request for proposal - pvsc hosting... · by submitting your response to this request for proposal,...

Tel 902.720.7812 Suite 200, Park Place II Toll Free 800.380.7775 238A Brownlow Avenue Fax 902.720.7873 Dartmouth, NS B3B 2B4 www.pvsc.ca

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Procurement of Hosting Solution Components

For

Property Valuation Services Corporation

At a minimum, the terms and conditions and supplements contained in this document apply to this procurement. By submitting your response to this Request for Proposal, you acknowledge that you have read and complied with this document. This document is available from Property Valuation Services Corporation at 238A Brownlow Avenue Suite 200, Dartmouth NS or http://www.pvsc.ca/en/home/aboutpvsc/tendersrfps.aspx Facsimile bids will not be accepted for this Request for Proposal.

This Request for Proposal is valid only to 4:00 pm Atlantic Time on November 15, 2013.

Request for Proposal prepared by: Property Valuation Services Corporation

http://www.pvsc.ca/en/home/aboutpvsc/tendersrfps.aspx

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 PVSC Mandate ........................................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Hosting Project Overview ...................................................................................................... 1

2 RFP Time Frames and Requirements ...................................................................................... 4

2.1 Key Dates ................................................................................................................................ 4

2.2 Solution Components ............................................................................................................ 4

2.3 Architecture ........................................................................................................................... 5

2.4 Server Specifications .............................................................................................................. 7

2.5 Property Valuation Services Corporation Responsibilities .................................................. 7

2.6 Special Conditions .................................................................................................................. 8

2.7 Enquiry Contacts .................................................................................................................... 8

2.8 Contract .................................................................................................................................. 8

3 Proposal Content and Response Guidelines ........................................................................... 9

3.1 Technical Proposal ................................................................................................................. 9

3.1.1 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 9

3.1.2 Vendor Profile ................................................................................................................ 9

3.1.3 Proposed Solution ........................................................................................................ 10

3.2 Financial Proposal ................................................................................................................ 13

3.3 Response Guidelines ............................................................................................................ 13

4 Evaluation Process ................................................................................................................ 14

4.1 Process ................................................................................................................................. 14

4.2 Proposal Addendums ........................................................................................................... 15

of 15

1 OVERVIEW

1.1 PVSC Mandate

Property value assessment in Nova Scotia is the responsibility of the Property Valuation

Services Corporation (PVSC). The PVSC became responsible for the valuation of property for

property assessment on April 1, 2008. The PVSC is a municipally-owned corporation established

under the Property Valuation Services Corporation Act.

Under the Assessment Act, an assessment roll is provided to each of the fifty-four municipalities

annually. It is used in combination with municipally set tax rates to establish property taxes and

to identify property owners from whom the municipalities collect those taxes. Every year

assessment notices are delivered to the approximately 600,000 individual properties.

The market value of all properties on the assessment roll for 2013 is nearly $95 billion, of which

$74 billion is residential and $21 billion is commercial. Activities at the PVSC include responding

to over 10,000 appeals, inspection of about 25,000 building permits plus an additional 10,000

properties inspected under file quality update programs, creation of almost 6,500 new accounts

and compliance with provincial legislation through programs such as the CAP program and the

Seasonal Tourist Business Designation program.

1.2 Hosting Project Overview

PVSC is increasingly reliant upon IT to support its current business operations and growth

opportunities. The majority of PVSC’s IT services are hosted and managed externally, with the

majority of those services supplied by the Nova Scotia Government, specifically the Office of

the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

PVSC’s business requirements are evolving and becoming more complex as its current services

mature and future growth opportunities are pursued. Also, service providers and offerings are

evolving to take advantage of new delivery models (e.g. subscription) and delivery channels (e.g.

cloud computing). This has provided PVSC with an opportunity to step back, review its current

and future requirements and survey the market place for prospective service suppliers that will

deliver predictable and cost effective IT services that are flexible and agile.

A current state assessment of IT services has documented 71 services in five areas: Business

Applications; Business Productivity; Application/Integration; Data Management; and

Infrastructure. These services have been grouped into specific bundles that require close

integration or logically fit together as service offerings in the current market place.

1. Property Services – a group of the PVSC’s core business applications that require close

integration and have similar hosting requirements.

of 15

2. Business Administration and Communications – PVSC’s Sage 300 Finance and Human

Resources application along with Microsoft Exchange to provide the necessary

foundation to support employee self-service functionality. Microsoft Lync has been

added to this bundle to eliminate the need to manage multiple Active Directory

instances.

