Information Technology Services - NYCEEC Technology Services . Request for Proposals . Release Date:...

Information Technology Services Request for Proposals

Release Date: December 6, 2016 Proposal Submission Deadline: December 28, 2016

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR IT SERVICE PROVIDER

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 About NYCEEC ....................................................................................................................................................... 2

2 Project Overview ................................................................................................................................................... 2

3 Existing Technical Environment ............................................................................................................................ 3

3.1 Data Networks ............................................................................................................................................. 3

3.2 Servers and Software ................................................................................................................................... 4

3.3 End User Computers .................................................................................................................................... 7

3.4 Printing ......................................................................................................................................................... 8

3.5 Telephony / Unified Communications ......................................................................................................... 8

3.6 Risk Management / Information Security .................................................................................................... 9

3.7 IT Service Delivery ........................................................................................................................................ 9

3.8 Human Capital .............................................................................................................................................. 9

4 Project Scope and Requirements ........................................................................................................................ 10

4.1 User Experience ......................................................................................................................................... 10

4.2 Technology ................................................................................................................................................. 11

4.3 Platforms .................................................................................................................................................... 12

4.4 Support ....................................................................................................................................................... 13

4.5 Constraints ................................................................................................................................................. 14

4.6 Additional Considerations .......................................................................................................................... 15

5 Proposal Requirements ....................................................................................................................................... 17

5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 17

5.2 Company Overview and Qualifications ...................................................................................................... 17

5.3 Implementation Plan and Proposed Timeline ............................................................................................ 18

5.4 Pricing Model ............................................................................................................................................. 19

5.5 Form of Contract ........................................................................................................................................ 19

6 Selection Process and Schedule .......................................................................................................................... 19

6.1 Proposal Evaluation and Selection Process ................................................................................................ 19

6.2 Procurement Schedule ............................................................................................................................... 20

7 Additional Terms and Conditions ........................................................................................................................ 20


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1 ABOUT NYCEEC The New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (“NYCEEC” or the “Corporation”) is an independent, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) not-for-profit specialty finance corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York. NYCEEC was formed on October 21, 2010 by the City of New York (the “City”), and began operations in May 2011. The Corporation was originally formed to assist the City in implementing the City’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan and to advance the goals of PlaNYC. NYCEEC’s mission is to innovate and deliver clean energy financing solutions for buildings. To achieve its mission, NYCEEC’s employees work with contractors, building owners and managers, lenders and others to provide financing products for clean energy improvement projects in buildings. In addition, NYCEEC provides some technical assistance to borrowers, project sponsors and others.

Headquartered in Manhattan (1359 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10018), NYCEEC has an annual operating budget of approximately $4.2 million. NYCEEC generates income from interest and fees on loans and loan-loss reserve facilities, with an outstanding portfolio of approximately $40 million.

Additional information about NYCEEC can be found by visiting: www.nyceec.com.

2 PROJECT OVERVIEW The purpose of this Request for Proposals ("RFP”) is to identify and select a qualified entity to serve as NYCEEC's new IT service provider to provide managed IT services and support to the NYCEEC team. As more fully described below, NYCEEC’s IT service provider is the primary provider of IT services and support, including hosting any required server hardware, effectively functioning as NYCEEC’s outsourced IT department.

With this RFP, NYCEEC invites bidders (each a "Respondent") to submit a proposal in accordance with this RFP (each, a "Proposal") to act as NYCEEC's new IT service provider. It is expected that the Respondent selected by NYCEEC under this RFP, if any, will be awarded a contract to serve as NYCEEC's primary provider of IT services and support (the "New IT Service Provider").

NYCEEC currently has a staff of 12 professionals, and utilizes outside vendors to provide outsourced services for certain functions where NYCEEC management has determined it to be appropriate to do so and/or where specialized expertise is required.

Some of the Corporation’s primary vendors include a fiscal agent, an HR consultant and various IT service providers. NYCEEC also holds contracts with these vendors and various other vendors who provide software and information technology solutions that support NYCEEC’s day-to-day operations. The New IT Service Provider would manage IT infrastructure on behalf of NYCEEC, and coordinate NYCEEC’s IT services, working closely with the Director of Operations at the management level, and

http://www.nyceec.com/


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supporting the IT needs of NYCEEC’s end users. NYCEEC relies exclusively on external parties for IT services; therefore any work not performed by these parties has a negative impact on the organization.

NYCEEC has been working with an independent IT consultant to evaluate its existing IT environment and identify opportunities for improvement. This process has informed the content of this RFP, with additional detail provided as an Appendix to this RFP (attached separately). NOTE: The independent IT consultant is not a reseller or IT managed services provider, and will not be competing to provide the services sought from the New IT Service Provider solicited under this RFP, but will continue to provide guidance to NYCEEC through the Proposal evaluation process.

