May 25, 2000

Since our last project status forwarded on April 18, 2000, the project team has concentrated on its evaluation of vendor proposals submitted in response to the Credit/Debit Card Processing Services Request for Proposal (RFP). In addition, the project team continues to work with early adopter agencies and to document policy and procedural guidelines in support of statewide credit/debit card acceptance.

The project team has completed its initial evaluation of payment processing vendor proposals and forwarded recommendations to ITS Procurement requesting to formally negotiate with vendors. The team evaluated all proposals based on the best value criteria listed in the RFP. The next step in this process is to negotiate with vendors to clarify technical questions and terms and conditions issues. Due to the complexity of the RFP and subsequent contract negotiations this is a somewhat lengthy process that is progressing at a steady rate. It is anticipated the negotiation process will continue through the second week of June resulting in a contract, referred to as a Master Service Agreement (MSA), by the middle of June 2000.

The team continues to work with several agencies that confirmed their participation in the project as early adopters. The following agencies were identified as early adopters: Secretary of State (Internet and point-of-sale payments), Dept. of Insurance (point of sale), Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (multi-division, point of sale), Wildlife (Internet and POS replacement) and Dept. of Transportation/DMV (point of sale). The agencies have drafted their Statement of Work – this will be finalized once the Payment Processing Vendor has been selected. The Department of Agriculture has also indicated an interest in participating, using an Internet application to accept orders and payments for advanced tickets to the State Fair. Participation by Agriculture will be confirmed at the end of the month.

The early adopter agencies will verify that the new infrastructure works. This testing phase will involve a full business cycle (authorization-settlement-reconciliation) and is anticipated to have two test cases – one for converting existing users of a swiping system, and another for handling payment in an Internet application. Implementation of early adopter agencies will begin within two weeks after the MSA is signed. It is anticipated that credit/debit card processing services will be available for use by all agencies this September.

OSC and ITS have drafted policies and continue to document procedures in support of credit/debit card acceptance. Some aspects of these policies and procedures will be affected by the type of solution provided by the Payment Processing Vendor to be selected by the project. Polices and procedures are developed utilizing a statewide approach in order to provide a consistent processing approach to citizens through a single statewide method for processing credit/debit cards payments by all state agencies. All policies and procedures will be established with the concurrence of State Treasurer and the Administrative Officer of the Courts where applicable.

The State Controller, the State Treasurer and the Chief Information Officer will continue to provide periodic status reports concerning the implementation of credit/debit card acceptance of payments to this group and the Joint Legislative Commission on Government Operations. Subsequent reports will contain information related to vendor selection, policies and procedures in support of this initiative, and the time frame for agency implementations.

If additional information is required, please contact Don Waugh (981-5465) or Amber Young (981-5481).