Vendors for Campus-Wide IT Service Management (ITSM) Solution

Transcription

1 Purchasing Department Illinois State University Campus Box 1220 Normal IL Telephone: (309) Facsimile: (309) August 20, 2013 To: Vendors for Campus-Wide IT Service Management (ITSM) Solution From: Ernie Olson Re: Answers to Questions for RFP # ER Submitted Questions 1. What are the existing commercial applications currently being used (title and version)? BMC ServiceDesk Express Altiris What is driving the preference for an off premise solution? The preferences for a hosted solution include speed of deployment, reduced infrastructure costs, and an annualized cost model. 3. If the solution were on premise would there be dedicated staff to maintain the system once implemented? Yes, but the University would consider managed options. 4. What IT assets are managed (ie, desktops, servers, networks, etc.) and does this include software license management (SWLM)? Would Asset Management be integrated with a purchasing and/or inventory management system? Which ones? The support units manage all IT assets including desktops, servers, networking equipment, printers, audio-visual equipment, mobile devices, peripherals, and software licenses. The desire is to have asset management coupled with purchasing and inventory management as a long-term goal. Inventory management for the University currently resides in the Ellucian Colleague financial system (formerly Datatel). 5. Is there an auto discovery tool being used today? If auto discovery were utilized would there also still be external data sources to supplement the auto discovered assets (ie, spreadsheets, external systems, Dell K ace). No, we are not currently utilizing device discovery. We will still have supplemental sources of asset information that exists in static locations that would need to be imported and/or added over time. RFP ER Q&A Page 1

2 6. A number of optional processes are listed such as Event Management, Availability Management, Service Catalog, and Capacity Management. Does the inclusion of such capabilities weigh significantly in the decision criteria? Why are these processes considered optional? All of the capabilities will be assessed; some core process areas will be for immediate implementation. We will be using a phased implementation approach, so these items would be implemented in a future phase. The core process areas are required as they address the primary goals ITSM solution project. 7. We did not note Service Monitoring as a requirement, which is closely related to Event Management. For example, if a mail server is monitored and determined unavailable this information is passed to Event Management where an appropriate action is assessed and acted upon. We currently have existing tools in Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager, Solarwinds, and other vendor specific tools that perform service monitoring, but if your solution provides service monitoring and integration capabilities elaborate on what is available for our consideration. 8. Item Consulting/Professional Services is listed as OPTIONAL. Is the expectation that estimates will be provided for any custom development, integration, data conversion, or process design and improvement work? If so we will require detail regarding each of these areas. The University is interested in vendor s capabilities to provide these services as well as hourly rate associated with it to be included in the pricing section. Custom work has not been defined at this time, so detailed estimates are not expected from the vendors. 9. The ability to perform custom development, integration, data conversion, and process design and improvement is heavily dependent on tools. Our ITSM solution provides a complete set of enabling tools. Are these tools viewed as critical as part of the RFP? Please provide detailed descriptions of your tools and the pricing associated with each. 10. For question , are these specific products or on-line product catalog? Please elaborate. This question refers to your tool s ability to interface with online or static product catalogs. 11. Follow up questions regarding section 2.1.1: a. How many of these users would be users of ITSM processes such as Incident Management? Incident Management and Request Fulfillment will initially be the most heavily utilized process area, resulting in a large percentage of users utilizing this portion of the tool. b. How many users would have use for mobile ITSM capabilities? Mobile capabilities are desired for all users including both technical staff and requestors. If mobile access is licensed separately, please describe this in your licensing model section and outline these costs in section Software Costs OPTIONAL Process Areas. c. Of the 26,000 system users please elaborate how ITSM applies to this community? For example, would these 26,000 users have the ability to submit Service Requests? Would they be able to do perform other functions? What kind of ITSM related information would be provided to them (ie, view status/availability of systems such as the university mail system, see location and layouts of facilities, locate IT resources within a facility such as printers, copiers, hot spots, etc.). The entire population would be able to submit and view status of incidents and requests, as well as access the service catalog to submit service requests via a self-service interface. Other functions as detailed above are dependent upon the capabilities of the solution and should be described in detail by the vendor. If these capabilities are licensing dependent provide details in the licensing model section RFP ER Q&A Page 2

