Texas Media Monitoring and Reporting Services RFP issued
Deadline for Submission of Proposals: September 28, 2022 (2:00 PM CT)
Introduction
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPA), an agency of the State of Texas, issues this Request For Proposals (RFP) to solicit proposals from qualified vendors for Online Media Monitoring and Reporting (Services) as described in this Section and in this RFP. CPA’s objective is to obtain the Services that represent the best value for CPA and the State of Texas according to the terms and conditions of this RFP. CPA anticipates making a contract award to one (1) Successful Respondent for the Services required by this RFP. CPA reserves the right not to award a contract for the performance of all or part of the requirements of this RFP.
This RFP is not exclusive and CPA reserves the right to issue additional solicitations regarding the Services described in this RFP or similar services at any time. All Respondents are encouraged to offer their best pricing at all times. All costs associated with the Services, as defined by this RFP, must be included in the Respondent’s Proposal. Proposals that do not meet all of the requirements or contain all of the required documentation specified in this RFP may be rejected as non-responsive.
B. Background
CPA’s Communications and Information Services Division keeps a steady pulse on trending news topics and the economic landscape of Texas in both traditional (e.g., TV, radio, or print) and online (e.g., social media or blogs) formats. The division also supports efforts to keep the Comptroller’s office engaged with taxpayers, the press, and several constituent groups across earned, owned and paid media platforms. As part of this responsibility, the division operates the official social media accounts of the Texas Comptroller’s office, developing content that highlights the agency’s duties, priorities and programs across several business units.
To provide more robust media intelligence and agency news coverage; expand social listening capabilities; quantify shortand long-term impact of media trends that affect CPA; improve the reach of CPA’s strategic social media efforts; and ultimately optimize content to reach, educate and positively engage customers, CPA is seeking a qualified service provider to provide a tool for media monitoring and reporting and social media management and analytics, including online solutions, training and support as set forth in this RFP.
Scope of Work:
C.1 Requirements. The Services provided by Successful Respondent must include, but are not limited to, the following:
C.1.1 Online Database and Monitoring Tool Requirements. Successful Respondent must provide CPA with access to an online media monitoring database with a comprehensive list of community newspapers, specifically in the state of Texas, as well as all major dailies in print and online, including radio, television, and internet (Database).
The Database must include the following features, at a minimum:
(a) Access to the Database for up to five (5) CPA users. Access must be restricted with required log-in IDs;
(b) Ability to make ongoing changes to keywords to home in on the most relevant search results, preferably through self-service.
(c) Ability for CPA to create daily media clip distribution report to be sent to CPA’s internal recipient, with ability to provide article summary if not full texts.
(d) Ability for CPA to create periodic (monthly or quarterly) summary reports of mentions, trends and top stories based on a search criteria CPA establishes.
(e) Ability to create reports summarizing media impact and CPA positioning for key announcements and
events.
(f) Ability to create ad-hoc, topical research reports analyzing key trends in volume, media, and messaging.
(g) Ability to use a historical lookback window of at least two (2) years for all searches.
(h) Ability to archive historical data and coverage from saved searches and reports generated by CPA, with the capacity to look up the data at any time;
(i) Ability to monitor social media amplification of news coverage. Included platforms should match
industry standard.
(j) Ability to identify the online coverage driving website visits to CPA domains and to measure the rate of visits to CPA domains.
(k) Ability to export the data in various downloadable file formats including (examples: .csv, .xlsx, .jpg,
.png, .mov., .mp3, .mp4)
(l) Ability to conduct topical searches for both historical and real-time analysis, with the additional ability
to segment by the following data points from Database:
1. Volume of coverage by day, channel, publication.
2. Share of voice by channel, publication.
3. Amplification across multiple social channels by mentions and day.
4. Mentions by keyword, theme, and message pull-through.
(m) Ability to understand quality of coverage by metrics like SEO ranking, publisher reputation/size,
amplification/syndication of content or other proprietary metrics.
C.1.2 Social Media Management Tool Requirements. Successful Respondent must provide CPA with access to a social media management tool that integrates with the agency’s most frequently used social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn). The tool must include the following features, at a minimum:
(a) Access to the Database for up to five (5) CPA users. Access must be restricted with required log-in IDs;
(b) Integration with fifteen (15) CPA social media profiles across all supported channels;
(c) Ability to schedule and preview social media content, including text, image and video files, for automatic publishing.
