Texas Veterans Commission Requests New Hazlewood Database

The Texas Veterans Commission (TVC) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the development of the TVC Hazlewood database and maintenance and support services.

According to the RFP, "The Hazlewood database system supports record-keeping and reporting functions for public institutions of higher education (IHEs) and qualifying students throughout the state." The Hazlewood Act is a State of Texas education benefit that provides up to 150 hours of tuition exemption to qualifying veterans, spouses and dependent children.

The chosen vendor will be contracted to design and build a comprehensive web, cloud and mobile-based interface accessible to three user groups of differing permissions: veterans and students, IHEs and TVC staff. Existing data must be migrated to the developed Hazlewood database.

Requested database features include a device/platform-neutral public-facing application for account creation, a dashboard for users to track used benefit hours and total value of tuition waived, two-factor authentication, alerts to account changes, easy report submissions and report storage abilities, among other requirements.

In addition to developing a new database, training sessions for the TVC operations team have been requested.

Respondents must adhere to the Department of Information Resources (DIR) requirements for cloud hosting to be considered in the bidding process.

As listed in the General Appropriations Act, TVC has $1.1 million in its budget for the biennium for Hazlewood database improvements.

More detailed information about RFP No. 403-2023-1801-002 can be found online. A mandatory virtual pre-bid meeting has been scheduled for Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. The deadline for question submissions is Dec. 8 at 2:30 p.m. The due date for submissions is Jan. 12 at 2:30 p.m. Andrew Sargeant is the point of contact.