1.Are there live lookups happening on the 7.5 today? There is an indication that it is doing both Address Change and FRVIS validations inline (page 10)
No, we do not have live look up occurring on the 7.5 or any other machine.
2.General 8 & Property Tax 3. Is the intent to have users correct & validate the data that is read?
Refund checks are refunded to the individual named on the check. We are looking to have the information populated in a data file that can be imported into Aumentum to subsequently issue a refund check. Looking to the possibility to also capture all payee information from the checks for every transaction.
No. The intent is to have the software automatically determine the amount due based on the postmark date on the envelope. The discount periods are defined as follows; 4% discount needs to have envelope postmarked in November, 3% discount for December, January for 2%, and 1% for February. There may be occasions where an operator might need to edit a string during processing of a batch.
3.Please define “Second Pass Hot File”
All checks for a batch are run through the NCR ITRAN 780 for a second time, and checks for rejected transactions (stub/payment) are sent to a Rejects pocket for manual processing.
4.Is the intent to have these scanned separately from the financial transactions? Is the intent to have these documents appended to financial transactions?
Yes, these will be scanned separately from the financial transactions. The check images should be read by the vendor software for solely searching purposes.
Although white mail documents are primarily scanned separately from the financial transactions, we are open to scanning all the work once and have the system automatically parse the work so that financial transactions are handled separately for creating bank deposits.
In addition, our tax system Aumentum software in future versions may have the functionality to append payment or scanned images. Currently that is unavailable.
5.Respondents should provide four complete copies of the proposal. Only two copies of any accompanying documentation are required. One electronic version of the proposal in Microsoft Word is required, plus one electronic version of the Microsoft Excel cost worksheet.Question: What is the PBCTC’s preferred method of electronic media submission (e.g., CD, USB Flash Drive)?
A USB Flash Drive would be acceptable.
6.The Service Centers process transactions for all services offered to the public, and thePBCTC accepts Cash, Checks, and Credit/Debit cards as forms of payments.Question: Does this mean that the proposed application is expected to include cashiering functionality?
No, we currently are using our tax system application (Aumentum) for cashiering, we require a scanning image component of the software tocapture images. These imagesshould be searchable andarchived automatically after anallotted period of time.
7.The remote branch offices are equipped with a Panini Vision X desktop check scanner and Canon DR-3010C document scanner. The staff at each branch office scans all the checks collected for the previous day and also scans documents associated with various transactions. The scanned checks and documents are researched by staff in various departments in the organization using defined document templates.Questions:
a.What are the specific expectations for remote scanning?
Need the ability to scan the front and back side of all the checks collected at the service centers. We also need the ability to search and pull up the front and back image for any check at any service center.
b.Will PBCTC continue using the current device scanning application or is it required that the vendor provide the necessary scanning application to control these remote scanning devices?
The vendor should have a scanning application to take over what the current vendor is providing us.
c.If continuing with the existing scanning application, can the application output in TIFF or PDF format to a shared folder that the vendor can monitor and retrieve these files automatically?
Not applicable. See 8(b) above.
8.System should read the name and address information from checks for processing refunds. Question: Is the expectation that this be completely automated? Although we can attempt to read the name and address from the check, our recommendation would be that the vendor include a rapid review step, which would let an Operator check for accuracy when necessary.
We would like to see this automated. When a refund is generated, the operator canverify the information is correctthrough the verification stage foraccuracy.
9.System should have the ability to perform real- time lookup of payment amount due from third party application or local database.Question: Can PBCTC list the specific third party applications (e.g., Reuters, FRVIS, Online Bill Providers) from which the vendor would need to perform real-time lookups?
Thomson Reuters - main one
10.The system should have the ability to scan parking applications electronically. Question: Please provide more detail. Does PBCTC simply want to be able to scan on the Opex and store the images or does PBCTC want to form processing?
Previously answered - We are looking to capture the document to store electronically for 1 year. The documents are searched by scanned date and location.
