Combined Questions and Answers~1.pdf

BD-21-1780-WH780-WH780-70797

Whitman-Hanson Regional School District VOIP Telephone

System Project IP Telephony Based Telecommunications

System Request for Proposals (RFP)

Questions 1-6 as asked by Potential Bidders as of 2/22/22

Question #1: “Will phone counts be included at the meeting for I did not see in the RFP?”

Answer #1: Yes, Phone counts and technical documents will be provided at the walkthrough meeting. They will also be posted on the District’s website as soon as possible.

Question #2: “Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this?”

Answer #2: There is a qualifier in the RFP section 1.3 on page 6 that states in part …“In order to be eligible to bid on this RFP, the Bidder must be on the ITT72 statewide contract…..” If you are a company that is on the Massachusetts ITT72 statewide contract, you can bid on this RFP.

Question #3: “Whether we need to come over there for meetings?”

Answer #3: As stated in the RFP section 1.4 on page 7, there is a mandatory pre-proposal conference scheduled for Wednesday February 23, 2022 at 10AM at the main entrance of the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, 600 Franklin Street, Whitman MA 02382.

Question #4: “Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA? (like, from India or

Canada)”

Answer #4: No. The phone system must be physically installed in buildings situated in

Whitman and Hanson, Massachusetts.

Question #5: “Can we submit the proposals via e-mail?”

Answer #5: Yes. You can e-mail your bids to bids@whrsd.org by the Tuesday March 8, 2022

@ 4:00PM deadline.

Question #6: “Is there a cost estimate or budget for the project listed?”

Answer #6: Yes. The Towns of Whitman and Hanson have appropriated a total of

$328,375.00 as of 2/22/22. Also, an article for an additional $25,223.00 for the

High School phone system will be placed on the Town of Hanson’s May 2022

Annual Town Meeting warrant.

mailto:bids@whrsd.org

System Project IP Telephony Based Telecommunications

Questions 7-10 asked by Potential Bidders as of 2/23/22

Question #7: “We had been alerted……that this RFP would be available after 4PM on 2/10. It was not we even had checked through COMM buys. We spoke to their people & they told us on Monday it was still not available. They finally pointed us to your website were we were able to get the documents today. That is 5 days that we lost to work on this RFP. Since there was a delay in obtaining this and we followed the procedures from the bid sites you selected we are kindly asking for the BID to be extended by the 5 days we have missed to work on this”

Answer #7: We will be extending the deadline as follows:

Page 1: As stated in RFP:

Proposal Submission Deadline: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 @ at 4:00 PM

As stated in upcoming Amendment #1:

Proposal Submission Deadline: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 @ at 4:00 PM

Page 8: As stated in RFP:

Estimated Procurement Calendar Tasks Date Time

RFP issued on COMMBUYS 02/10/2022 4:00PM Pre-Bid Meeting 02/23/2022 10:00AM Written questions/clarifications due on or before 03/02/2022 4:00PM Release of official response to questions on or before 03/04/2022 4:00PM Proposal Submission Deadline on or before 03/08/2022 4:00PM Bidder Evaluations – Vendor Presentations 03/15/2022 10:00AM Preliminary award on or before 03/22/2022 4:00PM

As will be stated in upcoming Amendment #1:

Estimated Procurement Calendar Tasks Date Time

RFP issued on COMMBUYS 02/10/2022 4:00PM Pre-Bid Meeting 02/23/2022 10:00AM Written questions/clarifications due on or before 03/02/2022 4:00PM Release of official response to questions on or before 03/04/2022 4:00PM Proposal Submission Deadline on or before 03/15/2022 4:00PM Bidder Evaluations – Vendor Presentations 03/22/2022 10:00AM Preliminary award on or before 03/29/2022 4:00PM

Question #8: “Are you looking for a premises based solution or Hosted?”

Answer #8: We are looking for an on-premises based solution.

Question #9: “We would like to bid on this but have a question about the state contract. We are not on the MA ITT72 Contract. We are on the MA ITC 73. Also, we are not a Diverse Supplier, so it is unclear if we can even bid on this opportunity. Can you clarify?

Answer #9: There is a qualifier in the RFP section 1.3 on page 6 that states in part …“In order to be eligible to bid on this RFP, the Bidder must be on the ITT72 statewide contract…..or if this is not the case, (the Bidder) must request and receive confirmation from the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office (SDO) that a Statewide Contract has been executed with their company.” If you are a company that is on the Massachusetts ITT72 statewide contract, you can bid on this RFP.

