Institutional Repository, Digital Collections, ETD, and Journal Hosting. Q&A.

Mississippi State University
Request for Proposals (RFP) MSU2026112
Institutional Repository, Digital Collections, ETD, and Journal
Hosting
ISSUE DATE: October 9, 2026
ISSUING AGENCY:
Office of Procurement Services
Mississippi State University
245 Barr Avenue, 610 McArthur Hall
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Sealed Proposals, subject to the conditions made a part hereof, will be October 29, 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: If you are physically mailing your response, indicate firm name, and
RFP number on the front of each and every sealed proposal envelope or package.
All inquiries concerning this RFP should be sent via the instructions in Section 4.
Jennifer Mayfield
Office of Procurement Services
jmayfield@procurement.msstate.edu
662-325-2550
Any addendum associated with this RFP will be posted at
http://www.procurement.msstate.edu/procurement/bids/index.php located under the RFP
number. 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 a remote
campus located in Meridian. Additionally, the university operates several remote agricultural
experiment stations and has an Extension office located in each of the eighty-two Mississippi
counties.
Additional information about MSU can be found at our website www.msstate.edu.
2. INVITATION TO SUBMIT PROPOSAL ON RFP
Mississippi State University is requesting proposals from qualified firms to enter into a
contract for a single platform that can handle: Institutional Repository, Digital
Collections, Journal Hosting, and ETD hosting.
3. SCOPE OF SERVICES REQUIRED
Description of proposed solution. At minimum, this should include:
Company Background
What is the legal name of your company?
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Are you a subsidiary, affiliate, or franchise? If yes, what is the name of your parent
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company?
Please provide how many years your company has been in business.
o
General background information on your company.
o
How many full-time employees work for your company? Worldwide? North America?
o
Locally?
What is the company ownership structure?
o
If your company has been involved in a reorganization, acquisition, or merger in the last
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five (5) years, please explain.
Is your company currently for sale or involved in any transactions to expand or be
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acquired by another organization? Please explain.
Please provide any details of all past or pending litigation or claims filed against your
o
company that would affect your company's performance under a contract with the
University and the MLP.
Is your company currently in default on any loan agreement or financing agreement
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with any bank, financial institution, or other entity? If yes, specify date(s), details,
circumstances, and prospects for resolution.
What differentiates your company/organization from your competition?
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Does any relationship exist whether by relative, business associate, capital funding
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agreement or any other such kinship exist between your company and a university
employee? If yes, please explain.
Please provide at least two references from similar size academic and consortium library
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customers that can speak about the quality of the company and the services being
proposed. Reference list must include institution name, contact person, telephone
number, e-mail address, project description, length of business relationship and
background of project (year of project, summary of work performed, etc.).
Please provide a breakdown of your customer base as to how many are academic,
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public, or special/other libraries. How many consortia are there and what type of
consortia are they (academic, public, mixed)?
* Product Features
Infrastructure
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Please explain general system architecture
* Location of servers and storage (AWS, Azure, your own data
center, etc.)
* Storage availability and scalability. Are there file number or size
limitations?
* How do your scheduled maintenance windows work?
* Are there file type limitations?
* Do you have Support for a range of file types and metadata
schemas?
Product Support
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Would we have a designated support representative?
* Are there annual planning calls?
Do you have a dedicated development team?
* Do you use an iterative development process?
Is there support for hosted teams, such as journal editorial boards?
Do you offer text and video-based tutorials to train users on your
product?
Will there be frequent communication from support and sales?
Accessibility
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Are you WCAG 2.1 AA compliant?
Security/Privacy
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How do you handle bots? (i.e. there have been many cases in recent
months of whole platforms being offline due to bot attacks)
Do you support stable URLs?
Do you support reCAPTCHA?
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Do you support login controls? (e.g. only *@msstate.edu email addresses
can register)
Please explain your support for customizable access / access levels on a
per collection basis?
Do you support IP address restrictions?
Please explain your approach to patching and security updates.
Explain your transparency about data collection and sharing.
Content acquisition, management, and dissemination
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Customizable metadata
* Do you support the ability to add HTML and hyperlinks (rich text
fields)?
* Do you support the ability to optimize metadata for specific
collections?
* Do you support the ability to keep selected metadata fields visible
only to administrators/back-end users?
* Do you support Dublin Core mapping?
* Will we be able to add items like related publications,
grants/funder information, and advisors/mentors?
