Request for Proposal (RFP)

for

IT Help Desk Services

Issued on behalf of

Cuyahoga Community College, Kent State University and

Youngstown State University

RFP Issue date: May 11, 2016

Deadline for Suppliers to submit RFP Questions: May 20, 2016

Deadline for Tri-C to Respond to Supplier RFP Questions: May 27, 2016

Deadline for Suppliers to Submit Proposals: June 7, 2016

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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 3

2. RFP OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................ 3

3. GENERAL CONDITIONS, POLICIES, AND PROCEDURES ................................................................................... 4

5. RFP SCHEDULE................................................................................................................................................. 4

6. RFP QUESTIONS AND CONTACTS .................................................................................................................... 4

7. PREPARATION OF PROPOSAL .......................................................................................................................... 5

Proposal Submittal .............................................................................................................................................. 6

8. ADMINISTRATIVE AND CONTRACTUAL INFORMATION .................................................................................. 6

Award of Contract ............................................................................................................................................... 6

Pricing.................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Rejection or Acceptance of Pricing Proposal ...................................................................................................... 7

Delivery of Products and Services ....................................................................................................................... 7

Billing ................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Contract and License Agreements ...................................................................................................................... 7

Terms and Conditions ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Entire Agreement ................................................................................................................................................ 7

Observance of College Rules and Regulations .................................................................................................... 8

Supplier Diversity ................................................................................................................................................ 8

9. RFP ADDENDUM A: SUPPLIER / FIRM QUESTIONS ........................................................................................ 9

I. Supplier / Firm Information – Questions .................................................................................................... 9

II. Architecture / Business Continuity Questions .......................................................................................... 10

III. System Maintenance Upgrade Questions ............................................................................................ 11

IV. Security Questions ................................................................................................................................ 12

V. Ticketing Questions ................................................................................................................................... 13

VI. Real Time Dashboards and Reporting Questions ................................................................................. 14

10. RFP ADDENDUM B: PRICE SHEET ............................................................................................................. 15

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1. INTRODUCTION

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), along with Kent State University (KSU) and Youngstown State University (YSU), is collaboratively issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for IT Help Desk Services to provide 24/7/365 coverage for requests and incidents from faculty, staff, and students. We are hereby inviting suppliers / firms to respond per the specifications, terms, conditions, and requirements herein.

Tri-C will serve as the gatekeeper for this RFP. Suppliers must submit all proposal information through Tri-C’s online Supplier Sourcing Management system.

Tri-C, KSU and YSU are members of the Inter-University Council Purchasing Group of Ohio, frequently called the IUC or IUC-PG. It is a purchasing consortium comprised of the purchasing officers of the State of Ohio institutions of higher education. The purpose of the formation was to achieve standardization of requirements, methods of operation and to buy at optimum quantity discounts. The organization has 34 members made up of the 13 state universities, 1 medical college, 13 community colleges and 7 technical colleges & institutions that receive state appropriated funds. The IUCPG operates under the requirement of the current appropriation legislation, The Ohio Revised Code, and the By-Laws of each institution’s Board of Trustees. All contracts entered into shall be governed by such laws aforementioned in the state of Ohio.

2. RFP OVERVIEW Tri-C, KSU and YSU are seeking IT Help Desk Services to provide first-level technology support for requests and

incidents from faculty, staff, and students’ calls, emails, and web submissions. Suppliers / firms must provide a

written Service Level Agreement (SLA), which covers security concerns, risks, liability, coverage, and

performance criteria. The IT Help Desk shall be committed to resolving issues and providing solutions at the first

level and in accordance with the SLA.

The services must be provided so that routine maintenance procedures, troubleshooting, loading hardware and

software revisions, patches, etc. will be performed without disrupting the participant’s services. Core hardware

such as processors, power supplies, hard drive systems, network interface cards, etc. must be redundant and

fault tolerant to avoid single points of failure. The system must provide call preservation, that is, the ability to

retain calls in the event of component failure.

RFP is for remote 24/7 – 365 Tier I support. Tier II tickets are routed to the caller’s IT department for

internal support.

