Town of Bluffton Sealed Solicitation

Title: Replacement Cloud-Based Phone System RFP

Deadline: 8/11/2022 2:00 PM   (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Status: Awarded

Solicitation Number: 2023-02

Description: The Town is seeking proposals from interested and qualified firms with past, proven, positive experiences in providing a commercially available , cloud-based, unified communication system. The Town is currently using an eight year old Mitel Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) phone system that has technical issues and does not meet the Town’s growing requirements. The goal of this request for proposals is to evaluate new communications technology that will increase productivity, enhance service quality, and unify the various communications services in use by Town employees. Employees may prefer to use their desk computer or cell phone instead of their desk phones.

Documents:

Documents as of 7/5/2022
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Addition 1

Posted: 7/28/2022

Type of Addition: Addendum 1

Overview: Question and Answer.

Documents:

Addition 2

Posted: 8/25/2022

Type of Addition: In Review

Overview: The Town is appreciative of the large number of proposals received. The technical review team has a goal to complete its evaluations by 9/7 after which time I will invite the top ranked vendors to provide demonstrations the week of 9/12 and the week of 9/19, if needed, with a goal to announce intent to award by 9/30.

Addition 3

Posted: 9/16/2022

Type of Addition: Notice of Down-Select for Demonstrations

Overview:

Documents:

Addition 4

Posted: 10/21/2022

Type of Addition: Award Information

Documents:

Question 1

Posted: 7/13/2022

Question: How many handsets (desktop phones) will be needed? Are there any specifications for desktop phones? The RFP document references 'Customer Service' as a 'User Person' but the in the Back-office Worker section, it refers to 'Front Office and Field Worker' in the Technical Needs field. Is this 'Front Office' referencing the 'Customer Service' user person section of the same table?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 2

Posted: 7/15/2022

Question:

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 3

Posted: 7/15/2022

Question: • Please clarify what is meant by “Work Group” What specific function/features are needed? If call queueing, how many users would need to access the call queues. • Specific requirements of “Hotline” (Additional Needs and Requirements) • Specific requirements of “Call Return” (Additional Needs and Requirements) • Do all locations have adequate available POE ports to connect all phones? • How many mobile/App-only licenses? ( For Field Workers and Police Officers). • What is the total individual user count? (Desk phone users + mobile application-only users) • Would you mind providing a network diagram detailing locations, WAN, and LAN environment? (Dark Fiber, VPN, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 4

Posted: 7/19/2022

Question: Under the statement of need and user profiles you list five different profiles with the technical needs. Of the 119 users what would be the breakdown into the various profiles?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 5

Posted: 7/20/2022

Question: (1) Questions due 2:00 pm on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, RFP Responses due 2:00 pm on Thursday, August 11, 2022. When will the Answers to questions be posted? (2) Since there is two weeks between questions due and responses due, we would respectfully request the due date be extended to 30 days beyond answers. (3) Number of Employees are 160, but current # of phones are 119 – will each employee be considered a USER in a cloud environment? (4) Any Part Time employees be considered as a USER or need access to phone system? (5) The Town has approximately 200 Windows 10 laptops and desktops – is this how many total full time and part time employees? Would we need to consider all these for USERS on the phone system? (6) Does the 119 phones include Common Area Phones (like kitchen, doors, conference)? If so how many, what is their exact use (conference room, kitchen, etc) and are any wall mounted? Any considered for opening doors or allowing access or gates, etc? (7) Do you have any Toll Free #s, if so, how many and how much of the 40,000 inbound calls are directed over the TF#? (8) Will you be responsible for decommissioning the Mitel Phone system or will current vendor remove after new system is up? (9) RFP States - Trunk Groups · 23 (10) On Current VOIP Network Design and Configuration - VOIP network is segmented into its own VLANs with DHCP for IP address assignments. Town facility network egress points have a with multi-gigabit interconnectivity. Missing part of the information where highlighted, what is the egress point connection? (11) WAN - Hargray and Spectrum fiber internet services provide redundant connection at the central hub facilities. What are the upload and download speeds to each Internet service at both Town Hall and Law Enforcement Center – RFP says Law enforcement with max speed of 500Mbps (12) Microsoft Office 365 for Email and Teams – what is your license level (ie: E3, E5, G3, G5, A3, A5)? (13) Are you looking to merge or integrate collaboration environment with your VOIP System? (i.e: Teams vs a mtg/collaboration tool with the new Voip System – integrate or replace with Microsoft?) Are you looking at Microsoft Phone System? (14) Why types of phones are you considering? Executive vs Knowledge Work? Common Area? Conferencing Phones? Receptionists? (15) How many USERs per USER TYPE needed? (16) How many or max participants needed for the Back Office Worker Host Conferencing and how many total Hosts? (17) For Police Staff, please describe what is meant by Ring Pattern? (18) Under addition needs and requirements, what is meant by need HOTLINE? (19) Concerning “we would like to retain important public facing numbers, e.g. Customer Service mainline and Police Department mainline”, please provide those numbers for verification. (20) Concerning ”we are looking for a cost-effective total solution including product installation and maintenance/technical support with minimum management”, do you mean minimum management required by your staff or after deployment by provider? (21) Concerning “Vendors should price six (6) years of software and hardware support”, your original request was one year contract, please clarify? (22) Please provide: “A sample of the contract has been attached to this solicitation for viewing. Contracts from firms submitting a proposal will not be accepted.” (23) Do you want to install phones and do you require an on-site deployment style engagement? Do you have technical resources? (24) Would you consider using the State of South Carolina contract vehicle?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 6

