Vendor Assistance for Supplier Onboarding Process Improvement-UPDATED

Location:	Tennessee
Posted:	Mar 13, 2026
Due:	Mar 31, 2026
Agency:	State Government of Tennessee
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	D - Automatic Data Processing and Telecommunication Services R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services U - Education and Training Services
Solicitation No:	RFI 31701-03832
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

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11-20-13 RFI

STATE OF TENNESSEE

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

FOR

VENDOR ASSISTANCE FOR SUPPLIER ONBOARDING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

RFI # 31701-03832

2/20/2025

1. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:

The State of Tennessee, Department of Finance & Administration – Division of Accounts issues

this Request for Information (“RFI”) for the purpose of soliciting proposals from qualified,

experienced service providers who will be able to provide products and services that will improve

our supplier onboarding and maintenance processes. The goal of this project is to reinforce fraud

prevention and achieve greater process efficiency by mitigating vulnerabilities and improving

controls and technologies in the State of Tennessee’s supplier onboarding and maintenance

processes. We appreciate your input and participation in this process.

2. BACKGROUND

As recent events show, supplier payment fraud and weak onboarding controls are not theoretical

risks; they are real and costly. For example, a legislative audit in Louisiana found over $1.3

million in public funds diverted via vendor-payment fraud and cyberattacks. (New Orleans

CityBusiness)

The audit flagged “there were not appropriate controls over changes in banking information for

vendors,” and recommended that the parishes “adopt new internal control procedures and begin

using new software that requires all vendors to submit their banking information through a system

that subjects them to rigorous scrutiny before any payments are made.” (New Orleans

CityBusiness)

In the 60 Minutes episode aired May 11, 2025, the show reported that federal and state

governments lose hundreds of billions of dollars annually to fraud schemes, including those

that exploit weak supplier onboarding, verification and payment-update processes.

(tvregular.com+3cbsnews.com+3podcasts.apple.com+3)

The scale of this initiative is substantial: The State of Tennessee manages nearly 300,000

supplier records (active and inactive), adds approximately 18,000 new suppliers annually, and

processes more than 25,000 changes to existing supplier files each year. “Suppliers”

encompasses individuals and entities providing goods and services, as well as social service

providers such as foster care and housing assistance programs and other similar support

services. At this volume, automating supplier help-desk functions and implementing robust

identity and bank account verification is not simply an operational improvement but a critical

safeguard against large-scale fraud. Streamlining these processes will also deliver significant cost

savings by reducing check payments, eliminating redundant manual verifications, and minimizing

delays that negatively impact supplier relationships. In addition to the above statistics, we also

manage approximately 20,000 emails and approximately 2,000 phone calls a year for inquiries

that must be addressed.

In short, this project for Tennessee is not just a technology upgrade; it’s a critical step toward

balancing security, usability, and efficiency in government services. By achieving the goals of this

project, the State of Tennessee will continue to be a leader in AI for process improvement and

modernization.

The supplier onboarding and maintenance processes lack automation, resulting in long cycle

times, high significant manual effort, and limited fraud detection.

Project Goals include:

• Strengthening fraud prevention and verification controls

• Increase automation of supplier onboarding and maintenance activities

• Improve consistency and auditability of supplier data

• Enhance supplier self-service and transparency

• Enable staff to focus on higher-value review and oversight

Business Value

• Reduce staff-initiated “Request More Information” actions on registrations by 75%

Optimize the registration process to ensure accuracy while decreasing manual follow-up

efforts.

• Reduce pending emails by 75%

Improve workflow efficiency and response times

• Achieve 60% direct deposit adoption among newly onboarded suppliers

Encourage electronic payments for faster and more secure transactions

• Attain a 75% success rate in automated bank account and identity verifications

Minimize time-consuming manual verification and improve operational efficiency

In addition to the business value, we seek to also deliver the following Project Objectives:

• Reduced supplier onboarding and maintenance cycle times

• Minimized manual effort of fraud detection

• Improved data accuracy and compliance to reduce rework, increase process efficiency, and

strengthen confidence in supplier and internal data used for operational and compliance

decisions

Project Scope Includes

• AI Attendant for Supplier Help Desk pilot

• AI-based document validation and identity verification

• Automated bank account verification enhancements

• Integration with State of Tennessee’s ERP PeopleSoft system, Edison (read-only for

pilot) Reporting, metrics, and audit logging

• Align with data consolidation plans, to create a consolidated database for Supplier data,

which may include W-9s, SDDA forms, IRS TIN Match, Supplier Update and Email Deposit

Notification Forms, PNC verification logs, and other independent sources.

Respondents are invited to respond to the RFI with a response to a single component, either AI

Agent or Identity and Banking Verification, or both.

3. COMMUNICATIONS:

3.1. Please submit your response to this RFI to:

Rebekah Jenkins, MPA |Enterprise IT Business Program Support Lead

901 Rep. John Lewis Way North, Nashville, TN 37243

Cell: 615-906-4840

rebekah.w.jenkins@tn.gov

3.2. Please reference RFI # 31701-03832 with all communications to this RFI.

4. RFI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

EVENT

TIME

DATE

(Central Time (all dates are State

Zone)

business days)

1. RFI Issued

02/20/2026

Vendor Written Questions and Comments

Deadline

2:00pm

State Response to Written Questions and

Comments

4. RFI Response Deadline

2:00pm

03/04/2026

03/17/2026

03/31/2026

5. GENERAL INFORMATION:

5.1. Please note that responding to this RFI is not a prerequisite for responding to any future

solicitations related to this project and a response to this RFI will not create any contract

rights. Responses to this RFI will become property of the State.