Service is to support approximately 77,000 channels annually including, phone, email, chat, etc.

o Tri-C has approximately 30,000 to 35,000 tickets per year.

o Kent State has approximately 26,000 tickets per year.

o Youngstown State University has approximately 21,000 tickets per year.

The schools do not have their own ticketing systems. Tri-C is currently using Service Now and is open

to continue this service or move to a different system.

The schools will own their licenses.

The schools all use the Ellucian ERP system.

LMS support is not a requirement for this RFP. The schools use a Blackboard LMS, which is supported

via internal help desks.

The individual schools will own its own knowledge bases. The current knowledge bases can be

migrated.

Current ticketing system has SLAs built in. Contract has an entirely different set of SLAs for

accountability.

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3. GENERAL CONDITIONS, POLICIES, AND PROCEDURES The Request for Proposal documents are the property of the three colleges and should not be used by

participating suppliers / firms for any purpose other than submitting a response to this specific RFP. It will be

governed by and construed in accordance with the law of the State of Ohio.

Any and all other information, such as specifications, quantities, dollar volumes, and paperwork are considered

confidential information and shall be handled accordingly.

1. Any and all names associated with Tri-C, KSU or YSU may not be used for the suppliers / firms endorsement purposes, written or verbal, as a result of this Request for Proposal.

2. During the selection process, suppliers / firms may be requested to come in to present specific information related to their business.

3. The colleges strive to purchase environmentally responsible products and services to the maximum extent practicable, consistent with the demands of our mission, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and performance with continual improvement toward meeting federally established procurement goals. The colleges will strive to reduce the amount of solid and hazardous waste generated, as well as strive to reduce the consumption of energy and natural resources.

4. State agencies and state institutions of higher education must procure bio-based products that fall within the designated item categories list in the current version of the catalog compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture and maintained by the Department of Administrative Services on its website. Bio-based products will be considered and a preference may apply for those bio-based products meeting the specifications set forth in the bidding documents.

5. RFP SCHEDULE Date RFP issued May 11, 2016

Deadline for suppliers/firms to submit questions May 20, 2016

Deadline for Tri-C to respond to suppliers/firms questions May 27, 2016

Deadline for suppliers/firms to submit final proposals June 7, 2016

Supplier / firm presentations TBD

Final supplier / firm selection TBD

6. RFP QUESTIONS AND CONTACTS 1. We encourage suppliers / firms to review all information carefully, prior to responding.

2. All questions are to be directed to both of the following designated contacts via email no later than May 20, 2016 @ 5:00 p.m. EST.

Martha Davidson

Supply Chain Specialist Supplier Managed Services

Cuyahoga Community College District Office

700 Carnegie Avenue Cleveland, OH 44115

Email: Martha.davidson@tri-c.edu

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and

Stephen Hilbert

Executive Director of Supplier Managed Services Cuyahoga Community College

District Office 700 Carnegie Avenue Cleveland, OH 44115

Email: Stephen.hilbert@tri-c.edu

All questions related directly to the RFP should reference the item number accordingly.

3. The College will respond to all suppliers/firms’ questions on or before May 27, 2016 @ 5:00 p.m. EST. Any

supplier / firm attempting to obtain information from anyone other than the designated contact persons may be subject to disqualification from further RFP consideration. Questions received after the due date and time noted may be rejected.

7. PREPARATION OF PROPOSAL In submitting a proposal or in its performance under an award by Tri-C, KSU and YSU, the successful supplier / firm warrants and represents that it is not suspended or debarred by the Federal Government or the State of Ohio.

Suppliers must notify Tri-C promptly of any ambiguity, inconsistency, or errors.

Tri-C will not provide compensation for any expenses incurred by the Supplier for preparation of the proposal or for product or service demonstrations.

Alterations, deviations, or modifications must be noted in the submittal package.

Tri-C will not assume responsibility for errors or misinterpretations resulting from the use of incomplete documents.

Tri-C may not consider proposals that require or request changes to the terms of this RFP or changes to the terms of the attached Professional Services Agreement that are not approved by our Legal Department.

