolve all account management and billing issues? Proactively managing small vendors with no electronic capabilities. Can the contractor immediately notify the Government of any utility service disruption/disconnect notification (received via email, separate letter or on a utility vendor's invoice) and take immediate action to contact the vendor on behalf of the Government to resolve the underlying issue and prevent utility service disruption initiated by the utility vendor? As the contractor, are you willing to meet all managed service and technical solution requirements as a prime without contractually entering into a special teaming agreement with other subcontractors to meet these requirements? Can the contractor process utility vendor account changes as requested by the Government and maintain an accounting of such changes via the vendor's ticket system? Will GSA have accessibility to vendor account information and change activity on the web-based platform? These actions are required to maintain the validity and accuracy of all GSA utility service accounts (GSA Utilities Masterfile) and such requests will include, but not limited to: Adding a new utility account or modifying the data elements an existing account Deactivating a utility account Modifying cost allocation rules Modifying vendor payment remit information or invoice frequency supplied either by Government or a utility vendor Can the contractor obtain and manage access to utility vendors' websites on behalf of the Government? The Contractor will be required to establish and maintain account credentials to ensure timely access to the utility vendors' websites. The account credentials (i.e. usernames and passwords) will be made available to Government users in the Contractor's system for each utility account. Can the contractor promptly provide the Government with any utility account correspondence that requires action or response from the Government such as backflow testing or inspection notifications? The correspondence must be provided to the Government within 2 business days of receipt and in an electronic format that contains a PDF image of the correspondence. To ensure timely utility invoice/bill processing, the key requirement is electronically retrieving/receiving invoices from a utility vendor. Can the contractor identify, track and electronically retrieve utility invoices from the utility vendor? Does the contractor utilize Electronic Data Extraction for cost and consumption data? OCR is inaccurate and unacceptable as a data extraction solution. If a utility vendor account requires additional validation, verification, escalation, or closure, can the contractor identify and escalate the issue by assigning a remedy ticket in the contractor's platform for the Government to investigate and resolve? The Contractor's system will provide immediate email notification to the Government's point of contact for all account management issues. The Government requires a monthly accrual file and shall be interfaced with the Government's accounting system based on accruing costs for each utility account as defined by the Government based on the proration of the last payment amount and the service period. Can the contractor provide a monthly accrual file based on Government file specifications, requirements, and business rules? The Contractor will be required to submit /upload the daily invoice file into the Government's invoice portal - Pegasys Vendor Customer Self Service (VCSS). Is the contractor's solution able to generate an invoice file per government specifications? Can the contractor pause invoice file submissions and make bulk updates to required fields as defined by the Government to accommodate the Government's period-end processing or other situations as needed? Can the Contractor retrieve and report on all Consumption information as billed on the vendor invoices? Feeds directly from the meter (smart meters) are inaccurate and cannot be the source for cost and consumption data. Can the Contractor provide weekly file feeds off all costs and consumption for invoices received and processed the prior week using the specifications provided by GSA for the NWMC report? Can the Contractor manage payment to the vendor including monitoring payments to make sure they clear and check following invoices to make sure they were applied correctly? Will the contractor reach out to vendors by phone and/or email when payments did not clear and/or were not correctly applied to the account? Can the contractor make emergency payments prior to receiving funding from the government when immediate payment is required? GENERAL QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK: Vendors are encouraged to submit general questions and feedback to help GSA to strengthen its requirement. Questions and feedback shall be limited to one (1) page. All Vendor questions shall be presented no later than Monday, 8 January 2024 @ 10:00 AM ET. The government (GSA) reserves the right to not respond to Vendor questions prior to the RFI close date. PUBLIC RECORDS AND REQUESTS FOR CONFIDENTIALITY: Any document submitted that contains confidential information must be watermarked as containing confidential information, and each page upon which confidential information appears must be marked as containing confidential information. The confidential information must be clearly identifiable to the reader wherever it appears. COPYRIGHTS By submitting a response, the vendor agrees that the government may copy the response for purposes of facilitation of review or to respond to requests for public records. The vendor certifies that such copying will not violate any copyrights in the materials submitted. CONTENT OF RESPONSES Responses should be based on the material contained in this RFI and any other relevant information the vendor thinks is appropriate. Responses will not be returned. COST TO VENDORS The government is not responsible for any costs incurred by a vendor in relation to the preparation of a response to this RFI. NO OBLIGATION TO ISSUE REQUEST FOR QUOTE This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning purposes - it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quote (RFQ), Solicitation, or a promise to issue an RFP, RFQ, or Solicitation in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Unsolicited proposals will not be accepted. Interested parties are advised that the Government will NOT pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expenses. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future Solicitation, if issued. It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor the official Government Points of Entry for additional information pertaining to this requirement. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. No commitment is being made to procure any of the items discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and must be clearly marked. To aid the Government, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned in any format or manner. Amended 01/09/2024 - Add RFI Questions and Answers