REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

RFP GMU-1288-16

ISSUE DATE: October 9, 2015

TITLE:IT CONSULTING SERVICES 2015

SEALED PROPOSALS DUE DATE AND TIME: November 11, 2015 @ 2:00PM. Late proposals will not be accepted.

PRIMARY PROCUREMENT OFFICER:James F. Russell, Associate Director,

SECONDARY PROCUREMENT OFFICER:Rashad Bazemore, Senior Buyer,

MANDATORY PREPROPOSAL CONFERENCE:See Section X., paragraph G.

QUESTIONS/INQUIRIES: Hold all questions until the mandatory preproposal conference. After the conference email all inquiries for information to both procurement officers listed above, no later than 4:00 PM EST on October 28, 2015. Reponses to questions will be posted on the Mason Purchasing Website by 4:00 PM EST on November 4, 2015.

Note:A return envelope is not being provided. It is the responsibility of the Offeror to ensure the proposal is submitted in a sealed envelope, box, container, etc. that clearly identifies the contents as a proposal submission in response to this Request for Proposal.See Section V Paragraph C herein. Hand deliver proposals to the issuing agency at the street address above or mail (USPS) proposals to the mailing address above.

In Compliance With This Request For Proposal And To All The Conditions Imposed Therein And Hereby Incorporated By Reference, The Undersigned Offers And Agrees To Furnish The Goods/Services In Accordance With The Attached Signed Proposal Or As Mutually Agreed Upon By Subsequent Negotiations.

Name and Address of Firm:

Date:

By:

Title:

Fed ID No:Signature:

Email: ______Phone: ______

This public body does not discriminate against faith-based organizations in accordance with the Governing Rules, § 36 or against a Bidder/Offeror because of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other prohibited by state law relating to discrimination in employment.

RFP# GMU-1288-16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTIONDESCRIPTIONPAGE

I.PURPOSE3

II.PURCHASING MANUAL / GOVERNING RULES3

III.PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE3

IV.STATEMENT OF NEEDS3

V.PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS5

VI.EVALUATION AND AWARD CRITERIA6

VII.CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION7

VIII.PAYMENT TERMS / METHOD OF PAYMENT7

IX.GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS – GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY8

X.SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS14

XI.RFP SCHEDULE16

ATTACHMENT A – VENDOR DATA SHEET17

ATTACHMENT B – SAMPLE CONTRACT18

  1. PURPOSE:The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to solicit sealed proposals from qualifiedsources to establish a contract through competitive negotiations to provide web design services in a two-phase project and reinvent George Mason University’s web presence for the Office of Communications and Marketing at George Mason University. George Mason University (Mason, University) is a Public Institution of Higher Education of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

II.PURCHASING MANUAL/GOVERNING RULES: This solicitation and any resulting contract shall be subject to the provisions of the Commonwealth of Virginia Purchasing Manual for Institutions of Higher Education andtheir Vendor's, and any revisions thereto, and the Governing Rules, which are hereby incorporated into this contract in their entirety. A copy of both documents is available for review at:

III.PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:Project specific, as negotiated, but not to exceed five (5) years from date of award.

IV.STATEMENT OF NEEDS:

A.George Mason University (Mason) desires to contract with qualified firms to provide expertise and a range of services to support technologies used by the University. Current needs consist of three mutually exclusive scopes of work, which may be awarded, in whole or in part, to responsive and responsible firms. Mason reserves the right to award to more than one vendor. It is anticipated that Project #3 will be awarded to multiple firms.

