8-Attachment 9 - BPM003793 Offeror Questionnaire - Amendment 2.pdf

Attachment 9 – Offeror Questionnaire Solicitation No. BPM003793

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration

State Procurement Office 100 N 15th Ave., Suite 402

Phoenix, AZ 85007

Table of Contents Page 1 of 57 3

A v a i l a b l e o n l i n e a t : A P P . A Z . g o v

Offeror Questionnaire

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXPERIENCE AND CAPACITY QUESTIONS

METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH QUESTIONS

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 2 of 57 3

Transmittal Letter

Michael Hillebrand Procurement Officer Michael.Hillebrand@azdoa.gov 602.542.4229

Dear Mr. Hillebrand –

On behalf of Global Market Innovators (GMI), we are pleased to submit the following response to the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) Solicitation No.: BPM003793. GMI has carefully reviewed, understands and agrees to the contractual requirements detailed within the ADOA’s Scope of Work including any additional implied specification. Further, GMI acknowledges receipt of and understanding of clarifications outlined in Solicitation Amendments 1-3.

GMI understands the objective of this RFP is to provide Network and Telephony Equipment and Services to State of Arizona. We recognize the mission of Arizona Department of Administration is to deliver effective and efficient enterprise support services to State of Arizona agency customers. In contracting with GMI, the ADOA can be confident in having a trusted Arizona based partner and in our ability to continue to provide improved solutions and services.

GMI is uniquely fit to provide the solutions to ADOA. GMI was born and has grown in Arizona with in-house capabilities of employees ranging from 24/7 Service Desk and SOC (located in the State of Arizona) to dispatch services covering the entire State of Arizona as well as expert employees with skillsets in Security, Collaboration, Networking and Data Center located in State of Arizona. In addition, our team is comprised of experienced and seasoned personnel with LEAN expertise and experience with the State of Arizona’s Arizona Management System (AMS). GMI has extensive experience working with State of Arizona departments as current customers including the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Arizona Department of Health Services and Arizona Department of Revenue.

We appreciate your time and consideration. Should you have any questions, require additional information, need further clarification, or take exceptions to proposal details, please do not hesitate to contact us at your convenience. We look forward to continuing to build upon our valued partnership and the opportunity to meet and exceed your expectation relative to this engagement.

Sincerely, Simer S. Mayo

CEO

GMI

December 7th, 2021

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 3 of 57 3

Executive Overview

In today’s ever-changing technology landscape, offering comprehensive and flexible solutions that drive results is key to any progressive engagement. Providing the platform for our clients and their customers to have secure and reliable technology is our ultimate goal. Our unique integrated approach of secure, mobile (remote or on-site) and reliable technology solutions will provide ADOA with a trusted partner that can help ADOA deliver effective and efficient enterprise support services to State of Arizona agency customers.

Founded in 1998 in State of Arizona, GMI brings together a team of seasoned professionals with expertise ranging from top OEM’s, Technology practices including Security, Collaboration, Networking, Data Centers and others. With over 100 years combined experience within our senior leadership team, GMI has the skill, expertise and experience to be an ideal partner for ADOA. GMI has designed very specific core strategies for our organization while partnering directly with our clients to enhance our approach to align with key client requirements. Just like ADOA, core to GMI’s operating principles is providing value added services through advanced emerging technologies and service expertise to supplement customer’s unique needs. Going beyond standard contracted services defines partnership at GMI. Our proven success throughout the industry highlights our commitment to driving performance and results.

Capability GMI utilizes LEAN continuous improvement methods as the foundational approach for all solutions and services provided by our organization. We rely on a collaborative team effort to improve solution engineering and delivery by ensuring that all solutions meet our customer’s requirements of security, uptime, scalability, cost and performance. We provide technology solutions and services focused on continuous improvement for Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) driving our clients’ success. Our ongoing commitment is to improve effective and efficient enterprise solutions by utilizing industry best practices including ITIL, NIST, CIS, and manufacturers alike to increase Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and other critical metrics, while achieving our client defined success Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

GMI is a top performer for each customer that we work with, as we successfully compete against and outperform, multi-billion dollar companies in performance, delivery, solution design, technology, culture and value. Our clients always have direct access to our executive leadership team, driving better synergies between the organizations and voice of the customer. In short, GMI is small enough to be accessible and responsive, but large enough to scale and perform.

