How to Develop a Comprehensive RFP for Unified Communication

G00219767

How to Develop a Comprehensive RFP forUnified CommunicationsPublished: 7 November 2011

Analyst(s): Jay Lassman, Steve Blood, Daniel O'Connell

Unified communications (UC) is often not a single solution that can besupplied by a single bidder and deployed all at once. Rather, enterpriseslikely will require multiple partners to support a complete UC solution, whichthey will implement over time as continuous improvements in capabilitiesand integrations, using a range of components that need to work together.After developing a strategic plan, as well as the short- and long-term goalsfor the IT environment, you can use this format to create RFPs that enablepotential suppliers to propose solutions for satisfying appropriate UCrequirements whenever these needs arise.

Key Findings■ Properly structured RFPs help organizations satisfy business and technical requirements,

optimize cost, and ease comparisons of alternative solutions and bidders.

■ Defining clear enterprise communications objectives and creating a checklist of requirementswill simplify and accelerate the procurement process.

■ Including a well-written RFP in a final contract can mitigate risk and expense for buyers andsellers, while facilitating dispute resolution.

Recommendations■ Define business and technical requirements for UC by forming a project team that includes

stakeholders, as well as personnel from procurement, HR, the IT organization and keyfunctional areas of the business.

■ Evaluate availability of support, regional distribution differences, price, management and userinterfaces, service-level expectations and overall bidder viability in the UC RFP decision criteria.

■ Add IM and presence capabilities to your requirements, even if you plan to replace or upgradeyour voice system. An old voice mail system is also a candidate to be replaced with one thatsupports unified messaging.

■ Require bidders to provide three- to five-year cost projections not only for hardware andsoftware maintenance, but also for upgrades.

■ Yes/no responses are best for mandatory requirements, but the RFP should allow bidders toaddress specific needs, as well as to propose alternative (and hopefully) better solutions.However, to best discern differences between proposed capabilities, descriptive responses areoften best.

Table of Contents

Analysis..................................................................................................................................................4

Introduction......................................................................................................................................4

Developing the Document................................................................................................................5

Understanding the Goals............................................................................................................6

Baseline Requirements...............................................................................................................6

Surveying the Marketplace...............................................................................................................7

Preparing the RFP Document...........................................................................................................7

RFP Instructions...............................................................................................................................7

Executive Summary....................................................................................................................8

Business Objectives....................................................................................................................8

Overview of Present Communications Environment....................................................................8

Objectives/Scope of Work..........................................................................................................8

Liability and Reserved Rights......................................................................................................8

Instructions to Bidders (i.e., Prospective Suppliers).....................................................................8

General Procedures....................................................................................................................9

RFP Response Terminology........................................................................................................9

Preparation of Proposals..........................................................................................................10

Voice Requirements.......................................................................................................................13

UC Integration..........................................................................................................................13

System and User Features for Voice.........................................................................................14

System Features for Converged Networking.............................................................................14

Network Assessment and QoS Requirements..........................................................................15

UC Endpoints.................................................................................................................................15

SIP Endpoint Requirements......................................................................................................16

SIP Softphones........................................................................................................................17

Attendant Services...................................................................................................................18

Analog Devices.........................................................................................................................19

Page 2 of 45 Gartner, Inc. | G00219767

Voice Mail and Unified Messaging...................................................................................................19

Email Messaging............................................................................................................................19

Presence and IM............................................................................................................................20

Presence Management.............................................................................................................20

Future Presence Event Notification Functionality.......................................................................21

Presence Automation...............................................................................................................21

Peer-to-Peer IP Communications.............................................................................................22

Audio, Video and Web-Based Conferencing...................................................................................22

Video for UC Integration............................................................................................................23

UC Clients......................................................................................................................................23

Mobile Communications.................................................................................................................23

Mobile Solutions Support..........................................................................................................23

Fixed Mobile Convergence.......................................................................................................24

Communications-Enabled Business Processes..............................................................................25

System Redundancy, Reliability and Survivability............................................................................25

Standards.......................................................................................................................................25

System Networking........................................................................................................................26

System Security.............................................................................................................................26

System Management......................................................................................................................27

Overall System Management....................................................................................................27

