Social Security Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21207-0696, Madeline Y. Tims, (410) 965-9488

70 -- AUTOMATIC REMITTANCE PROCESSING EQUIPMENT DUE 121196 POC Madeline Y. Tims Tel: 410-965-9488 The Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to automate its remittance processing operation, from its present key-enter process to one using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. SSA is seeking information on equipment which will economically handle its current remittance workloads. These workloads are not expected to exceed 12,000 to 15,000 items a day. The equipment will need to be backed up with maintenance adequate enough to forestall more than one day down time for each occurrence. The contractor will need to provide onsite training for the two selected office locations, and a hotline number for emergency technical assistance. One of the two remittance processing sites (the final locations have not been determined) will probably be on the East Coast and one in the Midwest. SSA is also seeking industry guidance on the availability of equipment which can accurately read coupons that are torn or cut by our clientele from an unperforated 8 1/2'' x 11'' sheet. The following are specifics of the plan: 1) To divide the national remittance workload between two sites, with each site also serving as a backup facility to the other in case of emergency; 2) Remittance volumes are estimated to be 8,000 to 10,000 per day at each site, with a future increase to an estimated 15,000 per day. Today, 40 percent of the remittances are submitted with a bill stub; we expect this percentage will grow to 80 percent through enhancements SSA makes to its billing process; 3) The system must read the OCR line on a bill stub (coupon) submitted with each check; 4) The system must be able to process checks submitted without coupons; 5) The system must be able to process items with multiple checks and one check with multiple coupons; 6) The system must have the capability of microencoding and endorsing the checks, tallying the remittances scanned and preparing a deposit ticket in a format compatible with the Federal Reserve Bank requirements; 7) The endorsement applied must be in a format acceptable to the Federal Reserve Bank; 8) The system must be able to provide a retrievable copy of each remittance for future reference (e.g., microfilm or image) and 9) The system must provide output in a defined format to automatically update SSA's accounts receivable system, enabling individual client records to be credited with the accepted remittance amount. In addition to the above initiative, SSA would like information on the following items. Ideally, the equipment used for the remittance process improvements could be adapted to these applications: (i) The agency is seeking information on the availability of technology that will scan not only magnetic ink character recognition data, but which can be adapted for other applications, such as reading mark-sense cards and (ii) The agency is also seeking information regarding the technology available for the retrieval of stored information from remote sites; for example, technology which will allow our 1,300 field offices to retrieve an image of a particular remittance submitted to one of the two remittance processing centers. Firms possessing the capability to furnish the above equipment are invited to submit complete information discussing such capabilities; i.e., descriptive literature/brochures, and if applicable GSA Schedules. The information respondents provide shall pertain to this sysnopsis only. Cross-referencing to material previously submitted will not be acceptable. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation of the source data received. No cost or pricing data is required or requested. No contract award will be made on the basis of assessment of capable sources. The Government does not intend to pay for the information solicited or received. This is not a request for proposals and requests for copies of a solicitation will not be honored or acknowledged. Interested parties must respond in writing within 15 calendar days from the date of this publication and refer to ARE/TIMS. (0327)

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