Request for Proposals: Systems Replacement & Cloud Services. April 19, 2012

(1)

Request

for

Proposals:

Systems

Replacement

&

Cloud

Services

April

19,

2012

American

Association

of

Family

&

Consumer

Sciences

400

N. Columbus

Street

Suite

202 Alexandria,

VA

22314

Phone:

703.706.4600

(2)

Table

of

1 Introduction

&

Background

Information

For more than 100 years, the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) has provided leadership and support to professionals whose work assists individuals, families, and communities in making informed decisions about their well being, relationships, and resources to achieve optimal quality of life.

AAFCS is the only professional association for family and consumer sciences (FCS) students and professionals from both multiple practice settings and content areas. Our members are

educators, administrators and managers, human service and business professionals,

researchers, community volunteers, and consultants. They provide research‐based knowledge about the topics of everyday life, including human development, personal and family finance, housing and interior design, food science, nutrition and wellness, textiles and apparel, and consumer issues.

Originally founded in 1909 as the American Home Economics Association, AAFCS today has more than 6,000 members. The headquarters of AAFCS is located in Old Town Alexandria, VA, and has a staff of 15. Some of the employees work from other locations and do not come to the office in Virginia at all.

As AAFCS evaluates the future of our information technology systems and support, the association has determined that it can better support its mission, the membership, and the staff by replacing the existing computer equipment with up‐to‐date systems that are located outside the AAFCS office.

Today, the association has a typical set of servers and network equipment in the headquarters office that have reached the end of life stage. These servers need to be replaced with current equipment and software. Today’s technologies give us an opportunity to improve the services while at the same time, reducing operating costs and avoiding what would otherwise be a large capital investment. AAFCS is already using hosting services for the main web site

(www.aafcs.org).

This Request for Proposals is intended to solicit bids for a new set of capabilities that are “cloud‐based,” which by our definition means that we do not want to have the critical servers at AAFCS offices. We understand that the system could be located in a public data center, a data center privately operated by our selected partner, or completely provided by Software‐as‐ a‐Service (SaaS) functions managed by a single provider. It is up to you as the bidder to

propose a responsive solution to our needs. We are open to a variety of alternatives and welcome your recommendations.

(4)

 Avoid single points of failure in our systems;

 Reduce operating expense and avoid capital investments where practical, as compared to simply replacing the current arrangement of in‐house systems with new versions of the same thing;

 Receive excellent support to both local and remote users;

 Maintain excellent uptime performance and responsiveness in the systems; and  Improve our ability to absorb a disaster or significant system failure.

1.1 Existing

Support

Today, AAFCS is supported by a local IT support services contractor that provides systems management and on‐site support services. The existing contractor performs well and there are no issues with adequacy or responsiveness.

The issue for our organization is simply that the existing systems are old and in need of replacement, and it makes no sense given today’s technologies to replace the existing servers with the same in‐house setup.

While we appreciate their service, there is no bias toward the existing contractor, and we are entering this procurement in search of the best solution for the most reasonable cost.

1.2 Existing

Systems

&

Intended

Outcomes

The current systems are typical for a small association, and more details are listed in the catalog of systems in Appendix A. This section summarizes the issues and goals for each functional area as we look to system replacement.

 Onsite Support ‐ Regardless of the result, we still will need some level of on‐site support, but we believe this can be reduced to one visit per month of 4 hours, as long as remote support is available when needed. The current contractor provides support every other week for 4 hours per visit. Much of this time is currently spent in managing the servers.

 Email system – AAFCS currently uses Exchange 2003 and expects that we will be upgraded to the most current version of Exchange as part of this procurement.

Whether the mail system is run at your own data center or through cloud services does not matter to us as long as system performance is good. Google Gmail is not a viable solution for us at this time.

(5)

 File server – AAFCS currently uses network shares like any typical association. In the future, this might be served through a different arrangement, but at this time, we prefer to duplicate the existing setup to minimize disruption and retraining. Perhaps in the future we could entertain replacing the existing file server with SharePoint or something similar, but we do not want to do that now or in the near future. Google docs is not a viable solution for us at this time.

 Membership system – The existing membership system is Protech’s CRM for Members. We expect to replace this system within the year and are actively involved in the

selection process for a new system. As a bidder, your task will be to provide a solution for taking over support of the existing system without disruption, and then managing the current system during the process of new system selection. Once a new system is selected, you would be expected to transition to the new system, but it may or may not be hosted by you.

o Database Server – the Protech system currently runs on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft CRM.

o Sharepoint Server – the Protech system uses Sharepoint for certain member self‐ service functions.

 Accounting system – The accounting system should be moved as is. No changes are needed or expected, but it must be accessible by the Protech system for moving transactions between the two systems. GreatPlains version 10.0 is the accounting system and runs in a database on the Microsoft SQL Server.