3. Desktop Productivity – Desktop support including windows updates and

antivirus/malware protection along with the Microsoft Office standard suite of tools

augmented by the requirement of a lower volume of licenses of MS Project and Visio.

The diagram below shows the services included in each bundle:

The following diagram provides a high level overview to the phased approach and timing

established for the project. Formal approval to proceed and budget allocation will be reviewed

at the conclusion of each phase.

Assessment/Valuation

GIS

Imagery

Single Address Services

Property Services Bundle

Mailing Address Service

Mailing Address Adapter

Single Address Portal

Reference

NSCAF

Property Online

MLS

Property Services

Unified Communications Collaboration

Reporting and Analytics

Exchange

Lync Conferencing

Mobile Sync

PVSC Intranet

PIC Team Site

File Sharing (I: Drive)

Cognos BICognos Reporting and

DeliveryNotice Reporting and

DeliveryAdhoc Reporting

Web Analytics and Reporting

Development Tools

Web

Application

Database

Testing

Performance Tools

Code Repository

Integration

Web Services

Message Queue

Data

Service Bus

Environment Mgmt.

Dev Test

Staging Production

Training

Database AdministrationData Warehouse / Marts

ManagementData Exports Data Backup and Recovery

Finance/Human Resources

Communications

Accounting

PVSC Website

Assessment Online

Office In/Out

Leave Mgmt.

HR

Payroll

PIC Website

eDelivery (new)

eDelivery Service

eDelivery Integration

WordDesktop Productivity Bundle

Excel

PowerPoint MS Project Visio

Outlook

Business Administration and Communications Bundle

Desktop SupportAntivirus/Malware

Protection

FootPrints

Service Desk

of 15

The current migration strategy is to implement the services as business requirements dictate

with the migration of all services completed by March of 2015. A sample service migration

schedule is provided below but is subject to change:

1. Development and testing environments for Property Services Bundle including iasWorld,

Single Address, Reporting and Analytics, and PVSC website with Oracle and SQL

databases;

2. Development and testing environments for eDelivery that includes development tools,

environment management and integration services with an Oracle database;

3. Sage 300 production environment for Finance and HR modules with a SQL database;

4. Hosted exchange and Microsoft Lync with migration of email to PVSC.ca domain and

sync with Blackberries;

5. Shared drives and migration of 1.5TB of files;

6. Rollout of Office Productivity Suite; and

7. Production environment for the Property Services Bundle (1.) above.

Fall

20

12

Current State Assessment

- Create an inventory of IT Services in use at PVSC

Sum

me

r 2

01

3

Market Scan

- Analyze current hosting provider offerings and budgetary estimates

Fall

20

13

Procurement

- Find hosting partners for IT Services W

inte

r 2

01

4

Migration

- Move services to the new providers according to business priorities

of 15

2 RFP TIME FRAMES AND REQUIREMENTS

2.1 Key Dates

The following dates are provided for guidance only and are subject to change:

RFP Opens October 21st, 2013 RFP Closes November 15th, 2013 at 16:00 PM Response review and determination of Short List for presentations

Week of November 18th, 2013

Short List presentations Week of November 25th, 2013 Proposal Evaluation Complete December 13th, 2013 RFP Awarded December 20th, 2013 Engagement Start Date January 2, 2014

2.2 Solution Components

The overall Hosting Solution will be made up of managed hosting services for the three bundles

described above. Managed hosting services requires that providers preform all server and data

center activities such as, but not limited to:

Hardware maintenance and upgrades;

Operating system install, patching and tuning;

Back-up and recovery; and

Physical and electronic measures to ensure application and data security.

Managed hosting does not necessarily mean dedicated hosting where full servers are dedicated

to PVSC. Bids utilizing dedicated, virtual or a mixture of both will be accepted.

Due to privacy concerns regarding the sensitive nature of our client information, all services

and data must reside, be served and backed up in Canada. No PVSC information is to reside

on servers outside of Canada for any reason.

Ideally, PVSC would like all of the bundles delivered cost effectively through one hosting

partner but vendors are asked to bid on the bundles they are able to deliver, whether that be

one, two, or all three. The bundles were put together based on PVSC’s business requirements

and are the minimum solution sets on which proposals should be based. Bids that mix and

match services across bundles will be disqualified.

The Desktop Productivity Bundle is expected to be a remote support services and a software

subscription of the Microsoft products listed in the bundle served to PVSC users via the internet.

