Strength of Character and College Ready

Bibb County School DistrictMacon, Georgia

Strength of Character and College Ready

SOLICITATION NO: 14-16

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)

FOR

“CORE” Datacenter environments

hardware, SOFTWAre, design, integration, MIGRATION, and support

BIBB COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

484 Mulberry Street

Macon, Georgia 31201

November 22, 2013

TENTATIVE TIMELINE

RFP Released Date11/22/2013

RFP Pre Bid MeetingTuesday December 10, 2013

RFP Question DeadlineThursday December 12, 2013

RFP Closing TimeFriday December 20, 2013 at 2 PM

Bid Closing Submittal Address:

484 Mulberry Street

Macon, GA 31201. Suite 229

Include BID NUMBER 14-16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 GENERAL INFORMATION AND PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

1.00 Important Dates

1.01INTRODUCTION

1.02 General Information - Scope of the Project

1.03 Preparation of Proposals

1.04 Request for Proposals Process

1.05 Questions about this RFP

1.06 Obtaining Documents

1.07 Addenda

1.08 Vendors’ Pre-bid Conference

1.09 Proposal Document Submission

1.10 Materials and Equipment

1.11 Substitutions and/or “or Equivalent”

1.12Exceptions

1.13Proposal Response Format

1.14Confidentiality of Information

1.15Proposal Security

1.16Insurance

1.17Incurring Costs

1.18Caution to Proposers

1.19Proposal Withdrawals

1.20Additional Terms

1.21Compliance with Laws

1.22Protests

1.23Proposal Opening

1.24Proposal Response Clarification Questions

1.25Evaluation Criteria

1.26Proposal Acceptance

1.27Proposal Award

1.28Conflicts in Terms and Conditions

1.29Contract Award

1.30Performance Bond

1.31Drug-Free Workplace

1.32Immigration Reform and Control Act

1.33Authorized Official

1.34Solicitation Termination

1.35Rights and Remedies

1.36Contract Timeframe

1.37Receipt of Addendum Clause

2PROPOSER'S QUALIFICATIONS AND SUPPORT CAPABILITIES

2.01 Information about the Proposer

2.02 Qualifications and Requirements

2.03 Experience and Existing Customers

2.04 Workload

2.05 References

2.06 Service after Installation

3 CONTRACT TERMS AND GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

3.01 Binding Proposal

3.02 Amendment(s)

3.03 Additional Purchases at Unit Prices

3.04 Permits

3.05 Change Orders

3.06 Permission to Proceed

3.07 Compliance with Laws/Standards

3.08 Laws of Georgia and Effective Date

3.09 Indemnification

3.10 Assignment of Interest

3.11 Default

3.12 Non-Discrimination

3.13 Safety

3.14 Tobacco Free Requirement

3.15 Non-solicitation……………………………………………………………………….32

4 DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION

4.01 Delivery

4.02 General Installation Requirements

4.03 Owner’s Responsibilities for Delivery and Installation

5 Bid Form

5.01 Bids

5.02 Unit Pricing

6 General Technology Requirements

Part One – General

6.01 Related Documents

6.02 Definitions

6.03 Examination of Existing Conditions

6.04 Drawing Symbols

6.05 Product Storage and Handling Requirements

6.06 Contract Modification Procedures

6.07 Owner-Furnished Products

6.08 Construction Progress Meetings

6.09 Construction Progress/Schedule Documentation

6.10 Product Substitution Request Procedure

6.11 Submittals

6.12 Closeout Procedures

6.13 Project Management

6.14 Quality Assurance

6.15 Quality Control

Part Two – Products

6.2.01 Basic Equipment and Materials Requirements

6.2.02 Factory-Assembled Products

6.2.03 Ancillary Hardware

6.2.04 Compatibility of Related Equipment

6.2.05 Maintenance Manuals

Part Three – Implementation

6.3.01 General

6.3.02 Coordination

6.3.03 Basic Execution Requirements

6.3.04 Preparation

6.3.05 Cleaning

6.3.06 Fire Stopping

6.3.07 Waterproofing

6.3.08 Connectors

6.3.09 Equipment Installation

6.3.10 Rough-in

6.3.11 Cutting, Drilling, Patching, and Painting

Part Four – Testing

6.4.01 General

6.4.02 Testing

7 General Premise Requirements

Part One – General

7.01 Related Work

7.02 Definitions

7.03 General Summary

7.04 Submittals

7.05 Commissioning and Training

7.06 Contract Close-out Submittals:

7.07 Closeout Procedures

7.08 Warranty and Maintenance

8 Datacenter Environments

Part One – General

8.01 Reference

8.02 Related Work

8.03 General Summary

8.04 Code Requirements

8.05 Product Substitution Procedures

8.06 Warranty

Part Two – Products & Services

8.2.01 General

8.2.02 Datacenter Environments - Server/Storage and Software

8.2.03 Datacenter Environments – Network Infrastructure

8.2.04Datacenter Environments – Firewalls

8.2.05 Datacenter Environments – VM Environment, Servers And Software

8.2.06 Datacenter Environments – VM Environment - Storage

