City of Tacoma Department of Public Utilities - Tacoma Power

Transcription

1 City of Tacoma Department of Public Utilities - Tacoma Power Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Integration Infrastructure Implementation RFP Specification No. PS F QUESTIONS and ANSWERS All interested parties had the opportunity to submit questions in writing by 3:00 p.m., April 27, The answers to the questions received are provided below and posted to the City s website at This information IS NOT considered an addendum. Respondents should consider this information when submitting their proposals. Question 1: Answer 1: Question 2: Answer 2: Question 3: Answer 3: Question 4: Answer 4: Question 5: Answer 5: Question 6: Budget is $1-$1.2 MILLION for the SOA project. Please confirm that this budget number includes services for Phase 1, product license fee and not the first year of product maintenance or subsequent years of maintenance? Correct. Is the City of Tacoma willing to utilize offshore resource for implementation or should this be a pure onsite execution model. No. On-site execution model for implementation services preferred. Quote provided as part of contract is limited to Phase 1 which includes the infrastructure setup and implementation of prototype (2-4) interfaces. Is this understanding correct? Correct. Section 5.4.g.a a. "Provide a fixed priced, deliverables-based cost based on your estimate of service hours required to perform implementation services over six months" Is there a mandate to have the implementation team available for 6 months duration? No. Vendor may propose implementation schedule reflective of both effort and duration. Section Describe the approach you would use to prepare for and conduct financial audits while meeting the scope of service requirements of this RFP. Is it possible to obtain additional details on the type of information required on the financial audit." Describe your approach to project level budget tracking and record keeping as a means of reconciling invoices for services with actual work performed. Scope of Work C. Software Deployment Size. Does TPU have more detailed specs on the servers to be used in this environment? What is the processor (CPU speed). Also, will the VM s being provisioned be Wintel or Linux and what o/s level is planned to be installed? Page 1 of 8

2 Answer 6: Question 7: Answer 7: Question 8: Answer 8: Question 9: Vendor is expected to provide minimum server processor and OS specifications required to run software. Products will be required to operate in a VM environment, WinTel preferred. Scope of Work C. Software Deployment Size. In phase 1, 2-4 application interfaces are mentioned. a. Has it been determined which application interfaces will part of the pilot? b. Can the list of interfaces be provided denoting the application endpoints and daily volumes for phase 1? c. Also, are all four within the same subnet or is it expected that some of these will traverse the firewall? i.e. from TPU IT ESB to applications in Enterprise IT or from TPU OT. a. The pilot will be selected from meter data management or outage management use cases. b. If meter reads, < 100 messages per day. If OMS, daily volumes negligible. c. If meter data management interfaces are selected, this will traverse the firewall between Enterprise IT and TOU OT. Scope of Work C. Software Deployment Size. Of the three ESB s listed in the diagram, which is slated for the Phase 1 prototype? TPU OT ESB, TPU IT ESB, or Enterprise IT ESB? TPU IT and TPU OT ESB. These are shown as a federated system assuming logical messaging layers sharing the same physical platform. Scope of Work C. Software Deployment Size. Is the Full Rollout planned to be all three ESBs? (TPU OT ESB, TPU IT ESB, & Enterprise IT ESB environments)? Answer 9: TPU OT and TPU IT ESB. See response to question 8. Question 10: Scope of Work C. Software Deployment Size. Can we get further clarification on the distinctions being made about phase1 and phase2? a. 2 CPUS listed for Phase 1-Prototype. For clarification, is it intended that the prototype will be running on a server with 2 cores allocated or 2 hexcores (12 cores)? b. Is it intended that the phase 1 prototype will be in a clustered highly available configuration or just a single two core VM? c. Is it intended that phase 2 Full-Rollout will be running on a three core cluster in highly available configuration with 2cores assigned to each ESB VM? Answer 10: a. 2 allocated cores. b. Single two-core VM. c. Yes. Question 11: Scope of Work C. Software Deployment Size. As services for only phase 1 are being requested as part of this RFP, Is the software being requested for this RFP only for phase 1-protype or for both phase 1 and 2? Answer 11: Both. Vendor may break down software costs per phase. Page 2 of 8

