FA II Equip Maint Def Final.docx

PBX IV FA II Expectations Defined (Attachment A)

Equipment Maintenance - The PO Contractor shall ensure that the equipment remains compatible with the current and future Issuing Agency systems or any third party software used to perform Issuing Agency business functions.

Software Maintenance - The PO Contractor shall ensure the software remains compatible with the current Issuing Agency systems or any third party software used to perform Issuing Agency business functions. The PO Contractor shall provide to the Issuing Agency enhancements and modifications of the software products supplied by the PO Contractor:

i. as a result of ongoing maintenance;

ii. to ensure the Issuing Agency’s systems will not become obsolete when new technology has been introduced in the telecommunications industry that offers greater operating efficiency;

iii. as required to correct malfunctions, defects, or operational problems;

iv. as required as a matter of federal law, regulation in connection with the Issuing Agency’s business, or policies and standards; and

v. as specified by the Issuing Agency.

The PO Contractor shall update any supplied system management software as new software patches/updates are made available by the vendors even if this requires the PO Contractor to perform the work outside of the normal preventative maintenance schedule.

Any software updates shall be provided at no additional charge and installed within one week of vendor release/announcement or as approved by the State during the term of the PO from the date of System Acceptance.

The Issuing Agency may elect to postpone a software release and will provide notice to the Master Contractor of any decision to defer an upgrade. The period of this deferral is at the sole discretion of the Issuing Agency and may be indefinite.

Preventative Maintenance – This service shall on-site preventative maintenance shall include at least annual visits to the equipment location to perform the following tasks:

∙ Inspect the physical condition of the system and cabling for mechanical or environmental defects ∙ Create two copies of the system software and current configurations, providing one to the Issuing Agency and retain one in the office of the Master Contractor ∙ Audit of system resources in use with recommendations to improve system performance and availability

The PO Contractor shall specify and comply with the manufacturer’s recommended preventative maintenance required for each of the systems to include frequency, duration, and include a description of the preventative maintenance. The PO Contractor shall program new area codes and exchanges in the PBX, EKTS, Hybrid or VoIP as part of the preventative maintenance. The new area codes and exchanges shall be programmed prior to the time the new codes and exchanges are activated even if required to perform the work outside of the normal preventative maintenance schedule.

The Contractor shall conduct the routine preventative maintenance in coordination with the using Agency.

During routine preventative maintenance, the PO Contractor shall examine all system components and replace defective components, if found.

The PO Contractor shall provide the Issuing Agency a Corrective Action Plan after the Preventative Maintenance is conducted. This plan shall include, but not be limited to description of all found defective system components, action taken, and any system recommendations.

Service Desk Capabilities - The PO Contractor shall provide unlimited telephone consultation via a toll-free hotline. The PO Contractor must also provide unlimited email and/or chat support via the Internet based on the table above. The Service Desk must maintain both a web portal and an email capability to accept inquiries or trouble reports from the State. The PO Contractor shall have a service center staffed to accept problem calls for equipment and software. There shall be one toll-free telephone number, which shall be identified in the proposal, which the State can use to reach the Service Center. The Service Center shall have live operator availability, web-based reporting and problem tracking, escalation table and process, and status reports. Prior to closing problems, the Service Center technician must provide a status to the originator and obtain approval from the originator to close the ticket.

Service Desk Hours – These are the hours and days of the week that the Service Desk is available to take live calls, email, or chat. Outside of Service Desk Hours, calls will go to a voicemail message system and these messages or email will be acted upon when the Service Desk reopens. Chat requests will receive a message that the Service Desk is closed.

Status Frequency – This is the time interval between updates from the PO Contractor to the Issuing Agency regarding repair efforts. This service level is dependent upon the type of impairment experienced.

A Disaster Recovery plan shall be in place for Catastrophic Failures during installation and throughout the operational life of the system. The plan shall be coordinated with the Issuing Agency and include provisions for totally replacing the system with interim service. Status Frequency and Response Time to Site are dependent on the level of outage, which is defined as follows:

Catastrophic Outage – Response Time to Site: 2 hours 75% or more of the stations of a given agency at a specific location have lost most of their functionality such as the ability to receive or make calls outside of the building, take voice mail messages, or otherwise process phone calls. Any outage that affects 911 call transfers from Emergency Operations Centers to Maryland State Police Barracks.

Major Outage – Response Time to Site: 6 hours Any problem or set of problems that is not catastrophic but that causes 20% or more of the stations of a given agency at a specific location to be impaired with sufficient problems, so as to disrupt the normal business operation of the State’s employees.

Minor Outage – Response Time to Site: Next Business Day Any problem of a given agency at a specific location that is neither major nor catastrophic.

When a malfunction cannot be immediately diagnosed and corrected, the PO Contractor shall obtain and coordinate the participation of all service suppliers until the source of the problem has been unequivocally established and the malfunction has been corrected. The Issuing Agency must acknowledge that the malfunction has been repaired before the PO Contractor can close out the ticket.

In no instance will the failure to find the source or resolve the problem relieve the PO Contractor of the obligation to restore system operability with the least impact on the users’ ability to communicate using the system.

The State reserves the right to adjudicate such malfunctions after the fact and validate charges and/or maintenance credits applicable to the provisions of the Contracts or tariffs involved.

As part of the maintenance responsibility, the PO Contractor shall represent the State with the regulated telephone company in order to identify any problems with the telephone service. The PO Contractor shall be responsible for any telephone company charges as a result of misdiagnosis of problems caused by PO Contractor-supplied equipment or actions by the PO Contractor.

The PO Contractor shall provide a list of technicians and their credentials related to the listed phone systems. Additionally the locations of each technician that would provide coverage for outages must be included. Quarterly reports on service level performance shall be furnished to the agency serviced by the PO Contractor and shall be specific to the trouble tickets and preventative maintenance efforts for that agency. All reports must contain the actual performance and target performance for the quarter for all service level parameters listed in the table above. This report may be delivered electronically, such as via email, in Acrobat PDF format no later than 10 days following the close of the calendar quarter.

Generally, maintenance as defined in this functional area does not bill labor by the hour. The cost of labor, travel, spares and Service Desk are built into the monthly fees. In some exception cases, hourly labor rates may apply and those would be charged in accordance with Functional Area 3 – Time and Material Labor. As an example, for agencies that want to stock their own spares and self-maintain, but need access to technical support services. In rare situations where the agency needs the vendor technician on-site, hourly rates and travel costs may be appropriate if the subject system is no longer under warranty.