List_of_Proposers.pdf

This is a List of Proposers document for the School Board of Seminole County, Florida's District Firewall Solution Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). The procurement seeks a comprehensive Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) infrastructure consisting of three firewall appliances: an Active/Active High Availability pair for the Education Support Center data center and a standalone appliance for the Oviedo High School data center. The solution must support approximately 60,000 students, 8,000 staff, and 80,000-100,000 concurrent devices across two data centers with current internet bandwidth of 14 Gbps per site, expandable to 20 Gbps. Proposals were due January 5, 2026, at 1:00 PM EST. Seven companies responded to the solicitation, with five submitting proposals: CDW Government LLC (submitted 1/5/2026 12:49:22 PM), Computers at Work (submitted 1/5/2026 12:59:07 PM), PC Solutions & Integration, Inc. (submitted 1/5/2026 10:24:04 AM), TWC Holdings LLC (submitted 10/29/2025 10:59:50 AM), and United Data Technologies (submitted 12/31/2025 3:21:16 PM). Two companies declined to submit proposals: Southern Computer Warehouse, Inc. and Technology Innovation Partners Inc. Evaluation committee short-list meetings were scheduled for January 21, 2026, with oral presentations on January 29, 2026, and targeted board approval on March 10, 2026. The project go-live is no later than July 1, 2026. The contract offers two pricing structures: a three-year term with potential two-year renewal or a five-year upfront payment structure.

The procurement requires all equipment to be new Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) stock with no used or refurbished equipment acceptable. The existing infrastructure consists of four FortiGate 4400F appliances and one FortiAnalyzer 3000G reporting appliance, which may be considered for reuse if compatible. Technical requirements include minimum processing capabilities of 175 Million packets per second, 100 Gbps IPsec VPN throughput, 30,000 concurrent SSL VPN users, and 70 Million concurrent TCP sessions. Evaluation will use an adjectival scoring system across six weighted criteria: Experience of Personnel (5%), Technical Approach (30%), Technical Support Services (15%), References (5%), Price Schedule (40%), and financial stability. The pricing schedule covers comprehensive costs including hardware, software, licensing, VPN client licenses for 2,000 users, maintenance, professional services, implementation, data migration, administrator training, and 24/7/365 support. E-Rate program eligibility is built into the procurement, allowing potential federal funding for eligible components. No specific set-aside designations for disadvantaged enterprises are noted in the procurement.