Hosting of the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS) REQUEST FOR TENDER

Hosting of the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS) REQUEST FOR TENDER

Contents 1 LODGEMENT OF PROPOSALS... 3 2 BACKGROUND... 4 2.1 Background... 4 2.2 Purpose and explanation... 4 2.3 Scope and / or methodology... 5 2.4 Other Information... 8 3 STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENTS... 8 3.1 Requirement / Method... 8 3.2 Procurement / Project planning and management... 11 4 TIME FRAME... 11 5 RESPONSE FORMAT... 12 6 SELECTION CRITERIA... 14 7 TERMS OF REQUEST FOR TENDER... 15 7.1 Disclaimer... 15 7.2 Privacy notice... 15 7.3 Conflict of interest... 15 7.4 Probity and ethical behaviour... 15 FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 2 of 15

1 LODGEMENT OF PROPOSALS Closing date 5pm, 14 March 2014 Late submissions will not be accepted without prior agreement. Lodgement method Email to: nqaits@acecqa.gov.au Email subject line: RFT Hosting of the NQA ITS Questions about this Please send any questions by email to nqaits@acecqa.gov.au proposal Email subject line: RFT - Enquiry ACECQA contact person Name: Scott Fitzsimmons Position: Senior Manager, Education & Care Systems Email: scott.fitzsimmons@acecqa.gov.au Telephone: 02 6240 4207 Tender briefing NQA ITS Hosting tender briefing Location: ACECQA Level 15, 255 Elizabeth Street SYDNEY NSW Date & Time: 10AM-12PM, Monday 24 February 2014 FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 3 of 15

2 BACKGROUND 2.1 Background ACECQA is an independent national statutory authority responsible for overseeing important changes to early childhood education and care and outside school hours care in Australia. ACECQA is a body corporate with perpetual succession. It is not a Commonwealth statutory authority. Commencing formal operations on 1 January 2012, ACECQA provides national leadership to support the implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF) for children s education and care. ACECQA works with the Australian, state and territory governments and the children's education and care sector to implement changes that will benefit children and their families. ACECQA monitors and promotes the consistent application of the Education and Care Services National Law (National Law) and the Education and Care Services National Regulations (National Regulations) across all states and territories and oversees the application of the National Quality Standard to ensure services are meeting the new requirements. The National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS) is a database system used by ACECQA, State and Territory Governments, and the Australian Government to assist with the administration of the National Law by managing education and care services, providers and supervisors. 2.2 Purpose and explanation The NQA ITS is made up of two parts: - a Dynamics CRM 2011 system used to track all information regarding services, providers and supervisors, such as approvals, applications and notifications, monitoring and compliance, and waivers - a Sharepoint 2011 system used for online application forms. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 4 of 15

Four environments are currently hosted for the NQA ITS: - Production the live production environment. - Training this is used for training users on. It is used irregularly. - Testing this is used for release testing/signoff. It is used irregularly. - Development this is used internally by our development team. It is used irregularly. This RFT seeks tenders for the hosting of the NQA ITS. 2.3 Scope and / or methodology Tenders are sought for the hosting of the NQA ITS application, and (optionally) a managed services solution for the ongoing administration of the servers. Application Hosting includes the servers hosting the Dynamics CRM, Sharepoint, SQL Server, and Active Directory components of the NQA ITS in the four environments currently used. It also includes the establishment and hosting of a disaster recovery environment. It is expected that tenders will be for virtual environments. The successful tenderer will have resources available to assist in the design and architecture of the solution, such as being able to provide advice on networking and security, load balancing, and disaster recovery. A managed services solution should include the administration of the servers up to the operating system level, including operating system patches and anti-virus. Respondents who are interested in providing a hosting-only solution (ie. an unmanaged environment) or providing a more limited management of services are also welcome to respond. If the tender includes a managed services component the services that would be provided under that agreement must also be provided. The current architecture of the current production environment is below. The architecture of the new environment would likely be similar to the current one, however the successful tenderer would be expected to provide advice on possible improvements or efficiencies. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 5 of 15