Proposals and any other information submitted in response to this proposal are the property of Tri-C, KSU and YSU and will not be returned.

No conflicts of interest shall exist between the supplier/firm and Tri-C, KSU and YSU except what has been disclosed.

Please follow all instructions in this document and the electronic Sourcing Director documents exactly as requested. Be complete, but provide only the information requested. If you have additional service offerings or information that have not specifically been requested in this RFP, but that you feel would be of benefit in general, please include this information in a separate section of your response entitled "Additional Information."

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Proposal Submittal As previously noted, suppliers must submit all proposal information through Tri-C’s online Supplier Sourcing Management system. A hardcopy of the RFP is included under “Buyer Attachments.” All of the following required RFP documents / forms and information must be submitted in the College’s online Sourcing Director system, prior to the deadline of June 7, 2016 @ 5:00 p.m. Responding suppliers / firms must complete, upload, and submit all documents and enter responses to questions per instructions.

A. Prerequisites: The following prerequisite forms are attached in the Sourcing Director. They are to be completed and uploaded:

I. W-9 Tax Form II. Standard Affirmation and Disclosure Form

III. Execution of Offer IV. A Professional Services Agreement (PSA) is also attached under “Prerequisites.” The successful

supplier / firm will be required to execute the College’s standard (PSA) as a condition of the RFP.

Any exceptions to the terms and conditions of the PSA must be listed with proposed new

wording at the time the RFP is submitted. If there are no exceptions to the PSA, supplier / firm

must provide confirmation in its response.

B. RFP Addendum A – Questions: Suppliers / firms shall respond to the “Questions” listed in the Sourcing

Director, and upload documents as requested.

C. RFP Addendum B - Supplier Price Sheet is attached under “Buyer Attachments.” Addendum B – Supplier

Price Sheet is also to be completed with annual pricing and uploaded under “Supplier Attachments.”

Supplier shall also enter the total 3 year prices under “Items” in the Sourcing Director. If a price is

included, but not applicable to your proposal, enter $0.00.

D. Supplier Proposal: Supplier’s proposal is to be uploaded after completion. It shall contain: i. Cover page with full name of the supplier / firm and contact information for the representative

submitting the proposal. ii. Table of Contents – The Table of Contents should outline the major areas of the proposal. All

pages of the proposal, including enclosures, must be clearly marked and correspond with the table of contents in the original RFP.

iii. Executive Summary – Provide a brief summary describing the services offered, experience and qualifications of the supplier / firm and its key personnel.

iv. Supplier / firm additional information sheet(s).

8. ADMINISTRATIVE AND CONTRACTUAL INFORMATION Tri-C reserves the right to reject any or all proposals received as a result of this RFP, waive any

formalities or technicalities, or negotiate separately with any source and in any manner whatsoever.

Tri-C does not discriminate in admission, access, or treatment in programs and activities, employment policies or practices based on race, creed, sex, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, marital status, age, sexual orientation, Vietnam-era or qualified disabled veteran status or qualified disability.

Award of Contract

The three participants (Tri-C, KSU and YSU), at their discretion, shall decide if an award will result from this

RFP.

Supplier / firm proposals must be fully responsive to all requirements stated in the RFP to obtain consideration. Any proposal not prepared and submitted in accordance with the provisions outlined herein, may not be considered.

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In the event a contract is awarded, this RFP and the proposal of the successful supplier / firm will be included as an addendum to the contractual obligations. Therefore, no information should be submitted, which cannot be incorporated into that agreement.

Price alone will not be the sole determining factor in the selection process.

The participants reserve the right to award based on various selection criteria.

The participants are not bound to accept the lowest cost proposal, if in their judgment the lowest cost proposal does not provide the best overall value.

Portions of the RFP may be awarded separately.

The participants reserve the right to negotiate the final details of the Contract with the successful supplier/firm.

Pricing

Supplier / firm proposals will be considered valid for a period of 120 days after the RFP submittal deadline of June 7, 2016.

Rejection or Acceptance of Pricing Proposal

The participants reserve the right to reject any or all proposals and any part or parts of any proposal and

the right to waive any informalities of any kind.