3 Question 12: Implementation Services Section E.2.A Contractor must provide all of the implementation services specified below. b. Design and implementation consulting services for phase 1 prototype ESB interfaces described in section C.1.d. Will Tacoma functional experts be resources for the phase 1 effort for validating the re-engineering of the business process(s) as services? For UAT testing? Answer 12: Yes. Question 13: Section 1.06, B Pricing: Page 8: Please explain why the amount budgeted is provided in a range. Please provide details as to the status of the budget (proposed, formally approved etc.) Answer 13: Based on available industry estimates from research analysts. Budget formally approved. Question 14: Section 2.03, A Software, 1 Required Components, a Enterprise Service- Bus Functionality: Page 12: What is the City s requirements for the cyber security components? Answer 14: Industry standard authentication and authorization mechanisms. LDAP compatible. Message level security with policy run-time enforcement capability. Question 15: Section 2.03, A Software, 1 Required Components, b Messaging Functionality: Page 12: Can you provide additional details about the scenarios that require stateful integration? Answer 15: The ESB solution must support standard enterprise integration patterns, which include synchronous transactions. Specific stateful interfaces are not known at this time. Question 16: Section 2.03, A Software, 1 Required Components, e Optional Components: Page 12: Should pricing for optional components included in the Total Cost or separately? Please answer for both software license and implementation costs. Please provide guidance on how this impacts scoring criteria. Answer 16: Separate cost line items for required components, optional components, and implementation services. Scoring criteria for cost is based on the sum total. Question 17: Section 2.03, A Software, 1 Required Components, e Optional Components: Page 12: Can you provide an interface list containing description of the interface, sender system name, sender protocols, receiver system name, receiver protocol, complexity of interface? Answer 17: No. As stated in the opening, the ESB is considered a strategic investment for future integration needs which are reflected in the reference architecture. Specific interface requirements will not be known until individual application projects requiring ESB-based integration are initiated. Question 18: Section 2.03, B, Optional Software: Page 12: Please confirm how information provided by us for optional software will be used in the award of the RFP. As examples: Page 3 of 8

4 a. Does the pricing provided for optional software need to be included in the overall price proposed by the vendor? b. Will there be any impact to the scoring of an RFP response if optional software is, or is not included? Please describe which areas of the scoring will reference answers around optional software c. Does the allocated Tacoma budget account for any of the optional software, or is this expected to be a separate budget allocated? Answer 18: a. and b.: See response to question 16. c. Separate budget for future SOA project phases. Question 19: Section 2.03, B: Optional Software, 1 Additional Components, e SOA Security: Page 12: What kind of runtime policies would you like to enforce? Answer 19: Application and message level authentication and authorization, i.e., web services security WSS standard. Question 20: Section 2.03, B: Optional Software, 2: Pricing Scheme: How many named users do you have in your SAP ECC system? Answer 20: 100+ Question 21: Section 2.03, C: Software Deployment Size: Page 13 1) ESB: a. What are the expected data throughput rates (messages/hour peak)? b. What are the expected average message size? c. Which systems in the landscape require a High availability setup? 2) Complex event processing: a. What are the expected data throughput rates (events/second peak)? b. What is the required latency (in ms)? c. What is the complexity of Processing logic that needs to be applied (Low: No joins, simple aggregations, medium: a less than 10 joins and aggregations, high: 10 to 20 joins and aggregations)? d. What are your latency requirements? e. What kind of systems and sensors do you want to integrate with Complex event processing? f. Which systems in the landscape require a High availability setup? 3) BAM: a. What are the expected data throughput rates (processes/hour peak)? b. Which systems in the landscape require a High availability setup? 4) API management: a. How many concurrent requests do you expect from 1 sender? b. How many policies are evaluated for each request? Answer 21: See response to question 17. Question 22: Section 2.03, C Software Deployment Size, 1 TPU s forecasted deployment, a Servers: Page 13: Please outline in your assumptions any additional uplifts. Could the City please clarify that additional uplifts applies to our software cost rather than a hardware or any other cost. Page 4 of 8

