REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Tel 902.720.7812 Suite 200, Park Place II Toll Free 800.380.7775 238A Brownlow Avenue Fax 902.720.7873 Dartmouth, NS B3B 2B4 www.pvsc.ca REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL Procurement of Hosting Solution Components For Property Valuation Services Corporation At a minimum, the terms and conditions and supplements contained in this document apply to this procurement. By submitting your response to this Request for Proposal, you acknowledge that you have read and complied with this document. This document is available from Property Valuation Services Corporation at 238A Brownlow Avenue Suite 200, Dartmouth NS or http://www.pvsc.ca/en/home/aboutpvsc/tendersrfps.aspx Facsimile bids will not be accepted for this Request for Proposal. This Request for Proposal is valid only to 4:00 pm Atlantic Time on November 15, 2013. Request for Proposal prepared by: Property Valuation Services Corporation

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Overview... 1 1.1 PVSC Mandate... 1 1.2 Hosting Project Overview... 1 2 RFP Time Frames and Requirements... 4 2.1 Key Dates... 4 2.2 Solution Components... 4 2.3 Architecture... 5 2.4 Server Specifications... 7 2.5 Property Valuation Services Corporation Responsibilities... 7 2.6 Special Conditions... 8 2.7 Enquiry Contacts... 8 2.8 Contract... 8 3 Proposal Content and Response Guidelines... 9 3.1 Technical Proposal... 9 3.1.1 Executive Summary... 9 3.1.2 Vendor Profile... 9 3.1.3 Proposed Solution... 10 3.2 Financial Proposal... 13 3.3 Response Guidelines... 13 4 Evaluation Process... 14 4.1 Process... 14 4.2 Proposal Addendums... 15 i

1 OVERVIEW 1.1 PVSC Mandate Property value assessment in Nova Scotia is the responsibility of the Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC). The PVSC became responsible for the valuation of property for property assessment on April 1, 2008. The PVSC is a municipally-owned corporation established under the Property Valuation Services Corporation Act. Under the Assessment Act, an assessment roll is provided to each of the fifty-four municipalities annually. It is used in combination with municipally set tax rates to establish property taxes and to identify property owners from whom the municipalities collect those taxes. Every year assessment notices are delivered to the approximately 600,000 individual properties. The market value of all properties on the assessment roll for 2013 is nearly $95 billion, of which $74 billion is residential and $21 billion is commercial. Activities at the PVSC include responding to over 10,000 appeals, inspection of about 25,000 building permits plus an additional 10,000 properties inspected under file quality update programs, creation of almost 6,500 new accounts and compliance with provincial legislation through programs such as the CAP program and the Seasonal Tourist Business Designation program. 1.2 Hosting Project Overview PVSC is increasingly reliant upon IT to support its current business operations and growth opportunities. The majority of PVSC s IT services are hosted and managed externally, with the majority of those services supplied by the Nova Scotia Government, specifically the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). PVSC s business requirements are evolving and becoming more complex as its current services mature and future growth opportunities are pursued. Also, service providers and offerings are evolving to take advantage of new delivery models (e.g. subscription) and delivery channels (e.g. cloud computing). This has provided PVSC with an opportunity to step back, review its current and future requirements and survey the market place for prospective service suppliers that will deliver predictable and cost effective IT services that are flexible and agile. A current state assessment of IT services has documented 71 services in five areas: Business Applications; Business Productivity; Application/Integration; Data Management; and Infrastructure. These services have been grouped into specific bundles that require close integration or logically fit together as service offerings in the current market place. 1. Property Services a group of the PVSC s core business applications that require close integration and have similar hosting requirements. Page 1 of 15