If you are not on ITT72, but you have a confirmation from the SDO that you have a statewide contract, you can bid on this RFP.

Question #10: “What will you be doing with the retired equipment?”

Answer #10: Section 4.21 on page 25 of the RFP states the following:

4.21 Decommissioning and Removal of Existing Voice Platform:

The Bidder shall be responsible for removing all current station equipment (telephones) as it successfully installs the new station (telephone) equipment at all identified locations. All current station equipment that is removed must be deposited in a location designated by the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District. Equipment must be electronically inventoried and given to the contract administrator prior to disposal. The vendor will be responsible for the proper disposal of the equipment. In cases where the proposed telecommunications system will be installed in space occupied by the current telephone system, the Bidder shall be responsible for removing (with appropriate Whitman-Hanson Regional School District personnel) all common equipment of the current telephone system to a location designated by the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District within the building. It is desirable that the Bidder accept the current Whitman-Hanson Regional School District owned telephone equipment collected as a trade in against the proposed telecommunications system solution.

The Bidder must state any actual trade in value for the current Whitman-Hanson Regional School District owned telephone equipment in the appropriate Cost Table in Attachment C.

Also, the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District Committee voted on February 9, 2022 in open session to declare any surplus phone equipment that arises from this project as surplus inventory (9 Yes, 0 No, 1 Abstention Roll Call Vote).

System Project IP Telephony Based Telecommunications

Questions 11-13 asked by Potential Bidders as of 2/23/22

Question #11: “May I get a list of who submitted proposals/qualifications and amounts if available? If this has been awarded, may I get the name of the awarded and award amount? If not available yet, do you have an anticipated date that this will be available?”

Answer #11: The RFP process is still ongoing and no award has been made as of today. The information you seek is not available and it will not be available until the RFP process has been concluded. The preliminary award tentative date is March 29, 2022.

Question #12: “Would you be able to provide the number of phones that are to be implemented, any fax machines that will need to be configured, and any features that would be either needed or wanted please let me know. Also, I’d like just to talk to you if you get the chance.”

Answer #12: Yes, the phone counts were provided in documents handed out at a pre-bid conference that was held on Wednesday February 22, 2022 at 10AM at the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. These documents will also be posted to the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District website as soon as possible. If any of the documents contain any sensitive non-public information, those documents will not be posted to the website, but are still available by making a written e-mail request to John Stanbrook at jstanbrook@whrsd.org or bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

1) Go to whrsd.org

2) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

3) Then click on “Business Services – Bids”

4) Look for the links to the documents that are posted on the page

Also, please do not contact members of the RFP team individually to ask questions or seek information. All questions or information requests must be e-mailed to jstanbrook@whrsd.org or bids@whrsd.org. All potential bidders have the right to receive the answers to questions and to receive any information given mailto:jstanbrook@whrsd.org mailto:bids@whrsd.org mailto:jstanbrook@whrsd.org out. Mr. Stanbrook or any other member of the RFP team will not answer questions or distribute information (even informally in a phone conversation) unless all bidders have equal access to the information.

Question #13: “Can you send us the Diagrams that are referenced in the RFP? Could you provide us with the serial number for your existing Avaya System? Can you provide us with the station and trunk count by location?”

Answer #13: Yes, the Diagrams, serial number, and station and trunk count by location were provided in documents handed out at a pre-bid conference that was held on Wednesday February 22, 2022 at 10AM at the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. These documents will also be posted to the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District website as soon as possible. If any of the documents contain any sensitive non-public information, those documents will not be posted to the website, but are still available by making a written e-mail request to John Stanbrook at jstanbrook@whrsd.org or bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

1) Go to whrsd.org

2) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

System Project IP Telephony Based Telecommunications

System Request for Proposals (RFP)

Questions 14-29 asked by Potential Bidders as of 3/03/22 Question 14: “With all of the current supply chain issues, will the projected August 1st deadline for completion of the project be extended?”

Answer #14: If supply chain issues unfold during the project, adjustments will be made with the successful bidder.

Question #15: “Can I have an electronic copy of the handouts from the pre-bid conference?”

Answer #15: Yes. They are available at bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

1) Go to whrsd.org

2) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

Question #16: “Are you going to re-use your digital phones?”