  1. Project #1- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Revitalization is intended to provide Mason with a road map and implementation expertise to maximize use of Mason’s ERP and student system – Ellucian Banner. The components of this work are:

a.Identification of areas of business process improvement, including identification of gaps where automation would improve unit operations.

b.A gap analysis to determine Mason goals/business needs that are not supported by business processes or system components currently in use.

c.Identification of manual processes and the means to leverage Mason’s ERP and associated software suite to automate these processes.

d.Finding process needs currently being fulfilled by other software in use at Mason that can be addressed using functionality inherent in Mason’s ERP.

e.Identify situations where reporting (custom or provided by vendor) does not meet business needs.

f.Identify situations where a lack of understanding of software capabilities can be remedied through appropriate training. Determine what training should be required for new staff.

g.Analyze gaps in extensibility to support future needs (e.g., online education, rolling enrollment).

h.Make recommendations around testing for upgrades in consideration of limited staff and a lack of formal software-based regression testing tools. Review change-tracking processes.

i.Examine vendor provided and custom documentation to see if it meets user needs.

j.Develop and present recommendations and road map for implementation of those recommendations. Include before and after overviews of business needs and process and systems support, specific plans to deploy the recommendations, and a risk assessment.

k.Specify project hours and level of effort from each vendor employee.

l.Specify project timeline.

  1. Project #2- Cost of Services for Centrally-Supported Information Technology - Provide an activity-based cost analysis of centrally-supported IT services including the personnel and non-labor costs in an effort to provide a more accurate picture of IT service costs; highlight resource needs; and enable thoughtful allocations of resources more efficiently. Firms will be asked to provide the following:

a.Identify the major activities performed by ITS.

b.Estimate staff time allocations to activities.

c.Identify and assign costs to relevant activities.

d.Determine spending per cost driver – the factors influencing or contributing to the expense of a particular activity.

e.Develop and present cost analyses and recommendations including comparisons to other universities.

f.Develop and present a recommended plan to address areas of service where issues or discrepancies have been detected, to educate the university community, and to modify services and/or financial reporting.

g.Specify project hours and level of effort from each vendor employee.

h.Specify project timeline.

  1. Project #3- On-Demand Future Consulting Services-Work awarded in this area may still be informally competed amongst vendors that were selected from this RFP. Terms and Conditions will be conforming as provided herein. Contractor shall serve on special projects as a technology expert when requested and as needed. Reports shall be provided back to the University summarizing options and providing recommendations. Contractor shall serve as a technology advisor to understand, communicate, and propose solutions as requested. Contractor shall serve as a resource of research, implementation, troubleshooting, and other technical tasks to support the efforts of George Mason University Information Technology Services (ITS) staff. Functional consultants shall be represented by the contractor as experts in the tasks and functions assigned.

a.Provide detailed corporate competencies/experience serving one or more of the technologies and capabilities listed below:

  1. Microsoft Subject Matter Expertise
  2. Cisco Network and Telecommunications Technologies, Enterprise Infrastructure Support, and Virtualization
  3. Service Offerings and Agreements (SO&A)
  4. Planning, Protection and Optimization (PP&O)
  5. Release, Control, and Validation (RC&V)
  6. Operational Support and Analysis (OS&A)
  7. Other Technology and Systems

b.Describe approach and methodology to providing IT consulting services to George Mason University. Include how your firm would manage the scope of projects.

c.Provide examples of the names, qualifications, and experience in personnel to be assigned to George Mason University. Designate who would be assigned as the primary contact for this account. The University reserves the right to accept or reject any proposed or assigned consultant, without cause, at any time during the duration of the contract.

d.Describe the ability to provide continuity of consultants throughout the duration of a project.

e.Describe services available from your firm and/or partners and associated costs. Examples of services that could be included are:

  1. Implementation
  2. Development
  3. Project Management
  4. Architecture and Design
  5. Capacity Planning
  6. Installation and Configuration
  7. Performance and Scalability
  8. Conversion
  9. Monitoring, administration and upgrades
  10. Operations metrics

f.Describe the ability to assist in the development and offering of training and documentation.

g.Provide examples of recent projects at higher education institutions comparable to George Mason University. Describe the project, time frame, end result, etc.

h.Describe the ability to provide for a thorough transfer of knowledge to GMU IT on any given project.

i.Describe your approach to project management.

j.Describe how your firm would propose a functional staffing plan indicating the number, characteristics, and schedule for the consultants.

k.Describe the functions to be subcontracted and the expertise and credentials required from the subcontractor.