The other environments (Test, Training, Development, Disaster Recovery) would likely be similar to production but without redundancy. Disaster recovery would not necessarily need to be a separate environment if the production environment was split across two geographically separate locations with appropriate load balancing and failovers. The number of services likely to be required in each environment are: Estimated # servers Production 14 Development 7 Test 7 Training 7 DR 7 Total 42 Application support and development is not in the scope of this tender. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 6 of 15

Current architecture of production environment Production Firewall / Load Balancer CRM Web Server CRM Web Server Sharepoint Web Server Sharepoint Web Server SQL Server SQL Server SQL Server SQL Server CRM Application Server CRM Application Server Sharepoint Application Server CRM Application Server Active Directory Active Directory FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 7 of 15

2.4 Other Information The proposed solution must ensure that all data remains within Australia. A tender briefing will be held for interested respondents at ACECQA s offices on 24 February 2014. The details are: NQA ITS Hosting tender briefing Location: ACECQA Level 15, 255 Elizabeth Street SYDNEY NSW Date & Time: 10AM-12PM, Monday 24 February 2014 Parties interested in attending this briefing should RSVP with the number of attendees from their organisation via e-mail to nqaits@acecqa.gov.au by COB Thursday 20 February. 3 STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENTS 3.1 Requirement / Method Costs The tenderer is required to provide costs for the hosting of the NQA ITS. The tender must include costs for the following components (as applicable). The tender should indicate what uptime can be guaranteed along with the detail of any Service Level Agreements. Server costs The tender must include the costs of any initial setup for servers, including the cost of any hardware as applicable. It must also include the ongoing monthly costs for hosting each server. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 8 of 15

A cost should be provided based on three server sizes: Small: Suitable for an Active Directory Server or low volume web server Medium: Suitable for a high volume web or application server Large: Suitable for a mission-critical SQL Server The tender must include the specifications of each server size, including CPU and RAM. It should also detail any storage included with the server, along with the estimated IOPS. The cost provided in the tender must be the total cost per server. Storage The tender must include the cost for additional volumes of storage. Costs must be for any of the following storage options that the tenderer can provide: Low: Approximately 100 IOPS Medium: Approximately 700 IOPS High: Approximately 2000 IOPS Internet connection The tender must include the cost of an internet connection for the environments. An unlimited amount of data is preferred however tenders may include a limited option. Setup and consulting costs The tender may include any costs for the setup of the hosting environment, or any costs associated with the design of the solution. Backup A backup solution must be provided and costed as part of the tender. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 9 of 15

Disaster Recovery The tender must include information and costs for how data will be replicated to the disaster recovery environment, as well as how failovers (if any) will be provisioned. Managed Services If the tender includes a managed services component, costs must be provided for this. Costs can be placed against per server or as an overall amount. Respondents should advise whether the managed services component is severable from the remainder of the tender. Detailed information on what services would be provided under a managed services agreement must also be included. Any other costs Any other costs that would be incurred in establishment and ongoing hosting must be included as part of the tender. A one, two and three year contract will be considered as part of this RFT. Respondents must provide costs for all of these length of contracts. Solution Design and Project Plan The tender must include a proposed design for both the overall hosting solution and each individual environment. This should include: - network design - how disaster recovery will be implemented - details of any load balancing being used - types of hardware that will be included in the solution. The tender should also include an indicative project plan for the design and implementation of the solution, noting the short timeframes involved in the project. Reporting and other inclusions The tender must provide details of what kinds of reporting would be available in regards to the hosting environment, such as network utilisation and intrusion detection reporting. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 10 of 15