3 EXISTING TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT NYCEEC has implemented basic technologies suitable for a smaller organization, with all IT services outsourced. The vendors are reputable, with solutions that fit NYCEEC’s current size and complexity, but there are opportunities for enhancement.

During most business days, NYCEEC users work on company-provided laptops docked at their desks, frequently undocking to collaborate in conference rooms or other work areas in the office. For many users, the Citrix connection is often lost during un-docking and re-docking, resulting in disruption as users work to re-establish a working connection to Citrix, or forcing users to pre-emptively log off and log back on after undocking to avoid “freezing up” or disconnection.

NYCEEC users also work remotely, sometimes from personal machines/devices, with access to the same applications and files.

End users at NYCEEC currently rely upon Citrix to launch almost all applications used in its business, including Microsoft Office, with its current workstations (laptops with docking stations) used almost exclusively as portals into the Citrix environment.

NYCEEC expects that as it continues to grow, the technical solutions provided by the New IT Service Provider will be able to be scaled up as required, and hardware replaced with little disruption.

The following sections provide an overview of elements of the current technical environment. Additional analysis is included in the Appendix to this RFP, attached as a separate document.

3.1 DATA NETWORKS Data networks are managed by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority ("NYSERDA") and do not pose any concerns for NYCEEC (NYCEEC’s offices are sub-leased from, and co-located with NYSERDA). There is an abundance of capacity and the service organization provides timely and professional care to NYCEEC, with proactive service delivery.


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Local Area Network The NYCEEC local area network (LAN) provides networking capabilities for workstations connected by cables in the office. This network segregates traffic, keeping NYCEEC information isolated by using a virtual LAN (VLAN). All workstations can connect at a high speed of 1 Gb/second directly to switches. All equipment, including the cabling, is maintained by NYSERDA.

The Cisco equipment prioritizes voice traffic to prevent degradation of telephone service during peak network usage or congestion. It uses Cisco Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities and is managed by NYSERDA. In any case, bandwidth usage does not impact NYCEEC as there is ample excess capacity.

Wide Area Network The NYCEEC wide area network (WAN) provides ample connectivity from the office out to the rest of the world. The dedicated 1 Gb/second circuit provides more than enough capacity for Internet connectivity. The WAN is managed by NYSERDA. NYCEEC understands that NYSERDA has a WAN redundancy project underway which will prevent loss of a circuit from impacting either NYCEEC or NYSERDA. (If either circuit is lost, traffic will be combined on the other circuit until service is restored. While this might impact performance, this would be a temporary situation.)

Wireless Network NYSERDA maintains the wireless network. Wireless access for NYCEEC staff is a key capability, as NYCEEC users frequently hold meetings throughout the day. The ability to roam throughout the building with a connected laptop was frequently identified as critical to productivity at NYCEEC. Wireless access has been improved by adding wireless access points and fixing those with technical issues. NYSERDA has confirmed its willingness to evaluate and repair any issues with the wireless network that may be identified by NYCEEC in the future.

3.2 SERVERS AND SOFTWARE Servers are virtual machines running Microsoft Windows on Intel-based hardware.

E-mail Server Currently, NYCEEC uses Microsoft Outlook accessed through Citrix, on an Exchange server hosted by Intermedia, a partner of the current IT service provider. A web portal is also available to access Outlook outside of the Citrix environment, though the functionality available is more limited.


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(NOTE: Server details in the following tables were provided by the current IT service provider in Apr-2016)

File Server Server OS Version: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (x64) Service Pack 1 System Model: VMware Virtual Platform Processor: 2.00 gigahertz Intel Xeon E5-2650 0 Memory: 4096 MB (4GB) Server Roles File Services Active Directory Domain Services (DC) DNS Server Licensing Server (Citrix) (Note: the file server also acts as the primary domain controller.) Installed Programs Citrix Licensing Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 Microsoft Security Essentials (ver 4.8) Microsoft Silverlight TeamViewer (ver 10) Vistara Agent (ver 5.9) VMware Tools (9.0)


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Citrix Server (Application Server) Server OS Version: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (x64) Service Pack 1 System Model: VMware Virtual Platform Processor: 2.80 gigahertz Intel Xeon E52680 v2 (2 installed) (Multi-core 4 total) Memory: 18,432 MB (18.4 GB) Server Roles Application Server Web Server (IIS) Citrix XenApp Server (Terminal Server) Remote Desktop Services Installed Programs Citrix XenApp 6.5 Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 (ver 14.0) WinSCP (ver 5.5) Microsoft SQL Server 2008 VMware Tools (ver 9.4) Vistara Agent (ver 5.94) Unity Client (ver 6.4) TeamViewer (ver 10) Microsoft Silverlight (ver 5.1) Microsoft Security Essentials (ver 4.8) Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5.2 LinkPoint for Salesforce (ver 5.0) java 8 Update 45 (ver 8.0) Google Chrome (ver 49.0) Doc-Link SmartClient (ver 3.0) CutePDF Writer (3.0) Constant Contact QuickImport v2 for Outlook (ver 2.7) Adobe Shockwave Player (ver 12.1) Adobe Reader XI (11.0) Adobe AIR (13.0) Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (ver 15) 7-zip (9.20)


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Other notable applications not listed in the preceding tables are included below (please see the Appendix attached to this RFP for a more comprehensive discussion of software in use at NYCEEC).