 Domain Controller – Assuming the new systems are entirely external to AAFCS, we prefer that a local domain controller be maintained for ease of login and for user account management.

 Internet connectivity – AAFCS currently has a single connection to the Internet that combines voice and data. This line is not at saturation, but we expect that with

externally hosted systems more bandwidth will be needed. Also we prefer two circuits for redundancy. Therefore, we expect that provisioning an additional Internet circuit will be included in your proposal.

(6)

2 Administrative

Requirements

The intent of this procurement is to have new systems in place and operational in July 2012. The association has its annual meeting in June and spends a good deal of time in May preparing for the event. Our goal is to complete the selection process quickly without disruption to the organization during the next few months.

2.1 Schedule

AAFCS expects to make a selection in early May and implement the new systems setup by July. If you believe this schedule is not feasible, you may submit an alternative schedule for

consideration. Our plans for the selection are as follows:

April 19 RFP Released April 27 Questions Due May 4 Proposals Submitted May 11 First Cut for Responses May 18‐22 Presentations by Finalists

May 28 Selection; Begin Contract Negotiation June 8 Contract in Place

July 31 Systems converted and operational

2.2 Content

and

Evaluation

of

Responses

Your response should be complete and provide a level of detail sufficient to allow AAFCS to understand your offering. Unnecessarily lengthy proposals are not desired, but proposals that lack enough detail to provide an understanding of your offering will be rejected.

AAFCS reserves the right to reject any and all responses. AAFCS will keep the information confidential but will not return any materials. Any proprietary information should be so marked.

AAFCS prefers that you structure your response in the following sections:

 Executive Summary

 Understanding of the Need  Scope of Work

(7)

 Financial Terms & Conditions  Corporate Information

 References (please provide 3 references for similar work)  Supporting Materials, if any

The evaluation criteria are straightforward. No scoring system has been planned, but proposals will be evaluated on the whole of the offering as well as the specific details for:

 Experience in supporting and migrating association membership systems  Experience in systems management & support for association users  Projected 3‐year costs

 Strength of references

2.3 Submittals

Please respond by April 20 if you intend to submit a proposal. All correspondence should be submitted to:

Mr. John Lord

Director of Operations & Membership

American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences 400 N. Columbus Street

Suite 202

Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: 703.706.4600 Email: [email protected]

We prefer that you submit your proposal and all supporting materials via email. We reserve the right to reject submittals that are not received on time and in accordance with the schedule provided above.

(8)

3 Scope

of

Work

This section explains the intended scope of work, divided among the major phases of work as we see them now. You may determine that other phasing better suits your offering, and there is no restriction to stick to the divisions of work as defined here.

3.1 Conversion

‐

Phase

1

Phase 1 will include the work related to moving the systems to a more stable hardware environment. All changes needed to accomplish this work should be included.

The current equipment is old and some servers are in danger of failing. We believe it is best to simply virtualize the systems as they are so that we mitigate the risk of hardware failure, or rebuild some or all of the systems on different equipment. If you prefer a different method, feel free to propose it. We do not want to have any servers housed at AAFCS at the end of Phase 1 except for a domain controller.

During phase 1, you would need to perform whatever prep work is necessary and make your own assessment of the interactions between the existing systems and the users.

Phase 1 should include standing up the new servers in a data center of your choosing, and demonstrating that all systems are working correctly. We do not believe collocating the existing servers is a viable option. Dependencies on other vendors throughout the process should be clearly identified in your proposals.

At the end of Phase 1, all systems should be ready for production operation in the new

environment. Your work plan should include a formal handoff or acceptance test for AAFCS to sign off on to indicate the end of Conversion and beginning of the ongoing support.

3.2 Ongoing

support

–

Phases

2 and

3

Throughout the remainder of the contract, “ongoing support” means management and operation of all networks, servers, and network equipment, plus end user support for the AAFCS staff and the workstations they use. This includes bearing responsibility for coordination with other vendors and service providers, such as Protech and AppRiver. Essentially, your firm will be our single point of contact for IT issues of any type.

(9)

The telephone system and support of it is not explicitly included, but the telephone shares the switching fabric currently and therefore you will be expected to provide support to the extent necessary to coordinate issue resolution with the telephone vendor.

Phase 2 will be the period during which ongoing support is provided up until the time that the Protech system is replaced. For purposes of your proposal, you should assume that the replacement system will be live on January 1, 2013.

For this period of time when AAFCS continues to run the Protech membership system, you will be expected to provide all support except for direct product support on the Protech system. AAFCS will maintain a support agreement with Protech during this period and will remain the point of contact for issues related to Protech systems.