11.System needs to read the postmarked date on the envelope to associate the proper discount period for processing. 4% discount needs to have envelope postmarked in November, 3% discount for December, January for 2%, and 1% for February. Client needs to be able to set these dates in system (configurable option) without a change request.Question: Is the expectation that reading the postmark date and entering it into the system will be a fully automated process?
Yes, the postmark date should be read from the envelope and validate the amount due via the live look up and parse into different batches when multiple discount periods are present. The dates in the system should be set by annual calendar but modified when last day of month falls on weekend.
12.Web Enabled Application(Application runs on Internet environment. Should have extensive connectivity through EDI and should support popular standards like EDIFACT.) Question: Can PBCTC provide additional information on the above requirement?
Application should run on various Internet browsers, including Internet Explorer, FireFox, and Google Chrome. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the exchange of business data, such as account/check numbers and transaction/log numbers, between business partners in a common format directly from one computer system to another. The EDIFACT standard provides a set of syntax rules to structure, an interactive exchange protocol and provides a set of standard messages which allow multi-country and multi-industry exchange of electronic information. Alternatively, XML based standards are also used for this purpose.
13.Connectivity to Office Automation(Ability to provide connectivity to PC basedoffice automation products like MS Office, etc.)Question: Can PBCTC provide additional information on the above requirement, i.e., what tasks will be performed via the connectivity to office automation products?
We are looking to have the capability of exporting data from the database using MS tools. In addition, we would like to have the option to merge data into MS Word and Outlook for emailing payment information to clients. We are seeking to have easy integration with the MS Office tools to make it easier for end-users to extract data from the system to help them balance when reports are not balancing.
14.Since we will be providing our Clients with access to information regarding their transactions, there must be a control in place so that the Client will have access only to information regarding him and him alone.Questions:
a.Can PBCTC clarify what is meant by “clients?”
The public
b.Are these internal departments or external users such as motor vehicle renewal applicants or individual taxpayers who want to access information?
This item refers to external users that mail in their payment for any business line.
15. There must be mechanisms that verify the integrity of data. There must also be control mechanisms on the EDI front to ensure that any data transmitted is acknowledged back to the originator. This acknowledgment must be compared to the original transmission and any exceptions highlighted.Questions:
a.Can PBCTC provide more specific examples of what they mean by data integrity? For example, if the application supplies a data file to the DMV system with 10 lines of information, our application can check the file returned from the DMV to ensure that it includes a corresponding 10 lines of information – is this an example of what PBCTC is seeking?
Yes, that is an example from the system software to our host system. Integrity checks must also be performed between the proposed system software and the various hardware devices to ensure work is accurately scanned and processed.
16.The system should be able to maintain historical data online in accordance to PBCTC records retention guidelines. See Appendix C. Questions:
a.Is the proposed application to include a complete archival solution or will the data/images be exported into an existing historical archive application for research?
The proposed application should include a complete archival solution
b.If to be included, how many concurrent licenses are required for the research?
We do not currently have a count of user licenses necessary for research. We would expect there to be scale options.
17.As part of the project, data will need to be converted and loaded into the system. Conversion programs may need to be written to handle this task. Vendors must indicate how they propose to do this and the approximate effort and cost of this effort.Question: In order to supply any meaningful approximation of conversion costs, we will require additional information. Can PBCTC be more specific about the types of data they want to be converted and the quantity of data to be converted?
Approximately 1 TB of images are stored on our current system. The database structure is managed by a third party vendor and the number of data files is unknown. We are looking to migrate our current database records and images to the new application to avoid maintaining two separate applications.
18.The functional fit between the package and the business needs, as documented in the Statement of User Requirements and its availability for implementation. This will also take into account the ease of use of the package, the quality of the documentation, the extent of the modifications required and the readiness and flexibility of the vendor to handle customization and adapt to any future changes in the business.
Please see below for combined question. Not sure where the questions are except what follows this.
