State of Colorado

Colorado School Of Mines
Notice of Proposed Sole Source
Solicitation Number: CSM09019

Comments Submission Deadline

Date & Time:

08/22/2008 02:00 PM MDT

Address:

Colorado School of Mines Purchasing Department 1500 Illinois Street Golden, CO 80401

Comments:

Attn: Cheryl O'Donnell

Point Of Contact

The Colorado Procurement Code provides that a contract may be awarded for a supply or service, without competition, when there is only one source for the required supply or service. Therefore, a "sole source" procurement is justified if there is only one item or service that can reasonably meet the state's need and there is only one vendor who can provide the item or service.

Some of the specifications on BIDS include files with this icon, , and/or the file extension, ".pdf". These require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Additional Information

1. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Fast Application with Online Corollary
a. Includes applications for 33,000 inquiries-30,000 existing inquiries and 3,000 Senior Search responders (two mail dates to cover any new inquiries that enter pool in fall) as well as strategic, creative and programming development, programming development, program and administrative web hosting, submitted application data transfers and email response management.
2. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Web Application
a. Includes hosting the online application accessible at mines.edu as well as strategic, creative and program development, web hosting, and email response management.
3. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Senior Search
a. Includes mailing and emailing 31,000 new prospective students as well as strategic, creative and program development, web hosting, and email response management.
4. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Search and eSearch
a. Includes mailing and emailing 200,000 students: 180,000 new prospective students, and 20,000 pre-existing inquiries as well as strategic, creative and program development, web hosting, and email response management.
5. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 IncompleQual
a. Includes development and hosting of web pages for incomplete applicants as well as strategic, creative and program development, responder data transfers, and email response management.
6. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Accepted Student Program
a. Includes development and hosting of web pages for up to 3,000 accepted students as well as strategic, creative and program development, responder data transfers, and email response management.

Sole Source Below:

For the past nine years, we have used Royall & Company, a company based in Richmond, VA, which specializes in response-driven, direct marketing services, to design, manage, and coordinate the CSM Admissions Office direct marketing and electronic contact programs. These programs have included direct mail and electronic contact programs to recruit prospective students; prospect conversion programs to provide admissions applications to prospective students; and incomplete application conversion programs to provide electronic contacts informing applicants about the status of incomplete applications.

Several of these programs are proprietary and one is trademarked, and as such, are unique to Royall & Company. As a comprehensive, coordinated approach to admissions recruiting, prospect conversion, and applicant conversion, Royall & Company offers a one-of-a-kind service and per-formance guarantees that are not matched by any other vendor.

The recruiting of college and university students is a particular and unique activity. While it shares similarities with other marketing programs, its uniqueness stems from the need for a clear understanding of the education market for high school students and the factors that influence it. Be-cause of its particular and unique nature, many services and products that support college recruiting, marketing, and admissions are offered by a very limited number of companies and business, and often may be offered only by a single company or business. No other vendor offers such a complete and comprehensive "systems" approach to managing the information flow to prospective students and applicants as does Royall & Company nor can we provide these services through CSM re-sources.

Royall & Company is devoted entirely to higher education direct marketing programs, and this focus and their expertise has produced dramatic success for the CSM direct marketing program. For these reasons, I'm requesting that we be allowed to use Royall & Company as a sole source for the CSM direct marketing program, and prospect and applicant conversion programs in 2008-2009. Greater detail is provided in the following sections of this memorandum.

Student Recruitment and Direct Marketing

Each year, the Admissions Office contacts approximately 186,000 prospective students as part of our direct marketing program, these contacts are being increased to 231,000 this year. The mail house portion of this direct marketing program (printing, stuffing, and posting of letters) is a common service. It is also a very small part of the services that we expect from Royall & Company. In addition to mail house services, we expect Royall & Company to provide consulting services on direct marketing techniques; design appropriate direct marketing materials, including design and support of Web-based contact mechanisms; develop a database for tracking and reporting of direct marketing responses (both paper and electronic); and summarize, report, and maintain records of CSM's direct marketing program for extended periods of time.

These services also include the development and management of e-mail contact with pro-spective students. All Royall's prospective student e-mail messages are different, and Royall main-tains relationships with all major ISP's so that these e-mails have a "white-listed" status. In addi-tion, Royall monitors and reads all responses to e-mail messages to assure that CSM's marketing message is perceived as valuable and welcome, not as spam.

We also expect Royall & Company to provide comparative data showing the performance of CSM's direct marketing program versus similar programs at other colleges and universities, and to do so over extended periods of time.

Prospect Conversion

Again this year, we plan to use a prospect conversion program developed by Royall & Com-pany called FastApp. With FastApp, prospective students are mailed a custom designed and personalized, pre-printed admissions application, and FastApp has been successful in increasing our conversion rates of prospects to applicants. When used in conjunction with Royall & Company's other direct marketing programs, FastApp has nearly doubled the number of students applying to CSM and allowed us to increase the number of non-resident students.

