Telecommunications Expense Management System

The vendor is required to provide the implementation, use, and ongoing maintenance of a hosted telecommunications expense management system (TEMS) that can provide the following functions:
• Invoice management – management of the submission, processing, and reconciliation of invoices, inclusive of identifying and rectifying billing discrepancies. 
• Ensures the recovery of credits, tracks and manages disputes as well as short-pay and no-pay decisions. 
• Agency charge-back – collection and processing of all monthly usage and costs derived from call accounting, telecommunications services provider (TSP) invoice data, and fixed monthly recurring charge (MRC) and non-recurring costs (NRC) provided by office, to enable charge-back to the state’s using agencies.  
• Inventory management – maintenance of a current and accurate inventory of all state telecommunications assets, services, and selected hardware and licenses. 
• Contract management – application that can seamlessly review and reference all state telecommunications contracts and can authenticate TSP billed rates with effective contract rates, and monitors contract expiration dates.  
• Updated state telecommunication contract information will be provided to the contractor by the state during contract term as appropriate 
• Reporting and analytics – application that provides for the generation of standard and custom billing reports for expense management and analysis. 
• Provisioning – application that will enable agencies to submit orders for telecommunications service and integrate them with invoice management and inventory management applications.
- Usability and workflow
• The access portal shall be web enabled and operate browser independent; 
• Home page link shall be clearly visible; 
• Sub-pages shall be easily accessible from the home page; 
• Intuitive and user-friendly search function; 
• User shall be able to cancel any operation; 
• User shall have the capability to correct or delete input mistakes; 
• There shall be a clear exit point from any place on the menu; 
• There shall be a help function for each section; 
• There shall be a confirmation screen for all changes that explains the consequence of an action and provides the user with the option to either continue or back out; 
• The same word or phrase shall be used consistently to describe an item;
• Error messages shall be clearly visible and written in plain language that is comprehensible by the user; 
• The system shall provide user-defined fields;  
• The system shall allow searching and sorting by multiple fields; and
• Ability to interface with the state’s mobile device management system, VMware workspace one.
- Invoice management
1. Invoice types
• The system shall be capable of processing both electronic and paper invoices.
• It shall also be capable of processing both recurring and one-time invoices
2. Billing data fields
• Electronic secure file transfer protocol (sftp) download;
• API services;
• Billing cd; and
• Manual paper invoices
3. Invoice processing
• Be capable of recognizing and processing different types of billing charges such as recurring, one-time, and pro-rated; and provide the ability to categorize them as required by the state. 
• The state also requires the ability to configure new categories as needed; 
• Store in its database the expected “receive date” for recurring invoices and alert the appropriate administrator when an invoice is not received by that date; 
• Have the capability to “short pay” disputed invoices and adjust them to reflect all disputed amounts; and
• Clear each invoice for payment, track payment history, and alert an authorized administrator at designated intervals when payments are overdue.
4. Dispute management
• Reconciling wireline and wireless invoices against the current stored service inventory and in-force contracts; identifying discrepancies; and alerting administrators accordingly; 
• Identifying duplicate invoice numbers, totals, and periods; and notifying designated administrators of possible invoice duplication;
• Dispute lifecycle management. 
• The system shall maintain a record of all open and closed disputes, and be capable of managing and tracking short-pay and no-pay decisions. 
• The record content shall minimally include the vendor, responsible parties, dispute details, dispute amount, start date, current status, history of actions, and final resolution; 
• Initiating and tracking disputes with a TSP in either electronic format or paper correspondence, and accepting manual input from paper responses; and
• Tracking credits that result from billing disputes and audit invoices to ensure that credits are received. 
• It shall be capable of applying such credits to the appropriate agency using the state’s billing hierarchy and account code structure.
- Inventory entry and access
a. Voice: 
• 10-digit telephone number; 
• Service type;
• TSP name; 
• Location
• Individual or sub-summary billing telephone number (BTN); 
• Summary BTN;
• Account code;
• Local carrier; 
• LD carrier; 
• Installation date; 
• Disconnect date; 
• State contract #; and 
• Comments; 
b. Data: 
• Circuit number; 
• Service type; 
• TSP name; 
• Location; 
• Individual or sub-summary BTN;
• Summary BTN; 
• Account code; 
• Installation date; 
• Disconnect date; 
• State contract #; and 
• Comments; 
c. Cellular: 
• 10-digit telephone number; 
• TSP name; 
• Individual or sub-summary BTN; 
• Summary BTN; 
• Account code; 
• Device type;
• Installation date; 
• Disconnect date; 
• State contract #; and 
• Comments; and
d. Toll-free: all termination and programming information.
- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Optional Pre-Quote Submission Conference Date: July 08, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: July 22, 2025