15-RFP2008 - Part E - Instructions to Offerors - Final.pdf

City of Alexandria Request for Proposals

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services

RFP No.: 2008

Part E – Instructions to Offerors

1. General

This Request for Proposals (“RFP”) is issued by the City of Alexandria, Virginia (the “City”) to solicit proposals from qualified and responsible Offerors in accordance with the Virginia Public Procurement Act (“VPPA”), using the competitive negotiation method of source selection.

Offerors are responsible for reviewing all parts of this Solicitation and submitting a complete and responsive Proposal in accordance with these Instructions.

2. Issuing Office and Point of Contact

This RFP is issued by the City through the Issuing Office identified in Part A – Solicitation General Information.

All communications concerning this RFP shall be directed solely to the Point of Contact identified in Part A – Solicitation General Information.

Offerors shall not contact any other City employee regarding this RFP. Unauthorized contact may result in disqualification.

3. Questions and Clarifications

Offerors must submit any questions regarding this RFP in accordance with the schedule set forth in Part A – Solicitation General Information.

Responses to questions and clarifications or Modifications to the RFP will be issued by a written Addendum. Only information provided by the Addendum is considered binding.

4. Addenda

The City may issue Addenda to modify or clarify this RFP at any time prior to the Proposal Due Date. Addenda will be issued in accordance with the procedures specified in Part A

– Solicitation General Information.

Offerors are responsible for monitoring the Solicitation and acknowledging receipt of all Addenda in their Proposal.

5. Award

The award will be made as provided in Part F – Evaluation and Method of Award.

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services

6. Contract Formation

Submission of a Proposal does not create a binding contract. A contract shall not be formed until a written contract is fully executed by the City and the successful Offeror in accordance with applicable law.

7. Disqualification of Offerors

The City reserves the right, in accordance with the VPPA, to reject or disqualify any Proposal that:

7.1.1. Fails to substantially comply with the requirements of this RFP;

7.2.1. Contains materially false or misleading information;

7.3.1. Results from prohibited communications; or

7.4.1. Is submitted by an Offeror determined to be non-responsible

8. Evaluation and Negotiation

Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria set forth in Part F – RFP Evaluation and Method of Award.

The City may conduct discussions and negotiations with Offerors determined to be fully qualified and reasonably susceptible of being selected for award. The City may request additional information, presentations, interviews, or best-and-final offers as part of the evaluation process.

9. Format for Proposal Response

Proposals must be organized, complete, and clearly presented to facilitate evaluation by the City. Offerors are encouraged to provide concise, well-structured responses that directly address the requirements of this Solicitation. Proposals should follow the format outlined below, with each section clearly labeled and presented in the order listed. Please note that the City will be evaluating for completeness and quality of the Technical Proposal, so it is imperative that all Proposers abide by the Response Format stated herein and include all information requested in those tabs.

9.1. Cover Letter

Provide a signed cover letter on firm letterhead that:

9.1.1 Identifies the Offeror’s legal name, address, and primary point of contact

9.1.2 States the Offeror’s interest in and understanding of the requested services

9.1.3 Confirms the Offeror’s ability to perform the services as described

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services

9.1.4 Identifies any proposed subcontractors or teaming partners and their roles

9.1.5 Is signed by an individual authorized to bind the Offeror

9.2 Table of Contents

The Table of Contents shall indicate the material included in the Proposal by Tab and page number. The Table of Contents shall mirror the format set forth in this section and shall include all the items set forth below.

9.3 Signed Attachments C and D of Part G

The Proposer shall complete and sign the stated attachments. The signatory must be an individual who is authorized to legally bind the Proposer.

9.4 Depth of Understanding and Approach

Offeror shall include a thorough description of their understanding of Part B. The proposed approach for ensuring on how the City’s requirements will be met and addresses the following:

9.4.1 Offeror shall describe in comprehensive detail their technical monitoring approach;

9.4.2 Offeror’s proposed solution shall describe how KPI metrics such as time intervals for incident response, triage, ticket creation and assignment, communication, and escalation will be supported.

9.4.2.1 Utilizing Table 2, found in Section 8.2 of Part B as a basis, the

Offeror’s response shall describe in detail how incident response KPIs will be derived and supported by the proposed solution. The description shall include details such as the KPI start/stop triggers, how those are captured, and the use of automation to effectively manage, support, and report on compliance.

9.4.2.2 The Offeror’s response shall provide a description of reporting capabilities, including detected and reported events, performance metrics, response KPIs, ticket processing details such as assignments, escalations, and processing statistics for Tiers 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 support.

9.4.3 The Offeror shall describe the capability, approach, and methods that will be used to support the event management processes described in section

8.4 of Part B.