5 Answer 22: Software cost. Question 23: Section 2.03 C Software Deployment Size, 1 TPU s forecast deployment, d Project Phasing: Page 13: Please provide the interface list, including the protocols used in those interfaces. Please provide as much detail as possible. Answer 23: See response to question 17. Question 24: Section 2.03 C Software Deployment Size, 1 TPU s forecast deployment, d Project Phasing: Page 13: Please define prototype deployment from TPU s point of view. Answer 24: 2-4 ESB enabled interfaces between no more than two applications. Question 25: Section 2.03 D Software Maintenance and Support Services, 1, a: Page 13: Assignment of a dedicated account manager: Page 13 Please clarify the expectation around dedicated. Is the expectation that this is a full-time resource, or a part-time but named resource? Answer 25: Vendor is expected to provide an account manager as a named resource. Question 26: Section 2.03, E, Implementation Services, 1: Page 14: Please explain how the period of 6 months was chosen. Is the expectation that the entire scope will be covered in 6 months, or should we propose as much scope as can be accomplished in the 6 month period? May we propose a shorter or longer initial implementation period for Phase 1 if we believe that is appropriate? Answer 26: See response to question 4. Question 27: Section 2.03, E, Implementation Services, 2: Page 14: Please explain the difference between product installation planning and support and design and implementation consulting services Answer 27: Product installation planning and support addresses software installation and configuration. Design and implementation consulting addresses prototype interface development, post product installation. Question 28: Section 2.04: Desired qualifications, C: Page 14: As a multi-product software company, we do not track our annual software sales or implementation services at the product level. May we respond with a statement that we are confident that our revenue for these solutions exceeds these desired qualifications rather than by providing specific numbers? Answer 28: Yes. Question 29: Section 2.04: Desired qualifications, C, Page 14: May we include implementations by our partners of our software in this number if needed? Answer 29: Yes Page 5 of 8

6 Question 30: Section 3.02, D ESB Features and Requirements Response Workbook, 1,b Desired Product Features: Page 16: Tab "Connectivity": 3.12: Can you provide more details about the "dead letter" requirement? Answer 30: Dead letter is the same as a bad message queue, e.g., a message that fails schema validation. Question 31: Section 3.02, D ESB Features and Requirements Response Workbook, 1,b Desired Product Features: Tab "Transformation": 2.7: Can you please provide more details about the "version checking" requirements? Answer 31: Typically done in schema validation where multiple versions of a schema definition exist. Also applies to versions of web services. Question 32: Section 3.02, D ESB Features and Requirements Response Workbook, 1,b Desired Product Features: Tab Orchestration : 4.14: Can you please clarify what is meant with "Entry/exit points as standard interfaces"? Answer 32: Web Service, JMS message, or File end points are considered standard entry/exit points. Question 33: Section 3.02, D ESB Features and Requirements Response Workbook, 1,b Desired Product Features: Tab "Development": a. 5.4: Which standard "Development artifacts stored in standard formats" should be supported? b. 5.6: Can you provide more details about the "Source/target abstraction" requirement? Answer 33: a. Standard web service artifacts in a SOA environment include schema, XSD, XSLT, etc. b. Service abstraction is commonly referred to as loose coupling via service proxies. Question 34: Section 3.02, D ESB Features and Requirements Response Workbook, 1,b Desired Product Features: Tab "Administration? a. 6.7: Can you describe what kind of hot deployments you would like to achive? What approved authentication standards you would like to use? b. 6.16: what kind of malicious content do you want to detect? c. 6:33: Which other ESB's need to be federated? What is the preferred protocol for each of the ESBs? Answer 34: a. Ability to deploy in an active/active or an active passive model (e.g. ability to deploy new run time components without interrupting production. See response to question 14 for authentication standards. b. Common message level and web service security anti-patterns (Man in the middle, SQL/XPATH injection, Replay, DoS, PARM tampering, etc.) c. At a minimum two federated ESBs for TPU OT and TPU IT systems deployed on a common physical layer. Vendor may suggest federation protocol and method. Page 6 of 8

