Establishment of a disaster recovery site

Transcription

1 Establishment of a disaster recovery site RFB 2012/MPL/ICT01 December

2 PROBLEM STATEMENT The Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature (MPL) is seeking a highly experienced service provider to establish a hot disaster recovery site. A hot site is a duplicate of the original site of the organisation, with full computer systems as well as near-complete backups of user data. Real time synchronisation between the two sites is used to completely mirror the data environment of the original site using wide area network links and specialised software 1. INTRODUCTION Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature (MPL) has developed a disaster recovery plan (DRP) as part of the Legislature s Business Continuity Management plans. The Legislature currently has no off-site Disaster Recovery Centre to which the approved DRP relates. These terms of reference are intended to solicit partnership with a service provider that will undertake the process of establishing an off-site disaster recovery centre (hot site) for the Legislature. The Legislature requests interested and suitably qualified companies to tender for this contract by responding to the requirements in section 15 of this document. 2. OVERVIEW 2.1 Executive Summary MPL s core mandate is to exercise oversight over governments departments and the provincial state owned entities, law-making and ensuring that the public participates in these processes. To achieve these objectives, the Legislature has, among other things, implemented the SAP system as its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to manage its resources as from 01 April It is therefore important to ensure integrity of all ERP data and to ensure business continuity in the event of a major disaster. 2

3 The MPL therefore invites competent and qualified service provider to establish an off-site disaster recovery centre. The desired outcome is a hot-off-site disaster recovery centre as a full duplication of our current IT infrastructure. 2.2 Location The Mpumalanga Legislature is located in building 1 of the Riverside Government Complex in Nelspruit. The Legislature also maintains an annexure office in the Vakasha Building in Nelspruit. The Legislature further maintains offices at the Constitution House in Cape Town, adjacent to the Parliamentary Precinct. The Government Complex is maintained by the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport. 2.3 Current Infrastructure Organisation The Legislature has three divisions, namely Financial Governance, Corporate Services and Parliamentary Services. Under these divisions are business units. All staff members have either a PC or Laptop allocated and all public office bearers and managers have ipads. Hence approximately 200 people working in the Legislature have PCs or laptops on their desks and have access to printing facilities. Mobile solution management is therefore a priority. The Legislature has standardised its operation on Microsoft platform and business solutions. These include SQL as a preferred database, Windows Network Operational Systems and Windows based business solutions (MS Office, MS Projects, MS Visio). During the course of 2009 the Legislature took a decision to streamline and integrate all its accounting and core functions including Customer Relations, Human Resource and Procurement functions and as result SAP was introduced running on SQL backend. 2.4 Current Information Technology Infrastructure The Legislature runs on a leased line connectivity, provided by IS and a Cat6 network. This network is managed for a period of 3 years by an external service provider. All switches are PoE enabled (Juniper). 3

4 The Legislature uses SAP as its main business process application, e.g. HR and Payroll, Finance, Asset Management, Procurement, Customer Relations Management and Document Management. MPL has 18 Servers installed on a Virtual Server environment (VMWare) and provides Active Directory and MS Exchange mail services to the clients. The servers run MS Server 2008 and the Legislature has 2 MS Exchange 2010 servers and 1 MS SQL server. The hardware infrastructure support was also bundled in the main contract which is expiring. MPL comprises of 150 users placed into two geographically separate buildings linked with a high speed fibre network connection with a 54Mbps PPTP Wi-Fi link. MPL Invested in leading edge HP Blade Technology and SAN technology which is the core that hardware houses the SAP and Infrastructure server. MPL has Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft with regard to licensing requirements. MPL internet services are currently hosted by Internet Solutions a division of Dimension Data. MPL has also invested in the Mimecast solution with mail integrated service which filters, archives and ensure business continuity in case of disaster or unplanned failures. MPL has improved security and internet filtering solutions which are Webmarshal and Eset NOD 32 as a first line of defence against viruses and malicious software There are networked computers, and multi-functional devices connected to the network. MPL runs an autonomous chamber/parliamentary system and videoconferencing facilities. The tele-communications are provided by a service provider contracted to the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport. There are currently 18 virtual Servers running Windows These servers are running numerous systems and services, including and not limited to inter alia: Microsoft Exchange

