Financial Literacy Mobile Application Platform Service

Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of the requirement

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) requires the services of a Mobile Application Platform Service Provider that has an operational, ready-to-use, mobile application platform (App) capable of:

1. Delivering financial literacy and consumer education interventions (e.g., messaging and resources) directly to consumers;
2. Incentivizing consumers to participate in the interventions through the use of incentives (i.e., loyalty program reward points); and
3. Measuring the impact of the interventions on the consumers (e.g., pre-post intervention changes in consumer knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and/or behaviour, as appropriate).

FCAC requires these services to be made available to consumers in all Provinces and Territories. The services of the Contractor will build upon a previously completed budgeting mobile intervention.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) objective is to obtain the services of an existing Vendor to provide a current and established mobile application platform capable of supporting FCAC in meeting its requirements, including:

1. To strengthen the financial literacy of target groups;
2. To influence Canadians to be more financially literate and foster behavioural change;
3. To improve FCAC’s understanding of Canadians’ financial literacy, to inform and better target policy and program measures; and
4. To direct Canadians to the FCAC website where they can access multiple resources (e.g., tools, calculators, and consumer education materials) aimed at enhancing financial literacy.

In addtion, FCAC requires the services of the Contractor in the development of intervention and/or campaign content, as required and as authorized by FCAC.

1. Background and Specific Scope of the Requirement

The FCAC was created by the Government of Canada in October 2001 to protect financial consumers in Canada by supervising federally regulated financial entities, and by strengthening the financial literacy of Canadians. As part of its mandate, FCAC is responsible for providing timely and objective information and tools to help consumers understand a range of financial issues, products and services so they can make informed and responsible financial decisions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had divergent effects on Canadians financial management, outcomes and well-being. As a result of widespread disruptions in employment, many households in Canada are drawing on their savings or are having to take on new debt to keep up with their bills and payments. Educational supports and nudges such as those related to budgeting and debt management are needed to help households navigate their finances in this unprecedented time. FCAC is exploring innovative ways of reaching and engaging Canadians to assist them in better managing their money and debt wisely, planning and saving for the future, and preventing and protecting them against fraud and financial abuse. More specifically, efforts focus on key areas of budgeting, paying down household debt and building savings, all of which have been shown to improve financial well-being.

In 2016 to 2019, FCAC delivered its financial education messaging through a healthy-lifestyle mobile application platform. These interventions were designed to strengthen financial literacy and enable behaviour change through the digital delivery of education directly to consumers. The application offered loyalty reward points in exchange for responding to short quizzes and receiving financial education messaging related to budgeting. An initial pilot project was undertaken from July to August 2016, and included four (4) quizzes to approximately 30,000 participants in two (2) provinces. Approximately 18 months later (2018), a follow-up intervention was conducted to evaluate the long-term impact of the pilot intervention, to investigate the effect budgets have on the financial outcomes of Canadians and to identify barriers non-budgeters experience when budgeting. The follow-up study revealed that the budgeting pilot was successful in enabling sustained behaviour change among non-budgeters and linked budgets with positive money management such as keeping up with bill payments and reporting fewer spending regrets over the long-term.

A second pilot was conducted 2017 in an additional province to validate the success of the initial pilot and received similar positive outcomes. FCAC expanded its pilot to the larger user base of the mobile application in 2018 and 2019. FCAC is now looking to relaunch its budgeting intervention on a mobile application platform and to develop new intervention(s) to support financial literacy and promote behaviour change within areas shown to have a significant impact on improving the financial well-being of Canadians (e.g., managing debt, active savings).

The Contractor shall develop and implement a strategy to disseminate interventions in both English and French for FCAC through the Contractor’s existing mobile application platform, using incentives (i.e. loyalty program reward points) to nudge Canadians towards better financial literacy and financial behaviours (e.g., budgeting and debt management). The Contractor shall develop and provide a detailed work plan for the project, and shall liaise with FCAC’s project manager(s), IT personnel, and other FCAC staff as necessary.

As required, the Contractor shall develop or assist FCAC in developing interventions and/or intervention content, and advise on or support content related to interventions or campaigns related to financial literacy.

The Contractor shall provide FCAC with anonymized individual and aggregate data (as described in 2.1.3), as well as written interim and final reports demonstrating the types of intervention designs and types of incentives that work best to change the behaviours of Canadians when it comes to the management of their personal finances, and other details as agreed upon with FCAC.

