Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
Questions and Answers not referencing a specific section or page of the RFP
Q.
I f a company is awarded this particular RFP would it preclude them from responding to a future RFP pertaining to
providing IT services?
A.
No.
Q.
Does the City have an anticipated duration for this contract?
A.
Yes, 90 days.
Q.
Does the City have a budget?
A.
Yes, $58,000.
Q.
Does the City have funding secured for this project?
A.
The City anticipates funding for FY11 beginning July 1, 2010
Q.
Is there a local vendor preference?
A.
No.
Q.
Is a presentation of the final plan(s) to the City Council part of the requested services?
A.
Yes.
Q.
Can the City elaborate on how cost should be presented?
A.
If a lump sum fee is proposed, provide a fee breakdown that illustrates the approximate values of the requested
services, expressed either as a dollar value, or as a percentage of the lump sum fee.
Q.
Who is the current vendor/provider?
A.
The City does not have a current vendor/provider for such consulting services.
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Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
Q.
Do you need a proposal to be e-mailed as well as 12 hard copies?
A.
No, the City is not set up to accept sealed proposals electronically. Twelve copies are required.
Q.
Would you provide contact information required to mail proposals by FedEx?
A.
Contact: Carol Heales Phone: 801-264-2663, City Recorder’s Office, Murray City, 5025 South State Street, Room
113, Murray, Utah 84107
Q.
Can we have a bidders list?
A.
It is not the City’s practice to provide a bidders list for professional services
Q.
When will your provide the final dates for agreement negotiations, fully executed contract, start date and final
acceptance.
A.
Typically negotiations and a fully executed contract can be completed within two weeks. The start date would
follow with a final acceptance within 90 days.
Q.
Is Murray interested in developing joint solutions with the Medical Center? Is the medical campus associated with a
public or private university or is it independently owned?
A.
The City is not interested in a joint solution at this time. IMC is a privately owned, not for profit facility.
Q.
Are all city owned technology systems listed housed in a single data center or are they deployed across multiple
buildings? If the latter, how many buildings and are those equipped with UPS and/or generator power?
A.
There are 23 buildings. Ten buildings have both UPS and generator power, three have generator only.
Q.
Does Murray have fire suppression in their data center and/or any other location housing technology systems. If
so, what is the technology and vendor used?
A.
No.
Q.
Does Nortel provide the data networking routers, switches and firewall as well as the VoIP system? If not, please
identify the other vendors used and the products they provide.
A.
Internal: Nortel for data and VoIP routing. External: Cisco provides Routing. Fire wall is Check Point.
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Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
Q.
Does VECC also provide emergency notification services (e.g. reverse 911)? If not is Murray interested in adding
this service?
A.
VECC does provide this service.
Q.
Does Murray use outside vendors (e.g. IBM Business Continuity & Recovery Services) to execute their disaster
recovery plan for business critical services? If so, please identify the vendors used and services they provide.
A.
No.
Q.
With limited exception, there was no mention of security applications or the need for thereof in the RFP. Other than
the firewall and web filters listed, what other security related applications and technologies does Murray currently
have in place? Has Murray ever undergone a network security audit to identify and remediate vulnerabilities to the
protection of its data?
A.
The City uses Land Desk: Anti Virus, Spyware, Spam Filter. A security audit has been done twice. The state
courts and BCI conducts an annual audit.
Q.
Does Murray conduct an annual IT SOX related audit? If, will the findings for the past 5 years be shared with
vendor selected to provide the services outlined in this RFP (vendor-of-choice)?
A.
No.
Q.
In addition to having the needed access to compile a full inventory of the hardware and software currently deployed
across city resources, will the vendor-of-choice also be given access to all technology-related contracts in place,
including but not limited to general and customized terms & conditions, pricing, and service level agreements
(SLAs)?
A.
The City will determine the extent of access necessary to complete the requested services.
Q.
To what extent does Murray rely on state/federal negotiated contracts versus entering into their own agreements
with service providers for IT-related products and services? In line with the above, will Murray provide the vendorof-choice access to those state/federal negotiated agreements, pricing and SLAs?
A.
The City has the option to use state/federal negotiated contracts if stated in the contract. The City will determine
the extent of access necessary to complete the requested services.
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Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
Q.
Does Murray's IT Dept currently provide inter department SLAs to the 12 other city divisions/departments which
they support? If so, will copies of those SLAs be made available to the vendor-of-choice? If not, is Murray
interested in pursuing such a model?
A.
No, the City is not interested.
Q.
Has Murray (including any partnership relationships) received grant, special state, and or federal monies to fund IT
related projects? If so, will the vendor-of-choice be given access to an itemized list of the funds received, from
whom, how they were spent, etc for the past 5-10 years?
A.
Yes, public safety has received funds. The City will determine the extent of access necessary to complete the
requested services.
Q.
Does Murray's IT Dept charge back for any of the products and/or services provided to the other 12 city
divisions/departments? If so what services do they charge for and will the rate schedules be provided to the
vendor-of-choice? Does Murray audit billing to ensure accurate budgeting by the user department and
chargebacks by IT to ensure net zero profit by IT?