Salesforce and LinkPoint Salesforce is used for customer relationship management (CRM). Salesforce data are linked in Outlook via LinkPoint. This is a critical technology component that prevents silos of information from developing across two primary applications: e-mail and CRM. When upgrading or modifying the NYCEEC desktop configuration, LinkPoint, or an effective alternative, NYCEEC expects that the New IT Service Provider will undertake appropriate testing during piloting and prior to full-scale deployment.

Loan Servicing NYCEEC and its fiscal agent, BTQ Financial, service loans using The Mortgage Office from Applied Business Software, which is in the process of being implemented. This will replace the current loan servicing and reporting processes that have been managed using Excel spreadsheets that are manually updated.

The underlying database is a Microsoft SQL technology but not the JET Engine. The New IT Service Provider should be able to support this technology including any business continuity and any potential IT compliance or information security requirements.

Collaboration While there is pent-up demand for collaboration technologies, NYCEEC has not deployed collaboration software to-date. Makeshift solutions have been employed to facilitate basic information sharing and process linkage. File sharing is supported via secure ftp (file transfer protocol in the form on the WinSCP application) and also Dropbox. Dropbox has not been formally organized and formal protocols for its use have not yet been established.

Web Site and Marketing NYCEEC’s web site is hosted on Media Temple servers, with web pages and the content management system built on a WordPress platform, and managed by NYCEEC’s Director of Communications and Development.

Marketing-specific applications have been deployed on an ad-hoc basis. While these are function-specific, there may be applicability to other areas of the NYCEEC business. For example, while a Constant Contact import function for Outlook might not be widely used, presentation software such as Prezi might be appropriate for non-Marketing users.

3.3 END USER COMPUTERS NYCEEC users are provided equipment but are also permitted to use their own devices for work outside of the office.


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3.3.1 NYCEEC Equipment All NYCEEC employees have been issued a standard laptop which can be placed into a docking station at NYCEEC headquarters in New York. This equipment is approaching end-of-life, presenting an opportunity to improve in-office capabilities. Hardware standards facilitate better service delivery, but the majority of users should feel that the hardware suits their needs.

NYCEEC end users indicated that docking and undocking is a time sink due to lost connectivity, restarting Citrix sessions and rebooting. This should be considered by Respondents when discussing the proposed technology platform in their Proposals.

3.3.2 User-Owned Equipment Users are allowed to connect to the NYCEEC network with their own devices under a "bring-your-own-device" policy and permitted practices. Personal computers tend to be home machines, including laptops, which allow users to initiate Citrix sessions without bringing their NYCEEC-issued laptops home.

Mobile devices can function in the same fashion as personal computers in many instances. While e-mail capabilities are easy to use when ActiveSync is installed, Citrix is not due to screen size and touch interface. While there are applications to allow viewing and editing of Office documents, users do not have a simple way to access documents on the NYCEEC network using mobile devices.

3.4 PRINTING Printing at NYCEEC is supported by a multifunction printer owned by NYCEEC, and under a service contract with Atlantic, Tomorrow's Office. This model is ideal for an organization of NYCEEC’s size, staffing level and complexity. Printing has not posed issues except for access issues when undocked or attempting to print to local printers outside of the office. Consumable use has not exceeded contracted limits. The regional vendor has offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and it is reported that service have been good.

3.5 TELEPHONY / UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS Telephony services are not hosted at NYCEEC. Vonage has provided what is reported to be reliable service. However, use of the Unity Client (acquired when Vonage acquired SimpleSignal) does not provide all of the potential benefits, which could be partially attributable to configuration. Voice mail shows up in e-mail but isn't fully synced (i.e., marking "read" or "delete" doesn't move actual status without dialing in by phone). For some users, voice mail is not being sent via e-mail at all.


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3.6 RISK MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SECURITY Information security practices at NYCEEC align to policies. These policies need to be updated as appropriate and coordinated with the IT Service Provider, to maintain this alignment, ensure consistency between actual practices and NYCEEC policies, and ensure the ongoing protection of critical data.

Network security is managed by NYSERDA, including perimeter security. Security of servers and workstations (including data back-up, anti-virus, anti-spam, etc.) is managed by the IT service provider.