1. Requirements

1. Tasks, Activities, Deliverables and Milestones

The Contractor’s services shall include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Participation in an initial meeting and liaising with the Project Authority and other stakeholders and review of all relevant material supplied by FCAC.
• Development of a project plan and schedule, including implementation strategy for interventions provided by FCAC. The strategy must include estimated response rates and sample sizes per intervention. The strategy must be pre-approved by FCAC prior to implementation.
• Ensure its established/existing rewards platform and application operates as required to meet FCAC’s requirements at app roll-out. For example, ensuring space and appropriate indications for both English and French URL’s as necessary; ensuring FCAC content functions properly, etc.
• Assist FCAC, as requested, in the development of questions related to interventions, and intervention or campaign development, as necessary.
• Conduct pre-tests/dry-runs with FCAC staff to ensure the correct dissemination of interventions.
• Implement interventions based on FCAC content, in both English and French versions of the application, as required and as indicated by FCAC.
• Allow FCAC to specify sample characteristics, including but not necessarily limited to sending interventions to a sample that has already completed interventions as a benchmark for comparison.
• Disseminate the interventions implemented to its user-base, or FCAC’s identified sub-set of the user-base.
• Promote the application to ensure dissemination of interventions to a sample size of at least 25,000 application users in Canada overall, or other sample size as agreed upon with FCAC and as per the schedule established.
• Collect data, as per the schedule established by FCAC.
• Ensure mechanisms and safeguards are in place so that no personal user information is accessible or transmitted to FCAC.
• Ensure that all data collected through FCAC interventions delivered on the mobile platform are not shared with or used by third-parties, unless specified by FCAC, and are used by the Contractor exclusively to fulfill this contract.
• Collect and provide data on the interactions as a result of the application and provide a monthly data report (in a format as agreed upon with FCAC).
• Work with FCAC technical personnel to ensure accurate reporting of click-throughs from the application to FCAC’s website, including testing and addressing technical issues, as required.
• Prepare all application content such as games, quizzes and interventions, based on feedback from, and in collaboration with, FCAC and stakeholders.
• Develop an evaluation framework and performance metrics for each intervention using the Financial Literacy Outcome Evaluation Tool (found at www.Outcomeeval.org), where possible.
• Sort and mine data according to defined criteria in the evaluation framework at the conclusion of each intervention, as well as across multiple interventions, as identified by FCAC.
• Observe and report on all relevant behavioural patterns (in consultation with FCAC), stemming from particular intervention types and associated incentive structure.
• Prepare and deliver to FCAC all relevant disaggregate and individual data pertaining to the project in an agreed upon format, as noted in section 2.1.2 below.
• At the conclusion of each intervention, prepare and deliver to FCAC an interim report with recommendations in Word format (to be submitted in English only). Revise the report, if necessary, based on feedback from FCAC.
• Conduct an official presentation of results (per intervention, overall, or interim, as identified by FCAC) to FCAC management and/or staff, if required.
• Prepare final report and presentation capturing the results, if required.
• Perform other ad hoc tasks related to the service delivery as identified by FCAC.
• Coordintion of meetings/conference calls with the Project Authority and stakeholders to present the application results.
• For each intervention and campaign, FCAC will provide the Contractor with the number of completions required, as appropriate.

Key Deliverable/Milestone

Details

Time Schedule

Final project plan

Final Project Plan.

March 23, 2021

Development and finalization of initial intervention

Development of questions related to initial interventions or campaign.

March 23, 2021

Test of intervention

Conduct pre-test or dry-runs of initial interventions or campaigns. Results are incorporated within the intervention or campaign.

March 24, 2021

Initial intervention launched through Application

Initial intervention is launched to userbase recommended by service provider and approved by FCAC.

March 25, 2021

Fielding intervention

Intervention is in the field (approximately 6 weeks) and completions are reported.

March 25, 2021 - May 7, 2021

Data assessment and meetings with Project Authority and/or other stakeholders

Data report and interim update; completed for each intervention.

March 25, 2021 – May 7, 2021

Reciept of data

Reciept of final anonymized intervention data and codebook.

June 30, 2021

Additional interventions

Additional interventions are rolled out to the identified userbase on a regular basis, as requested by FCAC, with data assessment completed for each. E.g. back to a particular user group to ask follow up questions.

July 1, 2021 – March 22, 2024

Draft data assessment and report development

Draft report at the end of each intervention, including, findings and recommendations for future phases with stakeholders and partners.

May 7, 2021 - February 22, 2024

Final data assessment and report development

Final report.

March 22, 2024

Presentation development

Presentation, if required.

