Lead Hill Public School District 4

All bid deadlines are 11:59pm Pacific Time the date of the bid deadline listed unless otherwise noted.

IFCB Posted : Jan 7, 2016

Bid Deadline : Thursday, Feb 4, 2016

Questions Due By : Thursday, Jan 28, 2016

Applicant Address : Lead Hill, AR 72644

IFCB ID : 160016220

IFCB Requirements :

· All Questions and Bids must be submitted using the on-line IFCB system. If for some reason the system is down before the respective deadline, please email your bid to info@crwconsulting.com or fax it to 918.445.0049. Bids or questions submitted in this fashion will be disqualified if the on-line system is active at the time of submission.

· Bidder must agree to participate in USF Program (AKA “E-rate”) for the corresponding funding year.

· Please include the correct Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) on your bid.

· By submitting a bid, bidder certifies that the bidder does have a valid (non-red light status) SPIN for the E-rate program at the time of submission. Should the Applicant discover that the bidder is on red light status, or if the FCC classifies the bidder as on red-light status before work is performed and invoices are paid, the contract will be null and void and the applicant will have no payment obligations to the bidder.

· Bidder is expected to provide the lowest corresponding price per E-rate rules. See http://www.usac.org/sl/service-providers/step02/lowest-corresponding-price.aspx for details.

· Contracts must not prohibit SPIN changes.

· Bidder must agree to provide the Applicant the choice of discount methods (SPI or BEAR).

· Bidder will be automatically disqualified if the District determines that the bidding company has offered any employee of the District any individual gift of more than $20 or gifts totaling more than $50 within a 12 month period.

· All contracts awarded will be contingent upon E-rate funding and final board approval. The applicant may choose to do all or part of the project upon funding notification.

· All contracts awarded under this IFCB bidding process may be voluntarily renewed by the applicant, upon written notice to the provider, for five consecutive one year terms.

· SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE REQUIRED TO BID THE ENTIRE HARDWARE PROJECT/UPGRADE. BIDS FOR INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT/UPGRADE WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

· DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors are required to submit bids via the template “Internal connections – Template V15 – 1” for each individual school that is receiving equipment and a separate template for all shared equipment. Please name each template for the name of the school and project. Example: “Smith Elementary School Wireless Project” or “Wireless project shared equipment for all schools.” Vendors that do not submit bids in the required template format will be disqualified from the process.

· If the Applicant is requesting bids for equipment with specific make and model numbers listed, the Applicant will also accept bids for functionally equivalent equipment.

Services and Equipment Requested :

CATEGORY TWO VOLUNTARY SITE VISIT:

PROVIDERS WISHING TO BID ON THE CATEGORY TWO PROJECTS MAY ATTEND ONE OF TWO VOLUNTARY WALKTHROUGHS SCHEDULED FOR JANUARY 20, 2016 AND JANUARY 21, 2016 FROM 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM. REPORT TO BUILDING B (ADMIN OFFICE) TO SIGN IN AND THE SECRETARY WILL CONTACT WAYNE WILLIAMS (TECH DIRECTOR).

CATEGORY TWO PROJECT DETAILS:

We are wanting to expand and update our network to include a Caching Server. We will need a server rack and UPS for the server. With the caching server we expect to increase the processing time of our students as they complete their studies via the internet.

Below is the list of equipment applicant would like to purchase as Shared District equipment:

• Caching Server – 1

• Rack – 1 x 48” 4 post server rack to house the caching server

• UPS/Battery Backup – 1 x 700 watt 19” rack mountable UPS for the caching server

CATEGORY TWO DISQUALIFICATION FACTORS:

Vendors are required to submit bids via the template “Internal connections – Template V15 – 1” for each individual school that is receiving equipment and a separate template for all shared equipment. Please name each template for the name of the school and project. Example: “Smith Elementary School Wireless Project” or “Wireless project shared equipment for all schools.” Vendors that do not submit bids in the required template format will be disqualified from the process.

SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE REQUIRED TO BID THE ENTIRE HARDWARE PROJECT/UPGRADE. BIDS FOR INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT/UPGRADE WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

We would also like for providers bidding on Category Two projects to also submit your bids in normal format – a word/excel/PDF as you normally would. The winning Category Two vendor(s) will be required to complete, for each school and all shared equipment, the 2016 USAC C2 Templates when they become available. Once available, the templates will be due in a 14 day time period.

There is an additional document associated with this IFCB. Please click the buttons to download the document.

InstructionsforC2Bids46.pdf
InternalConnectionsTemplateV15169.xlsm

Bid deadline has been reached.

Questions Received with Applicant Answers ( Ask Questions? )

- what is the size of your core internet connection in MBPS? - how much of your internet link do you use at peak times in MBPS? - how many devices are connected to the internet concurrently at peak times? - by how much do you expect the school to increase either bandwidth capacity and/or user devices in the next 3 years?

Answer:
Question: What is the size of your core internet connection in MBPS?

Answer: 50 MBPs down, 25 MBps up

Question: How much of your internet link do you use at peak times in MBPS?

Answer: We actually run at about 30MBPS down and 17MBPS up, our saturation is at 90%. Our peak hours are in the afternoon, periods 7 and 8.

Question: How many devices are connected to the internet concurrently at peak time?

Answer: approx 100

Question: How much do you expect the school to increase either bandwidth capacity and/or user devices in the next three years?

Answer: We hope to move to a 100MBPS internet connection and we are looking a doubling the number of devices, meaning at peak we will have appros 200 devices connected.

- What kind of content is being cached? (video, etc.) - How much storage capacity is needed for the cached content? - What are the throughput requirements? - What type of internet service does the school have today? - How many users on average will need to access cached content? - Does the school district prefer a specific brand?

Answer:
Question: What kind of content is being cached?

Answer: Maining internet searches, except when we have state mandated testing, then we will cache the tests to the caching server, if we can.

The best answer I can provide for all the other questions is to explain what we are looking for. Ideally we would like a caching server like the Cachebox 100 (or functional equiv). That can process 400 requests per second and should be adequate for our present and near future needs. We have a 50/25 internet, with 370 students and a staff of approx 50. Our peak times are during the 7th and 8th periods when we have the majority of the high school students on line. We do not have a caching server and during state testing cache the tests to our main server. We want to get away from that. Having a real caching server will allow us to do so. Also, increasing the access times during peak usage is another advantage we are looking for.

Should the requested rack be a locking, enclosed rack?

Answer:
What we are looking for is a 48 inch, four post basic rack. Open face, but if we could get one that mounted to the floor that would be great.

Along these lines (this is a suggestion only – so that vendors have a general idea of our preference, we will accept bids for equivalents): http://www.startech.com/Server-Management/Racks/25U-4-Post-Server-Open-Frame-Rack-Cabinet~4POSTRACK25

Question deadline has been reached.