request for proposal - pvsc hosting... · by submitting your response to this request for proposal,...
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Tel 902.720.7812 Suite 200, Park Place II Toll Free 800.380.7775 238A Brownlow Avenue Fax 902.720.7873 Dartmouth, NS B3B 2B4 www.pvsc.ca
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
Procurement of Hosting Solution Components
For
Property Valuation Services Corporation
At a minimum, the terms and conditions and supplements contained in this document apply to this procurement. By submitting your response to this Request for Proposal, you acknowledge that you have read and complied with this document. This document is available from Property Valuation Services Corporation at 238A Brownlow Avenue Suite 200, Dartmouth NS or http://www.pvsc.ca/en/home/aboutpvsc/tendersrfps.aspx Facsimile bids will not be accepted for this Request for Proposal.
This Request for Proposal is valid only to 4:00 pm Atlantic Time on November 15, 2013.
Request for Proposal prepared by: Property Valuation Services Corporation
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 PVSC Mandate ........................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Hosting Project Overview ...................................................................................................... 1
2 RFP Time Frames and Requirements ...................................................................................... 4
2.1 Key Dates ................................................................................................................................ 4
2.2 Solution Components ............................................................................................................ 4
2.3 Architecture ........................................................................................................................... 5
2.4 Server Specifications .............................................................................................................. 7
2.5 Property Valuation Services Corporation Responsibilities .................................................. 7
2.6 Special Conditions .................................................................................................................. 8
2.7 Enquiry Contacts .................................................................................................................... 8
2.8 Contract .................................................................................................................................. 8
3 Proposal Content and Response Guidelines ........................................................................... 9
3.1 Technical Proposal ................................................................................................................. 9
3.1.1 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 9
3.1.2 Vendor Profile ................................................................................................................ 9
3.1.3 Proposed Solution ........................................................................................................ 10
3.2 Financial Proposal ................................................................................................................ 13
3.3 Response Guidelines ............................................................................................................ 13
4 Evaluation Process ................................................................................................................ 14
4.1 Process ................................................................................................................................. 14
4.2 Proposal Addendums ........................................................................................................... 15
Page 1 of 15
1 OVERVIEW
1.1 PVSC Mandate
Property value assessment in Nova Scotia is the responsibility of the Property Valuation
Services Corporation (PVSC). The PVSC became responsible for the valuation of property for
property assessment on April 1, 2008. The PVSC is a municipally-owned corporation established
under the Property Valuation Services Corporation Act.
Under the Assessment Act, an assessment roll is provided to each of the fifty-four municipalities
annually. It is used in combination with municipally set tax rates to establish property taxes and
to identify property owners from whom the municipalities collect those taxes. Every year
assessment notices are delivered to the approximately 600,000 individual properties.
The market value of all properties on the assessment roll for 2013 is nearly $95 billion, of which
$74 billion is residential and $21 billion is commercial. Activities at the PVSC include responding
to over 10,000 appeals, inspection of about 25,000 building permits plus an additional 10,000
properties inspected under file quality update programs, creation of almost 6,500 new accounts
and compliance with provincial legislation through programs such as the CAP program and the
Seasonal Tourist Business Designation program.
1.2 Hosting Project Overview
PVSC is increasingly reliant upon IT to support its current business operations and growth
opportunities. The majority of PVSC’s IT services are hosted and managed externally, with the
majority of those services supplied by the Nova Scotia Government, specifically the Office of
the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).
PVSC’s business requirements are evolving and becoming more complex as its current services
mature and future growth opportunities are pursued. Also, service providers and offerings are
evolving to take advantage of new delivery models (e.g. subscription) and delivery channels (e.g.
cloud computing). This has provided PVSC with an opportunity to step back, review its current
and future requirements and survey the market place for prospective service suppliers that will
deliver predictable and cost effective IT services that are flexible and agile.
A current state assessment of IT services has documented 71 services in five areas: Business
Applications; Business Productivity; Application/Integration; Data Management; and
Infrastructure. These services have been grouped into specific bundles that require close
integration or logically fit together as service offerings in the current market place.
1. Property Services – a group of the PVSC’s core business applications that require close
integration and have similar hosting requirements.
Page 2 of 15
2. Business Administration and Communications – PVSC’s Sage 300 Finance and Human
Resources application along with Microsoft Exchange to provide the necessary
foundation to support employee self-service functionality. Microsoft Lync has been
added to this bundle to eliminate the need to manage multiple Active Directory
instances.
