CONTRACTING DEPARTMENT
F. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
B. ORAL INTERVIEW/DEMONSTRATION
FCS may require qualified Offeror(s), considered in the competitive range, to participate in a detailed oral interview/demonstration to fully discuss their proposal and qualifications for this project and to answer questions posed by FCS. A final selection may be based upon the evaluation of both the written and oral responses of each Offeror.
C. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL
Proposals shall be submitted in four (4) sections: (1) price, (2) technical capability, (3) business stability and (4) exceptions and modifications (if applicable). Six (6) proposals (one (1) original, five (5) copies) and one (1) flash drive shall be provided in a loose-leaf, three-ring binder. No prohibition shall be placed by this solicitation as to the concept of service the Offeror may choose to propose; however, the concept shall be placed within the framework of the four (4) sections.
D. BASIS OF AWARD
Proposals will be evaluated on a combination of evaluation factors. The evaluation factors are (1) price, (2) technical capability, (3) business stability (4) exceptions and modifications.
E. PREPARING THE PROPOSAL
Begin each section and subsection on a separate page. Number the pages in each section consecutively. If any confidential and/or proprietary information is included, then each page containing such information must be stamped “proprietary”. It is not acceptable to label the entire proposal as confidential and proprietary.
F. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An executive summary of not more than two (2) pages stating the Offeror’s overview of the project shall precede the specific required sections.
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CONTRACTING DEPARTMENT
6201 Powers Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30339 • 470-254-8970 • www.fcspurchasingdept.org 35 G. THE PROPOSAL
SECTION I – PRICE
In this section the Offeror shall outline a pricing schedule that identifies all pricing elements discussed in the proposal to accomplish FCS requirements. (See APPENDIX IV for Pricing Schedule). The dollar cost of services proposed should contain the maximum fee (including any out-of-pocket and/or travel expenses) that FCS will be charged for all services, as well as typical adjustments for future purchases in context of equipment updates and emerging technologies. The Offeror should also include the hourly rates to be charged for each staff level if FCS authorizes an expansion of the scope of the engagement.
The Price Schedule table has been designed to cover all components the Offeror intend for pricing in his response. You may duplicate the table provided to accommodate each device proposed. If extra space is needed, you may provide line-item pricing for any additional items on a separate sheet.
Note: FCS prefers not to review pricing provided in any other format aside from that which is referenced within this RFP.
SECTION II - TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES A. METHODOLOGY
In this section, Offerors shall fully describe the proposed processes to be employed in successfully fulfilling the requirements outlined in this RFP. Provide an overview and detailed outline of all planning, development, training and support methodologies.
It shall be the responsibility of the selected Offerors to meet specifications and guidelines set forth therein. Offers considered shall provide a serious and reasonable proposal to the solicitation. Proposals shall be evaluated in its entirety.
B. CAPABILITIES
As part of your RFP submission, Offerors are required to provide responses to the questions below.
B.1 Offeror Background
1. The Offeror shall describe professional background and relevant client experience of the organization, team leader(s), and team member(s).
2. Describe the Project Management including a proposed Project timeline and work plan with a description of the bidder’s approach to successfully completing the District’s requirements.
3. Specify the details of your experiences with implementing the proposed solution.
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CONTRACTING DEPARTMENT
6201 Powers Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30339 • 470-254-8970 • www.fcspurchasingdept.org 36 4. Provide an overview of your experience in deploying and migrating
organizations similar in size and scope to FCS on all proposed platforms.
5. Advise whether or not your company has participated in, or been party to any mergers / acquisitions within the past five (5) years? If so, please provide details.
B.2 Product & Services Overview
1. Describe recommendations for the migration and conversion from FCS’s legacy SAN to the proposed solution.
2. Provide a description of solution including parts list, licensing, SAN management tools, features and capabilities.
3. Describe the benefits of your proposed solution. What can the proposed solution accomplish for the District? How will it meet the District’s needs?
4. Advise whether or not all proposed solutions are iSCSI capable. Provide details and throughput capabilities.
5. Describe how you propose to replicate with existing FCS SAN and storage solutions.
6. Describe how you propose integrating the monitoring, metrics, and reporting of FCS existing servers and storage solutions from the current provider.
7. Discuss the tools and methods utilized to review and validate converted systems and data for accuracy and completeness.
8. Provide details of all power requirements for the proposed solution.
9. Advise if this solution include any third party tools. If yes, please define what those tools are and define how you, as the vendor, would assume responsibility for the successful deployment, integration and support of those tools.
10. Clarify how costs are calculated for the design, configuration and deployment of all solutions, including three (3) and five (5) year post-implementation support and mission critical warranty options.
11. Advise if technicians are certified and trained by the manufacturer. Describe and provide details on the number of qualified technicians in the Atlanta metro area.