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: May we request the location addressing for all SDP's?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 7

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: What are the requirements and locations for the six virtual fax?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 8

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: May we request a list of TN's and/or DID's that require porting?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 9

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: How many users will require voicemail to text?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 10

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: In reference to page 8 under Professional Liability: Offeror is a privately-held company and as such has a policy to provide its financial statements only upon execution of a mutual non-disclosure agreement. Will the Town be amenable to review of such an agreement prior to proposal submission?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 11

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: The Agreement provided in Microsoft Word is for Flooring Services. Is there another Agreement for telecommunications services offeror may review?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 12

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: How many O365 licenses and what level of O365 licenses does the Town of Bluffton currently have? (ex. G1, G3, G5) Does the Town plan to have G5 licenses in place soon?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 13

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: Does the Town plan on purchasing or putting in place G5 O365 licenses?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 14

Posted: 7/22/2022

Question: Do you need to use your existing Shore-Tel/Mitel IP phones? Or are you open to phone replacements? Please give us a breakdown of the number of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ phones needed by category; we understand that some categories will need both types of phone: Customer Service Field Worker Back Office Worker Police Officer Police Department Office Staff Do your Field Workers and Police Officers—the two groups that need the ‘soft’ phones for mobile operations—need ‘soft’ phones on both cell phones and on mobile computers (laptops and tablet computers) at the same time, or just on the laptops and tablet computers? You are planning to support remote working…what is your secure WAN infrastructure to secure those remote connections? Do you need to tie the new phone system into any intercoms or overhead paging systems? Do you have an existing SIP-based local and long-distance carrier already in use? If so, do you want to use that carrier or are you open to alternatives? Does Hargray terminate Internet connection at a separate location than the Spectrum Fiber connection? Do you plan to terminate the local and long distance calling service in two locations, or just at the Law Enforcement Center? Are the Public Works/Watershed Management and Police Substation dual-homed into both the Town Hall and the Law Enforcement Center? How many of the IP phones will be used to support switchboards, where an operator needs to monitor the activity of all extensions in a facility and manually direct incoming calls? Or do you intend to electronically route incoming calls to specific departments or functional groups without human intervention at a switchboard? What type of firewalls do you use? Do you have a need for any locally mobile phones (wireless, dedicated IP phone handsets) for users whose job calls for them to roam around a building? If so, will any of those phones be used to replace a traditional, ‘hard’ desk phone? Confirm that you will need five (and only five) locations identified for E911 locates.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 15

Posted: 7/25/2022

Question: Section 4 – Scope of Services I see Field worker but not Front Office worker. Please define Front Office worker or confirm it means Customer Service Can you provide a breakdown of the number of each type of user (number of police officers, customer service, etc.)? Additional needs and user requirements: Virtual faxing for up to 6 lines at 2 locations… does this mean a total of 12 virtual fax? Please define the 2 locations requiring virtual faxing Please provide the number of "common area" phones...lobby, breakroom, etc.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 16

Posted: 7/25/2022

Question:

