Indigov Constituent Relationship Management platform or equivalent

The New York State Executive Chamber (Chamber) is announcing a Discretionary Procurement for qualified entities who can provide a two-year license for the Indigov Constituent Relationship Management platform or equivalent along with implementation services. The Chamber intends to contract pursuant to its discretionary purchasing authority under State Finance Law Section 163(6), which authorizes purchases without a formal competitive process in certain circumstances. This opportunity is limited to purchases up to the Discretionary Buying Threshold of $750,000 from respondent organizations qualified as:

• NYS certified Minority and/or Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBE)
• NYS certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses (SDVOB)
• NYS Small Business Enterprises (SBE)

NYS certified MWBE and SDVOB are qualified pursuant to Article 15-A of State Executive Law and Article 3 of Veterans’ Services Law. In accordance with Section 160(8) of State Finance Law and Article 4-B of Economic Development Law, a Small Business Enterprise is domiciled in New York State, independently owned and operated, not dominant in its field, and employs 100 or less persons.

The purpose of this solicitation is to invite any eligible and interested entities that believe they can meet the eligibility criteria to submit a bid. To be considered responsive, your organization’s bid must be received no later 4 PM EST on March 10, 2025.

A contract or purchase order resulting from this announcement shall not be valid, effective, or binding upon the State until such contract has been approved by the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC).

Project Highlights

New York State Executive Chamber requires a robust and secure constituent relationship management (CRM) platform to be utilized by numerous program areas within the Chamber to include, Correspondence, Constituency, the Press Office, Invitations (both incoming and outgoing) and Events. In turn, this will enable a better user experience, internally and externally. Currently, for external communications, a Lotus Notes application is used to craft outgoing press releases and newsletters. Another application within that same software is used to track the sending of letters and commendations. For inbound communications from external entities, additional Lotus Notes applications are used for opinion tracking, invitation management, and scheduling purposes. Spreadsheets are leveraged to track other case management types of activities. Using different applications to manage communications has caused issues with usability and reporting.

Indigov Constituent Relationship Management platform or equivalent will enable program areas to generate impactful content, manage dynamic segmentation and automation, receive detailed analytics and actionable insights and timely notifications. It will provide a single source of truth with respect to information about our constituents.

System Requirements

Given the need to transition to a new solution as soon as possible, the Chamber is seeking a cloud-enabled solution specifically designed for public sector officials. The solution must include the following capabilities as well as the required functionality listed in Attachment 1 – CRM Business Requirements. The solution shall allow the Chamber to:

1. Design, development and delivery of Press Releases and Newsletters with reusable components and object library capabilities.
2. Send, receive, and track internal and external communication, opinion tracking and correspondence which shall include, but not be limited to letters, commendations, and proclamations.
3. Create invitations, both incoming and outgoing communication channels.
4. Create invitation and event management together with event scheduling
5. Have access within the solution to searchable New York State constituent demographic data including but not limited to name, address, party affiliation, region, income, occupation, and veteran status that is routinely refreshed but allows for user updates and overrides
6. Maintain a single source of truth with respect to information about its constituents.

The Chamber estimates that 60-80 of its users will be accessing this system. External (public) access to the system will vary month to month, but the Chamber averages thousands of requests on a monthly basis.

Implementation

The selected contractor shall be responsible for fully implementing Indigov Constituent Relationship Management platform or equivalent to meet the Chamber’s needs. Specific implementation requirements are available in Attachment 2.

Project Management

The selected contractor shall provide project management support as detailed in Attachment 2.

Security/Maintenance/Support/Other

The selected contractor shall be responsible for meeting the security, maintenance, support and other requirements described in Attachment 2.

Term

The term of the agreement resulting from this solicitation shall be for two years. Implementation of the solution is expected to begin upon OSC approval or soon after and be substantially completed with three months. The existing data from the legacy applications and spreadsheets will need to be reviewed and transferred to the new platform.

Standard Terms and Conditions

By submitting a response to this solicitation, the bidders agree with all terms and conditions included in Appendices A, B, and C.

How to Respond

To be considered responsive, interested parties should submit a complete proposal consisting of the following:

1. Identification of the Constituent Relationship Management platform – Indigov or equivalent
2. Completed Attachment 1 - CRM Business Requirements if proposing an equivalent solution
3. Completed Attachment 3 – Financial Response for both licenses for two year and implementation
4. Completed Attachment 4 – Required Forms
5. Confirmation of the bidder status as a NYS certified MWBE, NYS certified SDVOB, or NYS SBE

Interested firms must submit via email complete proposals to contracts@budget.ny.gov by March 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM EST. Please include Constituent Relationship Management in the email subject line.

• Late or incomplete proposals will not be accepted.
• Bidders must provide a complete solution including the platform, implementation and other services outlined in this solicitation. Bids not meeting this requirement will be rejected.
• Bids not demonstrating their proposed solution includes the Indigov Constituent Relationship Management Platform or equivalent will be rejected.

Questions

Questions or requests for clarification regarding this solicitation should be submitted via email, citing the document and page number, by 12:00 P.M. EST on Friday, February 21, 2025 to contracts@budget.ny.gov . Questions will not be accepted orally and any question received after the deadline may not be answered. The comprehensive list of questions/requests for clarifications and the official responses will be posted to the NYS Contract Reporter Posting and notice of such posting will be sent to all firms who submitted questions.

Reservation of Rights

The Chamber reserves the right to:

• Reject any or all proposals received in response to the solicitation;
• Withdraw the solicitation at any time, at the Chamber’s sole discretion;
• Accept a proposal and any subsequent proposal for the contract from someone other than the lowest cost Firm consistent with the criteria for the evaluation of proposals;
• Make an award under the solicitation in whole or in part;
• Disqualify any Firm whose conduct and/or proposal fails to conform to the requirements of the solicitation;
• Seek clarifications and revisions of proposals;
• Use proposal information obtained through site visits, management interviews and the State’s investigation of a Firm’s qualifications, experience, ability or financial standing, and any material or information submitted by the Firm in response to the agency’s request for clarifying information in the course of evaluation and/or selection under the solicitation;
• Prior to the bid opening, amend the solicitation specifications to correct errors or oversights, or to supply additional information, as it becomes available;
• Prior to the bid opening, direct Firms to submit proposal modifications addressing subsequent solicitation amendments;
• Change any of the scheduled dates;
• Eliminate any mandatory, non-material specifications that cannot be complied with by all of the prospective Firms;
• Waive any requirements that are not material;
• Negotiate with the successful Firm within the scope of the solicitation in the best interests of the State;
• Conduct contract negotiations with the next responsible Firm, should the Chamber be unsuccessful in negotiating with the selected Firm;
• Utilize any and all ideas submitted in the proposals received;
• Request best and final offers;
• Require clarification at any time during the procurement process and/or require correction of arithmetic or other apparent errors for the purpose of assuring a full and complete understanding of a Firm’s proposal and/or to determine a Firm’s compliance with the requirements of the solicitation.
• Negotiate with the next highest-rated, qualified Firm for purposes of executing a contract, if it is subsequently determined by the Chamber that the successful Firm is not responsible.