5.2. The information gathered during this RFI is part of an ongoing procurement. In order to

prevent an unfair advantage among potential respondents, the RFI responses will not be

available until after the completion of evaluation of any responses, proposals, or bids

resulting from a Request for Qualifications, Request for Proposals, Invitation to Bid or other

procurement method. In the event that the state chooses not to go further in the

procurement process and responses are never evaluated, the responses to the

procurement including the responses to the RFI, will be considered confidential by the

State.

5.3. The State will not pay for any costs associated with responding to this RFI.

6. INFORMATIONAL FORMS:

The State is requesting the following information from all interested parties. Please fill out the

following forms:

RFI #31701-03832

TECHNICAL INFORMATIONAL FORM

1. RESPONDENT LEGAL ENTITY NAME:

2. RESPONDENT CONTACT PERSON:

Name, Title:

Address:

Phone Number:

Email:

3. Vendors should describe:

• Lessons learned from prior public sector deployments

• Whether the vendor’s services or products are available through cooperative purchasing

agreements, statewide contracts, or other government contract vehicles, including identification

of the cooperative(s) or contract(s), if applicable

• Organizational overview (years in operation, ownership structure, financial stability, core

competencies)

• Experience delivering similar solutions in:

o Public sector

o Highly regulated industries

• At least 2–3 relevant case studies including:

o Scope

o Scale (users, suppliers, transactions)

o Technologies used

o Measurable outcomes

• Demonstrated experience in:

o Supplier ecosystem management

o Identity verification

o Automation of onboarding workflows

o AI-driven service models

4. Solution Overview & Architecture

Vendors should describe:

• High-level solution architecture, including major components and data flows

• Cloud deployment model, SaaS, PaaS, on-prem, or hybrid

• Hosting environment and cloud service provider, if applicable

• Multi-tenant versus single-tenant options

• How the solution supports both the initial pilot and future enterprise scale

• Any assumptions or dependencies the State should be aware of

• Is the vendor proposing their support model or integration of State support model

• Include a simple architecture diagram if available.

• Description of:

o Core modules/components

o Data flow between components

o API architecture

• Alignment with enterprise architecture principles:

o Modular design

o API-first

o Event-driven capabilities

o Scalability patterns

o High availability and disaster recovery model

o Infrastructure dependencies

5. AI Attendant for Supplier Help Desk Capabilities

Vendors should address:

• Supported interaction channels, such as web, email, chat, voice, or SMS

• Natural language processing, context-aware dialogue, understanding capabilities, and

dynamic tone and persona adjustment

• Types of supplier inquiries supported out of the box

• Ability to route inquiries to staff when confidence thresholds are not met, including

preservation of conversation context and clear handoff mechanisms

• Knowledge base management, including how content is created, updated, and governed

• Human-in-the-loop features for review, override, and training

• Accessibility and multilingual support

• Describe in detail:

• AI-powered capabilities:

• Virtual agent

• AI model governance:

• Training data sources

• Accuracy monitoring

• Accessibility compliance (e.g., ADA, WCAG)

• Include performance metrics where available.

6. Identity Verification and Fraud Prevention

Vendors should describe:

• Identity verification methods supported, such as document validation, biometric,

behavioral, database checks, or combinations

• Bank account verification approaches, including real-time and post-verification methods,

such as: Ongoing monitoring of invalid routing numbers

• Fraud detection models and scoring methodologies, such as risk scoring, behavioral

analytics, anomaly detection

• How are false positives and false negatives handled

• Ability to adapt models based on emerging fraud patterns

• Auditability of verification and fraud decisions

• The NIST SP 800-63 Identify Assurance Level (s) *IAL1, IAL2, IAL3) supported by the

solution, including how the level is achieved and validated.

• Ability to apply different IAL levels based on transaction risk (e.g., new onboarding vs.

Banking updates).

• Techniques used to detect and prevent potential duplicate identities

• Compliance with relevant standards

• Auditability and traceability of identity events

• Integration with third-party verification services (if applicable)

7. Supplier Onboarding and Maintenance Automation

Vendors should outline:

• End-to-end onboarding automated and human workflow support

• Supplier self-service capabilities for registration and updates

• Controls for user account creation for self-service capabilities

• Automation of disabling/inactivation of user accounts due to inactivity and supplier files

due to lack of payment activity

• Validation of W-9/W-8, TIN matching, address, banking information (including account

ownership), and contact information such as phone number and email address

This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.

Document ID & Hyperlink:	RFI 31701-03832 Amendment 1
Event Start - Response Due:	02/20/2026 03/31/2026
Event Name:	Vendor Assistance for Supplier Onboarding Process Improvement-UPDATED
Last Updated:	03/13/2026

Vendor Assistance for Supplier Onboarding Process Improvement-UPDATED

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See also