RFP UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES. ADDENDUM No. 1

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1 RFP UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES Addendum Issued: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 ADDENDUM No. 1 The following shall form part of the Request for Proposals documents for the above, first issued by the Purchasing Division on February 6, 2014, and the revisions and additions noted herein and any attachments shall read in conjunction with all other documents. This Addendum shall, however, take precedence over all previously issued Request for Proposals documents where differences occur. This addendum is issued to clarify and incorporate the following into the above document. A) Proponent Questions Received and Corresponding Answers Question 1 Answer 1 Question 2 Answer 2 Question 3 Answer 3 Question 4 Answer 4 Question 5 Do you require one specific brand to Unified communications infrastructure and services for example Cisco? O the Bid in open? The City has no specific brand requirement. The bid is open to whatever solution the vendor wishes to propose to meet the City s stated requirements. Will the city consider a cloud based solution if it met all your requirements? The City s preference is for a premise based solution, not cloud. Will the city consider a response just to the contact center requirements in the RFP? Partial solutions will not be accepted, therefore strategic partnerships are advised. Who is the incumbent service provider(s) for the various systems? Who is the service provider for network connectivity such PRI and 1FLs? A variety of firms provide local support for the existing PBX/KEY systems. PRI/1FL PSTN connectivity is provided through Bell Canada. The RFP mentions your desire to have a partnership with potential vendors and the manufacturers. Can you give us examples of what you expect or would like to see regarding a partnership with potential manufacturers? Page 1 of 7

2 Answer 5 Question 6 Answer 6 Question 7 Answer 7 Question 8 Answer 8 Question 9 The City is interested in establishing an ongoing business relationship with both the vendor and the manufacturer of the proposed solution. In regards to battery back-up the RFP states that UPS/ battery back-up is not required and that you have a back generator. Is this true at all sites and is there a provision for surge protection for when the generator kicks in? Yes, UPS is protected against Generator power surge. You have requested that you have price protection on future hardware and software components for five years. Are you looking a price guarantee on all components or just a guarantee that prices will not increase more than a certain amount over the five year period? Please clarify. The City requires that after the initial system installation date, pricing for all subsequent hardware component additions, software licensing growth, professional services and system maintenance and support be committed by the vendor at the same level for a 5 year period. Refer to Section for detail. In A.2.2 you state: Vendor will be required to provide connectivity for the new IP telephone system to the City s CS1000 PBX and through PSTN connectivity to City s other systems through the migration phase of the project. Does this mean that you require the new and the old system to be interfaced together during the migration or that you require the two systems running side-by-side during the migration. This could be an additional cost that really isn t necessary for business continuity as it existing today as none of your sites / systems is networked today. The City requires that during the system migration phase the vendors proposed solution be connected to the City s existing CS1000 PBX through QSIG or SIP connectivity. Connectivity to the City s other office locations during the migration will continue to be made by the users dialing through the PSTN to reach the appropriate department. Would you consider a hosted / cloud based solution or a hybrid cloud/ premise based solution? Would you look at hosted / cloud based or a hybrid of hosted and premise as a second option? Answer 9 Refer to response provided in question 2. Question 10 Answer 10 Question 11 You have asked for connectivity offerings such as PRI and SIP trunking as an option. Will they be considered part of the evaluation of the total cost of ownership? Proponents are requested to provide the required solution hardware/software to support PRI connectivity and as an option provide the required hardware/software component to provide SIP PSTN connectivity. Proponents are not required to provide costing for the actual service provider PRI/ SIP trunk services. What type of reporting is the GRTD Call Tracking being used for and is it your intent to replace it or will the new solution be required to integrate with it? Page 2 of 7

