Vendor Questions & Answers Wake County RFI Hosted Unified Communications Solution 5/25/16

Transcription

1 General RFI Questions Vendor Questions & Answers Wake County RFI Hosted Unified Communications Solution 5/25/16 1. Do you have to go away from Centrex end of life? If so when is that date? Yes, when Centrex reaches end of life we will no longer be able to use the product. The current projected end of life is Who is the technical contact on this project? Sara Mazurak 3. What is the estimated time frame for the RFP release? We have not yet determined if an RFP will be released, and if so, what the time frame will be. 4. If we are chosen as a finalist will be have the opportunity to present our solution to Wake County? Yes. 5. The RFI appears to be written with a strong bias to a Cisco based design. Is this intentional? Will the County actually consider solutions which are not Cisco based? If so how will they be scored? What are the important criteria? We are completely neutral. Any perceived bias was not intentional and we will consider all technically sound solutions. We have not defined a scoring methodology or important criteria as this RFI is intended for data gathering. 6. Will the individual agencies manage and administer the systems themselves or will Wake County Information Services centralize this process? Wake County Information Services will centralize this process. Network/Data Centers 7. Would you consider hosting this within your own data centers? Yes, however, we are not interested in maintaining, patching, replacing, etc. the equipment. 8. Would you be open to seeking a private cloud solution which could be hosted in your own centers or a third party s center and exploring the benefits that this could provide with this type of solution? Yes, however, we are not interested in maintaining, patching, replacing, etc. the equipment. 9. Who is your WAN (Ethernet or MPLS) Service Provider? Time Warner and AT&T. 10. Who do you use for PRI and SIP trunking today? AT&T and Level 3.

2 11. Is it ok to provide our solution and work with your approved Telco provider for PRI or SIP trunks? Yes, however Wake County has an interest in a turnkey solution for ease of management. 12. Regarding section Is this a Schematic of the VoIP platform or the internal network? This is a schematic of the proposed VoIP platform and any networks that support it. 13. Do we need to build 100 "locations"? Or will this be centralized telephony? Centralized telephony. 14. Please confirm the complete service address for the County s primary and backup data centers. Wake County has two data centers, located in the Raleigh area.. For security purposes, complete service addresses will not be provided at this phase of the project. 15. Can we get a list of all locations/departments and addresses so we can create a project plan for our response? We will not provide specific addresses at this point. The project plan for RFI purposes should be high level and should overview topics such as your communication plan, cutover process, recommended quantities to cutover at one time, cutover day support, etc. Address/department information would be provided and a more tailored project plan would be developed as part of a contract or RFP process. 16. Does each location have POE? Yes Budget/Funding/Billing 17. What will fit you better a Capex or a Opex structure? Our preference is Opex for the service delivery, but we do have a Capex budget set aside for startup/equipment costs. If the vendor presents a compelling case to roll all costs into Opex we would consider it. 18. Would you like 1 bill for all agencies or for each agency to get a separate bill? We would like one bill in a format that will allow us to easily allocate costs to the individual departments along with usage reporting. If billing each department separately is an option, we would entertain that as well. All costs are allocated to departments so preference would be given to solutions that facilitate the billing process. The format of the billing information should allow our admin staff to perform searches, sort and manipulate the data to allow us to bill our business units. 19. The County appears to be asking for price structure but not pricing, yet the last page says the RFI will be used for budgetary purposes. Is pricing required? As this is an RFI, specific pricing is not required. We would like to learn more about your pricing structure: Are there tiered levels of service/support, discounts based on the number of lines in service, are there various levels of redundancy/failover and what % cost increase would be expected with the different levels, etc.?

