Enterprise Connect Cloud Communications and Collaboration Request for Proposal

Transcription

1 The 2013 Enterprise Connect Cloud-Based Communications and Collaboration RFP Enterprise Connect Cloud Communications and Collaboration Request for Proposal Prepared by E. Brent Kelly, Ph.D. Principal KelCor, Inc. VP and Principal Analyst Constellation Research, Inc Research Parkway, Suite 186 North Logan, UT USA KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -1-

2 COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 2013 by KelCor, Inc. All rights, including that of translation into other languages are specifically reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any method or means, electrical, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the express written permission of KelCor, Inc. Enterprise Connect workshop attendees may use this RFP as a template for customizing their own RFP, but only with expressed written permission from the copyright holder. Proper accreditation to KelCor, Inc. for using relevant sections of this RFP in whole or part must be included in the resulting document. Please note that this RFP is protected by US copyright laws and improper use by any means may result in legal action. TRADEMARK NOTICE Material in this document may reference vendor companies and their products and services. All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to the respective companies KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -2-

3 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION... 4 About Enterprise Connect Company... 4 GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSALS... 5 Solicitation Documents... 5 Contents of Solicitation Documents... 5 Clarification of Solicitation Documents... 5 Amendments of Solicitation Documents... 5 Preparation of Proposals... 5 Language of the Proposal... 5 Documents comprising the Proposal... 6 Content of Financial component; Price Schedule... 6 Proposal format... 6 Submission of Proposals... 6 TERMS OF REFERENCE... 7 Overview of EC's Communications Environment... 7 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & APPLICATIONS TELEPHONY REQUIREMENTS CONTACT CALL CENTER PARAMETERS UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS REQUIREMENTS UNIFIED MESSAGING INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES MANAGED SERVICES REQUIREMENTS RESPONDENT ROADMAP PRICE SCHEDULE APPENDIX I: INTENTION TO SUBMIT PROPOSAL APPENDIX II: RFP TIMETABLE APPENDIX III: PRICING SCHEDULES APPENDIX IV: PROPOSAL FORMAT KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -3-

4 Introduction This RFP document was designed and developed by KelCor, Inc. for the Enterprise Connect 2013 Conference in Orlando. We have prepared the RFP to give cloud-based telephony and unified communications solutions vendors a mechanism to provide interested end user companies information and pricing relative to their offerings. Although we recognize that every organization is distinctive and that every company s business processes and structure are unique, we also believe that responses to this RFP will benefit end users who are seeking options for their telephony and UC needs, regardless of company size. For Enterprise Connect, there will be no selection of a winning proposal; rather each will be discussed on its own merits. At the end of the session at Enterprise Connect, the Principal moderating the session will make comments with respect to items end user companies should consider when specifying and preparing for a hosted telephony and UC solution along with possible items to consider. About Enterprise Connect Company For this RFP, we have created a fictitious company called Enterprise Connect Company (EC). Enterprise Connect Company has three locations, which include a headquarters location (HQ), a large remote office and a small remote office. As with many real customers, EC has enjoyed the use of a TDM-based PBX for many years. Although this system has served EC well in the past, it is no longer reliable or capable of meeting current business requirements. EC wishes to evaluate cloud-based communications options for its telephony and unified communications (UC) needs, based on the major trends visible in the market and being adopted by other enterprises. In particular, EC wishes to investigate a solution in which it may license and deploy telephony and UC functionality via a Cloud or hosted option. That is, any system servers and software will be hosted and run at the service provider s site with only user devices and necessary gateways and similar equipment on the EC premises. Please respond to all of the cloud-based system functionality requirements of this RFP, showing which software and equipment are provided in the Cloud and which are on-premises. Note: Respondents will be considered for panelist participation at Enterprise Connect 2013 based on the individual responses submitted. It is acceptable to include response components from your partners or third-party suppliers; however, the partner should be clearly identified as a solution provider in that case KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -4-

