Card Acceptance Services

Trade Agreement: NONE
Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid
Attachment: YES (MERX) Electronic
Competitive Procurement Strategy: N/A - P&A/LOI Only
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Nature of Requirements: 
Solicitation no.: EN891-121555/A



REQUEST FOR COMMENTS (RFC)

CARD ACCEPTANCE SERVICES 
(Electronic Draft Capture Service)


The intent of this Request for Comments (RFC) is to solicit
feedback on the aspects detailed herein and the draft Request
for Proposal (RFP) so as to enable Canada to consider industry
perspectives. Included in the draft Request for Proposal (RFP)
are the draft Statement of Work (SOW), the draft Basis of
Payment, the draft Pricing Schedule and the draft Technical
Criteria.

SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

The Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada
(PWGSC) requires services for all federal departments across
Canada including the acceptance, processing and settlement of
Visa, MasterCard, Interac and Interac Online transactions and
the acceptance of AMEX cards payable to the Receiver General for
Canada.

These services will be required for a period of five (5) years
commencing from date of Contract with an irrevocable option on
the part of Canada to extend the period of any resulting
Contract by up to two (2) additional one (1) year periods and
one (1) additional one (1) year transition period.

There is a security requirement associated with this
requirement. Please refer to the draft RFP attached including
the following:

Part 6, Security, Financial and Other Requirements, article 1,
Security Requirement;
Part 7, Resulting Contract Clauses, article 3, Security
Requirement;
Annex C, Security Requirements Check List and its associated
attachments.

Potential suppliers, who currently do not meet the facility
security clearance requirements and (or) personnel security
clearance, should initiate the security clearance process by
requesting sponsorship from the Contracting Authority. For any
inquiries concerning any security requirements, suppliers should
contact CISD at 1-866-368-4646, or (613) 948-4176 in the
National Capital Region (NCR), CISD Website:
http://ssi-iss.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/.

The following is an overview of the services required:

accept, process and settle Visa, MasterCard, (and other brands
if requested) and Debit Card (Interac, Interac Online, and other
brands if requested) transactions payable to the Receiver
General for Canada, including sales, authorizations, and refunds;
accept and process AMEX transactions payable to the Receiver
General for Canada, including sales, authorizations, and refunds;
ensure ease of transition from the previous and to any
subsequent card acceptance service provider with no break in
service. The phase-in will be within eighteen (18) months from
the date of Contract issuance, unless otherwise agreed by Canada
and the phase-out will not exceed twelve (12) months;
for the implementation phase, have a project management approach
by providing within one week of contract award a team leader
and, within three (3) weeks of Contract award, a project plan
including a comprehensive work breakdown structure, a project
schedule, level of required effort and resources, project risk
tracking and weekly progress reports identifying any issues
together with corrective actions;
provide ongoing account management including the maintenance of
an issue log and monthly review sessions with the project
authority throughout the term of the Contract;
provide services to departmental offices including point-of-sale
(POS) workstations and/or POS software rental, installation
advice, on-site networking, inspection and installation, and
help desk support;
open an Account at an LVTS-participating Financial Institution
and, each banking day, post a total of all net payments per
merchant per card type;
provide daily departmental office, departmental headquarters and
Receiver General for Canada access to transaction reporting as
well as daily electronic bank statement reporting to the RG;
meet specified service levels including planned outages,
availability, help desk response, hardware/software setups or
replacement;
have a formal contingency and disaster recovery plan;
provide services, as required, in both official languages of
Canada; 
optionally provide innovative approaches to technologies and
services throughout the Contract term to improve customer
service and/or decrease costs to Canada;
upon the Receiver General's request, interface with and settle
to another account used by the Receiver General (rather than
post the funds to the Account);
provide online card acceptance services  solution (the Receiver
General Buy Button (RGBB) Solution); 
provide "industry standard" levels of data and processing
security and integrity of debit and credit card processing,
including complying with security and privacy requirements as
may be specified from time-to-time by the financial services
industry and by the card associations. This includes, but is not
limited to Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards
(DSS). 
provide system security procedures and measures in accordance
with security requirements.


NOTE TO POTENTIAL SUPPLIER

The publication of this Request for Comment (RFC) must not be
construed as a commitment on Canada's part to issue a subsequent
"Request for Proposal" for Card Acceptance Services (Electronic
Draft Capture Service) and no Contract or other form of
commitment will be entered into with any supplier based on
responses to this RFC. The responses from industry will enable
Canada to evaluate the strategy to be taken, if any, in regards
to issuing an RFP for the required services. 

Canada will not be liable for, nor will it reimburse any costs,
fees or expenses incurred in the preparation or submission of
responses to this RFC. Canada will not be bound by anything
stated herein. Canada reserves the right to change, at any time,
any or all parts of the requirements, as it deems necessary.

Potential suppliers are advised that any information submitted
to PWGSC in response to this RFC may be used in development of a
subsequent RFP. Potential suppliers will not be bound by any
aspect of their response to this RFC. All responses to this RFC
will be held by PWGSC on a confidential basis (subject to
applicable legislation), and remain the property of PWGSC once
they have been received.


INFORMATION SESSIONS

During the period of this RFC, there will be an opportunity for
Canada and Industry to enter into discussions about the
requirement during scheduled "one-on-one meetings" to be held at
11 Laurier Street, Gatineau, Quebec, on or around June 18-22,
2012. The scope of the requirement outlined in the bid
solicitation would be reviewed during the meeting and questions
would be answered. Potential suppliers may use this session to
better understand the requirements and to explain their comments
in regards to the documents attached to this RFC. Meetings will
be up to 2 hours in duration and may be attended in person or by
phone. Any meeting request must be submitted in writing to the
Contracting Authority, noted herein, as soon as possible but no
later than June 8, 2012, and include the names of the
representatives who will attend, along with their
Title/Responsibility within the company, and at least three time
slots (AM or PM), during the week of June 18-22, in which they
would be available to meet. Meeting requests received after that
time may not be accommodated. Suppliers who do not request a
meeting will not be precluded from submitting a bid, should an
RFP be issued in the future. Further information including the
exact timing and location of the meeting will be made available
to the registrants following registration.