3. Desktop Productivity – Desktop support including windows updates and
antivirus/malware protection along with the Microsoft Office standard suite of tools
augmented by the requirement of a lower volume of licenses of MS Project and Visio.
The diagram below shows the services included in each bundle:
The following diagram provides a high level overview to the phased approach and timing
established for the project. Formal approval to proceed and budget allocation will be reviewed
at the conclusion of each phase.
Assessment/Valuation
GIS
Imagery
Single Address Services
Property Services Bundle
Mailing Address Service
Mailing Address Adapter
Single Address Portal
Reference
NSCAF
Property Online
MLS
Property Services
Unified Communications Collaboration
Reporting and Analytics
Exchange
Lync Conferencing
Mobile Sync
PVSC Intranet
PIC Team Site
File Sharing (I: Drive)
Cognos BICognos Reporting and
DeliveryNotice Reporting and
DeliveryAdhoc Reporting
Web Analytics and Reporting
Development Tools
Web
Application
Database
Testing
Performance Tools
Code Repository
Integration
Web Services
Message Queue
Data
Service Bus
Environment Mgmt.
Dev Test
Staging Production
Training
Database AdministrationData Warehouse / Marts
ManagementData Exports Data Backup and Recovery
Finance/Human Resources
Communications
Accounting
PVSC Website
Assessment Online
Office In/Out
Leave Mgmt.
HR
Payroll
PIC Website
eDelivery (new)
eDelivery Service
eDelivery Integration
WordDesktop Productivity Bundle
Excel
PowerPoint MS Project Visio
Outlook
Business Administration and Communications Bundle
Desktop SupportAntivirus/Malware
Protection
FootPrints
Service Desk
Page 3 of 15
The current migration strategy is to implement the services as business requirements dictate
with the migration of all services completed by March of 2015. A sample service migration
schedule is provided below but is subject to change:
1. Development and testing environments for Property Services Bundle including iasWorld,
Single Address, Reporting and Analytics, and PVSC website with Oracle and SQL
databases;
2. Development and testing environments for eDelivery that includes development tools,
environment management and integration services with an Oracle database;
3. Sage 300 production environment for Finance and HR modules with a SQL database;
4. Hosted exchange and Microsoft Lync with migration of email to PVSC.ca domain and
sync with Blackberries;
5. Shared drives and migration of 1.5TB of files;
6. Rollout of Office Productivity Suite; and
7. Production environment for the Property Services Bundle (1.) above.
Fall
20
12
Current State Assessment
- Create an inventory of IT Services in use at PVSC
Sum
me
r 2
01
3
Market Scan
- Analyze current hosting provider offerings and budgetary estimates
Fall
20
13
Procurement
- Find hosting partners for IT Services W
inte
r 2
01
4
Migration
- Move services to the new providers according to business priorities
Page 4 of 15
2 RFP TIME FRAMES AND REQUIREMENTS
2.1 Key Dates
The following dates are provided for guidance only and are subject to change:
RFP Opens October 21st, 2013 RFP Closes November 15th, 2013 at 16:00 PM Response review and determination of Short List for presentations
Week of November 18th, 2013
Short List presentations Week of November 25th, 2013 Proposal Evaluation Complete December 13th, 2013 RFP Awarded December 20th, 2013 Engagement Start Date January 2, 2014
2.2 Solution Components
The overall Hosting Solution will be made up of managed hosting services for the three bundles
described above. Managed hosting services requires that providers preform all server and data
center activities such as, but not limited to:
Hardware maintenance and upgrades;
Operating system install, patching and tuning;
Back-up and recovery; and
Physical and electronic measures to ensure application and data security.
Managed hosting does not necessarily mean dedicated hosting where full servers are dedicated
to PVSC. Bids utilizing dedicated, virtual or a mixture of both will be accepted.
Due to privacy concerns regarding the sensitive nature of our client information, all services
and data must reside, be served and backed up in Canada. No PVSC information is to reside
on servers outside of Canada for any reason.
Ideally, PVSC would like all of the bundles delivered cost effectively through one hosting
partner but vendors are asked to bid on the bundles they are able to deliver, whether that be
one, two, or all three. The bundles were put together based on PVSC’s business requirements
and are the minimum solution sets on which proposals should be based. Bids that mix and
match services across bundles will be disqualified.
The Desktop Productivity Bundle is expected to be a remote support services and a software
subscription of the Microsoft products listed in the bundle served to PVSC users via the internet.
PVSC is not looking to purchase software and have it installed on individual machines.