Your proposal should clearly state how you plan to provide:  Remote support

 Remote management and monitoring  On‐site support

 Help desk support

 General systems management

Note that in summer 2012, AAFCS plans to replace all user workstations with new Dell equipment and this effort will be executed on a work order under the base contract.

Phase 3 is defined as ongoing support after the new membership system is operational. Since we do not know which membership system will be selected, for purposes of your proposal, please assume the following:

 The new membership system will be a cloud‐based service;  A dedicated SQL Server will not be needed;

 A Sharepoint server will no longer be needed;

 The Exchange server and all mailboxes will be migrated to a cloud service;  GreatPlains will be replaced with Quickbooks as the accounting system;  An on‐site domain controller will still be needed; and

 A file server will be needed and may either be a cloud‐based service or a hosted file server.

Thereafter, Phase 3 becomes the steady‐state operating environment. Note that while Quickbooks will be the new accounting system, it will be necessary to continue running GreatPlains for some time to provide access to historical data.

(10)

from the end of Phase 1 through the end of 2012. Phase 3 will become a one‐year contract with annual renewals. You may propose a different timing, in which case you should explain your rationale.

(11)

4 Requirements

4.1 General

Requirements

Like any association, AAFCS expects good service with responsive and reliable systems. We expect to need some on‐site support, but as time goes on, we expect that more support can be provided remotely compared to the current arrangement. Still, some on‐site support will be needed, and we estimate 4 hours per month of on‐site time is required to attend to user issues and association‐wide issues that can best be handled in person.

Remote Support should cover the systems 24 x 7, and we expect coverage to be proactive. Patches to systems should be handled in an automated fashion that does not disrupt normal operations. Coverage for remote users should specifically be addressed in your proposal.

Help desk support should be available for normal working hours that coincide with East Coast and Midwest users. During AAFCS’s annual meeting, we would expect your help desk to be particularly attentive.

Systems must be maintained and available to avoid disruption. You should state your up‐time performance guarantees.

Performance reporting is our way of staying abreast of the systems you manage for us. We expect a monthly report of operations that details significant events and system performance using indicators you and we agree are important to measure. Since the majority of work will be performed out of sight, we will rely on the monthly report to provide truthful and complete information, as well as projections to help us anticipate future needs.

4.2 Technical

Requirements

Using the information provided in the Appendices, and any other information you feel is needed to make a determination for your proposal, our goal is to have a set of stable systems that are cost‐effective and functional. We understand that the systems in use today will be quite different from those in use a year from now, and our goal is to have the same or better level of performance and less cost compared to current performance and costs of operations.

(12)

4.2.1 Conversion&Implementation

Conversion of the existing systems can be done during business hours to the extent systems are not interrupted. You should pay particular attention to the demands of the membership

system and find a quiet time when the system can be taken down for maintenance.

If you believe there is a risk of system failure during the data migration and/or virtualization process, you should include a plan for risk management in your proposal.

4.2.2 Systems

The Protech membership system has four elements that are tightly integrated (web site, CRM, Sharepoint, and accounting). Together with email and file/print services, these are the servers that make up the majority of the scope of work.

The main web site is hosted at Carpathia Hosting and is managed by NewTarget. There are no plans for changing this arrangement at all. All other systems are currently located at AAFCS offices in Alexandria, VA.

The main web site connects to two other sites, one for donations, and one for member functions. The member functions are handled by the Protech system at AAFCS offices. While the main web site will not be changed at all, the URLs for the connected membership functions must be tested to ensure that they are moved correctly. The other components of the Protech system use the SQL Server, the Exchange server, and the GreatPlains accounting system.

4.2.3 Network

The firewall, switch, and Internet circuits will be managed by the winning bidder. We prefer that you replace the firewall but leave the switch as is. The Internet circuits should be

evaluated and you should provide a recommendation for changes that might be necessary. We believe the existing bandwidth is inadequate for a cloud‐based operation.

(13)

5 Pricing

All expected costs should be clearly identified by the following categories:

 One‐time costs including all Phase 1 costs

 Ongoing monthly costs – separate Phase 2 from Phase 3  Annual costs (renewals, etc.)

Any assumptions used in deriving your costs should be clearly explained. While the evaluation of costs will be based on a three‐year horizon, we expect to execute a one‐year contract with two option years, plus Phases 1 through 3. Please take this into account in your pricing.

