Project Information

Bid Title

Employee Safety Footwear Program

Issuing Agency

State Government of Tennessee

Location

Tennessee

Published Date

May 7, 2026

Closing Date

May 21, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Ref. #

RFI 40100-51820

Original Source

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Project Description

Document ID & Hyperlink:	RFI 40100-51820
Event Start - Response Due:	05/07/2026 05/21/2026
Event Name:	Employee Safety Footwear Program
Last Updated:

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STATE OF TENNESSEE

TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

FOR

EMPLOYEE SAFETY FOOTWEAR PROGRAM

RFI # 40100-51820

May 7, 2026

1. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:

The State of Tennessee, Department of Transportation issues this Request for Information (“RFI”)

for the purpose of assessing the ability of Respondents to meet the State security requirements of

a future solicitation for an Employee Safety Footwear Program. We appreciate your input and

participation in this process.

2. BACKGROUND:

The Department of Transportation is seeking a vendor to manage the employee safety

shoe program for approximately 2,500 field staff. Eligible employees will be given an

allotment annually for footwear, and the Contractor will perform all logistical and

administrative work to provide the employees with approved safety footwear. The

Contractor must be able to provide services on site and online including collecting

size/style information, coordinating order placement, receiving, and distributing the

footwear, troubleshooting of any issues with ordering, shipping, receiving, and

payment of the footwear.

TDOT issues this RFI to gather information from safety footwear vendors to understand

the Respondent’s ability or describing Respondent’s inability to comply with the

requirements set forth in Attachment A.

3. COMMUNICATIONS:

3.1. Please submit your response to this RFI to:

Taylor Hipes, Procurement and Contracts Division

Tennessee Department of Transportation

Tennessee Tower, 11th floor

312 Rosa L Parks Ave, Nashville, TN 37243

TDOT.RFP@tn.gov

1

3.2. Please feel free to contact the Tennessee Department of Transportation with any questions

regarding this RFI. The main point of contact will be:

Taylor Hipes, Procurement and Contracts Division

Tennessee Department of Transportation

Tennessee Tower, 11th floor

312 Rosa L Parks Ave, Nashville, TN 37243

TDOT.RFP@tn.gov

3.3. Please reference RFI # 40100-51820 with all communications to this RFI.

4. RFI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

EVENT

1. RFI Issued

2. RFI Response Deadline

TIME

DATE

(Central Time (all dates are State

Zone)

business days)

May 7, 2026

May 21, 2026

5. GENERAL INFORMATION:

5.1. Responding to this RFI is a prerequisite for responding to any future solicitations

related to this project. Responses to this RFI will not create any contract rights and

responses to this RFI will become property of the State.

5.1.1.1. All Respondents will be required to provide a signed written response from their legal

counsel, or Chief Executive Officer or their authorized designee legally empowered to

bind the respondent to the provisions of the solicitation and resulting contract (if

awarded), either confirming Respondent’s ability or describing Respondent’s inability to

comply with the requirements set forth in Attachment A.

5.1.1.2. The specific Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

periods referenced in the Information Technology Security Requirements clause of

Attachment A will be negotiated and determined between the vendor and the State for

the particular contract based on the priority of the service.

5.2. 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.

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

6. INFORMATIONAL FORMS:

The State is requesting the following information from all interested parties. Attachment A are

being provided as information only for the Respondent to provide an informed response. Please

fill out the following forms:

RFI #40100-51820

TECHNICAL INFORMATIONAL FORM

1. RESPONDENT LEGAL ENTITY NAME:

2. RESPONDENT CONTACT PERSON:

Name, Title:

Address:

Phone Number:

Email:

3. Provide a signed written response from either the legal counsel, Chief Executive Officer, or

their authorized designee legally empowered to bind the respondent to the provisions of the

solicitation and resulting contract (if awarded), either confirming the Respondent’s ability or

describing the Respondent’s inability to comply with the requirements outlined in Attachment A.

4. If Contactor cannot meet the following requirement specified in Attachment A, “The Contractor

shall ensure that all State Data is housed in the continental United States, inclusive of backup

data. All State data must remain in the United States, regardless of whether the data is

processed, stored, in-transit, or at rest. Access to State data shall be limited to US-based

(onshore) resources only,” provide the name of the host country(ies) where any data may be

processed or stored, in-transit, or at rest.

Attachment A

Notable Terms and Conditions Requirements:

(This Attachment does not represent all State of Tennessee contractual Terms and Conditions,

but reflects those the State requires acknowledgement of the Respondent’s ability, or inability, to

comply with to determine inclusion in a future procurement for the services referenced in this

RFI).

