Management Council of the Ohio Education Computer Network Invitation to Qualify IT Service Management Solution October 8, 2012 Responses are due by 4:00 pm on October 22, 2012
General Information The Management Council of the Ohio Education Computer Network (MC OECN) acting in the interest of our business units, state program areas, school district customers, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and other stakeholders is soliciting pricing and product information for an IT Service Management (ITSM) solution. The purpose of this Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) is to identify qualified ITSM solution vendors that meet the business, functional and financial requirements of our collective business units, program areas, and other stakeholders. MC OECN will evaluate responses from vendors offering a commercially viable ITSM solution based on ITIL v3 processes that can be hosted on MC OECN infrastructure or hosted by the vendor within the United States. This ITQ and related information is available at www.mcoecn.org/itsm to vendors and other interested parties. Respondents are responsible for ensuring they have an appropriate understanding of MC OECN, how we conduct business, our business units and program areas, and our requirements for an ITSM solution. A glossary is provided at the end of this document to explain terms and acronyms that might be unique to the MC OECN environment. Timeline ITQ Issued Intent to Respond Due Inquiry Period Response Due Evaluation and Clarification of Responses Selection of Qualified Vendors Planned Proof of Concept Demonstrations Selection of ITSM Solution Oct 8, 2012 Oct 11, 2012 Oct 8-18, 2012 Oct 22, 2012 Oct 23 Nov 2, 2012 Nov 5, 2012 Nov 7-9, 2012 Nov 26, 2012 Point of Contact and Inquiries Bill Young, Deputy CTO MC OECN, 8050 N. High Street, Suite 150, Columbus OH 43235 email: inquiry- response@mcoecn.org Email inquiries must be submitted no later than 4:00 pm on October 18, 2012. Answers to appropriate questions will be published at the website. If inquiries result in a constructive change to this ITQ, an amended version will be issued. Response Submission Vendors interested in submitting a response must submit an email on or before 4:00 pm on October 11, 2012 stating their intent to respond. MC OECN will use this information to plan resources for evaluating responses and scheduling proof of concept demonstrations. Responses must be submitted via email on or before 4:00 pm on October 22, 2012. Each timely response will be acknowledged. Response attachments must be in MS Word or PDF format. A response should include the following: 1. Letter of Transmittal (MS Word or PDF 10 pages maximum) a. Executive summary describing your company, a primary point of contact, and your ITSM solution suite. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 2
b. Explanation of why MC OECN should invest with your company. c. A list of all Ohio- based K- 12 entities, higher education institutions, and any local or state government customers. d. Comments, if any, on Attachment C Proof of Concept Demo, and suggestions for alternative demonstration approaches. Provide your requirements for preparing a demonstration if invited. 2. Completed PDF forms for Attachments A and B 3. Sample Licensing or Subscription Agreement Response Evaluation Incomplete or untimely responses will not be evaluated. MC OECN will evaluate responses using internal experts to: 1. Score the functionality of proposed solutions to our requirements 2. Calculate comparative TCOs based on pricing information submitted 3. Contact organizations about their vendor and product experiences. A selected number of prospective vendors will be invited to prepare a proof of concept demonstration according to the proposed script in Attachment C. MC OECN will use the proof of concept demonstrations, detailed discussions and request for a Best and Final Offer to make a final selection. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 3
Scope MC OECN currently deploys a statewide service desk using CA Unicenter Service Desk (CA- USD, version 11.2) acquired in 2002. This deployment uses a legacy product and MC OECN has determined there is no inherent functional or economic benefit in migrating to a replacement product from CA. CA- USD is expected to continue to operate for the next 12-24 months while a new ITSM solution is deployed. Therefore, the new ITSM solution must effectively co- exist with CA- USD and possibly integrate certain processes between the two systems. CA- USD is centrally hosted and maintained within a private Ohio K- 12 network. It managed as a single instance installed at one location for all consumers. A central staff is responsible for operational quality and reliability of the service, including maintaining each logical service