3 please provide additional use information to clarify the nature of this question. Describe your product s capability to perform availability management as defined by ITIL. 13. Is there any allocated budget for this project? If so, what is the budget? This information is not available at this time. 14. When does the maintenance on the current systems expire? Retirement of systems supporting Incident Management and Request fulfillment is to be completed by June What are your timeframes for Implementation and Go Live? We will be utilizing a phased approach starting in late Are the current processes for Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Service Asset and Configuration Management, Release Management, Knowledge Management, and Request Fulfillment clearly defined and documented? As a part of this project, the current state for Incident, Problem, and Change management were mapped for all support units. Incident Management is fairly mature and well defined, while the other process areas are still being developed and documented. A companion process creation and adoption project is ongoing to address this need in preparation for the new ITSM solution. 17. What are the current tools for: a. Event Management: Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager, Solarwinds, and vendor specific tools such as Cisco. b. Asset Discovery: None c. Microsoft Exchange 18. Can you provide any further details on the conversion and migration of existing tickets from the current systems to the new system? We are evaluating the value of migrating tickets from the existing system. 19. Do you currently have a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) in place and, if so, which CMDB? We are currently utilizing itop as a CMDB in Administrative Technologies. Many of the units do not currently have a CMDB, and are utilizing spreadsheets or other means to track inventory/configurations. 20. Will legacy data from the existing CMDB (if it exists) be transferred to the new CMDB? Yes, our desire is to import data from itop and other flat files as needed. 21. Do you currently have Knowledge Management tools in place? If so, which tool are you using? We currently utilize Wikis, SharePoint sites, as well as a main Help Desk knowledge base. The solutions are home grown and not tied to a central knowledge management system. 22. Accurate License Levels your license requirements seem outside the industry benchmarks. Please answer the following questions so we may confirm your needs: a. How many total IT staff, across all support organizations (18) will need access to the system to receive record, resolve or report on Incidents, Problems, Changes or Configuration items? There are 450 total technology staff including full-time, part-time, and student workers. Full-time technology staff campus-wide is approximately 250. b. Of the total staff listed in Item a., how many will be spending 100% of their time in the system? (Typically these are your Level 1 service desk staff who intake requests and attempt to resolve them before escalating to a deeper technical resource) RFP ER Q&A Page 3

4 Approximately 50 front line staff that spend 100% time in the tool. c. Of the total remaining staff, what percentage of their time do you expect them actually be in the system reviewing or updating their assigned work? (The industry benchmark for this is 33% and assumes that these staff members are spending the balance of their time repairing, maintaining and building new IT Services. As an example, this might include Desktop Support at 50%, Network and infrastructure at 30%; Apps Dev, Database engineering at 10% and IT Management for reporting at 5%) Data is unavailable at this time; please use the industry benchmark of 33% if needed for calculating licensing for your product. 23. Service Asset and Configuration Management: a. Do you currently use network discovery tools? If so, what are they, do you intend to continue using them and do you want to use a subset of that data to populate the CMDB through integration? No, we are not currently utilizing device discovery. We would like to populate the CMDB from itop as well as potentially integrate with SCCM and Pinnacle based upon the capabilities of your product. b. What network/event monitoring tools do you use today and do you want to integrate them into the Incident management workflow (i.e., have your monitoring tool send an to the ITSM Incident management process to open or update and incident based on a network event) We currently utilize Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager, Solarwinds, and vendor specific tools such as Cisco. The desire is to integrate these tools with the Incident Management workflow if the event management/monitoring is not a part of the suite provided. c. Do you currently have a barcode solution and will it output its data to a SQL or flat file? Yes, barcodes are used for inventory management. The barcode data can be provided in a flat file format. d. How many pc s laptops and servers (CI s with an operating system) do you manage in your environment? Approximately 10,000 including virtual machines. e. For Software license management, do you simply need to know how many licenses of each application you have and who has them or do you need the capability to manage entitlement to software from a Software Library, control that by policy and/or manage usage (harvest and redeploy underused licenses)? The desire would be to manage entitlement from a Software Library as well as control and manage usage. 24. Integrations For the following integrations referred to in the RFP, please explain the level of integration you require (what you want it to do when integrated with the ITSM/ITAM system) and whether you want these integrations included in the pricing for services. Example a. is for AD which we believe you DO want included in service pricing and will show you what we are looking for in your response to this question. Please correct our understanding for AD if it is not correct. Note without this detail it will not be possible to accurately estimate the cost of integration. Even if you do not want a particular integration quoted, it would be helpful to understand what you are trying to achieve with the integrations which you have asked us to describe in Section Detailed use cases are not available at this time, but a brief description below will be provided for each of the integrations where appropriate. Vendor should describe if your product currently supports integration with these products and what is the nature of the integration as it exists in the current version today. If there are additional costs associated with these integrations, outline these costs in section Implementation Costs OPTIONAL Process Areas. Also, if the vendor has customized solutions available for integration with these products, please describe. RFP ER Q&A Page 4