Configuration Management.......................................................................................................28

Licensing Management.............................................................................................................29

Basic Fault Management..........................................................................................................29

Basic Performance Management..............................................................................................29

Security....................................................................................................................................29

Passwords and Access Authorization Levels............................................................................30

Secure Access.........................................................................................................................30

Backup, Recovery and Updates...............................................................................................30

Accounting Management..........................................................................................................30

Optional Management Add-On Capabilities..............................................................................30

Session Border Control (Optional)...................................................................................................30

Bidder Design Summary.................................................................................................................31

Solution Architecture................................................................................................................31

Network Diagrams....................................................................................................................31

Physical Requirements...................................................................................................................32

Gartner, Inc. | G00219767 Page 3 of 45

Environmental Requirements..........................................................................................................32

Power Requirements......................................................................................................................32

Warranty, Maintenance and Training...............................................................................................33

Warranty...................................................................................................................................33

Maintenance.............................................................................................................................33

Training....................................................................................................................................34

Emergency Response....................................................................................................................34

Implementation...............................................................................................................................34

System Pricing and Licensing.........................................................................................................35

Incremental Costs.....................................................................................................................36

Unified Communications as a Service Pricing (Optional)............................................................36

Subscription Pricing (Optional)..................................................................................................37

Finance.....................................................................................................................................38

Bidder Qualifications.......................................................................................................................38

Company History......................................................................................................................38

Responsibility for Proposed System Implementation.................................................................38

Bidder Support and Structure...................................................................................................39

Appendix A: Voice Features............................................................................................................39

Appendix B: Voice Mail Features....................................................................................................40

Appendix C: UCaaS Pricing............................................................................................................41

Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................................44

List of Tables

Table 1. Proposal Delivery Information..................................................................................................11

Table 2. Project Schedule.....................................................................................................................12

Table 3. Sample Pricing Format for Included UCaaS Components.......................................................42

Analysis

Introduction

Gartner defines UC products (equipment, software and services) as "products that facilitate the useof multiple enterprise communication methods — for instance, voice, email and video" (see"Developing an Enterprise Unified Communications Road Map" [Note: This document has beenarchived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions.]). This can include the control,management and integration of voice, email and video. UC products integrate communication


applications and channels (media) with multiple networks and systems, as well as IT businessapplications, and, in some cases, with consumer applications and devices. UC enables enterprisesto significantly improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform. Theseproducts may be made up of a stand-alone suite, or a portfolio of integrated applications andplatforms spanning multiple bidders. In many cases, UC is deployed to extend and add functionalityto communication investments (see "Discovering the Value of Unified Communications" [Note: Thisdocument has been archived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions.]).

Producing a good RFP for UC is a substantial project requiring input from many interested parties.It's essential that the organization identify opportunities where UC can provide improvements inareas such as business processes, productivity and cost. This becomes the foundation for definingappropriate areas of the RFP that will match the specific goals of the business. Managersconsidering UC need to produce a formal RFP that specifies the business and technicalrequirements that prospective bidders will have to provide. In addition, a thorough and objectivelyevaluated RFP will ensure that an organization's UC requirements are satisfied at a competitiveprice (see "Developing a Vision for Unified Communications").

Developing a good RFP is a substantial project in its own right, requiring input from manystakeholders. However, having clear objectives and a checklist of requirements will help ease andaccelerate the procurement process. Prospective buyers of UC will find that a formal RFP will helpthem define their commercial and technical requirements, allowing prospective suppliers to set out,in structured responses, their offerings in terms of specifications, performance, price, support, andterms and conditions. A properly prepared RFP helps ensure an objective and defensible outcome,because it establishes not only the requirements, but also the evaluation criteria. Keep in mind thequantity and quality of business applications that UC products can support. Interviews with generalusers, managers, executives, and IT and telecom personnel will reveal applications that can benefitfrom increased collaboration, customer service enhancements, billing and chargebackimprovements, directory updates and consolidation, and specific business processes (see "Toolkit:Unified Communications Vision, Strategy and Road Map: A Sample Executive-Level Presentation"[Note: This document has been archived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions.]).