Page 5 of 15
2.3 Architecture
The following diagram shows the PVSC production architecture by bundle:
Property Services Bundle
Business Administration
and Communications
Bundle
Office
Productivity
Bundle
Public Layer
Web Services/Application Layer
Database Layer
Oracle 11g DB Server
iasWorld Server
===============
Microsoft .NET 4.0
ASP.NET
IIS Web Server
Production Architecture
Single Address &
eDelivery Server
===============
Microsoft .NET 4.0
ASP.NET
IIS Web Server
WCF
iasWorld Report Server
Analytics Server
===============
Microsoft .NET 4.0
ASP.NET
IIS Web Server
Tyler RFS Service
Cognos
iasWorld Schema
Single Address Schema
eDelivery Schema
Web DB Server
===============
SQL Standard 2008R2
Analitics Schema
Sage 300 DB Server
===============
SQL Standard 2008R2
Sage 300 Server
===============
MS Exchange Server
===============
Reverse Proxy
PVSC Website
===============
Microsoft .NET 4.0
ASP.NET
IIS Web Server
OneWeb
Office Server
===============
Office Standard
MS Project
Visio
Shared Dr ive
Page 6 of 15
As stated above, the Property Services Bundle also requires preproduction environments for
development and testing. The architecture of both these environments shown below are the
same and are right sized to accommodate the anticipated load:
Property Services Bundle
Public Layer
Web Services/Application Layer
Database Layer
Oracle 11g DB Server
iasWorld, Single
Address, & eDelivery
Server
===============
Microsoft .NET 4.0
ASP.NET
IIS Web Server
Development and Testing Architectures
PVSC Website
iasWorld Report Server
Analytics Server
===============
Microsoft .NET 4.0
ASP.NET
IIS Web Server
Tyler RFS Service
Cognos
OneWeb
iasWorld Schema
Sing le Address Schema
eDelivery Schema
Web DB Server
===============
SQL Standard 2008R2
Analitics Schema
Reverse Proxy
Page 7 of 15
2.4 Server Specifications
The table below lists the minimum specifications for the servers in the PVSC production
architecture:
Server CPU Memory Disk
Windows 2008 Servers
PVSC Website 2 8GB 108GB
Web SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB
iasWorld 4 8GB 150GB
Single Address & eDelivery 4 8GB 150GB
iasWorld Reports and Analytics 4 8GB 300GB
Sage 300 2 8GB 100GB
Sage SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB
Shared Drives 2 TB
Unix
Oracle DB* 4 16GB 700GB
Not applicable
Exchange Server
Office Server
* Can be part of a SQL Cluster or Oracle Resource Pool
The table below lists the minimum specifications for the servers in the PVSC development and
test architectures. :
Server CPU Memory Disk
Windows 2008 Servers
iasWorld, Single Address & eDelivery 4 8GB 150GB
PVSC Website, iasWorld Reports and Analytics 4 8GB 300GB
Web SQL DB* 2 8GB 100GB
Unix
Oracle DB* 4 16GB 700GB
2.5 Property Valuation Services Corporation Responsibilities
The PVSC will provide the successful proponent with access to a primary contact within the
PVSC. This person will be the contact for all communications with the PVSC, periodically meet
with the proponent to monitor the performance and work with the proponent to identify
potential problems early and possible solutions. Any problems or concerns must be identified
to this person immediately.
Page 8 of 15
2.6 Special Conditions
The PVSC also reserves the right to approach the successful proponent for additional
requirements outside of this proposal. The cost of the additional requirements will be agreed
upon between PVSC and the supplier.
2.7 Enquiry Contacts
Proponents requiring further information on this Request for Proposal should contact Bill
Levangie from the PVSC by email at [email protected]
All enquiries are to be directed to the person(s) named above. Information obtained from any
other source is not official and may be inaccurate. Enquiries and responses may be recorded
and may be distributed to all proponents at the option of PVSC.
2.8 Contract
The successful proponent will enter into a standard contract for services with PVSC. At a
minimum, this document will include the vendor name, contact information, service details,
critical dates, etc. A ‘Schedule A’ will be included to reference the tender documents and the
proposal submitted by the successful proponent, and may be expanded to reference any
correspondence or clarifications.