3.7 IT SERVICE DELIVERY Effective management of IT service delivery is critical, so that the Director of Operations is not forced to expend significant effort acting as the head of IT. Key elements of service delivery from the New IT Service Provider should include the following:

• Strategic IT planning and alignment of IT to the business, including budget planning

• Proactive management, minimizing the need for reactive responses to problems identified and reported by NYCEEC

• A well-defined model including repeatable and documented processes to drive prompt and effective problem determination and issue resolution

• Performance management that reflects service delivery, i.e., the experience of end users

3.8 HUMAN CAPITAL Because NYCEEC relies exclusively on external parties for IT services, any work not performed by these parties has a negative impact on the organization. Either the need goes unmet or the work must be assumed by NYCEEC staff. When users bypass IT to create their own solutions, this is referred to as “shadow IT.”

While NYCEEC users are not seeking to create their own solutions, they are picking up work that should otherwise be performed inside the IT function. These efforts run the gamut from IT planning to low-level (self-service) support. Shadow IT has negative impact on formal IT organizations, but in NYCEEC’s case there is also a negative impact on the business.

Because NYCEEC runs very lean, there is no idle capacity to absorb shadow IT work, which yields the following results:

• Capacity and throughput of core NYCEEC functions are reduced as staff take on IT responsibilities instead of more valuable work core to NYCEEC’s mission

• Effectiveness is impacted as NYCEEC staff perform IT work that is not a natural part of their prior work experience, skills or training


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• Cost inefficiencies result when NYCEEC employees perform IT support work.

4 PROJECT SCOPE AND REQUIREMENTS Technology must be a business enabler that is reliable and effective for all NYCEEC users.

The future state computing model at NYCEEC (to be implemented by the New IT Service Provider) should enable users to take full advantage of the technology and NYCEEC information available to them, wherever they may be. Users should be able to move seamlessly around NYCEEC headquarters and collaborate via voice or video with the ability to share screens and files. When outside of the office, they should have similar capabilities when they are connected to a network, but which should still work with synchronized copies of their files when there is no connection.

IT support must be delivered in a highly professional and efficient manner to enable NYCEEC to fully take advantage of technology benefits to improve productivity and user experience. Support should be available via phone, e-mail, portal, and periodically on site at NYCEEC.

Annual operating costs should be reduced for commodity services (e.g., software licensing costs), while capacity and capabilities are increased, as the IT environment and service model are optimized.

The sub-sections that follow describe the various tasks, services, applications, etc. that each Respondent should contemplate in their Proposal (collectively, the "Project").

4.1 USER EXPERIENCE Simple Fixes The following should be easily addressed as new technology is deployed:

• Effective use of Office applications (e.g., Citrix or an alternate platform should not be a constraint to using Excel for financial modeling; address other issues with Office under Citrix)

• Printing when undocked

• Desktop faxing

Requirement: Users will be able to print and fax from their computers when connected to the network, whether wired/docked or wirelessly/undocked. Desktop faxing should be part of the NYCEEC standard desktop build, at least for users who must use fax (i.e., Legal, Operations).

In-Office Roaming and Remote Access Citrix was cited as a positive in most instances for the ability to work remotely with an identical desktop. However, a number of issues were cited which should be remedied, whether caused by Citrix, the wireless network, configuration issues, or some combination of causes, including:


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• Freezing / undocking and re-docking issues (major concern)

• File and printer access when undocked or outside of NYCEEC’s offices

• Startup applications (unused applications, configuration problems)

A number of users have expressed interest in working untethered, mostly citing the ability to work while in transit or at alternate locations with bandwidth constraints. For some executives at NYCEEC, it is important to work anywhere, including while commuting and while in transit to local meetings.

Requirement: NYCEEC users must be able to move seamlessly from their desks (docked/LAN) to other areas of the office (undocked/WiFi) without disruption. Users must also be able to work from home or while traveling and connected to a network, including printing to local devices.

NYCEEC users must have the ability to perform their specific day-to-day job functions while outside of the NYCEEC headquarters. While there may be broadband or WiFi bandwidth, this will not always be the case.

e-mail As a business-critical tool, e-mail posed a number of issues for users which must be addressed.

• Searching for e-mails in Outlook is slow

• E-mail spam filtering provided by the current IT service provider is less effective than other alternatives such as Gmail

• E-mail on phones (user-owned, iPhone and Android devices) has been problematic for some users (synchronized deletion, search)

Requirement: NYCEEC users must be able to quickly search for e-mails in Outlook or on their phones.