Our in-house solutions include technology practices:

• Security

• Collaboration

• Networking

• Data Center

• 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC)

• 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC) that monitors real-time for ALL customers from Iron

Mountain Data Center in Phoenix, Arizona

• 24/7 Service Desk

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 4 of 57 3

• Dispatch Team supporting customers within defined SLA’s in all parts of the State of Arizona

• Client individualized Procurement Web Portal

• Solutions Architects ranging from some highest OEM certifications including CCIE, Palo Alto

(certs), etc. that work closely with client’s technical team to understand client needs and objectives

Method of Approach Working extensively with both private and public-sector entities, GMI partners closely with our clients for mutual success. GMI will regularly engage in ongoing conversations to align with ADOA regarding technology needs of different State of Arizona agencies and changing industry patterns.

The keys to our success include:

ü Voice of the Customer: We always listen to the customer needs, challenges and the business problems that they are trying to solve. With a clear understanding of the challenge and expectations, we are able to provide a solution within budget and time to our customers.

ü Communication: We believe in clear, effective, and frequent communication with the customer.

This ensures that any issues and challenges are quickly addressed and resolved.

ü KPI’s and Scorecards: We measure our performance against the KPI’s and scorecards defined with our customer and regularly monitor/address it with our customers.

ü Assessment and Analysis: Our customer engagement begins with a detailed assessment to identify risks and build a gap analysis report for our customers. Priorities are assigned on the tasks with timelines to ensure successful achievement of the objectives. Our Technology strategy ensures that we are not only providing you solutions and services, we are also improving security, integrating technology, improving customer service and reducing costs.

ü On-time and On-Cost Delivery: We know that on-time and on-cost delivery is critical to your success. As such, we manage the risk of cost overruns by carefully evaluating your requirements and planning engagement activities around your precise needs to produce fixed-fee engagements. This approach gives you the assurance you need to be confident that on-time and on-cost will be a reality of every GMI project you engage in.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 5 of 57 3

Experience and Capacity Questionnaire

The Offeror shall provide a narrative response to each question, using attachments as necessary, that demonstrates their understanding of the Scope of Work requirements and describes your company’s overall method of approach for providing the service stated in this solicitation. The narrative shall include a response to all elements stated or referred to in each item. If there is a question that is not applicable to the services required by the Scope of Work, you may mark it N/A.

EXPERIENCE AND CAPACITY QUESTIONS:

Question 1: Company Profile

The Offeror must include a narrative description of its organization. The narrative must include the following:

1.1 Brief overview of business operations, with an emphasis on experience in regards to the scope of work.

Offeror Response:

GMI is a secure technology services provider with deep consulting experience organized around the specialty practices of cyber security, telephony and collaboration, networking, cloud, and data center disciplines. We were formed by merging leading technology services practices to bring today’s most sought after technical expertise under a single roof. We did this with a vision of becoming a single stop for best-in-class technology with a full complement of services to support it.

Unlike the typical VAR, GMI offers a broad portfolio of expert technology services to ensure our customers get the most value from their technology investments. From advisory to product fulfillment to managed services, we have your back. We leverage deep expertise and uncommon agility to tailor solutions for a custom fit. Using a consultative approach, we strive to deliver maximum value with secure, optimized solutions that exceed expectations.

Our Core Values:

ü Exceeding Expectations ü Admiring Our People ü Being Passionate About Making a Difference

GMI is an Arizona based company with multiple physical locations in Tucson, Phoenix and Northern Arizona.

We are nearly 150 employees strong, with over 100 employees located within the State of Arizona. Based on our customer requirements, GMI can successfully build out customized on-site and remote solutions that are tailored for success. As an industry leading MSSP (Managed Security Services Provider), MSP (Managed Services Provider) and Value Added Reseller (VAR) with many industry prestigious awards and certifications, we analyze customer solutions and technology requirements as prime consideration. Our 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) and Service Desk is located within multiple locations in the State of Arizona providing

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 6 of 57 3

24/7 on-site support for our customers at Iron Mountain and other Data Centers in the State of Arizona and provide dispatch services to customers around the State. From advisory to product fulfillment to managed services, we have your back. We leverage deep expertise and uncommon agility to tailor solutions for a custom fit. Using a consultative approach, we strive to deliver maximum value with secure, optimized solutions that exceed expectations.

Grounded in an engineering culture, we are doers who operate as a close-knit team. We routinely collaborate across disciplines to ensure every solution benefits from our combined experience and collective smarts. We lend our experience to one another and to the task at hand to evolve our team and our capabilities to address today’s most pressing technology demands. We boast most key industry and best-in-class technology certifications, but it’s our time in the trenches, the time we’ve spent solving problems for others that makes us exceptional.

With GMI, you won’t just have the right people, but the right team, on the job. Leveraging our consulting practice model, we are skilled and experienced at every step of your technology journey:

• Advisory & Design. We start at the beginning, listening to your business goals and challenges and evaluating your current technology. We will guide you on how to align your existing and future IT investments toward optimal support of your business plan.

