City of Aurora
10-27
Request for Proposal (RFP) for
Exchange Email Archive
Proposals Due
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
City Clerk’s Office
City Hall Building
2nd Floor
44 East Downer Place
Aurora, IL 60507
City of Aurora
10-27
Request for Proposal (RFP) for
Exchange Email Archive
The City of Aurora invites proposals from firms with the experience, capabilities, and qualified
available staff to provide services as a Technical Services Partner to provide product
recommendation and standards-based planning and installation services based on industry best
practices for Exchange Email Archiving.
Sealed proposals will be received at the Office of the City Clerk’s, City Hall Building, 2nd Floor,
44 East Downer Place, Aurora IL 60507, no later than 2:00 p.m. central standard time, on
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 for the above named project.
DO NOT SEND OR DELIVER PROPOSALS to the Purchasing Division Office.
Attached please find specifications and other pertinent documents necessary for you to respond
to this Request for Proposal (RFP).
Each technical proposal must be placed in an envelope, sealed, and clearly marked on the
outside: “Exchange Email Archiving.”
Each price proposal must be placed in an envelope, sealed, and clearly marked on the outside:
“Exchange Email Archiving Price Proposal.”
All questions regarding this RFP must be directed to James Dahl, Director of MIS by e-mail.
Questions may not be communicated by telephone.
Written questions must be submitted to:
James Dahl, Director of MIS
City of Aurora
jdahl@aurora-il.org
Written questions must be submitted by July 16, 2010. Questions received after this date will
not receive a response. A response to questions will be posted to the City’s website at
www.aurora-il.org July 21, 2010.
All questions must include a reference to the specific page number and section of the RFP in
question.
The City of Aurora reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, or parts thereof, and to waive
any technicality, informality or irregularity in the proposals received, and to disregard all
nonconforming or conditional proposals or counter-proposals and to hold the proposal for ninety
(90) days from the opening date set forth above. The City further reserves the right in its sole
discretion to award the proposal to the most responsible Proposer whose offer best responds in
quality, fitness and capacity to the requirements of the proposed Work or usage and therefore is
in the best interest of the City.
CITY OF AURORA
Esther Sanders
Director of Purchasing
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TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 1
PROJECT OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................. 1
COA CORPORATE PROFILE ...................................................................................................................... 1
DISCLAIMER ............................................................................................................................................... 1
VENDOR SELECTION.................................................................................................................................. 2
COA TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT ............................................................................................................... 2
GENERAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS .......................................................................................................... 3
STATEMENT OF WORK ........................................................................................................................... 4
RFP INSTRUCTIONS ................................................................................................................................. 4
RFP RESPONSE DEADLINE ....................................................................................................................... 4
RFP RESPONSE SCHEDULE ..................................................................................................................... 5
RESPONDING TO THE RFP ........................................................................................................................ 5
SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 6
RFP QUESTIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 7
RFP RESPONSE ......................................................................................................................................... 8
TERMS & CONDITIONS .............................................................................................................................. 8
PRICING ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
KEY VENDOR AFFILIATION ........................................................................................................................ 8
CAPABILITIES ............................................................................................................................................ 9
PERSONNEL ............................................................................................................................................... 9
TIMING ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................................... 10
GENERAL ................................................................................................................................................. 10
ATTACHMENT A: ..................................................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction
Project Overview
City of Aurora (CoA) seeks a Technical Services Partner to provide product
recommendation and standards-based planning and installation services based on
industry best practices for:
Exchange Email Archiving
CoA Corporate Profile
The City of Aurora dates back to April of 1834 when Joseph McCarty settled on the
island, which is now the site of downtown Aurora. The Fox River location was an ideal
place for a new community and it was not long before it became a permanent
settlement. In 1837, when a Post Office was established, the village became Aurora,
goddess of the dawn. Later, when the City was the first in the United States to use
electric lights for publicly lighting the entire City, it achieved the nickname of “City of
Lights”.
The modest camp of 1834 has grown into a teeming city. With a population of
approximately 170,000, the City has steadily grown throughout the years to become
the second largest city in the state.
