Customer Relationship Management Platform- UPDATED

RFI 30901- 64526 Page 1 of 6

STATE OF TENNESSEE
DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
FOR
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

RFI # 30901- 64526
Issued January 6, 2026

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:

The State of Tennessee, Department of Treasury (“Department”) issues this Request for Information
(“RFI”) for the purpose of soliciting information to assist the Department with a potential procurement
for a comprehensive, scalable, and user -friendly C ustomer Relationship Management (CRM)
solution to serve as a centralized platform for managing all constituent, legislator, and other agency
interactions. The goal is to streamline communication, enhance service delivery, and improve
operational efficiency through a modern, integrated solution that supports the full lifecycle of
customer engagement. It is anticipated that there will be approximately 100 users within the
Department of a solution. The desired CRM solution should provide capabilities including:

• Contact Management : Search, create, edit, and archive contacts; associate custom
affiliations/tags and data fields; and view all related service tickets and interactions.
• Case/Task Management : Create and manage tasks involving multiple contacts; assign to
individuals or groups; track activity history; and support collaboration, prioritization, and escalation.
• Advanced Search & Reporting : Perform full -text searches across task details; generate custom
reports and dashboards based on tags/affiliations, performance metrics, and satisfaction scores.
• Workflow & Communication Tools : Customizable workflows, send and associate emails with
cases, and enable in- app, email, and mobile notifications for due or overdue items.
• Mobile Accessibility: Full CRM functionality via mobile devices, including ticket creation/editing and real -time notifications.
• Customer Engagement: Send satisfaction surveys, with results integrated into dashboards and
reports.
• System Administration : Manage roles and permissions, configure fields and layouts, maintain
audit logs, and integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365 Outlook.

We appreciate your input and participation in this process .

1. BACKGROUND:

The Department provides services to all Tennesseans through public -facing programs, including,
but not limited to, the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (administration and
investments); Deferred Compensation; Division of Claims and Risk Management; Unclaimed
Property; College Savings; Achieving a Better Life Experience and Tennessee Financial Literacy
Commission. Regarding these programs and other services provided by the Department, the

RFI 30901- 64526 Page 2 of 6
Department receives inquiries from the public , including from the state legislature and other
governmental entities, that require resolution. In 2024, the Department received approximately
two hundred fifty (250) inquiries or tasks that required attention, monitoring, and resolution.

A brief description of the Department’s public -facing programs is as follows:
The Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (“TCRS”) is a public employee retirement system comprised of defined benefit pension plans covering four (4) large groups of public employees: K -12 public school teachers, higher education employees, state employees, and local
government employees. The Department is responsible for the administration of the retirement system as well as the investment of retirement system assets. The Department manages the State’s deferred compensation programs for K -12 public school
teachers, higher education employees, state employees, and local government employees through the State’s 401k, 457, Optional Retirement Plan (ORP), and 403(b) plans.

The Division of Claims and Risk Management investigates and adjudicates claims filed against the State and State employees for causes of action such as negligence and breach of contract. The Division also administers the State’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Program that provides compensation to crime victims, the Workers Compensation program and Insurance Risk management.
The Division of Unclaimed Property attempts to return unclaimed property (money, securities or other personal property turned over to the State by businesses and organizations) to its rightful owners.

The College Savings Program, also known as TNStars®, offers and maintains a §529 college
savings plan that allows families to save for higher education expenses, such as tuition; room and board; equipment; and supplies.
The Achieving a Better Life Experience (“ABLE”) Program is a program designed to help individuals with disabilities save and invest money to pay for qualified disability expenses, such
as housing, education, medical care, and transportation.

The Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission provides innovative educational resources to Tennessee schools and families with the mission to improve the lives of Tennesseans.
For more information about these programs, as well as other programs managed by the Department, please refer to the Department’s Annual Report found here:

https://treasury.tn.gov/Explore- Your -TN-Treasury/About -the-Treasury/Department -Reports .

