Utility Billing Customer Portal

Location:	North Carolina
Posted:	Dec 2, 2025
Due:	Jan 22, 2026
Agency:	State Government of North Carolina
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	D - Automatic Data Processing and Telecommunication Services
Solicitation No:	354-UT26-12
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

Solicitation Number:	354-UT26-12
Project Title:	Utility Billing Customer Portal
Description:	Cary is seeking cost proposals and qualifications from prospective firms for the purchase, installation, support, and integration services for a new Utility Billing Customer Portal to serve Cary's Water Utility Customers. A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference is scheduled for December 18, 2025 at 11:00 A.M. ET. Please email the contact on file to request a link to the pre-proposal conference. Questions are due December 19th by 5:00 P.M. ET. Final sealed proposals are due January 22, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET.
Opening Date:	1/22/2026 2:00 PM
Posted Date:	12/3/2025
Status:	Open
Department:	TOWN OF CARY


Solicitation Number * 354-UT26-12	Department TOWN OF CARY	Status Reason Open
Opening Date 2026-01-22T14:00:00.0000000	Posted Date * 2025-12-02T18:54:32.0000000Z	Commodity Code Cloud-based business process as a service
Mandatory Conference/Site Visit — —	Special Instructions Please email contact for a link to the pre-proposal conference.	Solicitation Type * Select RFP IFB RFI
Owner Kathryn McMillan
Description Cary is seeking cost proposals and qualifications from prospective firms for the purchase, installation, support, and integration services for a new Utility Billing Customer Portal to serve Cary's Water Utility Customers. A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference is scheduled for December 18, 2025 at 11:00 A.M. ET. Please email the contact on file to request a link to the pre-proposal conference. Questions are due December 19th by 5:00 P.M. ET. Final sealed proposals are due January 22, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET.

Attachments 354-UT26-12 UTILITY BILLING CUSTOMER PORTAL.pdf (1.39 MB)

Attachment Preview

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

RFP #354-UT26-12

Project Title: Utility Billing Customer Portal

Issue Date: December 2, 2025

Due Date: January 22, 2026, at 2:00 PM ET

Issuing Department: Utilities Department

Direct all inquiries concerning this RFP to:

Corrie Bondar, P.E.

Assistant Director of Utilities

Email: Corrie.Bondar@carync.gov

v.04.15.24

Table of Contents

1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS ....................................................................... 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1

1.2 PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND............................................. 2

1.3 NOTICE TO VENDORS REGARDING RFP TERMS AND

CONDITIONS................................................................................. 7

1.4 RFP RESPONSE TIMELINE.................................................... 7

1.5 PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE ........................................... 7

1.6 PROPOSAL QUESTIONS........................................................ 8

1.7 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND CONTACT

INFORMATION .............................................................................. 8

1.8 RIGHTS TO SUBMITTED MATERIAL ..................................... 9

2 PROPOSALS .................................................................................................. 9

2.1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL DOCUMENT ........................... 10

2.2 EVALUATION CRITERIA ....................................................... 10

2.3 PROPOSAL EVALUATION PROCESS ................................. 10

2.4 FINAL SELECTION ................................................................ 11

2.5 CONTRACT TERM ................................................................ 11

2.6 INVOICES .............................................................................. 11

2.7 NOTICE TO PROPOSERS REGARDING RFP TERMS AND

CONDITIONS............................................................................... 12

3 SCOPE OF SERVICES................................................................................. 12

3.1 GOAL ..................................................................................... 12

3.2 PROJECT COMPONENTS .................................................... 12

3.3 SUMMARY TABLE OF DESIRED PORTAL FEATURES ...... 16

4 COST PROPOSAL/EXECUTION OF PROPOSAL ....................................... 18

5 REFERENCES.............................................................................................. 19

INSTRUCTIONS TO VENDORS ........................................................................ 20

AGREEMENT FOR CONTRACTED SERVICES ............................................... 22

1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

1.1 Introduction

The Town of Cary, NC (Cary), is seeking cost proposals and qualifications from prospective firms

for the purchase, installation, support and integration services required for a new Utility Billing

customer portal to serve Cary’s water utility customers. Cary serves an immediate population of

approximately 191,000 and provides utility services to citizens and utility customers in Cary,

Morrisville, Wake County’s portion of Research Triangle Park and the RDU International Airport,

representing an overall service area population of 225,000. Cary’s utility billing system must be

accessible to all citizens and utility customers and be scalable to support a potential future

stormwater utility.

Cary’s Utility Billing System supports

 Billing of approximately 5.4 billion gallons of drinking water per year.

 $90M in Revenue collected from water and wastewater utility services.

 75,000 Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Meters.

 68,000 Customer Accounts.

Cary’s Utility Service Area: Cary, Morrisville, Wake RTP, and RDU Airport

A detailed scope of services is provided in Section 3 of this solicitation.

Information related to this solicitation, including any addenda, will be posted to the North

Carolina Electronic Vendor Portal (eVP).

1.2 Purpose and Background

The purpose of this Request for Proposals is to formally solicit proposals that will be used to

select a new customer portal to support Cary’s Utility Billing transition to Oracle CCS.

Automated Metering Infrastructure, (AMI)

In 2011/2012, Cary implemented a fixed-network, Automated Metering Infrastructure, (AMI),

system, which was among the first of its kind in our region. The AMI system has been operating

well for nearly 15 years, and Cary staff are now in the final stages of replacing all the first-

generation mechanical meters installed with the initial project. The AMI system operates solely

with Sensus meters and Sensus radios. Cary’s overall number of smart meters have increased

by approximately 25% from an initial population of 60,000 in 2011/2012 to 75,000 in 2025.

Aquastar Customer Portal

In 2013, Cary provided its current customer portal, known by the brand name of Aquastar. The

customer portal is available for all of Cary’s utility customers. Presently, the Aquastar registration

rate is approximately 80%. Aquastar provides a custom platform that was developed specifically

for Cary by the firm Planet J. A schematic view of how data is managed between our AMI meters

and our legacy Naviline Customer Information System, (CIS) is shown below.

Legacy Data Management- Utility Billing

Future Data Management - Utility Billing

The Planet J Aquastar customer portal is the only such system used by Cary since AMI was

implemented.

Some of the key features of Aquastar include

1. Water Usage Reporting

2. Ability to Make Payments via DigiPay

3. Usage Alerts via text (no longer

available) and e-mail

4. Usage Reporting via Hourly, Daily,

Weekly and Monthly Reads

Utility Billing

Cary provides water and wastewater utility services to citizens and utility customers in Cary,

Morrisville, Wake County’s portion of Research Triangle Park and the RDU Airport. Utility bills

are provided once a month. Payments can be made via a variety of different methods.

1. Online: Citizens are invited to enroll in our DigiPay/Aquastar portal. Payments

are accepted seven days a week, 24 hours a day. This includes ability to setup

automatic payments.

2. In Person: Cash payments are accepted and automatically update when payments are

made at the Customer Service Desk at any Walmart location (a $2 fee applies).

Payments are also accepted on workdays at Town Hall from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Our

physical address is 316 N. Academy Street, Cary, NC 27513.

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

Daily notification on new contract opportunities

With GovernmentContracts, you can:

Find more opportunities and win more business
Receive daily alerts for all new bid opportunities
Get contract opportunities matched to your business

ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL

Utility Billing Customer Portal

Attachment Preview

See also