CLOSING DATE

Responses to this RFC will be accepted until 02:00 PM Eastern
Daylight Time EDT on June 8, 2012. Feedback to the draft Request
for Proposal (RFP), including the draft Statement of Work (SOW),
the draft Evaluation Criteria document, the draft Basis of
Payment, etc, is to be submitted by fax or electronically to the
Contracting Authority. The information received after that date
will be considered only to the extent reasonable, in the sole
opinion of Canada, given the progress of the Work at the time of
the receipt of the said information.

Canada may require clarification of written responses received.
If required, any clarification will be requested within thirty
(30) working days of the closing date of the RFC. Request for
clarification will be submitted in writing (by facsimile or
email) and a response will be requested within three (3) working
days of transmission of the clarification questions.


CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

Brigitte Loignon ing. P.Eng.
A/Supply Team Leader
Professional Services Procurement Directorate
Services and Technology Acquisition Management Sector
Acquisition Branch
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Government of Canada
11 Laurier Street, Gatineau, QC, K1A 0S5
Telephone: (819)-956-1651
Fax: (819) 956-2675
E-mail address: brigitte.loignon@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca


FORMAT OF RESPONSE

The potential suppliers should review the attached draft
documents, respond to the following questions and complete the
"Comments Tables" attached to the solicitation amendment no. 001.

QUESTIONS

General

Are the requirements as stated in the attached draft Request for
Proposal (RFP) clear?
What do you need to be able to assess the picture more fully?
We are planning to give 40 calendar days to submit a bid. Is
this sufficient? If not, what is the absolute minimum number of
days required?
Are the requirements too restrictive to allow for innovation and
flexibility in responses?
Do you understand how the proposal would need to be presented?
Please make any suggestions for changes or improvements that you
would like considered in any subsequent RFP and explain why.
Do you think that a five (5) year contract period with an
irrevocable option to extend the period of any resulting
Contract by up to two (2) additional one year periods and one
additional one year transition period is appropriate for the
card acceptance services? What would you prefer and why?
Will you bid on any resultant RFP for this requirement? If not,
please explain.
Although it is not Canada's current intention to do so, if it
was decided to only accept one or two credit card types, in
exchange for lower interchange fees, would you be able to
support such an initiative? If no, please provide justification.
Is this draft Request for Proposal (RFP) compatible with your
current billing system? If not, please specify why. 
Are you able to share your disaster recovery plan? If not,
please explain.

Draft Attachment 1 to Part 3, Pricing Schedule

Financial Proposal Evaluation
We have identified the cost elements that we think are relevant
to the products and services being procured. Are any of the cost
elements, which we have identified not relevant? Are there any
additional cost elements that are relevant and should be
considered?

Draft Attachment 1 to Part 4, Technical Criteria

Mandatory Technical Criteria
Are the mandatory requirements too restrictive? If yes, please
explain.
Should you have any problem with the additional following
mandatory criteria, please advise and explain why. If PROTECTED
information would be accessed, processed or stored outside of
the countries listed below, in part b, please also indicate the
countries: "
a. The Bidder must provide the list of its organization's work
sites (including its subcontractor's work sites), which will
have access to PROTECTED information.

b. The Bidder must confirm that no PROTECTED information will be
accessed, processed or stored by an organization's work site
(contractor or subcontractor work sites) located elsewhere than
within the following countries: Australia, Finland, France,
Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States".
Point-rated Technical Criteria
Do the evaluation criteria appear to evaluate fairly the
substantive elements of any potential proposal? Are there other
criteria that you think should be considered?

Draft RFP, Annex A - Statement of Work

1.0 Card Acceptance Overview
Does the Card Acceptance Overview provide you with a sufficient
description of the Government of Canada's Card Acceptance
environment? If not, what else do you require to be able to
fully assess the picture?
Appendices 
Do the SOW (Annex A) appendices, as presented, provide
sufficient information? Is there additional information that you
would require to submit an accurate bid?
Appendix 12 - Receiver General Buy Button

3.2.1 Contractor-Supplied Resources
Will the resources specified allow all RGBB requirements to be
fulfilled? If not, please specify any additional resource
categories and why.
For each of the resource specified, please provide the minimum
experience (type and number of years), education or other
qualifications / certifications required to do the work.

Draft Annex B - Basis of Payment

Is online transaction reporting part of your standard offering
for merchants, or is it made available at an additional cost? If
at an additional cost, what are the applicable cost elements
(e.g. per merchant, per user, one-time, monthly, etc.)?
1.0 Contractor Markup
Does your current system support interchange pass-through
pricing?
1.1 Credit Card Markup
Will the same contractor markup rate be charged for Visa,
MasterCard, and Amex transactions?
Are your markup rates dependent on transaction volumes? If so,
will the volume ranges included in the markup rate charts enable
you to accurately price your services?
Are you able to price your markup as a per transaction fee as
stipulated? Or are you required to price based on a percentage
of sales?

Draft Annex C - Security Requirements Check List

Information Technology Security Requirements

With respect to the IT Security Requirements included at Annex
C, indicate if your organization'simplementation of the
capability is the same as described for that specific
requirement. If it is not, provide a description of how your
organization addresses the specific requirement.
Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any
procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.