Southcom Combined Dispatch Center

Request for Proposals

For a

Fire Station Alerting System

SouthCom Combined Dispatch Center

21113 Dettmering Dr., Matteson, IL. 60443 Ph: (708) 283-6631 Fax: (708) 283-6641

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

911 EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER PROJECT

Fire Station Alerting System

On behalf of the Village’s of Matteson, Park Forest and Richton Park, SouthCom Dispatch is seeking requests for proposals for the purchase and installation of hardware, software and implementation services for a fire station alerting system.

Sealed Proposals will be evaluated based upon criteria formulated around the most important features of a product or service, of which quality, testing, references, availability or capability, may be overriding factors, and price may not be determinative in the issuance of a contract or award. Vendors will not be compensated for any part of the proposal submittal process.

The proposal evaluation criteria should be viewed as standards that measure how well a vendor’s approach meets the desired requirements and needs of SouthCom. Those criteria that will be used and considered in evaluation for award are set forth in this document and SouthCom and the Fire Station Alerting Team will thoroughly review all proposals received. A Purchase Order/Contract will be awarded to a qualified vendor submitting the best proposal.

SouthCom along with the Fire Station Alerting Team shall be the sole determinant of which proposal best meets the needs of SouthCom and its member agencies. Further, SouthCom retains the right to reject any part of or any and/or all proposals received, or to accept any item or items in the proposal, if determined to be in the best interest of SouthCom.

Sealed proposals should be received at SouthCom Dispatch, 21113 Dettmering, Matteson Illinois 60443 by the close of the business day 4:30 p.m. (CDT) on December 7, 2012. Each proposal must be placed in an envelope, sealed, and clearly marked on the outside: “Fire Station Alerting System Proposal.”

Should any vendor find discrepancies, omissions or ambiguities in this RFP, the vendor should at once request in writing an interpretation from SouthCom Dispatch. All requests for clarifications or questions regarding the RFP should be directed to Ms Denise Pavlik, Director of SouthCom at (708) 283-6631, or e-mail . All questions must be submitted in writing or e-mail by 5:00 p.m. (CDT), November 23, 2012; answers will be provided in written form as an addendum and will be posted on the SouthCom’s website at www.southcomdispatch.com.

Denise Pavlik, ENP

Director SouthCom Dispatch

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

This document is a Request for Proposal. It differs from a Request for Bid/Quotation in that SouthCom is seeking a solution for our member agency’s fire station alerting systems. As an RFP formal bidding procedures are not required and SouthCom may chose the vendor who they believe offer the best overall solution. Therefore, the lowest price proposed will not guarantee an award recommendation.

SouthCom along with the Fire Station Alerting Team shall be the sole determinant of which proposal best meets the needs of SouthCom and its member agencies. Further SouthCom retains the right to reject any part of or any and/or all proposals received, or to accept any item or items in the proposal, if determined to be in the best interest of SouthCom.

GENERAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SouthCom, located in north-eastern Illinois, provides fire, police and emergency medical dispatching services for the Villages of Matteson, Olympia Fields, Park Forest and Richton Park. The service area covers approximately 35 square miles within Cook and Will Counties and serves a population of approximately 65,000 citizens. SouthCom dispatched 65,155 calls for service and answered over 119,000 phone calls in 2010.

Currently, SouthCom utilizes a new State-of-the-Art system of Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management. This new technology affords the Telecommunicators a more integrated and streamlined application for taking inbound emergency 9-1-1 calls and dispatching the proper resources to mitigate the emergency in a more timely and efficient way. Our state-of-the-art CAD system is customized to fit our needs, thereby ensuring the highest level of customer service at all times.

SouthCom is located at 21113 Dettmering Drive on the second floor of Matteson’s Fire Headquarters. Inside the dispatch center itself you will find personnel on-duty 24 hours a day 7 days a week trained and ready to answer 9-1-1 calls and assist responding fire and police units via radio and mobile data terminals installed in all first tier response vehicles. All of our Telecommunicators are certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) and provide pre-arrival “self help” instructions to citizens during medical emergencies.

The current Fire Station Alerting System used is Motorola Gold Elite Radio and Frequentis CAD system which alerts any or all of the four fire stations. Radios are installed in the fire stations and are attached to an amplification system distributing the message throughout the fire station via a speaker system. This system is also tied to a notification lighting circuit activating strobe lights in high noise areas to alert workers in these areas. A new radio, antenna, relays, speakers and related equipment for the Alerting System as needed will be supplied.

Each fire station also contains two (2) radios to monitor normal traffic and receive calls. One radio is dedicated for the fire-paging talk group while the other is dedicated to the SouthCom frequency.

The system activates lights, sounds a buzzer, and activates a speaker so personnel can hear the message from the dispatcher.

The fire station alerting system is interfaced to Frequentis Protect Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. CAD automatically alerts a station when a unit assigned to that station is dispatched on a call. Dispatchers can also alert a station by sending a command from the CAD system.

The radio system utilized by SouthCom is a narrowband transmitter/receiver Motorola Central Electronics Bank radio system. Dispatchers access the system using Motorola Gold Elite/ Frequentis consoles. There are two transmitters and nine receivers on a voting system that are available for use. Designated maintenance personnel maintain the current system.

The proposed system must be redundant and designed for 24/7 operations. Vendors must provide proof of reliability through design which is supported by existing customers. Vendor must confirm compatibility and interface with Frequentis CAD.

The desired fire station alerting system will communicate using TCP/IP over the Fire Department’s WAN. The fire station alerting system shall allow the stacking and simultaneous alerting of response units, speeding up deployment of the first responders.

This project shall be completed in a manner commensurate with the intended application.

APPLICABLE STANDARDS AND PUBLICATIONS

All applicable electrical or building codes shall be followed.

This system shall be NFPA 1221 compliant, as applicable.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

The following requirements are provided to assist proposers in understanding the objective of SouthCom in submitting a thorough response. Proposal(s) received must reflect in detail their inclusion and the degree provided. SouthCom desires the most thoroughly engineered and acceptable solution available. The following mandatory requirements outline the mandatory performance/combination requirements for the proposed solution. This section lists criteria to be considered in evaluating the ability of firms interested in providing products/services specified, to be considered for award. Specific responses to each must be acknowledged and any exceptions to the requirements must be detailed in response. All requirements are considered minimum unless otherwise noted.

General

The contractor shall ensure that all components of the system are supported by an uninterruptible power supply.

Will Fully Comply ______Will Not Fully Comply______

The alerting system shall be designed specifically for use as a station alerting system.

Will Fully Comply ______Will Not Fully Comply______

CAD Interface and Manual Alerting

The contracted vendor shall be responsible for fully implementing a CAD Interface to [Frequentis] CAD system.