RFI 26RFIMP02 OSFA Financial Aid Platform Modernization

Background
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, through the Executive Office of Education (EOE) and the Department of Higher Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA), administers state-funded financial aid programs for postsecondary students. Currently, OSFA operates the MASSAid system to manage student financial aid eligibility, applications, award determinations, disbursements, and compliance reporting. EOE is exploring modernization opportunities to replace or enhance MASSAid with a more flexible, secure, and scalable platform. This RFI aims to gather information from qualified vendors about their capabilities and experience in implementing similar systems.

Work Details
EOE seeks to identify commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) or configurable SaaS-based platforms that can support end-to-end financial aid management. The desired capabilities include:

1. Functional Requirements:
- User account registration and student aid application intake
- Integration with FAFSA/ISIR records via Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG)
- Eligibility determination and need analysis
- Award calculation and packaging across multiple programs
- Disbursement processing and reconciliation with the Commonwealth accounting system, MOSAIC
- Post-award adjustments, appeals, and repayments
- Institutional data exchange via secure SFTP or APIs
- Compliance and audit reporting
- Configurable dashboards and analytics
- Accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1 AA) and mobile support
- Multilingual user experience for student-facing workflows.

2. Technical Requirements:
- Cloud-based or SaaS architecture preferred (StateRAMP/FedRAMP)
- SSO/SAML integration with Commonwealth identity services
- Data encryption in transit and at rest
- Configurable workflow management and APIs for integration with EOE/DHE systems.

3. Implementation and Support:
- Implementation methodology and timeline
- Data migration strategy
- Testing support
- Post-implementation maintenance.

Period of Performance
The RFI will remain open at least until April 30, 2026, with rolling responses until further notice.

Place of Performance
The geographic location for performance is not explicitly stated but is implied to be within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Bidder Requirements
Vendors are encouraged to provide company background, solution architecture details, implementation timelines, cost estimates including core functionality descriptions, security certifications, references from similar clients in the public sector or higher education, as well as any value-added features such as automation or advanced analytics capabilities.