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

school Bedford Central School District
IFCB Posted : Oct 8, 2020
Bid Deadline : Thursday, Nov 19, 2020

Questions Due By : Sunday, Oct 18, 2020
Applicant Address : Mount Kisco, NY 10549
IFCB ID : 210001501

IFCB Requirements :

·         All Questions and Bids must be submitted using the on-line IFCB system. If the IFCB system is down before the 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. This does not apply to the recent FCC exemptions of the Gift Rule for the COVID pandemic.

·         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 or your bid will be disqualified. 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. If the applicant discovers that fees, taxes or surcharges apply but are not listed on the bid (after the time of bid awards) those charges will be the responsibility of the bidding company.

 

·         E-rate rules require applicants to evaluate the cost of eligible goods and services and to cost-allocate out the amount for ineligible services from their funding request. If your company will be bidding internet access service, please identify the amount to be cost-allocated out for the ineligible services – email service, web hosting, content filtering, or other bundled ineligible services.

·         INTERNET ACCESS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

·         LEASED LIT FIBER DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

 

·         LEASED LIT FIBER DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors must bid all connections. If vendors submit a bid missing any connection, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

 

·         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: Bids from companies that include equipment barred by the Federal Communications Commission due to national security risks (such as ZTE or Huawei) will be disqualified.

·         DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Service providers are required to bid the entire hardware project/upgrade.  Bids for individual components of the project/upgrade 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: Service providers must be an authorized reseller for Cisco and APC.

·         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 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 :

Category One

 

Project Narrative

The District is requesting that Category One services (Internet Access and Leased Lit Fiber Connections) also include the following:

·         24 x 7 live tech support by telephone

·         Bandwidth monitoring and reporting with data available down to the hour

·         All circuits must have backup batteries with a minimum runtime of 2 hours, with vendor provided battery maintenance and replacements

·         Proven history of providing services to government agencies

·         Bidder should provide uptime and restoration information for previous major storms

·         Please provide pricing for 3 year contracts with an option to renew for 5 years

 

Internet Access – Minimum 2GB bandwidth, maximum 10GB bandwidth. Please include pricing for a managed router.   The terminating address for this circuit is 632 S. Bedford Rd, Bedford, NY 10506; (914)241.  Applicant is requesting a multi-year scalable contract that provides the option to increase bandwidth up to 10GB during the term of the contract.  Internet bundle must be capable of 3 VOIP PRI circuits and up to 200 analog/POTS handoffs – pricing should be included in bid even though not Erate eligible. Please identity these ineligible costs for voice services on bids. Bid must include the quantity of Public IP addresses included in bandwidth costs and the costs for additional blocks of Public IP addresses.  E-rate rules require applicants to evaluate the cost of eligible goods and services, and to cost-allocate out the amount for ineligible services from their funding request.  If your company will be bidding internet access service, please identify the amount to be cost-allocated out for the ineligible services – email service, web hosting, content filtering, or other bundled ineligible services.  

NOTE: Per USAC’s current guidance about applying for Internet access this applicant is checking the Leased Lit Fiber, Internet Access: ISP Service only and Internet Access and Transport Bundled.

INTERNET ACCESS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

Leased Lit Fiber Connections – Applicant currently has 6 x 1GB connections and will accept bids up to 10GB bandwidth. Applicant is requesting a multi-year scalable contract that provides the option to separately adjust the bandwidth of each individual circuit during the term of the contract. 

The connections run from the hub, Fox Lane Campus, located at 632 S. Bedford Rd, Bedford, NY 10506, to the following locations:

·         123 Babbitt Road, Bedford Hills, NY 10507

·         45 Court Road, Bedford, NY 10506

·         47 W Hyatt Ave, Mount Kisco, NY 10549

·         7 Pound Ridge Rd, Pound Ridge, NY 10507

·         80 West Patent Rd, Bedford Hills, NY 10507

·         2 Green Street, Mount Kisco, NY 10549

 

LEASED LIT FIBER DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

LEASED LIT FIBER DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors must bid all connections. If vendors submit a bid missing any connection, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

 

 

Category Two – Internal Connections

 

Type of Equipment

Quantity Vendor Should Bid

 

Preferred Make/Manufacturer and specifications

Firewall Service and Components

1

Annual Cisco Intrusion prevention subscription for firewall or functional equivalent

UPS/Battery Backup

10

Smart-UPS X 1500 or functional equivalent

Wireless Access Points

25

Cisco AIR-CAP3702I-A-K9 and licenses or functional equivalent

 

NOTE: We are requesting WAP licenses on this IFCB, which sometimes may be categorized as BMIC by USAC (the BMIC box on the 470 has been checked to cover this scenario).

Compatibility Requirement

Wireless access points must be compatible with Cisco 5520 wireless controller.

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: Bids from companies that include equipment barred by the Federal Communications Commission due to national security risks (such as ZTE or Huawei) will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Service providers are required to bid the entire hardware project/upgrade.  Bids for individual components of the project/upgrade 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: Service providers must be an authorized reseller for Cisco and APC.



Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections

 

Type of Equipment

Quantity Vendor Should Bid

 

Preferred Make/Manufacturer and specifications

Firewall Service and Components

1

Annual Cisco Intrusion prevention subscription for firewall or functional equivalent

 

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 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.

2021_C2_Bidding_Instructions38.pdf
Bedford_C2_COVER_PAGE.pdf

Questions Received with Applicant Answers   ( Ask Questions? )




Is installation and configuration required on category two?

Answer:

No installation or configuration. Purchase of equipment only.

For category 1 services, would dark fiber connections be considered in place of the 1 Gbps EPL connections? If so would you like the equipment needed to light these fibers quoted? For category 2 services please answer the following questions: o Are the Firewall devices needed to be quoted or are they existing? ? If they are existing is the subscription for this firewall? If new firewalls need to be quoted, can you please answer the below questions? ? Bandwidth required? ? Length of subscription term? ? Single or dual devices (Firewall)? ? Do you need any VPN client or site-to-site, if so how many concurrent sessions are required? ? Are we looking for Content & URL Filtering, Malware, and Intrusion prevention under the subscription? ? For Management; do you want to cloud or on-prem manage it? If on-prem do you have VMware resources to install VM guest software. ? Do you need SMARTnet coverage if so length and type required? o You can no longer order "AIR-AP3702I-A-K9". The AIR-AP3802I-B-K9 replacement them. ? Do you want SMARTnet quoted and if so length and type required? Example 1yr 8x5xNBD "SNT" or 1yr 24x7x4 "SNTP"

Answer:

For category 1 services, 

  • would dark fiber connections be considered in place of the 1 Gbps EPL connections? - NO
  • If so would you like the equipment needed to light these fibers quoted?

 

 For category 2 services please answer the following questions: 

  • Are the Firewall devices needed to be quoted or are they existing?  - existing firewalls
  •  If they are existing is the subscription for this firewall? - YES
  • If new firewalls need to be quoted, can you please answer the below questions? - N/A
    • Bandwidth required? 
    • Length of subscription term? 
    • Single or dual devices (Firewall)? 
    • Do you need any VPN client or site-to-site, if so how many concurrent sessions are required? 
    • Are we looking for Content & URL Filtering, Malware, and Intrusion prevention under the subscription? 
    • For Management; do you want to cloud or on-prem manage it? If on-prem do you have VMware resources to install VM guest software. 
    • Do you need SMARTnet coverage if so length and type required? o
  • You can no longer order "AIR-AP3702I-A-K9". The AIR-AP3802I-B-K9 replacement them. 
    • Do you want SMARTnet quoted and if so length and type required? Example 1yr 8x5xNBD "SNT" or 1yr 24x7x4 "SNTP" - NO SMARTnet

Hi Per the Bedford RFP, the following are our questions: Questions: 1) Port density requested/required for UPS devices 2) Wireless access points: What is the count of devices per location - which of the locations is getting the wireless access points? Are these replacements WAPS or new? It says that "Wireless access points must be compatible with Cisco 5520 wireless controller" - Can we propose Meraki which does not require a controller? If new what assumptions on run length and ceiling heights should be used for quoting Are POE switches required and what port density and device count should be assumed. For circuits: Is the network topology hub and spoke? Are the 6 circuits to the main location center VLS/Point to Point? Firewall - Are you looking for only maintenance 1 year extended for existing Cisco firewall or are you open to an equivalent firewall quote with intrusion prevention detection? If you are open to any firewall quote would it be a cloud firewall or on premise firewall? • Is the district looking for a fully managed MNS firewall or do you need access to the firewall? • What are the compliance requirements is needed for the internet service for the firewall, what blocking? What applications would you need access to? If only existing Cisco firewall - Can we exclude the firewall from our bid? We look forward to hearing from you.

Answer:

1) Port density requested/required for UPS devices  - Question is unclear. Please quote on UPS model specified

2) Wireless access points: 

  • What is the count of devices per location - which of the locations is getting the wireless access points? Are these replacements WAPS or new? - replacements, quote is for hardware only not location survey
  • It says that "Wireless access points must be compatible with Cisco 5520 wireless controller" - Can we propose Meraki which does not require a controller? - NO, must be compatible with Cisco Controller
  • If new what assumptions on run length and ceiling heights should be used for quoting Are POE switches required and what port density and device count should be assumed. 
  • For circuits: Is the network topology hub and spoke? - YES
  • Are the 6 circuits to the main location center VLS/Point to Point? - YES
  • Firewall - Are you looking for only maintenance 1 year extended for existing Cisco firewall or are you open to an equivalent firewall quote with intrusion prevention detection? - existing firewall
  • If you are open to any firewall quote would it be a cloud firewall or on premise firewall? - not looking to change firewalls
  •  Is the district looking for a fully managed MNS firewall or do you need access to the firewall? - not looking to change firewalls
  •  What are the compliance requirements is needed for the internet service for the firewall, what blocking? What applications would you need access to? If only existing Cisco firewall - Can we exclude the firewall from our bid? - yes, ok to exclude firewall software / subscription