INVITATION TO BID (ITB) VOICE CONFERENCING SERVICES ITB NO.: DMS-11/ AMENDMENT 1

Transcription

1 INVITATION TO BID (ITB) VOICE CONFERENCING SERVICES ITB NO.: DMS-11/ AMENDMENT 1 The Department hereby formally provides written responses to questions received and formally amends the solicitation as follows: Page 15 is replaced with: Revised Page 15 of 46 Page 15a is Added. Page 20 is replaced with: Revised Page 20 of 46 Page 20a is Added. All amendment(s) to the solicitation are highlighted in yellow with a vertical line on the right margin FAILURE TO FILE A PROTEST WITHIN THE TIME PRESCRIBED IN S (3) OF THE FLORIDA STATUES, OR FAILURE TO FILE A BOND OR OTHER SECURITY WITHIN THE TIME ALLOWED FOR FILING A BOND, SHALL CONSTITUTE A WAIVER OF PROCEEDINGS UNDER CHAPTER 120 OF THE FLORIDA STATUTES.

2 WRITTEN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RECEIVED All written questions are reproduced in the same format as submitted by the Respondent. Question #1 Of the 3 million minutes of conferencing, what percentage is International? Answer #1 During the past three months, fewer than 1,000 minutes per month were International. Question #2 What are the top ten countries you conference with? Answer #2 The top ten countries are: Mexico, Granada, Puerto Rico, Norway, Virgin Islands, Denmark, England, Japan, Canada, Germany. Question #3 Of the 3 million minutes of conferencing, what percentage is operator-assisted? Answer #3 During the past three months the percentage has been 1.254% or an average of 36,441 minutes per month. Question #4 What percentage of operator-assisted conferencing require the features described in section 3.01 B. Answer #4 Since these are non-billable features that are available with the existing service, this information is not available. Question #5 What percentage of your operator- assisted conferencing requires name capture for an audio call? Answer #5 Since this is a non-billable feature that is included with the existing service, this information is not available. Question #6 What percentage of your operator-assisted conferencing have 300 participants or less? Answer #6 During the past three months, there have not been any operator assisted conferences with more than 300 participants. Question #7 is on the GSA schedule. Is this something that would be important to you for us to expand upon? Answer #7 Question #8 Answer #8 At the time, the Division of Telecommunications is seeking competitive bids for these services using the ITB currently posted. Can the State of Florida please provide some insight as to why you are going to RFP for this service? b) Are you unhappy with your current vendor, services and or support? Please explain. The State entered into the current contract on 12/1/2005 for a three (3) year period ending 11/30/2008, with a 3 year renewal. The Contract was renewed for three (3) years and It was extended one time for six (6) month to allow the Division time to seek a competitive bid for

3 services. The current Contract expires on May 29, For clarification purposes, the procurement is an ITB, not an RFP. Question #9 What are the current total Operator Assist minutes used by your organization per month? Answer #9 See response to Question #3. Question #10 In the RFP document, you provided 2.5 to 3.5 million minutes per month for Audio. Does that number include the Operator Assist minutes? Answer #10 For clarification purposes, the procurement is an ITB, not an RFP. Question #11 Is there an existing vendor who is handling the Web Conferencing business? If yes, who is the vendor? Answer #11 Question #12 The current Enhanced Voice Conference Contract with Embarq Florida Inc., dba as Century Link, includes web conferencing services. The Department has also contracted with AT&T to provide AT&T Connect web conferencing services. Are they currently under contract with the existing Web Conferencing vendor? If yes, when will the contract expire? Answer #12 There is a current contract in place with Embarq Florida Inc., dba as Century Link. This contract expires on May 29, The current contract with AT&T expires on 1/31/2014. Question #13 In section 4.04 Background check: Please describe the Dependent Eligibility Verification services to be provided under this contract. Answer #13 Please see Revised Page 20 of 46. Question #14 Can you provide the breakdown of minutes for operator assisted versus Reservationless conferencing per month? Answer #14 During the past three months the average monthly volume of Reservationless conferencing has been 2,869,782 minutes and Operator Assisted has been 36,441 minutes. Question #15 Can you provide the breakdown of toll free versus toll conferencing minutes per month? Answer #15 Since the existing contract rate for Toll access is the same rate as Toll-free, it is estimated over 99% of the access is done via toll-free. Question #16 Is there any international usage for Reservationless or Operator Assisted conferencing?