5 Windows Server 2008 with Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and other related services Webmarshall Eset Enterprise Antivirus MS Office Professional 2010 MS SQL Windows 7 & Vista Symantec Backup Exec 2.5 SAP System The following SAP modules are installed, providing integrated enterprise resource planning and management: SAP Finance and Control (FI/CO) SAP Asset Management (AM) SAP Materials Management (MM) SAP Inventory Management (IM) SAP Human Resource Management (HRM) SAP Travel Management SAP Document Management Systems (DMS) SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) SAP Netweaver Portal o Employee Self Service [ESS] o Manager Self Service [MSS] SAP Business Objects (BobJ) 3. OBJECTIVE To seek a service provider that will establish a hot disaster recovery site for MPL, which complies with all relevant statutory requirements. 3.1 Key Objectives The service provider should be able to provide the following services and competencies, not limited to inter alia, to the Legislature: Establish a hot site off-site disaster recovery centre. A hot site is a duplicate of the original site of the organization, with full computer systems as well as near-complete backups of user data. Real time 5

6 synchronization between the two sites will be used to completely mirror the data environment of the original site using wide area network links and specialized software. Following a disruption to the original site, the hot site exists so that the organization can relocate with minimal losses to normal operations. The capacity of the hot site will match the capacity of the original site. Procure and implement the hardware and networking infrastructure required to establish an off-site disaster recovery centre. Perform any system configurations that might be necessary; Improve business processes, procedures and policies to ensure optimum operational efficiency of the Off-site centre; Establish the foundation infrastructure that supports the strategic objectives of the legislature. Perform an assessment of the current IT infrastructure sizing and the technical health of the system and propose improvement plan if required. Enablement of innovation and flexibility Establish and ensure a stable network between the main complex and the off-site centre Provide proper infrastructure and backup strategy, plans and procedural documentation (Disaster Recovery and Backup Strategy, Policies, Procedures, Plans) Ensure hardware stability Setup, installation and training of running the off-site Centre Provisioning of the best solution link to the off-site centre which includes a wireless link for redundancy in the event of the main link is not available. 3.2 Deliverable The service provider must order, setup and configure an off-site (hot site) Disaster Recovery Centre with all the necessary documentation, networking capabilities, hardware and training necessary to establish, maintain and run the off-site centre. Deliverables will include, but is not limited to, the following: 6

7 HP Cabinets, VMWare vsphere Enterprise Software, Replication Software, Blade Servers, EVA Storage, MSL Backup Library System, Recovery, HP 3Year 4H 24x7 On-Site Support Establishing a link between the main complex and the off-site centre Installing networking between sites Provide the equipment as per Addendum A 3.3 Contract Duration The duration of the contract for establishment of the site is three (3) months. Issues and duration of maintenance and support will be negotiated with the successful service provider. 4. ASSUMPTIONS It is our assumption that our current IT infrastructure will be duplicated at an off-site location as per the AG requirements for an off-site centre. All configuration and support will adhere to the policies and procedures of the Legislature and will be done within the business processes of the Legislature. The project will be implemented according to Prince2 project management principles. A project management office (PMO) will be established and all project risks, resources, plans and issues will be managed through the PMO. A project steering committee will be established which will meet on a weekly basis. It is further our assumption that the service provider will put measures in place to mitigate associated risks as in section five (5) below. 5. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS The service provider must also recognise that the Legislature has embraced the Result driven philosophy. Thus the service provider must include in their response a suggested mechanism in which the Legislature will measure performance of the service provider during the duration of the contract. 7

