Addendum #1
April 29, 2020
Question: Please confirm if a redacted electronic file should be provided upon submission of the RFP response.
Response: Yes, a redacted electronic file, should be provided upon submission of the RFP response.
Question: Will you hold In- person short list presentations given the current pandemic environment, or will other options be used (i.e. Video Conference or Conference Call via phone)?
Response: Lake County may conduct interviews via in-person presentation or video conference.
Question: What date will the responses to questions be available?
Response: It is the intent of Lake County to provide responses to all questions by April 29, 2020.
Question: Will questions and responses from all bidders be provided to all registered bidders?
Response: Yes.
Question: How will responses to questions be provided to bidders (I.e. Lake County RFP Portal, via email)?
Response: All responses will be posted on the addendum link on the Lake County Purchasing Portal.
Question: Will Lake County consider extending the RFP due date?
Response: Not at this time.
Question: Would Lake County consider contract terms more than 1-year periods? (I.E. initially 3 plus two 1-year extensions). If so, please provide the minimum number of contract years.
Response: Not at this time.
Question: Are you earning a rebate for all card spend? If not, please explain how rebate is earned for the program? (i.e. are there any transactions that don’t qualify for a rebate)
Response: Yes, we are currently receiving a rebate.
Question: Would Lake County consider providing the current rebate and incentives (i.e. performance bonus) information?
Response: Lake County currently participates in a revenue sharing opportunity with the current provider. Additional information will be provided to the awarded vendor.
Question: Who is the current provider for the card programs?
Response: U.S. Bank.
Question: For item #27 “Joint Purchasing”, please provide further explanation on the meaning. For example, will other lake county government agencies want their own program, or will cards be issues under Lake County program?
Response: It is the intention of Lake County that the contract would be offered to other governmental units. Under the Governmental Joint Purchasing Act, 30 ILCS 525/0.01, et seq. (the “Act”). The programs will be stand-alone programs.
Question: For item H under “Lost/Stolen Cards and Disputed Charges section”, please further explain #5 about paying for fraudulent charges? Typically, provisional credit is provided pending a fraud investigation on the transaction and the card would be closed. All valid transactions and balances will be moved to a new card account.
Response: The County typically pays all charges at end of billing cycle and fraud charges often arise at time of statement review by cardholder.
Question: Does Lake County and Lake County Forest Preserves operate under a single card program? If no, please answer the following question respectively for both entities.
Response: Lake County and the Lake County Forest Preserve are a single card program.
Question: Does Lake County and Lake County Forest Preserves need separate online access?
Response: Yes.
Question: What is your current billing cycle?
Response: 11th – 10th of the month.
Question: What are the payment terms?
Response: Pay in full by the due date.
Question: Does Lake County and Lake County Forest Preserves need to be billed separately?
Response: Yes.
Question: How is the payment made for each cycle (i.e. Check, ACH, Wire or Auto Debit)?
Response: ACH for Lake County and the Forest Preserve.
Question: What type of cards do you use? (i.e. Physical, ghost card, department card). If you use various types, how many of each?
Response: Lake County only uses physical cards.
Question: Are your current cards Chip and PIN or Chip and signature?
Response: Chip and signature.
Question: What network is your current program under (Mastercard, Visa, Amex)?
Response: Visa.
Question: How many times are MCC codes being changed for the program? On individual cards? (X times a month)
Response: Maybe twice per year as needed for travel and/or international needs.
Question: How does your card reporting system interface with your financial systems (i.e. manual entry, sFTP delivery)? Please explain current process/requirements.
Response: The current interface is a manual process, Lake County downloads the current transactions and uploads into the ERP system. Lake County would prefer an automated process going forward.
Question: Do you receive a file for your credit card to upload into Account System? If so, what delivery method and file format would be needed to integrate?
Response: No.
Question: How do you reconcile your card transactions?
Response: Lake County currently reconciles the transactions offline through a manual process.