Here, Gartner focuses on the essential components of a UC RFP. We provide guidelines forgathering the required data, as well as producing and issuing the RFP.

Developing the Document

To develop a UC RFP, a good place to start is for stakeholders to define their current and futurerequirements for voice functionality, considering business and technical requirements, which isusually a large task and needs to be treated as a project.

Many organizations form a task force to guide the project. Team members should represent the keyfunctional areas of the business to be served by the UC system, and include stakeholders, such aspersonnel from HR, sales and business development, as well as from procurement, finance and ITfunctions. Itemize requirements and specify the format and essential content of bidders' responses.RFPs should specify the main evaluation criteria, but not their relative importance. This will lead toefficient and effective evaluation of responses.


Understanding the Goals

The first step is to ascertain the business goals of senior management, including the organization'sbusiness drivers and critical needs, current and planned. Typically, individuals use UC products tofacilitate personal communications, and enterprises use the products to support workgroup andcollaborative communications. In some cases, the communications are integrated with collaborationapplications and business applications. Some UC products may extend communication boundariesoutside the company to expand and enhance interactions among large public communities orperson-to-person contacts. As a result, look for opportunities that, in addition to voice, can leveragethe use of IM, presence and conferencing.

Typical benefits include:

■ Using collaboration to accelerate product development and reduce time to market

■ Improving customer service and satisfaction

■ Reducing travel expense

■ Extending enterprise communications to mobile personnel and key suppliers

Anticipating future possibilities is important, since many benefits will result from how UC transformsthe way in which people communicate within and outside their communities of interest.

Baseline Requirements

Having determined management goals, focus on identifying the business and communicationsrequirements.

Business Use

Confirm how many people the new system(s) will support, and consider the organizational structureand what communication changes are expected (see "Organizing for Unified Communications"[Note: This document has been archived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions.]and "User Experiences Reveal Best Practices for Deploying Unified Communications").The bestway to collect this information is to have stakeholder representation and to interview keydepartmental players (see "Using Roles to Facilitate Unified Communications Planning" [Note: Thisdocument has been archived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions.]). This willenable you to gather subjective inputs or aspects of the business culture that will affect acompanywide telephony system, and plan for growth (see "Developing an Enterprise UnifiedCommunications Road Map" [Note: This document has been archived; some of its content may notreflect current conditions.] and "Developing a Vision for Unified Communications").

Through this interview process, understand how people use the present communications systems.Seek succinct definitions for:

■ What are the good points (of the present system)?

■ What is lacking?


■ What are the functional pluses and minuses for people?

Communication Platforms and Infrastructure Inventory

Identify and conduct an inventory of current communication products and services that are used foreach of the key UC technologies already specified. Often, different departments and groupsacquired these technologies from a mix of bidders, based on independent sets of requirements.Include the specific bidders, products, revision levels, the licensing and support contracts, andplans for advancing each technology area. This inventory will help you develop an enterprise visionfor how a new approach to communications can make the enterprise more effective andcompetitive, as well as determine what existing components and applications the organization willwant to retain. This vision will then help you define the broader UC strategy and the specificcapabilities in which the enterprise may be willing to invest.

The vision provides direction and a goal that the business units and management can communicateand understand, while the strategy defines how the communication changes advance thecompany's overall objectives. In addition, the LAN and WAN must be engineered to support highlyreliable and high-quality service levels for carrying additional modes of communications traffic.

Surveying the Marketplace

After gathering the appropriate internal information and defining system requirements, review whatsystems are available from a blend of bidders or as a UC suite from a single bidder. This can bedone by issuing RFIs from a broad range of suppliers, which will reveal whether individual bidderscan provide the required broad range of capabilities you want and/or need. This process will resultin a shortlist of prospective bidders that the organization believes are best qualified to respond to amore rigorous RFP.

Conduct research into each product in the appropriate size range and document the capabilitiesoffered (see "Critical Capabilities for Unified Communications" and "Magic Quadrant for CorporateTelephony"). Note those features common to all systems, those offered by most bidders and thoserarely offered. Decide which features meet the minimum requirements and which are desirable.After determining which systems seem to be most capable of satisfying most sizing and featurerequirements, develop a specific RFP.