PVSC is not looking to purchase software and have it installed on individual machines.

of 15

2.3 Architecture

The following diagram shows the PVSC production architecture by bundle:


Business Administration

and Communications

Bundle

Office

Productivity

Bundle

Public Layer

Web Services/Application Layer

Database Layer

Oracle 11g DB Server

iasWorld Server

===============

Microsoft .NET 4.0

ASP.NET

IIS Web Server

Production Architecture

Single Address &

eDelivery Server

===============

Microsoft .NET 4.0

ASP.NET

IIS Web Server

WCF

iasWorld Report Server

Analytics Server

===============

Microsoft .NET 4.0

ASP.NET

IIS Web Server

Tyler RFS Service

Cognos

iasWorld Schema

Single Address Schema

eDelivery Schema

Web DB Server

===============

SQL Standard 2008R2

Analitics Schema

Sage 300 DB Server

===============

SQL Standard 2008R2

Sage 300 Server

===============

MS Exchange Server

===============

Reverse Proxy

PVSC Website

===============

Microsoft .NET 4.0

ASP.NET

IIS Web Server

OneWeb

Office Server

===============

Office Standard

MS Project

Visio

Shared Dr ive

of 15

As stated above, the Property Services Bundle also requires preproduction environments for

development and testing. The architecture of both these environments shown below are the

same and are right sized to accommodate the anticipated load:


Public Layer

Web Services/Application Layer

Database Layer

Oracle 11g DB Server

iasWorld, Single

Address, & eDelivery

Server

===============

Microsoft .NET 4.0

ASP.NET

IIS Web Server

Development and Testing Architectures

PVSC Website

iasWorld Report Server

Analytics Server

===============

Microsoft .NET 4.0

ASP.NET

IIS Web Server

Tyler RFS Service

Cognos

OneWeb

iasWorld Schema

Sing le Address Schema

eDelivery Schema

Web DB Server

===============

SQL Standard 2008R2

Analitics Schema

Reverse Proxy

of 15

2.4 Server Specifications

The table below lists the minimum specifications for the servers in the PVSC production

architecture:

Server CPU Memory Disk

Windows 2008 Servers

PVSC Website 2 8GB 108GB

Web SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB

iasWorld 4 8GB 150GB

Single Address & eDelivery 4 8GB 150GB

iasWorld Reports and Analytics 4 8GB 300GB

Sage 300 2 8GB 100GB

Sage SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB

Shared Drives 2 TB

Unix

Oracle DB* 4 16GB 700GB

Not applicable

Exchange Server

Office Server

* Can be part of a SQL Cluster or Oracle Resource Pool

The table below lists the minimum specifications for the servers in the PVSC development and

test architectures. :

Server CPU Memory Disk

Windows 2008 Servers

iasWorld, Single Address & eDelivery 4 8GB 150GB

PVSC Website, iasWorld Reports and Analytics 4 8GB 300GB

Web SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB

Unix

Oracle DB* 4 16GB 700GB

2.5 Property Valuation Services Corporation Responsibilities

The PVSC will provide the successful proponent with access to a primary contact within the

PVSC. This person will be the contact for all communications with the PVSC, periodically meet

with the proponent to monitor the performance and work with the proponent to identify

potential problems early and possible solutions. Any problems or concerns must be identified

to this person immediately.

of 15

2.6 Special Conditions

The PVSC also reserves the right to approach the successful proponent for additional

requirements outside of this proposal. The cost of the additional requirements will be agreed

upon between PVSC and the supplier.

2.7 Enquiry Contacts

Proponents requiring further information on this Request for Proposal should contact Bill

Levangie from the PVSC by email at [email protected]

All enquiries are to be directed to the person(s) named above. Information obtained from any

other source is not official and may be inaccurate. Enquiries and responses may be recorded

and may be distributed to all proponents at the option of PVSC.

2.8 Contract

The successful proponent will enter into a standard contract for services with PVSC. At a

minimum, this document will include the vendor name, contact information, service details,

critical dates, etc. A ‘Schedule A’ will be included to reference the tender documents and the

proposal submitted by the successful proponent, and may be expanded to reference any

correspondence or clarifications.

of 15

3 PROPOSAL CONTENT AND RESPONSE GUIDELINES

All proposals must include the following parts:

Technical Proposal

Financial Proposal

3.1 Technical Proposal

Responses must adhere to the sections below and proponents should answer all sections to the

best of their ability as it pertains to the service bundle(s) they are bidding on. The technical

proposal shall not exceed 50 pages excluding appendices. Pages in excess of the limit will not

be read and content from these pages will not be scored. All pages should be numbered on

standard Letter size paper (8.5” x 11”), single spaced in 12 point font (10 point font is

acceptable for tables and graphics).