• Procurement. The best solutions require both top-notch technology and the savviness to know what will work best for your precise needs. We have done our homework. We have built relationships with the best manufacturers. We deliver affordable solutions that make sense.

• Implementation. Technology integration is often complex, disruptive, expensive, and labor-intensive. In many cases, solutions end up misconfigured or partially deployed and unable to fully deliver their intended purpose. From optimizing existing technologies to managing new deployments, we ensure you get full value from your investments.

• Monitoring & Management. We will efficiently and effectively monitor and manage your environment through our 24/7 Network Operations and Security Operations Centers (NOC and SOC). Our scalable Day 2 solutions provide the right coverage to keep your network and business fully functioning and secure.

Our track record of success includes highlights such as enterprise network and datacenter redesigns, complex enterprise collaboration solution designs, and leading the private sector’s largest global ISE deployment. We have demonstrated our ability to execute on today’s most relevant technology initiatives and in industry’s most demanding environments. Our satisfied customers include over 100 State Local Education (SLED) organizations within Arizona, as well as hundreds of commercial companies across the United States.

In addition to our services, we maintain close relationships with the industry’s top manufacturers, including Cisco, Microsoft, HPE, and many others.

Investment in Our People

We believe having a truly transformative company means being committed to the success and growth of our people. We carry that commitment through a foundational set of philosophies and programs focused on helping our employees reach their goals.

ü Dream Manager Program. We pair employees with Dream Managers to build and execute a plan of action to help employees achieve their dreams. Through coaching, encouragement, and regular meetings, the pair works together to ensure progress is being made and keep the dreamer accountable for their success.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 7 of 57 3 ü Servant Leadership. Our Leadership focuses primarily on empowering and uplifting our people, serving them in any way to contribute to their growth and wellbeing.

ü Leadership Academy. We invite our top-performing candidates to join our Leadership Academy, where they are trained on standard work, problem solving, process improvement, conflict resolution, culture and other areas to help advance their career.

ü LEAN. Our LEAN methodology provides a continuous improvement environment, where we streamline process in order to help maximize the team’s time and value contribution.

ü Conscious Capitalism. We have a purpose beyond profit, focusing on conscious leadership, conscious culture and stakeholder orientation. We action these beliefs through our commitment to our people as well as giving back to our communities.

1.2 Date established;

Offeror Response:

GMI was founded in 1998 in the State of Arizona as NVision Networking, Inc. In 2020, nVision acquired two other long-standing Arizona companies — Alagen, LLC (one of the top cyber security firms in the Southwest) and Extreme Integration, LLC and rebranded as Global Market Innovators, Inc. (GMI). Our current makeup includes over 100 combined years of proven results and customer happiness.

1.3 Ownership (public, partnership, subsidiary, etc.);

The company is an Arizona, privately held, certified woman and minority owned (MWBE) certified small business corporation owned by Vicky Mayo.

1.4 Location in which the Offeror is incorporated;

GMI is incorporated in the state of Arizona.

1.5 Address of “Main Office” (e.g. Corporate Headquarters and any satellite offices responsible for performance of proposed tasks;

Offeror Response:

Headquarters Address: 13430 N. Black Canyon Hwy, Suite 250, Phoenix, AZ 85029 Operating Facility: 4657 E. Cotton Gin Loop, Suite 101, Phoenix, AZ 85040 24/7 Service Desk / SOC: 615 N. 48th St., Phoenix, AZ 85008

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 8 of 57 3

1.6 Offeror's organizational chart relevant to the Contract, specifically identifying the key point of contact for all questions related to the submitted offer;

Offeror Response:

GMI is organized around specialized consulting practices in what we call our practice model (including cyber security, collaboration, networking, cloud and data center) — supported by executive and senior management, project managers, our full bench of consultants delivers exceptional results on requested equipment and services. In fact, we are one of only a few companies to have such broad expertise in-house within the State of Arizona. Often times, other companies in Arizona are subcontracting to GMI to provide cyber security, collaboration, networking, and data center solutions to their customers in the State of Arizona.

GMI will provide a dedicated Technology and Solutions team to the ADOA to assist in ensuring ADOA is able to achieve its mission of delivering effective and efficient enterprise support services to State of Arizona agency customers.

The following organizational chart demonstrates our top-level leadership team and the supporting departments relevant to this contract:

The key point of contact for this solicitation is:

Gregg Davis, President email: gregg.davis@gmi.com phone: (480) 682-1607

1.7 Full disclosure of any potential conflict of interest between the Offeror and any State employee who functions or has responsibilities in the review or approval of the undertaking or

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 9 of 57 3 carrying out of the Contract;

There exists no potential conflict of interest between GMI and any State employee in the undertaking or carrying out of the Contract.