2. Business Administration and Communications PVSC s Sage 300 Finance and Human Resources application along with Microsoft Exchange to provide the necessary foundation to support employee self-service functionality. Microsoft Lync has been added to this bundle to eliminate the need to manage multiple Active Directory instances. 3. Desktop Productivity Desktop support including windows updates and antivirus/malware protection along with the Microsoft Office standard suite of tools augmented by the requirement of a lower volume of licenses of MS Project and Visio. The diagram below shows the services included in each bundle: Property Services Bundle Property Services Assessment/Valuation Assessment Online GIS Imagery Single Address Services Mailing Address Service Mailing Address Adapter Single Address Portal Reference NSCAF Property Online MLS edelivery (new) edelivery Service edelivery Integration Communications PVSC Website PIC Website Service Desk FootPrints Reporting and Analytics Cognos BI Cognos Reporting and Delivery Notice Reporting and Delivery Adhoc Reporting Web Analytics and Reporting Development Tools Web Application Database Testing Performance Tools Code Repository Integration Web Services Message Queue Data Service Bus Environment Mgmt. Dev Test Staging Training Production Database Administration Data Warehouse / Marts Management Data Exports Data Backup and Recovery Business Administration and Communications Bundle Finance/Human Resources Accounting Leave Mgmt. Unified Communications Exchange Collaboration PVSC Intranet HR Office In/Out Lync Conferencing PIC Team Site Payroll Mobile Sync File Sharing (I: Drive) Desktop Productivity Bundle Desktop Support Antivirus/Malware Protection Outlook Word Excel PowerPoint MS Project Visio The following diagram provides a high level overview to the phased approach and timing established for the project. Formal approval to proceed and budget allocation will be reviewed at the conclusion of each phase. Page 2 of 15

Fall 2012 Summer 2013 Fall 2013 Winter 2014 Current State Assessment - Create an inventory of IT Services in use at PVSC Market Scan - Analyze current hosting provider offerings and budgetary estimates Procurement - Find hosting partners for IT Services Migration - Move services to the new providers according to business priorities The current migration strategy is to implement the services as business requirements dictate with the migration of all services completed by March of 2015. A sample service migration schedule is provided below but is subject to change: 1. Development and testing environments for Property Services Bundle including iasworld, Single Address, Reporting and Analytics, and PVSC website with Oracle and SQL databases; 2. Development and testing environments for edelivery that includes development tools, environment management and integration services with an Oracle database; 3. Sage 300 production environment for Finance and HR modules with a SQL database; 4. Hosted exchange and Microsoft Lync with migration of email to PVSC.ca domain and sync with Blackberries; 5. Shared drives and migration of 1.5TB of files; 6. Rollout of Office Productivity Suite; and 7. Production environment for the Property Services Bundle (1.) above. Page 3 of 15

2 RFP TIME FRAMES AND REQUIREMENTS 2.1 Key Dates The following dates are provided for guidance only and are subject to change: RFP Opens October 21st, 2013 RFP Closes November 15th, 2013 at 16:00 PM Response review and Week of November 18th, 2013 determination of Short List for presentations Short List presentations Week of November 25th, 2013 Proposal Evaluation Complete December 13th, 2013 RFP Awarded December 20th, 2013 Engagement Start Date January 2, 2014 2.2 Solution Components The overall Hosting Solution will be made up of managed hosting services for the three bundles described above. Managed hosting services requires that providers preform all server and data center activities such as, but not limited to: Hardware maintenance and upgrades; Operating system install, patching and tuning; Back-up and recovery; and Physical and electronic measures to ensure application and data security. Managed hosting does not necessarily mean dedicated hosting where full servers are dedicated to PVSC. Bids utilizing dedicated, virtual or a mixture of both will be accepted. Due to privacy concerns regarding the sensitive nature of our client information, all services and data must reside, be served and backed up in Canada. No PVSC information is to reside on servers outside of Canada for any reason. Ideally, PVSC would like all of the bundles delivered cost effectively through one hosting partner but vendors are asked to bid on the bundles they are able to deliver, whether that be one, two, or all three. The bundles were put together based on PVSC s business requirements and are the minimum solution sets on which proposals should be based. Bids that mix and match services across bundles will be disqualified. The Desktop Productivity Bundle is expected to be a remote support services and a software subscription of the Microsoft products listed in the bundle served to PVSC users via the internet. PVSC is not looking to purchase software and have it installed on individual machines. Page 4 of 15