8.2.07 Server Virtualization – P2V Migration of “Existing Essential Servers”

8.2.08 AD and Hybrid Exchange/Office 365 Implementation...... 63

8.2.09 Training and Knowledge Transfer:

8.2.10 Management Systems - Alert and Alarm Requirements

8.2.11 Post-installation and ongoing Support

Part Three – Execution

8.3.05 Datacenter Environments Startup

8.3.06 Training

8.3.07 Aesthetics

8.3.08 Hardware Layout

8.3.09 Connectors/Connections

8.3.10 Datacenter Environments Testing Procedures

8.3.11 Datacenter Environments Inspection

8.3.12 Labeling

8.3.13 Documentation

8.3.14 Pre-Check out

8.3.15 Contractor’s Field Testing

8.3.16 Final Acceptance

8.3.17 Closeout Procedures

8.3.18 Cleaning

9.0 BCSD Rights Reserved

Appendix A – Existing Essential Servers

Diagram A – Example Solution

Diagram B – Existing network

Attachment A

Attachment B

1 GENERAL INFORMATION AND PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Unless noted otherwise, “Contractor” or “Vendor” refers to the Data Center Contractor. All Offerors or Proposers are potential Data Center Contractors.

1.00 Important Dates

Proposal Publication Date: November 22, 2013

Pre-bid Vendor’s Conference:December 10, 2013 at 10:00 A.M.

All Written Questions Due Before:December 12, 2013 at 12:00 P.M.

Answers to Questions Posted:December 17, 2013 by 5:00 P.M.

Proposal Due, Date and Time: December 20, 2013 at 2:00 P.M.

Public Opening,Date and Time:December 20, 2013 at 2:15 P.M.

(All times listed aboveare local Eastern Standard times)

**** All submissions/responses must be addressed to: ****

Elaine M. Wilson, Procurement Director
RFP#: 14-16

Bibb County School District
484 Mulberry Street, Suite 225 Macon, Georgia 31201

Projected Contract Award Date: Within the 30 days of Evaluation

Projected Contract Negotiations/Signing: Within the 15 days of Award

1.01INTRODUCTION

A.In K-12 Education, competency in the use of technology and information has become an essential skill set for students, teachers and administrators alike. Most programs to improve academic and administrative performance rely on timely, accurate and relevant data to achieve their goals. Examples include;

Student Support
Individual learning plan management
Attendance, truancy tracking and correction
Discipline management
Learning
Course support and coaching materials (Learning preference oriented)
Delivery of digital content
Streaming video, classroom white boards
Research, Critical thinking, collaboration
Teaching
Effective lesson planning
Classroom management, grading, and disaggregation of data
Course Management and Tracking
Teacher’s professional development community
Assessment
Formative Assessment and diagnostics
On-line criterion-referenced tests and diagnostics
Administration
School metrics monitoring (demographics, attendance, achievement…..)
Security Management and video
Transportation, Food Service, Finance, and Risk Management
State and Federal compliance data reporting
Funding
Grant submission and management
Position control, budgeting
Security
Video cameras
Building access control

The data to support these functions come from internal and external assets and all require network connectivity to be accessed. Simply put, effective decision making and learning cannot be achieved in an environment that does not provide reliable and consistent network access.

B.Located in Macon, Georgia, the Bibb County School District (BCSD) employs approximately 3500 employees and serves 25,000 students in 41schools and 12 support facilities. BCSD’s vision is “To develop a highly trained staff and an engaged community dedicated to educating each student for at 21st century, multi-ethnic, global economy.” In order to realize this vision BCSD must provide students and staff with adequate infrastructure and access to a wide variety of technology systems and tools.

BCSD’s existing technology infrastructure and network is outdated, over capacity, lacking in redundancy, and unable to sufficiently meet the needs of BCSD’s students and staff.

BCSD is embarking on an initiativedesigned to greatly improve service delivery to its constituents today and to serve as the foundation on which to deploy future network-based applications and solutions.

1.02 General Information - Scope of the Project

A. Bibb County School District (BCSD) requires fully functioning, redundant Datacenter Environments, to include all network infrastructure, systems and network-based storage required to implement and utilize a VM environment, and supporting management software. These Datacenters will serve as the core/hub of the district data network, connecting to each school as well as the Internet. Please see Diagram A and Diagram B.

