MS LIFT R&R & NHI Tracking & Reporting Software.

Mississippi State University
Request for Proposals (RFP) MSU2026109
MS LIFT R&R & NHI Tracking & Reporting Software
ISSUE DATE: September 28, 2026
ISSUING AGENCY: Office of Procurement Services
Mississippi State University
610 McArthur Hall
245 Barr Avenue
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Sealed Proposals, subject to the conditions made a part hereof, will be received October 20,
2026 at 2:00 PM in the MSU Office of Procurement Services, same address above, for
furnishing services and potentially, optional services as described herein.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Indicate firm name and RFP number on the front of each sealed
proposal envelope or package.
All inquiries concerning this RFP should be directed to:
Jay Rester
Office of Procurement Services, (Same address above)
jrester@procurement.msstate.edu
Any addendum associated with this RFP will be posted at
http://www.procurement.msstate.edu/procurement/bids/index.php located under RFP 2026109.
It is the respondent's responsibility to assure that all addenda have been reviewed and, if
applicable, signed and returned.
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1. UNIVERSITY OVERVIEW
Mississippi State University (MSU) is a comprehensive land-grant university. The main campus
is located adjacent to the community of Starkville in northeast Mississippi, with an additional
campus located in Meridian. The university operates agricultural research and experiment stations
throughout the state and maintains an Extension office in each of Mississippi's eighty-two
counties. Additional information about MSU can be found on our website www.msstate.edu.
The Mississippi LIFT Resource & Referral Network (R&R) at MSU Extension provides families
and early childhood professionals with access to developmentally appropriate educational
resources, referral services, family engagement activities, and additional support. The network
includes thirty-one (31) sites located throughout Mississippi and four (4) mobile resource units.
Although several sites are currently in transition, existing materials, inventory, and patron records
associated with all thirty-one (31) sites and four (4) mobile units will require migration to the
selected system- web-based software.
The mobile units serve rural and underserved communities throughout Mississippi, expanding
access to educational materials, equipment, and support for families, community members, and
early care and education professionals. The units participate in community events and conduct
scheduled visits across the state to promote equitable access to resources and services.
Additional information about the Mississippi LIFT Resource & Referral Network is available at
https://extension.msstate.edu/family/children-and-parenting/mississippi-lift-resource-and-
referral-network
2. INVITATION TO SUBMIT PROPOSAL ON RFP
The Mississippi LIFT Resource & Referral Network (R&R) at MSU Extension seeks a web-based
software application system that will enable the R&R staff and our partners/patrons to maximize
effort by incorporating streamlining and tracking requirements for on-site support, monitoring,
reporting, and data collection of various reports and proposals. This would include the ability to
collect and visualize data, manage current projects, maintain compliance, monitor proposal and
project progress, monitor and approve requests, provide evaluation of program impacts, and the
ability to report results. The solution must provide the capability to maintain oversight of thirty-
one (31) R&R sites and four (4) Mobile R&R units across the state of Mississippi. Each R&R site
and mobile unit has a lending library with a variety of learning materials and educational toys for
early childhood professionals, children, and families. The software/application system is vital for
maintaining a catalog of the resources, partners/patrons, items loaned, and referrals to other
state/local resources.
The system should be flexible and customizable in a way that allows the R&R sites to monitor
ongoing work and report essential statistics, data, and program progress to ensure compliance.
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The system should improve coordination and collaboration among both the R&R and its
partners/patrons by storing and monitoring all data and requests submitted through the system,
allowing the data to be sent by any partner/patron, but allow for it to be accessed by any
partner/patron with appropriate authorization, so that authorized users may be able to review or
approve any reports or requests submitted through the system.
Once implemented, the system will act as a platform to manage the activities of the R&R site,
program, and its partners/patrons.
The web-based system must allow for the upload and storage of files up to 20MB per individual
file, and input into online forms designed by R&R. The system should allow R&R to review or
approve uploaded items remotely, with the ability to comment in order to provide feedback if
necessary.
The system/software/application must offer the following components:
* Catalog & Barcoding of R&R Commodities
* Item Check In/Out
* Referral Tracking
* Partner/Patron Information
* Generation of multiple reports (See Section C)
* Staff Follow-up Documentation
* Non-generative AI Smart Search
* 24/7 Customer & Technical Support Services
* Remote Access for Specific Staff & Admin
* Daily/Monthly Visitor Tracking
* Web OPAC for Individualized Site Information
* Item Search Statistics
* Receive & Reply to Partner/Patron requests via web portal with initial automatic reply
* Workflow Assignments
* Support Individual Staff Log In via University's SSO-Duo Security Feature
In addition, the application shall provide functionality to support the Nurturing Homes Initiative
(NHI) inventory tracking and reporting requirements.
