INSTITUTIONAL OVERVIEW The University at Buffalo (the University) is a premier research-intensive public university. The University’s vision is focused on academic excellence - research and scholarly distinction, transformative student experiences and engaging public service. The University is the largest and most comprehensive university center in the State University of New York (SUNY) system and has been a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) since 1989. Impactful research, scholarly distinction, transformative student experiences and far-reaching service to local, state, national, and international communities define the University’s mission as a premier research-intensive public university. The University was founded in 1846 as a private medical college located in downtown Buffalo. The University enrolls approximately 30,000 students (approximately 2/3 undergraduate and 1/3 graduate and professional students), and offers over 400 degree programs at the baccalaureate, master’s, and professional and doctoral levels across 12 decanal units. The University boasts a distinguished faculty of over 2,500. The University’s 260,000 alumni worldwide include graduates who are truly changing the world. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE: The University is seeking information from experienced vendors about enterprise social media management platforms that can effectively support the organization’s digital engagement and marketing needs. Specifically, solutions that offer comprehensive capabilities for content planning and publishing, engagement and community management, analytics and reporting, social listening, and ads management across social media platforms as well as tools and features that can enhance our social media strategy, optimize performance and improve overall operational efficiency across business units. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to acquire information regarding service level and royalty program options that are available in the marketplace and develop an appropriate solicitation, if determined by UB that is an appropriate step. THIS IS NOT A BID. The objectives of this RFI are to: 1. develop a general understanding of vendor system features and capabilities across the marketplace; 2. obtain vendor feedback regarding deployment models, leading practices and pricing structures to assist development of a bid document if UB determines a bid is appropriate. 3. solicit vendor’s perspective on best practices for adopting such a platform; 4. identify future directions for programming technology and appropriate timelines; 5. identify any equipment requirements and associated service and support options for that equipment SCOPE OF REQUEST: The scope of this RFI is to collect information on the provision of identifying and evaluating social media management platforms that provide end-to-end functionality for managing an organization’s social media presence across channels. Vendors should outline their platform’s capabilities in the following areas: § Content planning, creation, scheduling and publishing across major social media platforms. § Community management and engagement tools, including inbox management and customer service tools. § Social listening and monitoring, including real-time hashtag and keyword tracking and trend identification. § Paid social media advertising management, including campaign creation, optimization, budgeting and performance tracking. § Analytics and reporting features, including customizable dashboards, cross-channel performance metrics, and data export capabilities. § Automation capabilities, including workflow automation, rule-based actions, AI-assisted insights and content recommendations, and campaign optimization. § User-access controls, collaboration workflows, and approval processes. § Scalability, security, accessibility and compliance features. Vendors are also encouraged to provide information on implementation, training, customer support, pricing models and any additional services that enhance platform effectiveness and usability in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of available solutions and their ability to meet current and future social media management needs. SUBMISSION OF QUESTIONS: Vendors can ask reasonable questions associated with the request for information. Questions must be submitted through the ShopBlue/Jaggaer portal no later than June 30, 2026 at 5:00 P.M. EST. A comprehensive list of questions and the official University responses will be posted to the ShopBlue portal by July 10, 2026. The University’s answers will not contain the identities of the vendors who submitted the questions; those vendors will remain anonymous to the extent allowed by law. CONTENT OF RESPONSE: Vendors are encouraged to respond to all questions in this RFI. A response does not bind or obligate the vendor or the University to any agreement for the provision of services. No contracts will be awarded based on RFI responses. Since this RFI is designated as a tool to collect information, and will not result in a contract, it does not fall under the requirements of State Finance Law §139-J and 139K, Procurement Lobbying Law; and there is no restricted period. If any of the information in the vendor response is considered confidential, proprietary, or a trade secret, it must be clearly indicated on the appropriate page of the vendor response. Release of such materials is governed by the NYS Freedom of Information Law, which in part requires the requester to provide specific justification as to why disclosure of particular information in the response would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the vendor. SAMPLE PRICING Representative pricing should be provided, including the vendor’s solution pricing model. If the University issues a formal solicitation, participating vendors must answer pricing in the way asked within the solicitation. We are unable to accept customized price sheets or quotes in lieu of a formatted price response sheet. The more information you can provide on how your price is structured will help us create a price sheet for competitive solicitation purposes. Sample price sheets are extremely helpful for this purpose. THIS IS NOT A BID. Please provide your published price list (or sample/mock quote) and associated fees as an attachment, including the following: § Annual enterprise licensing fees (provide user thresholds) § Disclose licensing structure (per user, tiers, etc.) for every component of your solution § Integration/onboarding cost estimates § Data storage fees § Year-over-year costs § Maintenance fees § One-time setup/implementation fees § Training fees § Customer support (post-implementation) § Predicted price escalations (based on recent historical increases/adjustments) CONFIDENTIALITY If any of the information in the vendor response is considered confidential, proprietary, or a trade secret, it must be clearly indicated on the appropriate page of the vendor response. The release of such materials is governed by the NYS Freedom of Information Law, which in part requires the requester to provide specific justification as to why disclosure of particular information in the response would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the vendor. If any of the information in the vendor response is considered confidential, proprietary, or a trade secret, it must be clearly indicated on the appropriate page of the vendor response. Release of such materials is governed by the NYS Freedom of Information Law, which in part requires the requester to provide specific justification as to why disclosure of particular information in the response would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the vendor. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT DOING BUSINESS IN NEW YORK STATE The University at Buffalo is a State University of New York public entity that follows NYS and SUNY Procurement laws and guidelines. Any future requests for proposal (RFP) or requests for quote (RFQ) will require vendors accept NYS terms and conditions as part of the procurement process and acceptance of a State of New York purchase order and/or contract. If your company has not done business with New York State, we encourage you to review the following suggested resources to understand as a vendor what may be required if you respond to a future opportunity from a State of New York entity. Doing Business with SUNY https://www.suny.edu/meansbusiness/ Doing Business with New York State https://nyspro.ogs.ny.gov/sites/default/files/uploaded/DoingBusinessWithNYS.pdf Office of the NYS Comptroller – VendRep System: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/vendrep/info_vrsystem.htm Empire State Development: https://esd.ny.gov/