Question: Are you coding and approving transactions using the current online platform or is this being done within your system?
Response: No, within our system.
Question: Do you have custom card designs today?
Response: Yes.
Question: What are the specific requirements for the card design?
Response: The Lake County Logo and tax-exempt number.
Question: Does Lake County and Lake County Forest Preserves use the same card design?
Response: No.
Question: Would you be willing to share the same card design?
Response: No.
Question: Should the label on the first page be included for online submission?
Response: Not necessary as proposals will be submitted electronically.
Question: Would Lake County be willing to provide a vendor file in order to determine the full opportunity for your organization to leverage your Commercial Card Program?
Response: This information will be provided to the awarded vendor.
Question: Does Lake County utilize an e-procurement solution?
Response: Yes, an Oracle based solution.
Question: Do you participate in Group Purchasing Organization?
Response: Yes.
Question: How does each of your employees reconcile their purchasing card?
Response: Lake County does not currently have a standard process for reconciliation. We are looking for best practices going forward.
Question: Do you a have 3rd party expense reporting tool like Concur or Expensify?
Response: No.
Question: Do you use a third party system like Concur for allocation and the assignment of account codes or do you use your current card provider’s transaction management system?
Response: No.
Question: Do you currently use “exclude” or “include” mcc groups with your P-Cards?
Response: Yes, Lake county currently uses exclude.
Question: What is your current billing structure? …Central bill / Corporate pay?
Response: Central billing.
Question: How many declining balance cards do you manage today and what are they primarily used for?
Response: None, Lake County is looking at adding this as an additional program feature.
Question: Would the County consider a bid that requires cash to secure the Card facility? Funds would be held in an interest-bearing account with our institution. If the answer to the above is, “yes”, would the County permit a Letter of Credit issued by the Federal Home Loan Bank of NY, as collateral for the cash balance above FDIC limits?
Response: No.
Question: In the purchase Card RFP there is a Sustainability Statement Instructions Form. Our Bank’s response to this is quite extensive, so we are wondering if we can just include it in the Word document response to the RFP?
Response: Yes.
Question: P-Card Services Section A. Question 1 g. Please clarify the number of approvers that are currently needed to approve an expense report.
Response: Two approvers.
Question: Card Design/Card Processor: Is the County currently using an EPayables platform?
Response: Yes, an Oracle based solution.
Question: Reports: Please elaborate on what is meant by Merchant tier level.
Response: Many banking institutions have established merchant tier levels to identify preferred merchants (i.e. Amazon) for rebate calculation purposes. If the proposing agency has such a structure in place, Lake County would like the ability to run reports to analyze the percentage of purchases in each tier level. This better positions Lake County to maximize the rebate earned by aligning spend to match the institution’s structure.
April 22, 2020
Question: Due to the current work from home requirements related to COVID-19, we are asking that Lake County consider an electronic copy alternative to providing hard copies of response documents. Is that feasible?
Response: Lake County will be accepting only electronic submissions for Request for Proposal #20062 – Procurement Card Services for Lake County.
Please follow the steps below to upload your electronic submission:
- Go to www.lakecountypurchasingportal.com
- Click on the Bid Number: 20062
- Click on register for this bid
- Enter your username and password
- Under the Submittals section you will be able to upload your submittal
- Click on the browse button
- Navigate your computer and select the appropriate file
- Multiple files can be uploaded, each file can be no more than 20 MB
- Click on save submittals
- Close the browser
*Please note: Responses are due at 11:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. Please allow sufficient time for any technical issues you may have and upload your submittal early. Please email Purchasing at purchasing@lakecountyil.gov to receive confirmation that we have successfully received your submissions.
Question: Can the County provide 12 months of AP data in an excel spreadsheet so we can analyze said data to show opportunities where your program can grow and rebate can be maximized. We will need the following information: vendor name, vendor annualized spend, payment method and vendor address.
Response: Please see the attached spreadsheet.