1.8 A Statement of whether, in the last five (5) years, the Offeror has filed (or had filed against it) any bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding, whether voluntary or involuntary, or undergone the appointment of a receiver, trustee, or assignee for the benefit of creditors, and if so, an explanation providing relevant details and current status;

Offeror Response:

GMI has never filed bankruptcy or insolvency.

1.9 A Statement of whether there are any pending Securities Exchange Commission investigations involving the Offeror, and if such are pending or in progress, an explanation providing relevant details and an attached opinion of counsel as to whether the pending investigation(s) may impair the Offeror’s performance in a Contract under this RFP;

There are no pending nor in progress Securities Exchange Commission investigations involving GMI.

1.10 A Statement documenting all open or pending litigation initiated by Offeror or where Offeror is a defendant or party in any litigation that may have a material impact on Offeror’s ability to deliver the contracted services;

There are no pending nor in progress Securities Exchange Commission investigations involving GMI.

1.11 A Statement documenting all open or pending litigation initiated by Offeror or where Offeror is a defendant or party in any litigation with a Public sector client;

Offeror Response:

There is no open or pending litigation initiated by GMI or where GMI is a defendant or party in any litigation that may have a material impact on our ability to deliver the services contracted.

1.12 Full disclosure of any Public Sector contracts terminated for cause or convenience in the past five (5) years; and, GMI has never had any Public Sector contract terminated for cause or convenience.

1.13 Full disclosure of any criminal or civil offense.

GMI has no criminal or civil offense.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 10 of 57 3

1.14 Offeror shall provide evidence of any Arizona required business license to provide these services.

Offeror Response:

GMI is licensed to conduct business in Arizona and nationally.

Our Federal Employer Tax Identification is 86-0914329

Our AZ business license number is License #21359894

Our D&B number is 048134527

1.15 Offeror shall provide copies of any professional or industry certifications that represent the services detailed in this RFP.

Offeror Response:

GMI is a certified diversity supplier. We are proud to be a member of the following organizations that play a critical role in helping to advance progress in diversity and inclusion across the corporate landscape. Copies of these certifications are attached.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 11 of 57 3

- The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) connects corporate America and minority-owned businesses. Established in 1972, its mission is to provide minority businesses with increased procurement and business opportunities. The NMSDC Network includes 23 Regional Councils across America.

- The Supplier Clearinghouse is a commission-supervised entity focused on developing and implementing programs to increase the utilization of women- and minority-owned businesses.

- The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the U.S. and a leading advocate for women business owners and

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 12 of 57 3 entrepreneurs. This certification validates that a business is at least 51% owned, controlled, operated and managed by a woman or women.

In addition, GMI employees maintain many leading industry and technology certifications relevant to this Contract. Industry certifications include Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Security+, Network+ and Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA). Also held are certifications from Cisco, AWS, and Microsoft, to name a few. These certifications help ensure that all GMI services and solutions are delivered according to current industry guidance, and give our customers the confidence that comes from engaging with true industry professionals on every GMI engagement.

Certifications include:

• Ascom Unity Core

• Ascom VoWiFi

• AWS Technical Professional

• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH™)

• Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)

• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®)

• Certified Meraki Network Associate (CMNA)

• Certified Risk and Compliance Management Professional (CRCMP)

• Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA)

• Cisco® Black Belt – Enterprise Networking – Meraki Presales – Stage 1

• Cisco® Black Belt – Enterprise Networking – Meraki Sales – Stage 2

• Cisco® Certified Design Associate (CCDA)

• Cisco® Certified Design Professional (CCDP)

• Cisco® Certified Internetwork Expert – Routing and Switching (CCIE Routing and Switching)

• Cisco® Certified Internetwork Expert – Wireless (CCIE Wireless)

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 13 of 57 3

• Cisco® Certified Internetwork Expert – Security (CCIE Security)

• Cisco® Certified Network Associate – Collaboration (CCNA Collaboration)

• Cisco® Certified Network Associate – Routing and Switching (CCNA Routing and Switching)

• Cisco® Certified Network Associate (CCNA)

• Cisco® Certified Network Professional – Routing and Switching (CCNP Routing and Switching)

• Cisco® Certified Network Professional – Voice (CCNP Voice)

• Cisco® Certified Network Professional (CCNP)

• Cisco® Certified Security Professional (CCSP)

• Cisco® Certified Webex Calling Professional

• Cisco® Cloud Collaboration Solutions Specialization

• Cisco® Collaboration Architecture Design Specialist (CCADS)