The Nurturing Homes Initiative (NHI) program is dedicated to enhancing the quality of early
education experiences in family child care homes. The mission revolves around providing
mentorship, elevating the learning environment, and delivering research-based information, all
aimed at nurturing and enriching the development of children. NHI provides quality training,
technical assistance, and evaluation activities to develop and/or enhance the skills of unlicensed
and licensed family-home providers in Mississippi. Through one-on-one visits, the year-long
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program offers dedicated support from coaching to help achieve goals and tailored professional
development activities specifically to the provider's needs. NHI provides educational incentive
materials in accordance with a technical assistance lesson for each family-home provider.
Additional information about this program can be found at our website
https://extension.msstate.edu/family/children-and-parenting/nurturing-homes-initiative
Services will include creating the data structure, creating a data entry form, secure storage of
inventory data, and designing reports that can be exported into Microsoft Excel. The application
shall provide a centralized, searchable repository for NHI inventory data, allowing authorized
users to efficiently search, retrieve, analyze, and report information to support program operations
and reporting requirements.
3. SCOPE OF SERVICES REQUIRED
The selected vendor shall provide a comprehensive, scalable, and secure tracking system for
maintaining a catalog of the resources, patrons, items loaned, and referrals to other state/local
resources. The system must support MSU's operational, financial, and compliance requirements
as described herein. The solution must include centralized storage of data/information, workflow-
driven approvals based on program specifications, and role-based access controls for authorized
users.
The solution should be cloud-based, accessible via desktop and mobile devices, and designed to
promote ease of use, transparency, and compliance with institutional policies and internal controls.
The cloud-based solution will have the option to easily import data "captured" offline once back
online.
To ensure successful implementation, the proposed system must meet MSU's absolute minimum
technical and functional requirements. Vendors must provide detailed responses explaining how
their solution satisfies each requirement outlined below. The following subsections define MSU's
expectations related to system functionality, workflow and approvals, integration requirements,
security and compliance, reporting capabilities, and ongoing maintenance and support. Proposals
that fail to meet these minimum requirements may be deemed non-responsive and removed from
consideration.
A) GENERAL
* Application must be a COTS application with flexible configuration options.
* Application must be browser-based.
* Application must be accessible remotely by staff (not tied to a specific computer or
device).
* Application must offer both a staff interface and a public interface portal, with the
ability to offer individualized information per site location.
* Application must provide circulation tracking.
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* Application must provide loans tracking.
* Application must provide acquisitions tracking.
* Application must provide the ability to track referrals, questions and the staff's
responses, including linking resources to the request record. Email integration must be
supported with an initial automatic reply upon initial contact.
* Application must provide a dashboard to show all requests that have been received, the
ability to assign them to specific team members, update the status of requests, see who
is working on what and what the status is, and archive any completed responses so that
they are available for searching and tracking statistics of all requests that have been
processed in a given amount of time.
* Application must be a relational database where records are linked together (such as
patron records, resource records, request records) to minimize the duplication of data
entry efforts.
* Application must be able to allow staff to make changes to the data structure, the staff
interface, and the public interface portal, without requiring the vendor's
help/assistance.
* Vendor must provide support by email and phone with 24/7 emergency support.
B) DATA & CONFIGURATION
* Vendor must provide implementation services including training.
* Fields must be customizable to match current software - "Resource Mate" fields.
* Application must be provided for tracking non-traditional materials such as puzzles,
games, art supplies, etc., as well as books.
* Application must provide a form for gathering custom contact information of clients
and the program.
* Application must provide a form for inputting events and services offered by the
program, including dates of events that can be surfaced on the public interface portal.
* Application must support tracking visits of patrons, with the ability to search on daily
and monthly visitor numbers.
* Application must support tracking data gathered and entered by R&R staff by phone
and email as to current childcare vacancies for infants and toddlers, to be able to provide
this information as needed during referrals.
* Application must support tracking inventory of a wide range of educational incentive
materials provided by the NHI program, including tracking dates, what was taken,
amount of each item taken, by whom, and current stock levels.
* Application must provide batch update tools to add, delete, or replace data.
* Application must support data entry via manual entry, batch update through CSV
import, and quickly add a group of brief records through a grid interface, with the
ability to add further details at a later date.
