Responses to questions related to RFP for IT Managed Services 1. What defines a call center?
Part II, paragraph B of the RFP……Technical end-user support must include support of Microsoft Office as it relates to use of the City. The Contractor selected will provide technical support for the City offices during normal business hours (Monday – Friday 8am to 5pm). The technical end-user support will also be utilized by the City of Spring Hill Police Department, 24x7x365 support of these entities must also be included in the proposal.
The selected Contractor must have a full time team that is specifically assigned to the support center/help desk. The team must have certified engineers, such as MCSE’s, that reside on the call center.
2. Does City of Spring Hill currently have a ticketing system that you use or does the firm need to provide the trouble ticket system for support and monitoring?
All trouble ticket information and tracking shall be provided by the contracted firm.
3. How many servers and operating systems will be included in the support of this contract?
City Hall server is Windows Server 2003. PD is SME Linux 7.4 Public Works server is SME Linux 7.4 All City Hall desktops are Windows XP Pro, Public Works has a mix of XP Pro, Vista Home and one Vista Ultimate. All PD desktops are XP Pro.
4. What are the systems?
City Hall uses Windows Server 2003, Linux SME Server 7.4 at PD and PW .City Hall is Dell Poweredge 2600. PD is Dell Poweredge 2500. Public Works is Dell
Poweredge 2400.
5. Will Database production support be included as well? If so, what are the databases?
City Hall server is currently using Pervasive 7. Both PD and PW servers are using Linux MYSQL
6. Is there VPN access available for the remote services?
Not at this time future plans of Thin Client will be put into place in near future at City Hall. PD and PW both have one VPN account for administrator only use.
7. Network diagram
See attachment A below for City Hall network diagram. See attachment B for Police Department network diagram.
MS Office Suite, Blackberry 4.7 Desktop Software
9. What are the government regulations that must be adhered to?
There are no specific government regulations tied to our IT structure.
10. On page 4 you specify “Full time team that is specifically assigned to the support center/helpdesk.” Must these staff members be employees of our company or can they of a third party?
Whether employees of your firm or of a third party, the assumption is that our end-users will be able to call a help desk and receive assistance in a timely manner as outlined by your proposal. All communication and contract requirements will be conducted through the firm awarded the contract.
11. To engage in a managed services agreement we will require that a network, server and PC audit be conducted in order to gather necessary support
documentation and to assess the integrity of the IT infrastructure and to identify areas that are deficient and need improvement. Would you consider such an audit to be outside your RFP scope or do we need to include the pricing for such audit and description of this audit in our proposal?
The City has approximately 45 computers amongst all departments. The City expects that an audit will need to be conducted to identify the entire IT structure. Please list the cost of such audit separate from managed services but include in the RFP as a separate service item.
12. Provide a list of software applications (including version numbers) that are running on the computers.
See question and answer to item 11
13. Where is the email being hosted and what mail hosting software is used?
We are currently using http://metapros.net/ for hosting our email.
14. What is the current PC/Server hardware replacement cycle and has hardware been affectively replaced on this schedule? If not, describe the age and current serviceability of the systems both in regards to the hardware and operating system.
See question and answer to item 11
15. Please describe the level of computer maintenance that has been conducted over the past 6 months.
Only general maintenance has occurred over the past 6 months on an as needed basis.
We are currently under contract with a company that provides support for software and hardware on an annual service contract. The Finance Director will act as a liaison with the contractor awarded this contract. Currently the City does not employ on-site IT personnel.
17. What are the driving factors that have prompted the City to post this RFP at this time?
The City is in need of a complete service contract to eliminate the need for a full-time on-site IT staff.
18. What are the primary objectives the City is seeking to accomplish by outsourcing?
The purpose of the IT Managed Services will be to provide remote 24x7x365
management of the existing IT infrastructure and technical support for City of Spring Hill end-users.
19. What is the current data backup posture and methods being used to ensure data backups of all data?
City Hall uses Tape backups for City Server, PD and PW uses USB 1TB external drives for their servers. PD and PW are on a weekly full backup schedule that captures system and data. PD also uses a second USB drive for a 2nd set for data only.
20. Are all the computers to be support accessible from the Internet? If not, please explain?
They could be if we decided that was necessary and opened up ports allowing this on the Cisco firewall at City Hall. Same for PD. PD uses a software Linux firewall.