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 17

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: 1. Please mention exact count of O365/M365 G1, O365/M365 G3 and O365/M365 G5 licenses. 2. What are the Total Number of users who need to be setup with Phone System? 3. Do you need a Contact Center (Call Center)? How many users will be enabled for Contact Center? 4. Do you Customer require Call Recording? Do you only need Call Recording for Contact Center Users OR other users too? Please mention count. 5. Does the proposed solution need to support analog devices? What is the total count of analog devices? Are they mostly Fax and Card Readers or do they have analog phones too? Please Mention count of each 6. Do you need Paging? Do you have existing Paging solutions that need to be integrated? Please share number of devices that would require analogue connectors for Paging? 7. Are you Open to switching existing Telecom Provider? What is the name of existing provider? 8. Do you need to Port Phone Numbers? How many Phone numbers need to be ported? 9. Please mention if any 3rd Party Integrations are needed?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 18

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: NEC Questions: • Does both Hargary and Spectrum each have a 500 Mbps Internet connectivity or is it a combined speed of 500 Mbps? • Since the city already has Microsoft Teams, are they interested in enabling telephony integration with Microsoft Teams? If so we would like to know the exact license level of the Microsoft Teams ( e.g. E1, E3 or E. It could be similar similar "G" license level). • Are there plans to upgrade the Windows 10 laptops and desktops to Windows 11? If so what is the timeline? • What is the exact use of Verizon 4G mobile broadband service in the city? • Can you please clarify "Virtual faxing for up to 6 lines at 2 different locations"? If the fax is virtual, then does location matter? Or is this going to be physical Fax machines located in two separate locations? • Since this is cloud system and users are allowed to take phones home, does that make onsite support optional as everything could be achieved remotely. • Can you please provide Customer Service mainline and Police Department mainline, so we can confirm portability to our service? • What are the minimum requirements as it relates to the replacement desktop Phone sets? For example: o How many Line appearances/Feature Buttons are required for each User Type? o Do you require a Color Screen o Do you require Gigabit NIC ports at the IP phone? Will the Computer connect thru the IP desktop phone to the Wall jack so that one Network Drop will support both the users Data and IP based Voice connections? • Can you provide information on what type PSTN circuit(s) and how many trunks you have in place and connected to the Mitel PBX? For Example- 2-PRI/T1 based circuits providing 23 channels each of inbound and outbound Local/LD call or direct SIP Trunk connection into the Mitel with 40 Channels of Inbound and outbound PSTN local & LD calling • Do you have any need to support traditional Analog Telephone based devices? These are typically used for Common Area Phones (Lobby, Lunchroom, elevator, emergency/Blue light phones, etc.). If so, please indicate how many and at which locations? • Do you currently utilize any overhead paging systems that can be accessed via the current Mitel phones at any of the facilities? If so, which locations have Paging and is it an “All Call” type system or can you dial specific zones to only page certain parts of the facility. • There are several mentions of Hunt Groups and Work Groups- could you please expand on the minimum functionality required as it relates to each of these group features? • On the User types that require a “Mobile Device Only” such as the Police. Are you looking for the Venders to provide the Mobile Device itself or are you just looking to run an application on the Users existing mobile device (assuming it is supported)? o Could we get current Mobile Device model numbers and counts? • Are there any special 911 considerations we need to take into consideration as it relates to this RFP.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 19

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Question 1: Does the Town of Bluffton prefer each of the listed sites be quoted individually or bundle under 1 account/quote? Question 2: Can more than 1 quote be submitted? RFP states 1 year term contract with hardware software support for up to 6 years. As most Cloud based solutions are priced 1, 3, 5 year terms? Question 3: Can the Town of Bluffton bill two parties, the Hosted/Cloud provider and the authorized re-seller/subcontractor for on site, Tier 1, install and on going support? As well as additional Add/Move/Changes after deployment of initial install?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 20

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: 1. What licensing do you currently have for Microsoft/Office 365? (e.g. 100x O365 G3 licenses, 150x M365 E1, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 21

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: 2. What meetings solution do you currently use? (e.g. Zoom, MS Teams, Webex, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 22

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: You list seven (7) VoIP Switches – do you need replacement switching as well?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 23

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Are there any existing analog devices that need to be replaced or migrated to the new system? (e.g. Fax or Postage machines, elevators, fire alarms, paging systems, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 24

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Are there any third-party public space phones that need to be considered? (e.g. vestibule phones, doorway video phones, door trigger integration, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 25

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Do any of your phones have Key Expansion Modules (side cars) that need to be replaced as well?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 26

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Would you like headsets for the phones or for enabling/supporting the users wishing to use their desk computer?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 27