B.Pricing

  1. Provide Fixed-Firm-Pricing for Project #1. Do not bundle with other projects
  1. Provide Fixed Firm Pricing for Project #2. Do not bundle with other projects
  1. Provide hourly pricing for Project #3- Future Services. Specifically address the following in your proposal:

a.Confirm that travel expenses will be reimbursed at cost with no markup and may not exceed Commonwealth of Virginia expense guidelines

b.If different than hourly pricing, describe training options and associated costs. Include a catalog of training offerings and differentiation between technical staff and end-user training.

c.For your last ten most recent projects (Determined by date of final payment by the customer) that exceeded $50k and were billed on an hourly basis, list the following:

  1. The type of consulting
  2. The original estimated hours
  3. The final hours billed
  4. The original project cost estimated
  5. The final price(all charges) paid by the customer

V.PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

A.GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:

1. RFP Response. In order to be considered, Offeror must submit one (1) signed originalhard copy proposaland eight (8) extra hard copies. In addition, Offeror shall submit one (1) complete signed copy of the original proposal on CD, thumb drive or other electronic device. If proposal contains proprietary information, then submit two (2) CD’s, thumb drive or other electronic device; one (1) with proprietary information included and one (1) with proprietary information removed (see also Item 2e below for further details). Offeror shall make no other distribution of the proposal.

2. Proposal Presentation:

  1. Proposals shall be signed by an authorized representative of the offeror. All information requested must be submitted.
  1. Proposals should be prepared simply and economically, providing a straightforward, concise description of capabilities to satisfy the requirement of the RFP. Emphasis should be on completeness and clarity of content.
  1. The original hard copy proposal should be bound in a single volume when practical. The original hard copy proposal must be clearly marked on the outside of the proposal. All documentation submitted with the proposal should be bound in that single volume.
  1. Proposals should be organized in the order in which the requirements are presented in the RFP. All pages of the proposal should be numbered. Each paragraph in the proposal should reference the paragraph number corresponding section of the RFP. It is also helpful to cite the paragraph number, sub letter and repeat the text of the requirement as it appears in the RFP. If a response covers more the one page, the paragraph number and sub letter should be repeated at the top of the next page. The proposal should contain a table of contents which cross references the RFP requirements.Information that the offeror desires to present that does not fall within any of the requirement of the RFP should be inserted at the appropriate place or be attached at the end of the proposal and designated as additional material. Proposals that are not organized in this manner risk being eliminated from consideration if the evaluators are unable to determine where the RFP requirements are specifically addressed.

e.Ownership of all data, material and documentation originated and prepared for Mason pursuant to the RFP shall belong exclusively to Mason and be subject to public inspection in accordance with Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Trade secrets or proprietary information submitted by a firm prior to or as part of its proposal will not be subject to public disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act only under the following circumstances: (1) the appropriate information is clearly identified by some distinct method such as highlighting or underlining; (2) only the specific words, figures, or paragraphs that constitute trade secrets or proprietary information are identified; and (3) a summary page is supplied immediately following the proposal title page that includes (a) the information to be protected, (b) the section(s)/page number(s) where this information is found in the proposal, and (c) a statement why protection is necessary for each section listed. The firm must also provide a separate electronic copy of the proposal (CD, etc.) with the trade secrets and/or proprietary information redacted. If all of these requirements are not met, then the firm’s entire proposal will be available for public inspection.

IMPORTANT: A firm may not request that its entire proposal be treated as a trade secret or proprietary information, nor may a firm request that its pricing/fees be treated as a trade secret or proprietary information, or otherwise be deemed confidential.

3. Oral Presentation: Offerors who submit a proposal in response to this RFP may be required to give an oral presentation of their proposal to Mason. If required, oral presentations are tentatively scheduled forSept/Oct 2015. Mason will expect that the person or persons who will be working on the project to make the presentation so experience of the contractors staff can be evaluated prior to making selection. Oral presentations are an option of Mason and may or may not be conducted; therefore, it is imperative all proposals should be complete.