8 The service provider must also recognise that MPL is committed to success of National Development Plan with as far as Job creation is concerned. To this effect: - All consultants on the project must be South African citizens - All knowledge transfer and skills development will be done to South African Citizens - The service provider must submit a detailed skills transfer plan and report quarterly on the skills transfer in the form of a matrix. 6. POTENTIAL RISKS Some of the known associated risks with this project are, not limited to inter alia: All risks associated with an unavailable IT infrastructure, e.g. mail, SAP system, Authentication etc. Downtime of the system Loss of documents due to poor Document Management Unavailability of business owners for testing and sign off Inappropriate testing Qualified audit 7. PERFOMANCE INDICATORS Performance reviews will be conducted on a regular basis throughout the project. The result of the review will determine the continuation of the contract. Regular reports will be submitted to the Senior Manager: IT. 8. CONTRACT MANAGEMENT The Legislature has adopted a principle of no valid contract no payment, so it is imperative that the contract be concluded between the Legislature and the winning tenderer for the service to be provided to the Legislature. The Legislature and the service provider will enter into a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and the contract will be managed and evaluated against the metrics in the SLA. This will be a legally binding formal "contract". Amongst other requirements, it will outline uptime agreement of 99.75%, services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees, and warranties. Each area of service scope should have the "level of service" defined, time management, turnaround time and performance penalties. 8

9 Progress reports referred to above must be submitted to the Senior Manager: IT and copies of the reports should also be filed in the office of the service provider. All reports must be written in English. The Legislature is responsible for approving the progress reports. The regular reports should address the following: Performance of the service provider Schedule of deliverables and payment schedule. Issues encountered related to the project. General report on other matters pertaining to the SLA. Invoices will be submitted by the 20 th of every month. Payment will be made within 30 days after receipt of invoice and evidence of the required deliverables. 9. EXPECTATIONS OF THE SERVICE TO BE PROVIDED BY THE CONTRACTOR 9.1 The successful service provider should provide MPL with knowledgeable South African citizen resources with the requisite skills, competencies and extensive experience. 9.2 Co-operation with any requests of the Auditor-General is required. 9.3 The contractor should be fully acquainted with the operations of MPL, and be prepared to advise on appropriate solutions to assist to the MPL s operational problems preferably in a proactive manner MPL aims to maintain best-practice systems in relation to international benchmarks. The contractor must be willing to advice in this regard The Legislature does not perceive that it needs to always have the latest version of every software package. It is envisaged that upgrades will only take place when there is a clear operational advantage, and any such upgrades must be approved by the Senior Manager: IT (the contractor must remember that given "government" budgeting processes, such upgrades should be planned at least a year in advance). 9

10 9. 6 It is imperative that the service contractor takes cognizance of the nature of the business of MPL and its Members. The core business of MPL is concentrated in supporting the Members and the legislative processes. The Parliamentary programme of MPL takes precedence in all scheduling matters Work additional to fixed contract. In exceptional circumstances, the contractor may be required to perform additional system maintenance / consultancy over and above the contracted specifications. Any such work must be approved in advance by the Senior Manager: IT, and will be carried out at the normal contract rates 9.8 Provide details of staff allocated to the contract. The contractor must provide a brief CV of each person to be allocated to work at MPL (whether such a person is employed by the contractor or sub-contracted must be clearly indicated). All such staff should then be available at reasonable notice to provide the required service to MPL. If a person whose CV was provided leaves the employ of the contractor (or is no longer sub-subtracted), a person with comparable qualifications and experience must be made available within the terms of the contract to meet MPL s needs. MPL may, at any time, request the names and details of those currently allocated. 9.9 Clearly, MPL cannot communicate its needs solely through the contract liaison person, but will need to discuss certain operational needs directly with the other contractor staff provided. The contractor will be expected to manage its own internal communications such that when operational instructions, directives, etc. are given by the Senior Manager: IT - or his/her nominee(s) - these should be automatically forwarded to the contract liaison person All change requests must be formalised and adhere to the Change Management Policy and Procedures MPL may, at its discretion, request the contractor to replace an allocated staff member if it considers that the service provided by that person is not acceptable on reasonable grounds It is envisaged that the contractor cannot terminate the agreement except on grounds of non-payment (within a reasonable period after confirmed receipt of 10