3.1.2 Deliverables and Deliverable Formats

In addition to the above, the Contractor shall provide the following deliverables:

• All data shall:

• Include a unique identifier to be assigned per individual user;
• Have all personal information (such as name) removed prior to sending to FCAC;
• Be available in one dataset (not multiple sheets/data files).
• Be in either Excel 365 or SPSS 26.0, or Stata 16.0 format. Formats in other versions of the above-mentioned software may be acceptable should those formats be fully compatible with Microsoft Office 365 or SPSS 26.0 or Stata 16.0, as applicable;
• Be properly coded for statistical analysis (quantitative). Data shall include demographic indicators required to provide FCAC with foundational information to better reach target audiences. At minimum, the data should include the following demographic variables per unique identifier:
  • Age range (as per agreeed upon ranges)
  • Location (first 3 characters of postal code)
  • Gender

• Codebooks for all provided data. Codebooks should be provided in Excel 365 and clearly match the codes used in the dataset to their corresponding values within the survey instrument, including all demographic variables collected.
• Complete written reports, in Word 365 format or PDF as required by FCAC. Reports shall include:
  • Roll-out report, on an intervention or campaign basis, including descriptions of roll-out stages and timing (as necessary), and how the intervention or campaign reached the target group and introductory rates of response. In addition, on an overall basis, describing how the Mobile Application Platform will be rolled out in new areas, how it will grow its participant/user-base, and other relevant factors as determined by the Contractor and/or as agreed upon with FCAC;
  • Deck that summarizes the results of each phase of the intervention upon respective completion;
  • Report on completion of each intervention. The report should be written as a research paper, including at minimum an introduction, detailed methodology, including a description of data, the methodological approach, data analyses, limitations and how these were mitigated, key findings, and conclusion. All statistical analysis and references should be reported using an APA format; and
  • Any other report requested by FCAC.

1.  Specifications and Standards

   The Contractor's Application shall:

• Have an English and a French version, capable of providing different content where necessary (e.g. providing different web links to additional resources) while maintaining the same experience within the Application.
• Offer the application users with the choice of incentives to collect in exchange for interacting with the Application and completing the interventions.
• Provide the ability to derive comparative results between two (2) or more intervention results using standard statistical analytical techniques to determine any statistically significant changes within subjects as well as between subjects.
• Accurately track click-throughs from the Application to external websites, and permit verification of click-through values against numbers recorded within FCAC's websites, as necessary.
• Provide data to show impact measurement to learn the level and nature of user engagement, including regional breakdowns, and demonstrated learning and actions of users;
• Be equally usable under Android and iPhone platforms, at a minimum, with the same or reasonably similar user experience.
• Be compliant with the Treasury Board Secretariat's Standard on Optimizing Websites and Applications for Mobile Devices (see https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=27088).
• Provide other functionality, as available, and as optioned by FCAC.

1. Technical, Operational and Organizational Environment

   The Contractor shall liaise with FCAC, and provide FCAC with information and materials about the project through the use of compatible software such as Microsoft Office 365 (e.g. Outlook, Word, Excel), and PDF.

   The Contractor shall perform the rest of the work pertaining to dissemination of interventions on its mobile application using its own specialized software and/or equipment.

2. Method, Source of Acceptance and Reporting Requirements

   The Contractor shall submit a detailed workplan and schedule to deliver the project described herein, including the key deliverables. The Contractor shall report to and receive approvals from FCAC’s Project Authority, or their authorized designate.

   The Contractor shall report progress by email and/or telephone on a weekly basis or as required by FCAC so that FCAC can assess the pace and the quality with which the project is being implemented. The status reports shall outline the accomplishments for the given period, open issues, and upcoming milestones. The Contractor shall address any concerns raised by FCAC in a timely fashion and work with them to resolve issues in a satifactory manner.

3. Project Management Control Procedures

   FCAC will liaise with the Contractor to establish a project plan and control procedures, including a timeline for all deliverables.

   The Contractor shall direct invoices (outlining the work completed for the given period) upon completion of deliverables and on a monthly, per completion basis, during the fielding of the intervention to the FCAC Project Authority identified below for review, approval, and processing. Subject to approval of the deliverables and the invoices, payments to the Contractor will be rendered through direct deposit as per the Government of Canada’s procedures.

   The Contractor shall ensure all communication, including project-related updates, reporting, deliverables, and invoicing, is addressed to both individuals.

   The FCAC Project Authority will be responsible for all contract administration and project coordination and support.

4. Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Obligations

   As required for the completion of work, FCAC will provide:

• Access to FCAC's facilities, the FCAC Project Authority and/or other FCAC personnel as required for meetings, consultations, and information for the successful completion of the Contractor's work under the Contract;
• Intervention content/questions, and other input as required, including scheduling and timelines for intervention roll-outs.
• Access to relevant documentation and reference materials to which the Contractor would not otherwise have access as required to complete the work;
• Review of submissions, as required, and the provision of comments/suggested revisions, in a timely manner;
• Other assistance and support as appropriate.

