RFP DUE: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 9:00 AM Bid opening SUMMARY Newport Utilities (NU) seeks an experienced firm to provide an Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Voicemail system. This Request for Proposal (RFP) is part of a competitive process which helps to serve the Utility Company s best interests. It also provides candidates or potential vendors with a fair opportunity for their services to be considered and with evaluative criteria against which they will be judged. PROPOSAL GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS Newport Utilities, as a local government entity, requires all persons employed for this contract be US residents or legal aliens in good standing. All employees must complete verification through the E-verify system. No sub-contractors shall be used for completion of this contract. All vendors wishing to complete a bid for this project shall be required to attend the Pre-Bid meeting to be held on Thursday, October 30, 2014 at 9:00 AM at the main office, 170 Cope Blvd, Newport, Tennessee. This is a sealed bid process. This proprietary information is for the expressed purpose of providing information for prospective vendors to prepare their proposal for NU. Any other use of this information is prohibited. All proposals must be mailed or delivered, at the vendor s sole risk, to the address shown in this Request for Proposal. Newport Utilities (NU) is not obligated to accept proposals received after the date and time stated above. NU reserves the right to reject any or all of the proposals, to waive any and all informalities and/or irregularities in the proposal, to negotiate and/or re-negotiate with any vendor, the terms of its proposal, and to accept any proposal which, in its opinion, may be in the best interest of NU. Newport Utilities may cancel the procurement or reject any or all bids. Although these specifications are intended to be complete, some questions may arise. If further clarification is necessary, questions can be directed in writing, as directed in this RFP. Exceptions, if any, will be considered in the proposal evaluation in determining the successful vendor. Vendor must provide supporting documentation with its proposal for any exceptions. NU s selection of the vendor does not mandate the lowest bid and priority will be given to those vendors with the ability to meet requirements. A rating scale will be used. Newport Utilities of Newport, Tennessee will negotiate contract terms upon selection. All contracts are subject to review by legal counsel, and a project will be awarded upon signing an agreement or contract, which outlines terms, scope, budget and other necessary items.
Proposals may be held by NU for a period of time not to exceed sixty (60) days from the due date of the proposals for the purpose of evaluating the proposals or investigating the qualifications of the vendors, prior to awarding of the order. All proposals shall remain effective for at least sixty (60) days after the due date of the proposals. Each vendor s proposal shall constitute an offer to sell the goods and/or services sought by this Request for Proposal. The award shall be made by execution of a contract mutually agreed upon by both parties. Questions regarding this request for proposal should be submitted in writing to the person listed below. Questions may be emailed (preferred method) or faxed. TO: Donna Cureton TITLE: Purchasing Agent Email: dcureton@newportutilities.com PHONE: (423) 625-2743 FAX: (423) 613-9786 Bids that are submitted shall be clearly marked Bid Enclosed or Bid Envelope Enclosed as appropriate. The sealed envelope containing the bid shall have the following information shown on the envelope: BID FOR: BID DUE: OWNER: VoIP Phone system Tuesday, November 18, 2014 9:00 AM (local time) Newport Utilities 170 Cope Boulevard Newport, TN 37821 No facsimile proposals will be accepted. Bidder should address each specification as to their ability to adhere to the requirements stated in this RFP. Proposal should be attached at the end of this bid document and returned as specified. The bid should include an authorized signature of the person submitting the proposal. PURPOSE, DESCRIPTION, AND OBJECTIVES Purpose To install a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system to replace the current telephone system which needs to be compatible with, as well as provide inter-operability and sustainability with other phone systems. Description 1. Open standards VoIP system that provides 4-digit dialing between locations, a centralized voicemail system that can be used transparently by all locations and the ability for all locations to appear to be part of a single phone system.
