City of Seattle Information Technology Department Request for Proposal # DIT-160157

Addendum

Updated on: 10/03/16

The following is additional information regarding Request for Proposal # DIT-160157, titled Telecommunication Systems Replacement Options Analysis. RFP-160157 was released on 09/21/16, and the due date and time for responses is 10/11/16 @ 2pm PST. This addendum includes both questions from prospective proposers and the City’s answers, and revisions to the RFP. This addendum is hereby made part of the RFP and therefore, the information contained herein shall be taken into consideration when preparing and submitting a proposal.

Item # / Date Received / Date Answered / Vendor’s Question / City’s Response / RFP Revisions
1 / 9/28/16 / 9/28/16 / Would you give a better description of what you are looking for in the following categories under Scope of Work: Task 2?
  • Use Cases
  • Business Requirements Document
  • Technical Requirements Document
  • Requirements Traceability Matrix
/
  • Use Cases – Lists of actions or steps describing the interactions between users and telecommunication systems in order to achieve user goals. Example use cases might be the steps to place a long distance phone call or the actions that are taken to answer a call from a member of the public on a customer service line.
  • Business Requirements Document – This will document the requirements for the new system from a business unit (departmental) and operational perspective. Example business requirements might be that the system needs to be able to support the transfer of a phone call from a receptionist to another staff member, or that the system needs to support as many as 30 simultaneous active contact center agents.
  • Technical Requirements Document – This will document the requirements for the new system from a technical perspective, which include functional, performance, security, and other requirements. Example technical requirements might be that the system needs to interface with a particular billing system, or that the system needs to support 256-bit AES encryption.
  • Requirements Traceability Matrix – This is a document that will ensure that new system features can be mapped back to the requirement(s) that they satisfy, and to assist with maintaining, tracing, and implementing the business and technical requirements as the project progresses. It will also be used to map requirements to test cases to ensure that all needed functionality can be verified