desks. Each service desk business user is responsible for staffing and operating its own logical service desk created using a service category taxonomy and access controls. ITSM Solution Requirements Summary The ITSM solution must be based on ITIL v3 processes. It should be a comprehensive and integrated suite of modules which may include those that are not required by MC OECN today. The ITSM solution must be capable of operating in a virtualized environment if offered under on- premise licensing to be hosted on MC OECN infrastructure. The ITSM solution must be able to effectively co- exist with the existing CA- USD implementation and allow integration of certain processes between the two systems. ITSM Solution Suite. MC OECN recognizes that various solution suites include different modules and may use different labels for similar modules. We expect the ITSM solution suite to include at a minimum the following modules or capabilities: 1. Service Request Management 2. Incident and Problem Management 3. Service Level Management 4. Knowledge Management 5. Self- Service Portal Other Modules or Capabilities. Some common modules or capabilities may be deployed by business units based on their specific needs. The following are expected to be available from the ITSM vendor whether included in the ITSM solution suite or as separately priced options. 1. Service Catalog 2. Asset Management 3. Change/Release/Deployment Management 4. Configuration Management Database (CMDB) 5. IT Inventory Management 6. Remote Desktop / Client Device Access and Support Tool Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 4
Business Environment The Ohio Education Computer Network (OECN) is a statewide cooperative for delivering technology services to Ohio K- 12 stakeholders. MC OECN is a council of government and its membership includes 21 business units called Information Technology Centers (ITCs). ITCs are organized as regional councils of governments created and operated by the member Ohio K- 12 school districts they serve. ITC service delivery reaches over 1.8 million students and 400,000 teachers, administrators and school staff; 900 school districts, community schools, 55 education service centers; and hundreds of other K- 12 educational entities. Some ITCs provide services to other public entities and local governments. A central role of MC OECN and ITCs is implementing and supporting five ODE core programs including uniform school accounting and payroll (USAS/USPS), student information management (DASL), state school reporting (EMIS), K- 12 digital library services (INFOhio) and the Ohio K- 12 Network connectivity. ITCs acquire, provision and support other applications and services financed and consumed on a local or regional level that fulfill requirements of their school district owners. Examples of these ITC services include, but are not limited to, school website hosting, video conferencing, automated requisition workflow, endpoint management and virtual desktops, wireless access point management and VoIP. The map below shows locations for MC OECN member ITC service centers. Each ITC operates a local data center that is connected to the school buildings they serve. ITCs are connected to each other and a state- level disaster recover center using the publicly owned statewide network infrastructure known as the Ohio K- 12 Network. Source: http://mcoecn.org/itc Locations. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 5
MC OECN Statewide Service Desk A cornerstone of MC OECN s responsibility has been maintaining and managing an ODE- funded statewide service desk as required by the following: Ohio Administrative Code 3301-3- 07 Performance Requirements (C) Operating Requirements (3) Reports (b) The information technology center shall implement an automated help- desk system with quality implementation standards defined by the department in partnership with the OECN. The system shall, at a minimum, facilitate communication and problem resolution among user entities and escalation to appropriate information technology center staff across the OECN, as well as with the department. The system shall enable the reporting of quality implementation metrics for the core services to the department and provide data for the department- managed accountability system for the OECN. CA- USD was acquired in 2002 to fulfill this purpose. CA- USD is licensed for concurrent usage allowing MC OECN to allocate named analyst accounts for all stakeholders. END- USER CUSTOMERS ITC (21) Level 1 Service Desks School District (55) Large Urban (7) (7) DASL INFOhio Level 2 Support EMIS SSDT ITC Vendor Level 3 Support Vendor Figure 1. Logical Description of MC OECN CA- USD Service Desks. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 6