3 20. Are the department/locations phone bills under one phone account with your current voice provider or does each department/location have its own account number? Today all service is consolidated on billing accounts (one for AT&T, two for CenturyLink) and each line is associated with a unique billing code so that the bill can be allocated by billing code. 21. What is the funding source for the system? A combination of capital and operating expense budgets. 22. What is the estimated cost for the system? This has not yet been determined. Auto Attendant/Contact Center 23. Can you provide a diagram of your ACD and Auto Attendant and its functionality? Does it require a Voice Recognition/SSN/Account Number input option? The County uses an Interalia Auto Attendant to answer calls, screen for holidays and hours; play menus and recorded information; transfer calls and provide callers with a dial by name directory function. The County uses Auto Attendant to route calls for libraries, health clinics, regional centers, and smaller departments that do not have a receptionist or a call center. A typical application will have 6 main menu options and be 3 options deep (6 x 3), but one application is 9 x 6. The current Auto Attendant does not include voice recognition or SSN/account input, although the County would be interested in that capability from a new platform. The County uses Centrex UCD, with announcements, queue management and night service to distribute calls among agents for small groups that do not require agent monitoring nor call statistics. A typical UCD has 3 4 agents, two announcements and provides music on hold. Only one larger Centrex ACD is active with 15 agents, but is used infrequently. Time of day routing and priority queuing are not available on Centrex UCD, but are of interest. These are some of the standard features we use today, however, vendors should fully describe integration options and features they can provide. The RFI responses should provide data that will assist us in defining our expectations. A diagram of a sample call flow for a County library is attached in the addenda items column as Attachment#2 for RFI# found here: Regarding Section 2. Auto Attendant & ACD/UCD Please provide detail around menu applications and use case in auto attendants. See above, answered with question # From the chart, are there 7 different Unify/inContact Call Centers? Yes, there are 7 distinct Unify/inContact Contact Centers. Each contact center serves a specific department and has its own distinct application including published numbers, menu options (some bilingual), call routing paths, agents, skillsets, SLAs, hours, etc. From a feature/functionality perspective, we use inbound/outbound calling, delivery, date/time routing, skillset routing, directory lookup and transfer (which is integrated with our corporate directory), queueing with music and announcements on hold, virtual hold callback, enhanced reporting and statistics, agent monitoring, call recording, dashboards, etc.

4 These are some of the standard features we use today, however, vendors should fully describe integration options and features they can provide. The RFI responses should provide data that will assist us in defining our expectations. A diagram of a sample call flow for our Environmental Services group is attached in the addenda items column as Attachment#3 for RFI# found here: Please elaborate on the 7 Unified Contact Call Centers referenced on page 9. See above, answered with question # What kind of Contact Center Functionality is required? Inbound, Outbound, Chat, E mail, Recording? See above, answered with question # Please expand on requirements for a Unified Contact Call Center? Please list specific Contact Center requirements. See above, answered with question # Regarding Section 4. Unified Contact Center How many named agents? Approximately Will you need bilingual Auto Attendants? Yes 31. Does your current Unify/Contact Center environment support IBM Notes? Today, one of our incontact/unify contact centers has integration, but only to the degree that is forwarded from a County IBM Notes mailbox to the hosted contact center platform for delivery to agents. When an agent replies to an , a copy of the reply is forwarded to the County s IBM Notes mail server. The County may expect tighter integration if this function were to be replaced. 32. The RFI states a requirement for speech recognition. Can you elaborate on the application that requires that capability? Is this a requirement confined to the contact center, or is it to be used elsewhere? Speech recognition will be used in any future Contact Center applications. We are primarily interested in speech recognition capabilities for planning purposes. 33. The RFI states a requirement for SMS message capability. Can you elaborate on the application that requires this capability? SMS Message capability may be used in future Contact Center applications. We may also want to use SMS messaging for functions like appointment reminders, etc. We are primarily interested in SMS messaging capabilities for planning purposes. 34. Does Unify/InContact host any Toll Free Numbers? Not for client access to the call centers, the only published numbers are 919 area code numbers. 35. How are you connected (Provider, Circuit Type, Speed/Bandwidth) to the Unify/InContact Contact Center platform?

5 40 Mb MPLS circuit provided by incontact with failover capability to two redundant data centers, SIP trunks for local inbound and voice termination delivery provided by Level 3, service is ultimately delivered to the agent s Centrex line in the current environment. 36. We will need to know how to route calls to InContact if doing hybrid model. The most efficient way would be via SIP trunking; but can also support TDM. SIP trunking should be fine. We would determine call routing during the design phase. /Instant Messaging/Video/Collaboration 37. How long do you intend to maintain your IBM Notes environment? Is there specific functionality you require for phone system integration? IBM Notes is our and internal instant messaging platform today. We have requested funding to replace IBM Notes in FY17, however funding has not yet been approved. Regarding specific functionality, our expectation is that vendors will fully describe integration options that can be provided. At a minimum we would expect /voic integration but are very interested in enhanced offerings. 38. When are you migrating the County from IBM Notes to Microsoft Exchange? As noted above, we have requested funding to replace IBM Notes in FY17, however funding has not yet been approved. The budget will not be approved by the Board of Commissioners until June If approved, we would begin the migration approximately 6 months after approval. 39. Do your migration plans for MS Exchange include Office 365 Cloud? We are currently evaluating hosted Exchange as a solution. If migration plans are approved, the Office component of 365 would not be part of the initial implementation. 40. Please provide additional details on the level of integration and functionality desired of the new telephony platform with the following applications as listed in the RFP: Describe integration with IBM Notes. Describe integration with IBM Sametime. Describe integration with Skype for Business. Describe integration with Microsoft Exchange and Office 365. Vendors should fully describe integration options and features they can provide. The RFI responses should provide data that will assist us in defining our expectations for the application. At a minimum, we would expect /voic integration and are interested in other innovative options that would enhance functionality. 41. Regarding describe integration with Notes, what would you like to do with IBM Notes? 42. Regarding describe integration with Sametime, what would you like to do with Sametime? 43. Regarding describe integration with Skype, what would you like to do with Skype?

