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

school Hermitage School District
IFCB Posted : Dec 27, 2018
Bid Deadline : Thursday, Feb 7, 2019

Questions Due By : Thursday, Jan 10, 2019
Applicant Address : Hermitage, AR 71647
IFCB ID : 190012462

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. Please include this language in your final contract.
 
·         All applicable fees, surcharges, and taxes must be identified on the bid. E-rate rules require the applicants to evaluate the price of eligible goods and services that will be listed on the 471 application during the competitive bidding process. Fees and surcharges that apply but are not listed on the bid will be the responsibility of the bidding company, should their bid be awarded.
 
·         The winning vendor will be required to complete the USAC approved Item 21 template for the project within 7 working days after notification that the vendor has won the bid.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Service providers are required to bid an entire Project A, Project B, Project C, Project D, or Project E.  Bids for individual components of a single project will be disqualified.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: It will be the bidder’s responsibility to provide documentation about the compatibility requirements listed in this IFCB. Vendors that submit bids without documentation demonstrating the required compatibility listed in this IFCB will have their bids disqualified, unless that vendor has bid the preferred make/model number listed.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Applicant will not accept bids for refurbished equipment. Any bids containing refurbished equipment will be disqualified.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Bids that include equipment that was manufactured for use outside of the United States will be disqualified.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.
·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC - Maintenance bids listing only an hourly rate and not a monthly or annual total will be disqualified. Vendors quoting an hourly rate are required to also a) confirm that you have the ability/expertise to maintain all of the equipment listed and b) propose a number of hours at a particular rate monthly to properly maintain the entire list of equipment. Bids that contain only hourly rates, without confirmation that the company can service the list of equipment, or without a monthly total will be disqualified.
 

Services and Equipment Requested :
Internal Connections
 
Voluntary Site Visit

Vendors wishing to bid on an internal connections project can attend a voluntary site visit on day January 9th at 10am. Vendors will meet at 310 N. School Drive, Hermitage, AR 71647. Vendors will check in with Mindy Wolfe.
 
Project A

Type of Equipment
School Name
Number of Devices Vendor Should Bid
 
Preferred Make/Manufacturer
Caching Server
Elementary
2
No Preference
Caching Server
High School
2
No Preference
 
Basic Maintenance Project F – see above Internal Connections request for Project A.


Project B

Type of Equipment
School Name
Number of Devices Vendor Should Bid
 
Preferred Make/Manufacturer
Firewall Service and Components
Elementary
2
Palo Alto or functional equivalent
Firewall Service and Components
High School
2
Palo Alto or functional equivalent
 
Basic Maintenance Project G – see above Internal Connections request for Project B.


Project C

Type of Equipment
School Name
Number of Devices Vendor Should Bid
 
Preferred Make/Manufacturer
Switches
Elementary
8
Aruba 48-port POE or functional equivalent
Switches
High School
8
Aruba 48-port POE or functional equivalent
 
Basic Maintenance Project H – see above Internal Connections request for Project C.

 
Project D

Type of Equipment
School Name
Number of Devices Vendor Should Bid
 
Preferred Make/Manufacturer
UPS/Battery Backups
Elementary
4
Tripplite or functional equivalent
UPS/Battery Backups
High School
4
Tripplite or functional equivalent
 
Basic Maintenance Project I – see above Internal Connections request for Project D.


 
Project E
 
Type of Equipment
School Name
Number of Devices Vendor Should Bid
 
Preferred Make/Manufacturer
Wireless Controller
Elementary
1
Aruba Central 5-year or functional equivalent
Wireless Controller
High School
1
Aruba Central 5-year or functional equivalent
 
Basic Maintenance Project J – see above Internal Connections request for Project E.
 
Compatibility Requirement for all projects.

All requested equipment must be compatible with existing Aruba network.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: It will be the bidder’s responsibility to provide documentation about the compatibility requirements listed in this IFCB. Vendors that submit bids without documentation demonstrating the required compatibility listed in this IFCB will have their bids disqualified, unless that vendor has bid the preferred make/model number listed.
 
DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.
DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Service providers are required to bid an entire Project A, Project B, Project C, Project D, or Project E.  Bids for individual components of a single project will be disqualified.
DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Applicant will not accept bids for refurbished equipment. Any bids containing refurbished equipment will be disqualified.
DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Bids that include equipment that was manufactured for use outside of the United States will be disqualified.
DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.
DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC - Maintenance bids listing only an hourly rate and not a monthly or annual total will be disqualified. Vendors quoting an hourly rate are required to also a) confirm that you have the ability/expertise to maintain all of the equipment listed and b) propose a number of hours at a particular rate monthly to properly maintain the entire list of equipment. Bids that contain only hourly rates, without confirmation that the company can service the list of equipment, or without a monthly total will be disqualified.
 

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

2019C2BiddingInstructions37.docx
C2COVERPAGE3976.pdf

Questions Received with Applicant Answers   ( Ask Questions? )




Aruba Central is licensed according to how many Aruba devices (APs and switches) are being managed by Aruba Central. The quantity for each entity is listed as Qty 1. We are assuming that the district is wanting to manage all of their Aruba devices using Central. How many APs and switches will Aruba Central be managing?