4 Answer #16 See response to Question #1. Question #17 In the bid there are several ancillary charges that you have asked to be waived, we are working to provide the most competitive pricing possible if we are not able to waive all fees requested, are you still willing to consider our bid response? Answer #17 Per Section 2.03, Alternate Replies, alternate replies and exceptions to this solicitation are not permitted. Since the ancillary charges that the Department has requested to be waived were not identified in this question, the Department cannot determine if the solicitation should be amended to allow Respondents to provide a bid price for these ancillary charges. Question #18 Can we get a Word copy of the ITB? Answer #18 A Word copy of the ITB will be provided if requested via to the Procurement Officer listing in the solicitation. Question #19 DivTel is asking that the provider be responsible for all fraudulent usage. Industry standard show that 85% of all toll fraud historically comes from internal mismanagement of credentials, eg., failure to turn off accounts from employees that leave, sharing of conferencing credentials, etc. How does the Divtel currently manages conferencing credentials? Answer #19 Currently, SUNCOM eligible customers submit an order to DivTel for Reservationless services to establish service for their end users. The order is forwarded by DivTel to the service provider who provisions the voice conference service for the subscriber(s). Once service is provisioned by the service provider, an is sent to the subscriber(s) which includes their conferencing credentials. The service provider also mails a wallet card to the subscriber(s) which includes their owner number and conference code. It is the SUNCOM eligible customer s responsibility to submit an order to DivTel to terminate service for employees who leave their position. Question #20 Would Divtel entertain a conversation around toll fraud management in an effort to share in the responsibility and liability? Answer #20 Since this is an ITB, the State cannot have a conversation regarding this issue. The State will, however, amend the solicitation to address shared responsibility and liability with regards to toll fraud. Question #21 Would the State be interested in NO CHARGE features that can alert users in real-time and after the fact of unauthorized users. 1) Post Conference Summary 2) Mobile and Desktop Controller Call Start Alert? Answer #21

5 Question #22 Do you want the 5 pieces of information captured at pre-registration or manually by the operator? Answer #22 The method used to capture this information shall be available via pre-registration or manually. Some subscribers will need the information capture during a pre-registration phase while others will need the information captured as participants join the conference. Question #23 Credit for performance of extra work. If the Contractor does not comply with DIVTEL s billing requirements, DivTel, at its option, may require a credit of up to five hundred dollars ($500) per day until the requirements are met for the extra internal accounting and auditing services related to Contractor delays in providing a readable and accurate electronic billing file. If we agree to a mutual implementation and cutover plan and associated time table will DIVTEL relinquish the need for penalties? Answer #23 DivTel will work with the Contractor to establish a mutually agreed upon timeline for implementation and cutover. If the Contractor meet this timeline, then a credit will not be required. If, however, the Contractor fails to meet the agreed upon timeline, DivTel may require the credit. Question #24 Implementation - During the initial start-up and implementation, the Contractor will aggressively work with DivTel billing personnel to meet the requirements above. This task will include assigning a manager and staff for the billing processes, developing a detailed work plan as part of the project plan and meet often with DivTel invoicing section personnel. An aggressive approach to such coordination should include but not be limited to familiarizing DivTel s invoicing personnel with the Contractor s billing organization and processes via a site visit. This site visit may be required to familiarize two or three of DivTel s billing/accounting specialists with the Contractor s billing process and capability. Travel, lodging, meals, and other expenses as required will be paid by the Contractor. Such travel may be recurring during Contract implementation and startup phase. It is important that the Contractor ensures all resources necessary are made immediately available to expeditiously implement a successful billing cycle for payment. We very much would like your business and to expeditiously implement it. However, being in the audio,web and video conferencing business, we would prefer to meet with DIVTEL s personnel utilizing collaboration tools. In the event that in person meetings are required, xxx prefers to send representation to Divtel instead being responsible for the travel coordination and cost reimbursement for a Divtel employees to travel to xxx. Will these cost conscious options be admissible? Answer #24 Question #25 Can a breakdown be provided of traffic highs and lows? To understand peak and valley. Answer #25 See the table below for monthly voice conferencing usage since July, 2008.