6 44. Regarding describe integration with Exchange, what would you like to do with Exchange? 45. If we offered a Skype like offer that is fully integrated could you use it? Possibly. 46. What is the use case for Skype? Will Jabber video be a viable replacement? If a migration to Exchange is approved and funded, we would also be licensed for Skype for Business for instant messaging and its other functions. The vendor should indicate whether/how the proposed solution integrates with Skype for business. Also, indicate if we will need/benefit from an additional IM/presence/video/collaboration tool such as Jabber with the proposed solution. At this point in the project, we have not determined which tools will be viable and which will not. 47. Regarding Section 1.22 There is not a Jabber version for Windows phone/mobile This appears to be a comment, not a question. 48. Is the County interested in video conference from the desk or a Presence room? The County is interested in video conferencing from the desk as well as meeting rooms. 49. What type of database is IBM Notes? IBM Notes is a messaging platform used for and instant messaging ibm.com/software/products/en/ibmnotes 50. What type of database is IBM Sametime? Can it federate? As long as it is running v8.2 or v8.5, it should be compatible. IBM Sametime is the instant messaging component of IBM Notes. 51. What type of database is Lotus Notes as referenced in section 2. Voic /Unified Messaging? IBM Notes, formerly known as Lotus Notes, is a messaging platform used for and instant messaging ibm.com/software/products/en/ibmnotes Survivability/Life Safety 52. Regarding survivability Is the intent that if all network connectivity to the VOIP platform is lost, that phones still have a way to make calls? If so what percent of installed base has to be survivable? The County would like for specific sites to have survivability in the event the primary network connection to the County is lost. We would determine percentage based on the network design and cost of survivability. 53. Is SRST a requirement? SRST or a similar service will likely be required for some number of key sites. We would like to know the vendor s approach to this service and the impact on potential cost, for example, expected % increase in cost.

7 54. What is a life safety line as referenced in Section 12 Technology Infrastructure, page 8? Examples of life safety lines include fire alarm lines, elevator telephones, etc. 55. Regarding Section 12 Telephony infrastructure: Please provide detail around Life Safety Line. What is the use case? See above, answered with question # Regarding Section 8. E911 Will need to validate. ISI, CER, HCS CER This appears to be a comment, not a question. Phone lines/equipment/voic 57. Partner will need to determine compatible Cisco phones as listed on page 8: Today, the County utilizes primary Nortel 8004, 9216, 9316, 5208, 5216, 5316 sets. This appears to be a comment, not a question. 58. It is mentioned that there are 4200 telephones and 3200 Voic boxes. Are we to assume that 1000 phones do not need voic ? Courtesy phones and Conference room phones do not get voic either correct? Those numbers are approximate, but that assumption is correct. Courtesy phones, conference phones, and other non employee phones typically do not have voic Will you be attaching any analog devices to the network such as cordless phones? Yes, potentially, however this would likely be limited during the initial phase of the project. We would expect that there is a VoIP phone capable of handling cordless needs. 60. On page 9 there is a reference to the Current DID Range with see attached spreadsheet. Where do we find that spreadsheet? The attachment is located in the addenda items column as Attachment#1 for RFI# found here: Also it says that the list of DIDs is attached within document, but I did not see it. Can you please direct me? See above, answered with question #60. Active Directory/Single Sign On 62. What is the desired functionality between the new UC/Telephony system and desired integration with Active Directory? AD will be the source for authentication and user data for all users in Wake County, and will need to pass certain data to the telephony system such as user name, unique identifier, etc. It is also expected the telephony system will pass telephone numbers and other information for which the telephony system is the trusted source back to AD. 63. Are you utilizing Single Sign On (SSO) today. If so is it SAML 2.0? No, we are not utilizing Single Sign On today.