19.On page 33 of the RFP, it states that one of the selection criteria is a functional fit based on the “Statement of User Requirements,” and in section 10.1 on page 34, it says the proposal summary should describe a broad functional fit as specified in the “Statement of User Requirements,” however, there is no section of the RFP document specifically labeled as a “Statement of User Requirements.” Could PBCTC please be more specific as to which section of the RFP document represents the Statement of User Requirements?
The “Statement of User Requirements” refers to Sections 5 (Statement of Business Requirements) and 6 (System Requirements) of the document.
20.What is the current staffing required to sort and prep the work?
It can take 2 mail room staff and 2 additional workers to sort the kickout/rejects on the machines.
21.What is the current staffing required to extract mail contents?
Same as above if it is manual - outsorts. If we run the DMV on the 3600, 1 tray of work takes 2-3 hours.
22.What is the current staffing required to scan daily work?
We have three staff members and 1 floaterscanning 1 product line a piece. Someone scans Motor Vehicle, Business Tax Receipt, Property Tax.
23.What is the current staffing required for data entry/keying?
Same as above
24.What is the current staffing required to perform daily release/upload of posting files?
Same as above
25.Does any of the current staff share roles within the daily process?
Yes, I have one floater who will work on whatever product line needs assistance. The other three staff members are assigned to 1 product line to run (scan, verify, import, balance).
26.How many FTE’s are required in today’s daily process?
4-10 employees depending on the amount of work, time of the year andbacklog. Outsorting the work manually and batch verification require more attention in the process.
27.Are there any part-time employees in today’s process?
No.
28.What percentage of PBCTC’s daily volumes include Business Checks?
We do not track the volume of business checks that get processed in the system.
29.Can PBCTC provide image samples of all job types to be scanned in the new application?
Currently we have payment stubs with a scan line with specific codes and checks.
Redacted payment stubs will be posted to the public site.
30.What is PBCTC’s intensions with the existing NCR transport?
We are open to keeping or replacing the NCR transport providing all business requirements are met with the proposed solution.
31.Do they plan to continue using it for processing payments?
Yes, we have too. We need a machine to scan the images of the checks and run the second hot pass file. OPEX machines do not have this capability.
32.System requirements. The system should be able to cope with or should be:Ability to process inter-company transactions. Question: Can PBCTC please clarify what they mean by inter-company transaction?
If the check scanning equipment in a location is down, the users should have the ability to take their work to another branch office to scan their checks.
33.Allow removal of all masters and transactions of selected transactions. Question: Can PBCTC please provide an expanded explanation of what is meant by this question?
When deleting transactions (providing the user has been granted that role), all the details including images, database entries, etc, will be deleted from the system. This also applies to information that has met records retention guidelines.
34.Vendor Submission Form:Is there a document in Word format available? In the RFP it mentions a document called “RFPBatchProcessing.docx”.
You can name your document with that name.
35.Does PBCTC plan to replace all current scanning hardware?
Previously answered. We are open to assessing replacement.
36.Transaction contents:What is the average number of pages for each transaction type, such as Certified/BTR/DMV/PT/MISC? For example, envelope/check/stub.
Stubs, checks and other scanned documents consists of 1 TB in the current system.
37.Is it possible to get samples of scanned transactions?
We will upload samples of stubs to our external site.
38.What happens to checks scanned at remote offices? (3.3) Are they sent to the mail processing center?
No they are scanned then submitted to the bank from the remote offices in a regular check deposit. ICL is not used.
39.Is Check 21 currently implemented with Wells Fargo?
Yes
40.3rd Party Web Payment Providers: Are the checks currently scanned as a separate job?
Online bill pay checks are processed manually and deposited in check deposits. Our expectation would be to capture account information from bill pay checks into a batch for processing by an operator and a cross match for update to tax system.
41.Data Conversion: Need more details on what is being converted to provide cost. What is the source of data, and images if necessary?
Currently there is about 1TB of data stored.
42.300 concurrent users? What are the roles of the 300 users? For example, 5 scanner operators, 10 data entry operators, 100 customer service reps for research only.
That would be a good estimate as we do not know how the work flow will change with improved automation.
Page 1 of 9