Answer #16: We are asking our potential bidders to provide to us the best possible solution for the District. The ways and means of achieving that solution are up to the bidder.

Question #17: “Are you going to use analog or digital phones?”

Answer #17: We are asking our potential bidders to provide to us the best possible solution for the District. The ways and means of achieving that solution are up to the bidder.

Question #18: “Are you going to re-use the existing cabling?”

Answer #18: The cost of re-cabling the rooms within the schools or between the schools is not included in this project. The successful bidder will have to tell the District how best to use the existing cabling as part of the bidder’s submission.

Question #19: “Is the existing cabling CAT-3 or CAT-5?”

Answer #19: It is believed that the High School is CAT-6 cabling and the rest of the District is CAT-5 cabling, but each bidder must do their own due diligence and not rely on this answer to this question as a sole source of information regarding the cabling in the District.

Question #20: “Did you include money for re-cabling the phone system?”

Answer #20: No other additional money is included in this project other than as stated in Answer #6: The answer is repeated below for convenience:

Question #6: “Is there a cost estimate or budget for the project listed?”

Answer #6: Yes. The Towns of Whitman and Hanson have appropriated a total of $328,375.00 as of 2/22/22. Also, an article for an additional $25,223.00 for the High School phone system will be placed on the Town of Hanson’s May 2022 Annual Town Meeting warrant.

Question #21: “Did you include money for technical support after implementation?”

Answer #21: The successful bidder will include that in his/her bid.

Question #22: “Can questions still be sent to you?”

Answer #22: No. The deadline for questions/clarifications was March 2, 2022 at 4:00PM.

Question #23: “On the handout at the bidder’s conference, there is a “stations w/port” designation. What does that mean?”

Answer #23: That designation signifies that the phone is a physical phone.

Question #24: “Can you explain the abbreviations on the handout for each school?”

Answer #24: Yes. The abbreviations are as follows:

WHS – Whitman-Hanson Regional High School or District-wide

WHC – Conley Elementary School in Whitman

WHD – Duval Elementary School in Whitman

WHW – Whitman Middle School

WHI – Indian Head Elementary School in Hanson

WHM – Hanson Middle School

Question #25: “Is there a document that outlines what is needed for equipment at each location?

That would be for IP Phones, Conference Units, Operator Consoles, and battery backup units?”

Answer #25: The approximate equipment needs are as follows: 0 Executive Phones, 30 Administrator phones at the High School and 10 at every other building, 12 conference phones, and the rest of the phones would be classroom phones.

Question #26: “What options are in place to network with the existing Definity system?”

Answer #26: There are no options in place to network with the existing Definity system.

Question #27: “With the requested run time of the battery backup units, how many devices are required to maintain operational in battery backup?”

Answer #27: All phone systems in the telecom closet of each school shall be required to stay on for at least 10 minutes on battery.

Question #28: “Would we supplying the servers to operate the system or would we be leveraging your VMware environment?”

Answer #28: The successful bidder will be required to supply any hardware, software, and/or licensing needed, including any servers.

Question #29: “Is there a possibility for a virtual walkthrough or postings for the requirements during or after the meeting?”

Answer #29: There is no opportunity for a virtual walkthrough. All relevant documents will be posted on the District’s website. They are available at bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

5) Go to whrsd.org

6) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

7) Then click on “Business Services – Bids”

8) Look for the links to the documents that are posted on the page

System Project IP Telephony Based Telecommunications

Questions 30-64 as asked by Potential Bidders as of 3/02/22

Question #30: “The Excel-Cost form states the Town of Arlington. Is this correct?”

Answer #30: No. Please download the corrected form from the District’s website. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

1) Go to whrsd.org

2) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

Question #31: “Can we assume that there will be an Ethernet port with QOS and POE cabled out to the IP endpoint destination?”

Answer #31: Yes. Running cable to individual station locations is not within the scope of this Request for Proposals (RFP). If existing stations are VOIP, then we have existing cabling to a managed POE switch. Depending on the location, it is likely either and Enterasys B POE switch or and Extreme X450G2 series POE switch.

Question #32: “Can we assume that the IP Voice Core Processing Platform can be installed onto the customers VMWare located at the Whitman Hanson Regional High School location?”

Answer #32: The existing VMWare environment is not available for the telecom solution.

