The Vendor is required to provide utility bill print and mailing services all materials and services necessary to print the city’s water utility bills and bill inserts, stuff the billing envelopes, and mail the complete product, as well as providing customer access to utility documents through a secure web-based interface.
- Bill Design Services
• Assist the city with a re-design of the current bill format.
• Assist the city with the design of special bill designs such as large-format, multi-lingual, etc.
- Utility bill printing
• Receive information for utility bill printing daily; the average number of individual bills in a daily electronic file to not exceed 7,500.
• Format and print the necessary bills received the same business day.
• Have the ability to produce multi-page bills.
• Have the ability to consolidate multiple bills into one envelope.
• Have the ability to not send a return envelope to customers enrolled in autopay, or to customers who opt out of receiving a return envelope.
• Process the information received through a coding accuracy support system (CASS) to certify the list and code of each record with carrier route, zip code plus four, and delivery point barcode (DPBC).
• Standardize records, remove punctuation, and enhance lists where reasonably possible.
• Process submitted data file through the national change of address service provided by the state postal service and provide the city with results.
• Generate and print the lockbox OCR scan line on the utility bills; printed bills will be in compliance with all lockbox provider specifications.
• Print a solid waste bar code on the utility bills; this barcode will be provided by the city.
• Each utility bill mail piece will contain a unique id barcode with corresponding human readable information printed with the barcode.
• This unique id will be generated by the contractor when processing the city’s data file to “tag” the bill to a specific production file, section of that production file, etc.
• This barcode will be printed on the first page of the outgoing bill mail piece positioned to show through the window envelope when the bill is inserted.
• Have the ability to reprint bills up to three years old upon request.
• Allow for customer access to a minimum of thirteen (13) months of bills through its secure, web-based interface.
- Collections notice printing
• Receive electronic files of information for collections notice printing daily, Monday through Saturday.
• Format and print notices received the same business day.
- Disconnection notice printing
• Receive electronic files of information for collections notice printing daily, Monday through Saturday.
• Format and print notices received the same business day.
- City scope newsletter printing
• Have the ability to receive electronic files of information for city scope newsletter printing.
• Also have the ability to receive printed newsletters drop shipped from another location.
• Print and insert or insert the pre-printed newsletter with each utility bill.
• Allow for customer access to newsletter documents through a secure web based interface
• Have the ability to invoice the city scope newsletter printing separately.
- Other insert printing
• Have the ability to receive electronic files of information for other bill inserts printing.
• Also have the ability to receive printed other bill inserts drop shipped from another location.
• Print and insert or insert the pre-printed other bill inserts with each utility bill.
• Allow for customer access to insert documents through a secure web-based interface
• Have the ability to invoice other insert printing separately. - Pre-production services
• Provide proofs of printed materials within two business days of receipt.
• Make any revisions requested by the city within one business day of receipt.
• Revisions will be made at no additional cost to the city. - Mailing services
• If the contractor uses separate pre-sort services, the contractor will be responsible for delivery to the pre-sorter.
• Be responsible for labeling and pre-sorting mailings to obtain the lowest postal rate possible.
- Web portal
• Represent and warrant that the software provided is in compliance with the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, level AA.
- Business continuity and recovery
• Operations must be able to provide uninterrupted service.
• Have a disaster recovery/business continuation back-up plan for production and the ability to duplicate all machinery to avoid an out of service situation.
• Must provide off-site storage of information, data recovery procedures, timing in which back-up will occur, equipment failure process, alternate SFTP sites, etc. security requirements will be the same as required for the primary facility.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Pre-Proposal Conference Date: May 14, 2025