POINT OF CONTACT Henry Lai, Project Manager, Phone (703) 306-6640, Fax (703) 306-7458, E-Mail
[email protected] DESCRIPTION Introduction: The U.S. Department of State (DOS), Office of Consular Affairs (CA) intends to solicit proposals from industry to establish one or more ?user-pays?, contractor-provided and operated Visa Information Centers to respond to inquiries by the general public for information on consular matters and to provide certain visa related services as defined in the attached draft Statement of Work. Initially, the Center(s) will serve callers from the Mission China?s service area, Hong Kong and its vicinity. Additional service centers may be established later on to serve countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. The term ?user-pays? means that the caller will be responsible for paying the Contractor directly for the services rendered, such as, automated information, live operator assistance, fax-on-demand services, etc. This means no U.S. Government appropriated funds will be made available or utilized in the performance of this contract. The Contractor shall provide the required personnel, facilities, technology, supplies, and services to operate, maintain and manage the Center(s) and to collect the appropriate service fees from the callers to cover all costs incurred to deliver the services requested by the U.S. Government. The service fees to be paid by the callers will be based on a price schedule approved by the U.S. Government. Certain portion of the service fees collected by the Contractor will be used to fund Special Related Services (SRS) to enhance the level of service to recipients of consular services and to assist in setting up other center(s) to serve countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. The Contractor may use different payment methods for collecting the applicable service fees from the callers, including the use of ?900? type ?user-pays? telephone services, credit cards, prepaid telephone calling cards, bank payments, etc. Purpose: To obtain comments from industry regarding industry?s understanding of the requirements as defined in the draft Statement of Work, implementation strategies and approaches for meeting these requirements within the defined service areas, and payment collection methods for services rendered. The Department of State intends to use industry?s comments to finalize the Statement of Work for release through pre-solicitation conference or notice. NO AWARD WILL BE MADE AS A RESULT OF THIS RFI. NO PAYMENT WILL BE MADE FOR INFORMATION SUBMITTED. Information Requested from Industry: Interested parties are encouraged to submit comments on the Draft Statement of Work. Specific comments are requested on the following questions: 1. Are ?800? and ?900? type services available in each of the service areas defined in the draft Statement of Work? If so, are the services accessible from all callers within each of those service areas? 2. Will it be possible to implement a single ?800? and ?900? number solution to serve callers from Mainland China, Hong Kong and vicinity? If so, what is the cost impact of such a solution? 3. What effective payment methods and implementation strategies are commonly used for collecting payment for ?user-pays? information services, such as those defined in the draft Statement of Work, including attended and unattended services for voice and fax services, and for responding to e-mail requests for information and support? What technology is available to enable callers with dial pulse telephones to obtain services via the unattended mode and the incremental costs for implementing such technology over that used for providing unattended services to callers with touch tone telephones?