REQUEST FOR TENDER

TITLE: Managed Services for the Australia Council’s SharePointSystem

REFERENCE: RFT 2016/17 006

The Australia Council for the Arts (‘Council’) is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body. We are currently seeking the services of a suitably qualified organisation to provide managed services for Council’s SharePoint environment.

This document is available until the closing date.

Issue Date:Wednesday 15 March 2017

Closing time:2pm local Sydney, NSW time, Wednesday 19 April 2017

Lodgement Address:

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Part B –Statement of Requirements

Lodgement of Tenders

Applications should be sent by a secure email and received by 2pm local Sydney, NSW time on19 April 2017. The application should be endorsed with the above reference number and title addressed as follows: Managed Services for the Australia Council’s SharePoint environment:RFT 2016/17 006.

By email
Include Email Subject:SharePoint Managed Services Tender

Applicants are to submit an original application and any supporting material by the due date.

HAND OR POSTAL DELIVERY will not be accepted

FAXED APPLICATIONS will not be accepted.

CONTACT OFFICER:

Contact for all enquiries relating to this RFT:

Maggie Joel

Operations Manager

Australia Council for the Arts

PO Box 788

Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

Tel: +61 (0)2 9215 9113

Email:

All enquiries must be made via email in the first instance.

Applicants are required to check the Australia Council website for any additional information which may be published while this RFT is open.

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part a – Conditions for Participation

A1. Invitation

Tenderers are invited to make an offer (Tender) that meets the requirements of this Request for Tender (RFT).

This RFT is expressly not a contract between us and the tenderer. Nothing in this RFT or in any tender is to be construed as to give rise to any contractual obligations, express or implied.

We reserve the right to stop or vary the tender process, determine a shortlist of Tenderers, negotiate or decline to negotiate with any Tenderer, negotiate with more than one Tenderer, or re-tender, at any time. We are not bound to accept the lowest price tender or any tender.

If we make a variation to the original RFT, we will take all reasonable efforts to ensure that the Addenda or supplement is given the same distribution as the original RFT.

A2. Enquiries by Tenderers

All enquiries by potential tenderers for information should be addressed only to the nominated contact officer named on the cover page of this RFT and should be made via email in the first instance.

A3. Lodgement of tenders

Tenders must be lodged by the Tender Closing Time shown on the cover page of this RFT. Late tenders will not be accepted.

A4. Ownership of tender documents

All tender documents become the property of the Australia Council onlodgement.

A5. Non-Compliance

Any non-compliant tenders may be excluded from consideration.

A6. Tenderers to meet costs

Tenderers are to meet all costs of responding to this RFT, including preparation, submission, lodgement and negotiation costs.

A7. Tenderers to inform themselves

Tenderers are considered to have:

(a)examined the RFT and any documents referred to in the RFT;

(b)satisfied themselves as to the correctness and sufficiency of their tenders including tendered prices.

A8. Improper assistance and collusive tendering

It should be noted that the Australia Council shall exclude from further consideration, tenders which have been compiled:

(a)with improper assistance of employees, ex-employees, any consultant or adviser to the Australia Council; or

(b)in collusion with other Tenderers.

A9. Draft General Conditions of Contract

The draft terms and conditions of contract are set out in the attached Australia Council services agreement (Attachment C). These are the standard terms of contract used by the Australia Council, an agency of the Commonwealth government, and are non-negotiable. By submitting a proposal you acknowledge you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.

Each part of this tender must be satisfactorily completed by the successful tenderer at the sole discretion of the Australia Council. Where a part of this tender is not satisfactorily completed, the Australia Council will reserve the right to exclude the tender from further consideration.

A10. Conflict of Interest

You must declare any actual or perceived conflict of interest that is likely to arise if your submission is the successful tender and how this conflict is proposed to be managed. Where, in the opinion of the Australia Council, the conflict of interest is one that compromises the integrity of the tender process and likely to be unable to be satisfactorily managed, the Australia Council reserves the right to treat your submission as unsuccessful.

