RFI-2026-296-NC - MFMP Document.pdf

RFI-2026-296-NC – CLOUD-BASED COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

RFI-2026-296-NC

CLOUD-BASED COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM

Release Date: September 14, 2026

Due Date: October 12, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. ET

Pursuant to Florida Department of Education, State Board of Education, Rule 6A-14.0734, Procurement Requirements, and Broward College Policy 6Hx2-6.34 and Procedure A6Hx2-6.34, Procurement Requirements, Broward College (hereinafter referred to as “College”) is releasing this REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) for CLOUD-BASED COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM (RFI-2026-296-NC).

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) AS DEFINED IN SECTION 287.012(22), FLORIDA STATUTES. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and to conduct market research and explore available options regarding the provision of these services.

I. INTRODUCTION

Created by the Florida Legislature in 1959, the College has the third-largest enrollment within the Florida College System (FCS). The College serves more than 51,000 students with the support of more than 3,300 full-time and part-time faculty and staff. The College offers first-time college students, adult learners, and career professionals’ academic programs across eight career-related pathways. Programs include specialized certificates, and two and four-year degrees. The College also offers non-degree training, workforce readiness, and an extensive list of continuing education curricula. In addition to its three main campuses, the College has multiple centers across the county. Please visit www.broward.edu/about/ for more information.

II. PURPOSE

The College requests information from qualified vendors that can provide a Cloud-Based Communications Platform. The College intends to explore cloud-based options to deliver a consolidated, enterprise-grade solution for telephony and video collaboration. The objective is to identify reliable, scalable, and secure platforms accessible to students, faculty, and staff, demonstrating high performance and ease of use across both physical campus facilities and remote locations.

III. BACKGROUND

In 2022, the College migrated from an on-premises infrastructure to a cloud-based telephony system.

This transition provided the institution with enhanced feature sets and the portability required for both on-campus and remote operations. The system is primarily used for administrative duties supporting the day-to-day operations of the College. Under the current model, the service provider hosts all telecommunications services, including DIDs and toll-free numbers. For several years, the College has also utilized a video conferencing platform to support webinars, administrative meetings, and instructional sessions. This platform is integrated with the Brightspace (D2L) Learning Management System, serving as a critical component for remote learning and student engagement.

http://www.broward.edu/about/

The current system is structured to support a large-scale academic environment across multiple campuses. The telephony foundation consists of Direct Inward Dial (DID) numbers and toll-free numbers, common area lines, and emergency classroom lines and includes call recording capabilities.

Calling plans include U.S. and Canada unlimited and metered. Call center functionality includes supervisor-monitored call queues. Hardware deployed on campus includes emergency classroom phones, administrative phones, USB headsets with softphones wireless base stations supporting handsets, and accessibility phones with speech-to-text capabilities. The video component integrates with D2L by Brightspace to support students and employees, with capabilities to host meetings with breakout rooms and large-scale webinars. The College utilizes a single sign-on environment for user access and multi-factor authentication.

IV. INFORMATION REQUESTED

Responses should be clear, concise, and not exceed fifteen (15) pages (excluding additional information or supplemental materials). All responses to this RFI are to be organized and tabbed in a manner consistent with this section. Respondents should address and include the following information:

TAB 1 – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Provide a brief overview of your company, including:

• Company background and contact information (company name, address, contact person and title, phone number, email).

• Evidence of license to conduct business in the State of Florida.

• Experience providing services in a higher education setting similar to those described in this RFI.

• Overview of your Cloud-Based Communications Platform, highlighting key features, platform benefits, and suitability for higher education.

• References List with contact information, scope of services performed, and service dates of at least five (5) clients within the last three years for which Vendor has provided similar services, preferably higher education institutions.

TAB 2 – SCOPE OF WORK

Describe your platform’s capabilities and approach related to the following areas and capacity to fulfill the operations of the College for 5,000 Direct Inward Dial (DID) numbers, 2,000 users, 600 standard phones, and 500 emergency classroom phones with call recording and 40 supervisor call center monitoring stations. Calling plans should include U.S. and Canada unlimited and metered option. The video component should integrate with Brightspace’s Desire 2 Learn LMS to support 50,000 students and virtual meetings for 3,000 employees.

Telephony & Enterprise Voice Platform

• Tools to support platform administration and ongoing operational support.

• Reporting and billing features.

• Call routing, management, and recording capabilities.

• Unified communications and collaboration tools, including AI-enabled features.

• Accessibility features demonstrating compliance with accessibility standards to include speech-to-text capabilities.

• Contact center capabilities, including call flow and queue management.

• Support for analog gateway connectivity (e.g., fax, elevator phones).

• Mobile access abilities and user provisioning tools.

• Platforms Application Programming Interface (API) capabilities to integrate with external third-party systems.

• Emergency communication functionality.

• Security capabilities and features to comply with industry standard security frameworks.