11 invoice). However, MPL reserves the right to terminate the agreement on the basis of non-delivery, reasonable cause, or - given notice - convenience MPL is not is a position to award profit incentives - given that it is not a profit institution. Consequently, the contractor must view the acquiring and maintenance of this prestigious contract as its incentive / reward Detailed expectations which should be included in the up-time agreement required include: 99.75% up-time to be maintained (exclusive of items in (c) below) between 07:45 and 16:15 every working day to allow users to access their data, the intranet & their , with a maximum down time of 30 minutes on any one day; at least 99% up-time to be maintained (exclusive of items in (c) below) for the remainder of each week to allow users to access their data, the intranet & their , with a maximum unplanned downtime of 1 hour; to carry out maintenance on the system during working hours whenever possible, after consultation with the Senior Manager: IT. Only in special circumstances will work be approved at the "afterhours" rates; to be able to respond to a major problem by having a person capable of resolving such issues on site within 30 minutes of the problem occurring (during office hours); to be able to respond to a problem after office hours within 1 hour of the problem occurring; to have sufficient support staff on site during office hours to be able respond to user help requests (based on approximately 300 users) without unreasonable delay. 10. REPORTING LINES The service provider will report to the Senior Manager: Information Technology. 11

12 11. PRIME CONTRACT MANAGEMENT The Prime Contract Manager Plan will be drawn, which will address the activities to be performed by contractor; these will include performance management, service level agreement, etc. The contract will adhere to the Prince 2 Project Management Principles. A Project Management Office will be established and regular project steering committee meetings will be held to discuss issues related to the project. 12. METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW The performance of the contractor will be subjected to a review against the Service Level Agreement and deliverables. MPL will also conduct constant surveys of the quality of service provided. 13. MONITORING AND EVALUATION The service provider must provide high quality reports indicating qualitative and quantitative work completed. A project sign-off and hand over report will be required and the last payment is dependent on the endorsement of the objectives and sign-off report. All defined objectives must be achieved. The Senior Manager: Information Technology of MPL is responsible for approving the reports and sign-off of invoices. 14. SECURITY CLEARANCE MPL will conduct security clearance on the service provider staff in order to make sure the company meets MPL s security requirements. Should the contractor fail to achieve the required clearance, the contract will be terminated, and the contractor will be required to the leave site immediately 15. ETHICS The Contractor is expected to perform their functions in a professional, cost efficient and professional manner. The Contractor is required to manage its own internal business ethically, and to ensure good labour practice is maintained by adhering to the Basic Conditions of Service Act, Workmen s Compensation Act, and all other appropriate legislation. 12

13 16. REQUIREMENTS FROM THE SERVICE PROVIDER 16.1 Provide details of any partnership, agency or supplier agreements between the contractor and any supplier / vendor involved in the IT industry Provide an outline of the company and its current operations in relation to these Terms of Reference 16.3 Provide an outline of the experience including exposure to software systems in relation to these Terms of Reference Define the category(s) of contract staff to be provided in terms of the contract (e.g. consultant, systems engineer, help-desk support person, etc.), and the relevant minimum qualifications / experience levels for each category Provide a brief summary of how to deal with issues regarding: Understanding and unpacking the Disaster Recovery Plan into a Business Continuity Plan. Provide a brief strategy on how the company can improve services delivery, productivity and performance of the IT support team and creating centre of excellence. Thorough understanding of network composite model and switches configuration. Strategy on information security, disaster recovery and back-up Network infrastructure and communication protocols Server hard- and software configurations Understanding of help desk concepts 16.6 Details of how the contractor will maintain the necessary security systems for users and its own employees to ensure data security remembering that the elected politicians and their staff are not subject to disciplinary control from the MPL Provide a motivation of why MPL should award the tender to the company Provide original certified copy of the contractor s Authorised Certifications. MPL reserves the right to contact any other person, company or organisation to 13