A11. Procurement timetable

It is proposed that the following procurement timetable shall apply. We will strive to adhere to this timetable but reserve the right to vary dates whenever necessary.

Date / Activity
15 March 2017 / Request for Tender published
19 April 2017 / Request for Tender closes
Week commencing 24 April 2017 / Submitted Tenders acknowledged
Eligibility checked
26 April to 15 May 2017 / Tenders evaluated by the Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC)
Week commencing 12 June 2017 / Successful tender notified and contract issued. Unsuccessful tenders notified
21 June 2017 / Work to commence

Where this timetable varies significantly, we will attempt to notify prospective Tenderers as soon as is practicable.

A12. Security, Probity and Financial Checks

We may, as part of the evaluation process, conduct such security, financial or probity checks as we consider necessary in relation to any tenderer, its officers, employees, partners, related entities and nominated subcontractors.

Tenderers will be expected to provide reasonable assistance to us regarding such checks, including supplying further information as we may request.

Any failure by a tendererto assist us in conducting these checks may have an adverse impact upon the evaluation of the affected Tender.

A13. Notification

All Tenderers will be informed in writing of the outcome of their submission at the earliest opportunity.

A14. Tender documents

Tender documents should include the following:

  • Details of the Managed Services to be provided and how they will be provided.
  • Qualifications of the staff to be designated to provide the Managed Services.
  • A breakdown of the total cost of the Managed Services, with detailed costing identifying the items or services proposed.
  • A risk analysis, setting out perceived potential risks, the level of potential impact of such risks and the contingencies to mitigate any potential damage resulting from such risks.
  • If travel will be involved this should also be itemised and costed.
  • Company or organisation information such as corporate status, registered place of business, size, number of staff and turnover, and copies of financial statements demonstrating financial viability and insurance policies.
  • Supporting information concerning the proposing organisation, its management structures and procedures, quality assurance procedures and demonstrated experience in the subject area of this RFT and related areas.
  • Two referees to whom the Australia Council may address enquiries concerning previous experience in this area.
  • Evidence of all insurances required to perform the contract.

Part B – Statement of Requirements

B1. Requirement

The Australia Council requires the servicesof an I.T. organisation to provide support for Council’s SharePoint environment.

The new contract will be for an initial period of one (1) year with the option of two (2), one (1) year extensions exercisable at the sole discretion of the Australia Council.

The contractor will provide managed support services using personnel who are trained and certified to provide these type of services.

The successful tenderer will provide ongoing technical support in the form of a helpdesk, emergency support in the event of an outage or other unforeseen issues and regular system health checks.

Tenderers must be able to demonstrate that they have the necessary skills, resources, experience, financial capacity and relevant licenses, accreditations etc to fulfil the tender requirements.

Tenderers are required to have a local presence in Australia.

Tender proposals should be not exceed a maximum of twenty (20) pages. (Note that this maximum does not include your financial statements demonstrating financial viability and insurance.)

B2. Further Details

SharePoint was installed at the Australia Council in July 2015 and islicenced for 150 users. The current version is SharePoint 2013. We would expect the successful tenderer to be able to provide advice regarding a possible upgrade to SharePoint 2016 and to provide support, should this upgrade eventuate.

The Australia Council currently operates in a Citrix environment. The successful tenderer should have expertise with regards to efficient delivery of SharePoint services through Citrix XenDesktop.

Additionally the Australia Council is currently considering its IT policy for the next five years and may move to Office 365 during this period. The successfully tenderer should have expertise in this area.

Council’s SharePoint has a production and non-production environment. For the last year the SharePoint managed support services has been provided by a third party. This contract is now set to expire.

Support for the Australia Council’s IT infrastructure is outsourced and the successful tenderer will be required to work closely with the organisation supplying these services.

The successful tenderer will provide the Australia Council with a SharePoint Managed Service that will ensure consistency of service, system stability, security and optimal performance, including the provision of technical advice and strategy.