5 General Guidelines for Proposals Solicitation Documents Contents of Solicitation Documents Each Respondent is expected to examine all corresponding instructions, forms, terms and specifications contained in the Solicitation Documents. Failure to comply with these documents may disqualify the Proposal. Proposals that do not follow the RFP guidelines will not be accepted. Clarification of Solicitation Documents A prospective Respondent requiring any clarification of the Solicitation Documents may notify EC via with the subject Request for Clarification UC RFP. EC will respond in writing to any request for clarification of the Solicitation Documents that it receives. Written copies of any response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be sent to all prospective Respondents Please send clarification questions to Brent Kelly at bkelly@kelcor.com. Amendments of Solicitation Documents At any time prior to the deadline for submission of Proposals, EC may, for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by a prospective Respondent, modify the Solicitation Documents by amendment. Amendments of the Solicitation Documents will be sent to prospective Respondents. Preparation of Proposals IMPORTANT: Respondents must propose a solution for all categories. This is a mandatory pass/fail requirement. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will not be considered on the grounds that it is non-responsive. Please Do NOT provide material or information unrelated or irrelevant to a specific RFP clause requirement. All products and solutions proposed for this RFP must be formally announced prior to or at Enterprise Connect Orlando 2013; any and all products and capabilities not announced at time of submission must be identified in a separate memorandum, followed by a briefing in the January/February 2013 time frame. Be brief, but complete, and provide succinct, clear, and unambiguous responses. Make sure to review and edit your proposal before submission. All proposals are due by February 15, Deadline extensions will NOT be granted. Language of the Proposal The Proposal prepared by the Respondent and all correspondence and documents relating to the Proposal exchanged by the Respondent and EC shall be written in the English language. Any printed literature furnished by the Respondent may be written in another language so long as 2013 KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -5-

6 accompanied by an English translation of its pertinent passages in which case, for purposes of interpretation of the Proposal, the English translation shall govern. Documents comprising the Proposal The Proposal shall comprise the following components: a) Proposal submission form contained in Appendix I; b) Technical and Installation parts of the Proposal, including responses to each requirement in the response form, with any necessary documentation to demonstrate that the Respondent meets all requirements; c) Financial part of the Proposal, separate from the Technical and Installation component. Content of Financial component; Price Schedule The Respondent shall indicate all pricing information in the appropriate section(s) of the Price Schedule (Appendix III). Proposal format a) The Proposal shall be submitted electronically using the format outlined in Appendix IV. b) The Operational and Technical part of the Proposal must not contain any pricing information whatsoever on the goods/services offered. Pricing information shall be submitted in a separate spreadsheet. Failure to comply with this requirement will result in automatic disqualification of the entire Proposal. c) Numbering system: It is mandatory that the Respondent s Proposal numbering system correspond with the numbering system used in the body of this RFP. The guidelines provided in this RFP are designed to allow Proposals to be assessed in the fairest possible way ( apples to apples comparison). d) All references to descriptive material and brochures should be included in the appropriate response paragraph, though material/documents themselves may be provided as Annexes to the Proposal. e) Respondents are requested to focus on the provision of relevant information and to limit the amount of marketing and boilerplate material. f) Information which the Respondent considers proprietary, if any, should be clearly marked proprietary next to the relevant part of the text, and it will be treated accordingly. Submission of Proposals All proposals shall be submitted electronically by close of business U.S. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. PST) February 15, Send submissions to Brent Kelly at bkelly@kelcor.com. The proposal subject shall be EC 2013 RFP Response" KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -6-

7 Terms of Reference EC seeks an IP PBX and unified communications solution providing integrated capabilities including presence and IM, telephony, unified messaging, audio/video/web-based conferencing, contact center, and desktop collaboration (through a client GUI). EC has three facilities including a headquarters office with 1,750 users, a regional office with 200 users, and a branch office with 50 users. The solution must be capable of expanding to 4,000 users. EC will be responsible for all upgrades of internal data networking equipment necessary to fully support the proposed solution. This includes implementing QoS, PoE, VLAN and security. EC also will be responsible for ensuring that its network switching configuration is capable of supporting the requirements for the proposed hosted UC solution. An internal data network upgrade is out of scope of this RFP. EC requires the Respondent to provide all required communications links between EC locations, and Respondent will provide all required edge networking gear. Overview of EC's Communications Environment HQ Site: Domestic USA 1,750 Users/station licenses, including 25 Analog Lines (faxes, relays) Remote Office 1: Domestic USA 200 Users/station licenses, including 10 Analog Lines (faxes, relays) Remote Office 2: Domestic USA 50 Users/station licenses, including 5 Analog Lines EC currently has a mixture of PBXs depending upon location as shown in Section 1.0 below. In addition, EC has Tandberg and Polycom H.323 video equipment at all of its offices; these units need to be able to interface with the UC solution proposed. EC presently has its own internal system based on Microsoft Exchange, it would like to assure that in the new solution end users can still use their Outlook client; hence, the unified messaging engine needs to support the Outlook client KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -7-

