City of Aurora 10-27 Request for Proposal (RFP) for Exchange Email Archive Proposals Due Wednesday, July 28, 2010 City Clerk s Office City Hall Building 2nd Floor 44 East Downer Place Aurora, IL 60507
City of Aurora 10-27 Request for Proposal (RFP) for Exchange Email Archive The City of Aurora invites proposals from firms with the experience, capabilities, and qualified available staff to provide services as a Technical Services Partner to provide product recommendation and standards-based planning and installation services based on industry best practices for Exchange Email Archiving. Sealed proposals will be received at the Office of the City Clerk s, City Hall Building, 2nd Floor, 44 East Downer Place, Aurora IL 60507, no later than 2:00 p.m. central standard time, on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 for the above named project. DO NOT SEND OR DELIVER PROPOSALS to the Purchasing Division Office. Attached please find specifications and other pertinent documents necessary for you to respond to this Request for Proposal (RFP). Each technical proposal must be placed in an envelope, sealed, and clearly marked on the outside: Exchange Email Archiving. Each price proposal must be placed in an envelope, sealed, and clearly marked on the outside: Exchange Email Archiving Price Proposal. All questions regarding this RFP must be directed to James Dahl, Director of MIS by e-mail. Questions may not be communicated by telephone. Written questions must be submitted to: James Dahl, Director of MIS City of Aurora jdahl@aurora-il.org Written questions must be submitted by July 16, 2010. Questions received after this date will not receive a response. A response to questions will be posted to the City s website at www.aurora-il.org July 21, 2010. All questions must include a reference to the specific page number and section of the RFP in question. The City of Aurora reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, or parts thereof, and to waive any technicality, informality or irregularity in the proposals received, and to disregard all nonconforming or conditional proposals or counter-proposals and to hold the proposal for ninety (90) days from the opening date set forth above. The City further reserves the right in its sole discretion to award the proposal to the most responsible Proposer whose offer best responds in quality, fitness and capacity to the requirements of the proposed Work or usage and therefore is in the best interest of the City. CITY OF AURORA i Esther Sanders Director of Purchasing
TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION... 1 PROJECT OVERVIEW... 1 COA CORPORATE PROFILE... 1 DISCLAIMER... 1 VENDOR SELECTION... 2 COA TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT... 2 GENERAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS... 3 STATEMENT OF WORK... 4 RFP INSTRUCTIONS... 4 RFP RESPONSE DEADLINE... 4 RFP RESPONSE SCHEDULE... 5 RESPONDING TO THE RFP... 5 SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS... 6 RFP QUESTIONS... 7 RFP RESPONSE... 8 TERMS & CONDITIONS... 8 PRICING... 8 KEY VENDOR AFFILIATION... 8 CAPABILITIES... 9 PERSONNEL... 9 TIMING... 10 RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS... 10 GENERAL... 10 ATTACHMENT A:... 11 ii
Introduction Project Overview City of Aurora (CoA) seeks a Technical Services Partner to provide product recommendation and standards-based planning and installation services based on industry best practices for: Exchange Email Archiving CoA Corporate Profile The City of Aurora dates back to April of 1834 when Joseph McCarty settled on the island, which is now the site of downtown Aurora. The Fox River location was an ideal place for a new community and it was not long before it became a permanent settlement. In 1837, when a Post Office was established, the village became Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Later, when the City was the first in the United States to use electric lights for publicly lighting the entire City, it achieved the nickname of City of Lights. The modest camp of 1834 has grown into a teeming city. With a population of approximately 170,000, the City has steadily grown throughout the years to become the second largest city in the state. The City is accessible through five interchanges on the East/West Tollway Corridor. Corporate offices and commercial growth on the City s east and west sides continue to expand the City s boundaries, now stretching from Route 59 on the east to portions beyond Orchard Road on the west. The Far East Side of the City includes the regional Westfield Shopping town at Fox Valley (formerly known as Fox Valley Mall) and residential areas and is projected to house 60,000 people within the next twenty years. The City extends into four counties, Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and Will. Disclaimer CoA reserves the right to select the proposal of its choice, and/or to modify proposed terms and conditions prior to the execution of an agreement. CoA also reserves the right to reject any and all proposals. This RFP does not commit CoA to any specific course of action. All costs associated with the preparation and submission of the vendor s response to this RFP shall be borne solely by the vendor. Page 1
CoA reserves the right to purchase any hardware and/or software that is needed for the project through the vendor of CoA s choice. Vendor Selection CoA will take the following items into consideration when selecting a final vendor: 1. Vendor s experience in assisting organizations similar to CoA, with similar projects 2. Experience of the individual assigned to the project 3. Level of current and anticipated support available from the vendor 4. Proposed approach to assisting CoA and in developing the implementation plan 5. Quality and depth of references 6. Professional fees and expenses 7. Total project cost, which includes software 8. Detailed planning process and proposed plan 9. Relationship with Microsoft, Cisco and associated certifications 10. Team coordination of subject matter experts 11. Final determination will be made after a product demonstration of the top three system candidates as determined by CoA. CoA Technical Environment CoA headquarters is located in downtown