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: For field workers, back-office workers and police officers, do the text messages need to run through the business phone system, or are those run locally through the mobile phone/carrier?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 28

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Are there any call recording or paging requirements?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 29

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: The Boilerplate Agreement included is not relevant to the Scope of Work in this RFP. Please provide a revised agreement that would be pertinent to the services requested.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 30

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: How many conferencing host licenses are you requiring?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 31

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Invitation and Forms: Will the Town of Bluffton accept electronic signatures (i.e. Docusign) and waive the requirement for an original signature?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 32

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Additional Needs and User Requirements: Can the additional needs and requirements section be added to the RFP?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 33

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: How many physical desk phones are required? I noticed that both Police and Field Workers require mobile devices only. Would you prefer the native mobile number (vs over the top application) be a member of the hosted VoIP system?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 34

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Added question: what are the e911 requirements? This can determine a previously asked question regarding quoting and account set up

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 35

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: We are a local (Savannah and low county) Mitel Dealer with a vast experience in local and county governments. Are you interested in the latest MiVoice Business Unified communications system? This is not "hosted" solution, but can either be deployed cloud based, appliance based, or in a co-lo of your designation. The software and set typically would be owned by the end user, and thus would be a CAP-X proposition. If this is a solution you would care to explore we will proceed with responding your RFP. Thanks for your time. Michael Dodd VP Integrated Network Solutions 3819 Fourth St Savannah, Ga. direct 912-629-3102 cell 912-663-8747 www.phonesav.com miked@phonesav.com

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 36

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Could you provide a list of telephone numbers to be ported to our system? If not readily available, could you provide a total count of 10 digit phone numbers (DID's) so that we can appropriately price with our proposal?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 37

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: On page 6 of the RFP, the RFP states that the contract should be valid for 1 year following the date of execution. On page 12 of the RFP, it is stated that 6 years of pricing are being requested. As cloud based phone services are priced as telecommunications services, they are typically accompanied by a basic telecommunications contract/agreement and typically billed monthly for those services. Would the Town of Bluffton like to see pricing for a 6 year contract/agreement for those services to be billed on a monthly basis over that term?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 38

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: On page 14 of the RFP, it is stated "Contracts from firms submitting a proposal will not be accepted.". As cloud based telephone services are telecommunications services, to be compliant, telecommunication service providers require the entity (Town of Bluffton in this instance) to sign an agreement for those services to protect the entity and the service provider's compliance. Is it acceptable to submit our telecommunications service agreement with our response uploaded as a separate document?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 39

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Could you confirm the document, "Boilerplate Agreement - updated 5 11 2021", is for reviewing purposes only and does not need to be completed and submitted with our proposal?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Question 40

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: How many physical locations with different addresses will E-911 services be required for emergency purposes?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/28/2022

Type of Addition: Addendum 1

Overview: Question and Answer.

Documents:

Posted: 8/25/2022

Type of Addition: In Review

Overview: The Town is appreciative of the large number of proposals received. The technical review team has a goal to complete its evaluations by 9/7 after which time I will invite the top ranked vendors to provide demonstrations the week of 9/12 and the week of 9/19, if needed, with a goal to announce intent to award by 9/30.

Posted: 9/16/2022

Type of Addition: Notice of Down-Select for Demonstrations

Overview:

Documents:

Posted: 10/21/2022

Type of Addition: Award Information

Documents:

Posted: 7/13/2022

Question: How many handsets (desktop phones) will be needed? Are there any specifications for desktop phones? The RFP document references 'Customer Service' as a 'User Person' but the in the Back-office Worker section, it refers to 'Front Office and Field Worker' in the Technical Needs field. Is this 'Front Office' referencing the 'Customer Service' user person section of the same table?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/15/2022

Question:

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/15/2022

Question: • Please clarify what is meant by “Work Group” What specific function/features are needed? If call queueing, how many users would need to access the call queues. • Specific requirements of “Hotline” (Additional Needs and Requirements) • Specific requirements of “Call Return” (Additional Needs and Requirements) • Do all locations have adequate available POE ports to connect all phones? • How many mobile/App-only licenses? ( For Field Workers and Police Officers). • What is the total individual user count? (Desk phone users + mobile application-only users) • Would you mind providing a network diagram detailing locations, WAN, and LAN environment? (Dark Fiber, VPN, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/19/2022