2.3 Architecture The following diagram shows the PVSC production architecture by bundle: Production Architecture Public Layer Reverse Proxy PVSC Website Microsoft.NET 4.0 ASP.NET IIS Web Server OneWeb Web Services/Application Layer iasworld Server Microsoft.NET 4.0 ASP.NET IIS Web Server Single Address & edelivery Server Microsoft.NET 4.0 ASP.NET IIS Web Server WCF iasworld Report Server Analytics Server Microsoft.NET 4.0 ASP.NET IIS Web Server Tyler RFS Service Cognos Sage 300 Server MS Exchange Server Office Server Office Standard MS Project Visio Shared Drive Database Layer iasworld Schema Single Address Schema edelivery Schema Web DB Server SQL Standard 2008R2 Oracle 11g DB Server Analitics Schema Sage 300 DB Server SQL Standard 2008R2 Property Services Bundle Business Administration and Communications Bundle Office Productivity Bundle Page 5 of 15

As stated above, the Property Services Bundle also requires preproduction environments for development and testing. The architecture of both these environments shown below are the same and are right sized to accommodate the anticipated load: Development and Testing Architectures Public Layer Reverse Proxy Web Services/Application Layer iasworld, Single Address, & edelivery Server Microsoft.NET 4.0 ASP.NET IIS Web Server PVSC Website iasworld Report Server Analytics Server Microsoft.NET 4.0 ASP.NET IIS Web Server Tyler RFS Service Cognos OneWeb Database Layer iasworld Schema Single Address Schema edelivery Schema Web DB Server SQL Standard 2008R2 Oracle 11g DB Server Analitics Schema Property Services Bundle Page 6 of 15

2.4 Server Specifications The table below lists the minimum specifications for the servers in the PVSC production architecture: Server CPU Memory Disk Windows 2008 Servers PVSC Website 2 8GB 108GB Web SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB iasworld 4 8GB 150GB Single Address & edelivery 4 8GB 150GB iasworld Reports and Analytics 4 8GB 300GB Sage 300 2 8GB 100GB Sage SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB Shared Drives 2 TB Unix Oracle DB* 4 16GB 700GB Not applicable Exchange Server Office Server * Can be part of a SQL Cluster or Oracle Resource Pool The table below lists the minimum specifications for the servers in the PVSC development and test architectures. : Server CPU Memory Disk Windows 2008 Servers iasworld, Single Address & edelivery 4 8GB 150GB PVSC Website, iasworld Reports and Analytics 4 8GB 300GB Web SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB Unix Oracle DB* 4 16GB 700GB 2.5 Property Valuation Services Corporation Responsibilities The PVSC will provide the successful proponent with access to a primary contact within the PVSC. This person will be the contact for all communications with the PVSC, periodically meet with the proponent to monitor the performance and work with the proponent to identify potential problems early and possible solutions. Any problems or concerns must be identified to this person immediately. Page 7 of 15

2.6 Special Conditions The PVSC also reserves the right to approach the successful proponent for additional requirements outside of this proposal. The cost of the additional requirements will be agreed upon between PVSC and the supplier. 2.7 Enquiry Contacts Proponents requiring further information on this Request for Proposal should contact Bill Levangie from the PVSC by email at levangbg@gov.ns.ca All enquiries are to be directed to the person(s) named above. Information obtained from any other source is not official and may be inaccurate. Enquiries and responses may be recorded and may be distributed to all proponents at the option of PVSC. 2.8 Contract The successful proponent will enter into a standard contract for services with PVSC. At a minimum, this document will include the vendor name, contact information, service details, critical dates, etc. A Schedule A will be included to reference the tender documents and the proposal submitted by the successful proponent, and may be expanded to reference any correspondence or clarifications. Page 8 of 15