1. Contractor’s Obligations

   In fulfilling the terms and conditions of the Contract, the Contractor agrees to:

• Provide a mutually agreed-upon principal Point of Contact for the Contractor, who will be actively involved in, and responsible for, all activities undertaken;
• Provide a work plan and schedule prior to the commencement of work on the Project, revised and/or refined for each Intervention or campaign as necessary;
• Complete assigned work according to pre-defined schedules and standards;
• Provide Quality Assurance monitoring on all deliverables;
• As required, liaise with the FCAC Project Authority and any stakeholders identified by the FCAC Project Authority for meetings, project reviews and other related project management activities.
• Unless otherwise specified, use its own equipment and software for the performance of the work.
• Ensure that all data collected through FCAC interventions delivered on the mobile platform are not shared with or used by third-parties, unless specified by FCAC, and are used by the Contractor exclusively to fulfill this contract. 
  1. Location of Work, Work site and Delivery Point

     It is anticipated that the majority of work will take place at the Contractor's location.

     Notwithstanding, the Contractor's project team and principal point of contact shall be available for meetings on-site at FCAC's premises in the National Capital Region (NCR) or via teleconference or Microsoft Teams as required.

  2. Language of Work

     The language of all written reports shall be English.

     Deliverables may be delivered in English, or French, or both, as appropriate, as described herein and as directed by FCAC.

  3. Security Requirements

     The contractor must ensure that all data collected through FCAC interventions delivered on the mobile platform are not to be shared with or used by third-parties, unless specified by FCAC, and are used by the Contractor exclusively to fulfill this contract. Notwithstanding, the Contractor shall follow all applicable Federal and Provincial privacy and data security laws.

  4. Insurance Requirements

     Insurance for all methods of travel; accidents; illness; cancellations; professional liability and other obligations are the sole responsibility of the Contractor.

     The Contractor is responsible for deciding if insurance coverage is necessary to fulfill its obligation under the Contract and to ensure compliance with any applicable law. Any insurance acquired or maintained by the Contractor is at its own expense and for its own benefit and protection. It does not release the Contractor from or reduce its liability under the Contract.

  5. Travel and Living

     No travel outside of the NCR is anticipated under the Contract. The Contractor is responsible for its own travel and accommodation as required for on-site meetings at FCAC’s permises.

  6. Public Communications and Results

     The Contractor shall not issue any public communications with regard to this project or its results, without prior authorization and approval by FCAC.

1. Project Schedule

1. Expected Start and Completion Dates

   The services of the Contractor will be required for a period of approximately three (3) years, commencing upon contract award.

2. Schedule and Estimated Level of Effort (Work Breakdown Structure)

   The work will be conducted in accordance with a schedule and work plan developed by the Contractor in collaboration with FCAC.

3. Options

   FCAC reserves the right to extend the term of the Contract by up to two (2) additional one (1) year periods, at FCAC’s sole discretion.

4.  As Required Work

For any additional, as-required work, the FCAC Project Authority will submit a written request to the Contractor indicating the details of the work required. The Contractor, as required by FCAC, will submit a proposal against the requirement indicating the level of effort anticipated to complete the work, the resources required, the associated ceiling price, and any additional items requested by FCAC.

Upon acceptance of any required proposal, the FCAC Project Authority will authorize the work indicated.

1. Required Resources or Types of Roles to be Performed

The Contractor shall provide a Resource Team that is fully qualified in accordance with its own internal standards in order to complete the work as described herein. The Contractor shall ensure that its Resource Team possesses the content knowledge, skills and expertise as necessary to successfully complete the work.

1. Applicable Documents and Glossary

1. Relevant Terms, Acronyms and Glossaries

Term/Acronym

Definition

Campaign

A series of interventions designed to study a particular group or a particular concept over time.

Contracting Authority

The Contracting Authority will be the sole authority on behalf of FCAC for the administration and management of this Contract. Any changes to the Contract must be authorized in writing by the Contracting Authority. The Contractor is not to perform work in excess of or outside the scope of the Contract based on written requests from any government personnel other than the Contracting Authority.

Contractor

One who contracts to perform work or furnish materiels in accordance with a contract.

GoC

Government of Canada

Intervention

A series of questions set out using the Contractor's Application to measure one (1) or more behaviour or attitude, as determined by FCAC.