B.PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:Proposals should be as thorough as possible to allow Mason to properly evaluate the Offeror’s capabilities and approach toward providing the required services. Offerors are required to submit the following items as a complete proposal:

1.Return this entire RFP package, all addenda, if any. Be sure to sign the cover page and Attachment A. .

2.References: No fewer than three (3) that demonstrates the Offeror’s qualifications preferably other comparable higher education institutions your firm is/has provided services which are similar in size and scope to that which has been described herein.

3.All information requested in Section IV., STATEMENT OF NEEDS.

C. IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROPOSAL:The signed proposal should be returned in a separate envelope or package, sealed and identified as follows.

FROM:Name of Offeror______Due Date:November 11, 2015Time: 2:00PM

Street or Box Number ______RFP NumberGMU-1288-15

City, State, Zip Code ______RFP Title: IT Consulting Services 2015

Name of Procurement Officer: James F. Russell, VCO, CUPO, Associate Director

The proposal package should be addressed as directed on Page 1 of the solicitation. Proposals may be hand delivered to the location shown on page 1. No other correspondence or other offer should be placed in the envelope.

VI.EVALUATION AND AWARD CRITERIA:To be considered for award, your company must be registered with Virginia’s electronic procurement system, eVA. For further information, please visit:

A.EVALUATION CRITERIA: Proposals shall be evaluated by George Mason University using the following criteria.

Description of Criteria:Maximum Point Value:

1. Quality of services offered and suitability for the intended purposes.30

2.Experience and qualificationsof Offeror in providing the services including25

quality of references that are similar in size and scope.

3.Specific plans or methodology to be used to perform the services.20

4.Cost.20

5.Offeror is a small, minority or woman-owned business.5

______

Total Points Available100

B.ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION:Mason reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals, in whole or in part, to take exception to any RFP specifications, to make an award based solely on the proposals received or to negotiate further with one or more Offerors. Mason also reserves the right to negotiate a contract with the selected Offeror(s), which is at variance with the RFP initially prepared by Mason and/or responded to by the Offeror. Failure to comply with the RFP by an Offeror, as determined by Mason may be grounds for the exclusion of such Offeror from further consideration byMason.

C.SELECTION:The selection by George Mason University of any proposal(s) as ultimately negotiated will be at the University’s entire discretion, which discretion shall extend to purely subjective considerations solely exercisable by the University without regard to a claimed lowest cost by any proposed Offeror. Should the University determine in writing and in its sole discretion that only one offeror is fully qualified, or that one offeror is clearly more highly qualified than the others under consideration, a contract may be negotiated and awarded to that offeror. The University is not required to furnish a statement of the reason why a particular proposal was not deemed to be the most advantageous (Governing Rules § 49 D).

VII.CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION:Upon award of the contract, Mason shall designate, in writing, the name of the Contract Administrator or his/her designee who shall work with the contractor in formulating mutually acceptable plans and standards for the operations of this service.The Contract Administrator shall use all powers under the contract to enforce its faithful performance. The Contract Administrator shall determine the amount, quality and acceptability of work and shall decide all other questions in connection with the work.All direction and order from Mason shall be transmitted through the Contract Administrator, or s/he designee(s) however, s/he shall have no authority to approve order changes in the work which shall alter the concept or scope ofwork or change the basis for compensation to the contractor.

VIII.PAYMENT TERMS / METHOD OF PAYMENT: Invoices should be billed monthly.

PLEASE NOTE: THE VENDOR MUST REFERENCE THE PURCHASE ORDER NUMBER ON ALL INVOICES SUBMITTED FOR PAYMENT.

Option #1-Payment to be mailed in 10 days-The University will make payment to the vendor under 2%10/Net 30 payments terms. Invoices should be submitted via email to the designated Accounts Payable email address which