12. Describe the delivery and installation lead time after receipt of order (ARO).
13. Provide details of the vendor and manufacturer partnership level – if sold through a reseller. How many years has the vendor had a relationship with the manufacturer?
14. Discuss any vendor relationships that may enhance your proposed offering, and lend additional value to FCS.
15. Discuss recent or pending acquisitions, mergers, and divisions within your organization and explain how it may benefit FCS.
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CONTRACTING DEPARTMENT
6201 Powers Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30339 • 470-254-8970 • www.fcspurchasingdept.org 37 16. Provide a comprehensive list of value-added products and supplemental
professional services that may be of benefit to FCS. Include a pricing mechanism such as % off retail or % off state contract.
B.3 Solution Features
1. Advise whether features such as storage virtualization, tiered storage, thin provisioning, deduplication, compression, cloning and automated storage reclamation are available with this solution. Please indicate all storage features available.
2. Provide details of all pooling, tiering, and auto-tiering features including methods and patterns used to migrate data.
3. Advise if components of the storage array are redundant and hot-swappable. If so, what components are considered to be customer replaceable?
4. Advise if the storage array is capable of multipathing. Please provide multipathing capability details.
5. Advise if multipath drivers are included with the array. If yes, please identify.
6. Advise if the solution configured with redundant storage controllers are with minimum 16 GB cache? What is the proposed controller configuration and how does the technology provide load balancing and failover?
7. Advise if SAN-attached block storage via redundant 10 Gbps Ethernet supported. Describe other optional connectivity speeds that are available.
8. Describe the health-related and performance utilization metrics / reports that are available from the storage array.
9. Advise whether or not shared storage pools of thick or thin, file and block volumes supported.
10. Describe how hot-spares are included in the configuration to increase availability.
11. Describe if the solution expandable without “fork-lift” upgrades are allowed for data and computing power growth. Describe the expansion capabilities that are available. Does expansion, controller and firmware updates require service interruptions, or are updates performed “live”? How is new storage managed?
Does the system integrate, re-stripe, and load balance new storage?
12. Explain licensing model including all options and associated costs. Include method and cost of transferring licenses to new or replacement controllers.
13. Detail all replication features including synchronous, asynchronous, including any additional licensing costs, and any ability to replicate or move data to/from legacy FCS SANs.
14. Describe all automated alerting and “phone home” capabilities.
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CONTRACTING DEPARTMENT
6201 Powers Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30339 • 470-254-8970 • www.fcspurchasingdept.org 38 B.4 Server Solution Features
1. Explain options for on-board network connectivity, including the use of daughter cards or LAN on Motherboard, manufacturer and model options 2. Advise if Intel’s Data Direct I/O feature is available.
3. Explain all internal storage interface options including RAID, JBOD, caching levels, 6Gb/12Gb speeds that are included with the server specifications, and indicate if any options shall incur additional costs.
4. Provide details of all memory configurations and optimizations, including error notifications and page retiring included with server. Indicate if this shall incur additional costs.
5. Advise what type of direct interactive LCD display is available with the server?
Is there an additional cost?
6. Detail the lifecycle and serviceability of the server including provisioning, policy based configurations, how an OS is deployed, firmware is upgraded, parts are replaced, and how downtime is minimized.
7. Provide all remote / centralized monitoring, “phone home” capabilities, agent requirements, OS dependencies, out of band capabilities, and associated additional costs. Include what components are monitored and monitoring accuracy levels. Also include capabilities for mobile devices to monitor and manage the servers.
8. Describe the temperature and humidity requirements of the solution. Provide details of tolerations and manufacturer validation testing.
B.5 Project Implementation & Training
1. Provide a detailed description of your project management approach and Offeror’s resources to be provided for managing this project. Include in the description the designation of project team’s roles/responsibilities, to include roles and responsibilities of FCS team members and Offeror.
2. Provide an overview of the implementation process.
3. Please confirm and describe the training to be included as part of the offer.
Please provide a sample training plan as part of your response.
B.6 Warranty, Maintenance Service and Response Times 4. Advise who will provide warranty service.
5. Describe the scope of the warranty.
6. Describe the duration of the warranty.
7. Advise if the warranty coverage include parts.
8. Advise where spare parts are stocked.
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CONTRACTING DEPARTMENT
6201 Powers Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30339 • 470-254-8970 • www.fcspurchasingdept.org 39 9. Advise if the warranty coverage includes labor and travel.
10. Describe the response time to service requests based on the mission critical warranty requirements.
11. Describe any costs the District would incur in exercising warranty options.
12. Advise if there any warranty exclusions. If yes, please identify the exclusions.
13. Advise if warranty service on-site or return to depot.
14. Describe the response time to have parts on-site at the District based on the mission critical warranty requirements.
15. Describe the response time for general repairs based on the mission critical warranty requirements.
16. Describe the response time for emergency repairs based on the mission critical warranty requirements.