2 / 9/30/16 /
  1. The proposal has conflicting instructions regarding the required number of copies.
Hard Copy Submittal.
The Proposer must submit seven (8) hardcopy sets of all proposal documents; one (1) set clearly marked original and six (7) sets clearly marked copy; and one (1) electronic CD/Flash Drive copy.
Please clarify if you are looking for 1 original with 6 copies or 1 original with 7 copies. / Please submit 7 total copies.
1 labeled Original
6 labeled Copy / Please replace section titled:
Hard Copy Submittal
With
The Proposer must submit seven (7) hardcopy sets of all proposal documents; one (1) set clearly marked original and six (6) sets clearly marked copy; and one (1) electronic CD/Flash Drive copy.
3 / 9/30/16 / It appears that it is acceptable to obtain a business license by the time of award, please confirm that we do not need to have a current business license at this moment, but rather at the time of award. / Yes – you will only be required to show evidence of business licenses or insurance once you are deemed the successful awardee.
4 / 9/30/16 / Are the tasks outlined intended to reflect chronological order or is the City open to re-arranging the order based on feedback from the selected consultant? / Yes, the tasks are outlined in chronological order. We are willing to re-arrange based on feedback from the consultant.
5 / 9/30/16 / Please provide more information regarding your expectations on the Requirements Tractability Matrix deliverable in Task 2. Do you have required axis in mind or do you expect to generate the format/content of this document based upon the consultant’s recommendation / We are completely willing to have the consultant recommend an approach to the traceability matrix.
6 / 9/30/16 / In Task 3 you request Return on Investment data, do you intend for this to show the cost savings over your existing Telecom solution(s)? / It isn’t necessary to show the savings over the existing systems, only as compared to each of the other replacement solutions.
7 / 9/30/16 / In Task 3 the City references a ‘short list of vendors.’ Is this a short list that you will want the consultant to recommend or has the City already identified the short list? If the list is identified, which vendors are included? / This is a short list that the consultant and City staff will identify together.
8 / 9/30/16 / In Task 3 you request scoring prior to the RFP being released with one of the scoring metrics being cost effectiveness. Are you intending to have the consultant request pricing/quotes prior to the RFP being released? / Yes, we’ll need quotes/pricing for each solution being evaluated so that information can be considered when selecting a solution.
9 / 9/30/16 / Has the City had an assessment of the infrastructure and network recently? If so, when was this done and will the reports/findings be available to the successful bidder? / There has not been a full recent assessment from an external assessor, and although there was a partial internal one performed, we unfortunately do not have any reports available.
10 / 9/30/16 / TASK 1
Question: Can the city provide or verify upfront general information about:
  1. Current voice environment:
  2. Number of sites:
  3. Number of departments we note 40 on your website
  4. Number of employees/users: we note 10,000 on your website
  5. Are there an ACD/Contact Centers that will need to be reviewed?
  6. If yes number of centers and agents supported
/ The City of Seattle’s existing phone system is made up of a mix of legacy Nortel and Avaya red product lines. There is a mix of about 11,000 TDM, VoIP, and analog phones (2000 VoIP / 9000 TDM / 1000 analog). The current system supports those 11,000 voice users in more than 30 departments at over 300 discrete locations.
Yes, there are 35 ACD/Contact Centers ranging from 2 to an estimated 130 agents each.
11 / 9/30/16 / Interviews of Analysts and other staff: How many team members are expected to be interviewed?
  • Does the City envision this to be a 1 to 1 session?
/ We estimate that the consultant would need to interview approximately 20 staff members. We anticipate the interviews occurring primarily in group settings.
12 / 9/30/16 / General information about the current data network architecture including LAN and WAN / We have a 10 GB layer 3 routed core. Remote sites are fed with a mix of fiber, T1, Metro Ethernet, and point-to-multipoint wireless technology. There are approximately 800-1000 layer 2 and layer 3 devices. We have two main datacenter facilities. Both facilities house internet perimeters and other WAN connections.
13 / 9/30/16 / TASK 2
Question: How many expected interviews with SME’s and Key stake holders need to be conducted?
  • Is this a separate series of interviews identified in Task 1?
  • How many expected interviews will need to be conducted with focus groups?
  • Does the City know how many workshops are expected to be held?
  • Would an electronic survey process be appropriate for addressing all City of Seattle employees’?
/ Yes, the Task 1 interviews are aimed at capturing our current state, Task 2 is focused on gathering requirements for the replacement solution.
We are estimating that we could potentially need up to 50 individual focus groups/workshops to reach all departments and workgroups.
An electronic survey process would indeed be appropriate. We would be targeting a representative sample of employees rather than trying to survey all of them.
14 / 9/30/16 / Page 1, last sentence
The successful proposer for this body of work will not be able to also bid for the implementation phase.
Question: Will there be a need for a consultant to be engaged for general questions or project management assistance to the City during the implementation phase, separate from the vendor that is responsible for implementing the solution? / Such a consultant hasn’t been discussed, and there is no current expectation that we will have that need.
15 / 9/30/16 / Page 3, Task 2 Gather business and technical requirements…
The first bullet states “Conducting a canvass of Subject Matter Experts and key stakeholders…
Question: Do you have an estimate of the number of Subject Matter Experts (SME) and stakeholders that would be involved in providing input during the discovery phase? / We estimate that the consultant would need to interview approximately 20 SMEs.
We are estimating that we could potentially need up to 50 individual focus groups/workshops to reach stakeholders from all departments and workgroups.
16 / 9/30/16 / Page 4, Task 4
Question: As a public sector entity, will the City of Seattle be allowed to limit participation in the solution RFP from the short list of vendors identified in the previous task (Task 3)? / Task 3 is targeted at producing a recommended technology solution, and the RFP in Task 4 is the instrument that will be used to determine the vendor for implementation.
17 / 9/30/16 / Page 5, 7.2 Pre-Submittal Conference
“Seattle IT shall conduct an optional pre-submittal conference on the time, date, and location provide din page 1.”
Question: We do not see information on Page 1 that speaks to a pre-submittal conference. Will there be one and if so, would you please provide the specifics? / There is no pre-submittal scheduled for this RFP.
Please submit your questions in writing to Laura Park, pertaining to this RFP.
18 / 9/30/16 / Is there existing documentation that will be available for:
  1. The Contact Center Architecture
  2. Call flow documentation
  3. Telco / PSTN inventory
  4. Voicemail inventory
  5. Auto attendants documentation
  6. List of locations
/ Yes.
19 / 9/30/16 / In SIT-160157 “attachment F” or “The Consultant Agreement”, section 1 states that the agreement term shall end on January 31, 2017. Can you clarify the difference between this date and the section 2 work completion date of April 28, 2017? / The contract end date shall be April 28, 2017. The contract attachment will be updated upon award/contract execution.