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Home My WebLink AboutRFP - RFI R0302City of Fort Collins Administrative Services Purchasing Division THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION R-0302 WIRELESS DATA SOLUTION RFI The City of Fort Collins is soliciting information pertaining to a Wireless Data solution. The City of Fort Collins currently utilizes A T& T's CDPD infrastructure. A T & T intends to discontinue the CDPD solution by June 2004. The City of Fort Collins will need to either migrate to A T & T's new GPRS solution or find another alternative. We are asking vendors to provide alternate solutions for wireless data. The City will issue a request for proposal (RFP) should an alternative be in its best interest and meet our needs, as outlined in the following sections. A minimum of five (5) information packages will be received at the City of Fort Collins' Purchasing Division, 215 North Mason St., 2nd floor, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524. RFIs will be received before 4:00 p.m. (our clock), June 30, 2003. If delivered, they are to be sent to 215 North Mason Street, 2"d Floor, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524. If mailed, the address is P.O. Box 580, Fort Collins, 80522-0580. Questions concerning the scope of the project should be directed to the Project Manager, Mary Moore, at 970-221-6743 Questions regarding proposals submittal or process should be directed to Jim Hume, CPPO, Senior Buyer, at (970)-221-6776. A copy of the Proposal may be obtained as follows: 1. Download the Proposal/Bid from the Purchasing Webpage, www.fcgov.com/purchasing. 2. Come by Purchasing at 215 North Mason St., 2Id floor, Fort Collins, and request a copy of the Bid. Sincerely, a s B. O'Neill II, CPPO, FNIGP ector of Purchasing & Risk Management 215 North Mason Street - 2nd Floor - P.O. Box 580 - Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 - (970) 221-6775 - FAX (970) 221-6707 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION R-0302 WIRELESS DATA SOLUTION RFI Section 1.0: Background 1.1 General Description The City of Fort Collins is soliciting information pertaining to a Wireless Data solution. The City of Fort Collins currently utilizes A T& T's CDPD infrastructure. A T & T intends to discontinue the CDPD solution by June 2004. The City of Fort Collins will need to either migrate to A T & T's new GPRS solution or find another alternative. We are asking vendors to provide alternate solutions for wireless data. The City will issue a request for proposal (RFP) should an alternative be in its best interest and meet our needs, as outlined in the following sections. 1.2 Submittal Please provide the following information: a. A brief company history and experience in developing and deploying Wireless Data solutions. b. The name of the company representative responsible for providing further information. c. A written description of the proposed products and services as described below. Include product brochures, flyers, specifications, sample RFP's and any other information which might be helpful. Do not include proprietary information. d. Pricing or price ranges, where requested e. A reference list of current Public Safety installs. 1.3 Project Plan The City of Fort Collins needs an immediate solution to the migration deadline imposed by our current vendor. We have determined that Phase I of this project will focus on that immediate need. Phase II will address ongoing and future needs of the City and our partners. 1.4 Participants City of Fort Collins • Police Services • Streets Department • Transfort — Dial A Ride • Poudre Fire Authority • Poudre Valley Ambulance • Other County agencies may participate on a case by case basis. Section 2.0: Scope of Information Requested 2.1 Critical issues Because this infrastructure will be used primarily in a public safety environment it is imperative that certain components be met. The following items are critical to both public safety users and our partners. • RELIABILITY Wireless communication to dispatch centers and other primary databases is of utmost importance. Getting information in a timely manner is essential for effective fire and law enforcement and the public's safety. To achieve this timely sharing of information required, there must be a constant and reliable connection to the internal systems. Reliability has been an issue for most users. We need to know your history of outages and recovery time. Do your upgrades require down time? How are scheduled outages communicated and how much notice is given. • SECURITY Due to the nature of the shared information it is important to have a high level of encryption and other security measures to protect communications between the laptop and internal systems. Need the capability to configure internet deny or access. • COVERAGE/ SERVICE AREA The largest coverage/service area for this project is Poudre Fire Authority (PFA) boundaries. All other users need service within the City of Fort Collins Urban Growth area. A PDF file map is attached of those areas. Dial -A -Ride (DAR) also serves rural clients in Wellington and Bellevue and both PFA and DAR have service needs in LaPorte. • SPEED Currently CDPD is running at 19.2 kbps. While this has been