Universal Service Fund Wants Automation Tools to Help Bring Broadband to Communities in Need

Universal Service Administrative Corporation -- the not-for-profit, quasi-governmental corporation charged with funding internet access in needy and underserved communities -- is looking for some robotic process automation tools to ease the job of its verification team and reduce errors from rote, manual data entry. The RPA tools sought in a solicitation posted to beta.SAM.gov will be used in support of the High Cost program, which, “provides support for connectivity in rural and underserved communities.” But ensuring funds go to the proper infrastructure programs requires hard data on needs and access, and for someone—or something—to verify that data is accurate. The solicitation requests a contractor with deep knowledge of RPA tools and solutions. The tools ultimately developed through the contract should be able to accomplish five tasks:

• Generate statistically significant samples based on carrier/state/study area code combinations and then notify stakeholders external parties—carriers—indicating that the samples are ready for them to provide evidence.
• Automate large volume email transactions and metrics generation that are currently done manually.
• Populate verification tracking documents and workflow tracking—milestone monitoring, process questionnaire, announcement letters, verification status and project updates.
• Perform automated verifications of evidence submitted by carriers in numerous formats—including GIS data.
• Synthesize data to find patterns and commonalities to arrive at an optimal process design and store failure rates by carrier/year/fund.

The contract will run for one year, with three one-year add-on options. Bids are due by 11 a.m. Jan. 4.