Comprehensive IT Assessment Questions & Answers 1) Does the City have an approved budget for this project, range, or a not-to-exceed amount? IT Assessments vary widely in scope, comprehensiveness, and actual deliverables, which means costs vary widely as well. Our objective is to scale the project and deliverables that provide the greatest value and probability of successful implementation to meet your budget. A) The budget will be dependent on the overall analysis of the RFP proposals and the selection process for a vendor(s). 2) Is the City looking at a strategic roadmap in accordance with local governments best practices or some other best practices? The City uses the word industry standards and is it fair to assume the City is referring to local government standards or similarly sized organizations? A) Yes, in accordance with local government best practices and other regulatory requirements. 3) The City refers to Current State Analysis. Does the City intend to have the contractor perform a State Analysis of all departments the information technology is currently servicing to identify the current gaps? If so, approximately how many departments is the information technology servicing? A) Yes, there are 8 departments. The Police Department has their own IT. 4) Does the City provide IT services to any other municipalities or not-for-profit organizations, etc.? If so, will they be included in this study? 5) Has the City ever documented its IT strategic plan in the past? 6) Does the City have an up to date IT policies and procedures manual? 7) Does the City intend to have the contractor perform only a risk-based IT Assessment or is the City interested in having the contractor perform both internal and external penetration testing of the current IT infrastructure? A) The City would like to have the contractor perform both internal and external penetration testing of the current IT infrastructure. 8) Does the City have a preference on which framework the contractor should utilize to conduct its gap analysis and risk assessment? A) The City has no preference.
9) Was the pre-proposal meeting mandatory? If not, can you provide an attendee list and any relevant meeting minutes? A) The pre-proposal meeting was not mandatory and was just an opportunity for the vendors to get a firsthand look at our IT environment. The vendors were given a guided tour of the City s IT department and some of its local network switch closets. The following vendors were at the pre-proposal meeting: US ProTech Business Technology Solutions Axxera Consulting Services mgo CPA DTC Schafer Consulting Netixs McGladrey Accent Computer Solutions Sigmanet Client First Scientia 10) We see a reference to Windows Server 2003. Has the City purchased extended support through Microsoft since this operating system has reached its end of life? 11) What technology infrastructure is supported by the vendor on a monthly basis? A) VmWare, Data Backup, Microsoft Exchange, Firewall, Antivirus (Server Level) 12) Are the daycare centers and senior center City-owned properties staffed by City employees? A) Yes 13) Within IT Strategy, there is a reference to major initiatives and the technology plan. Can you provide a) details on what these major initiatives are and b) a copy of the technology plan? A) The major initiative is for an outside company to come in and evaluate our current IT environment and provide us with a strategic roadmap for the City s future operations. We do not have a current technology plan. 14) Does the City anticipate that any external shareholders (specifically citizens) would be engaged for development of the strategic plan?
15) Regarding the reference to an IT Risk Assessment, can you elaborate on the level of detail the City anticipates? This could include everything from a high-level review to a very detailed assessment (penetration testing, PCI compliance, etc.) A) The IT Risk Assessment should be detailed enough to meet the requirements of industry standards for local governments. 16) Are any of the IT employees to be assessed covered by a union/association and to what extent does the City anticipate their involvement in the Personnel deliverable? A) Yes, all city employees are covered by a union/ association. We do not anticipate the union will have any involvement in the Personnel deliverable. 17) What is the City s desired schedule for this project? A) First quarter of 2016. 18) Can the city provide an updated network/component diagram to show/indicate all technology equipment, the connectivity methodology used and the date of the last time each component was updated hardware/firmware/software. A) The city cannot provide this information because no record was kept and we don t have the resources to get an updated diagram at this time. 19) Related to the RFP documentation Item #6 Personnel: When appropriate please provide a CV/Resume for each of the three members of the current I.T. staff for the purpose of skills analysis/abilities to determine any gap/training opportunities A) When the time is appropriate; that information will be acquired through personal interviews of each of the three IT members. 20) Is there a list of managers from each department who are available to meet to obtain feedback and concerns can be uncovered regarding current technology platforms and future demands/objectives. A) We currently don't have a list of managers that are designated for this purpose. However, one can be arranged when the time come. 21) Does the city have any network analyzers/traffic data tools in place with reports/statistics on network traffic, bandwidth utilization, processor and memory utilization per device on the network?