adequate for today's usage, we will all benefit from faster speeds. Must be able to work with simple text messaging functions and Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) now, but with higher speeds for field reporting and access to web based queries within the next year. Also see "Future Needs". • CAPACITY 2.2 Current Applications City of Fort Collins Police Services (FCPS), Poudre Fire Authority (PFA) and Poudre Valley Ambulance (PVH) currently run the same Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) application with PRC. They are in the process of migrating to a new CAD system with Tiburon. A field reporting application will be implemented at this time and it is anticipated greater amounts of data will be passed than what is experienced today. The proposed timeline for that live cut is first quarter 2004. Laptops are the main device used. PCMCIA cards are the preferred connection device. Secondary connection can include serial and USB ports. The current number of CDPD connections are as follows: FCPS 199, PFA 20, and PVH 6. CAD and other internal systems may require a static IP address. City of Fort Collins Transfort/Dial-A-Ride currently uses a combination of Trapeze Software Group Transit and Mentor Engineering Mobile Data Computer Software. 21 units are outfitted with Mobile Data Computers and are used primarily from 4am to 2:30am Monday through Saturday. Over 400 DAR client trips are performed daily using data information passed back and forth from the Dispatch center to the Vehicles. City of Fort Collins Streets Department uses an AVL application by Orbital Sciences. The CDPD modem is integrated into the hardware that goes into the vehicle. The current software version is capable of transmitting on CDPD, Private Mobile radio at 450, 800 and 900 MHz. Because this AVL device is proprietary with Orbital Sciences, vendors will need to contact Orbital representative Christopher Body at 1-(443}259-7328 to ensure their recommended communications network is compatible. In the event the AVL application needs upgraded, all costs should be included for this. 2.3 Current Network Connection The City of Fort Collins currently supports a switched Ethernet IP network. Each vendor will need to specify and price any additional or special equipment required on our end. TCP/IP is the standard format for most, if not all, network connections. Some applications may require static IP addresses. We need access to certain internal system devices with a minimum of 15 connections. 2.4 Future needs The following items should be identified as part of our Phase II needs: Fire and EMS would like to deploy Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL/GPS) within the next year. Fire would like Web browser based access to various databases. Fire would like to transmit video from the field. Coverage/Service area for Transfort/DAR may increase in the future to include the Loveland area, both urban and rural clients. Streets may want to implement PDA's or laptops that would require faster speed to transmit images from the field. The Streets Department has video cameras mounted at sites around Fort Collins that may benefit from being on a wireless network like 802.11. Public Safety users would like access to pictures and PDF files in the future High speed — a preferred system would include high speed technology (802.11 b or equivalent). This would provide personnel with a near -office environment while working in the field. Police Officers are in or around their vehicles over 90% of the time and high speed access to internal systems boost their effectiveness and saves valuable paid time. This technology would need placed throughout the city for constant and reliable access. Remote System Administration — The preferred system would include system administrative functionality. Preferred functions include automatic updates to software and files when the system detects new versions and remote functions for administering the laptops. These functions would greatly reduce delays because the officers would not need to come into the office for repairs. 2.5 Timeline Due to the limited number of technical support staff and the various projects that we are slated to deploy in the next 18 months, please provide an implementation or migration time line that we can review. 3.0 Requested Information In addition to the critical issues already identified and any specific application requirements, please provide information on each of the following items: • Proposed Infrastructure/Network Proposed Migration Path to Future • Protocols/Standards • Interface requirements • Vendor Experience o Any history with our current applications • Testing Equipment availability for coverage and performance verification • Proposed Timelines for Migration • Pricing Proposal o Itemized overall pricing o Rebate Offers o Roaming Overage o Activation Fee o Rounding Factor o Early Termination Fee • Support o Identify costs and availability of phone and/or on -site support • Schematic and/or description of how the wireless network will connect back to the City's Network • Any required upgrades or equipment on our end yyt, }B\NGH'AM jyxi 7 = O'bY1MFY"ROAB�A I } �7sce° }j a ) \ f D 4. 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