Active SLED Opportunity · ILLINOIS · CITY OF NAPERVILLE, IL
AI Summary
The City of Naperville, IL, requests proposals for Utility Billing and Customer Information System software and implementation services, including licensing, integration, support, and training. Evaluation includes technical, functional, and pricing criteria with a fixed-price, seven-year TCO approach. Proposals due by May 7, 2026.
The City of Naperville, a home rule municipality offering water, wastewater, and electric utility services as well as refuse collection and recycling services provided by a third-party, invites the submittal of responses to this Request for Proposal (RFP) from qualified firms interested in providing Utility Billing (UB) / Customer Information System (CIS) Software and Implementation Services.
Demonstrate financial stability, a robust and relevant municipal customer base, and a well-organized company structure with experienced personnel, low turnover, and strong commitment to R&D.
Provide a clear, structured implementation methodology, experienced and committed key project personnel, and effective tools and resources for project assurance, project management, testing, training, and data migration to ensure successful delivery.
Demonstrate a robust maintenance and support program with dedicated points of contact, responsive SLAs, experienced support personnel, self-help resources, and effective release and upgrade management to ensure reliable, ongoing system performance.
Highlight a comprehensive system that meets the City’s business objectives and industry standards, emphasizes out-of-the-box functionality, and provides clear evidence of how the solution supports operational efficiency, automation, and an enhanced customer experience.
Accurately complete the Technical Requirements worksheet with clear responses to highlight a secure, scalable system that meets the City’s technical and regulatory needs.
Demonstrate a flexible, scalable integration approach with robust API capabilities, proven experience connecting to the City’s systems, and comprehensive documentation to support secure, reliable data exchange and system interoperability.
Thoroughly complete the Pricing worksheet with transparent, fixed-price information, detailing implementation, software, hosting, upgrades, and payment processing costs. Pricing will be evaluated using a seven-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and points awarded on a relative percentage basis.
Demonstrate system functionality following the provided demo scripts (rooted in the City’s functional requirements), highlighting pre-built automation, innovative features, an intuitive user interface, technical change management, and alignment with the City’s objectives and interfacing systems.
Present a clear implementation approach and methodology, including the project schedule, staffing plan and resource commitment, and the tools and resources supporting testing, training, change management, project management, and data migration.
Provide detailed information and commentary on the system’s technical architecture, data management, security, integrations, maintenance, and support, showing adherence to SLAs and applicable compliance standards.
Provide references that enable the City to assess relevance (e.g., similar services, similar size, exact software version) and gather feedback on vendor performance, system implementation, system satisfaction, and the post go-live experience.
The City may request a Best and Final Offer (BAFO) to address changes affecting the total price, such as effort, modifications, or integrations. Pricing will be evaluated using a seven-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and points awarded on a relative percentage basis.
Submit one (1) electronic copy (PDF format), adhering to the format stated in the RFP.
Submit one (1) electronic copy (PDF format) of the Technical Proposal Response with information that may be exempt from disclosure under FOIA redacted. See the Illinois Freedom of Information Act section of the City’s General Terms and Conditions on page 6 for additional information regarding what can be redacted.
The Proposer is required to carefully and exhaustively complete and submit the Functional Requirements worksheet. For your assistance, instructions are provided in the first tab of the worksheet. It will be to the Proposer’s benefit to provide clarifying and supporting comments where needed to avoid any possible ambiguity.
The Proposer is required to carefully and exhaustively complete and submit the Technical Requirements worksheet. For your assistance, instructions are provided in the first tab of the worksheet. It will be to the Proposer’s benefit to provide clarifying and supporting comments where needed to avoid any possible ambiguity.
The Proposer is required to complete and submit the Interface Experience worksheet. Please complete all drop-down responses in the orange cells and add notes for extra clarity as needed.
If the Proposer is proposing an IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS solution, they are required to complete and submit the CAIQv4.0.3_STAR-Security-Questionnaire. The STAR Level 1: Security Questionnaire (CAIQ v4) offers an industry-accepted way to document what security controls exist in IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services, providing security control transparency. It provides a set of Yes/No questions that a cloud consumer and cloud auditor may wish to ask of a cloud provider to ascertain their compliance with the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). Therefore, it helps cloud customers to gauge the security posture of prospective cloud service providers and determine if their cloud services are suitably secure.
