Specifications include, but are not limited to: The South Dakota Department of Education’s Division of Finance & Management (“State”) seeks a qualified vendor to provide professional services on behalf of the State of South Dakota (“Consultant”) for the purpose of providing E-rate consulting services. 2.2.1 Field and answer all South Dakota applicants inquires using a dedicated telephone number. Send out list serve messages to address issue and/or trends raised in telephone inquiries and email messages. 2.2.2 Review list serve members and reach out to any South Dakota applicant that is not subscribed to the E-rate list serve. 2.2.3 Maintain a log of applicant inquires, providing correspondence reports to the State and identify trends in issues from these logs. Consultant will confer to the State all inquiries and correspondence received. 2.2.4 Forward all other (non-applicant inquires) correspondence and information received by the Consultant, to the State for further review. 2.2.5 Contact each school district, BIA schools, and libraries that have not applied for E-rate in the previous Fiscal Year, in order to encourage the District to attend a work-shop, apply for discounts and sign up for SD E-rate list serve. 2.2.6 Assist State applicants in evaluating whether there is any basis to file an appeal when they are notified that their funding has been denied. Consultant will provide all correspondence and determinations to the State, to ensure proper recommendations are made. 2.2.7 Serve as the liaison with the Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) that is responsible for evaluating whether the form 471 applications comply with program rules. If an entity is put into the comprehensive “Selective Review” process, the Consultant, along with the State will serve as a resource to such applicants. 2.2.8 Submit and assist the State and South Dakota applicants in submitting tickets to the Client Service Bureau that is responsible for assisting applicants and service providers. 2.2.9 Attend monthly meetings with the State at an agreed upon time to go over any communications or issues, coordinate activities such as training and discuss items needed to meet E-rate requirements and deadlines.