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

school Ferguson-Florissant Sch Dist
IFCB Posted : Nov 25, 2020
Bid Deadline : Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021

Questions Due By : Saturday, Dec 5, 2020
Applicant Address : Florissant, MO 63033
IFCB ID : 210005717

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. 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. 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.

 

·         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: Vendors must bid all connections. If vendors submit a bid missing any connection, 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.

 

 


Services and Equipment Requested :

Category 1

 

Internet Access – District currently has a 5 GB connection. Please provide bids for 5 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB. Please also include pricing for a leased router. Address for this circuit is 1005 Waterford, Florissant, MO 63003. 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 – 30 connections. District currently has 2 GB connections to all sites. Please provide bids for 5 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB for each site. The connection to the Administration Center at 8855 Dunn Road, Hazelwood, MO will start either June 2022 or July 2022. Please also provide pricing for leased switches. There is another document associated with this IFCB available for download that lists all addresses for these circuits.

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.

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.


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

WAN_addresses.xlsx

Questions Received with Applicant Answers   ( Ask Questions? )




Should we include the Administration Building in this bid? Will you consider separating out the SCC's and pay either in a lump sum or over 4 years?

Answer:

The administration center at 8855 Dunn Road is the one that will have a different start date, so we did want that bid. As far as construction costs we will accept whichever option is most cost-effective.

1) The RFP does not indicate what the district wants delivered at the hub? Are you asking/allowing over subscription? Basically, I'm asking if you want the sum of the parts to equal what is delivered at the hub. For example, if you want 1 Gb to be delivered to your 29 edge sites, then you would be asking for 29 Gb to be delivered at the hub. It is very common for districts to only clarify what they want delivered at their edge sites and to neglect to mention the hub. This allows incumbents to over-subscribe your network. 2) Will you allow alternate contract lengths? We typically offer districts 5 and 10 year contracts. The E-Rate Special Construction Rule allows district to drastically buy down their monthly for life. This rule is a game changer and we allow districts to pay off any remaining construction costs after Special Construction over 4 years. Using a three year contract would not allow you to take full advantage of the cost savings associated with Special Construction. Taking these savings into consideration show Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). 3) Do any of these sites currently have district owned fiber? Want to make sure we aren't including build costs to sites that don't need to be built to. 4) The site list shows that 1005 Waterford Dr. is the Hub. Is this the only hub? We wanted to see if the district has a preferred network design? We would be happy to design a hub and spoke, dual-hub, or whatever you are looking for.

Answer:

1)  Right now, we have 2 Gbps going to each edge site.  The current vendor's device is connected via a 10 Gbps SFP+ module.  Oversubscription has not been an issue, as pushing that amount of data would take a concerted effort by many, high performance devices, which we simply do not have, and the normal business day does not provide this scenario. 

2)  A five year term with the option to renew for five additional (1) year periods would suffice for our needs.    

3)  The district does not own any C1 fiber runs 

4)  One hub suffices and keeps the design similar and simpler.

1) The description for your WAN mentions the Admin Center as the Hub but the WAN addresses Excel Sheet lists the Hub at the NOC/Data center. Which site is the hub or are both of them hubs? 2) What speeds are the district's LAN switches currently capable of handling? We do not need to include leased switches in our offering as this just adds another point of failure in your network.

Answer:

1)  1005 Waterford, ZIP 63033 = NOC/hub/data center ...  8855 Dunn Road ZIP 63042 = Admin Center, or edge site 

2)  10 Gbps SFP+ SR (Cisco or compatible)

The request is for up to 20G per connection. Does the district prefer individual circuits for each site or an aggregated circuit? 1) if aggregated, what is the maximum circuit speed the district can accept? 2) at 20G per school the total bandwidth will be 580G, how does the District wish to receive this handoff?

Answer:

The request is for up to 20G per connection. Does the district prefer individual circuits for each site or an aggregated circuit? 1) if aggregated, what is the maximum circuit speed the district can accept? 2) at 20G per school the total bandwidth will be 580G, how does the District wish to receive this handoff?

Response: 

 

 Individual for each site preferred, with explanation below. 


- EDGE sites:  one (can accept up to two, aggregated, to get 20 Gbps total) SFP+ SR (10Gbps, short range, multimode) modules at the edge sites (no new L3 switch needed in this case for the most part)


- HUB:  hub site - required quantity of the following for up to 580G (we have 10 Gbps modules, could get 25 Gbps modules to replace with, or go up to the 40/100 Gbps modules, which might be cost prohibitive  Smaller throughput per pluggable module is probably better here

 

(into the Nexus 93180-yc)
mostly available ports:  48 x 1/10/25-Gbps fiber ports and 6 x 40/100-Gbps Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) ports