Student Portal RFQ

EOE and DHE, in coordination with DESE, seek to procure services to design, develop, implement and support a new, secure, student-centered web portal that will serve as the primary digital entry point for students engaging with DHE, with an initial focus on those participating in the Commonwealth's Direct Admissions initiative whereby students are "pre-admitted" to participating colleges and universities based on data in the possession of Commonwealth, such as their high school grade point average and other details, without filling in any application.

EOE and DHE, in coordination with DESE, seek a qualified vendor to serve as a collaborative product, technology and implementation partner for the Student Portal.

EOE is posting this RFQ on behalf of DHE in coordination with DESE.

The selected Bidder will work with EOE, DHE, DESE, participating schools, districts, agencies, and institutions, and other stakeholders as appropriate to develop and refine requirements, design the student experience and technical solution, implement the MVP, and establish an extensible foundation for future Student Portal capabilities.

The engagement is expected to require expertise in product and service design, user experience, solution architecture, application configuration and development, systems and data integration, security and privacy, accessibility, quality assurance, deployment and knowledge transfer.

The Student Portal MVP includes three primary areas of functionality: the student experience, the capabilities DHE needs to operate and oversee the portal, and data exchange with participating schools, districts, agencies, and institutions. The student portal must provide an accessible and mobile-responsive student experience.

The initial engagement will focus on delivering a Minimum Viable Product ("MVP") targeted for a pilot launch with a limited number of institutions and school districts in **June 2027**. [...] The selected Bidder will be expected to use an AI-DLC approach in delivering the Student Portal.

Student Experience

• Students will access the Student Portal through the Commonwealth's MyMassGov constituent/customer identity and access management platform for people accessing Commonwealth digital services.
• Students must be able to indicate their intent to enroll at a participating institution through a "Claim My Spot" workflow.
• The Student Portal must preserve a student's progress and saved selections across sessions so that the student can return and continue where they left off.

DHE Operations

• The Student Portal must support the secure receipt and processing of admissions information provided by DHE through an admissions offer file.
• The solution should provide standard reports for commonly used information.

Institutional Data Exchange

- The Student Portal must support the secure transmission of student enrollment-intent information to participating institutions.

Hosting and Architecture

• Be deployed and hosted within the Commonwealth's AWS infrastructure.
• The selected Bidder will maintain current code in an EOE GitHub repository throughout the project and log their work in EOE's Jira instance.

Interested Bidders must submit their proposals through the Commonwealth's online procurement system, COMMBUYS. Responses must be received no later than the response due date/bid opening date and time indicated in the Event Calendar or they will not be evaluated.

This RFQ is restricted to vendors on the following statewide software contracts: RFR ITS81, Category 3, User Centered Design and Development.

**Event Calendar** (all times in prevailing Eastern Time)

| Procurement Step | Due Date | Time |
| --- | --- | --- |
| RFQ Posted | Monday Oct 26 | |
| Bidder Questions Due | Wednesday November 4 | 1pm EST |
| Commonwealth Responses posted to COMMBUYS (estimated date) | Monday November 9 | |
| RFQ Response Due | Friday November 13 | 1pm EST |
| Selected Bidder(s) Notified of Presentation (estimated date) | Friday November 20 | |
| Bidder Presentations (estimated date) | December | |
| Final Bidder Selection and Negotiation | January | |

The Agency reserves the right to amend this RFQ at any time prior to the date the responses are due. Any such amendment will be posted to COMMBUYS (www.commbuys.com).