9.4.3.1 For detection and intake activities of the event management process, the Proposer shall describe all available vectors for

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services reporting new events, such as telephony, text messaging, desktop collaboration, email, web portal, and self-service ticketing.

9.4.3.2 For triage and impact assessment, the Proposer shall describe internal processes and tools, including knowledgebases, runbooks, configuration management, and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning capabilities to automate effective alarm correlation and initial assessment of event scope, scale, and impact.

9.4.3.3 For event prioritization and communication, the Proposer shall describe the ability to adopt the City’s prioritization scheme, or how it will be correlated to ensure operational consistency.

9.5 Industry Standards/Professional Certifications

The Offeror shall specify alignment with any specific industry standards or frameworks, and any related certifications held by the Offeror, around which services under this RFP will be structured and delivered, including but not limited to the following:

9.5.1 Operational support standards or frameworks (e.g., Information

Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Control Objectives for Information Technologies (COBIT); and

9.5.2 Process certifications (e.g., International Organization of Standardization

(ISO) / International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

9.6 Description of Tools and Methods Proposed to Be Utilized

The Offeror shall include a description of tools and methods used within the proposed solution, including but not limited to:

9.6.1 Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) platforms used.

9.6.2 Alarm and event correlation support systems, including dependencies on design details needed from the City.

9.6.3 Use of AI-based tools or capabilities to support alarm / event correlation or predictive analysis.

9.6.4 NMS collectors and other on-premises systems. Offeror shall describe requirements for remotely accessing on-premises systems, who will have access to those systems, how those systems are secured, and precise details for network connections to those systems.

9.6.4.1 Offerors may propose one (1) NMS collector or two (2) for redundancy. Proposers shall specify requirements for all network

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services connections to enable and support on-premises NMS collector(s), including data synchronization, failover, and recovery.

9.6.4.2 Proposers shall describe how privileged access to on-premises NMS is managed and secured.

9.6.5 The Offeror shall describe ticketing system capabilities for aiding, facilitating, automating, and reporting event management statistics on operational processes and requirements, including response service-level agreements (SLA).

9.6.6 The Offeror shall describe the ticketing system’s capabilities for integrating with the City’s Ivanti (Cherwell) ticketing system, with specific details of how ticket status updates may be synchronized, and any use of advanced protocols such as Representational Sate Transfer Application Programming Interface (REST API), Network Configuration Protocol (NetConf), or others.

9.6.7 The Offeror shall describe the NMS system’s capabilities to support a portal for a live view of the network performance and the network’s performance history.

9.7 Personnel / Hiring Approach

The Offeror shall describe their organization’s hiring criteria and requirements, such as prior experience, education, training, professional certifications, and background checks.

9.8 References

Provide references for projects similar in scope and complexity on the Reference Sheet provided in Part G, Attachment E of this Solicitation.

9.9 Company Qualifications and Experience

The Offeror shall include information describing the extent of its experience and expertise in providing the services sought pursuant to the RFP. The information shall include the Proposer’s qualifications to meet the RFP requirements and to produce the required outcomes, including its ability, capacity, skill, and experience in providing the required services.

The Offeror shall highlight their experience on a minimum of three (3) engagements with other Federal, State, or local government clients of similar scope of this procurement. The Offeror shall document those engagements via the Attachment H – Offeror’s Qualification Form of Part H, as part of their response to this tab, for at least three (3) projects with each project meeting all the mandatory requirements in Part B. It is incumbent upon the Offeror to provide enough detail

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services in this tab for the City to evaluate the Offeror’s ability to meet the requirements and perform the services as described in this solicitation.

9.10 Proposed Staff Qualifications and Experience

The Offeror shall provide an organizational chart and resumes for key personnel that will be assigned to this project, if awarded.

The organizational chart must depict the roles and structure of authority among the key leadership and subject matter experts that will be assigned to this project.

Resumes must include project references and descriptions associated with project experience sufficient to enable the City to evaluate the staff’s experience in providing similar or relevant services to other organizations. Resumes should identify education, certifications, and other related qualifications that are relevant to performance of the work required by this RFP. The description of their projects must be detailed and comprehensive enough to permit the City to evaluate the similarity of those projects to the work anticipated for the resultant contract of this

RFP.

9.11 Sub-Contractor Form (Attachment F of Part G)

The Offeror shall provide a completed Subcontractor’s List.

9.12 Acceptance of Conditions

The Offeror shall indicate its acceptance of the requirements, terms and conditions, and insurance, as set forth in the RFP, including all addenda issued pursuant to the RFP.

9.13 Additional Information

Provide any additional information requested elsewhere in this Solicitation or that the Offeror believes will assist the City in evaluating the Proposal.