B. New Datacenter Environments must be integrated with the existing BCSD data network. Upon completion, all inter-school communication in addition to all Internet traffic will flow through these Datacenters. Vendor is responsible for this integration.

For the purpose of redundancy the solution will be installed in two Datacenter Sites: a Bibb County district building and a local service provider Colo. Both facilities are “greenfield” and consist of empty racks with power. The solution must be able to serve BCSD users with limited disruption should one datacenter go offline.

C. Vendor will build Virtualized Server environments at each Datacenter Site.

D. Vendor will perform P2V migrations of (20-25) existing essential servers into VM environments; split for redundancy.

E. Vendor will implement a Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure in the VM Environments to include a hybrid Exchange/ Office365 email solution for staff and students. Vendor is responsible for setup of Active Directory and integration of this solution, however,all data migration from the existing Groupwise email system is limited to one year.

F. Vendor will implement monitoring and management tools and hardware that will enable BCSD to effectively monitor and manage the solution from one location.

G. Post-installation support is required for all components for an initial period of one yearwith phone and onsite response times as proposed by vendor. Vendors are asked to propose not to exceed response times during business and non-business hours during this one year period. Beyond theone year period, vendors are asked to propose a managed services plan and pricing complete with response times and service level agreements.

H. Additionally, two on-site resources in a staff augmentation role are requested for an initial period of 6 months to aid with additional P2V migrations and AD integration. These resources shall be functionally separate from post-installation support resources.

I. Vendor must indicate approval of proposed design by certified data networking and systems engineers of current and good standing, to include the engineer name, certification name, and (if applicable) certification number.

Examples of expected certifications: CCIE, JNCIE, VMWare Certified Professional, Microsoft MCSE, etc.

J. Bibb County School District will be accepting sealed proposals for the complete design, configuration, provision, migration, and integration of proposed solution. Bibb County School District reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals and to waive minor irregularities and technicalities. Any and all judgments determined by the Bibb County School District on such matters shall be final.

1.03 Preparation of Proposals

All proposals shall be printed in ink or typewritten. Errors may be crossed out and corrections printed in ink or typewritten adjacent to the error. The person signing the proposal shall initial all such corrections in ink.
An authorized officer of the company must sign all proposals.

1.04 Request for Proposals Process

This solicitation is a Request For Proposal (RFP). In using this method for solicitation we are asking the marketplace for its best effort in seeking a “best value” solution to our requirements. The Offeror proposal(s) will be evaluated by aBCSD evaluation committee. Offeror(s) should make their best effort to satisfy the requirements with their best fixed price offer.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the evaluation rubric shown below. Two vendors receiving the most points will be invited to further negotiations. Winning vendor will be proposed to the BCSD Board of Education for contract approval.

Evaluation Criteria / Points Available
Bidder’s Financial Stability / 2.5
Completed Required Documents / 2.5
Vendor References and Past Performance / 10
Certificates of Staff Proposed / 5
Timeline / 5
Technical Solution and Implementation Plan / 35
Post-implementation Managed Services plan / 5
Fixed Price / 35
Total Points / 100

All vendors are required to submit a managed services plan and pricing for support beginning after the initial implementation and 12 month support period.

The proposals will be evaluated and the selected proposal that presents the best solution for the best fixed price value, based on the following requirements, to the Bibb County School District will then be presented as a recommendation to the Bibb County Board of Education for approval on January 16, 2014.

If approved by the Bibb County Board of Education, and if all other matters (insurance, bonds, etc.) are settled, a contract will be awarded accordingly.

1.05 Questions about this RFP

It shall be the Vendor’s responsibility to learn all aspects of the RFP requirements. Should any details necessary for a clear and comprehensive understanding be omitted or any error appear in the RFP documents, or should the Vendor note facts or conditions which, in any way, conflict with the letter or spirit of the RFP documents, it shall be the responsibility of the Vendor to obtain clarifications before submitting a proposal. Questions concerning this design/document should be directed in writing only via mail, or preferably via e-mail (no telephoned or verbal questions will be accepted) to:

Elaine M. Wilson, Procurement Director

Bibb County School District
484 Mulberry Street, Suite 225 Macon, Georgia 31201

Office: (478) 779-3522

Fax: (478) 779-3531 Email:

1.06 Obtaining Documents

All documents can be obtained in electronic format from the BCSD website or the Georgia Procurement Registry website:

( See “Important Information”; then “RFPs and Bids” )

or:

1.07 Addenda

Addenda are any graphic or written instruments issued by Bibb County School District prior to the date for receipt of bids which modify or interpret the bidding document by additions, deletions, clarifications, or corrections. Addenda will be mailed or faxed to all who are known to have received bidding documents. No addenda will be issued later than 72 hours prior to the time and date deadline for receipt of bids except an addendum postponing or withdrawing the request for bids.

