Fire Alarm Monitoring Services

The Commonwealth of Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet, Department for Facilities and Support Services is issuing a Request for Bid (RFB 785 2500000235) to procure 24/7 fire alarm system monitoring services for 39 state-owned, operated, or managed facilities located throughout Kentucky. The successful vendor will provide real-time central monitoring services compliant with NFPA 72 (2016 Edition) standards, with contact response times ranging from 90 seconds to 15 minutes depending on subscriber contact priority levels. Qualified bidders must maintain a UL Central Monitoring Inspection Certificate, demonstrate a minimum of four years of full-time fire alarm monitoring business experience, and provide documentation of at least two comparable contracts from the past four years. The evaluation criteria allocates 90 points for pricing (with the lowest bidder receiving maximum points), 10 points for vendor experience, and UL certification as a pass/fail requirement. Pricing is structured as a unit cost per monitored fire alarm system per month, with quarterly billing calculated by multiplying the monthly unit cost by three. The contract commences December 1, 2024, for an initial one-year period with four optional one-year renewal periods. Vendor written questions were due November 8, 2024, at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, with Commonwealth responses provided by November 9, 2024, at 7:00 PM ET, and final bid submissions are due November 19, 2024, at 1:30 PM ET through the Kentucky eProcurement system.

The solicitation contains no price escalation provisions during the initial 12-month contract period, with any subsequent increases requiring written justification based on industry-wide price changes submitted 30 days in advance. The Commonwealth does not identify any set-asides for disadvantaged or resident businesses, though bidders claiming resident bidder or qualified bidder status must submit notarized affidavits demonstrating compliance with Kentucky Revised Statutes requirements and workers' compensation obligations. The existing fire alarm infrastructure consists of 44 state facilities equipped with predominantly Simplex 4100U fire alarm panels utilizing Contact ID transmission format, with additional Simplex 4100ES, Simplex 4010, and Notifier UDACT2 systems at select locations; vendor programming costs resulting from contractor equipment changes remain the vendor's responsibility, while the Commonwealth covers reprogramming costs resulting from state equipment replacement or upgrades. The successful vendor must maintain general liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and Kentucky workers' compensation insurance, with certificates due within ten days of award notification. No incumbent contractor or current contract value is identified in the solicitation documents, and award will be determined based on lowest responsive bid combined with vendor experience evaluation, with past vendor performance considered in final determinations.