3 Answer 11 Question 12 Answer 12 Question 13 Answer 13 Question 14 Answer 14 Question 15 Answer 15 Question 16 Answer 16 Question 17 Answer 17 Question 18 Answer 18 Question 19 Answer 19 GRTD Call tracking is the contact centre reporting tool and will be required to be replaced. As part of this project are you looking to reduce and / or consolidate your trunking? Yes, a key benefit in moving to a single image system is the opportunity to consolidate PTSN access facilities. Is it your intent to replace the Telestrat Call Recording application or will the new solution be required to integrate with it? If the new solution is required to integrate with the existing Call Recording system, what type of integration is it today? The Telestrat Call Recording application should be replaced. Are any of the users on the existing CS1000 using IP sets today that are on the City s LAN/WAN network? No. Is your pricing evaluation based on total cost of ownership (TCO) and if so, will that include things such as electrical consumption, software assurance costs, manufacturers third and fourth level support, (if applicable not all manufacturers charge for this) network connectivity etc? Pricing evaluation is based on the vendors total solution cost for the 5 year period. The RFP states that the City is deploying Cisco edge switches with POE to support this project. Is this being done by City staff or a 3rd party? The City s network refresh is an internal project. Is your network core also Cisco? Yes. Do you use an outside consultant in the preparation of this RFP? If so, will they be involved in the evaluation process? Please refer to RFP Section 3 page 8 Instructions to Proponents 1. (1) (i) for the definition/composition of the City s evaluation team. Can we get a basic / general idea of the set types on the various systems you have for disposal? Some phones may have trade in value. The bulk of the City s telephony set inventory consists of digital set models. There are a few smaller locations that do have IP telephone sets. Page 3 of 7

4 Question 20 Answer 20 Question 21 Answer 21 Question 22 Answer 22 Question 23 Answer 23 Question 24 Answer 24 Question 25 Answer 25 Question 26 There is very little guidelines on the format you require. Do you want acknowledgement on all points in the RFP i.e. READ AND UNDERSTOOD, READ, UNNDERSTOOD, AND COMPLY, or READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE? Please clarify. Refer to the instruction provided in RFP Appendix A page 37, The Proponent s Technical Proposal should include answers to each of the requirements highlighted in the RFP questions. The Proponent s responses will be evaluated based on how they are proposing to meet the City of Brantford s requirements. Ensure that sufficient information is included for the RFP evaluators to derive the proper knowledge of your capabilities. The RFP states that you have an Auto Dialer Express (aka Bigmouth) Is this being replaced or reused? Does it require any kind of integration to the telephony system? If so, what type of integration? Proponents should provide a replacement. In the evaluation section it states that the technical bid is 150 points and pricing is 50 points. If shortlisted the presentation is 50 points, does this mean that pricing is 20% of the final bid evaluation? Please clarify. This information will not be released. The RFP mentions redundancy and resiliency in several places and ask for descriptions of how it works whether it is active/active or active/standby. Do you have a preference for one or the other and will this be dictated by cost? Vendors are requested to propose their optimal design based on the technology they are proposing. The RFP states that you require redundancy for the core system and the contact center and ask for options and descriptions of redundancy on voice mail. Is it mandatory for the voice mail to be redundant or is this dictated by cost. Also do you require redundancy for the call recording? RFP Appendix A 5.3 states the resiliency/redundancy requirements. Proponents are requested to describe their proposed solutions redundancy capabilities for the phone system, contact centre and voic applications. Redundancy for Call recording is not required. Will the manufacturer(s) be part of the shortlist presentations? It is at the vendors discretion as to who on their support team they would bring to the presentation. The RFP has a requirement for (2) attendant consoles. Are you looking for traditional type consoles or PC based consoles and is there any special feature set that you would like the consoles to have? Page 4 of 7

5 Answer 26 Question 27 Answer 27 Question 28 Answer 28 Question 29 Answer 29 Question 30 Answer 30 Question 31 Answer 31 Question 32 Answer 32 Question 33 Answer 33 Question 34 Proponents may choose to bid either PC based or traditional type consoles. The RFP states that you require a single image. This is open to many different interpretations. Can you tell what your expectations are regarding this? The City envisions a single system solution to support all City locations with centralized call control and applications. There is a requirement for a large number of analogue line ports. Can you give us an outline of what they are being used for? As per RFP Appendix A2.6 Analog ports will be used for FAX, Modems, Debit, Alarm and Analog Stations. What type of interface is required for the EnGenius EOC 1650 access points for the Polycom wireless? Professional services for integration of the Polycom/EnGenius wireless are not required in your proposal. Is an upgrade to the existing CS1000 a consideration as long as it meets or exceeds the requirements of the RFP? The City is not looking to upgrade the CS1000. Is the City looking to self-administer the solution after implementation? If so, to what extent? Refer to RFP Appendix D which states The City envisions their internal IT staff performing basic system administration for telephony, contact centre, voice messaging and Unified Communications as well as Move, Add and Change activities. All other service activities will be performed by the Proponent. Do you have any requirement for bi-lingual customer support? There is no requirement. You state that references for municipalities would be preferred if possible and should be direct clients of the Proponent. If it is a joint bid can references be for either of the joint parties. May we give three references for both parties? Please clarify. If the vendor is proposing a joint bid with another vendor then 3 references for both parties are required. This RFP is quite detailed and ask for a lot of descriptive answers on the technical merits of the vendor(s) proposed solution. It will require a lot of planning and resources from both the vendor(s) and the respective manufacturers they represent to put together the best possible response to this RFP. We respectfully request an extension of two weeks to ensure that we can respond with the best proposal possible. Page 5 of 7