The FastApp program is fully supported by an electronic, Web-based version of all paper materials, including Web-based application forms which will be maintained and used both for FastApp as well as all regular admissions applications. The information on these application forms can be uploaded directly into the Banner system, and because of this, we expect to move to a mostly paperless application system this year for new freshmen applicants.

The FastApp Program is based on Royall & Company's experience that prospects will respond and apply at higher rates to an application with the following characteristics:
1. A personalized, customized, coordinated envelope/application/cover letter packet featuring contemporary graphics and phrasing, on which the prospect's basic demographic informa-tion (name, address, etc.) has already been entered.

2. An offer, or reward, for completing the application. An offer could include the following:
a. Accelerated processing of an application (i.e., within three weeks).
b. Priority treatment for certain processes (i.e., campus housing, scholarship considera-tion, etc.).
c. Waiver of our application fee.

3. A request to act within a specified time frame (i.e., apply by November 15. The offer, or re-ward, would apply only until this deadline.

Royall's estimated cost for FastApp, including maintenance of an on-line, electronic ad-missions application for 2008-2009.

Incomplete Application Contact Program

In addition to our direct marketing programs and FastApp, this year we again plan to use another proprietary program provided by Royall, Incomplete E-Qual. Incomplete E-Qual is an e-mail based program designed to contact students by e-mail notifying them of missing applications materials.

This is a unique service that we began using in the 2006-2007 academic year to minimize the number of incomplete applications and manage contacting the increasing number of incomplete applications, and one that we cannot manage on-campus using the Banner student information sys-tem. The purpose of the E-Qual program is to increase the number of student completing the appli-cation process, and the status of their applications encouraging them to cpmplete the application process.

Accepted Student Conversion Program

For several years, we have worked to improve our conversion of accepted students to enroll-ing students, particularly non-resident students, in order to maximize student quality and demo-graphic mix of the entering freshman class. This year, we plan to strengthen our applicant conver-sion programs by using another proprietary program from Royall the Applicant E-Qual program.

With the Applicant E-Qual program, each accepted student, and their parents, will be sent letters and e-mails providing information about campus events (visitation programs) providing in-formation about campus events and other items. This will include a Web-based system to register for scheduled visitation programs and request more specific information about CSM.

Direct Marketing - List Consulting Services

The corollary to the entire direct marketing services and products provided by Royall are the list sources from whom prospective students' names are purchased. These students are identified through a series of parameters defined with each list source to ensure the best fit and potential re-sponse to Colorado School of Mines. These sources include ACT, College Bound Selective Service- CBSS, National Research Center for College and University Admissions -NRCCUA, and The Col-legeBoard.

State of Colorado

Colorado School Of Mines
Notice of Proposed Sole Source
Solicitation Number: CSM09019

Comments Submission Deadline

Date & Time:

08/22/2008 02:00 PM MDT

Address:

Colorado School of Mines Purchasing Department 1500 Illinois Street Golden, CO 80401

Comments:

Attn: Cheryl O'Donnell

Point Of Contact

The Colorado Procurement Code provides that a contract may be awarded for a supply or service, without competition, when there is only one source for the required supply or service. Therefore, a "sole source" procurement is justified if there is only one item or service that can reasonably meet the state's need and there is only one vendor who can provide the item or service.

Some of the specifications on BIDS include files with this icon, , and/or the file extension, ".pdf". These require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Additional Information

1. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Fast Application with Online Corollary
a. Includes applications for 33,000 inquiries-30,000 existing inquiries and 3,000 Senior Search responders (two mail dates to cover any new inquiries that enter pool in fall) as well as strategic, creative and programming development, programming development, program and administrative web hosting, submitted application data transfers and email response management.
2. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Web Application
a. Includes hosting the online application accessible at mines.edu as well as strategic, creative and program development, web hosting, and email response management.
3. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Senior Search
a. Includes mailing and emailing 31,000 new prospective students as well as strategic, creative and program development, web hosting, and email response management.
4. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Search and eSearch
a. Includes mailing and emailing 200,000 students: 180,000 new prospective students, and 20,000 pre-existing inquiries as well as strategic, creative and program development, web hosting, and email response management.
5. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 IncompleQual
a. Includes development and hosting of web pages for incomplete applicants as well as strategic, creative and program development, responder data transfers, and email response management.
6. 1ea. Royall & Co. 2009 Accepted Student Program
a. Includes development and hosting of web pages for up to 3,000 accepted students as well as strategic, creative and program development, responder data transfers, and email response management.

Sole Source Below:

For the past nine years, we have used Royall & Company, a company based in Richmond, VA, which specializes in response-driven, direct marketing services, to design, manage, and coordinate the CSM Admissions Office direct marketing and electronic contact programs. These programs have included direct mail and electronic contact programs to recruit prospective students; prospect conversion programs to provide admissions applications to prospective students; and incomplete application conversion programs to provide electronic contacts informing applicants about the status of incomplete applications.

Several of these programs are proprietary and one is trademarked, and as such, are unique to Royall & Company. As a comprehensive, coordinated approach to admissions recruiting, prospect conversion, and applicant conversion, Royall & Company offers a one-of-a-kind service and per-formance guarantees that are not matched by any other vendor.