22) What long-term contracts are in place for software applications and hardware platforms? List software packages, the usage and department utilizing the software and the length term of the contract. In addition, list hardware contracts, how many devices are under warranty and the terms of the warranty per device? A) Software / Hardware Usage Department Contract length Vision Internet City Website hosting all yearly Eden Finance/HR System all yearly Quadrant Cashiering system Finance yearly HDL Business License Finance yearly Barracuda 410 Web Filter IT 3 years Watch Guard Firewall IT Lease Sire Agenda and minutes City Clerk yearly TaskForce Fleet Management Public Works yearly System Fuel Force Fleet Fuel Public Works yearly Management system iworq Work order Public Works yearly management (webbase) GovClarity GIS system All yearly Accela Permits Plus Permit system Public Work, yearly Planning, Fire Dept. FireHouse Fire Record Fire Department yearly management system Telestaff Fire staff scheduling Fire Department yearly Class Class registration system Community services yearly 23) What percentage of the city s workforce are mobile today? How many mobile workers does the city anticipate over the next year, three years? What software applications are utilized in the mobile environment? A) A very small percent of the workforce are mobile. We do not anticipate more than 10 mobile worker within the next three years. They mainly use VPN and RDP to their desktops in their office. 24) What work is performed by the contractor on a monthly basis to help maintain the network? A) Firewall management, Data backup and restore, offsite data storage, monitor virtual servers, email recovery and hosted antivirus software on servers.
25) Does the city have any current plans/proposals underway to upgrade/purchase hardware or software applications to meet business needs of various entities supported by the city I.T. A) The City is planning to upgrade the IT infrastructure with new network switches, new Host for more virtual servers and new SAN. After that the City needs to plan on software upgrades throughout the City. 26) What current vendor provided network connectivity solutions are being utilized? What bandwidth is available, the configuration of current bandwidth, termination points and management options, term of contract and costs. A) We are using Charter Communications for internet and phone services. The speed is 25Mbps. It s a five year contract that expires in April of 2018 and costs $757/month. 27) When was the City s Technology Plan developed? Did the City utilize a third party to assist with development of the plan? A) We do not currently have a Technology Plan. 28) Does the City have an existing risk assessment process that has defined threats and vulnerabilities that the City monitors ongoing? 29) Does the City conduct any regular customer surveys to gauge the service delivery capabilities of the existing technology organizational mix of in-house and outsourced personnel? 30) What are the core enterprise applications utilized by the City (financial management, HR/Payroll, Billing, Operations)? A) Finance/HR/Payroll Eden by Tyler Technologies, HDL for business license, Quadrant for cashiering, Permits Plus, Sire for Agendas and Document Imaging, Firehouse for Fire record management, Telestaff for Fire department staff scheduling and IWorQ for work orders in public works. 31) Has the City identified the Public and non-public entities that would be used in comparing IT Costs? 32) Do you have a 3-5 year business plan, and supporting technology strategic plan?
33) Do you have an enterprise risk management program, and risk framework for controls and Security management? 34) Do you have a governance structure (executive steering committee) for investment approvals and progress reviews? A) The Finance Department and City Manager s Office. 35) Do you measure and manage their environment by any IT KPIs? 36) Top 3 business challenges? A) 1. Accomplishing more with less 2. Moving over to the cloud 3. Software compatibility 37) Infrastructure platform on-prem, outsourced or cloud-based? A) On premise Windows 38) Types of references required? A) The Consultant/Contractor shall submit with his/her proposal a list of at least three (3) clients using the same service being proposed, with names, addresses, and telephone numbers. A survey of references will be made to determine, among other things, the vendor s success in meeting the needs of the contracting agency in a timely manner.