Items considered out of scope should be clearly described in the submitted tender.

B3. Scope of Works

The successful tenderer will be responsible for the complete management of the SharePoint Environment including (but not limited to) SharePoint Servers, Architecture, Dashboards, Navigation, Outlook Add-Ins, Reporting Services and Workflows.

Where appropriate, the successful tenderer will be expected to collaborate effectively with the Australia Council’s IT Infrastructure Managed Service Provider to ensure the seamless delivery of services to the Council.

Required Services include:

1Platform Services and Minor Enhancements: the maintenance and administration of the SharePoint Environment, including (but not limited to):

  • Weekly Administration Tasks
  • Health Analyser Reviews
  • Content Database Reviews
  • SharePoint Services Reviews
  • Event Log Reviews
  • Other relevant review for monitoring the stability of the SharePoint Environments.
  • Managed Services Tasks
  • Minor EnhancementsReporting
  • SharePoint database administration
  • SharePoint Patching
  • Backup verification
  • Installation of Solutions for supporting the environment

In addition to regular administration tasks, proactive activities should be performed on the platform on a regular basis including:

  • Review and develop best practices and operational guidelines
  • Plan and review updates, service packs, and security patch
  • Identify potential enhancements
  • Review performance and accessibility issues
  • Monitor content databases and adjust as needed
  • Review and flush logs
  • Check for updates; test updates in Sandbox environment (provided by the Australia Council); schedule updates to production environments outside of peak hours (subject to respective Change Control Approvals)

It should be noted that platform-level backups fall outside the scope of the agreement but the successful tenderer is expected to provide Council with information on what should be backed up, and will be expected to provide advice on the appropriateness of the Council’s backup strategy and monitor the effectiveness of this strategy in relation to SharePoint.

The managed services provider will specify any other maintenance and support tasks that need to be done by other suppliers.

2Major Enhancements and Servicesrelated to SharePoint as requested by the Australia Council. These may include services such as major training exercises, design, implementation, testing, documentation, business analysis, project management or solution architecture.

3Provide robust and best practice Service Management services, based on ITIL v3, related to the SharePoint Environment including:

  • Incident and Event Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management, Availability Management, Capacity Management, Security Management and Continual Service Improvement.
  • Tenderers should propose an appropriate schedule of service review points (at least quarterly) and advise what reporting will be provided to demonstrate that the services being delivered meet the expectations of the Australia Council.

4Advice and ad hoc training: Provide strategic and tactical advice on matters such as software upgrades and enhancements, etc. Provide ad hoc training and knowledge transfer for the Australia Council’s two SharePoint system administrators.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Incident Management

The successful tenderer is expected to achieve a high performance standard in delivery of the services outlined below.

The following table details the expected SLAs and update frequencies required:

Service Level Agreements

PRIORITY LEVEL / RESPONSE TIME* / RESOLUTION TIME* / UPDATE FREQUENCY
1 / 15 Minutes / 2 hours / 30 mins
2 / 30 minutes / 4 hours / 4 hours
3 / 3 Hours / 1 Day / As required
4 / 8 Hours / 5 Days / As required

*Times refer to Standard Business Hours (AEST) Monday to Friday, excluding National public holidays.

Priority Rankings Based on Impact and Urgency

Priority Levels / Impact
ENterprise / business unit / Multiple Users / Single User
UrgENTCY / High
(the problem terminates the operation of the system and multiple workstations) / 1 / 2 / 3
Medium
(A function of normal operations has become inoperable and there is no available workaround) / 2 / 3 / 4
Low
(A function of normal operations has become inoperable and there is an effective workaround) / 3 / 4 / 4

It is also expected that suitable reporting mechanisms will be in place to provide summary, trend and detail on priorities and call types, response times and customer interactions, resolution times and un-reopened incidents, and SLA compliance.

