REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) 18-0009

Non-Emergency Text Notification System for TBR TN eCampusOn-line Students and Faculty

Specifications and Price Sheet

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Minimum Specifications

The Tennessee Board of Regents is seeking a text notification system for online students and faculty. The text notification system must meet the following minimum specifications:

  1. Unlimited outbound and inbound texting.
  2. Unlimited number of student records.
  3. Unlimited support (24/7/365) and training.
  4. Unlimited departments/divisions allowed.
  5. Number validation: automatically detect invalid phone numbers and landlines.
  6. Ten (10) user accounts (any combination of administrative and non-administrative).
  7. Unlimited custom reporting and documentation.
  8. Completely cloud-based system.
  9. Free mobile app.
  10. License that includes high volume texting (up to 15,000 per list).
  11. Ability to be implemented, complete with staff training, by January 2, 2018.

Additional Requirements

Additionally, the text notification system must provide:

  • Student-enabled opt-in and opt-out features.
  • Virtual phone numbers for each user account.
  • Phone forwarding capabilities to other users in the event of user absence.
  • Access via mobile, tablet, and computer (Android and iPhone compatibilities).
  • Ability to manually upload student and faculty data.
  • Ability to update student and faculty data once uploaded.
  • Commonly used text templates.
  • Scheduling of future text messages.
  • Ability to send and/or receive photo messages, emojis, and foreign language/symbols.
  • Ability to create a database of sharable templates.
  • Virtual community of users to discuss best practices.

Additional Notes

  • This text notification system is NOT an emergency alert system.
  • Interested vendors must have existing higher education clients.

PRICING SHEET

Provide texting service bid as an annual fee per student, taking into consideration the following information:

  • The estimated number of outbound texts sent per semester for TN eCampus is 450,000 (15,000 contact/semester@30 outreach texts).
  • The estimated number of inbound texts received per semester is indeterminable.
  • The estimated number of student records (contacts) per semester will be 15,000.
  • The number of departments sending texts will be two (2) – one designated for TN eCampus Student Success and the other designated for TN eCampus Faculty.
  • The types of documentation and reporting required are:

- Reports on individual department activity on daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

- Ability to export documentation on student data, including text transcripts.

- Ability to export documentation on undeliverable texts with reason identified.

- Ability to export documentation on students who opt-out of texts.

- Documentation will need to be able to be exported via a date range.

  • The estimated number of text (contact) lists per semester is 30.

The number of students in excess of the 15,000 associated with the TN eCampus are meant to cover additional students, should additional TBR eligible institutions decide to join in on the Agreement.

Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 / Year 4 / Year 5
Annual fee per student, based on:
  1. 1 – 16,000 students:

  1. 16,001 – 35,000 students:

  1. 35,001 – 20,000 students:

  1. 20,001 – 30,000 students:

  1. 30,001 – 50,000 students:

  1. 50,001 – 70,000 students:

  1. 70,001 – and up.

Please direct any questions to: Mark Hodges () or 615-366-3934 at the Tennessee Board of Regents, Purchasing and Contracts Office.

Items that must be completed and included with the RFQ submission in order for the quotation to be considered include:

  • Tennessee Board of Regents RFQ Bid Sheet (including printed name of bidding firm and contact person, address with city, state and zip code, phone number, fax number and e-mail address, authorized signature and date.
  • Tennessee Board of Regents RFQ Specifications and Pricing Sheet.
  • Attached is TBR’s standard Pro Forma Agreement. This is the agreement that will be executed between the parties. If bidders require its license agreement to be signed versus the TBR’s standard agreement, it must be included with the bid submission. Failure to successfully negotiate an agreement will cause the bidder’s quotation to be rejected.
  • Request for Vendor Registration.
  • Tennessee Board of Regents Certification of Quotation/Proposal.