4.2 TECHNOLOGY NYCEEC expects that the fundamental technology stack will not change with NYCEEC using Microsoft server and desktop products. However, the infrastructure required to deliver services will change. For NYCEEC-operated technology, the New IT Service Provider must provide support and all operational services, including continuity of business. It is envisioned that this will include, at a minimum:

• Resilient login capability (i.e., Active Directory with multiple, replicated masters, or a primary domain controller and backup domain controller)

• Application server for The Mortgage Office, and other applications, such as those shared with BTQ Financial (e.g., WinSCP; Doc-Link Smart Client)

• Web server


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File storage may be from a Cloud provider or the New IT Service Provider. In addition, applications may be a combination of locally installed and Cloud-based or served via a virtual desktop.

NOTE: Microsoft Office 365 is a mandatory component of this Project and should be contemplated in all Proposals. This includes from a Microsoft perspective, 1TB of storage available per user with the baseline Office 365 offering, and 50 GB per user for Outlook. Files can be shared with other NYCEEC users thus replacing the file server. NYCEEC is eligible to procure Microsoft licensing at significantly discounted rate as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

The New IT Service Provider must also provide and/or support existing technologies and the services required to maintain them. Examples include:

• Backup and recovery

• Workstation platform (Windows) and common applications

• End point security (i.e., anti-virus/anti-malware for all devices connected to NYCEEC data, including user-owned devices)

• Monitoring and alerting to effectively prevent and/or address issues, when they arise

4.3 PLATFORMS

Collaboration/File Sharing While connected, NYCEEC users should be able to collaborate internally and externally via voice or video with the ability to share screens and files. Documents and files should be able to be shared as appropriate with other NYCEEC employees. Users want to collaborate across a number of channels. The primary methods stated include:

• Screen sharing

• Video conferencing

• Webinars

• Conference calling (additional capacity or improving protocols around use of existing capacity)

Requirement: NYCEEC requires collaboration technologies to interact internally and with third parties. Channels should include screen sharing, video conferencing, document sharing and voice conference calling. In addition, NYCEEC must be able to host and possibly record webinars.

Loan Servicing


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As mentioned earlier, NYCEEC and its fiscal agent, BTQ Financial, will service loans using The Mortgage Office from Applied Business Software, which is in the process of being implemented. According to themortgageoffice.com web site, system requirements for workstations are:

• Microsoft Windows Desktop Operating Systems: Windows 10 Pro (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 8 Pro (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 7 Professional (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, Ultimate) and Windows XP Professional

• Processor Speed: 2 GHz or faster

• RAM: 2 gigabytes or greater

The following additional requirements are also noteworthy:

• Microsoft Office 2007 Professional or newer (32-bit version required)

• Internet connection

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or newer (applicable to SQL server version of The Mortgage Office only)

NYCEEC has not licensed the SQL Server version, so there is no database administrator required.

Loan servicing users cannot work in The Mortgage Office untethered due to the need for an Internet connection. The Internet connection is required in order to maintain the integrity of the database, which is used by NYCEEC and BTQ Financial, as well as for workstation license entitlement and monitoring. Performance testing should be performed to determine if loan servicing can occur under constrained bandwidth.

Requirement: The Mortgage Office must be available to NYCEEC's authorized users. NYCEEC expects that the platform for this application should migrate from BTQ Financial to the selected New IT Service Provider. The provider will therefore need to be able to support this technology including any business continuity and potential compliance or information security requirements.

4.4 SUPPORT IT support must enable NYCEEC to fully take advantage of technology benefits. With an effective service delivery model, the New IT Service Provider should be able to make technology a business enabler that is reliable and effective for NYCEEC users.

The following are key NYCEEC IT support needs:

Governance • Meaningful executive level reporting on IT performance and in-flight efforts

• Advice and counsel aligned to the best interests of NYCEEC


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• Monitoring of actionable metrics that are meaningful to NYCEEC users and management

• Assistance with development of IT policies and procedures

• Support for business continuity and recovery plan

Management • Collaborative management of IT plans, investments and budget

• Proactive direction of staff including sufficient resource allocation, problem avoidance and effective use of knowledge management

• Solution design and delivery when changes and upgrades are required to the infrastructure

• Effective issue management including tracking and escalation, with limited involvement of NYCEEC management and staff

• Cross-trained staff familiar with NYCEEC to enable consistent service delivery

Service Delivery • Effective support from multiple touchpoints including phone, e-mail, portal, and on-site support.

Remote control of NYCEEC devices can be used to reduce problem determination and resolution times.

• Ownership of end-to-end problem determination and resolution process, minimizing the involvement of NYCEEC management and staff

• Documentation of key management and technical decision points

• Maintenance of computing infrastructure, ensuring that it is secure, up-to-date and delivers sufficient capacity

• Managed projects applying best practices as part of any change management activities

• Testing of any significant technical changes prior to broad deployment

• Efficient and repeatable processes, consistently documented and communicated to NYCEEC

Requirement: The New IT Service Provider should liaise with these third-parties on NYCEEC’s behalf in most cases, though NYCEEC may need to contact some vendors separately, directly, for support (e.g., Salesforce) in some cases.