NCR

National Capital Region

Project Authority

The officer or employee of FCAC who is authorized to perform any of the Project Authority's functions as described in the Articles of Agreement. The Project Authority or his/her delegate is responsible for all matters concerning the technical content of the work against the Contract.

SoW

Statement of Work

7. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreements:

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement

Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement

Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA)

Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement

Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)

8. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) has a mandate to protect financial consumers in Canada by supervising federally regulated financial entities and strengthening the financial literacy of Canadians. To advance its mandate, FCAC is exploring innovative ways of reaching and engaging Canadians to assist them in better managing their money and debt wisely, planning and saving for the future, and preventing and protecting them against fraud and financial abuse.

FCAC implemented a mobile budgeting intervention in 2016 through 2019 using the Carrot Rewards Mobile Application. This intervention strengthened users knowledge, confidence and behaviours related to budgeting. It provided evidence that direct digital delivery of financial education to consumers using targeted information and incentives can result in sustained behaviour changes.

To advance its mandate by supporting Canadians to better manage their finances and navigate the complex financial marketplace during the COVID-19 and in Canada's recovery, FCAC will relaunch its budgeting mobile app intervention and develop additional interventions. Additional interventions will strengthen financial literacy and prompt behaviour change within areas proven to positively impact the
financial well-being of Canadians (i.e., debt management).

FCAC has conducted an environmental scan to identify digital platforms that have a social purpose to strengthen holistic wellness and that utilize behavioural insights, incentives and targeted information to promote knowledge, confidence and positive behaviour change. Carrot Rewards was the only platform that met these criteria. FCAC launched a budgeting intervention on the Carrot Rewards platform that enabled sustained behaviour change and strengthened confidence to budget among non-budgeters.

9. Exception(s)

The following exception(s) to the Government Contracts Regulations is (are) invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) -

"only one person is capable of performing the work".

10. Mandatory Criteria

The Bidder MUST have a social mission to improve overall health and wellness and a final existing and established mobile application platform (No Beta Versions will be considered) that is capable of:

1) Delivering financial literacy and consumer education interventions (e.g., messaging and resources) directly to consumers;

2) Incentivizing consumers to participate in the interventions through the use of incentives (i.e., loyalty program reward points); and

3) Measuring the impact of the interventions on the consumers (e.g., pre-post intervention changes in consumer knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and/or behaviour, as appropriate).

The app MUST have an existing and established user-base of at least 25,000 users in Canada. To demonstrate this, the Bidder should include a User Report as of December 31, 2020, or later. The user report should include a profile of application users using ALL demographic variables captured within the existing app.

The app MUST have existing English and French versions.

The Bidder MUST include a draft project/implementation plan.

The draft project/implementation plan should include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following:

Start-up activities to prepare for FCAC’s first intervention;

Implementing FCAC’s provided interventions/questions into its application;

Approach to attracting new users and method for ensuring representative sample size;

Data gathering stage;

Data analysis and report delivery to FCAC;

As-required adjustment cycle; and

Any other items the Bidder feels would add benefit to FCAC’s requirement.

The Bidder MUST include its privacy policy and data management plan, which MUST ensure the privacy and security of information gathered throughout the use of the Bidder’s proposed Application.

The Bidder MUST ensure that all data collected through FCAC interventions delivered on the mobile platform are not shared with or used by third-parties, unless specified by FCAC. 

11. Ownership of Intellectual Property

FCAC has determined that any intellectual property rights arising from the performance of the Work under the resulting contract will belong to Canada, for the following reason, as set out in the Policy on Title to Intellectual Property Arising Under Crown Procurement Contracts:

“Where the Foreground IP consists of material subject to copyright, with the exception of computer software and all documentation pertaining to that software”.

All information and documents made available to the contractor during the course of this contract are deemed proprietary, as is all documentation produced by the contractor during the contract.

12. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date

The Work is to be performed from the date of contract award until March 31, 2024 on an “as when required” basis with an irrevocable option to extend the term of the Contract by up to two (2) additional one (1) year period under the same conditions.

13. Cost estimate of the proposed contract

The estimated value of the contract, including option(s), is $200,000.00 (GST/HST incl.).

14. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier

Optimity

91 Oxford Street

Toronto, ON

M5T 1P2

15. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

16. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is March 5, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

17. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Stéphane Dupel

Senior Contracting and Procurement Officer

Corporate Services

Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

427 Laurier Ave. West, Suite 600, Ottawa, ON K1R 1B9

Tel: 613-371-3223

E-Mail: FCAC.contract-contrat.ACFC@fcac-acfc.gc.ca