• Cisco® Collaboration Architecture Systems Engineer

• Cisco® Collaboration SaaS Authorization (CSaaS)

• Cisco® Express Collaboration Systems Engineer

• Cisco® Express Foundation Design Specialist

• Cisco® HyperFlex

• Cisco® IP Contact Center Express Representative

• Cisco® IP Contact Center Express Specialist

• Cisco® MeetingPlace Support Specialist (MPS)

• Cisco® Unified Access Representative

• CompTIA A+

• CompTIA Network+

• CompTIA Security+

• eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester (eJPT)

• Fortinet® Security Analyst 5 (NSE 5)

• Fortinet® Security Associate 3 (NSE 3)

• GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst (GCFA)

• GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)

• GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA)

• GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN)

• HPE ATP – Hybrid IT Solutions V2

• Information Systems Security Architecture Professional (CISSP-ISSAP)

• Juniper JNCIA

• Microsoft® Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST)

• Microsoft® Certified IT Professional (MCITP: Enterprise Administrator)

• Microsoft® Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)

• Microsoft® Certified Systems Administrator on Windows 2000 (MCSA 2000)

• Microsoft® Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE: Security)

• Microsoft® Technology Associate Security Fundamentals (MTA)

• Project Management Professional (PMP®)

• Ruckus® ICX Implementer

• Ruckus® SmartZone SE & Partner Assessment Accreditation

GMI’s vendor management team also maintains contract, certification, and professional relationships with a multitude of distributors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) / independent software vendors (ISVs). Each of these organizations brief GMI on their roadmaps and expected product line expansions. Vendor management coordinates access to new products to ensure sales and solutions

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 14 of 57 3 architects are informed of options and market trends. Product roadmaps, vendor viability and emerging products are used to augment GMI’s list of product offerings.

Simply put, we are qualified and capable to perform the duties specified by ADOA under this solicitation.

Question 2: Company Experience

2.1 What market(s) are your current clients primarily in?

Offeror Response:

GMI recognizes that industries have requirements and compliance needs that demand sector-specific specialized expertise. We have deep roots and decades of experience in many industries, including State and Local Government and Education. This gives us a foundational understanding of the State’s tech environment and unique challenges. Our current client base includes:

• State & Local Government • Federal E-Rate

• Healthcare • Pharmaceutical

• Education • Software

• Energy & Utilities • Oil & Gas

• Transportation • Telecommunications

• Financial • Commercial

• Manufacturing • Retail

2.2 What experience do you have serving clients in Business Markets within the State of Arizona?

Offeror Response:

As State and Local government agencies attempt to keep pace with the ever-changing technological landscape, shifting from older antiquated systems can sometimes prove challenging. For over 20 years, we have delivered deep experience working with the legacy solutions many State agencies use and helped optimize or modernize their IT environments. We can help integrate solutions that are fiscally responsible yet ensure efficient operations.

In the current and previous fiscal year, GMI has provided a full spectrum of IT technology solutions across Arizona to serve:

• 50+ Primary Educators

• 20+ City and County Governments

• 5 Higher Educators

• 3 State of Arizona Agencies

In addition, GMI regularly assists Arizona businesses with their local, national, and global network, telephony, security and other IT-related needs.

Some of our customer technology and solutions examples include:

Domestic Food Distributor and Retail Organization:

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 15 of 57 3

A domestic distributor in the food supply chain awarded GMI a sole source contract to assist them in the retrofit of all of their US based operations totaling over 100 sites to date. Due to limitations with their existing systems, they sought a new infrastructure they could standardize on which would standardize on equipment, configuration and create a baseline for future security improvements.

GMI’s team of engineers and other network professionals teams broke the project for each site into three parts.

First, a full site survey was completed. This included port mapping, main distribution frame (MDF) and independent distribution frame (IDF) closet layouts, power requirements, design, and predictive Wi-Fi survey.

Second, we prepared the site for hardware cutover by creating scripts and change controls to update the IP schemas, VLANs, and updating all the static addressing at the location to meet standard. Finally, the low-voltage team ran new fiber optics between IDFs and the MDF, ran new cables for access points, and removing cabling no longer in use. Once completed, GMI professionals procured and replaced the entire network infrastructure including wireless access points with new equipment. We racked and stacked the gear, dressed in cables, and configured the new equipment with the standardized configurations. Once installed, we validated Wi-Fi effectiveness to customer satisfaction, providing next-day support as needed.

Before and after photos from an installation.

Tabletop Exercises for Health Care Organization:

A large health care organization wanted to test and mature cyber security incident response (IR) capabilities by conducting a series of monthly IR Tabletop Exercises (TTEs). The organization engaged GMI to plan and facilitate the IR TTEs, and provide associated IR program maturation guidance.