B4. Performance Standards Required

The successful tenderer is expected to provide a statement outlining adherence to robust policies, processes and procedures expected of an IT managed services provider and to adhere to appropriate industry standards for incident management and to specify which approach is to be used (for example ITIL).

B5. Specific risks and/or issues

The tenderer is expected to include its risk management strategy including risks or issues involved or identified and how these risks will be managed.

B6. Timeframes

The work is expected to commence on 21 June 2017.

B7. Governance

The contractor will report to the Operations Manager.

The Operations Manager reports to Business Information Services Manager.

The Business Information Services Manager Reports to the Executive Director, Corporate Resources.

B8. Quotation

Your quote should include a comprehensive pricing breakdown and should be pricedbasedontheestimatedsupporthoursrequired to work closely with the Australia Council to ensure the level of service meets expectationsandoffertheopportunitytoreviewtheservicelevelsonamonthlybasis.

Evaluation of Tenders

B9. Criteria

The Australia Council will appoint a Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) to review and select the successful tender against the following criteria:-

# / Criteria / Weighting
An understanding of the Australia Council’s requirements in relation to the services sought under this RFT / 10%
Demonstrated capabilities, experience and capacity to provide SharePoint managed services for the Australia Council (eg appropriate experience and skills of key personnel, previous performance on comparable projects) / 45%
Ability to manage and deliver services (details provided of the approach proposed by your organisation in delivering these services) / 30%
Cost effectiveness and value for money / 10%
Risk analysis and quality of risk management / 5%
Non weighted essential criteria
Confirmation of the ability to commence the work on 21 June 2017
2. / Physical location of office and staff in Australia
3. / Acceptance of the draft Conditions of the Contract
4. / Evidence of all insurances required to perform the contract

B10. Your submission complying with all Parts of this Tender

Please note that in this evaluation, the Australia Council may seek information and referee reports from other sources. The selection of a preferred Tenderer will be based on the most efficient outcome for the Australia Council and this involves assessing value for money and quality of service against this RFT. Value for money doesn’t necessarily mean the lowest priced quote.

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CONTRACT

PART C – draft GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

AGREEMENT

SHAREPOINT SUPPORT AND SERVICES

BETWEEN

The Australia Council for the Arts ABN 38 392 626 187 (Principal)

AND

[CONTRACTOR NAME] ABN [CONTRACTOR ABN] (Contractor)

BACKGROUND

(a)The Principal requires the provision of certain software support and consultancy expertise and related services;

(b)The Contractor has fully informed itself on all aspects of the work required to be performed and has represented that it has the requisite skills and experience to perform that work;

(c)The Principal has agreed to engage the Contractor to provide the software support, consultancy and related services on the terms and conditions contained in this Contract; and

(d)This agreement commences on21 June 2017orthe date of execution, whichever is the later, for a term of 1 year per Schedule 1.

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CONTRACT

IT IS AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

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CONTRACT

  1. DEFINITIONS

Agreement means this document including all Schedules.

Contractor means the person or company engaged to perform the Services.

Contract Material means all material delivered to the Principal, including any software developed by the Contractor for the purposes of maintaining and supporting the system and the interface between the Principal’s programs and any other software, and any documents, equipment, information and data stored by any means including intellectual property rights therein but excluding Open Source Software.

Existing Material means information and the subject matter of any category of Intellectual Property rights existing prior to the date of this Agreement and relevant to or connected with the provision of the Services.

Fee means the fee referred to in Schedule 3 of this Agreement.

Intellectual Property includes all copyright and neighbouring rights, all rights in relation to inventions (including patent rights), plant varieties, registered and unregistered trademarks (including service marks), registered designs, Confidential Information (including trade secrets and know how) and circuit layouts, and all other rights resulting from intellectual property activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.

Losses means all liabilities, expenses, losses, damages and costs (including but not limited to legal costs on a full indemnity basis, whether incurred by or awarded against a party) but excluding consequential loss and loss of profits.