4.5 CONSTRAINTS The following considerations shape the future state model, and should be reflected in the proposed approach contemplated in each Respondent's Proposal.

Minimize Incremental Staffing Needs


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NYCEEC runs a lean organization, and has no intention of adding IT staff. In addition, IT-related work should not be shifted from the vendor onto NYCEEC, as there is no spare capacity.

Limit Hardware NYCEEC does not currently own servers, and does not want to operate an IT infrastructure. Therefore, solutions proposed by Respondents to this RFP should limit the hardware that is required by NYCEEC. By eliminating potential points of failure and shifting operations onto vendors, NYCEEC can maintain a lean posture toward IT.

Optimize Value NYCEEC believes in the value of investing in technology to enable more efficient and effective operations. Technology solutions must take advantage of best available and not-for-profit pricing, to minimize spending on commodity items, while enabling investment in value-added IT products and services. Available savings are significant, and the New IT Service Provider should be prepared to request not-for-profit pricing from its suppliers, and to take advantage of the sales tax exemption for which NYCEEC is eligible when procuring IT products or services on behalf of NYCEEC. NYCEEC may procure some IT products and services directly, or via TechSoup.org, to take advantage of not-for-profit discounts.

4.6 ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS While not all part of the scope of this RFP, any solutions proposed by Respondents and/or implemented by the New IT Service Provider should enable (or, should not constrain) planned future technology initiatives that may involve the New IT Service Provider and/or other third-party vendors. These initiatives include:

Salesforce Salesforce has taken hold as the CRM platform at NYCEEC, and projects to further enhance the Salesforce platform, and integrate it with other technology in use at NYCEEC are planned.

As users have grown accustomed to the platform and continue to work with it, they have expressed some issues. Some of the issues are related to core Salesforce functionality which cannot be readily changed. Issues addressable by NYCEEC are related to implementation and usage of Salesforce, and will be addressed with future projects

Requirement: NYCEEC is planning Salesforce Improvement projects to develop additional functionality, reorganize contacts and documents, and deliver NYCEEC-specific training to drive adoption of revised practices. The New IT Service Provider should consider this in the context of the proposed technologies or configurations, and in ongoing IT planning efforts.

Document Management


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The following were among the needs identified for document management:

• Elimination of redundancy in saving and/or uploading documents to multiple locations (i.e., across the shared network “O:” drive, Salesforce and Outlook)

• Better organization and filing

• Better search capabilities, both across documents and inside them

• Version control

Requirement: NYCEEC requires document management technology with easy-to-use organization and filing that will help reduce redundant actions to file documents across network drives, Salesforce and Outlook. It should support robust search capabilities, version control and enforcement of different, possibly conflicting document destruction policies.

Project Management Project management software should be a standard application at NYCEEC. This will require gathering the specific requirements across different stakeholders as needs and use cases (how they actually apply the software in day-to-day activities and at specific points in time) will differ. This should be treated as an implementation project with requirements, acceptance testing, etc. Pricing for MS Project Professional for Office 365 is $10/user/month for not-for-profit organizations.

Requirement: NYCEEC requires project management software integrated with other applications and fit-for-purpose. NYCEEC must define requirements, supporting processes, and integration requirements in collaboration with the New IT Service Provider to ensure that the appropriate solution is selected. Inception of a formalized project should result in artifacts documenting all of these needs.

Telephony / Unified Communications In addition to the need for more or better management of conference lines, users expressed other needs related to telephony and voice mail, including:

• Voice mail sent to users as e-mail; the ability to manage voice mail from the computer (e.g., delete voice mail from e-mail or remove new message light display on phones by marking voice mail items “read” in e-mail)

• (Spoken) word to text capability

• Ability to have office phone number ring to mobile or other phone lines, while maintaining connection to office voice mail

Requirement: Ensure availability of current technology and features, along with proper training and reference materials, so that users are aware of the full set of capabilities available to them. Add additional conference lines or migrate to a system where each user has their own code; alternatively,


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establish a better process for using the existing conference line capacity. Configure voicemail as per each NYCEEC user’s requirements, to the extent possible.

Note: Current VoIP pricing does not reflect discounts for which NYCEEC is eligible given its not-for-profit status. While not part of the scope of this RFP, current service options, features and not-for-profit pricing will be evaluated, and integration with the proposed Services should be considered.

Data Initiative NYCEEC is planning a data initiative, to include a better process of tracking energy and greenhouse gas emissions metrics. It should be noted that many business intelligence tools require a powerful workstation and do not work well over Citrix.