A.
City finance reviews and sets the internal cost allocations.
Q.
If the IT budget is developed and managed centrally by IT, is there a process in place for establishing project
prioritization and accurate budgeting based on those priorities?
A.
Yes, the budget is managed centrally. Prioritization needs to be addressed along with accurate budgeting.
Q.
Does the Murray IT Department engage contract help on an as-needed basis to augment IT staff to support daytoday and/or project related activities? If so, does Murray have a process in place to determine the point at which
staff augmentation outweighs the benefits of contractor use? If so, will this process be shared with the vendor-ofchoice?
A.
Yes the City has on occasion. The City will determine the extent of access necessary to complete the requested
services.
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Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
Questions and Answers referencing a specific section or page of the RFP
Q.
Page 2
FedEx typically requires a name and phone number be provided in their shipping form. Can
the City provide this information.
A.
Contact:
Contact: Carol Heales Phone: 801-264-2663, City Recorder’s Office, Murray City, 5025 South
State Street, Room 113, Murray, Utah 84107
Q.
Section 1.D.
Can the City confirm that the final IT Strategic Plan should cover a three‐year period?
A.
Q.
The City considered changing technology to establish a time period. The City is open to a time
period that is more appropriate for our needs.
Section 3.
A.
Q.
Yes
Section 3, Page 5
UTOPIA
Section 3, Page 6
VECC
A.
Q.
A.
Can the City elaborate on what is meant here, specifically what the word “attention alludes to?
In other words, what is the City’s expectation with this relative to the Scope of Work?
In understanding the City’s relationship with Utopia, the City would like to have opportunities
regarding the use of the fiber backbone for municipal services.
A.
Q.
Is the City using the HTE product from SunGard?
Can the City elaborate on what is meant here, specifically what the words “coordinated
communication” alludes to within the context of the project? In other words, what is the City’s
expectation with this relative to the Scope of Work?
VECC is minimized to the police department which is coordinated with the state. The transfer
of data goes through IT using a frame relay T1 line.
Section 4.
Can the City confirm that the scope of the project includes the development of an IT Strategic
Plan as well as an Infrastructure Review? Can the Infrastructure Review be included as part of
the IT Strategic Plan deliverable or is it a separate deliverable?
The IT Strategic Plan can include the Infrastructure Review as one deliverable.
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Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
Q.
Section 4.
A.
Q.
Those are the areas the City has identified. Your proposal may identify other areas to
consider.
Section 4
Funding Considerations: Does this statement infer future tense, ie., information will be
Pg 7, paragraph 1 provided to the successful vendor? If so, can the City provide clarification on the sentence:
“Realistic proposals must take funding into consideration…” Should the word “proposals be
“IT Strategic Plans”?
A.
Q.
Yes to both questions.
Section 14
Page 12 (7)
A.
Q.
Page 13
Credit References. How many credit references should we provide?
Three.
Page 13
A.
Q.
The request for detailed estimated hours and rates would seem to indicate that this is a Time
and Materials contract, as opposed to a Fixed Fee (sometimes referred to as a “Lump Sum”)
contract, which includes all direct and indirect costs. Is this the case? Which contract
approach would the City prefer?
If a lump sum fee is proposed, provide a fee breakdown that illustrates the approximate values
of the requested services, expressed either as a dollar value, or as a percentage of the lump
sum fee.
A.
Q.
Can the City confirm that the scope of the Infrastructure Review is limited to the areas defined
on page 7 and 8 of the RFP?
Audited Financial Statement. As a privately‐held firm, we are not required to prepare audited or
unaudited financial statements/annual reports. Would the City accept condensed financial
information over a three year period of time and/or a recent Dun & Bradstreet report in lieu of a
recent audited financial statement?
Yes.
Page 13+
There are a number of forms provided in the RFP; where would the City like these forms to be
inserted in the body of the Proposal? Could these forms be placed in an Appendix?
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Q&A RFP 10-06 Information Technology Strategic Plan and Infrastructure Evaluation
A.
Q.
Yes, the forms can be placed in an Appendix.
Page 15
A.
Q.
Yes.
Page 16
A.
Q.
Page 16
A.
ITSPs, depending on the size of the organization, take 5 to 12 months to carry out. A better
indicator of past projects might be more meaningful if the timeline was 5 years instead of 2
years. Would the City consider this revision?
Yes, the City is in agreement with this revision.
Appendix B (C)
A.
Q.
Customer Reference. Can the City explain why they are seeking private sector client
references in addition to public sector client references? Is this a mandatory requirement?
No, private sector client references are not required if they are not part of your client base.
This will not disqualify your proposal.
A.
Q.
The expertise of staff proposed for the project is listed as one of the evaluation criteria for
selecting the vendor. Can we incorporate our staff resumes into this form under the line item
“Previous work experience”?
Is the selected vendor allowed to submit progress payments as tasks are completed
and accepted?
Yes, with the invoice terms of (30) days after receipt of invoice.
Appendix B (D)
Would the City consider adding verbiage that project/schedule delays caused by the City
would not apply to this clause?
Yes.
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