2. VoIP phones o Main office: 40 phones with 2 wall mounted and one providing door access o Operations: 24 phones with 1 cordless and 1 wall o Water Treatment plant: 5 phones o Waste Water Treatment plant: 3 phones 3. Total e-faxes totaling approximately 30 4. E-fax server with the ability to store faxes locally 5. Ethernet Cabling for wall mounted phones 6. 4 sites with POTS lines with building locations: o Main Office: 170 Cope Boulevard o Operations: 1419 West Highway 25/20 o Water treatment plant: 815 Cedar Street o Waste Water Treatment plant: 465 Chemwood Drive 7. Incorporate PRI from AT & T with 82 DIDs 8. Must be VLAN capable Primary Objective To complete a unified communication system that is user-friendly and includes Interactive Voice Response (IVR). FEATURES, FUNCTIONALITY, FACILITY REQUIREMENTS Basic features and functionality required 1. Telephony Application Program Interface (TAPI) compliant 2. Ability for screen pops or populate screen based on customer account information 3. Ability to integrate with outbound and inbound calls with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) 4. Capability of at home agent remote access or Virtual Customer Service with Virtual Phone Number (VPN) 5. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) capability 6. Integrate Tracer (OAYSIS) with recording system 7. Must interface with Network Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC), Customer Information System (CIS) and Call Capture System (CCS). 8. Virtualized Headquarter server 9. Connect four (4) sites through Power Over Ethernet (POE) 10. Ability to integrate with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks or SIP stations 11. Instant Messaging/Chat capability for all users 12. Capability of websharing/ remote shared desktop with ability of voice desktop sharing 13. Conference Bridge capability for up to 10 users with the ability to scale up to 100 users and the maximum number of conference call participants and simultaneous conference calls must be listed in the proposal. 14. Voicemail-to-email capability for all users
15. Export call center reporting capability with single centralized call accounting system to track calls out of all locations on the network. The call accounting system must be able to distinguish which phone originated the call regardless of the phone s physical location on the network. The system should also be able to track an outside call through its destination, including internal transfers. Call report records must be in an exportable format for external analysis with preferable format of Microsoft Excel. Prospective vendors must indicate whether additional hardware, such as a call reporting server, is necessary for implementation. 16. Fail-over dial tone in case of emergency 17. All phones to have speakerphone capability 18. Recording capability to allow end users to record calls to their extensions and the automated announcement forewarning incoming callers their calls may be recorded. This feature must integrate with OAYSIS system. 19. Licenses must be included for: 10 agents/customer service, and 2 supervisor with Coach, Whisper page, and Snoop capabilities. Priority will be given if matrix does support CITRIX Xenserver virtualization. If CITRIX Xenserver virtualization is not supported and if extra hardware is needed, Newport Utilities reserves the right to purchase equipment that meets manufacturer requirements. Optional feature request Pricing for and capability of Headset compatibility for hands free operation. Required Configuration and Installation 1. Vendor shall be prepared to work with any necessary telephone company to coordinate the ordering and installation of all WAN, PRI and other communication services related to this project. 2. Vendor should include any routers, POE switches, servers, and circuits required. Newport Utilities reserves the option to seek its own pricing for equipment that meets or exceeds the vendor specifications. 3. Install and configure IP Telephony switches at each location, provide port mapping for each line after connecting voice trunks. 4. Configure call routing and hunt groups for each location per call routing diagram as established with System Administrator 5. Install and configure IP telephony client software on all workstations, including successful integration with locally installed Microsoft Outlook client. 6. System must provide redundancy and business continuity in case of emergency. 7. System must provide local 9-1-1 access during power outage via UPS back-up. Facility and Installation Requirements
Space: Provide the physical dimensions of the proposed equipment and/or rack space needed to house equipment for each location. Provide all power requirements, including any special conditioning for each location. Newport Utilities ultimately desires a turn-key solution with regard to the full telephony solution. The successful vendor will be responsible for cable runs to individual workstations. Timeline Thursday, October 30, 2014 Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Tuesday, November 25, 2014 Monday, December 15, 2014 Monday, January 12, 2015 9 AM Pre-bid meeting/ must be present to offer RFP 9 AM Bid opening (Local time) 10:30 AM Award notification at Board meeting Newport Utilities takes possession of equipment/ begin installation Training and cutover completed Budget/ Pricing Budget must encompass all site