Current CA- USD Usage and Workload There are approximately 88 logical service desks with over 600 named analyst accounts. Some analysts use the system daily to manage requests; others access the system for regular reporting or otherwise infrequently. Table 1 gives the number of opened and closed requests for the first quarter of 2012 with calculated monthly and daily averages. The calculated annual volume of closed requests is 260,264; this volume has been constant the past several years. Table 1. CA- USD Activity Summary for Jan 1 through Mar 31, 2012 Quarterly Activity Monthly Average Daily Average Opened Requests 66,776 23,355 1,078 Closed Requests 65,166 23,267 1,074 Status Open 1,610 Table 2 lists logical service desks operated by MC OECN member ITCs and their school districts. School districts that operate a service desk do so in association with the ITC listed. Table 2. Logical Service Desks within ITCs (74 total) MC OECN Member ITC Primary Service Desk Usage School District Service Desks ACCESS (13 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 HCCA (29 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 LACA (21 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 LGCA (15 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 MDECA (23 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 1 MEC (26 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 2 MVECA (17 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 2 NCC (16 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 1 NCOCC (71 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 5 NEOMIN (25 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 8 NEONET (32 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 1 NOACSC (41 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 NOECA (16 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 8 NWOCA (87 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 11 OMERESA (20 analysts) State Mandated Reporting Only 0 Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 7
Table 2. Logical Service Desks within ITCs (74 total) MC OECN Member ITC Primary Service Desk Usage School District Service Desks SCOCA (50 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 SEOVEC (16 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 1 SPARCC (25 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 SWOCA (27 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 1 TCCSA (56 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 12 WOCO (20 analysts) State Apps & Local Services 0 1. State Apps usage means support for all or most statewide applications. Local Services means the ITC supports services that are locally determined by its school districts. 2. A school district service desk provides service support that is determined by the individual school district. Generally, each school district service desk only has 1 or 2 analyst accounts. Table 3 lists the logical service desks for state program areas, state agencies and large urban school districts. Table 3. Other Logical Service Desks Servicing Entity Cincinnati Public Schools Cleveland Metropolitan Schools Columbus City Schools DASL Dayton Public Schools etech Ohio INFOhio MC OECN HR Kiosk MC OECN /Technology Solutions ODE/EMIS Southwest City Schools State Software Development Team Primary Service Desk Usage State Mandated Reporting Only State Mandated Reporting Only State Apps & Local Services Level 2 for Student Information Management State Mandated Reporting Only ITC Support Level 1 and 2 for Statewide K- 12 Digital Library Staff Scheduling Application ITC Disaster Recovery, Backup, etc. Level 2 for State Mandated Reporting State Mandated Reporting Only Level 2 for Statewide Fiscal Applications Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 8
Table 4 provides an estimation of the activity of an ITC using CA- USD service desk based on annual volume of closed requests. The labels for request areas are determined by the ITC and in some cases have similar meaning and purpose. Table 4. Estimated Annual Request Volumes for ITCs (Jul 2011 ~ June 2012) MC OECN Estimate ITC s Top Estimate ITC s Second Estimate Member ITC Request Area Request Area ACCESS 5,900 DASL 2,000 EMIS 1,100 HCCA 13,000 DASL 3,000 EMIS 1,600 LACA 1,800 INFOhio 900 USAS (fiscal) 250 LGCA 3,100 ESIS 1,000 EMIS 400 MDECA 10,200 USPS (payroll) 2,100 EMIS 1,400 MEC 4,500 EMIS 1,000 INFOHIO 600 MVECA 8,700 Student MIS 2,900 EMIS 1,200 NCC 16,300 DASL 4,500 EMIS 2,600 NCOCC 7,800 EMIS 500 DASL 500 NEOMIN 8,300 Student MIS 2,900 USPS (payroll) 1,000 NEONET 10,200 DASL 1,900 Network 1,600 NOACSC 7,700 EMIS 2,600 INFOhio 1,300 NOECA 2,900 USPS (payroll) 600 INFOhio 500 NWOCA 15,600 HW Support 2,600 PowerSchool 2,600 OMERESA 600 DASL 200 EMIS 200 SCOCA 8,800 Student MIS 2,700 USPS (Payroll) 1,500 SEOVEC 400 INFOhio 200 EMIS 50 SPARCC 3,000 Fiscal 700 EMIS 500 SWOCA 10,000 DASL 2,200 EMIS 2,100 TCCSA 14,000 DASL 1,100 Wooster SD 1,100 WOCO 5,200 DASL 1,500 EMIS 900 TOTAL ~158,000 ~37,100 ~23,000 Table 5 provides an estimation of the workload within ODE core services supported by ITCs using CA- USD based on annual volume of closed requests. Table 5. Estimated Annual Request Volumes by Service Category (Jul 2011 ~ June 2012) Core Service Category Estimate Named Request Area Estimate Named Request Area Estimate Student MIS 23,900 DASL/ProgressBk 19,500 esis & PowerSch 6,975 Fiscal 10,850 USPS (payroll) 7,500 USAS (fiscal) 1,750 State Reporting 19,100 EMIS 19,100 Digital Library 5,300 INFOhio 5,300 K- 12 Network not available Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 9