14 obtain information relating to the service provided by the contractor, either prior to awarding the contract or during the contract term Where legally permitted, provide a full list of the contractor s current clients, the service being contracted, and the start and end dates of the contract, and a contact person and contact number of the client. Where appropriate, similar information may be provided for previous clients for whom a comparable service has been provided Provide an up-time agreement of 99.75% detailing the standards of service to provide within the contract. 17. GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT/BID Bidders shall provide full and accurate answers to the mandatory questions posed in or Do not comply/do not accept (with an X) regarding compliance to the requirements. Where necessary the bidder shall substantiate their response to a specific question The laws of the Republic of South Africa shall govern this RFP and the bidders hereby accept that the courts of the Republic of South Africa shall have jurisdiction. Accept Not Accept 17.2 MPL will not be liable for any costs incurred by the bidder in the preparation of response to this RFP. The preparation of response will be made without obligation to acquire any of the items included in any vendor s bid or to select any bid, or to discuss the reasons why such vendor s or any other bid was accepted or rejected. Accept Not Accept 17.3 MPL may request written clarification or further information regarding any aspect of this bid. The bidders must supply the requested information in writing within twenty four (24) hours or as determined by MPL after the request has been made, otherwise the bid may be disqualified. Accept Not Accept 14

15 17.4 In the case of consortium/jv/subcontractors, bidders are required to provide copies of signed agreements stipulating the work split, competences, client references and Rand Value. Accept Not Accept 17.5 MPL reserves the right to: Withdraw the tender for any reason whatsoever; Not to award the bid to the lowest bidder; Award the bid in part or in whole; and or Not to award the bid at all. Accept Not Accept 17.6 Bidders who are distributors and resellers are required to submit, back-to-back agreement and a service level agreement with their principals. Accept Not Accept 17.7 By submitting a bid in response to this RFB, the bidders accept the evaluation criteria as it stands. Accept Not Accept 17.8 Where applicable, MPL reserves the right to run benchmarks on equipment or services during and after the evaluation. Accept Not Accept 17.9 MPL reserves the right to conduct a pre-award survey during the source selection process to evaluate contractors capabilities to meet the requirements specified in the RFB and supporting documents. Accept Not Accept Only the solution commercially available at the bid closing date will be considered. No proposals for future solutions will be accepted. Accept Not Accept 15

16 17.11 Bidders must declare any form of relationship (family, friend or other) that they may have with any MPL employee/public office bearer, where it is known. (Bidders are further requested to declare any interests that an employee/public office bearer of the MPL may have in their company.) Accept Not Accept The bidder should not qualify the bid proposal with own conditions of bids. Caution: If the bidder does not specifically withdraw its own conditions of bid when called upon to do so, the bid response will be declared invalid. Accept Not Accept Should the bidder withdraw the bid before the bid validity period expires, MPL reserves the right to recover any additional expense incurred by MPL having to accept any less favourable bid or the additional expenditure incurred by MPL in the preparation of a new RFP and by the subsequent acceptance of any less favorable bid. Accept Not Accept Delivery of and acceptance of correspondence between MPL and the bidder sent by prepaid registered post (by air mail if appropriate) in a correctly addressed envelope to either party s postal address or address for service of legal documents will be deemed to have been received and accepted after (2) two days from the date of postage to the South African Post Office Ltd. Accept Not Accept Should the parties at any time after the award of the bid and prior to conclusion of the Contract fail to agree on any significant product price or service price adjustments, change in technical specification, change in service, etc. MPL shall be entitled on such failure to agree, to recall the letter of award and cancel the bid. Such cancellation shall mean that MPL reserves the right to award the same Proposal to next best Vendors on terms and conditions it deems fit. Accept Not Accept 16

17 17.16 In the case of a consortium or JV each of the authorized enterprise s members and/or partners of the different enterprises must co-sign this document. Accept Not Accept COMMERCIAL AND LEGAL REQUIREMENTS 1. Any amendment or change of any nature made to this RFP shall only be of force and effect if it is in writing, signed by MPL signatory and added to this RFP as an addendum. Comment Accept Not Accept 2. Failure or neglect by either party to (at any time) enforce any of the provisions of this Bid shall not, in any manner, be construed to be a waiver of any of that party s right in that regard and in terms of this Bid. Such failure or neglect shall not, in any manner, affect the continued, unaltered validity of this Bid, or prejudice the right of that party to institute subsequent action. Accept Not Accept Comment 3. Bidders who make use of sub-contractors. The bid will however be awarded to the Bidder as a primary contractor who will be responsible for the management of the awarded Bid. No separate contract will be entered into between MPL and any such subcontractors. Copies of the signed agreements between the relevant parties must be attached to the bid responses. Comment Accept Not Accept 4. All services supplied in accordance with this Bid must be certified to all legal requirements as per the South African Law. Accept Not Accept Comment 5. No interest shall be payable on accounts due to the successful Bid in an event of a dispute arising on any stipulation in the contract. Accept Not Accept Comment 17

