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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFP - 9124 BUSINESS CLASS MESH WI-FI SOLUTION FOR A FIBER-TO-THE PREMISE (FTTP) BROADBAND NETWORKRFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 1 of 7 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL #9124 BUSINESS CLASS MESH WI-FI SOLUTION FOR A FIBER-TO-THE PREMISE (FTTP) BROADBAND NETWORK The City of Fort Collins is soliciting proposals to purchase and implement all the necessary services for a Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution for its City-Wide FTTP Broadband Network. It is the intent of the City to provide this solution to local businesses and organizations in the community as a managed service. As part of the City’s commitment to Sustainable Purchasing, proposals should be submitted online through the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System (RMEPS) at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/city-of-fort-collins. Note: please ensure adequate time to submit proposals through RMEPS. Proposals not submitted by the designated Opening Date and Time will not be accepted by the system. Proposals must be submitted through RMEPS before 3:00 p.m. (our clock) on April 1, 2020 and referenced as Proposal No. 9124. All questions should be submitted, in writing via email, to Gerry Paul, Purchasing Director at gspaul@fcgov.com, with a copy to Project Manager, Andy Neely, at aneely@fcgov.com, no later than 5:00 PM MST (our clock) on March 23, 2020. Please format your e-mail to include: RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution. Questions received after this deadline may not be answered. Responses to all questions submitted before the deadline will be addressed in an addendum and posted on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System webpage. Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System hosted by Bidnet A copy of the RFP may be obtained at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/city-of-fort-collins. Prohibition of Unlawful Discrimination: The City of Fort Collins, in accordance with the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (78 Stat. 252, 42 US.C. §§ 2000d to 2000d- 4) and the Regulations, hereby notifies all bidders that it will affirmatively ensure that any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises will be afforded full and fair opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, or national origin in consideration for an award. The City strictly prohibits unlawful discrimination based on an individual’s gender (regardless of gender identity or gender expression), race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, age 40 years or older, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, or other characteristics protected by law. For the purpose of this policy “sexual orientation” means a person’s actual or perceived orientation toward heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. The City also strictly prohibits unlawful harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment. Further, the City strictly prohibits unlawful retaliation against a person who engages in protected activity. Protected activity includes an employee complaining that he or she has been discriminated against in violation of the above policy or participating in an employment discrimination proceeding. RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 2 of 7 The City requires its vendors to comply with the City’s policy for equal employment opportunity and to prohibit unlawful discrimination, harassment and retaliation. This requirement applies to all third-party vendors and their subcontractors at every tier. Public Viewing Copy: The City is a governmental entity subject to the Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. §§ 24-72-200.1 et seq. (“CORA”). Any proposals submitted hereunder are subject to public disclosure by the City pursuant to CORA and City ordinances. Firms may submit one (1) additional complete proposal clearly marked “FOR PUBLIC VIEWING.” In this version of the proposal, the Firm may redact text and/or data that it deems confidential or proprietary pursuant to CORA. Such statement does not necessarily exempt such documentation from public disclosure if required by CORA, by order of a court of appropriate jurisdiction, or other applicable law. Generally, under CORA trade secrets, confidential commercial and financial data information is not required to be disclosed by the City. Proposals may not be marked “Confidential” or ‘Proprietary’ in their entirety. All provisions of any contract resulting from this request for proposal will be public information. New Firms: The City requires new Firms receiving awards from the City to fill out and submit an IRS form W-9 and to register for Direct Deposit (Electronic) payment. If needed, the W-9 form and the Firm Direct Deposit Authorization Form can be found on the City’s Purchasing website at www.fcgov.com/purchasing under Firm Reference Documents. Please do not submit with your proposal. Sales Prohibited/Conflict of Interest: No officer, employee, or member of City Council, shall have a financial interest in the sale to the City of any real or personal property, equipment, material, supplies or services where such officer or employee exercises directly or indirectly any decision-making authority concerning such sale or any supervisory authority over the services to be rendered. This rule also applies to subcontracts with the City. Soliciting or accepting any gift, gratuity favor, entertainment, kickback or any items of monetary value from any person who has or is seeking to do business with the City of Fort Collins is prohibited. Collusive or Sham Proposals: Any proposal deemed to be collusive or a sham proposal will be rejected and reported to