6 Voice Conference Month Minutes July-08 1,932,651 August-08 2,022,387 September-08 2,244,574 October-08 2,327,498 November-08 2,354,348 December-08 1,774,090 January-09 1,733,077 February-09 2,346,717 March-09 2,534,763 April-09 2,805,284 May-09 2,786,280 June-09 2,713,469 July-09 2,638,519 August-09 2,524,089 September-09 2,607,666 October-09 2,924,121 November-09 2,634,375 December-09 2,170,305 January-10 2,163,838 February-10 2,952,213 March-10 2,995,476 April-10 3,290,182 May-10 2,917,920 June-10 3,083,820 July-10 3,376,009 August-10 3,152,360 September-10 3,284,510 October-10 2,883,943 November-11 2,741,471 December-11 2,371,582 January-11 2,920,516 February-11 3,148,557 March-11 3,559,659 April-11 3,238,239 May-11 3,172,592 June-11 3,355,389 July-11 2,610,127 August-11 3,175,477 September-11 3,230,743 October-11 2,827,636 November-11 2,664,804

7 December-11 2,220,980 January-12 3,217,821 February-12 3,359,193 Question #26 Can a breakdown be provided of reserved and resless business? Or better yet, reserved attended vs reserved high touch elite Answer #26 With the existing service, there are only two types of conferencing available to the subscribers: Reservationless (no reservation is required) and Operator Assisted (reservation is required). The breakdown between these two services is provided in the response to Question #14. Question #27 Where s attachment 10? Can you provide Attachment 10 please. Answer #27 Per Section 2.09, the Procurement Office identified on the cover page of the solicitation for an electronic copy of Attachment 10 Price Sheet. Question #28 Is it expected that SUNCOM Conference end user will communicate directly with Contractor and that Contractor will then notify SUNCOM NOC of issues, or SUNCOM NOC own end user communications? Answer #28 It is expected that the SUNCOM Conference end user will report issues directly to the Contractor. The Contractor would work directly with the end user to resolve their trouble. As described in Section 3.07, the Contractor shall, however, provide the SUNCOM NOC access to their trouble ticket system and notify the SUNCOM NOC of service affecting outages. Customers can also contact the SUNCOM NOC to escalate issues. Question #29 Does the online trouble ticketing system need to be branded for SUNCOM or the State of Florida? Answer #29 No, but the State would prefer that the trouble ticketing system be branded. Question #30 How many SUNCOM users (NOC personnel) will require access to trouble ticket system? Answer #30 At this time, the SUNCOM NOC includes seven staff member that will require access to the trouble ticket system. Question #31 How will DivTel notify Contractor of Conference Leaders that require international calling access? Answer #31 The order for services which is delivered to the Contractor using the CSAB will indicate if International calling is authorized for the Conference Leader. Question #32

8 During the initial activation process, will there be some Conference Leaders who require international calling access, while others do not? Answer #32 Question #33 Is it acceptable if User & Operational Guides are stored online? Answer #33 Question #34 If the contractor is expected to interface with the CSAB system for Order Management, will SUNCOM or DivTel provide the Contractor with training on the CSAB system? Answer #34 Question # A.2.j is the requirement for participants be able to listen to playback outside of the actual audio conference? Answer #35 Question # B Are virtual wallet cards acceptable? Answer #36 Question # will they be using this CSAB system to request new resless accounts and reserved conferences? If so, then we would need to know more about how we are notified about new orders. Answer #37 Eligible SUNCOM customers will use the CSAB to request a new Reservationless account and the capability to schedule Operator Assisted conferences. Authorized staff from the Contractor will be setup with access to the CSAB and will receive notifications as orders are forwarded to the Contractor. Question # C.9 Is this a physical visit to verify and to fly out and view our billing capabilities? Answer #38 No. See response to Question #24 Question #39 Does an on-campus solution exist today? Answer #39 No.

9 Question #40 Are most of the users on a lan/wan would a dedicated bridge be a potential solution? Answer #40 No. THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

