What kinds of incentives do you anticipate families will be able to earn?
Per section 2.3 of the RFP, at this time we have three types of incentives in mind:
● 1:1 match- for every $1 that a participating family deposits into their account, OWD matches
that contribution with $1 of program funds
● Steady Saver- participants who deposit on a pre-determined regular basis receive a fixed
bonus (e.g., participants who make deposits once per month for six consecutive months
receive an additional $100 of program funds from OWD)
● Benchmark- participating children who achieve specific academic benchmarks will receive a
fixed bonus (e.g., children who make perfect attendance for six weeks in a row receive an
additional $100 of program funds from OWD).
Can families link any 529 plan to the platform? Specifically, are there requirements that the
platform specifically accommodate the Massachusetts 529 plan, or is choice of account/plan up to
families?
There are presently no requirements that the platform specifically accommodate the Massachusetts
529 plan. Families should be able to link any 529 plan that currently provides online access to the
platform.
Has a financial institution for custodial accounts been confirmed yet?
We have not yet confirmed a financial institution partner for the custodial accounts. We intend to roll
out custodial accounts in the second year of the pilot.
What does online account activation entail?
For families who choose to link their own account, we expect accounts to be able to be linked online.
For families who choose the custodial account, we would need to work with our financial institution
partner, our selected tech tool Vendor, the Boston Public Schools, and our program team to ID the
best way to sign up/register/activate these accounts. At a minimum, families should have a way to
indicate they would like this account option online.
What kind of front-end information will users be able change/update (contact/demographic
information vs. programmatic change information)?
We expect family participants to be able to change or update their contact (e.g., address, phone, etc.)
information automatically.
For programmatic changes (e.g., deciding to cease participation in the program, etc.), families will
need to consent to these changes in some way (e.g., signature). We would need to work with our
selected tech tool Vendor and our program team to ID the best way for families to officially change
their program status and communicate this change to OWD.
Contract language stipulates that contractors and sub-contractors will be considered "special
municipal employees" (Section 7, Sub-section L) -- what does that mean?
Please see the ​
information on Special Municipal Employees​
posted by the Commonwealth.
What kind of information do you anticipate OWD staff will need direct access to edit?
OWD staff would like to be able to directly edit content (e.g., alerting participants about new
incentives, informing participants about program rules, etc.) as well as presentation/branding (e.g.,
logo, color scheme, graphics, etc.).
When do you anticipate making payments of rewards earned during the 3-year pilot? Are you
looking for a vendor who can handle those eventual payments?
We are using the 3-year pilot as a time to experiment with and understand Boston families’
participation in the CSA program and their reaction to various types of incentives. Beyond the 3-year
pilot, we plan on executing a scaled roll-out to make the program universal to all BPS district and
charter schools with K2 classrooms.
As such, families participating in the pilot would not see reward payments until post high school
graduation. Our ideal tech partner would help us and our partners think through the way in which
reward payments are made.
If families are linking their own accounts, what could prevent a family from earning rewards and
then withdrawing?
Families linking their own accounts would not be prevented from withdrawing their own funds.
Any families (both those who link their own account and those who use custodial accounts) would be
subject to program parameters that dictate what account withdrawal might mean for either their
ability to earn incentives, their program participation status, or both. We would look to the tech tool
provided by our selected Vendor to, at the very least, alert OWD when a withdrawal from any account
(linked or custodial) is made.
How do you anticipate data being exchanged from BPS to the platform?
BPS will provide our tech partner with student data on a regular basis, which we anticipate will include a unique identifying number for each student. That data is likely to include attendance data, grades, etc. and, at least initially, will most likely be a CSV file. The program's tech tool would need to upload this data, associate it with the correct account, and­­ where appropriate­­ trigger incentives associated with metrics like perfect attendance. ​
Additionally, we would work with our selected Vendor, the Boston Public Schools, and our program team to help us understand if future integration with BPS data is possible with the proposed tech tool. How do you plan to handle customer service and programmatic questions during the pilot?
We expect to work with our selected tech tool Vendor, the Boston Public Schools, and our program
team to create a pathway for the various types of help desk requests families will have. In your
proposal, please specify what types of customer service you would recommend, and provide the
corresponding price for each channel/level of service in your line-item budget.
What kind of website and materials do you plan to develop in conjunction with the program?
We are presently conducting market research with Boston families to better understand what
marketing materials should look like and how they should be delivered to families. Using the findings
from this research, we expect to work with our selected Vendor and our program team to develop the
website and materials for the program. We would like these to integrate with the tech platform.
What are your budgetary expectations after July 2016? Should we include anticipated post-July
2016 expenses in our responses?
While the budget given in the RFP is for the MVP delivered by July 1, 2016, we expect to work with
our selected Vendor to identify tech tool additions and modifications for the rest of the pilot period.
A description and estimation of anticipated post-July 2016 expenses (development and maintenance)
should be included in responses.
Regarding functionality for the customer service piece of the RFP document, do any of the following items align with the goal of the program to provide excellent customer services? a. Customer Service:­Inbound calls, emails, chat support, agent response continuity (same answers for same questions­regardless of which agent responds to the call/inquiry,) social media and self­service (FAQs). b. Eligibility: Online portal, rules engine, self­service and application management c. Case Management: Tracking interactions and applications d. Data Quality: Duplicate records Yes. All of the above align with the program goal to provide excellent customer service. Section 7.9 on page 28 mentions a list of forms that the selected firm will be required to sign. Can I please get a copy of the forms in order to review what they entail? We apologize as this is a discrepancy in our RFP: the only forms required are the (a) non­collusion affadavit and the (b) certificate of compliance with laws. These are provided in the final two pages of the RFP. If not included on the Q&A summary, can we also get a list of the participants who were on today’s call? Participants who participated in the call and/or submitted questions via email included the following: ● EARN.org ● Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP) ● Financial Apps ● Oracle Please note that there might have been attendees over the phone who are not captured in the list below. Our apologies for any unintentional omission. Can you keep my price proposal confidential? All parts of submitted proposals become part of the public record and are subject to the Massachusetts Public Record Law. Please make specific reference in your response to any legitimately and appropriately confidential or proprietary material contained in the response; it will be maintained as confidential to the extent permitted by law, but you should expect that your entire proposal will be released if requested. We are happy to alert you prior to doing so. How do you envision the enrollment process occurring in year one, in the absence of a custodial account? Do you anticipate onboarding students onto a platform even if they do not link a savings account, or will year one offer an opt­in model in which we only track Savers who have signed up? We envision working with our selected tech tool Vendor to ID the best way to approach this challenge. At this time, we anticipate needing to include all student information in the tech tool, since this is a universal program and all students will get a seed. Will the student information include parents’ email addresses? ​
What percentage of students/parents have an email address on file with Boston Unified? Student data would not include parents’ email addresses. BPS does not retain parent email addresses in a central repository. We would like the tech tool to to collect contact email addresses that families volunteer. It appears that currently the Massachusetts 529 plans do not provide online account acc
​ess. Is it a requirement to connect to the Massachusetts 529 plans? If so, is OWD able to arrange access via an API or another data transfer from these plans so that account activity can be shared with Savers through the platform? We would like the MVP to be able to connect to any 529 plan that currently provides online access. Can the person who will be mailing the RFP response send the separate, sealed envelopes containing the Technical and Pricing Proposals in the same mail package? No. M.G.L. c. 30 B states that Price proposals and non­price proposal must be separately sealed and submitted. It is also listed on Sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2 of our RFP (p. 20).