(14)

Appendices

Appendix

A

–

Summary

of

Existing

Systems

Website (www.aafcs.org) Hosted by Carpathia Hosting

Ecommerce Store (for donations) Hosted by Potomac Digilink

Internet circuit XO Communications

In‐house Systems

Email server Exchange 2003

File Server MS Windows Server 2003 Database Server MS SQL Server 2003 Web Server MS IIS

Sharepoint Server MS Sharepoint Services 2003 Domain Controller MS Windows Server 2003

Network Equipment

Firewall Cisco ASA 5505 Switches Cisco Catalyst 2950 Wireless Access Point

Router Cisco 1851

Telephone System Pingtone hosted VoIP (no changes planned)

(15)

Appendix

B

–

Technical

Details

ISP: XO Communications Interface IP: 66.3.238.94

Firewall: Cisco ASA 5505

Main Switch Cisco Catalyst 2950 Switch

48 ports

2 VLANs (VLAN 1‐data and VLAN 2‐voice)

Cisco 1851 Router: Outside: T‐1 connection for PRI

Inside: Fast Ethernet for internal network

Battery Backups: SmartUPS 2200XL

DNS HOST: Registrar: Network Solutions Ns1.newtarget.net

Ns2.newtarget.net

Spam Filter: AppRiver

(16)

Servers: NAME (type) and specifications

AAFCSEXCH: (Exchange 2003) HP Proliant ML350 S/N: USM50903YY P/N: 331891‐001

Mail store size: Private = 61.6GB, Public = 61MB

No limits on mailbox size, old emails are archived to PSTs currently from time to time Largest mailbox = 11.5GB

Assume 22 active mailboxes

Public folders: 1 master calendar and 4 other public folders

AppRiver is used for incoming spam control, outbound messages are sent directly to recipient

EXCHANGE: (old server – not to be converted)

AAFCSFSPS: (File Server, DC) HP Proliant ML350 S/N: USM50903ZV P/N: 331891‐001

AAFCSWEB: (WebServer, Sharepoint) HP Proliant ML350

S/N: USM70202JM

AAFCSSQL: (CRM, Accounting, etc.) HP Proliant ML370

S/N: U5E641N14C P/N: 379913‐001

18 databases , most of which are related to the Protech system Total active DB space = 33GB currently

AAFCSTERM01: (ESXi Host for terminal server)

Runs Terminal Server Guest, used by remote users Dell PowerEdge R410

S/N: B932MN1

VMAD120: (Phone Voicemail Server) Dell Optiplex 880 (Phone VLAN) S/N: BQ4YS11

(17)

Back‐Up Tape Drive: ULTRIUM LL1002 S/N: JK00HAY

(18)

Note: this list does not include machines that are located in remote locations because those machines are not joined to the Active Directory domain.

Computer Name DNS Entry Operating System Notes

EXCHANGE exchange.aafcs.org Windows 2000 Server _old,_not_used

VMAD120 vmad120.aafcs.org Windows 2000 Server voice mail server

AAFCSFSPS aafcsfsps.aafcs.org Windows Server 2003 _file_server

AAFCSEXCH aafcsexch.aafcs.org Windows Server 2003 _mail_server

AAFCSTERM aafcsterm.aafcs.org Windows Server 2003 terminal server ‐

old

AAFCSSPARE Windows XP Professional

AAFCSSQL aafcssql.aafcs.org Windows Server 2003 _DB_server

AAFCSWEB aafcsweb.aafcs.org Windows Server 2003 portal server

DELLWS01 Windows XP Professional

ACCOUNTING accounting.aafcs.org Windows XP Professional

DATABASEMANAGER Windows XP Professional

DWIGHT dwight.aafcs.org Windows XP Professional

DELLWS‐SD Windows XP Professional

ACCCOORDINATOR acccoordinator.aafcs.org Windows XP Professional

MEMCOORD1 memcoord1.aafcs.org Windows XP Professional

LENOVO‐4215F3A8 lenovo‐

4215f3a8.aafcs.org

Windows XP Professional

CJACKSON‐LAPTOP cjackson‐laptop.aafcs.org Windows XP Professional

1LENOVOG550 Windows XP Professional

DELLWSCONF Windows XP Professional

2DELLE5400 2delle5400.aafcs.org Windows XP Professional

AAFCSTERM01 aafcsterm01.aafcs.org Windows Server 2008 Standard _terminal_server

Request for Proposals: Systems Replacement & Cloud Services. April 19, 2012

Request

for

Proposals:

Systems

Replacement

&

Cloud

Services

April

19,

2012

American

Association

of

Family

&

Consumer

Sciences

400

N.

Columbus

Street

Suite

202

Alexandria,

VA

22314

Phone:

703.706.4600

Table

of

Contents

1

Introduction

&

Background

Information

1.1

Existing

Support

1.2

Existing

Systems

&

Intended

Outcomes

2

Administrative

Requirements

2.1

Schedule

2.2

Content

and

Evaluation

of

Responses

2.3

Submittals

3

Scope

of

Work

3.1

Conversion

‐

Phase

1

3.2

Ongoing

support

–

Phases

2

and

3

4

Requirements

4.1