The Proposer is required to complete and submit the Pricing worksheet. As noted on the worksheet, if you require additional lines to fully price or describe your solution pricing, please add rows as needed. The City of Naperville is requesting a fixed-price approach for this project.
If this is a partnered proposal, please clearly break out the license, implementation cost, and annual support cost for each product / partner.
If you are proposing both a SaaS and an On-Prem version of a software solution, please submit a separate pricing worksheet for each option. If your SaaS and On-Prem solutions utilize a different software application solution, two separate proposals would be required.
As requested in Section 5 (Question 5.2.1), complete the Staffing Matrix worksheet that represents your company’s typical approach to similar projects, for both vendor and City resources. Feel free to make edits to project roles and project stages to best fit your company’s methodology and staffing approach.
Provide the completed Proposal Checklist to indicate the prime Proposer and participating Partner(s) (if applicable). Please also use this checklist to verify that all required written sections, worksheets, and attachments have been included and completed in the manner requested in the RFP.
Provide your standard software license and services agreement that would typically govern the implementation and use of the proposed solution(s). If multiple agreements are typically used (e.g., Master Services Agreement, Software License Agreement, SaaS Agreement, Statement of Work, or Support Agreement), please provide sample copies of each document. The City understands that the submitted agreement may represent the vendor’s standard template and that final contract terms will be subject to negotiation with the City.
If the Proposer is providing a SaaS solution, provide a copy of the most recent System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 report.
As requested in the Technical Requirements worksheet, provide an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram) illustrating the logical data model of the proposed system. The ERD should identify major entities (e.g., customer, account, premise/location, service agreement, meter, billing, payment, service order, etc.) and the relationships between them. The diagram should represent the core data structure used by the CIS application.
As requested in the Technical Requirements worksheet, provide a Data Dictionary describing the data structure of the proposed CIS database. The Data Dictionary should include definitions for key tables/entities, fields, and attributes within the system, including field descriptions, data types, and relationships where applicable.
As requested in the Technical Requirements worksheet, provide documentation demonstrating the vendor’s current PCI DSS compliance status, including the most recent Attestation of Compliance (AOC) or equivalent PCI audit report for the payment processing environment supporting the proposed solution.
As requested in the Technical Requirements worksheet, provide a PCI Responsibility Matrix that clearly defines the division of PCI compliance responsibilities among the vendor(s), payment processor, hosting provider (if applicable), and the City.
As requested in the Technical Requirements worksheet, provide a PCI Data Flow Diagram illustrating how customer data flows through the proposed solution and any integrated components. The diagram must clearly identify the location of the Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) and any systems or integrations that store, process, or transmit payment card data.
As requested in Section 5 (Question 5.3.1), provide a list of typical training courses for similar projects accompanied by course descriptions to allow the SMEs and evaluation committee to achieve a better understanding of the topics, objectives, and lengths for each course.
As requested in Section 5 (Question 5.3.2), provide a sample of test scripts for the move-in / move-out process to allow the SMEs and evaluation committee to achieve a better understanding of the testing tools and expectations.
As requested in Section 5 (Question 5.3.2), provide a sample of a training guide for the move-in / move-out process that would be provided by the vendor as part of this implementation project.
As requested in Section 6 (Question 6.1.1), provide a single example of an SLA for ongoing support.
As requested in Section 6 (Question 6.2.1), provide a few examples of Release Notes that the City can expect with each release.
As requested in Section 7, provide complete API Documentation that includes a comprehensive set of data and fields available for APIs, the specific data formats utilized (e.g., XML and JSON), and any other information that demonstrates the solution’s API capabilities and approach.
Provide an example of a summary / master bill to allow the SMEs and evaluation committee to achieve a better understanding of how such a bill would be presented to customers.
Provide a list of the Core/Standard Reports that come included with the system.
Please download the below documents, complete, and upload.
Will there be an evaluation committee to review the proposals and score them based on weights and multiple criteria?
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Q (Budget): Can the City confirm that its budget for this project is a total of $1.97 million including software and implementation over 5 years? Are there additional funds available beyond this amount that could be allocated to ensure a successful project implementation?
A: The City does not provide or comment on project budget information during the solicitation.
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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