Bidders must provide any hardware/software suitable to run the solution provided in the bid response.

Question #33: “RFP states that the system be capable of providing E911 Caller ID Outgoing Name and Number which does not comply to the Ray Baum act set forth on Jan.

6, 2022. Should we provide a E911 solution as an option or part of the solution?

https://www.fcc.gov/mlts-911-requirements%20” https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcc.gov%2Fmlts-911-requirements%2520&data=04%7C01%7CMkeane%40carouselindustries.com%7C0f825941f1f04c31c56308d9f66cc6cd%7C5feb439654104b5493a4aeb49bb99590%7C0%7C0%7C637811769330023238%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=x3mdjV%2BLWizjZ5ypxWeiQkYN19M0h1%2Fe6%2FVk1goXads%3D&reserved=0

Answer #33: Section 2.5.1 of the RFP on page 9 outlines the regulatory compliance needed for this project and states as follows: “Proposed solutions much (sic) adhere to all regulatory mandates including but not limited to Kari’s Law and the Ray Baums Act. Submitted responses must include applicable mandates and method of compliance.” If a supplementary E-911 solution is required to be compliant with any regulations, it should be included as part of the solution instead of presented as an option.

Question #34: “Can you specify the Cabling and Patch Panel requirements for each location if any beside the demarcation requirements stated in the RFP?”

Answer #34: This RFP’s scope is limited to any cabling/termination requirements needed in the telecom closets. The District understands that different phone systems and or gateways may require different termination. As a result, bidders must be aware that our existing lines may not be compatible with a proposed solution and may require re-termination.

Question #35: “Can you specify the existing paging system make and model you have at each location that the VOIP system will connect to?”

Answer #35: At the High School, it is a Dukane Starcall system. There are 184 zones and integrates into the phone system via a BTC card. The BTC card then connects to a 66 block to which all of the speakers are connected.

All other schools have Simplex 5120 systems. All Simplex systems connect to an amp that connects all of the speakers via a 66 block. It is unknown how many zones exist. The District believes that each paging solution is connected via analog connections and each school only uses a single zone which allows a building-wide broadcast, but each bidder must conduct his/her own due diligence to ensure that these statements are accurate.

Question #36: “4,15 you ask that “The Contractor shall perform factory burn-in tests of all hardware” Does that include all phones? Can the burn-in take place on-site since the core will be built on customers VMWare?”

Answer #36: The core cannot be built on the existing VMWare environment. The burn-in can take place on-site.

Question #37: “Can you clarify the stand by power requirements? 4 hours vs 10 hours?”

Answer #37: This will be an upcoming Addendum to the RFP. Here is the addendum:

On page 34 under Section 5.9, the current wording states as follows:

“In the event of a primary power failure, an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) with Battery Backup, with a minimum of four (4) hours shall be provided for all locations housing VoIP processing equipment and all Remote Site Gateways.”

The addendum will change the wording of that sentence to the following with the change in bold:

“In the event of a primary power failure, an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) with Battery Backup, with a minimum of ten (10) minutes shall be provided for all locations housing VoIP processing equipment and all Remote Site Gateways.”

Question #38: “7.2 Mass Notification System: will As A service be considered for Mass

Notification System solution option?”

Answer #38: Yes, it will be considered.

Question #39: “Call Accounting- is there an existing Call Accounting solution? Should one be part of the quote or as an option?”

Answer #39: If call accounting is not included in the respondent’s base bid, it should be included as a potential alternate.

Question #40: “In and out bound FAX using the voicemail solution be part of the quote or as an option?”

Answer #40: If in and outbound fax using voicemail is not included in the respondent’s base bid, it should be included as a potential alternate.

Question #41: “There is reference to use of prevailing wages but also the use of the MA state contract ITT79. Both cannot be used. Can you confirm it’s the ITT79 contract you would like us to use?”

Answer #41: The reference in the RFP is to the ITT72 MA State Contract, and not the ITT79

MA State Contract. After informal discussions with the MA Attorney General’s office, the prevailing wage law and a MA State blanket contract both can and are used in contracts. For more clarification, please contact the MA Attorney General’s office. The respondent will be required to comply with both the MA prevailing wage law and the strictures of State Contract ITT72.

Question #42: “Can you please provide an electronic copy of the information shared in person?

Diagrams, phone counts, flour plans, etc.?”