D.#. Information Technology Security Requirements (State Data, Audit, and Other Requirements).

a. “State Data” is any and all data that can be accessed, processed, generated, including derivative

works, stored, or hosted by the Contractor in performance of this Contract.” The Contractor shall

protect State Data as follows:

(1) The Contractor shall ensure that all State Data is housed in the continental United States,

inclusive of backup data. All State Data must remain in the United States, regardless of

whether the data is processed, stored, in-transit, or at rest. Access to State Data shall be

limited to US-based (onshore) resources only.

All system and application administration must be performed in the continental United States.

Configuration or development of software and code is permitted outside of the United States.

However, software applications designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons

owned or controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of, a foreign adversary, which

the U.S. Secretary of Commerce acting pursuant to 15 C.F.R. § 7 has defined to include the

People’s Republic of China, among others are prohibited. Any testing of code outside of the

United States must use fake data. A copy of production data may not be transmitted or used

outside the United States.

(2) The Contractor shall encrypt State Data at rest and in transit using the current version of

Federal Information Processing Standard (“FIPS”) 140-2 or 140-3 (or current applicable

version) validated encryption technologies. The State shall control all access to encryption

keys. The Contractor shall provide installation and maintenance support at no cost to the

State.

(3) The Contractor shall maintain, obtain, or undergo the following third-party information security

audit(s) for both the Contractor and the Contractor’s processing environment containing State

Data. The Contractor shall ensure that each assessment remains current and valid throughout

the term of the Contract.

i. NIST Audit - The Contractor and Contractor’s processing environment containing State

Data shall undergo an annual independent audit assessing compliance with the privacy

and security controls established in the National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST) Special Publication 800-53. The audit shall be conducted by a qualified independent

assessor, which may include a reputable CPA firm, cybersecurity firm, or other organization

with demonstrated expertise in assessing NIST control compliance. The audit must

evaluate compliance with the security controls defined in the NIST Special Publication 800-

53B moderate-impact security control baseline or a higher-impact baseline.

(4) Upon request by the State or the Comptroller of the Treasury, and within thirty (30) days of

completion or receipt of any audit required under Contract Section D.#,a.(3) the Contractor

shall provide the State or the Comptroller of the Treasury with the following documentation

and deliverables. The Contractor shall ensure that all documentation remains current,

complete, and accurate throughout the term of the Contract.

i. NIST Audit

1) The audit report in its entirety;

2) A corrective action plan describing each identified deficiency, planned remediation

steps, and anticipated completion dates.

Upon request by the State or the Comptroller of the Treasury, the Contractor shall also provide

current Subcontractor certifications, reports, and related deliverables pertaining to services

provided under this Contract within thirty (30) days. If any certification, authorization,

examination, or assessment required under this Contract for any Subcontractor supporting this

Contract lapses, expires, is suspended, or is revoked, the Contractor shall notify the State in

writing within five (5) business days of learning of the status change and provide: (i) the

effective date and reason; (ii) the services and State Data affected; and (iii) the Contractor’s

corrective action plan and interim risk mitigations.

No additional funding shall be allocated for these examinations as they are included in the

Maximum Liability of this Contract.

(5) The Contractor must annually perform Penetration Tests and Vulnerability Assessments

against its Processing Environment per the NIST 800-115 definition. “Processing

Environment” shall mean the combination of software and hardware on which the Application

runs. “Application” shall mean the computer code that supports and accomplishes the State’s

requirements as set forth in this Contract. “Penetration Tests” shall be in the form of attacks

on the Contractor’s computer system, with the purpose of discovering security weaknesses

which have the potential to gain access to the Processing Environment’s features and data.

The “Vulnerability Assessment” shall be designed and executed to define, identify, and classify

the security holes (vulnerabilities) in the Processing Environment. The Contractor shall allow

the State, at its option, to perform Penetration Tests and Vulnerability Assessments on the

Processing Environment. The Contractor shall provide a letter of attestation on its processing

environment that penetration tests and vulnerability assessments has been performed on an

annual basis and taken corrective action to evaluate and address any findings.

In the event of an unauthorized disclosure or unauthorized access to State Data, the State

Strategic Technology Solutions (STS) Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) must be

notified and engaged by calling the State Customer Care Center (CCC) at 615-741-1001. Any

such event must be reported by the Contractor within twenty-four (24) hours after the

unauthorized disclosure has come to the attention of the Contractor.

(6) If a breach has been confirmed a fully un-modified third-party forensics report must be supplied

to the State and through the STS SIRT. This report must include indicators of compromise

(IOCs) as well as plan of actions for remediation and restoration. Contractor shall take all

necessary measures to halt any further Unauthorized Disclosures.

(7) Upon State request, the Contractor shall provide a copy of all State Data it holds. The

Contractor shall provide such data on media and in a format determined by the State

(8) Upon termination of this Contract and in consultation with the State, the Contractor shall

destroy, and ensure all subcontractors shall destroy, all State Data it holds (including any

Commodity Codes

• NAICS 541611Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
• NAICS 541612Human Resources Consulting Services
• NAICS 541690Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services

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