The City is accessible through five interchanges on the East/West Tollway Corridor.
Corporate offices and commercial growth on the City’s east and west sides continue to
expand the City’s boundaries, now stretching from Route 59 on the east to portions
beyond Orchard Road on the west. The Far East Side of the City includes the regional
Westfield Shopping town at Fox Valley (formerly known as Fox Valley Mall) and
residential areas and is projected to house 60,000 people within the next twenty years.
The City extends into four counties, Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and Will.
Disclaimer
CoA reserves the right to select the proposal of its choice, and/or to modify proposed
terms and conditions prior to the execution of an agreement. CoA also reserves the
right to reject any and all proposals.
This RFP does not commit CoA to any specific course of action. All costs associated
with the preparation and submission of the vendor’s response to this RFP shall be
borne solely by the vendor.
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CoA reserves the right to purchase any hardware and/or software that is needed for the
project through the vendor of CoA’s choice.
Vendor Selection
CoA will take the following items into consideration when selecting a final vendor:
1. Vendor’s experience in assisting organizations similar to CoA, with similar
projects
2. Experience of the individual assigned to the project
3. Level of current and anticipated support available from the vendor
4. Proposed approach to assisting CoA and in developing the implementation plan
5. Quality and depth of references
6. Professional fees and expenses
7. Total project cost, which includes software
8. Detailed planning process and proposed plan
9. Relationship with Microsoft, Cisco and associated certifications
10. Team coordination of subject matter experts
11. Final determination will be made after a product demonstration of the top three
system candidates as determined by CoA.
CoA Technical Environment
CoA headquarters is located in downtown Aurora with approximately 1,000 employees.
Via a Wide Area Network, additional offices are connected either by fiber or wireless.
The Data Center is hosted in Aurora and is supported with Windows 2003 Active
Directory. .
Exchange 2007 provides messaging with 500-600 mailboxes. The messaging topology
is a 2 server model: Mailbox roles and Client / Hub roles. CommVault is the backup
software, IronPort provides anti-spam. Symantec Endpoint Protection is also utilized
for server and client anti-virus.
There are 2 Storage Groups, 1 is 31gb in size and has a mailbox limit of 150mb.
The other Storage Group is 19gb in size and has mailboxes from 200mb to 1gb+ in
size.
No public folders are used. However some email is stored in shared directories.
Outlook Web Access is available via VPN, and OWA.
Personal archive files (.pst) are used and stored both locally on the client and on the
network. Quotas are in place to limit storage on the mailbox server.
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An EMC CX300 Fiber SAN is available with a total of ~27TB of space. All but 6750gb
is allocated for use.
Caching is not utilized on the client for desktops. Some laptops may be set with a
cache.
General System Requirements
Solution must be an on-premise system
Be Windows based
Integrated with Exchange 2007 with future compatibility of Exchange 2010
Present single instance storage (de-duplication) and compression of archives
Collect all in and out-bound email both internal and external
Upload .pst files from any source
Import outlook folders and network folders
Active Directory integration
Prevent known spam from being archived
Historic email must be moved to the archive, including current Outlook email and
.pst files.
Rules must be at minimum user, date and/or keyword based
Rules to move or purge email by date
Compliance and Legal Requirements
All email must be archived based on legal compliance rules
Ability for CoA legal team to access, search and report on archive to meet
compliance
Provide tiered security permissions and levels
Deletion periods must be modify-able to meet legal discovery/investigations
Data stored in the archive must retain time stamp and original data integrity after
being accessed from the archive
End-User Requirements
Archive rules for the CoA employee base will be variable
Individuals must be able to access own archived email in a seamless process
Provide a stub in inbox
GUI interface for non-IT administrators and users
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Administration Requirements
Centralized management
Provide conversion of email to .PDF
Ability to backup archive
Ability for auto and manual purge
Configuration of users / roles to non-IT staff
Software maintenance options, such as: 7x24, 8x5, web, phone, yearly or
multiple year
Statement of Work
The Vendor will provide:
Product recommendation for Email Archival
All hardware specifications to support the archive and any related components
o CoA will provide all hardware
All software and licensing requirements
Planning and design services for implementation and roll out
Explanation of project process
Implementation services
Initial train-the-trainer services
Knowledge transfer
Follow up support
Documentation and diagrams of the archive system, along with changes to the
existing network topology within 2 weeks of project completion
RFP Instructions
RFP Response Deadline
Please reply by sending five hard copies of your completed RFP.