2. COMMUNICATIONS :
2.1. Please submit your response to this RFI via e- mail at dawn.rochelle@tn.gov
by no later
than the Response Deadline date specified in Section 3. In the event your response with all
attachments and supporting documentation will exceed 15 megabytes in total, please place the documents in a zip file or make two or more submissions such that the documents per e-mail submission do not exceed 15 megabytes.

2.2. Please feel free to contact the Department with any questions regarding this RFI. The main
point of contact will be:

Dawn Rochelle, Procurement Coordinator
Tennessee Department of Treasury
Telephone: (615) 253- 8770
Email: Dawn.Rochelle@tn.gov

2.3. Please reference RFI # 30901- 64526 with all communications to this RFI.

RFI 30901- 64526 Page 3 of 6

2.4. Notice of Intent to Respond

Prospective Respondents should submit a Notice of Intent to Respond (in the form of a simple e- mail) to the Procurement Coordinator (identified above) prior to the Notice of Intent
to Respond Deadline, detailed in the Section 3 Schedule of Events, of this RFI. Such notice
should include the following information:

• the business or individual’s name (as appropriate);
• a contact person’s name and title; and
• the contact person’s mailing address, telephone number, and e- mail address.

A Notice of Intent to Respond creates no obligation and is not a prerequisite for
submitting a response, however, it is necessary to ensure receipt of any RFI
amendments or other notices and communications relating to this RFI.

2.5. Written Questions and Comments
If you have any questions or comments concerning this RFI, you are required to e- mail
them to the Department’s Procurement Coordinator identified above in Section 2 .2 by no
later than the Written Questions and Comments Deadline detailed in Section 3 , Schedule of
Events, of the RFI.
The State will e- mail its responses to written questions and comments to prospective
Respondents from whom the State has received a Notice of Intent to Respond as indicated in RFI Section 2 .4. above and on the date detailed in RFI Section 3, Schedule of Events.
The State will also post a copy of the amendment to the following website:

https://www.tn.gov/generalservices/procurement/central -procurement -office--cpo- /supplier -
information/request -for-proposals --rfp--opportunities1.html

2.6. Optional Oral Presentations
If the Department determines it beneficial to the Department, the Department will give all entities that submit responses to this RFI the opportunity to participate in an optional oral presentation. Participating in the oral presentations is not mandatory. Presentations will be
conducted remotely via web conference, hosted by the State via Microsoft Teams. Oral
presentations provide an opportunity for Respondents to explain and clarify their responses. Each presentation should be limited to one (1) hour.
If the Department determines that the optional oral presentations would be beneficial, the Department’s Procurement Coordinator will schedule Respondent presentations during the
period indicated in Section 3, Schedule of Events, of this RFI. Otherwise, no oral
presentations will be allowed or heard by the Department.

RFI 30901- 64526 Page 4 of 6
3. RFI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

EVENT
TIME
(Central Time
Zone)
DATE
(all dates are State
business days)
1. RFI Issued January 6, 2026
2. Notice of Intent to Respond January 13, 2026
3. Written Questions and Comments
Deadline January 20, 2026
4. State’s Response to Questions and Comments January 30, 2026
5. RFI Response Deadline 2:00 p.m. February 13, 2026
6. Scheduling of Optional Oral Presentations
(if determined to be beneficial to the State) March 2, 2026
7. Optional Oral Presentations (if determined
to be beneficial to the State) March 9 – 12, 2026

The Department may, at its sole discretion, adjust the RFI Schedule of Events as it deems necessary. Any adjustment to the Schedule of Events will be communicated via e-
mail by the Department to prospective Respondents from whom the State has received a Notice of Intent to Respond (refer to Section 2.4).

4. GENERAL INFORMATION:

4.1. Please note that responding to this RFI is not a prerequisite for responding to any future
solicitations related to this project and a response to this RFI will not create any contract
rights. Responses to this RFI will become property of the State.

4.2. The information gathered during this RFI is part of an ongoing procurement. In order to
prevent an unfair advantage among potential respondents, the RFI responses will not be available until after the completion of evaluation of any responses, proposals , or bids
resulting from a Request for Qualifications, Request for Proposals, Invitation to Bid or other
procurement method. In the event that the state chooses not to go further in the
procurement process and responses are never evaluated, the responses to the procurement including the responses to the RFI, will be considered confidential by the State.

