RFP for Payment Vendor

Greenville Utilities Commission (GUC) is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide comprehensive payment processing services. The vendor must accept credit/debit card and e-check (ACH) payments on behalf of GUC, with credit/debit card fees presented in a convenience fee model to be passed to customers and e-check fees absorbed by GUC on a monthly billing basis.

Key specifications include integration into the Meridian IDEA customer/agent portal via iframe for 24/7 payments and wallet management, vendor-hosted IVR with bilingual capabilities for phone payments, support for ACH, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, digital payment platform support (Apple Pay, Google Pay), employee portal for research and reconciliation, provision of 11 customer terminals for two walk-in locations, next-day credit for customer payments, robust reconciliation processes, and secure wallet transfer capability from the current payment vendor.

Estimated usage includes approximately 26,000 credit card transactions per month averaging $213, approximately 25,696 ACH transactions per month, and approximately 424 returns per month. The vendor must provide a comprehensive project plan with implementation timeline preferably within 3 months, including project team member resumes and implementation costs. Post go-live support with defined response times and qualified support staff resumes is required.

Proposals will be evaluated based on customer reference quality (utility customer references strongly encouraged), quality of approach demonstrating requirement understanding, vendor qualifications and experience, project approach and proposed solution, cost effectiveness and value (up to three different pricing models acceptable), and acceptance of contract terms. GUC reserves the right to request formal presentations or demonstrations and to reject all proposals or award to the vendor whose evaluation indicates best interest.