3.2 Procurement / Project planning and management The successful tenderer will be responsible for project management. The successful tenderer will be expected to provide a project manager (or similar) who can act as a single point of contact for ACECQA, along with the development and regular maintenance of a project plan. 4 TIME FRAME Below is an indicative time frame for the procurement / project. However, tenderers are welcome to propose and justify new time frames. The final time frame will be agreed with the successful tenderer prior to commencement of the procurement / project. Tender briefing for interested respondents 24 February 2014 RFT closing date 14 March 2014 Successful tenderer notified Approximately 4 April 2014 Contract commences and project briefing Approximately 11 April 2014 Final delivery 6 June 2014 FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 11 of 15

5 RESPONSE FORMAT Responses to this RFT must include: A. tenderer name, address and ABN B. name, address, email and phone number of contact person for queries C. details of how you would expect to deliver the solution, including key milestones and timeframes D. detailed cost estimates as outlined in section 3.1, including any incremental costs E. names of specific personnel to be involved in the procurement / project and (optional: their qualifications and experience and their allocated time to the project) F. brief descriptions of previous procurement / project / tender of a similar nature G. demonstrated capability and capacity to meet the procurement requirements H. contact details for at least two referees that can demonstrate the tenderer s capacity to deliver at a high quality, on time and within budget Response To Tenders should be received no later than 14 March 2014. Late submissions will not be accepted without prior agreement. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 12 of 15

Example format for cost responses Included Server Size Specifications Storage Cost per month Setup Cost Storage Tier IOPS Cost per month Setup Cost Other Costs (ie. Internet, backup) Cost per month Example list of services provided under managed services Availability management what guarantees, provisions for disaster and support processes are in place to the business regarding service availability. Capacity management what volume and performance monitoring and forecasting processes are in place Incident management what guarantees around response and resolution are in place when an incident our outage occurs Problem management what provisions are in place for managing longer term problems as opposed to shorter term incidents, e.g. workarounds, flow through to change management Change management what processes are in place and guarantees around quality control and delivery of changes to any element of the service, including release management Security management what standards, provisions and pro-active measures and notifications are in place for information security, integrity and access requests Asset management what provisions are in place for managing, reporting and planning around hardware and software assets e.g. maintenance, currency of software and firmware etc FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 13 of 15

6 SELECTION CRITERIA Tenders will be assessed using the following criteria: No Criteria Weighting 1 Experience in the hosting of enterprise applications based on identical or similar technologies High 2 Understanding of the project requirements Medium 3 Experience in the design of similar hosting solutions and the capability to provide advice and support to ACECQA on matters regarding solution design and architecture High 4 Risk management, financial viability and compliance High 5 Pricing - Prices offered will be assessed in conjunction with tenderer s evaluation according to the above criteria to enable selection based on value for money High The selection of a preferred tenderer will be based on the most efficient and effective outcome for ACECQA. This involves assessing value for money and quality of service against this Request for Tender (RFT). FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 14 of 15

7 TERMS OF REQUEST FOR TENDER 7.1 Disclaimer ACECQA is not obliged to enter into any legally binding agreement with a respondent. Nothing in this Request for Tender (RFT) creates or implies a legally binding agreement between ACECQA and the respondent. ACECQA will not be liable for any acts or omissions of the respondent or costs or expenses incurred, as a result of the information provided by ACECQA in this RFT. The respondent is deemed to have read and understood all relevant information associated with the RFT and warrants that their submission is complete and contains accurate information. 7.2 Privacy notice Respondents should familiarise themselves with other policies relevant to this RFT including: ACECQA Privacy Policy ACECQA Freedom of Information Policy 7.3 Conflict of interest If a respondent is concerned about the existence of, or potential existence of, a conflict of interest, they should notify ACECQA immediately. ACECQA will then determine how the matter should best be handled. 7.4 Probity and ethical behaviour Probity and ethical behaviour governs the conduct of all procurement activities at ACECQA. All staff with the authority to procure goods and services or otherwise involved in the procurement process must act ethically, with integrity, probity, and in line with the ACECQA Procurement Policy. ACECQA requires the same standards from those with whom it deals. FA2.1 ACECQA Request for Tender V0.1 Page 15 of 15