4.3. The State will not pay for any costs associated with responding to this RFI.

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5. INFORMATIONAL FORM S:
The State is requesting the following informat ion from all interested parties. Please fill out the
following forms :

RFI # 30901- 64526
TECHNICAL INFORMATIONAL FORM
1. RESPONDENT LEGAL ENTITY NAME:
2. RESPONDENT CONTACT PERSON:
Name, Title:
Address:
Phone Number:
Email:

3. Describe your experience providing similar scope of services/products.
4. Describe how to create and manage tasks within your solution, including how to edit an existing
task, view task history, assign task to an individual, and prioritize/ escalate high- priority tasks.
5. Describe how your solution creates/captures, manages and provides the ability to search/report
on contact information in the solution . Include how duplicate contacts can be merged and
managed within the solution.
6. Describe how your solution provides custom tags and/or affiliations to contacts (ex: legislator) and
ability to archive the custom tags and/or affiliations (ex: retiring legislator).
7. Describe how your solution can search and retrieve all service tickets /tasks associated with a
single custom tag and/or affiliation (ex: legislator)
8. Describe the solution’s search capabilities for the details of tasks and contacts including word and
phrase searches within specific date ranges.
9. Describe the different methods (ex: webform) a task can be created in your solution including the
licenses required to create a task.
10. Explain how your solution can be customized to capture custom ized fields for a task.
11. Explain how workflows are customized in the solution including assignment to a user group or
individual, escalation of a priority task, types of alerts that can be implemented and collaboration on a task at the task or contact level.
12. Describe how attachments are associated with a task in the solution , including w hat capabilities
exist for versioning, and editing of an attachment .
13. Describe the solution’s ability to integrat e with MS Office 36 5, including the ability to associate an
e-mail with a task, send and receive e- mails for a task, and retain all e- mails concerning a task.
14. Describe the standard dashboards available in the solution out-of-the-box or turn -key and the
ability to create custom ized dashboards.
15. Describe what notifications are built into the system and how the notifications can be customized
to various task status, workflow steps, etc.
16. Describe the reporting and analytics for contacts and tasks in the solution and the ability to
generate custom reports and analytics. Include permissions and skill set needed for report

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generation .
17. Does your solution provide a means of sending customized auto -generated surveys to contacts
based upon specific criteria and describe associated dashboards and reports for survey results.
18. Does your solution build a knowledge base or centralized repository that could be used for
reporting from task details and responses/resolutions?
19. Provide an overview of internal controls and security of the solution , including but not limited to ,
single sign on, audit trails, user groups and hosting platform.
20. Describe the security of the solution to protect any personally identifiable information (PII)
obtained through the public -facing feature of the solution, including data encryption, access
controls, incident response, etc.
21. Describe your solution’s mobile capabilities including availability of a mobile app lication vs.
responsive design along with available functionality for each.
22. Describe a typical Implementation of your solution including the following:
a. Provide the expected timeframe for each of the following activities: 1) Design of the
system; 2) Development of the system; 3) Testing; 4) Training; and 5) Installation and
Implementation concerning the system, including any conversion time needed during
transition from existing system to new system and time for data migration.
b. Describe your training approach for future configuration and end users.
23. Explain how your solution is compliant with the regulations for Title II of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA for public -facing survey, web content, and mobile/computer applications.

COST INFORMATIONAL FORM
1. Describe what pricing units you typically utilize for similar services or goods (e.g., per hour, each,
etc.:
2. Describe the typical price range for similar services or goods

3. List and describe maintenance, training and support fees as well as the frequency with which
these fees would be charged.
4. List any additional or optional services or products not described in your response that would incur
additional fees as special, value- added or other services, including, but not limited to, fees for
enhancements, updates, upgrades and modifications or 3rd party vendor interfaces.
5. List and describe any set -up or onboarding fees and any engagement termination fees.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
1. Please provide input on alternative approaches or additional things to consider that might benefit
the Department :