SPECIAL NOTICE
58 -- Unified Communications
- Notice Date
- 3/13/2012
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 334210
— Telephone Apparatus Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Office of Acquisitions, Office of Management, 530 Davis Drive, Durham, North Carolina, 27713, United States
- ZIP Code
- 27713
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-NIH-NIEHS-OA-SS-12-142
- Archive Date
- 3/31/2013
- Point of Contact
- Deitra Lunney, Phone: 919-541-0387, Darren J. Gann, Phone: 919-316-4625
- E-Mail Address
-
lunney@niehs.nih.gov, ganndj@niehs.nih.gov
(lunney@niehs.nih.gov, ganndj@niehs.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Description : This is a Request for Information (RFI) notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this RFI is to obtain knowledge and information for project planning purposes. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC, is conducting a MARKET SURVEY to determine the interest and capability of businesses to provide a unified communications system. The NAICS Code is 334210 with a Size Standard of 1,000 Employees. Introduction The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) seeks to replace its current telecommunications equipment with a unified communications system which may utilize voice over IP. The purpose of the request for information is to gauge the capabilities of the vendor community to provide both equipment and services to the NIEHS. Specific Information as to the functionality sought is listed below. Background The NIEHS currently utilizes a private branch exchange (PBX) and is connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) via trunk lines. The current NIEHS telephone system operates on a DMS100 switch located at the off-site central office of the local service provider. These trunk lines are provided by Frontier Communications Company (http://www.frontier.com). The current phone system provides almost 2000 telephone lines and incorporates digital telephones, analog telephones, fax machines, and some modems. The NIEHS uses Polycom (http://www.polycom.com) conference phone devices for some conference calling requirements. In addition there are other services such as ISDN and DSL lines to support video conferencing equipment, which is not integrated into the telephone system. Video conferencing equipment is supported at the NIEHS through a separate system which uses Tandberg (http://www.tandberg.com) equipment and ISDN lines separate from the NIEHS network. The NIEHS local area network is currently being migrated from a mixed vendor installation to a homogeneous Cisco (http://www.cisco.com) network. Most NIEHS communications closets will utilize a Cisco Catalyst 4507R device to distribute to laboratories, office spaces and other public areas. These will be aggregated back to Cisco Catalyst 6509 devices. Internet connectivity to the NIEHS is provided by TW Telecom (http://www.twtelecom.com). Instructions Please provide a response to this RFI of no more than 15 pages. Respondents may be asked to provide a demonstration to the NIEHS either on site or using remote meeting technology hosted by the respondent. Product Information 1) What product or products could you provide to the NIEHS in order to create a unified communication system which includes voice mail, voice services, call forwarding, IM, email and calendar integration (Microsoft Outlook), and mobile devices support? 2) What features are included in your basic unified communications product offering(s)? 3) Do you currently have any products, solutions, or implementations at the NIH today? Costs and Fees 4) Provide a pricing list for the equipment, software and services that you would propose from a pricing list that is generally available to the Government such as GSA. 5) Please differentiate between one-time expenses for hardware, software and services and recurring expenditures. 6) Please provide an estimated annual cost of service per line. Please differentiate between costs per line for installation and ongoing (recurring) costs of maintaining the system. 7) What is the useful life of a telephone handset? How often should the NIEHS consider replacing handsets or other end user equipment? 8) What is the useful life of the infrastructure equipment you would propose to the NIEHS? When would infrastructure equipment be replaced in a life-cycle refresh for unified communications. Implementation 9) Please provide a sample implementation plan, including the average time it takes to deploy your product and have a functioning capability. Please provide details on transition, cutover process and installation. What information would the NIEHS need to provide in order for a vendor to create an NIEHS specific implementation plan? 10) Please provide references for implementations with other organizations. Please highlight any relevant federal government implementations. Security and Security Management 11) Please describe the security management features available with your product. Services/Support 12) Provide an overview of your professional services/consulting services supporting the implementation of your products. a. What type of consulting services do you have available? b. What types of training do you provide for your product? c. What types of support are available for your product? Standards Compliance 13) Does your product support federal government usability and accessibility requirements as described in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act? Technical 14) Can the NIEHS keep its current telephone numbers? 15) How would you support analog lines? 16) What support is available for sending and receiving faxes? 17) Would NIEHS need to replace its Polycom conference phone equipment? 18) How would you handle emergency (911) calls? 19) Can NIEHS have 5-digit dialing within the unified communication system? 20) Please describe the different rolls of who can administer and make changes to the unified communications system; end-user, services administrator, network engineer, etc. 21) How is redundancy and fault tolerance engineered into your solution to prevent single points of failure and outages? 22) Must your phone handsets use power over Ethernet to operate or can they use 110 VAC power? 23) Please describe how you would provide for clarity and quality of sound. 24) What type of connection to the public switched telephone network, such as PRI or SIP trunk, do you recommend for quality of service? Video Conferencing 25) How would you integrate and support video conferencing presently accomplished by a separate and distinct system utilizing Tandberg equipment into an NIEHS unified communications system. Purchasing Options 26) Do you offer any provisions for leasing or alternatives to purchasing equipment and software as a capitol expense? If so please provide examples of alternatives. 27) For equipment refresh and life-cycle of equipment as it ages, what model would you propose to reduce costs over the life of a unified communications system? Other 28) What other information does the NIEHS need to provide in order for a vendor to successfully respond to a Request for Proposal? Interested firms responding to this RFI must provide the following: (a) Company name, address, phone number, primary contact(s), e-mail address, business classification/size, and DUNS number. (b) Capability statement that demonstrates your experience, skills, and capability to fulfill the Governments requirements. The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail so that the Government can determine whether your firm can meet the requirements. (c) References. Two (2) copies of the response must be received no later than 1:00 pm edt on March 28, 2012 to the following address: USPS: NIEHS - Attn: Dee Lunney P.O. Box 12874 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Fed-Ex: NIEHS - Attn: Dee Lunney Keystone Bldg., Room 1045 530 Davis Drive Morrisville, NC 27560 Responses by fax or email WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. Information provided will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Any solicitation resulting from the analysis of information obtained will be announced to the public in Federal Business Opportunities in accordance with the FAR Part 5. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NIEHS/HHS-NIH-NIEHS-OA-SS-12-142/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: NIEHS, 111 TW Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27709, United States
- Zip Code: 27709
- Zip Code: 27709
- Record
- SN02695511-W 20120315/120313235701-8538c8ec4b1ca489f3473400a1f20676 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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