Request For Information (RFI)
For
Metro - Bus Line Real Time Next Bus IVR Module
Project No. 31MG1216
Metropolitan Transportation Center 181 Ellicott Street
Buffalo, New York 14203
Date: December 12, 2012
i
Table of Contents
NFTA Contact Information ... 1
Confidentiality ... 1
Abbreviation and terminology ... 1
Purpose of the RFI ... 1
Introduction ... 1
Scope ... 2
RFI Response Information ... 3
Page 1
NFTA Contact Information
Direct all inquiries to: John J. Wojcik Sr. Project Manager 181 Ellicott Street Buffalo, NY 14203 716 855-7427 Email: John_Wojcik@NFTA.com Confidentiality
This is a publically advertised RFI and all information included in the RFI document or in discussions connected to it may be disclosed publicly.
Abbreviation and terminology
IVR – Interactive Voice Response Telephone system OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer
RFI – Request for Information RFP – Request for Proposal RFQ – Request for Qualifications Purpose of the RFI
With this RFI the NFTA requests information regarding IVR companies and their products and services. The purpose of this RFI is to obtain system capabilities, delivery lead times and other market information for planning. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the review. The information collected may be used to formulate requirements of a future RFP, RFQ or Bid.
The NFTA prefers responses directly from OEMs or IVR Hosting Firms. A regional/local vendor may assist the OEM or hosting firm with the RFI.
Introduction
The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) serves about 94,000 passengers per day in the Erie and Niagara counties in the state of New York. The fleet consists of 332 buses, 27 rail cars, 35 vans and 4 trolley-buses. The NFTA operates a single call center divided into conventional and mobility services. This service provides customer information to paratransit and fixed route patrons, as well as providing paratransit trip booking to disabled riders. The contact center receives 10,000 to 12,000 calls a day, of which approximately 94% are handled by the current IVR system. It has been reported that the Fixed-Route IVR system has been nonoperational for approximately two days a month due to technical issues, resulting in approximately 7% downtime. Furthermore, there has recently been a three-month outage on the paratransit IVR, causing serious inconveniences for both agents and customers.
Page 2 The current Ontira IVR answers the initial call and, when necessary, transfers the caller to the paratransit contact center using a Siemens phone system, or to the Fixed Route call center using a Mitel phone system. Basic call statistics on the IVR and live agents are monitored through Ontira’s back-end software. The Ontira IVR interfaces with the Trapeze scheduling software to provide expected arrival times for vehicles. The current CAD/AVL system, provided by OrbCAD, is capable of interfacing with the existing IVR system in order to provide real-time information to customers, however, it has been determined that it is a higher priority to address the IVR functionality issues first.
The vision of this project is to develop specifications for the replacement of the existing IVR system with a view toward operational efficiencies, system
integration, and augmented customer service.
Scope
NFTA plans to deploy a fully featured Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to provide real-time fixed-route and paratransit transit information to the general public.
This IVR system will fully integrate into the CAD/AVL system, the Hastus fixed-route scheduling software, and the Trapeze scheduling software in order to provide fixed-route and paratransit customers with real-time next bus and train arrival, trip planning, and trip booking capabilities over the telephone.
This system may be housed at NFTA, or as a hosted solution, at NFTA’s option, but it is required that the system have at least 99.8% uptime guaranteed.
The NFTA request specific information about the following elements:
1. Telephony Interface – The response shall provide information about the
technical requirements of telephony interface and identify any limitations. 2. IVR Database Engine – The response shall provide detailed information
regarding the central repository for the system information that allows IVR related applications to store their information in a commonly stored
system.
3. IVR Engine – The response shall provide detailed information regarding
the back-end system that operates the IVR.
4. Text-to-Speech – The response shall provide detailed information
regarding the IVR system text-to-speech functionality for any information that is not pre-recorded.
Page 3
RFI Response Information
The NFTA requests that each respondent provide the following information. 1. Company History and General Information
2. IVR Product Lines
a. Base Product – what technical features are considered standard b. Product Options - what technical features are considered optional c. Customizable features
d. Identify proprietary software / open source software e. Typical software licensing agreements
3. Exclusions 4. Product life cycle 5. Training
6. Warranties
7. Service requirements
8. Product Cost: Do not provide a budget or quote for this projects. The NFTA is only interested in obtaining publicly advertised published rates, GSA rates or NYS OGS contract rates.
RFI Schedule
Advertise RFI December 12, 2012 RFI Due Date January 4, 2013
RFI Technical Presentations Week of January 14, 2013
**Note: Although Technical Presentations are listed in the schedule the NFTA may elect not to entertain Technical Presentations.
RFI responses will be accepted until 4:00 p.m. of the due date listed in the schedule above. Responses will only be accepted in the electronic format listed below:
Paper responses will not be accepted. Responses shall be submitted on the NFTA Engineering website at www.nftaengineering.com. This website is primarily used to receive bids for capital projects; any reference to bid on the website will be synonymous with RFI Response.
Instructions for submitting responses are available on the website. The contact person for question or issues regarding the website is John Blazier, Phone (716) 855-7649, email john_blazier@nfta.com. Responses must be in a .pdf format in files no larger than 10 MB. File names must adhere to the
following naming convention:
NFTA Proj. No._company name_##_of_##.pdf
For example: If the electronic responses is 15MB in size, it will have to be separated into two files each no larger than 10MB. The file name for the first file would look like the following example: 30MG1216_XYZ Consultants_01_of_02.pdf
Page 4 End of RFI
