Phones and Circuits RFP 2026.pdf

Haralson County

Request for Proposal

Phone and Circuit Services

ISSUED DATE: SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

SUBMISSION DEADLINE DATE: OCTOBER 27, 2026 12:00 PM EST

RFP COORDINATOR:

JULIA WATSON

HARALSON COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

(770) 646-2002

155 VAN WERT STREET

BUCHANAN, GA 30113

WWW.HARALSONCOUNTYGA.GOV

Table of Contents

1 Request for Proposal (RFP) 3

2 Introduction to Haralson County 3

3 Overview of Current Haralson County Technical Environment 3

4 Service Requirements 4

6 Response Contents and Format 5

7 Information Requirements 5

7.1 Corporate Information 5

7.2 Proposed Approach and Solution 6

7.3 Support 6

7.4 Financials 6

8 Communications and Response 6

9 Notification of Intent to Respond and Clarification Questions 7

10 Response Delivery Instructions 7

11 Vendor Questions 7

12 Key Dates (all times are EST) 7

13 No Obligation 7

14 Agreement of Non-Disclosure 7

15 No Guarantee 7

1 Request for Proposal (RFP)

Haralson County Board of Commissioners invites you to respond to this Request for Proposal (RFP). The focus of the RFP is to select an organization to work with the county’s managed IT vendor to provide managed phone services/support to Haralson County local government over a three-year period, beginning on January 1, 2027 and ending no later than January 1, 2030. This MUST be a fixed cost proposal, with exceptions for large or unplanned projects.

The proposal format on the sealed envelope must be as follows:

Title: Phone RFP 2026 Proposal Company Name: XXX Point of Contact: Name and phone number

2 Introduction to Haralson County

Haralson County is a vibrant county in west Georgia. With a population of over 29,000 the county is located approximately one hour west of Atlanta, Ga, and borders Carroll County and Paulding County. The county values its excellent resources for public education, sustained growth, and quality of life of its residents, small-town atmosphere, and close-knit low crime communities. There is a professional staff of 267 full-time employees.

3 Overview of Current Haralson County Technical Environment

● Who oversees the environment? – Julia Watson, County Clerk and a vCIO, Cabot Howell

● Firewall is Fortigate 100F located at 911 center – one live and one cold backup spare are in place

Infrastructure is designed for redundant transport of voice services over a primary circuit via ATT fiber with backup utilizing Parker FiberNet. All web activity, other than phone traffic, is over the Parker FiberNet fiber circuit centralized at the E911 center. Dark fiber is utilized in connecting all the office buildings back to the E911 center building but for the Sheriff’s Office/Jail as it traverses another vendor along the railroad on Hwy 27, handled by Parker Systems. Secure wireless access points in every government building for government business only utilizing Cisco Meraki wifi. Fax over IP for 12 traditional fax machines.

• Switches o 911 Center – 1 48 port live, 1 48 port hot spare – 1 10 port switch live , 1 10 port switch hot spare –

1 12 port aggregate switch live, 1 12 port aggregate switch hot spare o Commissioners Office – 1 48 port switch live o Tax Assessors Office – 1 48 port switch live o Tax Commissioner’s office - 1 48 port switch live o Public works - 1 48 port switch live o Recreational Center - 1 48 port switch live o Animal Control - 1 48 port switch live o District Attorney - 1 48 port switch live o Fire Station - 1 48 port switch live o Court house – 3 48 port switches live, 2 10 port switches live o Sheriff’s office - 2 48 port switch live – 1 24 port switch live o WAPS x 25

Phone Service:

• Phones extensions (Office seats) x 165

• DIDs x 62

• Fax Service x 12

• SMTP Relay

• 100Mbps internet connection at 911 center for phone service and as a redundant data path

Number of handsets:

Device Type Count Polycom SoundPoint IP 335 90 Polycom VVX3xx 39 Polycom VVX4xx 15 Polycom SoundPoint IP 450 14 Polycom SoundPoint IP 650 3 Panasonic Cordless 2

4 Service Requirements As part of this RFP, the following services are the current priority items for Haralson County:

● Phone system and phone support -

a. Provide a dedicated circuit for voice traffic outside of existing fiber, for which the existing fiber circuit will be used for redundancy

b. Must include any and all devices required to terminate dedicated primary circuit

c. Have redundancy plan in place with documentation

d. Provide plan and system to manage call flows

e. Must be capable of preparing customer service record (CSR) and local service request

(LSR) for phone-number ports

f. Must work with IT provider to configure routers and switches for voice and data network presently consisting of at least 13 VLANs

g. Must include CPE for quality control and traffic prioritization

h. Must be able to support existing Polycom handsets or provide a creative solution

i. Provide ATA devices for continued use of existing analog fax machine

j. Auto Attendant for multiple departments

k. Hunt groups for multiple departments; at least 20 hunt groups

l. Presence feature capable

m. Long Distance charges included estimated 3000 min/month

● Fax over IP – IP based fax offering for 12 fax machines – provide the hardware and service for such ATA devices that translate analog into digital.

● Implementation planning and guidance – Assistance in deployment planning and execution.

● Architectural Documentation – Any changes made, and new implemented systems/policies will be documented.

● Coordinated support system – The phone system vendor shall be required to work collaboratively and coordinate directly with the County’s designated IT provider throughout all phases of the project, including planning, design, implementation, testing, training, support, and ongoing maintenance. The vendor must demonstrate a willingness and ability to partner with the County’s IT provider to ensure the proposed phone solution is properly designed, securely integrated, and aligned with the County’s existing technology infrastructure, network environment, cybersecurity requirements, operational needs, and long-term strategic goals.