9.14 Cost Proposal

The Offeror shall complete the EUNA Procurement Bid Table for the Work identified in this RFP and consider the following information:

9.14.1 Once the Contract has been awarded, the Contractor will not be permitted to charge the City for any service that is not clearly identified in terms of pricing and detail within their original proposal to the City. The only exceptions to this limitation will be if the City specifically requests an additional service that was not identified in the RFP or the Proposer’s Proposal.

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services

9.14.2 The City will not pay any costs for additional services, supplies, or other fees not identified in the RFP or the Proposer’s Proposal without prior approval of a Change Order.

9.14.3 No pricing information shall be provided in the Technical Proposal.

9.14.4 Pricing shall remain firm for thirty-six (36) months and may only be altered to account for any quantity changes to the network devices and interfaces.

10 Governing Terms

The Contract resulting from this RFP shall include the City’s Part C – Special Terms and Conditions and Part D – General Terms and Conditions, which govern contract performance, administration, acceptance, payment, and remedies.

Capitalized terms not otherwise defined in this RFP shall have the meanings set forth in Exhibit A of Part H – Definitions.

11 Late Proposals

Responses arriving after the specified time and date in Part A – Solicitation General Information will not be accepted. Please allow sufficient time for the preparation and delivery of your response.

12 Mistakes in Offers

The City may permit clarification of Proposals in accordance with the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

13 Offer Submission Information and Instructions

13.1 All offers must be submitted electronically. Submit them through the EUNA

Procurement tool at:

https://alexandriava.bonfirehub.com/portal/?tab=openOpportunities. Proposals sent by mail or by hand will not be accepted. All documents submitted must be in PDF format. If a document is not in PDF format, the City may determine that the Offeror’s submission is non-responsive.

13.2 Offerors are required to complete, including signatures, and return all Attachments included in the Solicitation Documents. Solicitation and Addenda that are not signed may be considered non-responsive and not accepted.

13.3 Offerors must review and comply with the requirements of the Solicitation and ensure that all required information is provided and required forms are executed and returned with its Solicitation response, including, but not limited to:

13.3.1 Attachments

https://alexandriava.bonfirehub.com/portal/?tab=openOpportunities

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services

13.3.2 Any applicable certifications and licenses.

14 Opening of Proposals (If applicable)

As specified in Part A – Solicitation General Information.

15 Proposal Signature

Solicitation Responses must contain the original signature of an individual who is authorized to bind the Offeror. The original signature must be provided on all Solicitation Documents where a signature is required. Facsimile signatures, photographic reproductions of signatures, rubber stamps, etc., are not acceptable, except in cases where the Offeror submits its Solicitation Response through the City’s ERP system.

16 Proposal Submission

Proposals shall be submitted in the form, manner, and by the deadline specified in Part A – Solicitation General Information.

17 Proposal Submission and Presentation Costs

The City must not be liable in any way for any costs incurred by any Offeror in the preparation or submission of its Proposal or its participation in any discussion, presentation, negotiation, or meeting regarding its Proposal or the Solicitation.

18 Proposal Validity Period

Proposals shall remain valid for a period of not less than 180 Calendar Days from the Solicitation Due Date specified in Part A – Solicitation General Information, unless withdrawn by the Offeror prior to Award in accordance with these Instructions.

19 Public Inspection and Confidentiality

Proposals submitted in response to this RFP are subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). Offerors shall clearly identify any proprietary or confidential information contained in their Proposals.

The City will use reasonable efforts to protect properly designated proprietary information to the extent permitted by law; however, the City makes no representation or warranty that such information will be exempt from disclosure.

20 Vendor Registration

The Offeror, if selected for Contract Award, must complete the following registration and to receive grant funding (if applicable).

RFP: Municipal Fiber Network Operations Center (NOC) Support Services

20.1 Registered with City as an active vendor by completing the Vendor Self Service (VSS) registration on the City’s ERP system located at https://service.alexandriava.gov/MSS/Vendors/default.aspx.

20.2 If the Vendor is a Small-, Women-, or Minority-owned (SWaM) business and is registered with the Commonwealth of Virginia, provide the Vendor’s Virginia SWaM certification documentation with the registration on the City’s VSS. To register as a SWaM business with the Commonwealth of Virginia, go to the website for the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, located at https://www.sbsd.virginia.gov/.

21 Withdrawal or Modification of Proposals

An Offeror may withdraw or modify its Proposal at any time prior to the Solicitation Due Date by submitting written notice to the Issuing Office in accordance with Part A – Solicitation General Information.

No Proposal may be withdrawn after the Proposal Due Date except as permitted by applicable law.

https://service.alexandriava.gov/MSS/Vendors/default.aspx https://www.sbsd.virginia.gov/