Answer:
 

We currently have 73 devices in our Aruba Central.  Yes we want to manage all of our devices in Aruba Central.

CAN YOU PLEASE PROVIDE A PART NUMBER FOR EACH DESIRED REQUEST. PART NUMBER IS NEEDED IN RECEIVING SPA. NO PART NUMBERS ARE GIVEN IN THE RFP!

Answer:
 

For some items, we do not have a preference for a part number. For the items listed below, we do, but bids for functionally equivalent equipment will be accepted.

 

FOR EACH SWITCH REQUESTED

Part Number Description Quantity

JL322A Aruba 2930M 48G PoE+ 1-slot Switch Hewlett Packard Enterprise 1

JL087A Aruba X372 54VDC 1050W Power Supply Hewlett Packard Enterprise 2

JL087A ABA INCLUDED: Power Cord - U.S. localization Hewlett Packard Enterprise 2

JL325A Aruba 2930 2-port Stacking Module Hewlett Packard Enterprise 1

JL083A Aruba 3810M/2930M 4SFP+ MACsec Module Hewlett Packard Enterprise 1

J9734A Aruba 2920/2930M 0.5m Stacking Cable Hewlett Packard Enterprise 1

1. A dedicated cache can support the classroom in various ways, what do you hope to achieve in terms of network performance by having a cache? 2. How important is it to the district to be able to cache the following: HTTPS sites Youtube Online Testing 3. What is the available bandwidth to the district and are there plans to grow in the next year or two? 4. What is the peak demand that the school experiences during any given week/day/etc? 4. What are the student/teacher devices used in the district? Do you allow guest network access for school use? Do you have any visibility (or estimate) on how many more devices are added on any given day? 5. Some schools have enough bandwidth and are specifically looking to bring targeted performance benefits to existing content. What are the high use web applications used in classrooms at the academy? Are there any paid web platforms that the school has invested in to support learning? 6. What are the biggest bandwidth hogs over any given month?

Answer:
 

1.)Faster time for students to access information from data that are used repeatedly. 2.) Testing super important. Youtube could be a great plus for the teachers. HTTPS important. 3.) We are 500-+ with the plans of bringing in another 500+ Line. 4.) Not sure on the peak that is managed by the state . Through my wireless my AP's run about 5GB of Usage. 5.) Teachers are using laptops and students are using Chromebooks, Labs are mixture of Chromeboxes and Desktops. 6.) Yes I allow guest network access for school use. We have about 475 devices for High school and about 475 for Elem. We do plan on adding more devices. Hopefully another 250 devices on each campus. 7.) Google, Youtube, Virtual Arkansas, Standardized Testing, Mindy Play and l lot more I will have to find from teachers. Yes we do have paid programs like Mind Play, A+ (Fuel Education), renaissance Learning, Follett, Gmetrix and Certiport. 8.) Youtube

1. District mentioned a cache would support faster access to information for students. Where is the impact of slow-page loads, user-wait, etc, having the biggest impact (ex. Online testing, classroom management, teacher complaints, etc) 2. YouTube and HTTPS are cachable with the right solution. This Will require SSL certificates deployed to district managed devices. Do you have any experience with this? If so, do you have a certificate deployed already? Any issues that the district has encountered in the past with SSL certificates or HTTPS filtering/inspection? 3.The district mentioned adding another 500 Mbps connection. Will this connection be completely separate from the current connection or will they connect at a core router, switch, etc at some point. A single cache appliance can support the entire district, however if the two internet connections remain separate, two smaller units will be recommended in place of one larger unit.

Answer:
 

1.) Online Testing and Virtual Arkansas- Black Board, Power Panel, Moodle 1 & 2. 

2.)We have certificates pushed out for the filter. We don't do push certificates out often. Experience is low. We just used group policy or SCCM server to push out things we need on the network. We haven't started true HTTPS filtering/Inspection yet. 

3.)Yes, when second connection is added it will be two separate lines. Both lines will be in use and come together at the core switch or Ecessa. 

One more question to confirm installation. One unit or two given multiple ISPs. We can get the same caching performance from a single unit at the core for a lower cost than locally deployed units at school buildings. The district mentioned multiple ISP connections coming together at the core. There are a few methods to deploy a core unit with this set up. Please provide a general overview (or diagram if possible) of the path from the ISP connections to the LAN. What are core hardware makes and models on the path between the ISPs and the Rest of the LAN? If applicable, Include content filter, firewall, router, swtich. Thank you, the responses have been very helpful.

Answer:
 

The internet comes into the district to an cisco router provided by the state/Satco. We are giving a  hand off that comes to the state provided equipment Cisco3650 and then filter through opendns, traffic is then pushed out through the core switch Aruba Chassis 5400R. This unit is at all of the main campus. We don't have a diagram set up yet for the additional line, because it is a future project. We we bring in the second line we have been looking at Ecessa and firewall filter unit.