The deadline for completing and responding to this RFP is July 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM
central time. Any proposals received after this deadline will not be considered.
Page 4
Proposals should be sent to the following address:
PROPOSALS are DUE July 28, 2010
AT 2:00 P.M.
City Clerk’s Office
City Hall Building
44 East Downer Place
2nd Floor
Aurora, Illinois
RFP Response Schedule
Finalists will be selected in August/September of 2010 to make formal presentations
and project plans to CoA. The CoA’s intention is to select a vendor in this timeframe,
and begin the planning process in October of 2010.
Tentative Schedule
DATE STEP
June 30, 2010 RFP Release Date
July 16, 2010 RFP Questions Due
July 21, 2010 Answers to Questions Posted by
July 28, 2010 Proposals due for RFP opening in City Clerk’s Office by 2:00 PM
August 4, 2010 Contacts for Demos Made
August 24, 2010 Vendor Recommendation Made to Finance Committee
September 7, 2010 Vendor Recommendation Forwarded to Committee of the Whole
September 14, 2010 Vendor Recommendation Voted on at City Council
October 1, 2010 Anticipated Project Start Date
Responding to the RFP
Each question in this RFP requires a written response. If you would like to attach
documentation to support your answers, please do so; however, the summary answers
should stand on their own.
1. Respondents shall organize their Proposal in accordance with this RFP. Proposals
shall be evaluated and scored against weighted criteria. Failure to follow this format
may result in the Proposal being rejected as unacceptable.
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2. The City may decide to select a Vendor for negotiation from the submitted
Proposals or interview finalists and then select a Vendor for negotiation.
3. The scoring will include 100 available points:
15 points available for Qualifications of the firm, depth of services and product
features
15 points available for Qualifications of the assigned team members
40 points available for Software functions deemed as adding value to the City of
Aurora.
15 points available for Project Schedule
5 points available for References
10 points available for estimated maximum cost and prices quoted for options.
4. Fee will be a contributing, not deciding factor in the rankings. Cost savings to the
City will also be a contributing factor. At the conclusion of the review of the RFP, the
City will then negotiate a contract with the highest-ranked firm. If negotiations are
not successful, the City will then negotiate with the second-ranked proposer, and so
on.
Submittal Instructions
Proposals shall be typed on standard (8 ½” x 11”) paper, with a minimum of 11 point
font. Proposals must be bound. Preprinted material should be referenced in the
submittal and included as labeled attachments. Tabs for ease of reference should
divide sections. Number each page consecutively, including letter of interest,
brochures, licenses, resumes, supplemental information, etc. Proposals must be
clearly labeled “Exchange Email Archiving.”
Except as provided under the RFP Questions Section, proposing Firms shall not
contact any members, or employees, of the City of Aurora Information Technology
Department regarding this RFP, proposal evaluation or the selection process from the
time the RFP is issued until the time a notification of intent to award is announced.
No Proposal will be accepted after the time set for receipt of the proposals. Proposals
submitted via facsimile, telegraph, email or mailgram shall be rejected.
It is the responsibility of each Proposing Firm to examine the entire RFP, seek
clarification in writing, and review their submittal for accuracy before submitting. Once
the submission deadline has passed, all submissions will be final. The City will not
request clarification from any Proposing Firms relative to their qualification submission.
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Any submitted qualification and subsequent proposal shall remain valid for 90 days
after the proposal due date or until the City executes a contract, whichever is sooner.
The City may, in the event the selected Proposing Firm fails to perform and/or the
contract is terminated within forty-five days of its initiation, request the Proposing Firm
submitting the next acceptable proposal to honor its proposal.