3 PROPOSAL CONTENT AND RESPONSE GUIDELINES All proposals must include the following parts: Technical Proposal Financial Proposal 3.1 Technical Proposal Responses must adhere to the sections below and proponents should answer all sections to the best of their ability as it pertains to the service bundle(s) they are bidding on. The technical proposal shall not exceed 50 pages excluding appendices. Pages in excess of the limit will not be read and content from these pages will not be scored. All pages should be numbered on standard Letter size paper (8.5 x 11 ), single spaced in 12 point font (10 point font is acceptable for tables and graphics). 3.1.1 Executive Summary Please indicate the bundle or bundles you are bidding on and provide an overview of your understanding of PVSC s requirements and how your proposed solution meets those requirements. 3.1.2 Vendor Profile In this section, please provide an overview of your company under the following headings. Do not include any general marketing materials in this section. Any materials you believe are relevant can be referenced and provided in an appendix. 3.1.2.1 Overview Please provide a brief description of your company, and its product and service offerings including company size and structure, how long you have been providing these services and your key clients that use them. 3.1.2.2 Strategic Partners Provide details of any strategic relationships that you have with hardware or service companies that may be engaged in the provision of the proposed services. 3.1.2.3 Location Please provide the locations of your corporate offices and data centers. Include a map and a description of any linkages or interoperability between the sites if applicable. 3.1.2.4 Data Centre Please provide a description of your data centre including, but not limited to: Page 9 of 15

Physical description of building and room(s) and features such as power supply and backup, environmental control systems, smoke detection and fire suppression, flooring, Certifications or ratings, etc.; Security measures such as data centre access policies, alarm systems and video monitoring, reinforced entry points; Internet connectivity, carriers, redundancy; and Green initiatives in place or planned. 3.1.2.5 References Provide the names of three references of current customers you provide services similar to those proposed to PVSC. Include contact information for your chief contact with the customer. 3.1.3 Proposed Solution Describe your proposed solution based on your understanding of PVSC s requirements. Please describe the various components of the solution and how they meet or exceed the outlined requirements and architecture. 3.1.3.1 Mandatory Requirements Please describe how your solution meets the following mandatory requirement: All services and data must reside, be served and backed up in Canada. No PVSC information is to reside on servers, or any media, outside of Canada for any reason. 3.1.3.2 Service Bundle(s) Please indicate the PVSC service bundles included in your proposed solution and outline any strengths or shortcomings in your solution. Vendors are reminded that only bids on complete bundles will be accepted. Also, please address PVSC s tentative migration schedule and how it affects phased service provisioning and costs. 3.1.3.3 Hardware and Software Please provide detailed specifications, including manufacturers, for all hardware and software relevant to the delivery of the service. This should include, but is not limited to: Manufacturer, model and version numbers; Processors, memory, disk drives, database software, Data center networking components (routers, switches, etc.), security devices (firewalls, intrusion detection, etc.), load balancers, virtualization, etc.; Characteristics and capabilities of your user interface or portal including user device requirements, print drivers and file transfer; If each component is single or multi-tenant; and How often each component is upgraded and how much redundancy/resiliency is built in to the service. Page 10 of 15

3.1.3.4 Data Storage Please provide a detailed description of your data storage and data base service offerings including: SAN storage options; Shared database options such as database clusters; Backup cycles, retention and off-site storage; and File restore procedures and time frames; and Disaster recovery procedures and benchmarks. 3.1.3.5 Connectivity Please provide a description of the network connectivity to your data centre and the bandwidth pricing options that are available. Please describe your firewall infrastructure and procedures for defining rules for integration to other applications and services. 3.1.3.6 Managed Services Please provide a detailed description of your proposed managed services including: Policies and procedures for monitoring performance; Scheduled maintenance, applying patches, software and hardware upgrades; Service support, hours of operation, help desk procedures and trouble ticket severity levels, escalation and expected response; and Elements that are provided by contractors or a third party and any related special terms or conditions that apply. 3.1.3.7 Service Level Agreement (SLA) Please provide an overview of your proposed SLA, service standards, and guarantees along with a sample in an appendix. 3.1.3.8 Service Delivery Please provide a detailed description of your proposed service delivery including: Lead time required to provision a server, database, firewall rule changes, etc.; Network bandwidth monitoring and tuning; In a multi-tenant environment: o Cloud automation, balancing and performance monitoring; o Oversight and review of potential clients and acceptable use policy and monitoring; o Shared vs. dedicated IP provisioning and blacklist remediation; o Data encryption and private key policies; Management Console: Page 11 of 15