8 Technical Requirements The purpose of this RFP is to establish a long-term agreement and relationship with the successful Respondent to fully integrated unified communications solution for 2,000 users with expansion capabilities up to 4,000 users. This includes rich presence and IM, voice, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, contact center, and a unified desktop client for collaboration. The RFP requirements are divided up into seven major categories as listed below. Although there are multiple categories, the UC applications, telephony solution, contact center, and unified messaging system must tightly integrate with one another. The RFP requirements are divided into seven (7) major categories: 1.0 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & APPLICATIONS TELEPHONY REQUIREMENTS CONTACT CALL CENTER PARAMETERS UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS REQUIREMENTS UNIFIED MESSAGING INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES MANAGED SERVICES REQUIREMENTS KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -8-

9 Figure 1. Topology diagram for cloud-based unified communications services Cloud-Based UC&C Services Provider Home Workers Internet MPLS/VPN PSTN Mobile Workers Remote Workers Headquarters 1750 Endpoints Chicago Area Remote Office 2 50 Endpoints Salt Lake City Area Remote Office Endpoints Des Moines, Iowa 2.4 HQ and Remote Office: Trunk and Bandwidth Requirements Respondent will engineer the WAN trunk circuits to support compressed voice traffic (G.722 voice codecs) across EC facilities. Respondent will specify a networking topology that will work best with its solution including any redundant WAN links required for solution resiliency If an additional price is required for use of the wideband codec, please indicate that price in the response and as an option in the pricing template KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -12-

10 About KelCor, Inc. KelCor is a specialized consulting and analyst firm with a passion for providing client satisfaction through product and service excellence. We have laser focus on the business communications market, emphasizing those products and services that are proven to accelerate an organization's business processes. We provide value to our end-user and vendor clients by offering an unbiased, 360-degree view of the unified communications and collaboration marketplace. We prepare research reports, vendor profiles, market forecasts, white papers, case studies, and presentations designed to inform, educate, and assist vendors with strategy, tactics, market approaches, and end user attitudes to help them identify and capitalize on opportunity. We help our end-user clients understand options, strategies, competitive vendor offerings, and best practices engaging our collaborative process engineering expertise, all designed to improve organization efficiency while increasing top line revenues or bottom line profits. The depth of our reports and our ability to discern key market trends significantly differentiates us from any other consulting and analyst firm you've ever worked with. About the Cloud-Based Communications RFP Author Dr. Brent Kelly is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research and President of KelCor, Inc. He focuses on the unique intersection of unified communications, social business, cloud services, video and mobility. Dr. Kelly provides strategy and counsel to key clients including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, technology policy executives, sell-side firms and technology buyers. Prior to joining Constellation, Dr. Kelly served for 10 years as a partner at Wainhouse Research where he was the primary author of most of the firm s unified communications reports and forecasts. Dr. Kelly is a regular presenter at Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon), the communications industry trade show where his well-respected, half-day tutorials have covered topics such as hosted and managed unified communications services, Microsoft Office Communications Server technical deep dives and IBM Lotus Sametime architectural reviews. He has also taught seminars in North America, Europe, Australia and South America. Dr. Kelly has experience as the Vice President of Marketing for Sorenson Vision, an early innovator in the IP communications space, and he has served as the chief executive in a privately-held manufacturing company. Prior to this, Dr. Kelly was part of the team at Schlumberger that built the devices Intel used to test its Pentium microprocessors. He also led teams developing real-time data acquisition and control systems and adaptive intelligent design systems for use in several Schlumberger Oil Field services companies. His experience includes 4 1/2 years doing research and development in France. He has worked as a research engineer for Conoco, implementing more efficient mathematical convergence methods for oil reservoir simulators, and as a process engineer for Monsanto. Dr. Kelly has a Ph.D. in engineering from Texas A&M University specializing in thermodynamics and a B.S. in engineering from Brigham Young University. He is serving in his second term as an elected official in his Hyde Park, Utah community. Dr. Kelly can be reached at brent@constellationrg.com or at bkelly@kelcor.com KelCor, Inc. All Rights Reserved -59-