Mass Communication Platform

The Vendor is required to provide cloud-based email marketing and customer communications platform capable of supporting large-scale customer outreach, automated communications, analytics, subscription management, and integration with authority SAP environment.
- Platform requirements
• Web-based email campaign management tools.
• Drag-and-drop email editor with responsive and mobile-friendly templates.
• Custom html editing capabilities.
• Audience segmentation and contact list management.
• Email scheduling and send-time optimization.
• A/b testing functionality.
• Automated customer journeys and triggered email workflows.
• Customer preference and subscription management tools.
• Opt-in/opt-out management and suppression list synchronization.
• Campaign analytics and reporting dashboards.
• Exportable reporting functionality.
• Asset and template management capabilities.
• Canva or similar design platform integration preferred.
• SMS/text messaging capabilities or optional add-on modules.
• Multi-channel communication support.
• Emergency notification functionality, if available.
- Functional requirements
• Scale: support a minimum of 230,000 email contacts with capacity to grow to 400,000+ contacts.
• Granular preference management: customers shall be able to opt in or out of communications by communication type (e.g., conservation, billing, service alerts, marketing) and by channel (email, SMS, voice, print/mail), independently.
• Opting out of one type or channel shall not affect others.
• Transactional vs. marketing distinction: billing notifications and emergency communications shall be designated non-opt-out and shall continue to be delivered regardless of marketing preferences.
• Multiple email addresses per account: the platform shall support and synchronize multiple email addresses per SAP customer account.
• Non-account-holder outreach: the platform shall support outreach to tenants, household members, and other non-account-holding residents within authority service territory.
• Bilingual support: all channels (email, SMS, voice, print/mail) shall support English and Spanish, with customer-selectable language preference stored at the contact level.
• Self-service preference center: the platform shall provide a customer-facing self-service preference center as well as a CSR-assisted preference management workflow.
• Print and mail fallback handoff: the platform shall identify customers who have no email address on file, who have opted out of digital channels, or who have explicitly requested paper communications, and shall produce export files or API outputs suitable for handoff to authority print and mail fulfillment vendor.
• SMS modernization: SMS functionality shall use per-message pricing (not bundled SMS plans) and shall support messages longer than 140 characters.
• Unsubscribe workflow: the unsubscribe workflow shall distinguish between transactional and marketing communications and shall not unsubscribe customers from communications that have been designated non-opt-out.