Page 9 of 15
3 PROPOSAL CONTENT AND RESPONSE GUIDELINES
All proposals must include the following parts:
Technical Proposal
Financial Proposal
3.1 Technical Proposal
Responses must adhere to the sections below and proponents should answer all sections to the
best of their ability as it pertains to the service bundle(s) they are bidding on. The technical
proposal shall not exceed 50 pages excluding appendices. Pages in excess of the limit will not
be read and content from these pages will not be scored. All pages should be numbered on
standard Letter size paper (8.5” x 11”), single spaced in 12 point font (10 point font is
acceptable for tables and graphics).
3.1.1 Executive Summary
Please indicate the bundle or bundles you are bidding on and provide an overview of your
understanding of PVSC’s requirements and how your proposed solution meets those
requirements.
3.1.2 Vendor Profile
In this section, please provide an overview of your company under the following headings. Do
not include any general marketing materials in this section. Any materials you believe are
relevant can be referenced and provided in an appendix.
3.1.2.1 Overview
Please provide a brief description of your company, and its product and service offerings
including company size and structure, how long you have been providing these services and
your key clients that use them.
3.1.2.2 Strategic Partners
Provide details of any strategic relationships that you have with hardware or service companies
that may be engaged in the provision of the proposed services.
3.1.2.3 Location
Please provide the locations of your corporate offices and data centers. Include a map and a
description of any linkages or interoperability between the sites if applicable.
3.1.2.4 Data Centre
Please provide a description of your data centre including, but not limited to:
Page 10 of 15
Physical description of building and room(s) and features such as power supply and
backup, environmental control systems, smoke detection and fire suppression, flooring,
Certifications or ratings, etc.;
Security measures such as data centre access policies, alarm systems and video
monitoring, reinforced entry points;
Internet connectivity, carriers, redundancy; and
Green initiatives in place or planned.
3.1.2.5 References
Provide the names of three references of current customers you provide services similar to
those proposed to PVSC. Include contact information for your chief contact with the customer.
3.1.3 Proposed Solution
Describe your proposed solution based on your understanding of PVSC’s requirements. Please
describe the various components of the solution and how they meet or exceed the outlined
requirements and architecture.
3.1.3.1 Mandatory Requirements
Please describe how your solution meets the following mandatory requirement:
All services and data must reside, be served and backed up in Canada. No PVSC
information is to reside on servers, or any media, outside of Canada for any reason.
3.1.3.2 Service Bundle(s)
Please indicate the PVSC service bundles included in your proposed solution and outline any
strengths or shortcomings in your solution. Vendors are reminded that only bids on complete
bundles will be accepted. Also, please address PVSC’s tentative migration schedule and how it
affects phased service provisioning and costs.
3.1.3.3 Hardware and Software
Please provide detailed specifications, including manufacturers, for all hardware and software
relevant to the delivery of the service. This should include, but is not limited to:
Manufacturer, model and version numbers;
Processors, memory, disk drives, database software,
Data center networking components (routers, switches, etc.), security devices (firewalls,
intrusion detection, etc.), load balancers, virtualization, etc.;
Characteristics and capabilities of your user interface or portal including user device
requirements, print drivers and file transfer;
If each component is single or multi-tenant; and
How often each component is upgraded and how much redundancy/resiliency is built in
to the service.
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3.1.3.4 Data Storage
Please provide a detailed description of your data storage and data base service offerings
including:
SAN storage options;
Shared database options such as database clusters;
Backup cycles, retention and off-site storage; and
File restore procedures and time frames; and
Disaster recovery procedures and benchmarks.
3.1.3.5 Connectivity
Please provide a description of the network connectivity to your data centre and the
bandwidth pricing options that are available.
Please describe your firewall infrastructure and procedures for defining rules for
integration to other applications and services.
3.1.3.6 Managed Services
Please provide a detailed description of your proposed managed services including:
Policies and procedures for monitoring performance;
Scheduled maintenance, applying patches, software and hardware upgrades;
Service support, hours of operation, help desk procedures and trouble ticket severity
levels, escalation and expected response; and
Elements that are provided by contractors or a third party and any related special terms
or conditions that apply.
3.1.3.7 Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Please provide an overview of your proposed SLA, service standards, and guarantees along with
a sample in an appendix.
3.1.3.8 Service Delivery
Please provide a detailed description of your proposed service delivery including:
Lead time required to provision a server, database, firewall rule changes, etc.;
Network bandwidth monitoring and tuning;
In a multi-tenant environment:
o Cloud automation, balancing and performance monitoring;
o Oversight and review of potential clients and acceptable use policy and
monitoring;
o Shared vs. dedicated IP provisioning and blacklist remediation;
o Data encryption and private key policies;
Management Console:
Page 12 of 15
o Client management portal including service monitoring through dashboards and
reports;
o Root access to servers for application installation and maintenance;
o Physical access to servers for application installation and maintenance;
For the hosted Exchange service:
o Inbox policies and size limits;
o Incoming and outgoing message size limits.