IR TTE’s are focused workshops which simulate various forms of cyber security incidents in order to test an organization’s ability to detect, assess, contain, and eradicate a threat based on their existing IR playbooks. IR TTE scope can range from high-level procedural reviews, to low-level technical validation. At the heart of each IR TTE is a defined threat scenario with explicit TTE success criteria that has been prepared ahead of time by a TTE facilitator based on their assessment of current program state, agreed workshop goals, and the IR playbook(s) to be tested.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 16 of 57 3

Actual TTE workshops range from 3-6 hours depending on the complexity of the scenarios and level of evidence to be provided by TTE participants for each stage of the incident response lifecycle. At their most basic level, workshop outcomes may be determined according to self-attestation of ability to execute by workshop participants. For environments with mature IR Program capabilities, workshop outcomes may require evidence (technical demonstration or other artifacts) which proves the ability to execute.

TTE workshops generally included the following activities, (but may be customized as needed):

• Introduction of TTE participants

• Review of scenario scope and setting

• Introduction of initial simulated attack details

• Activation of appropriate incident response playbook

• Identification and documentation of missing or underdeveloped IR runbook content

• Iteration through additional cycles of simulation, response, and findings identification until playbooks content has been sufficiently proven or exhausted

• Collective review of workshop findings and observations

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 17 of 57 3

Sample pages from an Incident Response Tabletop Exercises report.

ISE Deployment for large global financial:

A leading enterprise financial institution was having issues with rogue device detection. Specifically, they were unable to locate rogue devices quickly across their vast network. Further, they had difficulty understanding their full asset inventory. Previous attempts to solve the problem failed, which isn’t uncommon for financial institutions of this size. In enterprise organizations, finding efficient solutions to big problems is often time consuming and has to circumvent organizational challenges. But it was one rogue device that spurred the company to take action and fix the problem once and for all.

GMI, in conjunction with Cisco, worked with the client to create a reliable rogue device detection program throughout the organization. The bank was extremely worried about people (customers and employees) getting hardware devices on the network and hackers getting into their operations from those devices. For a bank with thousands of locations, the risk was extremely high for a bad actor to simply walk into a branch, plug in a device, and attack the entire system from there.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 18 of 57 3

The project was one of the largest Cisco ISE 802.1X implementations, scaling to 1.2 million endpoints across all 5,800 banking centers and corporate offices globally for one of the world’s biggest financial enterprises.

Cisco recommended GMI to help the institution solve this challenge due to the company’s specific expertise working with 802.1X, a Cisco product. GMI led the project with a team comprised of security experts from GMI, the client, and Cisco. The project was split into phases to integrate network access control tool Cisco ISE 802.1X across the global network.

Phase 1 set out to accomplish basic network authentication. In an enterprise, this can be extremely complex. In this case, there were 25,000 network switches with 1M endpoints. It took nearly 2 years to complete this phase.

Phase 2 was to add in some features for authentication. In Phase 2, the team started to restrict what specific types of devices could receive various levels of authentication. The team established differentiated access which enabled the bank start to properly and quickly identify and locate rogue devices.

Phase 3 was about preparing for the future, and moving all of this into next generation technology. Integrating Cisco ISE enabled new security features that will safeguard the institution for years to come.

To ensure successful adoption, GMI provided onsite knowledge transfer sessions on ISE topics specific to the customer’s solution design, configuration, and management concerns. These sessions accommodated up to 12 customer attendees per session. GMI also provided remote WebEx knowledge transfer sessions for additional customer remote teams. Runbooks were developed and distributed as an additional resource for client teams.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 19 of 57 3

Slides from the ISE training sessions.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 20 of 57 3

Exerpt from ISE runbook.

At the end of the project, every computer and endpoint associated with the bank and all of its financial services brands was known, easy to locate, and was assigned proper network access. In total, there were 1.2 million endpoints globally across all 5,800 banking centers and corporate offices.

Help Desk and Service Desk for a AZ City Entity:

Network Infrastructure Management – Our Network Operating Center (NOC) provides 24 x 7 monitoring and management of the Customer’s critical network infrastructure. GMI handles operational tasks such as port assignments, VLAN modifications, interface and routing changes. GMI expert resources handle everything from

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 21 of 57 3 firmware upgrading to remote triaging. The service also includes quarterly reviews which provides confidence in both the state of the Customer infrastructure and the service being provided.

Server Management – GMI monitors 24 x 7 for server security, availability, and health and assist onsite resources with identifying potential hardware failures. All server patches and relevant vendor bug fixes are reviewed, tested as applicable and installed. In addition, GMI provides 24 x 7 expert engineering support, including remote triage and resolution of device hardware and configuration issues. Finally, GMI technicians follow Customer prescribed escalation procedures and maintain existing documentation.