Video Conferencing Platform

Provide information on your platform’s virtual meeting and digital collaboration capabilities, including:

• Virtual meeting and digital collaboration tools, interactive participant engagement features, and collaborative digital workspaces.

• Integrations capabilities with Brightspace’s Desire 2 Learn Learning Management System (LMS).

• Capabilities supporting webinars, virtual events, and large-scale meetings.

TAB 3 – PRICING / FEES

Provide a comprehensive estimated subscription/licensing pricing structure based on the College’s user data mentioned in TAB 2 – SCOPE OF WORK. Vendor may include line items for any implementation, training, hardware, third-party tools, or any other costs and fees.

TAB 4 – ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Include brochures, flyers, data sheets, or other documents that provide a visual or narrative overview of your platform. This information will not be counted towards the page limit.

Include under this tab, a signed copy of this RFI document.

V. SPECIAL CONDITIONS

Confidential and Proprietary Information. All information submitted in response to this RFI is subject to Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, the "Public Records Law". No claim of confidentiality or proprietary information in all or any portion of a response to the RFI will be honored unless a specific exemption from the Public Records Law exists and it is cited in response to the RFI. A generic notation that information is “confidential” is not sufficient.

Cost of Preparation. The College will not pay any respondent for the costs associated with preparing or presenting any response to this RFI.

Governing Law. This RFI, and any further action(s) resulting from same, shall be governed by and construed under the laws of the State of Florida and must have venue established in the 17th Circuit Court of Broward County, Florida or the United States Court of the Southern District of Florida.

Reliance on Information. Information made available by the College in connection with this RFI is provided without representation, warranty, guarantee, or promise by the College, expressed or implied, with respect to accuracy, completeness, fitness or usability for any purpose. Respondent will at its cost perform due diligence and will rely solely and exclusively on the results of such activities and its experience and expertise and not on any statement, projection, estimate, description, information, data, or document furnished by the College.

Responsibility of Respondents. The respondents shall be responsible for reading, understanding completely, and complying with the requirements and scope of work of this RFI.

Submissions Property of the College. All materials submitted during the RFI process will become the property of the College and will not be returned to the vendor.

VI. SUBMITTAL OF INFORMATION

Responses are due on or before 2:30 p.m. ET on Monday, October 12, 2026. The College will only accept electronic submittals of information via Euna OpenBids at www.demandstar.com. Email submissions will not be accepted.

• In order to submit information electronically, Vendor must be registered on the Euna OpenBids

(DemandStar) website.

• Complete electronic submittal must be in a single Adobe PDF File.

• File submitted must be formatted and enabled for printing, in page size letter, as applicable.

• Euna OpenBids will not accept any document submissions after the due date and time. In the event of technical difficulties in submitting information, vendors should contact Euna OpenBids at support.demandstar@eunasolutions.com or call (206) 940-0305.

• Following review of responses, the College may request clarification and/or additional information after submission from one or more respondents.

Any questions concerning any requirement of this RFI must be submitted via email to Nicholas Caradonna, Procurement Officer, at ncaradon@broward.edu, with the subject line to read “QUESTIONS-RFI-2026-296-NC” no later than 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 18, 2026. Any question that requires a response which amends the RFI document will be answered via addendum.

Any verbal or written information received by vendors, which is obtained by any means other than this RFI or by addendum, shall not be binding on the College.

During the RFI process, contact with anyone other than the assigned Procurement Officer is prohibited.

All communication and contact regarding this RFI must be directed to the Procurement Officer and Point of Contact listed below:

Nicholas Caradonna Procurement Officer

(954) 201-7824 ncaradonn@broward.edu

Pursuant to College Procedure A6Hx2-6.34, the College reserves the right to do the following after the issuance of an RFI: 1) issue a formal solicitation, 2) procure goods or services without competitive solicitation based upon the exception available to the College in FLDOE Rule 6A- 14.0734(2), or 3) Not to proceed to the second step of procuring goods and services. Since this is not a competitive solicitation process, the protest provisions stipulated in Florida Statute

120.57 are not applicable to this RFI.

When deemed to be in the best interest of the College, this RFI may be canceled at any time with or without cause. Responding to this RFI is not a pre-requisite to participating in a possible future procurement process if the College decides to exercise its rights to do so. Therefore, Vendors choosing to respond to this RFI will not, merely, by virtue of submitting such a response, be deemed to be “Bidders/Proposers/Respondents” on any future project in any sense, and no such respondent will have http://www.demandstar.com/ mailto:support.demandstar@eunasolutions.com mailto:ncaradon@broward.edu mailto:ncaradonn@broward.edu any preference, special designation, advantage or disadvantage whatsoever in any subsequent procurement process related to any project.

By submitting a response to this RFI and signing below, the Respondent acknowledges and verifies that they have read and understand the College’s requirements, and the response is in all respects fair and without collusion or fraud and that all documents and information submitted to the College are considered public records under Florida’s Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties upon request.

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