10 The wallet card shall be sent at no additional cost to the State and shall include, at a minimum, the following information: 1. The toll and toll free conference bridge dial in numbers 2. The Conference code 3. A list of the available touchtone keypad commands 4. The twenty-four (24) by seven (7) technical support number to report conference troubles 3.04 Fraudulent Usage The Contractor shall monitor its conference services for fraudulent usage and notify DivTel and the Customer within two (2) hours of the detection of fraudulent usage. It is the Customer s responsibility to submit an order to DivTel to terminate service for employees who leave their position. If an authorized user has authorities established in the CSAB to reserve a conference, and does so even though he/she should not have had those rights, the State will be responsible for the associated costs. If the fraudulent usage resulted from negligence by the authorized Conference Leader, then the State will assume responsibility for the fraudulent charges. The State will not be liable for any charges incurred as a result of fraudulent or unauthorized usage of Voice Conference Services if the security of the Contractor s system has been breached or if a valid CSAB order was sent to the Contractor to terminate user rights in the Contractor s system and such rights were not revoked System Reliability and Service Level Agreement The Voice Conferencing Service shall be operational and available at least 99.95% of the time. This means that the service cannot be out of service for more than twenty-two (22) minutes per month, excluding outages due to force majeure as defined in PUR 1000, Section 24. The system is defined to be out of service when all customers are not able to initiate voice conferences. Should the system fail beyond the monthly interval outlined above, the Contractor shall reimburse by credits, the State, 5% of the Reservationless and Operator Assisted Voice Conference Service charges for every thirty (30) minutes of outage beyond the initial twenty-two (22) minutes that is allowed each month. The credits shall be calculated based upon the usage for the prior month and shall not exceed the total cost of the voice conference service for the month User and Operational Guides The Contractor shall submit user guides for the Voice Conference Services to DivTel within thirty (30) days of Contract execution. The guides will describe in detail all features and functions available to the Customers. The Contractor shall also work with DivTel to develop an Operations Guide which describes in detail all operational processes between the Contractor and DivTel, including but not limited to the following processes: A. Ordering B. Billing C. SLA reviews and credits D. Trouble reporting and escalations Revised Page 15 of 46

11 3.07 Trouble Reporting The Contractor shall provide a centralized trouble reporting and maintenance system that is manned twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. The Contractor shall provide a dedicated toll-free number for the State of Florida in order for the SUNCOM Conference end users to report troubles. The Contractor shall generate a trouble ticket associated with reported troubles and notify the SUNCOM NOC of all reported troubles via and trouble ticketing system. The Contractor shall provide the SUNCOM NOC staff with online access to their trouble ticket system to allow for viewing, creating, updating, and downloading trouble tickets. Upon notification of trouble by either phone, , or via online reporting, the Contractor must respond to the reported trouble within one (1) hour. A report of trouble clearance must be furnished to the SUNCOM NOC within one hour of trouble clearance. The centralized trouble reporting center must provide notification to the SUNCOM NOC immediately after the occurrence Page 15a of 46

12 The Contractor shall ensure that background history checks, including criminal history, are conducted on all current and newly-hired employees, including all subcontractor employees, prior to the employee or subcontractor providing Dependent Eligibility Verification services under the Contract that allow access to abuse records from programs providing care to children, the developmentally disabled, or vulnerable adults. All employees and subcontractors of Contractor who have the capability to monitor active voice conferences or listen to recorded voice conferences providing services per this Contract are considered to be persons of special trust and shall therefore undergo a Level II background screening by the Department s Inspector General. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Justice Department fees for this screening are the responsibility of the Contractor. The Contractor shall not allow any employee or subcontractor employee to assist in the providing of services under the Contract if the background checks indicate that the employee fails to meet the qualification standards established for certain State employees pursuant to Section (2), Florida Statutes. The Contractor shall require all of its employees and all subcontractor employees to report to the Department any criminal matter that employee has been involved in, whether it is an arrest, charge, indictment, information, conviction, plea of guilty or plea of no contest, regardless of whether adjudication is withheld as soon as reasonably possible, and in no event later than two business days, of such incident. The Department shall have the right to audit compliance with this Section at any time, and Contractor and its subcontractors shall cooperate with this audit process Contract Management A. Contract Administrator: The Department employee who is primarily responsible for maintaining this Contract. As of the effective date, the Contract Administrator shall be as follows: Christina Espinosa Departmental Purchasing Department of Management Services 4050 Esplanade Way, Ste z Tallahassee, Florida Telephone: (850) christina.espinosa@dms.myflorida.com The Department may appoint a different Contract Administrator, which shall not constitute an amendment to the Contract, by sending written notice to Contractor. Any communication to the Department relating to the Contract shall be addressed to the Contract Administrator. B. Contract Manager: The Department employee who is primarily responsible for overseeing the Respondent s performance of its duties and obligations pursuant to the terms of this Contract. The Contract Manager shall be as follows: Suzanne Woodcock Division of Telecommunications (DivTel) Department of Management Services 4030 Esplanade Way, Ste Tallahassee, Florida Telephone: (850) Suzanne.woodcock@dms.myflorida.com Revised Page 20 of 46

13 4.02 Contract Term The Department may appoint a different Contract Manager, which shall not constitute an amendment to the Contract, by sending a written notice to Contractor. Any communication to the Department relating to the Contract shall be addressed to the Contract Manager. Page 20a of 46