Question: Under the statement of need and user profiles you list five different profiles with the technical needs. Of the 119 users what would be the breakdown into the various profiles?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/20/2022

Question: (1) Questions due 2:00 pm on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, RFP Responses due 2:00 pm on Thursday, August 11, 2022. When will the Answers to questions be posted? (2) Since there is two weeks between questions due and responses due, we would respectfully request the due date be extended to 30 days beyond answers. (3) Number of Employees are 160, but current # of phones are 119 – will each employee be considered a USER in a cloud environment? (4) Any Part Time employees be considered as a USER or need access to phone system? (5) The Town has approximately 200 Windows 10 laptops and desktops – is this how many total full time and part time employees? Would we need to consider all these for USERS on the phone system? (6) Does the 119 phones include Common Area Phones (like kitchen, doors, conference)? If so how many, what is their exact use (conference room, kitchen, etc) and are any wall mounted? Any considered for opening doors or allowing access or gates, etc? (7) Do you have any Toll Free #s, if so, how many and how much of the 40,000 inbound calls are directed over the TF#? (8) Will you be responsible for decommissioning the Mitel Phone system or will current vendor remove after new system is up? (9) RFP States - Trunk Groups · 23 (10) On Current VOIP Network Design and Configuration - VOIP network is segmented into its own VLANs with DHCP for IP address assignments. Town facility network egress points have a with multi-gigabit interconnectivity. Missing part of the information where highlighted, what is the egress point connection? (11) WAN - Hargray and Spectrum fiber internet services provide redundant connection at the central hub facilities. What are the upload and download speeds to each Internet service at both Town Hall and Law Enforcement Center – RFP says Law enforcement with max speed of 500Mbps (12) Microsoft Office 365 for Email and Teams – what is your license level (ie: E3, E5, G3, G5, A3, A5)? (13) Are you looking to merge or integrate collaboration environment with your VOIP System? (i.e: Teams vs a mtg/collaboration tool with the new Voip System – integrate or replace with Microsoft?) Are you looking at Microsoft Phone System? (14) Why types of phones are you considering? Executive vs Knowledge Work? Common Area? Conferencing Phones? Receptionists? (15) How many USERs per USER TYPE needed? (16) How many or max participants needed for the Back Office Worker Host Conferencing and how many total Hosts? (17) For Police Staff, please describe what is meant by Ring Pattern? (18) Under addition needs and requirements, what is meant by need HOTLINE? (19) Concerning “we would like to retain important public facing numbers, e.g. Customer Service mainline and Police Department mainline”, please provide those numbers for verification. (20) Concerning ”we are looking for a cost-effective total solution including product installation and maintenance/technical support with minimum management”, do you mean minimum management required by your staff or after deployment by provider? (21) Concerning “Vendors should price six (6) years of software and hardware support”, your original request was one year contract, please clarify? (22) Please provide: “A sample of the contract has been attached to this solicitation for viewing. Contracts from firms submitting a proposal will not be accepted.” (23) Do you want to install phones and do you require an on-site deployment style engagement? Do you have technical resources? (24) Would you consider using the State of South Carolina contract vehicle?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: May we request the location addressing for all SDP's?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: What are the requirements and locations for the six virtual fax?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: May we request a list of TN's and/or DID's that require porting?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: How many users will require voicemail to text?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: In reference to page 8 under Professional Liability: Offeror is a privately-held company and as such has a policy to provide its financial statements only upon execution of a mutual non-disclosure agreement. Will the Town be amenable to review of such an agreement prior to proposal submission?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: The Agreement provided in Microsoft Word is for Flooring Services. Is there another Agreement for telecommunications services offeror may review?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: How many O365 licenses and what level of O365 licenses does the Town of Bluffton currently have? (ex. G1, G3, G5) Does the Town plan to have G5 licenses in place soon?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/21/2022

Question: Does the Town plan on purchasing or putting in place G5 O365 licenses?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/22/2022