* Do you include tools for harvesting metadata from leading
sources like ORCID, Scopus, and PubMed, and Open Policy
Finder?
Indexing
* Will content be automatically indexed in Google and Google
Scholar?
* Do you employ the use of a robust SEO (search engine
optimization)?
Do you support customizable submission forms on a per-collection
basis?
Do you support batch uploading and revision of items?
Do you support OAI-PMH?
Please explain API access that we would have.
Do you support OpenURLs?
Do you support DOIs?
Do you support access control and embargoes on a per-item basis?
Do you support native media streaming?
Do you support the ability to embed media from other platforms
including livestreams and recorded presentations?
Please explain the way you handle additional or supplemental file
uploads?
Do you support multiple view options for primary files?
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Do you track version history of items?
Do you support private administrator/editor notes?
Do you support the hiding and withdrawing of items?
Do you support the ability to create and customize virtual collections?
Do you support the permanent deletion of content?
Do you support the ability to reorder content?
Do you support the peer review workflow in many structure types,
including automated reminder emails?
Do you support the ability to subscribe to collections and join mailing
lists related to those collections?
Do you support file uploads from URLs, as well as direct file uploads
from a web interface?
Do you support the following content types? Also, please advise on
other items listed under some of the types.
* General
* Images/video
* Books
* ETDs
How do you support access restrictions / embargoes plus
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reminders of those?
Do you support the option to use full ETD lifecycle
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workflow (including advisor review) or an abridged
version?
Do you have customizable email notification templates?
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Do you support audiovisual files via supplemental
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uploads?
* Journals
Do you support automatic minting of DOIs for articles?
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Explain how you support the editorial workflow required
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of peer reviewed journals?
* Events
* Digital Exhibits
* Do you support the ability to create multiple subcollections
within one overarching collection?
Impact monitoring / statistics
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Do you send scheduled emails to administrators and authors?
Do you support savable, shareable dashboards?
Do you offer embedded readership maps for viewership locations? Is
this on a collection or per item basis?
Do you include PlumX Altmetrics for every item?
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Do you use layered statistics (view vs. page hit vs. download vs
streaming)?
Are referrer details visible (institution, country, search engine/website,
etc)?
* Does this also include institution breakdown (educations,
commercial, government)?
User Interface
o
Do you support the adding of extra links in sidebars on a per collection
basis?
Do you support customized introductory text, policies, submission
guidelines, and logos on a per collection basis?
Do you support customizing the display of items in a collection (grid vs.
slideshow, jumplists for item type/date, etc.)?
Do you support a clickthrough agreement on submission form?
* Data Migration
Please outline migration plans and associated costs.
o
We are currently using Digital Commons and will need to migrate our
data and metadata to a new platform if we make a change.
* We currently have 93,000 items (and growing).
* We are currently using ~500GB in storage space (and growing).
* We are currently hosting 7 journals with 2 more journals to be
added soon.
When applicable for Software/IT requests only:
Cloud-Based Infrastructure & Security - The system must be cloud-based, with a strong
data security and backup plan. Vendors should provide applicable security certifications, such
as SOC2 and HECVAT Lite, to ensure compliance with industry standards.
Accessibility Standards - Vendors should provide a completed Voluntary Product
Accessibility Template (VPAT) that covers all software user interfaces. Web interfaces must
meet WCAG 2.1 AA requirements.
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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 Jennifer Mayfield
via email at jmayfield@procurement.msstate.edu. All inquiries must be in writing no matter
how minor they seem.
All inquiries should be marked "URGENT INQUIRY. MSU RFP MSU2026112"
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 October 9, 2026
Questions from Vendors Due October 15, 2026
MSU Q&A Response Due October 22, 2026
Proposal Submission Deadline - 2:00 p.m. October 29, 2026
Award Date (Estimated) November 16, 2026
Contract Effective Date (Estimated) December 1, 2026
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 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.
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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 letter should be no more than 3
pages in length.)
* Corporate Structure and Credentials
Number of years of experience
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Staffing levels and support proposed
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Examples of similar previous work.
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* Operations and Ability to Perform
Provide operation plan. This should include, but not be limited to,
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acknowledgement 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.
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At a minimum, the following items should be included in the contents of the Cost Proposal:
* Fees for initial purchase of software/items/service (including all preparation,
installation, rollout, training and first year maintenance and support)
* Data migration from Digital Commons platform (Information about current number of
items and storage space at the bottom of section 3).