o Client management portal including service monitoring through dashboards and reports; o Root access to servers for application installation and maintenance; o Physical access to servers for application installation and maintenance; For the hosted Exchange service: o Inbox policies and size limits; o Incoming and outgoing message size limits. 3.1.3.9 Security Please provide a detailed description of your proposed security services including: User access o User authentication and access control; o Role based privileges; o User maintenance and removal; Environment and data security: o Anti-virus protection and remediation; o Threat Management; o Log Management; o Firewall; o Intrusion Detection; o Email & Web Protection; o Integrity Monitoring; o Incident Response; People and processes: o Screening process for employees and sub-contractors; o Security training; o Incident reporting and remediation procedures. 3.1.3.10 Value Added Please describe additional features of your solution that may be of interest to PVSC including, but not limited to: Sustainable and environmentally friendly business practices; Internet Service Providers Openness to expansion and inclusion of PVSC partnerships Contribution to Nova Scotia economy; and, Additional current or planned capabilities beyond those requested in this RFP. Page 12 of 15

3.2 Financial Proposal Please provide itemized pricing in a table format of all of the components of your proposed solution including: Description, quantity, price and extended costs for each item; One time startup costs and recurring fees; Volume, threshold or term discounts that may be available; and Contract terms and conditions. 3.3 Response Guidelines Given the condensed timelines for this RFP electronic submissions via email will be accepted up until the submission deadline of 4:00 Atlantic Time on Friday, November 15, 2013. Please send your submissions to Grace Chitate at chitateg@gov.ns.ca. PVSC will not be responsible for delays in transmission of bids caused by internet traffic, etc. A receipt notice will be sent electronically with a list of respondents after the submission deadline. Any bids received after the deadline will not be opened and will be deleted. Submissions must be scanned PDF copies of the original proposal signed by the person(s) authorized to sign on behalf of the proponent and to contractually bind the proponent to any and all statements made in the response. The original paper copy must follow the electronic copy by Friday, November 22, 2013. The original and PDF copy must be identical or the bid will be disqualified. Please send originals to: Grace Chitate Property Valuation Services Corporation Park Place II Suite 200, 238A Brownlow Ave. Dartmouth NS, B3B 2B4 Page 13 of 15

4 EVALUATION PROCESS 4.1 Process When evaluating bids, Property Valuation Services Corporation seeks to obtain best value on procurement and the evaluation is not limited solely to the purchase price but to other considerations such as the quality of technical specifications, project life cycle costs and benefits, the delivery, servicing and capacity of the bidder to meet criteria as stated in the bid received. The contract award is not made solely on the basis of the lowest price submitted but will consider other relevant bid evaluation factors. The evaluation team will assess each solution scenario separately using a four step process to formulate a recommendation. Step 1: Mandatory Requirement (Pass/Fail) The evaluation team will review responses to assess if the mandatory requirement is met. If the mandatory requirement is not met, the solution scenario will be rejected and not receive further consideration. Solution scenarios that meet the mandatory requirement will move on to step 2. Step 2: Rated Criteria In this step the evaluation team will utilize the following evaluation criteria to establish an overall score for each solution option under consideration. Criteria Weight Description Proposal Response Section Vendor Profile 10 Assess the maturity, stability and strength of the vendor. 3.1.2 Vendor References 10 Assess the experience, familiarity and success the vendor demonstrates with the proposed solution through similar engagements. 3.1.2.5 Solution 50 Assess the degree to which the solution components in 3.1.3 Section 2 are met by the proposed solution. Added Value 5 Assess the significance of the added value offered by the 3.1.3.10 proposed solution. Cost 25 Comparative cost of the proposed solutions 3.2 Step 3: Demonstration/Presentation At the discretion of the evaluation team, proponents with the highest scores from step 3 may be asked to host a site visit or be invited, at their own expense, to meet with the evaluation team for the purpose of demonstrating their solution. Page 14 of 15

Step 4: Final Scoring and Recommendation The evaluation team will use information and clarification gathered during the demonstration and presentation to revise the scoring established in Step 3 and prepare a recommendation to the PVSC Executive. 4.2 Proposal Addendums The Proponent is responsible for obtaining any addendums issued to this RFP. Addendums will be posted on the pvsc.ca website at the following location: http://www.pvsc.ca/en/home/aboutpvsc/tendersrfps.aspx Page 15 of 15