Offerors are notified that they must thoroughly examine proposal documents which include, Cover Sheet, Table of Contents, Proposal Conditions, Additional Conditions, Specifications, Request for Sealed Proposal and Bidder’s Checklist, together with Addenda thereto issued prior to the receipt of proposal.

Any addenda issued in writing during the time of solicitation shall be included in the proposal, and each will be incorporated into the subsequent contract.

Interpretations of proposal documents will be made by addenda only.

The BCSD will not be responsible for any other interpretations or explanations whatsoever.

1.08 Vendors’ Pre-bid Conference

Attendance Mandatory:

Any vendor or joint venture who wishes to submit a response of proposal(s) must have at least one (1) representative present from the primary submitter at the Vendors’Pre-bid Conference, mandatory as a minimum, in order to qualify in submitting their response(s) for consideration of award by the BCSD. As such, sealed responses of proposal from any and all vendors not physically present and thereforeofficially represented at this Vendors’Pre-bid Conference will be disqualified from submission and will not be accepted. Joint ventures must be represented by at least one person from the primary vendor as such at this time.Vendors’ Pre-bid Conference: December 10, 2013 - at 10:00 A.M., in Macon, Georgia in the BOE Boardroom

1.09 Proposal Document Submission

All responses must be sealed, and must be received by the date and time listed in the Important Dates section of this RFP. *Required are: Five (5)comprehensivehard copies of the proposal being (one (1) original - with original security,and four (4) additional hard copies); along with one (1)comprehensiveelectroniccopyof theproposal; all of which are presented inMSDocumentor PDFformat.The required Electronic copy must be submitted on Compact Computer Disc (CD or DVD), or on Memory stick*. Prior to said acceptance deadline, any and all appropriate proposal forms, proposal security (see below for requirements), and any other documents submitted withthe sealed proposal(s)must be inclusively mailed and/or directly submitted to:

One (1) Original 4 Copies*;
+ One (1) Electronic Copy* to:
Elaine M. Wilson, Procurement Director
Bibb County School District
Suite 225
484 Mulberry Street
Macon, Georgia 31201

Allproposals must besealed and properly labeled as:

RESPONSE TO: Bibb County Public Schools,RFP for“Core” Datacenter, RFP #14-16, Date:12/20/13.

No oral interpretations will be made to Offeror as to meaning of proposal documents. Requests for such interpretations shall be made in writing only to the office of the Administrator, Bibb County School District, 484 Mulberry Street, Macon Georgia 31201, or via e-mail. Failure on the part of the Offeror to do so shall not relieve them of the obligation to execute such work in accordance with a later interpretation by the BCSD. All interpretations made to the Offeror shall be made in the form of addenda to the proposal documents and sent to all Offerors. Offerors are strongly urged to make arrangements to visit and inspect the work site(s) prior to proposing if the configuration, structure, condition, etc. of the site(s) will influence the proposal for contract performance, scope of work, etc.

1.10 Materials and Equipment

Proposer must identify in the Bills of Materials the manufacturer(s) of all materials and components to be used and provide current manufacturer specification sheets in response.

All items proposed must be new, unused, and most currently in manufacture.
All materials/equipment must include a minimum 60 month warranty or extended warranty (return to factory, not on-site). See additional warranty information in following sections.

1.11 Substitutions and/or “or Equivalent”

Preference will be given to proposals that include items or materials that are specified by manufacturer and/or model number.

Whenever in the RFP document any article, device, or material is designated by the name of the manufacturer, or vendor, or by any proprietary, or trade name, and such name is followed by the words "or approved equal", "or equivalent", or preceded by the words "similar and equal to", the standard products of manufacturers other than those specified will be accepted when, prior to award of contract, it is proven to the satisfaction of Bibb County School District that they are equal in design, flexibility, serviceability, compatibility, functionality, scalability, durability, manageability, usefulness and convenience for the purpose intended.

Only Bibb County School District’s Executive Director for Technology or designated Agent shall have the right to determine which item(s) may or may not be considered “or equivalent”. All decisions by BCSD concerning the matter of equivalency are final.

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1.12Exceptions

Any and all Exceptions to any part of the requirements stated within this RFP must be clearly identified as Exceptions. The stated exceptions and any alternatives offered must be included in the Proposer’s response (see “Proposal Response Format”).