(d) Ability to differentiate permissions between users, create assignment and approval workflows, and share content for external review;
(e) Ability to organize, track and report planned content or published posts by various dimensions like topic, date and performance;
(f) Ability to aggregate reporting from various data sources like social media platforms, URL shorteners
and web analytics;
(g) Ability to reply directly to customers on social media posts, ads, comments and direct messages.
(h) Ability to assign customer inquiries to users, privately notate conversations, and track and export the
conversation history.
(i) Ability to monitor and analyze agency keywords or mentions appearing in public social media posts in
real-time.
(j) Ability to move public conversations into the platform’s customer service response queue and assign as a standard inquiry.
(k) Ability to understand social media conversations by sentiment, reach, reputation or weight of influence or other proprietary metrics.
(l) Ability to conduct searches and create reports for both historical and real-time analysis, with the
additional ability to segment further by various dimensions units of time, volume, share of voice,
influence and topics.
(m) Ability to analyze and report on audience demographics and preferences within and across channels.
(n) Ability for CPA to create periodic (weekly, monthly, and quarterly) summary reports of published posts, planned content, performance, volume, trends, and top conversations based on a search criteria CPA establishes.
(o) Ability to search and export public activity (posts, comments, ads, and direct messages) on CPA’s official social media pages for up to two years prior to the activity.
(p) Capacity to include, as part of service or future upgrade, social media management, monitoring and
analytics for YouTube.
C.1.3 Support and Training. Successful Respondent will be required to provide training on the Database to CPA users (up to five (5) individuals) upon commencement of any contract resulting from this RFP. Training must be provided at CPA’s office located at 111 E. 17th Street, Austin, Texas 78774, on-site at the vendor’s local office in Austin, or through a pre-arranged webinar service.
CPA requires, at minimum, one training session, no less than one hour in length, be provided to CPA’s users at no additional cost to CPA. CPA will not reimburse Successful Respondent for costs incurred for travel, accommodation, meals or hospitality associated with the provision of this training and such costs should not be included in the pricing for Services.
C.2 Optional Features, Products or Services. Respondents are encouraged to submit and describe in detail in their proposal’s optional features, products or services that would benefit CPA but are not part of the minimum requirements of this RFP. Optional features, products, or services may include training, services or features that align with the minimum requirements of this RFP. In its Proposal, Respondent must describe with specificity any proposed optional features, products, or services. For pricing associated with optional items that exceed the minimum requirements, Respondent must include the line-item cost associated with each proposed optional feature, product, or service in the “Optional Additional Features” pricing portion of the Mandatory Price Sheet, Section IV of this RFP.
C.3 Service levels. Successful Respondent shall meet the following Service Levels:
C.3.1 Uptime Service Level. The service level provided for the Services shall be no less than 98% of uptime per month. “Downtime” means the Services are not available for use by CPA; except when CPA is the sole cause of CPA’s inability to access the Services. For example, purposes only, if CPA is unable to access the Services due to a problem internal to CPA, CPA will not consider that time to be Downtime. Downtime is calculated in regular business hours between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Central Time from the time a service call by CPA is made to the Successful Respondent until the time the Services return to normal operations and are available for CPA’s use. “Uptime” is calculated based on 160 business hours per month. For example:
2 Downtime hours/160 total regular business hours = 98.75% Uptime for the month.
C.3.2 Service Credit for Uptime Service Level. Failure to meet the Uptime Service Level will result in a 25% reduction in the Service fee for that month, credited in the month following the month in which the Uptime Service Level was not met.
C.3.3 Response Time Service Level. The service level for Successful Respondent’s Response Time for service calls shall be no less than 24 hours. “Response Time” is defined as the period between Successful Respondent’s receipt of a service call from CPA and the time until Successful Respondent responds with repair efforts underway.
C.3.4 Service Credit for Response Time Service Level. Failure to meet the Response Time Service Level will result in a reduction of 100% of the daily cost for Services for each day in which the Response Time Service Level was not met, credited in the month following the month in which the Response Time Service Level was not met.
C.4 Monthly Service Level Report. Successful Respondent shall provide reports regarding Uptime each month, which includes:
• beginning dates and times of all service calls.
• completion dates and times of all service calls.
• individual response times to service calls.
• the number of hours of Downtime per month.