3.1.1 Executive Summary

Please indicate the bundle or bundles you are bidding on and provide an overview of your

understanding of PVSC’s requirements and how your proposed solution meets those

requirements.

3.1.2 Vendor Profile

In this section, please provide an overview of your company under the following headings. Do

not include any general marketing materials in this section. Any materials you believe are

relevant can be referenced and provided in an appendix.

3.1.2.1 Overview

Please provide a brief description of your company, and its product and service offerings

including company size and structure, how long you have been providing these services and

your key clients that use them.

3.1.2.2 Strategic Partners

Provide details of any strategic relationships that you have with hardware or service companies

that may be engaged in the provision of the proposed services.

3.1.2.3 Location

Please provide the locations of your corporate offices and data centers. Include a map and a

description of any linkages or interoperability between the sites if applicable.

3.1.2.4 Data Centre

Please provide a description of your data centre including, but not limited to:

of 15

Physical description of building and room(s) and features such as power supply and

backup, environmental control systems, smoke detection and fire suppression, flooring,

Certifications or ratings, etc.;

Security measures such as data centre access policies, alarm systems and video

monitoring, reinforced entry points;

Internet connectivity, carriers, redundancy; and

Green initiatives in place or planned.

3.1.2.5 References

Provide the names of three references of current customers you provide services similar to

those proposed to PVSC. Include contact information for your chief contact with the customer.

3.1.3 Proposed Solution

Describe your proposed solution based on your understanding of PVSC’s requirements. Please

describe the various components of the solution and how they meet or exceed the outlined

requirements and architecture.

3.1.3.1 Mandatory Requirements

Please describe how your solution meets the following mandatory requirement:

All services and data must reside, be served and backed up in Canada. No PVSC

information is to reside on servers, or any media, outside of Canada for any reason.

3.1.3.2 Service Bundle(s)

Please indicate the PVSC service bundles included in your proposed solution and outline any

strengths or shortcomings in your solution. Vendors are reminded that only bids on complete

bundles will be accepted. Also, please address PVSC’s tentative migration schedule and how it

affects phased service provisioning and costs.

3.1.3.3 Hardware and Software

Please provide detailed specifications, including manufacturers, for all hardware and software

relevant to the delivery of the service. This should include, but is not limited to:

Manufacturer, model and version numbers;

Processors, memory, disk drives, database software,

Data center networking components (routers, switches, etc.), security devices (firewalls,

intrusion detection, etc.), load balancers, virtualization, etc.;

Characteristics and capabilities of your user interface or portal including user device

requirements, print drivers and file transfer;

If each component is single or multi-tenant; and

How often each component is upgraded and how much redundancy/resiliency is built in

to the service.

of 15

3.1.3.4 Data Storage

Please provide a detailed description of your data storage and data base service offerings

including:

SAN storage options;

Shared database options such as database clusters;

Backup cycles, retention and off-site storage; and

File restore procedures and time frames; and

Disaster recovery procedures and benchmarks.

3.1.3.5 Connectivity

Please provide a description of the network connectivity to your data centre and the

bandwidth pricing options that are available.

Please describe your firewall infrastructure and procedures for defining rules for

integration to other applications and services.

3.1.3.6 Managed Services

Please provide a detailed description of your proposed managed services including:

Policies and procedures for monitoring performance;

Scheduled maintenance, applying patches, software and hardware upgrades;

Service support, hours of operation, help desk procedures and trouble ticket severity

levels, escalation and expected response; and

Elements that are provided by contractors or a third party and any related special terms

or conditions that apply.

3.1.3.7 Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Please provide an overview of your proposed SLA, service standards, and guarantees along with

a sample in an appendix.

3.1.3.8 Service Delivery

Please provide a detailed description of your proposed service delivery including:

Lead time required to provision a server, database, firewall rule changes, etc.;

Network bandwidth monitoring and tuning;

In a multi-tenant environment:

o Cloud automation, balancing and performance monitoring;

o Oversight and review of potential clients and acceptable use policy and

monitoring;

o Shared vs. dedicated IP provisioning and blacklist remediation;

o Data encryption and private key policies;

Management Console:

of 15

o Client management portal including service monitoring through dashboards and

reports;

o Root access to servers for application installation and maintenance;

o Physical access to servers for application installation and maintenance;

For the hosted Exchange service:

o Inbox policies and size limits;

o Incoming and outgoing message size limits.