5 a. Active Directory- include in services pricing: The integration with AD is two-fold: i. To leverage AD as an authentication source so that users logged into our network will receive pass-through authentication to use the solution without having to log into it again. Yes, please include AD authentication integration in your pricing including role based access as it is listed as a part of the core requirement in section ii. To leverage AD data as the master db of information about our users and end-users. This means that the solution will leverage AD information as user/customer information and when an integrated field in AD changes, that change will be reflected in the solution s user/customer tables. Yes, please include AD user data integration in your pricing as it is listed as a part of the core requirement in section b. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: c. Microsoft System Center Operations Manager: d. Unified Communications infrastructure: e. Computer Telephony Interface (CTI): f. Cisco Contact Center: g. Solar Winds: h. Pinnacle Communications Management Solution: i. LightSpeed Retail Point of Sale System: j. Microsoft Orchestrator: k. Daptiv Project and Portfolio Management Software: l. Ellucian Colleague Financial Systems (formerly Datatel): RFP ER Q&A Page 5

6 m. Cisco Network Management Tools: n. itop Configuration Management is this a simple import of existing data or do you require a realtime integration? This would be an import of existing configuration data. Vendor should describe if your product currently supports integration with this product and what is the nature of the integration as it exists in the current version today. o. Identity and Access Management solutions please note which IAM solutions you currently have and/or what you expect this integration to achieve: The evaluation process is currently ongoing for IAM solutions for ISU. Vendor should describe the IAM products currently supported and what is the nature of the integration as it exists in the current version today. 25. Do each of the 18 IT units have their own Service Desk? Or is there a centralized Service Desk? Administrative Technologies provides the central service desk for enterprise services, but most of the support units have their own service desk to provide support specific to their area. 26. In addition to directory and system, are there any other systems you will require integration to in the initial phase of the implementation? Any additional integrations will be determined during implementation planning. 27. On page 21 Section you ask for pricing based on the following: Total Named Technicians: 450 and Total Concurrent Technicians:200. Does this mean if as a vendor we offer named licenses we should price to 450 and if as a vendor we offer concurrent licenses we should price to 200? Please explain? If the vendor licensing model is based upon named technicians, please use a number of 450. If the vendor utilizes a concurrent licensing model, use a number of 200 technicians. 28. Typically ITSM deployments, especially in larger organizations, are done in a phased approach. We understand your intent is to eventually roll out as much ITIL process and capabilities as possible. From an implementation pricing perspective, what are your expectations specifically for phase 1? Which modules/processes will be included, which integrations are required, what data imports are required? We will be utilizing a phased approach to implementation starting with the core process areas described in the RFP. These include Incident, Problem, Change, Service Asset and Configuration, Request Fulfillment, and Release. Formulate pricing based upon implementation of all of these core process areas. Implementation sequencing and timeline is currently in development. 29. Does ISU currently have an enterprise and/or local CAB(s) (reference section )? Change Management processes and CABs are currently in development as a part of a companion process development and adoption project. This will go hand-in-hand with tool adoption. 30. Does ISU have a defined list of standard and normal changes (reference section )? This is being addressed in the process development and adoption project. This list does not exist at this time. 31. Does ISU have an emergency change process and ECAB (reference section )? This is being addressed in the process development and adoption project. This does not exist at this time. RFP ER Q&A Page 6

7 32. What product, or method, does the university use for Single-Sign on (reference section 1.2.3)? The University has not standardized on a Single-Sign solution, but is evaluating product options and methods. Please provide your product s preferred methodology and describe the solutions that you currently support. 33. Does the university envision process improvement initiatives prior to the tool implementation and/or paralleling the tool implementation (reference section 1.1.2, 1.1.4)? A companion process creation and adoption project is ongoing to address this need in preparation for the new ITSM solution. 34. Does the university have a preference on the method of on-line training? Instructor led live, recorded, or self-paced Computer Based Training (CBT) (reference section )? The preference would be instructor-led for tool administrator training, but a variety of training methods would be desirable to suit each units needs. 35. We are an authorized reseller for a vendor s ITSM solution that we will be proposing. However, we will be providing all professional services work in support of the software. Are we required to complete Attachment DD- Subcontractor Information for this vendor (reference section 1.7)? The vendor would not be considered a subcontractor. 36. Please provide additional clarification to section Are you seeking renewal cost of the SaaS subscription pricing or all cost/rates as outline in section through (reference section )? Provide SaaS subscription pricing renewal and/or annual support costs renewal if it is a perpetual license model. 37. Please confirm that in these sections you are requesting pricing for the ITSM solution s annual technical support/maintenance (if there is any additional cost from the annual subscription cost) (reference section 1.2.6, , )? Pricing requested in these sections are for annual technical support and maintenance as outlined in the section if there are costs beyond the annual subscription. 38. Will the ITSM solution rely on third party asset management products, if so which are they? The desire is that asset management would be a part of the ITSM tool. 39. Will the ITSM solution be expected to have its own, Natively integrated, asset discovery and management tools? It is not a specific requirement, but this is a feature we will be evaluating from the vendor responses. Describe the capabilities that your product has for asset discovery in section of the RFP. RFP ER Q&A Page 7