Delivery of Products and Services

Delivery requirements, as applicable, include software and / or hardware, or equipment and any installation, implementation, and training required to bring the system up and running by the effective date outlined in the statement of work.

Billing

Invoices prepared in accordance with any statement of work and/or contract should reference the Colleges’ purchase order number. Invoicing are to be submitted to the Accounts Payable department for each College.

Contract and License Agreements

Suppliers / firms must comply with all State of Ohio and Federal regulations concerning wages, liability insurance, worker’s compensation, discrimination, intimidation, and other applicable regulations.

Terms and Conditions

Tri-C’s Terms and Conditions are accessible at:

http://www.tri-c.edu/administrative-departments/supplier-managed-services/documents/terms.pdf

Kent State’s Terms and Conditions are attached in Sourcing Director under Buyer Attachments.

Youngstown State’s Terms and Conditions are accessible at:

http://web.ysu.edu/gen/ysu_generated_bin/documents/basic_module/po_terms_conds.pdf

Issues or exceptions to any of the participants’ terms and conditions shall be listed with suggested changes by item number and uploaded as Exceptions to Terms and Conditions.

Entire Agreement

The RFP and any resulting Contract shall be the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement

between the participants and the supplier/firm and supersedes all prior oral or written agreements.

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The terms and conditions of any purchase orders, agreements, amendments, modifications, or other

documents submitted by either party that conflict with or in any way purport to amend or add to any of

the terms and conditions of the Contract are specifically objected to by the other party and shall be of no

force or effect; nor shall govern in any way the subject matter hereof, unless set forth in writing and signed

by both parties.

Observance of College Rules and Regulations

The supplier/firm agrees that at all times its employees will observe and comply with all regulations of Tri-C, KSU, and YSU, including but not limited to smoking, parking, and security regulations.

Supplier Diversity

The participants are committed to supplier diversity and to supporting the Cleveland, Kent, and Youngstown economies. All large, small women, minority, and veteran-owned business are encourage to respond to the RFP.

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9. RFP ADDENDUM A: SUPPLIER / FIRM QUESTIONS RFP Addendum A: The following questions are listed in the Tri-C Sourcing Director system. Suppliers / firms

are to enter responses in the Sourcing Director and upload documents as required for each question.

Addendum A: IT Help Desk Questions

I. Supplier / Firm Information – Questions Questions Supplier / Firm Responses

1. Provide your full company name and corporate address.

2. If vendor has a parent company, please indicate the parent company name and address.

3. Year your company established / incorporated?

4. Is your company being purchased by another company currently or this year?

5. Is your company publicly listed/traded?

6. Provide a description of the company’s geographical service areas, including international, national, regional and local offices.

7. Are you operating as a small, minority, women, disabled, or veteran owned business enterprise? Please select one.

8. Specify the primary service(s) offered by your company. What additional services does your company offer?

9. Describe any new service or product offerings planned for the next year relative to this RFP.

10. If your company is not publicly listed/traded, and your firm is awarded the business, are you prepared and willing to submit the last two years of audited financials?

11. What partnerships do you have with technology vendors?

12. Provide a brief resume of key staff members assigned to work with the College.

13. To what extent will participation be required from individuals whose primary work location is outside of Cuyahoga County?

14. Are you willing to extend pricing agreement to the IUC membership? Yes or No

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Addendum A: RFP IT Help Desk Questions

II. Architecture / Business Continuity Questions Questions Supplier / Firm Responses

1. Please upload a diagram of the system architecture.

2. Is your solution a dedicated hosted or multi-tenanted solution? Please describe.

3. Is the core service a dedicated instance of the system, or is the service provided strictly a service where all users are tenants of a single shared platform?

4. Is the hosted solution fully based on IP telephony?

5. Are core hardware, such as processors, power supplies, hard drive systems, network interface cards, etc., redundant and fault tolerant to avoid single points of failure? Describe.

6. Describe any events that would result in a “failure” of the system and require a restart, re-registration, database load, etc. to return to a fully operational state. How long does the recovery take?

