RFP #6057 Questions and Answers
1. It is our generally our preference to provide the names and contact numbers of references when we have been shortlisted or during advanced negotiations. This is intended to protect our customers’ information and privacy. Is this acceptable to BGSU? Will we be penalized if we don’t provide this information in our proposal response?
References are a way in which will help us determine some of the folks that make our short list, if you do not provide them in your response you reduce the chances of being shortlisted at BGSU.
2. Does BGSU have a preference for an on-premise or cloud/hosted solution?
BGSU has both on-premise and hosted solutions and would be examining either solution.
3. In an effort to provide the best possible value pricing to our customers, we offer volume
discounts based on the number of purchased licenses. As such, we would like to provide BGSU with an accurate and realistic price and in order to do so, we would like to better hone in on the licensing needs of BGSU.
BGSU would like to review the pricing model with options for the final solution.
4. Does BGSU have a preference on license type? Named or Concurrent? Mixed?
BGSU has systems with both Named and concurrent licensed users.
The selection would be determined based off the pricing model and options for the final solution
5. How Many IT Staff does BGSU employ?
BGSU currently has 90 fulltime IT staff members
6. How Many IT Staff are part-time? Full time?
BGSU IT staff are all full time with zero part-time staff.
7. Can BGSU share the number and types of licenses currently owned in your existing solution?
BGSU currently has 50 service desk licensed users with support of 8,000 service desk nodes.
8. Is BSGU looking for the cost of the implementation to be included in the response pricing?
9. Is BSGU looking for the cost of the integrations (Bomgar, AD, Cisco, SSCM) to be included in the response pricing?
BGSU would like to review the pricing model with options for the final solution.
10. Is BGSU looking for training costs be included in the proposal pricing? More specifically: • Administrative Training?
• IT Staff Training? • End User Training?
BGSU would like to review the pricing model with options for the final solution.
11. Could BGSU please expand on question #2 in the additional areas of interest section? Project resource allocation - We are unclear of what your expectation is around this subject and would appreciate clarification. Are you looking for a Project Management Tool?
BGSU would like confirm this function comes delivered without customization.
13. We are asking for further information on the use-cases defining the following items contained within the RFP:
• Scheduling/Outlook Integration
• Ability to integrate with Outlook to schedule resources • Project resource allocation
• DLO/Crashplan (desktop back-up) • Social Media Integration
BGSU would like to ensure the Calendars will sync, assignments are defined by resources and the application will deliver the feature to post to twitter or facebook. We would like the ability to schedule appointments to integrate with Outlook. Project resource allocation, DLO/Crashplan (desktop back-up), Social Media Integration are not required but nice to have’s.
14. For solution pricing, is there is a configuration standard being requested on the number of named and casual users?
BGSU would like to review the pricing model with options for the final solution.
15. Total number of support staff
• Total number of support staff requiring all-day access to the system? • Total number of support staff requiring intermittent access to the system?
BGSU currently has 90 fulltime IT staff members, 50 service desk licensed users with support of 8,000 service desk nodes.
16. How many locations are you supporting? BGSU has one site
17. Total number of end users i.e. customers
BGSU currently has 90 fulltime IT staff members, 50 service desk licensed users with 8,000 service desk nodes.
18. Who are your customers i.e. staff, faculty, students?
BGSU help desk customer base include Staff, Faculty, Students, pre- Students, potential Students alumni and retirees
19. Does the BGSU have a preference on the delivery model of the solution i.e. traditional on-premise or Software-as-a-Service/Cloud?
BGSU has both on-premise and hosted solutions and would be examining either solution.
20. Is the project being funded from an OPEX or CAPEX budget?
N/A -- BGSU will be funding this internally.
21. Are you able to consider a multi-year support agreement as part of this process?
BGSU will consider all proposals and cost cutting measures sent in that is in the best interest of the University.
22. Can BGSU describe a bit further what is meant by “Web Form Creation”?
BGSU will ensure the product selected has a form creation feature which can be used by the help desk staff. The form will need to be created without Vendor or programming staff support.
23. Number of technical users of the solution? This means number of people that will be editing, servicing, etc. the individual tickets – not the number of end-users being supported.
8,000 service desk nodes.
24. What are average loads for tickets generated / handled on daily basis/ weekly basis / monthly basis?
BGSU currently has 140 average tickets per day
25. What applications are requiring Service desk integration? (SCCM, DLO, Others?)
BGSU would like the vendor to speak to whether their product integrates with SCCM, DLO, Outlook, etc. I
26. Will there be a separate RFP for the implementation and configuration? No
27. What software solution is BGSU using today to track Incidents, Service Requests, Problems and Change Requests?
BGSU is currently using Altiris Version 7.1
28. Has anyone in your environment been certified in ITIL? If so to what level?
BGSU currently have several level 1 ITIL certified resources
29. Which of the following ITSM processes typically found in Service Desk Systems are mandatory for your new system? Which are “desired”?
BGSU has defined these as mandatory
• Incident Management • Request Fulfillment • Problem Management • Change Management
• Service Asset & Configuration Management (Specifically CMDB) • Service Catalog Management
• Knowledge Management • Release Management
BGSU has defined these as nice to have
• Service Level Management • Service Portfolio Management
BGSU has defined these as Not required
30. Do you want us to respond with a “price per license” or do you want us to estimate your license needs and provide a total price based on that estimate?
