Vermont Electric Cooperative

Transcription

1 Vermont Electric Cooperative 42 Wescom Rd. Johnson VT 02/18/2014

2 1. Introduction Vermont Electric Coop is seeking information about a voice telephone system to replace the existing Nortel/Avaya BCM450 and BCM 200. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit information that will allow VEC to evaluate the best solution in telephone technology to serve VEC Members. By issuing this RFI, VEC expects to decide which telephone architecture will work best to satisfy its needs. The information obtained through the RFI might be used to generate a follow-up Request for Proposal (RFP). Respondents are asked to provide cost estimates where feasible, but are not expected to provide any formal or binding pricing. This document is not intended to in any way result in a Contract. 2. Goal of RFI The goal of this request is to learn what is on the market for a turnkey VoIP/SIP telephone system to replace our existing PBX. Proposed architecture shall provide: Inbound/outbound voice services with capacity at least equal to 3 PRI ISDN lines Call Center functionality Connection to existing IVR with a 24 line SIP trunk SIP/VoIP telephony at each desk Fail-over of voice traffic to Backup Operation Center Appendix A of this document describes the existing telephone system at VEC and outlines three architectures of new telephone system that VEC is currently considering. Responders shall provide a description of at least one of the considered architectures or describe other architecture with an explanation why their proposed solution may work better for VEC. In addition to describing proposed architecture and functionality responders are welcome to add information about Unified Communication, especially: Presence Services Instant Messaging Unified Messaging Conferencing and collaboration Mobility Business Process Integration Some VEC employees are using iphones and ipads. VEC is interested in solutions which allow integration with iphones/ipads with the new phone switch. Vermont Electric Coop 2

3 3. Guidelines on Responding to RFI 3.1. Who may respond to RFI VEC is expecting responses from companies active in the telecommunication industry who already provide voice/data services or sell telecommunication equipment in Vermont How to submit responses Proposal shall include: A cover letter which summarizes your response and includes areas to which you are responding and must also indicate if supporting documentation is included in your response. The response itself, covering any or all of the areas of information requested by this RFI. RFI documents shall be submitted in electronic form: By to jszamrej@vermontelectric.coop if the size of all attached documents do not exceed 10MB On CD/DVD and send to: Jacek Szamrej Vermont Electric Coop 42 Wescom Rd Johnson, VT Response due: March 14, 2014, 4PM (Eastern Time Zone) VEC shall not be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by any Responders in connection with this RFI or any response by any Responders to this RFI. No compensation will be paid to providers for responding to this RFI. The costs and expenses incurred by Responders in the preparation, submission, and presentation of the response are the sole responsibility of the Responders and shall not be charged to VEC. This document is a Request for Information only. VEC will not make any award of a Contract, and may not take any further action on the basis of this Request for Information. Responder s documents will be treated only as informational for VEC. Ownership of all data, materials, and documentation originated and prepared for VEC pursuant to this RFI shall belong exclusively to VEC. To the extent that a Response includes confidential information, that information must be clearly identified in the Response. VEC will keep identified information confidential unless VEC obtains the Responder s permission to release such information, for example, as part of an RFP. Vermont Electric Coop 3

4 Appendix A Existing architecture Voice calls to VEC Phone Service Provider Automatic overflow to 3 rd party call center Normal flow 3 x PRI Nortel BCM450 Redirection to BOC On request Three districts Head office IVR 24 VoIP trunk Internal VEC Network Existing Nortel/Avaya BCM 450 is connected to phone services provider with 3 PRI lines utilizing ISDN standard. BCM450 is also connected to IVR by using trunk with 24 VoIP/SIP lines. IVR is provided by VEC software vendor and allows VEC members to report outages, make payments, read account information as well as making outbound calls for notifying members about scheduled power outages. VEC is planning to keep this IVR. BCM 450 acts as the primary switch and BCM 200 as a secondary stand-by with limited capabilities (32 Nortel digital lines) and one PRI ISDN for inbound/outbound communication. In case of BCM 450 failure, switchover to BCM 200 is manual. New architecture shall eliminate need for BCM 200. Main features VEC uses on BCM: 55 Nortel digital phones 45 Nortel VoIP phones 12 analog lines for fax machines, modems these lines need to stay in service after switch replacement Vermont Electric Coop 4

5 78 mailboxes for voic Nortel/Avaya Intelligent Contact Center with 50 Agents and 32 Skillsets Unified Communication (Outlook integration) 4 licenses Nortel reporting software for compiling usage, waiting, reports Incoming and outgoing lines monitor Software for live information about agents logged in, responding, not available VEC also uses voice recording system to record 4 analog lines, 4 Nortel digital phones and analog radio circuit. Recording system can be extended by adding VoIP licenses, or voice recording features can be included in new PBX functionality, but in this case PBX needs to record analog lines as well. Architecture proposal shall take into consideration functionality described above as minimum with information about possible extensions. Vermont Electric Coop 5

6 Architecture 1 On Premises Voice calls to VEC Phone Service Provider Automatic overflow to 3 rd party call center Normal flow 3 x PRI Primary PBX Redirection to BOC On request Secondary PBX Three districts Head office IVR 24 VoIP trunk Internal VEC Network On Premises architecture is similar to current phone system implementation at VEC. New PBX shall use VoIP phones and existing Nortel phones (digital and VoIP) can be retired. Sixteen analog ports shall be provided by new PBX. In addition to Primary PBX, smaller Secondary PBX shall be installed in Backup Operations Center. Secondary PBX shall support at minimum: 50 VoIP phones Inbound/outbound voice traffic with capacity of one PRI line (23 channels) Vermont Electric Coop 6

7 Architecture 2 Hosted PBX Voice calls to VEC Phone Service Provider & Hosted PBX Automatic overflow to 3 rd party call center Redirection to BOC On request Three districts Head office IVR 24 VoIP trunk Internal VEC Network In a Hosted PBX architecture there is no PBX installed at VEC. Instead, all functionality of the PBX is hosted at phone system service provider. All phones are directly connected to Hosted PBX. There might be multiple communication paths from VEC premises to the hosted PBX. IVR needs to be connected over IP protocol to the hosted PBX. In case of losing connection between VEC facility and Hosted PBX, local IP phones will not work. Vermont Electric Coop 7

8 Architecture 3 Hybrid Voice calls to VEC Phone Service Provider & Hosted PBX Automatic overflow to 3 rd party call center Primary connection Secondary connection Network/phone appliance Redirection to BOC On request or automatic Network/phone appliance Three districts Head office IVR 24 VoIP trunk Internal VEC Network With Hybrid architecture we envision that some PBX functionality will come from a PBX at the phone services provider, but basic functionality like making internal calls will be available even if the connection between VEC and the Hosted PBX is down. This minimum functionality shall be provided by a Network/phone appliance installed at the head office as well as the Backup Operations Center. All Nortel phones shall be retired and replaced by new VoIP/SIP phones. In case of problems with the Primary line, the Secondary line can transfer traffic. Vermont Electric Coop 8