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* The application must provide the capability to upload images, documents, and other
supported media types as part of individual resource records. At a minimum, the system
shall support uploading the following file formats: PDF, .doc/.docx, .txt, .xls/.xlsx, .jpg,
.png, .svg, .csv, and .zip, with a maximum individual file size of 20 MB. The
application shall automatically scan all uploaded files for viruses or other malicious
software before acceptance into the system. Uploaded files shall be retained for the
duration of the active contract with the awarded vendor and in accordance with
Mississippi State University records retention policies, applicable federal and state
regulations, and any grant-specific requirements.
* The application shall also provide the capability to export system data to Microsoft
Excel (.xlsx) and CSV (.csv) formats to facilitate data analysis, reporting, and
manipulation. In addition, the system shall support the export of data into useable
formats (such as CSV) for use in other data collection, reporting, or management
systems as necessary to meet federal, state, university, and grantor reporting and
compliance requirements.
* Application must track patron information for an unlimited number of patrons.
* Barcodes must be supported, and application must allow duplicate barcodes.
* Application must provide the ability to search across all collections, as well as within
the collection of a specific site.
C) SEARCH & REPORTING
* Application must provide search options such as basic search, advanced search on
multiple fields, command search, and Boolean search.
* Application must provide a non-generative AI smart search to enhance search for staff
and/or the public.
* Application must provide the ability to save static lists of resources as well as save
queries that can pull dynamically updated results.
* Application must provide the ability to create and modify reports without
assistance/help from the vendor.
* Application must report on statistics such as monthly stats on the total number of
referrals received as well as the breakdown of where those referrals came from,
statistics on total number of visitors as well as the breakdown of who those visitors
were (teachers, students, etc.), statistics on circulation, statistics on events and
participants, and statistics on the number of days open and closed and associated
reasons
* Application must generate an Excel report that collates Toddler and Infant childcare
vacancies quarterly from data gathered from multiple childcare facilities.
* Application must generate an Excel report that tracks and documents the distribution
of NHI educational incentive materials and the current inventory quantity on hand for
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each education incentive item. Reports shall include specific dates/timeframes, what
was taken, amount of each item taken, by whom, and current stock levels.
* Application must provide the ability to limit editing privileges for staff. (e.g. Staff from
location A should only be able to edit collections from location A.)
* Application must track and provide reports on the activities and statistics of the public
interface portal.
D) PERMISSIONS
* Application must require staff to log in with their own individual account, and to use
that account to track who adds and modifies records in the application.
* Application must provide the ability to limit view and edit privileges for staff down to
the field and record level.
* Application must provide the ability to control which data sets from the database are
viewable on the public interface portal.
* Public interface portal must be WCAG compliant.
E) ACCESSIBILITY
* Vendor must provide Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) that covers
the web-based public interface portal as part of the response. The web-based public
portal interfaces must meet WCAG 2.1 AA requirements.
* Solution must be provided by the vendor as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution.
* Vendor must provide release notes and communicate upcoming changes to
administrators, allowing preparation for new features and any necessary adjustments.
* Initial training must be provided, with options for additional training as needed to
support ongoing system.
* Vendor must offer email and phone support and ensure prompt updates as well as
timely resolution. The vendor will clearly define the procedures for system
maintenance, technical support, and problem escalation to facilitate prompt and
effective issue resolution.
* The system must meet applicable local, state, and federal data security standards.
* The vendor must provide a detailed implementation plan outlining the process,
timeline, and key milestones for system deployment.
F) TECHNICAL
* To ensure compatibility, security, and efficiency, the system must include the following
absolute minimum standards that a vendor and their proposed system must meet.
Proposals that fail to meet these requirements will be removed from consideration.
Vendors must provide a detailed description of how their system meets each
requirement.
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* Vendor must be SOC II (2) certified and provide a SOC II (2) report and bridge letter.
* Platform must support major web browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari,
and Chrome
* The system must be a hosted, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to ensure
scalability, accessibility, and reliability.
* There will be no restrictions on the number of staff/administrative users from the R&R
program (who number approximately 80 at this time)
* At a minimum, the system must provide a portal capable of supporting web-based
search and discovery for 32,000 or more users/R&R patrons, based on previous data of
visitors and staff at the R&R facilities
* User permissions and access to system functions must be role-based, allowing users to
be assigned multiple roles as needed. These role-based permissions will govern each
user's ability to add, edit, and view information within the system.
