Inbound Voice Agent ("IVR") Software

The State University of New York ("SUNY") Upstate Medical University ("Upstate”) intends to make an award under our discretionary authority, which is up to $125,000.00, for an Inbound Voice Agent (“IVA”) software, and pursuant to New York State ("NYS”) Education Law §355(5)(a) which authorizes purchases without a formal competitive process in certain circumstances, including purchases from NYS small businesses, from business certified pursuant to Article 15-A and Article 17-B of the NYS Executive Law, and if applicable, from businesses selling commodities or technology that are recycled or remanufactured. If you (the "Contractor'') are interested in providing a proposal for the above commodity or service, you must contact the appropriately designated contact in this advertisement within fifteen (15) business days of this Advertised Notice.

A sealed bid will not be held.

Scope of Work:

Contractor will provide an Inbound Voice Agent (“IVA”) that will be integrated with our Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) system to answer caller inquiries, confirm, cancel, or reschedule appointments, accept prescription refill requests, and seamlessly transfer calls to front office staff when needed.

Minimum Service Requirements:

1. Contract Term: Services shall be provided for a period of two (2) years and three (3) months, which shall begin upon final execution of the resulting contract.
2. Software Availability: calls twenty-four (24) hours a day/seven (7) days per week
3. Task Automation: Includes performing actions such as booking appointments, providing order status updates, or managing simple queries.
4. Intelligent Call Routing: Includes understanding the caller’s intent and directing them to the correct place or person.
5. Integration: Ability to integrate with Upstate’s systems (EHR, EPIC) to read and update information.
6. Scalability: Includes software’s ability to manage a high volume of calls without additional staff.
7. Customization: Includes ability for software to be programmed with a specific voice, conversation style, and tone.

Special Considerations:

1. Contractor must propose a monthly service fee for services.
   1. Contractor may begin billing monthly service fees upon execute of the resulting contract. All invoices, including the calculation of late payment interest, shall be governed by New York State Finance Law.
2. Implementation costs are allowable; however, Contractor must provide an all-inclusive implementation fee, which shall not be billed until implementation services are complete and Upstate has verified the interface works as intended.
3. The Contractor may elect to bundle the implementation costs into the monthly fee, which shall be payable over the term of the contract.

This procurement is subject to NYS Finance Law ("SFL") §§139 -j &-k, also known as the Lobbying Law, therefore, vendors are cautioned that the only permissible contact for this procurement is the individual(s) listed below. Contacting any other individuals at Upstate in connection with this advertisement may constitute a violation of SFL. Failure to comply with this requirement can range from no contract award to debarment from sales to any NYS agency. Please refer to the Office of General Services website at https://ogs.ny.gov/acpl for more information on the Lobbying Law.

The successful contractor will be required to submit applicable documents related to Vendor Responsibility, NYS SFL §§139 -j & -k and NYS Tax Law Section 5-a. The successful contractor will be required to submit valid and current NYS Workers' Compensation and Disability forms.

NYS Small Business and businesses certified pursuant to Article 15-A and 17-B of the NYS Executive Law are encouraged to submit bids.