Current CA- USD Infrastructure Figure 2 illustrates the logical architecture for the current operation, maintenance and testing of the CA- USD statewide service desk. Internet K- 12 School District ITC VMware ESX Cluster - HP Chassis & Blades - 6 virtual machines state support agency HP EVA 4400-1.31 Tb Education Customer K- 12 School District ITC state support agency Statewide Backbone Redundant 1GbE CA- USD Server & Storage Cluster Government Customer Redundant 10GbE Backup/Disaster Recovery K- 12 School Building Large Urban customers service providers statewide service desk operations Figure 2. Logical Architecture of MC OECN CA- USD Statewide Service Desk. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 10
If the new ITSM solution is deployed on MC OECN infrastructure, an arrangement similar to Figure 2 is contemplated. MC OECN will determine and provision new infrastructure based on requirements of the new solution. If a SaaS or hosted solution is acquired, it will be deployed from the Internet as connected to the Ohio K- 12 Network statewide backbone as shown in Figure 2. Network bandwidth consumption for the statewide service desk that occurs entirely within the Ohio K- 12 Network is considered intra- network bandwidth and is not subject to network usage fees. An ITSM solution deployment that requires traffic to traverse between an externally hosted solution and an Ohio K- 12 Network location incurs a bandwidth consumption fee which is attributed to the service cost in a comparative TCO analysis. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 11
Glossary The following terms and phrases are defined as used in this ITQ and in the context of MC OECN s current statewide service desk environment. analyst A generalized term that refers to the primary user of the statewide service desk which requires a license to create, update, escalate, manage and dispose of requests within the statewide service desk or the ITSM solution. Similar terms might be technician, customer representative or process user. business unit The ODE certified Information Technology Centers (ITCs) that are members of the MC OECN and that implement a variety of IT services to their school district owners, education service centers, other educational entities and local governments. ITCs are organized in accordance with section 3313.92 Joint school building projects or Chapter 167 Regional Councils of Governments of the Ohio Revised Code. core services The minimum set of state- subsidized information technology services that each ITC is required by ODE to offer. This set of IT services includes, but is not limited to, the following: (a) Fiscal services, including accounting, payroll/personnel, and fixed asset accounting (USAS/USPS); (b) Student records management, including provisions for student scheduling, grade reporting, attendance tracking, and tracking of special education needs (DASL and similar products); (c) State- mandated data reporting, including access to the appropriate department databases and software applications (EMIS); (d) Library automation, curricular resources, and educational technology services to support academic content standards, effective instruction and professional development (INFOhio); and (e) Internet access and networking services, including email and the support of data exchange within the ITC s user entities and across different ITCs and their user entities (Ohio K- 12 Network and related ITC services). council of government (COG) A public governmental entity as organized under Chapter 167 of the Ohio Revised Code. customer A service desk contact type that is outside of the IT service provider. For example, a customer is commonly a school district employee. A similar term might be end- user. DASL Data Analysis for Student Learning; a web- based student information management and decision support system developed, maintained and deployed by MC OECN for student information management by a school district. See www.dasl.info. EMIS Education Management Information System; a software application created, maintained and deployed by ODE through ITCs for the purpose of collecting and reporting mandated Ohio school data. See www.ode.ohio.gov. employee A service desk contact type that is inside the IT service provider organization. For example, the contact may be an employee or a contractor of an ITC. ESC Education Service Center. There are 55 ESCs in Ohio and some use the statewide service desk as customers of an ITC or similar to a school district. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 12