Dashboards from NOC tools

2.3 What is the range in size of your current clients?

Our Arizona State and Local Government clients range in size from 5 - 35,000 employees. Our State and Local Government clients outside Arizona range from 25 to 50,000 employees. Our commercial clients range from 10 to 140,000 employees spread across the United States and in more than 65 countries.

2.4 What is your company’s vision for the future of network and telephony equipment products and services?

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 22 of 57 3

The world of business computing has been permanently transformed by widespread cloud adoption, the move to a distributed and remote workforce as evident during the current pandemic, and a universal understanding that security can no longer be an afterthought to technology adoption.

Along with all the advances of our modern technology landscape, industry is now faced with the challenge of adopting and refining new operating models to overcome the shortcomings of legacy IT management norms.

At GMI, we believe that our deep experience in Security, Networking, Collaboration, and Data Center create a unique opportunity for us to provide the thought leadership and differentiated services necessary to lead industry through this transition.

Core to our vision, we believe the technology solutions of tomorrow must provide a seamless, integrated user experience across public and private cloud services, and embed security in all aspects of technology selection, design, implementation, and operation. Whether our customers seek to operate technology on their own or outsource management, we believe we have a role to play in helping them to realize the technology’s full value potential and to stay secure. Be it networking, telephony, or any other business capability, we have made it our mission to ensure that the solutions we promote are poised to provide enduring value in today’s digital workplace, and that our design and implementation work acheives peak optimization according to each client’s unique needs.

To deliver on this vision, we have developed a culture of collaboration and way of working that allows our best and brightest to make impactful contrubutions to a variety of multi-disciplinary technology initiatives. By leveraging these cross-functional strengths, GMI is leading the way into a new era of technology services where “secure, integrated, and optimized” are the new defaults.

We intend to leverage this talent and culture to redefine “done right the first time”. We will use it to avoid the costly mistakes of technology implementation that is divorced from responsible requirements definition and thoughtful planning. We will use it to make security retrofit a conversation of the past, and to spare our customers the discomfort that comes from learning a retrofit is necessary. Moreover, we will use it to serve our customers as a trusted source for consistent and reliable delivery of the cost-effective outcomes they depend on.

This vision will serve our customers in different ways depending on the technology services they require. For instance, GMI’s Secure Managed Services will provide the implementation level visibility and operational transparency necessary for our customers to be both knowledgeable and confident in the security safeguards that protect their assets. Beyond the capabilities of legacy Managed Service Providers (MSPs), GMI’s Secure Managed Services customers will experience an enhanced service that is informed by the advanced security capabilities and insights that come with more than a decade of delivering specialized security consulting services.

Similarly, GMI customers choosing to keep technology management in-house can leverage this same body of expertise for secure, turnkey implementation of core technologies that they can then maintain according to secure implementation baselines.

By incorporating strong security practices early and pervasively into IT lifecycle management, GMI will reduce spend on security retrofits, streamline implementation and operations costs, and, most importantly, reduce cyber risk.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 23 of 57 3

As is evidenced by the State’s AzRAMP initiative, it is clear that a “secure by default” approach to technology management is the way of the future. GMI believes strongly that our vision, values, and capabilities align to the State’s ongoing security evolution.

2.5 How long have you provided goods/services to your longest tenured client?

We are proud to have many customers that have been part of our journey since we started in 1998. Our longest tenured client has been with us for 37 years (taking into account active clients from one of our acquisition companies).

2.6 Have you had clients cancel contracts? If so, how many in the last three years and why?

While an extremely rare occurrence, we have had clients cancel contracts. A handful have been within the last three years, however none were the result of client dissatisfaction.

• A transportation company cancel a physical vulnerability assessment because it would have required on-site work incompatible with coronavirus restrictions.

• A critical infrastructure company cancelled an architecture review for a cloud application in response to changes in their internal priorities.

• A medical company cancelled an incident response tabletop exercise, again in response to coronavirus restrictions.

In all cases, our relationship with the client did not end. We have done and continue to do other work for them.

2.7 With what relevant trade, professional, or standards associations are you involved? How does this participation give you an advantage over your competition?

