Card Acceptance Services

Trade Agreement: NONE Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid Attachment: None Competitive Procurement Strategy: Best Overall Proposal Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Nature of Requirements: Solicitation no.: EN891-121555/B

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)

CARD ACCEPTANCE SERVICES (Electronic Draft Capture Service)

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. For additional information, consult Part 3, Bid Preparation Instructions, Part 4, Evaluation Procedures and Basis of Selection, Part 6, Security and Privacy Requirements, Financial and Other Requirements, Part 7, Resulting Contract Clauses, Annex C, Security and Privacy and Annex D, Security Requirements Checklist and its associated attachments.

Bidders should consult the document "Security Requirements for PWGSC Bid Solicitations - Instructions for Bidders" (http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/app-acq/lc-pl/lc-pl-eng.html) on the Departmental Standard Procurement Documents Web site.

Bidders are hereby informed that the amount of time to obtain required security clearance levels may be lengthy and is contingent upon the specific clearance levels required. Bidders are solely responsible for obtaining such clearances.

Bidders who currently do not meet the facility security clearance requirements and (or) personnel security clearance are advised to initiate the security clearance process immediately by requesting sponsorship from the Contracting Authority.

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.

BIDDERS CONFERENCE (OPTIONAL)

Upon request and depending on potential bidders' interest, a bidders' conference may be held in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Any bidders' conference request must be submitted in writing to the Contracting Authority as soon as possible and no later than ten (10) calendar days after the issuance of the solicitation. Bidders' conference request received after that time may not be considered.

ENQUIRIES REGARDING THIS RFP REQUIREMENT ARE TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE FOLLOWING PWGSC CONTRACTING OFFICER:

Ingrid Harrington Contracting Authority Public Works and Government Services Canada Acquisitions Branch Professional Services Procurement Directorate Place du Portage, Phase III, 10C1, 11 Laurier Street Gatineau, Québec, K1A 0S5 Telephone: 819-956-3201 Facsimile: 819-956-2675 E-mail address: ingrid.harrington@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca 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.