Answer #42: Yes, the Diagrams, serial number, and station and trunk count by location were provided in documents handed out at a pre-bid conference that was held on Wednesday February 22, 2022 at 10AM at the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. These documents will also be posted to the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District website as soon as possible. If any of the documents contain any sensitive non-public information, those documents will not be posted to the website, but are still available by making a written e-mail request to John Stanbrook at jstanbrook@whrsd.org or bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

1) Go to whrsd.org

2) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

Question #43: “Can you send me the diagrams, serial numbers, station, and trunk counts if you have them?”

Answer #43: Yes, the Diagrams, serial number, and station and trunk count by location were provided in documents handed out at a pre-bid conference that was held on Wednesday February 22, 2022 at 10AM at the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. These documents will also be posted to the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District website as soon as possible. If any of the documents contain any sensitive non-public information, those documents will not be posted to the website, but are still available by making a written e-mail request to John Stanbrook at jstanbrook@whrsd.org or bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

5) Go to whrsd.org

6) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

7) Then click on “Business Services – Bids”

8) Look for the links to the documents that are posted on the page

Question 44: “Could we set up a time next week to do another walkthrough at some of the other schools to see if we can help you have all new IP phones, re-use the analog phones, and not have any Digital technology?”

Answer #44: No, that is not possible.

mailto:jstanbrook@whrsd.org mailto:bids@whrsd.org

Question #45: “Do you have a breakout by IDF/MDF for each building where new phones would need to be connected?”

Answer #45: No, we do not have a breakout of how many phones are terminated in each closet.

Question #46: “When discussing the battery backup requirements, I had asked about max run time for batteries and what needs to be powered up. Please verify that 10-15 minutes of power is sufficient and the only device needed to be covered is the local gateway. Otherwise there would need to be a lot of battery packs needed for the 4+ hours requested in the RFP”.

Answer #46: This will be an upcoming Addendum to the RFP. Here is the addendum:

On page 34 under Section 5.9, the current wording states as follows:

“In the event of a primary power failure, an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) with Battery Backup, with a minimum of four (4) hours shall be provided for all locations housing VoIP processing equipment and all Remote Site Gateways.”

The addendum will change the wording of that sentence to the following with the change in bold:

“In the event of a primary power failure, an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) with Battery Backup, with a minimum of ten (10) minutes shall be provided for all locations housing VoIP processing equipment and all Remote Site Gateways.”

Question #47: “When the core is placed will WHRSD supply our engineers with 24/7 VPN access to the voice network for remote programming?”

Answer #47: Yes, access will be provided.

Question #48: “Can you give more detail on any e-fax solution you may have now or in the future?”

Answer #48: We currently have an on-premise end of life/end of support Captaris Faxpress server. The server is primarily used to receive inbound faxes but is also used to transmit outbound faxes using any of our Konica Minolta MultiFunction Copiers.

Question #49: “Can we quote telco services as part of the solution as an option? Primarily for SIP, but for fiber or cable provided PRI as the traditional copper PRI’s will be obsolete soon.”

Answer #49: Bidders may quote any services that they deem appropriate to deliver the best solution to the District’s RFP.

Question #50: “The RFP calls for Executive, Administrator, Classroom and Conference Room devices. Do you have a breakout of what is needed at each school?”

Answer #50: The approximate equipment needs are as follows: 10 Executive Phones, 100

Administrator phones at the High School and 10 at every other building, 15 conference phones, and the rest of the phones would be classroom phones.

Question #51: “For the classrooms we saw some with analog and some with digital.

Can you tell us how many classrooms are digital vs analog?”

Answer # 51: Yes, the Diagrams, serial number, and station and trunk count by location and phone counts were provided in documents handed out at a pre-bid conference that was held on Wednesday February 22, 2022 at 10AM at the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. These documents will also be posted to the Whitman- Hanson Regional School District website as soon as possible. If any of the documents contain any sensitive non-public information, those documents will not be posted to the website, but are still available by making a written e-mail request to John Stanbrook at jstanbrook@whrsd.org or bids@whrsd.org. To access the documents on the School’s website, please take the following steps:

1) Go to whrsd.org

2) Search for the word “Bids” in the search bar in the top right corner of the page and hit enter

Question #52: “The cost Form has lines for Executive BT stations and WLAN IP handsets. Could you supply how many of each are needed?”