5 PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS This Section 5 sets out the information that each Respondent should include in its Proposal. Please provide comprehensive, concise responses. Substance and meaningful content are important, and should be included without extraneous material (which may be provided separately as attachments, but might not be considered as part of the evaluation of the Proposal). Please use the section headings described below to facilitate a fair and consistent review of your Proposal. All pages should be numbered consecutively.

5.1 INTRODUCTION The Proposal should set forth the full name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), and e-mail address(es) of the Respondent. The Proposal should also identify the name and contact information of the professional who will be NYCEEC’s primary point of contact, and identify other professionals who will be working on this Project. Please provide biographies for each, including years of professional experience and type of related experience. In addition, please elaborate on each team members’ experience working with not-for-profit and/or specialty finance companies, where applicable.

5.2 COMPANY OVERVIEW AND QUALIFICATIONS The Proposal should include a brief description of the company, including the year your company was established and the number of years your company has been providing IT managed services; the size of the company, and the number of employees; whether the company has a New York office and the office location(s) and the location(s) of the office(s) from which the services contemplated be primarily provided. Please provide:

a) Overview of services your company provides. b) References representing specific examples of your company’s current and/or prior experience

providing similar services to small business clients, particularly not-for-profit organizations


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and/or specialty finance companies. Please note that NYCEEC may choose to speak to any, all or none of the persons whose names and contact information have been provided.

Please describe your staffing plan through implementation and onboarding, and on an ongoing basis, post-implementation and onboarding; please include a brief description of the qualifications of the relevant individuals.

Please describe any partners relevant to delivery of the services and/or related products, and indicate any relevant certifications.

The Proposal should also contain a description of the Respondent’s equal employment opportunity policy and program, if any.

5.3 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND PROPOSED TIMELINE The Proposal should describe the Respondent’s overall approach to the Project and the date your company is available to begin the Project. Please describe your proposed solution(s), including:

• Technical Approach. Please describe your solution design and technology components.

• Service Delivery Approach. Please describe the operational services proposed, and how they will be delivered.

• Management/Monitoring. Please detail the management and monitoring controls as well as all reporting. Describe the reports used to summarize and provide detailed information to your customers, and attach sample reports to provide an example of the types of reports and documentation that will be provided for this engagement.

• Security Controls. Please provide a description of security policies, measures and results of audits, including your plan for ensuring compliance with information security standards, and experience working within PCI SSC Data Security Standards, HIPAA and other information security compliance environments.

The Proposal should include your preliminary Project plan for implementation and onboarding of NYCEEC users, including tasks to be accomplished, and their sequence. Please describe your user acceptance testing practices and acceptance methodology, specifically, how you propose to verify the suitability of the delivered solution.

The overall approach and solutions described in this section of the Proposal should be consistent with, and reflect the Respondent's understanding of, the Project scope and requirements described in Section 4 of this RFP.

End User Training. Training will be required as NYCEEC users move to newer versions of Windows and MS Office 365. The training may be provided by the IT Service Provider or by a qualified third-party.


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Please provide information about what kind of training you recommend, and what, if any, training you provide. If training is provided, please specify whether it is included or priced separately. If separate, please provide cost information. If you do not provide training directly, please provide information about any partners you work with to provide training.

Salesforce-specific Services. Any Salesforce-specific consulting and/or development services included or available from the Respondent or any partners should be detailed in the Proposal.

5.4 PRICING MODEL Please provide details of your pricing model, specifying what services are included in the pricing, in what instances additional costs would be incurred, and the fee schedule for services not included. Any non-recurring implementation and onboarding costs, training costs, and Salesforce-specific consulting and/or development services not included in the pricing should be broken out separately from the recurring service costs.

5.5 FORM OF CONTRACT NYCEEC prefers to utilize its standard from of contract for all of its procurements of goods and services. Upon request, NYCEEC will provide Respondents with a copy of this form for their review. Respondents may, however, propose their own forms of contract or other agreement as part of their Proposal. Each Proposal should clearly indicate whether the Respondent, if awarded the Project, would be willing to enter into NYCEEC's form of contract or would prefer to use its own form(s). If a Respondent prefers to use its own form(s), copies of all applicable contract documentation should be provided with the Proposal.

6 SELECTION PROCESS AND SCHEDULE

6.1 PROPOSAL EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by a Selection Committee comprised of NYCEEC staff members, and by NYCEEC’s independent IT consultant/advisor. Evaluation criteria will include:

• Respondent's competence and capacity to undertake the Project as proposed • Respondent's qualifications, relevant knowledge and experience • Respondent's reputation in the industry • Demonstrated ability to undertake the Project and provide the required services • Demonstrated understanding of the needs of NYCEEC as an organization • The cost or pricing model proposed by the Respondent • Responsiveness


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6.2 PROCUREMENT SCHEDULE The following is NYCEEC’s anticipated timeline for selecting an IT Service Provider.