Failure or refusal to coordinate effectively with the County’s IT provider may be considered a material failure to meet the requirements of the RFP and may affect proposal evaluation, award decisions, or contract continuation.

5 Selection Criteria Haralson County will use multiple criteria to select the most appropriate partner. Respondents are encouraged to be as aggressive and creative as possible in their proposals. The following list summarizes the major qualitative areas that will be evaluated, along with their overall weighting.

● Industry expertise and experience

● Demonstrated customer service quality and support

● Previous relevant experience

● Phone system offering and phone support

● Reporting capabilities

● Financial considerations

● Creative solutions for Value-Add offerings

● Backup, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans

6 Response Contents and Format Please complete all sections of the RFP. If additional material is required for one or more questions, please label attachments clearly and reference them in your response. Your response to this RFP will serve as the basis for the consideration of your potential as a partner.

7 Information Requirements For the purposes of understanding more about your company and your ability to successfully fulfill this important Haralson County requirement, please provide the information below as part of your response, clearly referencing each specific question.

7.1 Corporate Information

1. Give a brief overview of your organization’s involvement in providing IT value added services in the marketplace.

2. How long has the organization been in this business and what is your current market share?

3. Provide your organization’s annual sales volume?

4. Indicate the number of employees in your organization. How many of those are dedicated to account management and/or technical support?

5. How many are full-time vs. contract?

6. What differentiates your organization from your competitors in the marketplace and how will this be relevant to us?

7. Please describe your organization’s experience in transitioning clients to public or private cloud technology from more traditional IT service models.

8. Please provide details of at least two current customer accounts that are similar in scope and requirements to those of Haralson County.

9. May want to contact customers and verify services (contact info of two current customers)

7.2 Proposed Approach and Solution

1. Please provide a proposed work plan for a migration to your organization as a Haralson County preferred vendor. Specifically, provide the following information:

i. Key activities

ii. Timing

iii. Information/resource requirements from Haralson County

iv. Deliverables

v. Key milestones, checkpoints, and other decision points

2. If we elect to move forward with your organization, what Haralson County resources would you require (e.g., information, data, staff resources, communication) during the course of migration and on an ongoing basis?

3. Please identify the team that will be assigned to the account and describe how you plan to interact with us and any third party providers that may provide services to Haralson County.

4. Please describe in detail a phone system and phone service install your company deployed for an organization of 150 users or more.

7.3 Support

1. Describe fully your technical support options including the assistance request process, escalation process, support hours, response times, staffing levels, staff expertise, and physical location of the help desk.

2. Please provide details on your standard reporting capabilities.

3. Describe any documentation and support (e.g., user manuals, online help, interactive demos, web-based seminars, and online knowledge base) that will be available, both from the technical perspective and the end user perspective.

4. How do you monitor customer satisfaction and quality assurance on an ongoing basis and how might Haralson County benefit from this process?

5. The Haralson County user base varies considerably in its level of technical sophistication. Please describe your experience in successfully supporting users that may be remote and possess limited technical skills.

7.4 Financials

1. Describe the pricing model(s) that you typically employ for your standard services.

2. Do you offer service bundles and if so, describe the effect of this bundling on pricing.

8 Communications and Response Julia Watson is the designated Haralson County representative for this initiative. For any information, relative to this RFP, please direct all inquiries to her contact information is as follows:

Julia Watson, County Clerk Haralson County Board of Commissioners 155 Van Wert Street Buchanan, GA 30113 Juliawatson@haralsoncountyga.gov (770)646-2002

9 Notification of Intent to Respond and Clarification Questions Please indicate your intention to respond, by email, to the above email address by the Intent to Respond and Questions Due date outlined in the Key Dates table below. In addition, please provide the contact details of the individual responsible for coordinating your RFP response. Answers will be provided to all respondents by the Answers Provided date.

10 Response Delivery Instructions Please submit a sealed bid of your proposal to the address indicated in the Communications and Response section above. No email submissions will be accepted. All responses must be received no later than 12:00 pm ET on the Sealed Proposals Due date indicated in the Key Dates section below. Please DO NOT bind the proposal. It is preferred that the proposal be clipped or loose leaf in a folder.

The proposal format, on unbound paper, on the sealed envelope must be as follows:

Title: Phone RFP 2026 Proposal Company Name: XXX Point of Contact: Name and phone number

11 Vendor Questions A question-and-answer virtual meeting is scheduled for 10/02/2026 at 10 am. All interested vendors must attend this Q&A meeting for clarification. Any pertinent information can be requested at this meeting. A virtual meeting invitation must be obtained by email from Julia Watson at juliawatson@haralsoncountyga.gov by 5 pm EST on 09/30/26. All bidding vendors must provide intent to respond to the RFP by the date below.

12 Key Dates (all times are EST)

RFP Issued 09/25/2026 Mandatory MS Teams meeting 10/02/2026 at 10:00 AM EST Questions Due by 10/06/2026 by 5:00 PM EST Answers by 10/13/2026 by 5:00 PM EST Intent to Respond Due 10/16/2026 by 5:00 PM EST Sealed Proposals Due 10/27/2026 by 12:00 PM EST

13 No Obligation The submission of a proposal shall not in any manner obligate Haralson County to enter into a contract or to be responsible for the costs incurred by your organization in responding to this request.

14 Agreement of Non-Disclosure This document is proprietary and shall not be disclosed to any other party. It is designed, developed, and submitted to potential partners of Haralson County solely for the benefit of Haralson County.

15 No Guarantee Haralson County makes no guarantee of future volumes and offers volume information for directional purposes only, to assist vendors with proposal preparation.

mailto:juliawatson@haralsoncountyga.gov