The recruiting of college and university students is a particular and unique activity. While it shares similarities with other marketing programs, its uniqueness stems from the need for a clear understanding of the education market for high school students and the factors that influence it. Be-cause of its particular and unique nature, many services and products that support college recruiting, marketing, and admissions are offered by a very limited number of companies and business, and often may be offered only by a single company or business. No other vendor offers such a complete and comprehensive "systems" approach to managing the information flow to prospective students and applicants as does Royall & Company nor can we provide these services through CSM re-sources.

Royall & Company is devoted entirely to higher education direct marketing programs, and this focus and their expertise has produced dramatic success for the CSM direct marketing program. For these reasons, I'm requesting that we be allowed to use Royall & Company as a sole source for the CSM direct marketing program, and prospect and applicant conversion programs in 2008-2009. Greater detail is provided in the following sections of this memorandum.

Student Recruitment and Direct Marketing

Each year, the Admissions Office contacts approximately 186,000 prospective students as part of our direct marketing program, these contacts are being increased to 231,000 this year. The mail house portion of this direct marketing program (printing, stuffing, and posting of letters) is a common service. It is also a very small part of the services that we expect from Royall & Company. In addition to mail house services, we expect Royall & Company to provide consulting services on direct marketing techniques; design appropriate direct marketing materials, including design and support of Web-based contact mechanisms; develop a database for tracking and reporting of direct marketing responses (both paper and electronic); and summarize, report, and maintain records of CSM's direct marketing program for extended periods of time.

These services also include the development and management of e-mail contact with pro-spective students. All Royall's prospective student e-mail messages are different, and Royall main-tains relationships with all major ISP's so that these e-mails have a "white-listed" status. In addi-tion, Royall monitors and reads all responses to e-mail messages to assure that CSM's marketing message is perceived as valuable and welcome, not as spam.

We also expect Royall & Company to provide comparative data showing the performance of CSM's direct marketing program versus similar programs at other colleges and universities, and to do so over extended periods of time.

Prospect Conversion

Again this year, we plan to use a prospect conversion program developed by Royall & Com-pany called FastApp. With FastApp, prospective students are mailed a custom designed and personalized, pre-printed admissions application, and FastApp has been successful in increasing our conversion rates of prospects to applicants. When used in conjunction with Royall & Company's other direct marketing programs, FastApp has nearly doubled the number of students applying to CSM and allowed us to increase the number of non-resident students.

The FastApp program is fully supported by an electronic, Web-based version of all paper materials, including Web-based application forms which will be maintained and used both for FastApp as well as all regular admissions applications. The information on these application forms can be uploaded directly into the Banner system, and because of this, we expect to move to a mostly paperless application system this year for new freshmen applicants.

The FastApp Program is based on Royall & Company's experience that prospects will respond and apply at higher rates to an application with the following characteristics:
1. A personalized, customized, coordinated envelope/application/cover letter packet featuring contemporary graphics and phrasing, on which the prospect's basic demographic informa-tion (name, address, etc.) has already been entered.

2. An offer, or reward, for completing the application. An offer could include the following:
a. Accelerated processing of an application (i.e., within three weeks).
b. Priority treatment for certain processes (i.e., campus housing, scholarship considera-tion, etc.).
c. Waiver of our application fee.

3. A request to act within a specified time frame (i.e., apply by November 15. The offer, or re-ward, would apply only until this deadline.

Royall's estimated cost for FastApp, including maintenance of an on-line, electronic ad-missions application for 2008-2009.

Incomplete Application Contact Program

In addition to our direct marketing programs and FastApp, this year we again plan to use another proprietary program provided by Royall, Incomplete E-Qual. Incomplete E-Qual is an e-mail based program designed to contact students by e-mail notifying them of missing applications materials.

This is a unique service that we began using in the 2006-2007 academic year to minimize the number of incomplete applications and manage contacting the increasing number of incomplete applications, and one that we cannot manage on-campus using the Banner student information sys-tem. The purpose of the E-Qual program is to increase the number of student completing the appli-cation process, and the status of their applications encouraging them to cpmplete the application process.

Accepted Student Conversion Program

For several years, we have worked to improve our conversion of accepted students to enroll-ing students, particularly non-resident students, in order to maximize student quality and demo-graphic mix of the entering freshman class. This year, we plan to strengthen our applicant conver-sion programs by using another proprietary program from Royall the Applicant E-Qual program.

With the Applicant E-Qual program, each accepted student, and their parents, will be sent letters and e-mails providing information about campus events (visitation programs) providing in-formation about campus events and other items. This will include a Web-based system to register for scheduled visitation programs and request more specific information about CSM.

Direct Marketing - List Consulting Services

The corollary to the entire direct marketing services and products provided by Royall are the list sources from whom prospective students' names are purchased. These students are identified through a series of parameters defined with each list source to ensure the best fit and potential re-sponse to Colorado School of Mines. These sources include ACT, College Bound Selective Service- CBSS, National Research Center for College and University Admissions -NRCCUA, and The Col-legeBoard.