Aurora with approximately 1,000 employees. Via a Wide Area Network, additional offices are connected either by fiber or wireless. The Data Center is hosted in Aurora and is supported with Windows 2003 Active Directory.. Exchange 2007 provides messaging with 500-600 mailboxes. The messaging topology is a 2 server model: Mailbox roles and Client / Hub roles. CommVault is the backup software, IronPort provides anti-spam. Symantec Endpoint Protection is also utilized for server and client anti-virus. There are 2 Storage Groups, 1 is 31gb in size and has a mailbox limit of 150mb. The other Storage Group is 19gb in size and has mailboxes from 200mb to 1gb+ in size. No public folders are used. However some email is stored in shared directories. Outlook Web Access is available via VPN, and OWA. Personal archive files (.pst) are used and stored both locally on the client and on the network. Quotas are in place to limit storage on the mailbox server. Page 2
An EMC CX300 Fiber SAN is available with a total of ~27TB of space. All but 6750gb is allocated for use. Caching is not utilized on the client for desktops. Some laptops may be set with a cache. General System Requirements Solution must be an on-premise system Be Windows based Integrated with Exchange 2007 with future compatibility of Exchange 2010 Present single instance storage (de-duplication) and compression of archives Collect all in and out-bound email both internal and external Upload.pst files from any source Import outlook folders and network folders Active Directory integration Prevent known spam from being archived Historic email must be moved to the archive, including current Outlook email and.pst files. Rules must be at minimum user, date and/or keyword based Rules to move or purge email by date Compliance and Legal Requirements All email must be archived based on legal compliance rules Ability for CoA legal team to access, search and report on archive to meet compliance Provide tiered security permissions and levels Deletion periods must be modify-able to meet legal discovery/investigations Data stored in the archive must retain time stamp and original data integrity after being accessed from the archive End-User Requirements Archive rules for the CoA employee base will be variable Individuals must be able to access own archived email in a seamless process Provide a stub in inbox GUI interface for non-it administrators and users Page 3
Administration Requirements Centralized management Provide conversion of email to.pdf Ability to backup archive Ability for auto and manual purge Configuration of users / roles to non-it staff Software maintenance options, such as: 7x24, 8x5, web, phone, yearly or multiple year Statement of Work The Vendor will provide: Product recommendation for Email Archival All hardware specifications to support the archive and any related components o CoA will provide all hardware All software and licensing requirements Planning and design services for implementation and roll out Explanation of project process Implementation services Initial train-the-trainer services Knowledge transfer Follow up support Documentation and diagrams of the archive system, along with changes to the existing network topology within 2 weeks of project completion RFP Instructions RFP Response Deadline Please reply by sending five hard copies of your completed RFP. The deadline for completing and responding to this RFP is July 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM central time. Any proposals received after this deadline will not be considered. Page 4
Proposals should be sent to the following address: PROPOSALS are DUE July 28, 2010 AT 2:00 P.M. City Clerk s Office City Hall Building 44 East Downer Place 2 nd Floor Aurora, Illinois RFP Response Schedule Finalists will be selected in August/September of 2010 to make formal presentations and project plans to CoA. The CoA s intention is to select a vendor in this timeframe, and begin the planning process in October of 2010. DATE STEP Tentative Schedule June 30, 2010 July 16, 2010 July 21, 2010 July 28, 2010 August 4, 2010 August 24, 2010 September 7, 2010 September 14, 2010 October 1, 2010 RFP Release Date RFP Questions Due Answers to Questions Posted by Proposals due for RFP opening in City Clerk s Office by 2:00 PM Contacts for Demos Made Vendor Recommendation Made to Finance Committee Vendor Recommendation Forwarded to Committee of the Whole Vendor Recommendation Voted on at City Council Anticipated Project Start Date Responding to the RFP Each question in this RFP requires a written response. If you would like to attach documentation to support your answers, please do so; however, the summary answers should stand on their own. 1. Respondents shall organize their Proposal in accordance with this RFP. Proposals shall be evaluated and scored against weighted criteria. Failure to follow this format may result in the Proposal being rejected as unacceptable. Page 5
2. The City may decide to select a Vendor for negotiation from the submitted Proposals or interview finalists and then select a Vendor for negotiation. 3. The scoring will include 100 available points: 15 points available for Qualifications of the firm, depth of services and product features 15 points available for Qualifications of the assigned team members 40 points available for Software functions deemed as adding value to the City of Aurora. 15 points available for Project Schedule 5 points available for References 10 points available for estimated maximum cost and prices quoted for options. 