INFOhio A joint MC OECN and ODE program that implements the Ohio K- 12 Digital Library program that includes school library automation and an extensive collection of digital resources. See www.infohio.org. ITC Information Technology Center. There are 21 member ITCs of the MC OECN which are organized as a council of government or a consortia as allowed by the Ohio Revised Code. ITIL v3 A widely accepted approach to IT service management that provides a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally. ITSM solution A suite of functionality providing an integrated, customizable solution aligned with ITIL v3 best practices intended to benefit a using organization by improving service operations, improving customer service, reducing IT cost and managing associated operational risks. The ITSM solution sought by MC OECN will include, but is not limited to, the following modules as commonly understood: Service Request Management Incident and Problem Management Service Level Management Self- Service Portal Knowledge Management IT Asset Inventory Management Change and Release Management Configuration Management large urban A large school district in Ohio that is capable of acting as its own ITC for the purposes of delivering and supporting ODE core services. Examples include Columbus City Schools (the state s largest school district), Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and Cincinnati Public Schools. logical service desk A hierarchical set of service categories within the MC OECN statewide service desk that are associated with a particular business unit or state program area or school district. Each logical service desk is defined and controlled by the entity delivering the IT services and is isolated from other logical service desks. This approximates a multi- tenant implementation for the statewide service desk. MC OECN The Management Council of the OECN organized in 1991 as a council of governments under ORC Chapter 167 with the then existing ITCs as founding members. Today, the Management Council has 21 ITC members. From 1984 until 1991, the MC OECN existed as an informal professional organization. OECN The Ohio Education Computer Network as established in the Ohio Revised Code 3301.075 Purchase and lease of data processing services and equipment Ohio education computer network and governed by Ohio Administrative Code. ODE The Ohio Department of Education. See ode.ohio.gov. Ohio K- 12 Network A joint effort between the MC OECN, ITCs, OARnet, etech Ohio and ODE created in 1999 to advocate for funding to assist Ohio school districts in connecting to the statewide K- 12 educational network. on- premise A licensing and deployment model for the ITSM solution where the system is installed and operated on MC OECN owned and operated infrastructure. Licensing is based on fixed, floating or concurrent licensing by various user roles and includes a one- time license fee (paid up front) and optional recurring annual support and service fees. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 13
SaaS Software as a Service; a licensing and deployment model for the ITSM solution where the system is installed and operated on the vendor owned and operated infrastructure. Typically, this model involves subscriptions by various system user roles and might be available at monthly, yearly and multi- year rates. statewide service desk The MC OECN deployment of CA- USD used by ITCs, large urbans, school districts and state support agencies in a multi- tenant implementation. state program area An ODE core service, including USAS/USPS, state mandated reporting, K- 12 digital library, student information management and the Ohio K- 12 network connectivity. The organization responsible for creating, maintaining and deploying the program area service is referred to as a state support agency. state support agency An entity that is responsible for managing and supporting a state program. Existing named agencies include State Software Development Team (USAS/USPS), DASL State Support Team, and INFOhio Technical Support Team. USAS/USPS Uniform School Accounting System and Uniform School Payroll System; a software application created, maintained and deployed by ODE through ITCs for license- free use by Ohio school districts and other educational entities. Issued: October 8, 2012 Due: October 22, 2012 Page 14