3.1.3.9 Security
Please provide a detailed description of your proposed security services including:
User access
o User authentication and access control;
o Role based privileges;
o User maintenance and removal;
Environment and data security:
o Anti-virus protection and remediation;
o Threat Management;
o Log Management;
o Firewall;
o Intrusion Detection;
o Email & Web Protection;
o Integrity Monitoring;
o Incident Response;
People and processes:
o Screening process for employees and sub-contractors;
o Security training;
o Incident reporting and remediation procedures.
3.1.3.10 Value Added
Please describe additional features of your solution that may be of interest to PVSC including,
but not limited to:
Sustainable and environmentally friendly business practices;
Internet Service Providers
Openness to expansion and inclusion of PVSC partnerships
Contribution to Nova Scotia economy; and,
Additional current or planned capabilities beyond those requested in this RFP.
Page 13 of 15
3.2 Financial Proposal
Please provide itemized pricing in a table format of all of the components of your proposed
solution including:
Description, quantity, price and extended costs for each item;
One time startup costs and recurring fees;
Volume, threshold or term discounts that may be available; and
Contract terms and conditions.
3.3 Response Guidelines
Given the condensed timelines for this RFP electronic submissions via email will be accepted up
until the submission deadline of 4:00 Atlantic Time on Friday, November 15, 2013. Please send
your submissions to Grace Chitate at [email protected]. PVSC will not be responsible for
delays in transmission of bids caused by internet traffic, etc. A receipt notice will be sent
electronically with a list of respondents after the submission deadline. Any bids received after
the deadline will not be opened and will be deleted.
Submissions must be scanned PDF copies of the original proposal signed by the person(s)
authorized to sign on behalf of the proponent and to contractually bind the proponent to any
and all statements made in the response. The original paper copy must follow the electronic
copy by Friday, November 22, 2013. The original and PDF copy must be identical or the bid will
be disqualified. Please send originals to:
Grace Chitate
Property Valuation Services Corporation
Park Place II Suite 200, 238A Brownlow Ave.
Dartmouth NS, B3B 2B4
Page 14 of 15
4 EVALUATION PROCESS
4.1 Process
When evaluating bids, Property Valuation Services Corporation seeks to obtain best value on
procurement and the evaluation is not limited solely to the purchase price but to other
considerations such as the quality of technical specifications, project life cycle costs and
benefits, the delivery, servicing and capacity of the bidder to meet criteria as stated in the bid
received.
The contract award is not made solely on the basis of the lowest price submitted but will
consider other relevant bid evaluation factors. The evaluation team will assess each solution
scenario separately using a four step process to formulate a recommendation.
Step 1: Mandatory Requirement (Pass/Fail)
The evaluation team will review responses to assess if the mandatory requirement is met. If
the mandatory requirement is not met, the solution scenario will be rejected and not receive
further consideration. Solution scenarios that meet the mandatory requirement will move on
to step 2.
Step 2: Rated Criteria
In this step the evaluation team will utilize the following evaluation criteria to establish an
overall score for each solution option under consideration.
Criteria Weight Description Proposal Response Section
Vendor Profile 10 Assess the maturity, stability and strength of the vendor. 3.1.2 Vendor References
10 Assess the experience, familiarity and success the vendor demonstrates with the proposed solution through similar engagements.
3.1.2.5
Solution 50 Assess the degree to which the solution components in Section 2 are met by the proposed solution.
3.1.3
Added Value 5 Assess the significance of the added value offered by the proposed solution.
3.1.3.10
Cost 25 Comparative cost of the proposed solutions 3.2
Step 3: Demonstration/Presentation
At the discretion of the evaluation team, proponents with the highest scores from step 3 may
be asked to host a site visit or be invited, at their own expense, to meet with the evaluation
team for the purpose of demonstrating their solution.
Page 15 of 15
Step 4: Final Scoring and Recommendation
The evaluation team will use information and clarification gathered during the demonstration
and presentation to revise the scoring established in Step 3 and prepare a recommendation to
the PVSC Executive.
4.2 Proposal Addendums
The Proponent is responsible for obtaining any addendums issued to this RFP. Addendums will
be posted on the pvsc.ca website at the following location:
http://www.pvsc.ca/en/home/aboutpvsc/tendersrfps.aspx