18 17.18 Evaluation of Vendor Proposals will be performed by an Evaluation Panel established by MPL. Accept Not Accept Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of conformance to the required specifications as outlined in the RFP and the evaluation criteria as set out in the bid conditions FRONTING The MPL supports the spirit of broad based black economic empowerment and recognizes that real empowerment can only be achieved through individuals and businesses conducting themselves in accordance with the Constitution and in an honest, fair, equitable, transparent and legally compliant manner. Against this background the MPL condemn any form of fronting. Intentional misrepresentation by bidder (s) may constitute fraudulent practices. Accept Not Accept Comment The MPL, in ensuring that bidders conduct themselves in an honest manner will, as part of the bid evaluation processes, conduct or initiate the necessary enquiries/investigations to determine the accuracy of the representation made in bid documents. Should any of the fronting indicators as contained in the Guidelines on Complex Structures and Transactions and Fronting, issued by the Department of Trade and Industry, be established during such enquiry / investigation, the onus will be on the bidder to prove that fronting does not exist. Failure to do so within a period of 5 days from date of notification shall invalidate the bid. Accept Not Accept Comment Bidder(s) are required to sign the attached Declaration Form: Consent by bidders to allow the MPL to report fronting practices to DTI is attached hereto. Accept Not Accept Comment 18

19 17.20 SCREENING AND VETTING Acceptance of this bid is subject to the condition that the contracted service provider and all of its associates including personnel providing the service may be required to be cleared by the appropriate authorities to the level of CONFIDENTIAL/SECRET/TOP SECRET. If the principle contractor appoints a subcontractor with consent from the MPL, the same provisions and measures shall apply to the subcontractor. Comment Accept Not Accept 18. SCREENING CRITERIA All proposals that do not meet the following screening criteria will not be considered. 1. Valid tax clearance certificate 2. Original certified copy of the business registration certificate (CK, etc.) 3. Fully completed and signed tender documents 4. Full compliance with requirements in section 16, above. 19. EVALUATION CRITERIA /10 preferential point system will be applicable Functionality All proposals will be evaluated on the criteria provided in the table below Technical Evaluation Technical Evaluation Criteria Max Score 1 Company Track Record, Experience and Accessibility 60 Bidder has been operating in the Disaster Recovery (DR) industry for at 15 least 3 years (3 points for every year above 3 up to a maximum of 15 points) References letters from current and previous clients for DR services (3 15 points for every reference letter up to a maximum of 15 points) If any of the reference letters is from an organ of state on SAP system, 10 an additional 5 points will be allocated for that reference letter up to a maximum of 10 points DR site accessibility: 10 Available 24 hours a day (5 points) Available on weekends and public holidays (5 points) DR site amenities and accessibility: 10 19

20 Technical Evaluation Criteria Facilities for people with disabilities are provided for according to National Building Regulations, SANS 0400 (10 points) Max Score 2 Account Manager Experience 40 Minimum 3 years experience in managing business continuity accounts 20 (2 points for every year above 3 up to a maximum of 10 points) Certification in business continuity management (2 points for every 20 certificate up to a maximum of 10 points) Maximum Total 100 NOTE: Bidders who obtain a score less than seventy (70) points will be disqualified from further evaluation Financial Evaluation Financial Evaluation Criteria Max Score 1 All inclusive price of delivery of the turnkey solution 90 Maximum Total ENQUIRIES All technical enquiries should be directed to Mr Thabo Pienaar at /1332 during office hours. Non-technical (submission) queries should be directed to Mr Mabula at or Ms Nkosi during office hours. 20