visits, equipment, programming, routing and end-user classroom style training necessary to implement a new phone system. No additional charges will be allowed other than those quoted in the proposal. Background and Mission of Organization Newport Utilities (NU) is a municipal electric, water, and wastewater service provider with services in Newport (Cocke County), Tennessee and parts of surrounding Jefferson and Sevier counties. NU s service area is approximately 600 square miles and serves primarily residential customers. As of June 30, 2010, NU provides services to 21,800 electric customers and 10,431 water customers in those service areas. Mission: The Mission of Newport Utilities is to provide quality electric, water and wastewater service reliably, timely, and courteously at the lowest reasonable cost. To carry out our mission we value: honesty, customer satisfaction, team work, diversity, accountability, reliability, continuous improvement, and efficient use of resources. Scope & Guidelines Site Survey will be completed during the pre-bid site meeting held on Friday, October 30, 2014 at 9:00 AM at the main site (170 Cope Boulevard, Newport, TN). All vendors who wish to be considered for the bid process must attend this meeting. There are four (4) sites to be connected: the main site and three (3) remote sites. Phone Specifications:
Newport Utilities: Request for Proposal FINAL 1 Gbs phones Self-powered and POE compliant Use a duel Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC) LCD readout panel with multi-line capability Front desk attendant with at least thirty (30) extensions Door control function In addition, Ethernet cable must be pulled for some of the wall mounted phones; additional phone line pulls may be necessary as the project continues. There are five (5) wall mounted phones as a part of this system. Copper lines will remain a part of this system for emergency backup for 9-1-1 and regular POTS fax lines. The company will maintain eight (8) regular fax lines and the e-fax. All equipment must be new and in its original packaging. Reconditioned, remanufactured, or demonstration models will not be acceptable. All equipment must include at least a one (1) year warranty on parts, with an option for three (3) and five (5) year support to include all remote programming. Programming to include: Screen populations Automatic Call Distribution Integration of IVR IM Chat capability Virtual CSR at home agent remote access Conference Bridge Voicemail to E-mail capability Fax servers Desktop sharing capability Testing and Implementation Testing and implementation shall be completed no later than Wednesday, December 31, 2014 for cutover on Monday, January 12, 2015. Training Classroom style training will be completed with all personnel at all four (4) sites to ensure ease of transition. Training will include vendor staff on-site for the first day after the cutover (Tuesday, January 13, 2015) to complete end-user live training. System administrator and end users will be provided with documentation both hard copy and web-based documentation. Training materials will be reviewed with System Administrator and Customer Service Manager prior to live training to ensure material will meet the needs of all users.
Qualifications Certified dealer s headquarters must be located within seventy-five (75) miles of customer s main headquarters or premise. Newport Utilities requires a response time of 2 hours on-site time for emergency calls, 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week with the definition of an emergency call to be determined by Newport Utilities. Experience All vendors to be considered for this project will provide the following items: Three (3) professional references Company profile including mission statement, vision and values Project staff and roles of each staff member along with job descriptions Revenues & Expenses sheet Hardware and software partnerships Testing and support plan Time frame for completion Program areas/ input: specify how information will be gathered to complete this project Prospective vendors submitting an RFP should possess and use extensive knowledge and experience within the communications industry to recommend a creative solution that will meet or exceed Newport Utilities requirements. Evaluation Criteria Three (3) copies of proposal with costs by bid opening Tuesday, 18 November 2014 9 AM Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria: 1. Thoroughness of response to proposal 2. Cost of Project 3. Service quality based on references 4. Response time to onsite emergency service requests will factor in the evaluation process. Deliver proposals to the attention of: US Postal Service: Fed Ex, UPS or drop off: Donna Cureton, Purchasing Agent Donna Cureton, Purchasing Agent Newport Utilities Newport Utilities Post Office Box 519 170 Cope Boulevard Newport, TN 37822 Newport, TN 37821 Late proposals will not be accepted. Newport Utilities will not accept responsibility for late proposals that may be improperly routed in the mail.
Suitability of proposal (1,000 characters) Ability to meet requirements (500 characters) Value/ Pricing Structure with categories for: Hardware Software Licenses Training Labor Installation Support Proposal Format: Standard 12 point font Checklist for item completion with tabbed format Attachments: 1) Support contract 2) Training description and format 3) Provide examples of call report