3.1.3.9 Security

Please provide a detailed description of your proposed security services including:

User access

o User authentication and access control;

o Role based privileges;

o User maintenance and removal;

Environment and data security:

o Anti-virus protection and remediation;

o Threat Management;

o Log Management;

o Firewall;

o Intrusion Detection;

o Email & Web Protection;

o Integrity Monitoring;

o Incident Response;

People and processes:

o Screening process for employees and sub-contractors;

o Security training;

o Incident reporting and remediation procedures.

3.1.3.10 Value Added

Please describe additional features of your solution that may be of interest to PVSC including,

but not limited to:

Sustainable and environmentally friendly business practices;

Internet Service Providers

Openness to expansion and inclusion of PVSC partnerships

Contribution to Nova Scotia economy; and,

Additional current or planned capabilities beyond those requested in this RFP.

of 15

3.2 Financial Proposal

Please provide itemized pricing in a table format of all of the components of your proposed

solution including:

Description, quantity, price and extended costs for each item;

One time startup costs and recurring fees;

Volume, threshold or term discounts that may be available; and

Contract terms and conditions.

3.3 Response Guidelines

Given the condensed timelines for this RFP electronic submissions via email will be accepted up

until the submission deadline of 4:00 Atlantic Time on Friday, November 15, 2013. Please send

your submissions to Grace Chitate at [email protected]. PVSC will not be responsible for

delays in transmission of bids caused by internet traffic, etc. A receipt notice will be sent

electronically with a list of respondents after the submission deadline. Any bids received after

the deadline will not be opened and will be deleted.

Submissions must be scanned PDF copies of the original proposal signed by the person(s)

authorized to sign on behalf of the proponent and to contractually bind the proponent to any

and all statements made in the response. The original paper copy must follow the electronic

copy by Friday, November 22, 2013. The original and PDF copy must be identical or the bid will

be disqualified. Please send originals to:

Grace Chitate

Property Valuation Services Corporation

Park Place II Suite 200, 238A Brownlow Ave.

Dartmouth NS, B3B 2B4

mailto:[email protected]

of 15

4 EVALUATION PROCESS

4.1 Process

When evaluating bids, Property Valuation Services Corporation seeks to obtain best value on

procurement and the evaluation is not limited solely to the purchase price but to other

considerations such as the quality of technical specifications, project life cycle costs and

benefits, the delivery, servicing and capacity of the bidder to meet criteria as stated in the bid

received.

The contract award is not made solely on the basis of the lowest price submitted but will

consider other relevant bid evaluation factors. The evaluation team will assess each solution

scenario separately using a four step process to formulate a recommendation.

Step 1: Mandatory Requirement (Pass/Fail)

The evaluation team will review responses to assess if the mandatory requirement is met. If

the mandatory requirement is not met, the solution scenario will be rejected and not receive

further consideration. Solution scenarios that meet the mandatory requirement will move on

to step 2.

Step 2: Rated Criteria

In this step the evaluation team will utilize the following evaluation criteria to establish an

overall score for each solution option under consideration.

Criteria Weight Description Proposal Response Section

Vendor Profile 10 Assess the maturity, stability and strength of the vendor. 3.1.2 Vendor References

10 Assess the experience, familiarity and success the vendor demonstrates with the proposed solution through similar engagements.

3.1.2.5

Solution 50 Assess the degree to which the solution components in Section 2 are met by the proposed solution.

3.1.3

Added Value 5 Assess the significance of the added value offered by the proposed solution.

3.1.3.10

Cost 25 Comparative cost of the proposed solutions 3.2

Step 3: Demonstration/Presentation

At the discretion of the evaluation team, proponents with the highest scores from step 3 may

be asked to host a site visit or be invited, at their own expense, to meet with the evaluation

team for the purpose of demonstrating their solution.

of 15

Step 4: Final Scoring and Recommendation

The evaluation team will use information and clarification gathered during the demonstration

and presentation to revise the scoring established in Step 3 and prepare a recommendation to

the PVSC Executive.

4.2 Proposal Addendums

The Proponent is responsible for obtaining any addendums issued to this RFP. Addendums will

be posted on the pvsc.ca website at the following location:



request for proposal - pvsc hosting... · by submitting your response to this request for proposal,...

Documents