Question: Do you need to use your existing Shore-Tel/Mitel IP phones? Or are you open to phone replacements? Please give us a breakdown of the number of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ phones needed by category; we understand that some categories will need both types of phone: Customer Service Field Worker Back Office Worker Police Officer Police Department Office Staff Do your Field Workers and Police Officers—the two groups that need the ‘soft’ phones for mobile operations—need ‘soft’ phones on both cell phones and on mobile computers (laptops and tablet computers) at the same time, or just on the laptops and tablet computers? You are planning to support remote working…what is your secure WAN infrastructure to secure those remote connections? Do you need to tie the new phone system into any intercoms or overhead paging systems? Do you have an existing SIP-based local and long-distance carrier already in use? If so, do you want to use that carrier or are you open to alternatives? Does Hargray terminate Internet connection at a separate location than the Spectrum Fiber connection? Do you plan to terminate the local and long distance calling service in two locations, or just at the Law Enforcement Center? Are the Public Works/Watershed Management and Police Substation dual-homed into both the Town Hall and the Law Enforcement Center? How many of the IP phones will be used to support switchboards, where an operator needs to monitor the activity of all extensions in a facility and manually direct incoming calls? Or do you intend to electronically route incoming calls to specific departments or functional groups without human intervention at a switchboard? What type of firewalls do you use? Do you have a need for any locally mobile phones (wireless, dedicated IP phone handsets) for users whose job calls for them to roam around a building? If so, will any of those phones be used to replace a traditional, ‘hard’ desk phone? Confirm that you will need five (and only five) locations identified for E911 locates.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/25/2022

Question: Section 4 – Scope of Services I see Field worker but not Front Office worker. Please define Front Office worker or confirm it means Customer Service Can you provide a breakdown of the number of each type of user (number of police officers, customer service, etc.)? Additional needs and user requirements: Virtual faxing for up to 6 lines at 2 locations… does this mean a total of 12 virtual fax? Please define the 2 locations requiring virtual faxing Please provide the number of "common area" phones...lobby, breakroom, etc.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/25/2022

Question:

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: 1. Please mention exact count of O365/M365 G1, O365/M365 G3 and O365/M365 G5 licenses. 2. What are the Total Number of users who need to be setup with Phone System? 3. Do you need a Contact Center (Call Center)? How many users will be enabled for Contact Center? 4. Do you Customer require Call Recording? Do you only need Call Recording for Contact Center Users OR other users too? Please mention count. 5. Does the proposed solution need to support analog devices? What is the total count of analog devices? Are they mostly Fax and Card Readers or do they have analog phones too? Please Mention count of each 6. Do you need Paging? Do you have existing Paging solutions that need to be integrated? Please share number of devices that would require analogue connectors for Paging? 7. Are you Open to switching existing Telecom Provider? What is the name of existing provider? 8. Do you need to Port Phone Numbers? How many Phone numbers need to be ported? 9. Please mention if any 3rd Party Integrations are needed?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: NEC Questions: • Does both Hargary and Spectrum each have a 500 Mbps Internet connectivity or is it a combined speed of 500 Mbps? • Since the city already has Microsoft Teams, are they interested in enabling telephony integration with Microsoft Teams? If so we would like to know the exact license level of the Microsoft Teams ( e.g. E1, E3 or E. It could be similar similar "G" license level). • Are there plans to upgrade the Windows 10 laptops and desktops to Windows 11? If so what is the timeline? • What is the exact use of Verizon 4G mobile broadband service in the city? • Can you please clarify "Virtual faxing for up to 6 lines at 2 different locations"? If the fax is virtual, then does location matter? Or is this going to be physical Fax machines located in two separate locations? • Since this is cloud system and users are allowed to take phones home, does that make onsite support optional as everything could be achieved remotely. • Can you please provide Customer Service mainline and Police Department mainline, so we can confirm portability to our service? • What are the minimum requirements as it relates to the replacement desktop Phone sets? For example: o How many Line appearances/Feature Buttons are required for each User Type? o Do you require a Color Screen o Do you require Gigabit NIC ports at the IP phone? Will the Computer connect thru the IP desktop phone to the Wall jack so that one Network Drop will support both the users Data and IP based Voice connections? • Can you provide information on what type PSTN circuit(s) and how many trunks you have in place and connected to the Mitel PBX? For Example- 2-PRI/T1 based circuits providing 23 channels each of inbound and outbound Local/LD call or direct SIP Trunk connection into the Mitel with 40 Channels of Inbound and outbound PSTN local & LD calling • Do you have any need to support traditional Analog Telephone based devices? These are typically used for Common Area Phones (Lobby, Lunchroom, elevator, emergency/Blue light phones, etc.). If so, please indicate how many and at which locations? • Do you currently utilize any overhead paging systems that can be accessed via the current Mitel phones at any of the facilities? If so, which locations have Paging and is it an “All Call” type system or can you dial specific zones to only page certain parts of the facility. • There are several mentions of Hunt Groups and Work Groups- could you please expand on the minimum functionality required as it relates to each of these group features? • On the User types that require a “Mobile Device Only” such as the Police. Are you looking for the Venders to provide the Mobile Device itself or are you just looking to run an application on the Users existing mobile device (assuming it is supported)? o Could we get current Mobile Device model numbers and counts? • Are there any special 911 considerations we need to take into consideration as it relates to this RFP.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Question 1: Does the Town of Bluffton prefer each of the listed sites be quoted individually or bundle under 1 account/quote? Question 2: Can more than 1 quote be submitted? RFP states 1 year term contract with hardware software support for up to 6 years. As most Cloud based solutions are priced 1, 3, 5 year terms? Question 3: Can the Town of Bluffton bill two parties, the Hosted/Cloud provider and the authorized re-seller/subcontractor for on site, Tier 1, install and on going support? As well as additional Add/Move/Changes after deployment of initial install?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: 1. What licensing do you currently have for Microsoft/Office 365? (e.g. 100x O365 G3 licenses, 150x M365 E1, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: 2. What meetings solution do you currently use? (e.g. Zoom, MS Teams, Webex, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: You list seven (7) VoIP Switches – do you need replacement switching as well?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Are there any existing analog devices that need to be replaced or migrated to the new system? (e.g. Fax or Postage machines, elevators, fire alarms, paging systems, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Are there any third-party public space phones that need to be considered? (e.g. vestibule phones, doorway video phones, door trigger integration, etc.)