7. Please describe your disaster recovery plan (DRP) for a hosted solution.

8. Please describe the IP telephony call control protocol used by the system.

9. How does the system provide for fault tolerance?

10. Fully describe the system’s redundancy capability. Is it "hot standby redundancy", "shared redundancy", etc.? (Cisco UCCX, Avaya)

11. Does the system provide call preservation, that is, the ability to retain calls in event of component failure? Please describe.

12. In distributed help desk architecture, the contact center technology can be located in two data centers. Are there any limits in your solution for distance between these data centers and or between the localities with help desk agents?

13. What is the proper number of agents needed to yield best results - avoid skewed call data)?

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Addendum A: RFP IT Help Desk Questions

III. System Maintenance Upgrade Questions 1. The service must be provided so that routine

maintenance procedures, troubleshooting, loading hardware and software revisions, patches, etc. will be performed without disrupting the participants’ service. How will these notifications be communicated to each college (24 hour service/maintenance contact)?

2. How will an example of root cause analysis and corrective action template for cases be provided?

3. When the system detects a fault notification must be provided to each a participant, how is this notification provided?

4. Maintenance schedules must be provided and agreed upon in advance by a participant in order to avoid peak performance periods. How often do you provide new releases and maintenance to your solution?

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Addendum A: RFP IT Help Desk Questions

IV. Security Questions

Questions Supplier / Firm Reponses

1. Does your solution have AD integration / Single Sign-On capability? Explain.

2. Please provide a sample of your Service Level Agreement, which covers security concerns, risks, liability, and service performance criteria.

3. What security is in place, which ensures secure connectivity for all voice and data passed by the hosted solution to any and all endpoints?

4. Describe the security related to the user

interface?

5. Describe the security integration with

multiple firewalls.

6. What type of password authentication do

you support?

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Addendum A: RFP IT Help Desk Questions

V. Ticketing Questions Questions Supplier / Firm Responses

1. What ticketing system will be utilized?

2. Can the ticketing system be used to manage and create tickets with Windows, Mac, tablets, iPads etc.? Describe.

3. What canned reports are available? Provide examples.

4. Can custom reports be created? How easy?

5. Are auto alerts available for extended time or for no action?

6. Describe watch list for tickets?

7. Does system provide the ability to track “time worked” on tickets?

8. What is the process to make changes (i.e. updates, notes, reassign, reopen tickets, etc.) to a ticket?

9. What does the entire ticketing process look like? Can this process be customized?

10. How are assignment groups created?

11. Can the system be accessed through the web?

12. Is licensing structured as enterprise or per seat?

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Addendum A: RFP IT Help Desk Questions

VI. Real Time Dashboards and Reporting Questions

Questions Supplier / Firm Responses

1. Does the solution provide both real time

dashboards and historical view reporting?

Please describe.

2. The system must provide a unified

reporting interface into a centralized,

standardized repository of all data from

the help desk infrastructure. How is that

managed by your system?

3. Does reporting include the ability to create

and add new reporting fields that show

calculations of raw call data based on user

entered formulas?

4. Data must be accessible with different time intervals – year, quarter month, week, day, hour, and ad-hoc – including changing the week start day. How is that managed by your system?

5. As a separate attachment, please provide

a sample schema and data dictionary.

6. Does your system have an open reporting

architecture? Please describe.

7. How does the system’s reporting feature

set compare to Excel in terms of ease of

use, graphs, charts, pivot tables, and other

advanced features?

8. Can your reporting system handle multi-

year enterprise-wide queries with many

custom calculations rapidly, sans crashing?

Provide examples.

9. Where is the data stored?

10. If the data is stored remote from the

reporting system and/or enterprise, does

that slow down reporting and how much?

11. How long of a period is repository data

accessible?

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10. RFP ADDENDUM B: PRICE SHEET

ADDENDUM B: PRICE SHEET RFP PRICE SHEET Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

I. PRIMARY SYSTEM OFFERING

Hosted Solutions or

Multi-tenanted Solution

II. Architecture / Business Continuity

III. System Maintenance Upgrades

IV. Security

V. Ticketing

VI. Real Time Dashboards and Reporting

VII. Implementation

VIII. Training

TOTAL