6 Answer 34 Question 35 Answer 35 Question 36 Answer 36 Question 37 Answer 37 Question 38 Answer 38 Question 39 Answer 39 Question 40 Answer 40 Question 41 Answer 41 Question 42 Answer 42 Question 43 Answer 43 Question 44 The City will not be extending the due date. Who is the existing carrier for the MPLS and dark fiber? City owns the Dark Fiber. The RFP has a requirement for IVR. Is the requirement for IVR routing or do you require data base interaction or both? The requirement is for both. Do you have a budget and if so, how was the budget arrived at? This information will not be made available. How many wired or wireless headsets are to be included in the response? Proponents should provide unit pricing. Is the option to remove old systems a consideration in the evaluation? Yes, the option to remove the legacy phone systems will be a consideration. What is your preferred media for the electronic copy of the submission? Proponents may choose to provide either a Memory stick/thumb drive or CD. For the lab are you looking to see the functionality of all applications or just the basic operation of the core system? In RFP Section Site Visit, the end customer site or lab environment should be able to fully demonstrate the solution/applications that are being proposed. Will any of the IP conference phones require additional or extended microphones? There is no requirement for this. The RFP has a requirement for (30) auto attendant trees. Is the vendor required to program (30) separate tree or this just is the capacity you require? Proponents should provide the professional services cost to provide for this amount. The RFP states that you have a requirement for - Audio/Web conferencing (able to set up and host a conference) for 150 users. Do you require the capacity for all 150 users to be able to use the conference bridge at the same time as individual users? Page 6 of 7

7 Answer 44 Question 45 Answer 45 Question 46 Answer 46 Question 47 Answer 47 Question 48 Answer 48 Question 49 Answer 49 Question 50 Answer 50 Proponents should provide concurrency for 150 users. The RFP states that you require Softphone licenses for 100 users and Teleworker telephone sets for 25 users. Are these additional to the set count in A.1.1 SYSTEM CONFIGURATION OVERVIEW? These requirements are additional to the set count in A.1.1. The Telstrat call recording has 25 port today. Do you require recording capabilities / capacities for all (66) agents and supervisors and do you require the ability to record all 66 agents / supervisors at once? Proponents should provide the ability to record 33 concurrent recordings and as an option provide the ability for 66 concurrent recordings. Will valued-added services not identified in the RFP be considered and will they be part of the evaluation scoring? Only requirements identified in the RFP will be part of the evaluation scoring. Any additional value added services by the proponent will be noted by the evaluation team. Speech Enabled Auto Attendant will provide Voice Recognition dial by name capability for internal/external callers. Are you also considering voice recognition at the voice mail box level? Not at this time. A.2.12 Connection to overhead paging systems will be required at the following locations: are these single zone paging systems or will they require multiple zone access? This will consist of both single and multiple zone access. Will the use of subcontractors or a joint bid be considered unfavorable in your evaluation or will each party be evaluated on their own merits? The use of 3 rd party or subcontractors by the proponent will be governed and evaluated based on the criteria outlined in RFP Appendix D Qualifications and references. End of Addendum Number 1 RECEIPT OF ADDENDA MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED ON THE FORM OF PROPOSAL Tina Iacoe Manager of Purchasing Purchasing Division - Finance Department All other terms and conditions remain unchanged. Page 7 of 7