BGSU would like to review all pricing model with options for the final solution.
31. If you want us to estimate your license needs, please answer the following questions: • How many total IT staff members will be using the system?
• Of that total, how many need to be logged into the system 100% of their work day receiving, recording , resolving and reporting on Incidents, Service Requests and/or Problems and change Requests? (These are your front-line Service Desk folks and perhaps your Desktop group)
• Of the remaining staff, what percentage of their workday do you anticipate they will be logged into the system reviewing, making resolution notes and reporting on Incidents, Service Requests and/or Problems and change Requests? (These are your 2nd-3rd level
resources who typically spend 60% of their day or more doing project work including the actual work needed to resolve or fulfill requests).
BGSU currently has 90 fulltime IT staff members, 50 service desk licensed users with support of 8,000 nodes.
32. In Requirement 5b you state: End User Configuration (out of the box). Please explain further what this requirement means to you.
BGSU would like the product selected to be able to be configured by BGSU admin staff without vendor intervention.
33. In Requirement 7 you state: Bomgar - Chat/Remote access of user's computer. Are you asking if our proposed solution can integrate with Bomgar because you already own it or are you asking us to include Bomgar in the proposal? If you already own it, please advise what version you have deployed.
BGSU would like the vendor’s product to be able to integrate with Bomgar.
34. In Requirement 2 you state: Project resource allocation. Please explain further what this requirement means to you.
35. In Requirement 4 you state: DLO / Crashplan (desktop back-up). Please explain further what this requirement means to you. Are you looking to integrate with this? If so what do you expect that integration to accomplish?
BGSU would like the vendor to explain if their product can integrate without vendor customizations.
36. In Requirement 5 you state: Combine help desk and asset management. Please explain further what this requirement means to you.
BGSU would like the vendor to explain if their product can integrate without vendor customizations
Example: Do you want to be able to store information about all of you assets in a “Configuration Management Database” so you can associate them with people who use them and locations then link them to an Incident or other record type?
Yes- corrected as noted in the example above
37. You have not asked for any pricing or estimates for implementation services. Can we assume you do not want us to estimate those at this time? In this assumption is not correct, please tell us what your requirements are for a Phase 1 implementation---which processes and integrations must be in place in order for you to go-live.
BGSU would like to review the pricing model with options for the final solution.
38. In one of your insurance requirements you state: Excess Liability-Occurrence/Aggregate- $1,000,000. Our Insurer states this as Professional Liability-Occurrence/Aggregate-
$1,000,000/$2,000,000. Is that acceptable?
Yes
39. What help desk/service desk tool are you currently using and how many licenses do you own?
BGSU currently utilizes Altiris 7.1. There are 90 fulltime IT staff members, 50 service desk licensed users with support of 8,000 nodes. I removed some verbiage here.
40. The software we are positioning uses a concurrent license model, how many concurrent licenses would you suggest vendors that have this model propose?
41. How many total IT employees do you have?
BGSU currently has 90 fulltime IT staff members
42. Do you prefer a SaaS (Hosted) or an on premise deployment?
BGSU has both on-premise and hosted solutions and would be examining either solution.
43. For services pricing what processes and integrations should we provide costing for (ex. Incident, Request and Change plus integration with Active Directory and email). Please provide
BGSU has both on-premise and hosted solutions and would be examining either solution.
44. How many full-time IT users is BGSU looking to have access to ServiceNow? Part-time workers?
BGSU currently has 50 service desk licensed users, zero part-time
45. What are your main priorities/areas for implementation in Phase I? Incident/Problem/Change/Configuration?
BGSU will begin with Incident management however, would like to review the pricing model with options for the final solution.
46. What is your required timeframe for go-live for the solution?
BGSU will be implementing with a go-live date of April 1 2015
47. How many ServiceNow System Administrators would you have? 1 or 2?
BGSU will be maintaining three or four application administration users
48. Do you currently use a Single Sign-On solution?
BGSU will be Single sign-on using either CAS or LDAP
49. Does the proposal need to be postmarked by October 2nd or received by 2nd? Received by October 2nd.
50. How many authorized users will have access to the system - Users include 1st level, 2nd level technicians etc., and other users who log into the application? Of those, how many are concurrent users?
BGSU currently has 90 fulltime IT staff members, 50 service desk licensed users with support of 8,000 nodes.
51. What is the current Service Desk software in use?
BGSU currently utilizes Altiris 7.1
52. What are the reasons for changing the software in use? Any Current pain points or financial obligations.
BGSU is looking to deploy a Service desk solution which provides improved reporting, ease of use and End user configuration capabilities.
53. When does the maintenance on the current system expire?
BGSU current contact will expire on June 30 2015
54. Does the project involve any kind of data migration of existing tickets from the current system to the new system?
No
55. Is there any Asset Management tool in place currently and does the project involve any integration with any asset management systems.
Yes, Altiris or we are willing to review other asset management tools if available in the vendor’s product.
56. Is there any allocated budget for this project?
Yes
57. Do you currently have a Knowledge Management tool in place? If so, which tool are you using?
Altiris and Wiki
58. Does the project involve any asset discovery and inventory? Does the County has any tools currently in use for Asset discovery?
59. Is integration with any Network Management tools in scope for the project? If so to what extent.
No
An amendment to Section III – Schedule will be released by September 25th, please go to the