* The application must provide an intuitive staff interface that enables users to submit
reports easily via desktop computer and mobile devices
* A robust and reliable system maintenance and support structure is required to ensure
seamless operation, security, and ongoing functionality of the system. The selected
vendor must provide comprehensive configuration, and training support to facilitate
smooth implementation and effective long-term use. A train-the-trainer model is
preferred, where designated staff members receive in-depth training to enable them to
educate end users across the program.
* The system must support Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality and be fully compatible
with MSU's Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requirements to enhance security and
streamline user access.
* Application must support Single Sign-On (SSO) via SAML 2.0
* Vendor must provide 99.5% uptime.
* Vendor must provide a "Service Level Agreement"
* Vendor shall provide a statement stating whether the company is compliant with
FERPA, GDPR, GLBA, NACH, and Red Flag Regulation requirements.
* The R&R anticipates the initial contract to span thirty-six (36) months covering system
implementation, maintenance, and ongoing support, with a two (2) year option to
renew. Vendor must provide details regarding licensing requirements, recurring costs,
and any additional fees associated with the continued technical support and system
upkeep.
* To ensure uninterrupted system performance, support must include access to product
updates, patches, and security hotfixes at no additional cost beyond the agreed-upon
subscription fees. After the initial three-year period and potential additional two-year
option to renew, subscription costs will be reviewed annually and renewed based on
performance and institutional needs.
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* As a valued customer, R&R requires an expedited process for high-priority issues,
ensuring prompt response times and swift resolution of critical concerns. The support
system should provide real-time status updates, comprehensive case tracking, and
seamless communication with vendor support teams to minimize disruptions and
maintain operational efficiency.
4. INQUIRIES ABOUT RFP
Prospective respondents may make written inquiries concerning this request for proposal to obtain
clarification of requirements. Questions should be submitted either via a Word document or
plainly typed in the email itself. Responses to these inquiries may be made by addendum to the
Request for Proposal (RFP). Please send your inquiries to Jay Rester via electronic mail at
jrester@procurement.msstate.edu. All inquiries must be in writing no matter how minor they seem.
All inquiries should be marked "URGENT INQUIRY. MSU RFP 2026109"
5. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
a) Issuing Office
This RFP is issued by the following office:
Office of Procurement Services
Mississippi State University
245 Barr Avenue, 610 McArthur Hall
Mississippi State, MS 39762
b) Schedule of Critical Dates
The following dates are for planning purposes only unless otherwise stated in this RFP;
progress towards their completion is at the sole discretion of the university.
RFP Posted September 28, 2026
Questions from Vendors Due October 7, 2026
MSU Q&A Response Due October 9, 2026
Proposal Submission Deadline - 2:00 p.m. October 20, 2026
Award Date (Estimated) November 15, 2026
Contract Effective Date (Estimated) December 15, 2026
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6. PROPOSAL CONTENTS
This is a two-step RFP process. The technical proposals and the cost proposals are to be submitted
in separate sealed envelopes. Indicate firm name, RFP# and the word "Technical Proposal" on the
front of the sealed technical proposal envelope or package. Indicate the firm name, RFP# and the
word "Cost Proposal" on the front of the sealed proposal envelope or package.
At a minimum, the following items should be included in the contents of the Technical
Proposal:
* Cover letter, indicating the scope of the proposal. The letter should include an overview of the
services being offered. The letter should include a statement of exceptions to any of the terms
and conditions outlined in this RFP. (Cover letters should be no more than 3 pages in length.)
* Corporate Structure and Credentials
Number of years of experience
o
Staffing levels and support proposed
o
Examples of similar previous work including the following information for each
o
example:
* Entity/organization category
* Brief description of the project or services provided
* Type of software/application implemented
* Primary functions or services provided
* Brief description of the outcome or success of the project
Examples of similar previous work shall include a minimum of one of the following
o
combinations:
* One (1) State Agency and one (1) Federal Agency
* Two (2) Federal Agencies
* Two (2) State Agencies
* Operations and Ability to Perform
Provide an operation plan. This should include, but not be limited to, acknowledgement
o
and agreement with all requirements as well as explanations, where applicable, of the
intended plan to achieve the requirements.
Describe how services will be provided to MSU.
o
At a minimum, the following items should be included in the contents of the Cost Proposal:
* Fees for initial purchase of service/subscription (including all preparation, installation,
rollout, training and first year maintenance and support)
* Any one-time fees implemented to any yearly fees (1,2,3, & potential optional 2 years
* Annual Maintenance & Support Costs after initial purchase and Year 1 subscription &
service fees
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