4. Fee will be a contributing, not deciding factor in the rankings. Cost savings to the City will also be a contributing factor. At the conclusion of the review of the RFP, the City will then negotiate a contract with the highest-ranked firm. If negotiations are not successful, the City will then negotiate with the second-ranked proposer, and so on. Submittal Instructions Proposals shall be typed on standard (8 ½ x 11 ) paper, with a minimum of 11 point font. Proposals must be bound. Preprinted material should be referenced in the submittal and included as labeled attachments. Tabs for ease of reference should divide sections. Number each page consecutively, including letter of interest, brochures, licenses, resumes, supplemental information, etc. Proposals must be clearly labeled Exchange Email Archiving. Except as provided under the RFP Questions Section, proposing Firms shall not contact any members, or employees, of the City of Aurora Information Technology Department regarding this RFP, proposal evaluation or the selection process from the time the RFP is issued until the time a notification of intent to award is announced. No Proposal will be accepted after the time set for receipt of the proposals. Proposals submitted via facsimile, telegraph, email or mailgram shall be rejected. It is the responsibility of each Proposing Firm to examine the entire RFP, seek clarification in writing, and review their submittal for accuracy before submitting. Once the submission deadline has passed, all submissions will be final. The City will not request clarification from any Proposing Firms relative to their qualification submission. Page 6
Any submitted qualification and subsequent proposal shall remain valid for 90 days after the proposal due date or until the City executes a contract, whichever is sooner. The City may, in the event the selected Proposing Firm fails to perform and/or the contract is terminated within forty-five days of its initiation, request the Proposing Firm submitting the next acceptable proposal to honor its proposal. It is the CoA intent to minimize the cost to Proposing Firms in responding to this solicitation, so you are encouraged to be brief and succinct. Thick volumes of background and general marketing material will not be appreciated and not carry favor with the reviewers. We are seeking thoughtful, tightly focused qualifications packages that document your firm s suitability for this Project and understanding of the Project and CoA. If multiple firms are proposing as one team, each of those firms must describe relevant experience. Please indicate by firm those qualifying as a minority firm. CoA may email or post addenda on the CoA website, up to the day before proposal are to be submitted. It is the Proposers responsibility to check the website for such addenda. Proposers may contact the CoA to ascertain whether any addenda have been issued. Failure to do so could result in an incomplete proposal. Any oral explanation given before the RFP opening will not be binding. RFP Questions All questions regarding this RFP must be directed to James Dahl, Director of MIS by e- mail. Questions may not be communicated by telephone. Written questions must be submitted to: James Dahl, Director of MIS City of Aurora jdahl@aurora-il.org Written questions must be submitted by July 16, 2010. Questions received after this date will not receive a response. A response to questions will be posted to the City s website at www.aurora-il.org July 21, 2010. All questions must include a reference to the specific page number and section of the RFP in question. Page 7
RFP Response The RFP Response must include the following information: Terms & Conditions List the contract terms and conditions. Pricing Pricing for this RFP should include all costs for the archive system as listed in ATTACHMENT A. o Software o Consulting o Yearly software maintenance options 7x24 8x5x Phone support Web support Pricing should be expressed in the following phases: o Recommended Product and necessary components o Planning / Design services o Implementation services o Training o Follow up support All costs are inclusive of any travel expenses Any and all travel expenses must be pre-approved by CoA prior to booking Provide detail costs and totals based on the form provided Price proposal must be submitted in an envelope, sealed, and clearly marked on the outside: Exchange Email Archiving Price Proposal. Key Vendor Affiliation Please delineate your affiliation with key vendors including number of years. Page 8
Capabilities What depth of experience and strengths does your firm have in comprehensive technical services? How much of your work has been government based? Please explain the approach (or model) your firm would utilize for this project. What are the advantages of this approach? How is knowledge transfer conducted? How are change orders handled? Will work be completed remotely or onsite at CoA offices? How are issues escalated? What is the process for issues that may arise during non-business hours? Are there support options for post project assistance? If so, what are they and what are associated costs? How would your firm handle project management to ensure that: o Deadlines are met o Budgets are kept o Regular updates are provided and effective communication is maintained throughout the project o Excellent customer service is provided Personnel Please describe the technical and project management team that would be assigned to this project. (Provide credentials and bios for each of the key members of the team.) Are any of these personnel contracted or outsourced employees? If so, please identify who they are. Please provide at least three references from clients for whom you have performed technical services of similar size and scope. References should include company name, a contact name, and phone number. Page 9
Timing Approximately how long does your firm project it would take to complete the implementation? If rewarded the project, what is the time frame for resources to be available? Resource Requirements The selected vendor must work effectively with CoA. In the RFP, please address the amount of time and resources you will require of various CoA personnel to implement the system. General Is there anything else you would like to include about your firm or capabilities that CoA should consider in its evaluation process? Page 10
ATTACHMENT A: Qty Part # Archive Server Software Price Totals Archive CALs Sub-Total $ - Sub-Total $ - Total for all Archive Software Total $ - Other required Software Licensing Sub-Total $ - Total Software Costs Total $ - Consulting Costs Design/Planning Consulting Costs Implementation Sub-Total $ - Consulting Costs Training Sub-Total $ - Consulting Costs Follow up Support Sub-Total $ - Sub-Total $ - Total Consulting Costs Total $ - Total Software and Consulting GrandTotal $ - Optional Software Maintenance and Support Costs $ $ - - Page 11