USF Private Branch Exchange (PBX)

1.1 Opening Note to Suppliers

The University of South Florida Board of Trustees, a public body corporate ("USF") is posting the above solicitation ("Event") to request qualified business entities ("Supplier(s)") submit responses ("Supplier Bid(s)" or "Supplier responses") to provide goods and/or services as specified herein.

Please note Supplier Responses must be submitted through the solicitation portal no later than the date and time specified in the Event Schedule.

Supplier will not have access to submit responses after the prescribed time and responses may only be submitted through the solicitation portal. Supplier responses, and revisions thereto, will not be accepted at any time by fax or email. Accepted Supplier responses will be accessed immediately after the time specified above. Suppliers cannot withdraw submitted Supplier Bids after the submission deadline has passed.

Any questions concerning this Event must be submitted on the Event's Q & A Board.

1.2. Purpose of Event

USF invites Supplier proposals to provide the services as described in the Scope of Services and Requirements attached in the Prerequisites section of this Event. You must log in to the Sourcing Portal to access the documents.

Full details of this event are available in the solicitation through the Sourcing Portal. A summary description is as follows:

In order to maintain university operations, the OneUSF Information Technology (IT) Telecommunications team needs to provide operable telephony services to multi-Campus users while meeting regulatory requirements for life and safety. Given the current age of the USF Private Branch Exchange (PBX), the USF IT team has identified the need to source a modern PBX.

The university began using Microsoft Teams for individual user phone capability nearly two years ago. There are currently approximately 7,000 Teams users. These users do not need to be supported by the proposed PBX solution. Users not in the Microsoft Teams environment include approximately 1,000 VoIP users and 2,500 analog users split into roughly 1,300 phone users, roughly 200 elevator lines, roughly 270 fire panel lines, roughly 150 security alarm lines, and roughly 700 fax lines.

Presently, USF has an on-premises PBX running Avaya System Manager 6.3. The university operates dual Oracle Enterprise Communications Broker (ECB) and Oracle Session Border Controller (SBC) in a high availability instance. Voicemail for analog users is provided by the university via Cisco Call Manager. The USF IT Telecommunications team is piloting analog media gateways capable of operating with any PBX.

Therefore, USF is seeking a replacement PBX, whether on-premises or cloud-based with on premises backup capabilities for E911 and essential services.

Additional details of this event are available in the solicitation through the Sourcing Portal.

1.3. Event Schedule

The Event Schedule below is subject to change at USF's sole discretion.

Pre-proposal Meeting (optional): May 8, 2023 @ 2PM

Supplier Questions Due: May 12, 2023 by 5:00PM EST

Responses to Supplier Questions: May 18, 2023

Supplier Bids Due: June 1, 2023 by 3:00PM USA EST (must be submitted in Solicitation Portal)

Evaluation of Supplier Responses: June 1 - June 14, 2023

Shortlist Posting: June 15, 2023

Additional Evaluation: To Be Determined

1.4. Pre-Proposal Meeting (Optional)

An optional virtual pre-proposal meeting will be help Monday, May 8, 2023 at 2:00PM via Teams. Team access may be found by logging into the Sourcing portal.

USF representative(s) will be available at the pre-proposal meeting to answer questions related to the Event. However, all verbal statements made by any person are non-binding. USF is not liable for any cost incurred in connection with the preparation, production, or submission of the Supplier Response, including any costs resulting from the Supplier accepting verbal direction. All changes or clarifications to the Event, if any, will only be made through written answers on the Event's Q & A Board and, when appropriate, written addenda to the Event posted on the solicitation platform. Supplier should submit written questions through the Event's Q & A Board to ensure issues discussed during the pre-proposal meeting are addressed on the Q & A Board and, when appropriate, included in a written addendum to the Event.