Offeror Response:

GMI believes in the importance of educating one another and creating discourse that benefits all. As such, in the past several years, we have regularly contributed thought leadership to events hosted by various associations and professional groups in Arizona. We hosted several presentations at Northern Arizona University’s Education Technology Consortium (ETC). We shared career path guidance for military veterans entering the technology workforce at NextGenT Live. We made presentations to members of the national Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS). We spoke at local chapter meetings for the Association of Continuity Professionals (ACP), Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and Association for Computer Operations Management (AFCOM). We also have participated on panels for the Arizona Technology Council’s Cybersecurity Summit, the Managed Security Services Forum Phoenix, The SOC of the Future Forum, and NAU’s Gender and IT Conference. We also hosted a discussion table at the Arizona Hospital Association’s Leadership Conference. Finally, we participate in several organizations such as the Project Management Institute, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Greater Phoenix Leadership organization. Through these engagements, we help strengthen IT in Arizona, learn from industry partners, and make connections that help us grow in our abilities to better serve our customers.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 24 of 57 3

2.8 What, if any, similar contracts (size, scope, content) has your company been awarded in the last 12 months?

Offeror Response:

GMI has participated in a number of similar contract bids and RFP’s over the last year. A sample of these selected awards are demonstrated here:

Mohave Educational Services Cooperative:

The Mohave Educational Services Cooperative was established in 1971 as a consortium that has become the go-to procurement source for Arizona educational instutions to have a group buying experience that helped organiztions procure equipment and services that were priced as if they were purchased at scale. In early 2021, the Mohave Educational Services Cooporative issued an RFP for the reneal of this procurement vehicle.

GMI was renewed vendor status after responding to the Mohave Cooperative’s Telecommunications Systems RFP in April 2021. With this award, GMI has maintained a longstanding telecom relationship with the Mohave Cooperative, where GMI is also recognized as a vendor for Cloud, Computer Networking, and Information Systems Professional Services.

1 Government Procurement Alliance (1GPA):

Similarly, the national non-profit governmental purchasing cooperative, 1 Government Procurement Alliance is a cooperative that pools the purchasing power of public and private schools, cities, counties and state entities as well as colleges, universities and the Native American communities. GMI renewed its Cyber Security Product Services relationship with 1 Government Procurement Alliance in November of 2021 and continues to be a proud partner of these member organizations.

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 25 of 57 3

Pima County Community College:

Under new leadership, Pima County Community College put out an RFQ that was aimed at establishing a partnership with a local organization who could help in the maturity of their security posture over the coming years. Included in this scope are professional consulting services for security, assessments, evaluations and recommendations. Additionally other categories can be considered such as network, cloud and software ranging from assessment to evaluation and proof of concept and various forms of implementation. In late 2021, GMI was awarded this services agreement and is delighted to partner with our Arizona higher education institutions.

Outside of State and Local customers, GMI has been awarded several RFP’s of similar size and scope for our commercial clients:

Global Defense Contractor:

A top 3 global defense contractor established an RFP process to the value added reseller community to assist them with driving the best value out of equipment purchases in the categories of computing equipment and peripherals, voice and video conferencing equipment, licensing and software, security equipment, security software, low value hardware and peripherals, including hardware and software maintenance across all of the above categories. This client was particularly unique in the sense that they have separate divisions and organizations throughout the globe all independently decisioning, purchasing, shipping and installing equipment. The result of this is that GMI would be required not only to work with the invididual entites but also centralized procurement on all orders.

This process included dozens of the national brands with broad focus and specialized partners focused on the scope of this RFP. GMI was viewed as an extremely qualified respondant because of the clear alignment with the customers values, our existing network for OEM and distribution partners, our willingness to work with new partners at the direction of the client and the balanced scalability to support the intimate needs of this client.

While there were many respondants, in 2021, GMI was one of the four bidders awarded in this highly competitive process.

International Retail Chain:

An international retail chain of stores issued an RFP in the summer of 2021 to establish a relationship with a vendor who would partner with this client to evolve their entire infrastructure globally over a five year period. In scope for this RFP were thousands of retail locations, corporate offices and distribution centers and focused on their core network infrastructure, security components, routing devices, SD-WAN equipment, including hardware and software maintenance across all of the above categories. Major manufactures in scope for this RFP include: Cisco, Arista, Baracuda, HPE, HPE Aruba, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks, Ruckus, Veem, VMWare, Fortinet among others.

GMI worked with manufacturers to establish cost concious pricing that would support this massive initiative.

Based on the experience in the in-scope technology and agile approach to procurement, GMI was awarded the sole source contract in late 2021.

2.9 Describe the personnel that your company has within the state of Arizona and available to support this project.

Offeror Response:

ADOA and State of Arizona customers will be supported by a robust team comprised of Account Managers, Solution Architects, Project Managers, Technical Account Managers (TAMs), Engagement Managers, and over 100 technical Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Network and Telephony Equipment and Services

Arizona Department of Administration State Procurement Office

Page 26 of 57 3

Every State customer will be assigned a named GMI Account Manager who has a primary responsibility for ensuring…