Answer #52: The approximate equipment needs are as follows: 10 Executive Phones, 100

Administrator phones at the High School and 10 at every other building, 15 conference phones, and the rest of the phones would be classroom phones.

Question #53: “Can we receive the RFP in a Word Document? so that we may place the answers to sections within the section.”

Answer #53: No. However, you may copy the PDF documents into your own Word document if you choose.

Question #54: “While we are going to hand deliver our response. How many hard copies of the response do you want? How many digital (CD, Thumb Drive) do you want if any?”

Answer #54: Please provide at least 5 paper copies of your response by the due date. You may also include thumb drive copies if you choose.

Question #55: Page 10- 2.15 Pricing GSA pricing or State Blanket (ITT72) pricing from Commbuys two separate pricing structures?

Answer #55: An addendum will be issued to Section 2.15 on page 10 as soon as possible which clarifies that the State Blanket contract ITT72 from COMMBUYS is the proper pricing structure.

Question #56: “How many IP Phones will be required to be Wall Mounted?”

Answer #56: The District’s preference is to provide wall-mount options for all IP phones.

Question #57: “Page 35 (5.15) 2000 mailboxes are requested: with every phone there is a mailbox how many mailboxes are required over and above the phone counts?”

Answer #57: The District has 598 stations, so the number of mailboxes needed over and above the phone counts is 2,000-598 = 1,402.

Question #58: “Page 14 2.29 Two Forms that could not find on Commbuys to download a. 2.29 Affirmative Action Commitment Statement Form b. Affirmative Market Plan Form”

Answer #58: An addendum will be issued to Section 2.29 on page 14 as soon as possible which clarifies that an Affirmative Action Commitment Statement Form and a Form b.

Affirmative Market Plan Form do not need to be completed.

Question #59: “Page 33: (5.6) In the High School Location – it is stated that there is VMWare environment in this location. Will the environment be available for Telcom software use?”

Answer #59: Section 5.6 on page 33 states the following: “The bidder’s solution to meet these requirements must be capable of running on a VMWare infrastructure. Bidders must confirm their solutions (sic) capability to operate on VMWare, the versioning certification and provide server build specifics to the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District.” While we do have an existing VMWare environment, it will not be available for Telcom use. Bidders should include dedicated server and licensing required to operate the solution in their bid responses.

Question #60: “Can you please describe you VMware host deployment and licensing structure.

On Page 33 of the RFP you reference under 5.7 for us to provide a description of how our system will provide redundancy. We would need to understand your VMWare environment to explain how our Solution’s redundancy would work.”

Answer #60: Existing VMWare is not available for Telcom use. Section 5.7 highlights the District’s intention to have system reliability. Bidder should demonstrate the level of survivability supported in their processed designs when submitting their bids.

Question #61: “What is the make and model of each Paging solutions and what is the interface with the paging solution to the current phone solution? Are there multiple zones?”

Answer #61: At the High School, it is a Dukane Starcall system. There are 184 zones and integrates into the phone system via a BTC card. The BTC card then connects to a 66 block to which all of the speakers are connected.

All other schools have Simplex 5120 systems. All Simplex systems connect to an amp that connects all of the speakers via a 66 block. It is unknown how many zones exist. The District believes that each paging solution is connected via analog connections and each school only uses a single zone which allows a building-wide broadcast, but each bidder must conduct his/her own due diligence to ensure that these statements are accurate.

Question #62: “Confirming on page 33 (5.7) that you want local survivable gateways at all locations?”

Answer #62: Yes. If the single mode fiber between buildings goes down there needs to survivability at the local buildings.

Question #63: “Please provide at what locations is there internet access directly to the sites and does travers the fiber? Please provide description of internet (Provider, Speed, Up & Down, Location, Fiber Coax, etc.)”

Answer #63: Internet traffic is balanced between two internet connections. Both connections feed through the high school and connect to the other schools via single mode fiber. Each building and each network closet are connected by dual 10GB fiber.

Intra-building connection is SMF and intra-closet is MMF. Internet Service Provider is Comcast. The EDI line is 2GB/2GB and the Broadband Coax is

1GB/35MB.

Question #64: “Page 41 (7.2) Visual Notification – Please clarify what visual notification you are referring too”

Answer #64: Any visual notifications as required by any applicable laws or regulations should be included in the bid.