7 Question 35: Section 3.02: E: Qualifications of Key Personnel to be Assigned to the Project AND Section 4.09, Commitment of Key Personnel: Page 25: As a large global company with a global consulting organization, we have many personnel qualified to perform this implementation. In our response we will present in good faith the most likely candidate(s) to perform the implementation, but we cannot commit personnel to the project until a contract is signed. If selected we are confident we will be able to staff the project with suitably qualified personnel who will be acceptable to TPU. Is this acceptable to TPU? Answer 35: Yes. Question 36: Section 3.04, Fees and Charges / Method of Billing / Hourly Rates / Value, 1 Total Cost: Page 17: Please describe exactly what must be included in the total cost (eg, software licensing, software maintenance Year 1, Software Maintenance Year X, training costs etc ) Answer 36: See response to question 16. Identify all cost elements as separate line items in the total cost proposal. Question 37: Section 3.04, Fees and Charges / Method of Billing / Hourly Rates / Value, 1,a Provide cost breakout : Page 17: In Section 3.04, G, g Implementation Services, c: Page 18, TPU expresses a desire for a Fixed Free Proposal. In a Fixed Fee Proposal hourly rates, travel expenses etc. are not normally given since Fixed Fee is based on milestones met and deliverables achieved. Please clarify the City s expectations around information given. Answer 37: Travel and expenses can be estimated based on expected effort and outside of the fixed fee proposal. T&E will be billed at actual cost without mark up. Question 38: Section 3.04, G, g Implementation Services: Page 18: Does the city have any specific concerns with offshore resources working on this project? Answer 38: See response to question 2. Question 39: Section 3.04, G, g Implementation Services, b Pricing should be provided as an hourly rate : Page 18: If providing a Fixed Fee Bid, may providing an hourly rate schedule be omitted? Answer 39: Yes. Question 40: Section 3.04, G, g Implementation Services, c: Page 18: TPU encourages Respondents to provide a fixed fee proposal. Will TPU accept a Time and Materials proposal? What scoring impact will there be, if any, to providing a Time and Materials proposal versus a Fixed Fee Proposal? Answer 40: For product installation and configuration services at a minimum, a fixed fee is encouraged. For prototype interface development, a T&M proposal is acceptable provided estimates banded by a low effort and high effort amount. Scoring on the cost criteria is based on total bid cost inclusive of fixed and T&M components. Page 7 of 8

8 Question 41: Section 3.04, h, Training Services, a: Page 18: Please confirm that the training cost should be provided as a separate line item to the Implementation Services Answer 41: Confirmed as a separate line item. Question 42: Section 3.04, i, Identify and provide a cost breakout for optional..: Page 18: Please provide detail on how/if this information is used in the Criteria scoring. Should optional service costs be included in the Implementation Cost or the Total Cost? May we provide a Rough Order of Magnitude and/or Budgetary Estimate cost versus a firm Proposal? Answer 42: See response to question 16. A budgetary estimate for the optional software cost will suffice. Question 43: Section 3.05, H, Criteria, 5, Small Business Enterprise: Page 20: Please provide detail on how this item is scored. For example, does any partnership with a qualified SBE result in scoring 5 points, or is there a sliding scale of scoring depending on either the $ value or the % allocated to the SBE? Please provide details. Answer 43: Five points awarded if Respondent is a registered City of Tacoma SBE firm or is partnering with a registered City of Tacoma SBE firm to complete this work. There is no sliding scale or percentage. Question 44: Section 4.07: Contract Obligation / Acceptance of Submittal Contents: Page 24. If in our response we take exception to the Professional Services Contract and/or the Terms and Conditions contained in the RFP and the city determines not to open discussions or to reject our proposed exception, are we permitted to withdraw our offer if we cannot accept the City s standard Professional Services Contract and or the Terms and Conditions contained in the RFP? Answer 44: If Respondent and City cannot agree to terms, negotiations may be terminated. Page 8 of 8