* Annual Maintenance Costs after initial purchase.
7. DISCUSSIONS/EVALUATION CRITERIA/AWARD PROCESS
MSU reserves the right to conduct discussions with any or all respondents, or to make an award
of a contract without such discussions based only on evaluation of the written proposals. MSU
reserves the right to contact and interview anyone connected with any past or present projects
with which the respondent has been associated. MSU likewise reserves the right to designate a
review committee to evaluate the proposals according to the criteria set forth under this section.
MSU may make a written determination showing the basis upon which the award was made
and such determination shall be included in the procurement file.
MSU reserves the right to award this contract in whole or in part depending on what is in the
best interest of MSU with MSU being the sole judge thereof.
The evaluation factors set forth in this section are described as follows:
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* The Vendor's ability to deliver an application meeting the overall objective and
functions described in the RFP
* Competitive fees
* Availability and access technical support
* Vendor's experience with similar systems
* Compliance with applicable State and Federal laws and regulations
* The committee may invite finalists for interviews and/or presentations
Failure to attend a requested interview presentation before the committee may result in a
proposal not being considered.
Upon award of contract(s), successful respondent(s) will be asked to provide a transition plan
and timeline and obtain MSU's input and concurrence before moving forward.
Proposals will be scored based on the following weights (100 points total):
* Corporate Structure/Years of Experience/References - 20 pts
* Operation Plan/Ease of Use/Services Offered - 50 pts
* Fees - 30 pts.
8. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
Responses Submitted Electronically in Bully Buy:
If you did not receive an invitation to reply in Bully Buy, contact the person on page one and
request an invite.
Technical Proposal: Proposal must be submitted in PDF format and state "Technical Proposal"
in the title of the document. This document must be separate from the cost proposal or the
response may be considered non-responsive.
Cost Proposal: Cost proposal must be submitted in PDF format and state "Cost Proposal" in
the title of the document. This document must be separate from the technical proposal or the
response may be considered non-responsive.
Responses Submitted Physically:
Proposals shall be submitted in two packages (envelopes or boxes) as set forth in Section 7.
Please make sure that the RFP number is clearly visible on the outside of the package.
Technical Proposal - One (1) original and one (1) electronic copy (of the complete technical
proposal in one pdf file on a flash drive) of parts 7(b)(i) (Cover Letter), 7(b)(ii) (Corporate
Structure and Credentials), and 7(b)(iii) (Operations and Ability to Perform) should be sealed in
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a package with "Technical Proposal" in the lower left-hand corner. Each submitted package
should be a complete copy.
Cost Proposal - One (1) original and one (1) electronic copy (of the complete cost proposal in
one pdf file on a flash drive). Should be sealed in a package with "Cost Proposal" in the lower
left-hand corner. Each submitted package should be a complete copy.
The proposal package must be received on or before the date/time listed on Page 1. It is the
responsibility of the respondent to ensure that the proposal package arrives at Mississippi State
University on time. The proposal package should be delivered or sent by mail to the address
listed on Page 1.
Your response must include the signature page included in this RFP (See Appendix A) and
contain the signature of an authorized representative of the respondent's organization. The
signature on the "Original" signature page can be electronic.
MSU reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to waive informalities and minor
irregularities in proposals received and to accept any portion of a proposal or all items bid if
deemed in the best interest of the University to do so.
Proposals received after the stated due date and time will be returned unopened. RFP
submissions via facsimile or email are not acceptable. Responses will only be valid if mailed
and received by the due date/time or if submitted through an approved electronic system.
9. PCI COMPLIANCE ISSUES (IF APPLICABLE)
The vendor must provide a PCI compliant processing environment using one of the approved
options below. If the vendor is unable to fully adhere to one of these options, the proposal will
be removed from consideration.
* Option 1 - Integrate with MSU's existing third-party solution (NelNet Business
Solutions - Commerce Manager), because all hardware, software and back-end
processing have been vetted and credit/debit card payments are automatically posted to
Banner.
* Option 2 - Use alternative third-party solution. Use a different MSU Merchant ID but
same bank account.
Work with members of MSU's PCI Council and third-party PCI Compliance
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consultant to review business needs and proposed solution.
Ensure card transactions processed by university personnel are performed using
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a PCI-validated point to point encrypted (P2PE) solution. The solution must be
listed on the PCI council's website (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org), must
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