authorities as such. Your authorized signature of this proposal assures that such proposal is genuine and is not a collusive or sham proposal. The City of Fort Collins reserves the right to reject any and all proposals and to waive any irregularities or informalities. Utilization of Award by Other Agencies: The City of Fort Collins reserves the right to allow other state and local governmental agencies, political subdivisions, and/or school districts to utilize the resulting award under all terms and conditions specified and upon agreement by all parties. Usage by any other entity shall not have a negative impact on the City of Fort Collins in the current term or in any future terms. Sincerely, Gerry Paul Purchasing Director RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 3 of 7 City of Fort Collins Request for Proposals (RFP) #9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution for A Fiber-to-the Premise (FTTP) Broadband Network SECTION 1 – Project Background Fort Collins is nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and alongside the banks of the Cache La Poudre River. With an estimated population of 170,000 (approximately 70,000 premises), Fort Collins is among the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas. The City includes many assets and amenities that provide a competitive advantage including: Colorado State University, abundant natural resources and agricultural land, a highly educated and creative workforce, a historic downtown, and many miles of trails, parks and bike paths. Fort Collins has one of the highest rates of patents per capita in the world with a major research institution – Colorado State University – a cluster of federal laboratories and such high-tech companies as Hewlett-Packard, AMD, Intel and Broadcom. SECTION 2 – Project Requirements The City of Fort Collins is soliciting proposals to purchase and implement all the necessary services for a Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution for its City-Wide FTTP Broadband Network. It is the intent of the City to provide this solution to local businesses and organizations in the community as a managed service. The City reserves the right to purchase any, all, or none of the solution(s) solicited in this RFP. Proposals must be submitted in accordance with the conditions outlined in this Request for Proposals (RFP). Overall Requirements Proposed solution will meet the following Minimum Requirements: • Best-in-class Business Mesh Wi-Fi solution built for Small, Medium, and Enterprise clients in a variety of challenging environments including retail, multi-tenant, hospitality, and event settings. • All proposed hardware shall support the 802.11ax 5GHz “WiFi 6” specification standard utilizing MU-MIMO and no less than 2x2 MIMO chains. • Supports NAT and DHCP. • Support for multiple hardware form factors including one or more indoor models and no less than one outdoor model. Support for flexible mounting and a variety of external antennas. • Supports no less than 4 SSIDs and single-SSID 5 GHz/2.4 GHz auto-negotiation. • Support for 100 or more concurrent wireless client devices on at least one of the proposed APs. • Support for WPA-TKIP, WPA2 AES, and 802.1x. • Supports a variety of authentication methods including 802.1x EAP-SIM/AKA, EAP- PEAP, EAP-TTLS, EAP-TLS, and MAC authentication via RADIUS or TACACS. • Separates client-to-AP traffic from AP-to-AP traffic on independent radios and spectrum. RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 4 of 7 • Carrier- or MSP-class solution that supports no less than several hundred Organizations/Customers and thousands of APs. • Active real-time self-healing – by switching channels, adjusting backhaul paths, or employing other techniques – based on the results of active self-monitoring of the WiFi network’s performance. This is sometimes called “Adaptive” or “Cognitive” self-healing. Please describe in detail how your proposed solution meets this requirement. • Provides visibility into the status of all deployed equipment and perform actions on demand such as scheduled software updates through a centralized dashboard or similar centralized management interface. Describe the ability of this interface to monitor, and to modify the state of equipment in the ecosystem using TR-069 and other methods. • Management interface with technical views such as heat maps, channel noise analysis, and power levels as well as administrative views such as system authentication and access logs. • Preference will be given to solutions with cloud-based central management. Describe how your solution meets this requirement. Explain any options or hardware solutions that offer backup or redundancy to this management system – either at the service provider or customer level – and any additional hardware and/or software that is proposed. • Centralized management perspectives for both the MSP level (for staff overview/management of all customers) and Organization/Customer level (for customer self-management). • Proposed APs have the option to be wired and include no less than One (1) Ethernet port on the device. • Supports Power Over Ethernet (POE) 802.3af. • Supports WMM at a minimum for subscriber QoS. • Support for multiple public and/or private splash pages and authentication methods. • Full-featured guest portal options including welcome text, terms of service acknowledgement, restricted networks, session expiration controls, redirection, interface customization, vouchers, bandwidth restrictions. • Integrated security features including known blacklist, ad blocking, motion security, workgroup/parental controls, client cross-communication isolation, and rogue AP isolation. • Uses beamforming to focus transmitted wireless signals toward the receiving device. • Fast-roaming support with no known outstanding software or hardware incompatibilities