Procurement Schedule • RFP Issued December 6, 2016 • Questions Due December 14, 2016 • Proposals Due December 28, 2016 • Meetings with Finalists Week of January 1, 2017 or January 8, 2017 • IT Service Provider Selection Week of January 15, 2017 or January 22, 2017

a) Request for Proposals (RFP) Issued: December 6, 2016

b) Deadline for Questions: Respondents should direct any questions to Naeemah Lajoie (Director, Operations) at [email protected], and copy Michael Kerstetter (Associate Director, Legal) at [email protected] by no later than 4:00pm EST on December 14, 2016. Responses will be distributed by Monday, December 19, 2016.

c) Deadline for Proposals: Respondents should submit proposals by no later than 4:00pm EST on Friday, December 28, 2016. Proposals should be e-mailed to Naeemah Lajoie at [email protected] and Michael Kerstetter at [email protected].

d) Meetings with Finalists: If NYCEEC chooses to conduct meetings, they will be held the week of January 1, 2017 or the week of January 8, 2017 in NYCEEC’s offices located at 1359 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY, 10018. Respondents should reserve time in the event that NYCEEC schedules meetings with Respondents.

e) IT Service Provider Selection: NYCEEC intends to notify Respondents of the results of the RFP process the week of January 15, 2017 or the week of January 22, 2017.

f) Contract Execution: NYCEEC hopes to complete the procurement process and officially retain the New IT Service Provider as soon as possible after the winning Respondent is selected.

Please note that these dates are subject to change.

7 ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS In addition to those stated elsewhere, this RFP and any contract or other transactions resulting from this RFP are subject to the additional conditions, terms and limitations stated below:

a) Respondents are expected to be familiar with the applicable laws as they relate to the IT industry generally and the Project contemplated in this RFP.

mailto:[email protected]





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b) Respondents (and their representatives and agents) must treat this RFP and their respective Proposals, including without limit all information obtained from NYCEEC in connection with this RFP (the “Confidential Information”) confidentially, and shall not discuss, publish, divulge, disclose or allow to be disclosed the Confidential Information to any other Respondent or any other person, firm or entity, including press or other media, without NYCEEC's prior written approval. Respondents shall refer all press and other inquiries concerning this RFP or the Confidential Information, without further comment, to NYCEEC.

c) NYCEEC (and its officers, employees, and agents) make no representation or warranty and assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the information set forth in this RFP.

d) The selection of a Respondent as the New IT Service Provider, if any, will depend on satisfaction of the documentation and review requirements described in this RFP and as otherwise required by NYCEEC, and will be subject to the approval of the City of New York in accordance with NYCEEC's contract with the City.

e) The City shall not be deemed to be a party to this RFP, nor shall it be deemed to have made any representation hereunder or to have covenanted to perform any obligation.

f) NYCEEC will not be liable for any cost or expense incurred by any Respondent in the preparation of its Proposal or for any work or services performed by any Respondent prior to the execution and delivery of a contract with NYCEEC. NYCEEC is not obligated to pay and shall not pay any costs or expenses incurred by any Respondent at any time unless NYCEEC has expressly agreed to do so in writing.

g) NYCEEC is subject to the requirements of Article 6 of the New York Public Officers Law (the “Freedom of Information Law” or “FOIL”). Consequently, Proposals submitted to NYCEEC will be subject to disclosure pursuant to FOIL demands that may be made upon NYCEEC. A Respondent may, in writing, at the time it submits its Proposal, provide a detailed description of specific information contained in such Proposal constituting trade secrets or proprietary information that, if disclosed, would substantially harm the Respondent’s competitive position. This characterization will not be determinative, but will be considered when evaluating the applicability of any exemptions in responses to a FOIL request.

h) NYCEEC reserves the right to take any of the following actions in connection with this RFP: amend, modify or withdraw this RFP; waive any requirements of this RFP; require supplemental statements and information from any Respondents; award a contract to as many or as few or none of the Respondents as NYCEEC may select; accept or reject any or all Proposals received in response to this RFP; extend the deadline for submission of Proposals; negotiate or hold discussions with one or more of the Respondents; permit the correction of deficient Proposals that do not completely conform with this RFP; waive any conditions or modify any provisions of


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this RFP with respect to one or more Respondents; reject any or all Proposals and cancel this RFP, in whole or in part, for any reason or no reason, in NYCEEC's sole discretion. NYCEEC may exercise any such rights at any time, without notice to any Respondent or other parties and without liability to any Respondent or other parties for their costs, expenses or other obligations incurred in the preparation of a Proposal or otherwise. All Proposals become the property of NYCEEC.

i) This is a Request for Proposals not a Request for Bids. NYCEEC shall be the sole judge of each response’s conformance with the requirements of this RFP and of the merits of the individual Proposals.


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