It is the CoA intent to minimize the cost to Proposing Firms in responding to this
solicitation, so you are encouraged to be brief and succinct. Thick volumes of
background and general marketing material will not be appreciated and not carry favor
with the reviewers. We are seeking thoughtful, tightly focused qualifications packages
that document your firm’s suitability for this Project and understanding of the Project
and CoA. If multiple firms are proposing as one team, each of those firms must
describe relevant experience. Please indicate by firm those qualifying as a minority
firm.
CoA may email or post addenda on the CoA website, up to the day before proposal are
to be submitted. It is the Proposers responsibility to check the website for such
addenda. Proposers may contact the CoA to ascertain whether any addenda have
been issued. Failure to do so could result in an incomplete proposal. Any oral
explanation given before the RFP opening will not be binding.
RFP Questions
All questions regarding this RFP must be directed to James Dahl, Director of MIS by e-
mail. Questions may not be communicated by telephone.
Written questions must be submitted to:
James Dahl, Director of MIS
City of Aurora
jdahl@aurora-il.org
Written questions must be submitted by July 16, 2010. Questions received after this
date will not receive a response. A response to questions will be posted to the City’s
website at www.aurora-il.org July 21, 2010.
All questions must include a reference to the specific page number and section of the
RFP in question.
Page 7
RFP Response
The RFP Response must include the following information:
Terms & Conditions
List the contract terms and conditions.
Pricing
Pricing for this RFP should include all costs for the archive system as listed in
ATTACHMENT A.
o Software
o Consulting
o Yearly software maintenance options
7x24
8x5x
Phone support
Web support
Pricing should be expressed in the following phases:
o Recommended Product and necessary components
o Planning / Design services
o Implementation services
o Training
o Follow up support
All costs are inclusive of any travel expenses
Any and all travel expenses must be pre-approved by CoA prior to booking
Provide detail costs and totals based on the form provided
Price proposal must be submitted in an envelope, sealed, and clearly
marked on the outside: “Exchange Email Archiving Price Proposal.”
Key Vendor Affiliation
Please delineate your affiliation with key vendors including number of years.
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Capabilities
What depth of experience and strengths does your firm have in comprehensive
technical services? How much of your work has been government based?
Please explain the approach (or model) your firm would utilize for this project.
What are the advantages of this approach?
How is knowledge transfer conducted?
How are change orders handled?
Will work be completed remotely or onsite at CoA offices?
How are issues escalated? What is the process for issues that may arise during
non-business hours?
Are there support options for post project assistance? If so, what are they and
what are associated costs?
How would your firm handle project management to ensure that:
o Deadlines are met
o Budgets are kept
o Regular updates are provided and effective communication is maintained
throughout the project
o Excellent customer service is provided
Personnel
Please describe the technical and project management team that would be
assigned to this project. (Provide credentials and bios for each of the key
members of the team.)
Are any of these personnel contracted or outsourced employees? If so, please
identify who they are.
Please provide at least three references from clients for whom you have
performed technical services of similar size and scope. References should
include company name, a contact name, and phone number.
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Timing
Approximately how long does your firm project it would take to complete the
implementation?
If rewarded the project, what is the time frame for resources to be available?
Resource Requirements
The selected vendor must work effectively with CoA. In the RFP, please
address the amount of time and resources you will require of various CoA
personnel to implement the system.
General
Is there anything else you would like to include about your firm or capabilities
that CoA should consider in its evaluation process?
Page 10
ATTACHMENT A:
Qty Part # Archive Server Software Price Totals
Sub-Total $ -
Archive CALs
Sub-Total $ -
Tot al f or all A rc hiv e S of t ware Total $ -
Other required Software Licensing
Sub-Total $ -
Tot al S of t ware Cos t s Total $ -
Consulting Costs Design/Planning
Sub-Total $ -
Consulting Costs Implementation
Sub-Total $ -
Consulting Costs Training
Sub-Total $ -
Consulting Costs Follow up Support
Sub-Total $ -
Tot al Cons ult ing Cos t s Total $ -
Total Software and Consulting
GrandTotal $ -
Optional Software Maintenance and Support Costs
$ -
$ -
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