with major client devices, including Apple and Android mobile devices. • Fully supports IPv6 and DHCPv6. Additional Deliverables: • Provide all recommended hardware models with a detailed chart comparing the features and pricing, especially those features referenced in this RFP. • Describe any integration services that are recommended to simplify or speed the deployment of the proposed solution, as well as associated costs. • Explain any pre-developed training or technical diagnostic procedures that are available for the solution, including existing tier 1/2/3 support documentation. Describe the availability and costs for support of the solution including setup and/or recurring fees. RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 5 of 7 • Describe or provide any white label training materials that are available to provide to enterprise administrator clients in order to support client training and operation of the solution. • Provide a description of support and escalation paths for any service impacting issues for the solution proposed. Include historical response times for email, phone, and chat support during and outside of regular business hours. • Explain how the proposed solution has been designed to reduce technician labor at time of installation and reduce post-installation truck rolls. • Provide standard manufacturer warranties for the hardware proposed in the solution. • Explain the RMA process for the hardware proposed in the solution. • Describe and/or provide any white-label marketing materials that are available for the solution. • Provide the total number of devices installed across your entire business WiFi product line. Provide the number of 802.11ax devices installed across your business WiFi product line. Explain how this installed device count contributes to the solution’s effectiveness. • Provide the manufacturer’s product release roadmap for hardware solutions to ship supporting the 802.11ax 6GHz “WiFi 6E” specification standard. • Describe the manufacturer’s release roadmap for WPA3 and WPA3 Enterprise for any product included in this proposal. • Describe any APIs or programmatic installation and/or configuration options in detail. • Describe how your proposed solution interoperates with 3rd party APs, including any officially supported hardware lists and/or describe the specific compatibility requirements in detail. • Describe the business and/or technical relationship of the respondent’s (your) organization to the manufacturer of the proposed solution. • Provide the current availability of the solution. The City desires the devices to be deployed beginning in April 2020. SECTION 3 – Response Format RFP response must contain answers to the following questions in this order and format. A. Response Requirements 1. Fill out the attached Feature Response Matrix with either Yes/No or an appropriate brief answer for each line and return the Features Response Matrix in its original .xlsx format attached to your responses. Fill in one column for the centralized management solution and one column for each AP model proposed in the solution. 2. Provide a detailed response to any Requirements and Additional Deliverables as specified above. For each Requirement, describe how the proposed solution meets the Requirement. 3. Provide a detailed list of any features and technical specifications for the proposed solution and all devices. 4. For each proposed solution, provide detailed line-item cost break-down for each cost elements including one-time, recurring, etc. 5. Include installation and turn-up timelines expected for the proposed solution proposed. RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 6 of 7 6. Provide a detailed list of any cancellation penalties or early termination fees as applicable. 7. Provide a sample contract including support models. The City of Fort Collins reserves the right to purchase any, all, or none of the products and services offered in responses. The City will not pay charges that are not specifically defined within the Bidder’s response. Section 4 – Other Details Anticipated Schedule The following represents the City’s target schedule for the RFP. The City reserves the right to amend the target schedule at any time. • RFP issuance: March 16, 2020 • Question deadline: 5:00 PM MST on March 23, 2020 • Proposal due date: 3:00 PM MST (our clock) on April 1, 2020 • Interviews/Demos via Webex: April 2020 • Notice of Award: April 2020 Interviews/Demonstrations In addition to submitting a written proposal, the top-rated firms may be interviewed and provided an opportunity to demonstration the proposed solution(s). The City may also elect to award directly based on the written proposals. Subcontractors Firms will be responsible for identifying any subcontractors in their proposal. Please note that the City will contract solely with the awarded firm, therefore subcontractors will be the responsibility of the firm. Laws and Regulations The firm agrees to comply fully with all applicable local, State of Colorado and Federal laws and regulations and municipal ordinances. Section VI – Review and Assessment Criteria Proposal and Interview/Demonstration Criteria Firms will be evaluated on the following criteria. These criteria will be the basis for review and assessment of the written proposals and optional interview session. At the discretion of the City, interviews of the top-rated Firms may be conducted. RFP 9124 Business Class Mesh Wi-Fi Solution Page 7 of 7 WEIGHTING FACTOR CRITERIA 50% Assessment of the proposed solution(s) 15% Time and resources required to implement and support 35% Proposed value including costs for implementation, licensing, and recurring annual maintenance Reference Evaluation Criteria Prior to award, the City may check references and negative responses from references may impact the award determination.