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Do any of your phones have Key Expansion Modules (side cars) that need to be replaced as well?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Would you like headsets for the phones or for enabling/supporting the users wishing to use their desk computer?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: For field workers, back-office workers and police officers, do the text messages need to run through the business phone system, or are those run locally through the mobile phone/carrier?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Are there any call recording or paging requirements?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: The Boilerplate Agreement included is not relevant to the Scope of Work in this RFP. Please provide a revised agreement that would be pertinent to the services requested.

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: How many conferencing host licenses are you requiring?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Invitation and Forms: Will the Town of Bluffton accept electronic signatures (i.e. Docusign) and waive the requirement for an original signature?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Additional Needs and User Requirements: Can the additional needs and requirements section be added to the RFP?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: How many physical desk phones are required? I noticed that both Police and Field Workers require mobile devices only. Would you prefer the native mobile number (vs over the top application) be a member of the hosted VoIP system?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Added question: what are the e911 requirements? This can determine a previously asked question regarding quoting and account set up

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: We are a local (Savannah and low county) Mitel Dealer with a vast experience in local and county governments. Are you interested in the latest MiVoice Business Unified communications system? This is not "hosted" solution, but can either be deployed cloud based, appliance based, or in a co-lo of your designation. The software and set typically would be owned by the end user, and thus would be a CAP-X proposition. If this is a solution you would care to explore we will proceed with responding your RFP. Thanks for your time. Michael Dodd VP Integrated Network Solutions 3819 Fourth St Savannah, Ga. direct 912-629-3102 cell 912-663-8747 www.phonesav.com miked@phonesav.com

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Could you provide a list of telephone numbers to be ported to our system? If not readily available, could you provide a total count of 10 digit phone numbers (DID's) so that we can appropriately price with our proposal?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: On page 6 of the RFP, the RFP states that the contract should be valid for 1 year following the date of execution. On page 12 of the RFP, it is stated that 6 years of pricing are being requested. As cloud based phone services are priced as telecommunications services, they are typically accompanied by a basic telecommunications contract/agreement and typically billed monthly for those services. Would the Town of Bluffton like to see pricing for a 6 year contract/agreement for those services to be billed on a monthly basis over that term?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: On page 14 of the RFP, it is stated "Contracts from firms submitting a proposal will not be accepted.". As cloud based telephone services are telecommunications services, to be compliant, telecommunication service providers require the entity (Town of Bluffton in this instance) to sign an agreement for those services to protect the entity and the service provider's compliance. Is it acceptable to submit our telecommunications service agreement with our response uploaded as a separate document?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: Could you confirm the document, "Boilerplate Agreement - updated 5 11 2021", is for reviewing purposes only and does not need to be completed and submitted with our proposal?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.

Posted: 7/26/2022

Question: How many physical locations with different addresses will E-911 services be required for emergency purposes?

Response: Please see Addendum 1.