Preparing the RFP Document

Structure the RFP to allow bidders to respond in an effective and creative way with compliant andnoncompliant (creative) offerings. The document should be well-organized, with a table of contentsthat's easy to interpret. Allow respondents some latitude in proposing solutions best-suited to meetthe business and technology needs of the prospective customer.

RFP Instructions

Most RFPs have a similar structure that includes a table of contents and instructions to bidders, assuggested in this section.


Executive Summary

Require bidders to include an executive summary highlighting their offerings and outlining thebenefits to your company.

Business Objectives

As the buyer, provide background information about your organization by including:

■ A description of the business, objectives, time frames and targeted users

■ The markets your organization addresses, business plans, initiatives and distinctiverequirements

Overview of Present Communications Environment

Include a summary of the current environment to assist bidders in understanding the technologythat is supporting your business. Provide a narrative description of your company's in-usetelecommunications services. Be sure to include location(s); voice, data, video and networkservices; and site-specific bandwidth, environmental, building and cabling information.

Objectives/Scope of Work

Provide a clear summary statement of your organization's interest in/intent to acquire UC managedor hosted services and/or equipment. Emphasize the objectives of this RFP, and highlight andconcisely define areas of specific importance.

Liability and Reserved Rights

Specify that this RFP does not commit your organization to pay any cost incurred in the preparationor submission of any proposal, or to procure or contract for any services. Your organization will, atits discretion, award the contract to the bidder submitting the best proposal that complies with theRFP. Your organization may, at its sole discretion, reject any or all proposals received, or waiveminor defects, irregularities or informalities therein. Include any boilerplate text that specificallyrefers to these issues.

Your organization reserves the right to amend this RFP by an addendum issued up to five businessdays prior to the date set for receipt of proposals. Addenda or amendments will be mailed, emailedor faxed to all bidders that have procured copies of the RFP. If revisions are of such a magnitude towarrant the postponement of the date for receipt of proposals, then an addendum will be issuedannouncing the new date.

Instructions to Bidders (i.e., Prospective Suppliers)

This section outlines specific instructions for proposal submission. Bidders not adhering to theseinstructions may be subject to disqualification without further consideration.


General Procedures

Issuing Authority

This RFP is issued by [insert contact information, referred to here as ABC Company]:

■ Contact Name and Title:

■ Department:

■ Street Address:

■ City, State and ZIP:

■ Telephone Number:

■ Fax Number:

■ Email Address:

Price Guarantee

Request that UC bidders and service providers guarantee their prices for a period of six months(beginning at the date of submission of the response to this RFP).

Preproposal Questions

Bidders must submit questions in writing to:

■ Name (and Title) of Responsible Person or Office:

■ Street Address:

■ City, State and ZIP:

■ Fax Number:

■ Email Address:

All questions must be received by [insert date] to allow for ABC Company's answer preparation.

RFP Response Terminology

It is important for bidders to respond in a brief, but concise, manner to each section of the RFPdocument.

Yes/no responses can be acceptable, but you might also want bidders to indicate the level ofcompliance with:

■ "Acknowledge" — The bidder has read and understands the information provided; however, noaction is required by the bidder.


■ "Comply" — Bidder meets the specifications.

■ "Partially comply" — Bidder meets part of the specification; bidder should always explain howor the deviation from the specification.

■ "Comply with clarification" — Bidder meets the specification; however, the manner in which thebidder accomplishes this may be different from that specified in the RFP. ABC Company shouldalways provide clarifying information.

■ "Exception" — Bidder does not meet the specification. Please provide an alternative solutionwhen possible.

Preparation of Proposals

Proposal Format

Specify whether proposals may be submitted as soft copies or in binders. If the latter, a soft copyformat is also required.

The complete proposal must include the proposal document with a point-by-point response to theRFP and all other materials requested. Bidders may include any additional materials they feel couldassist in the evaluation of their proposed systems. However, bidders must provide completeresponses to each question. References to other documents will not be accepted.

Specifically caution bidders that proposals that do not follow the RFP's format and contentrequirements will be subject to rejection without appeal.

Proposal Due Date

All proposals must be received by [specify time] on [specify date], and will be labeled: "Response toCommunications Request for Proposal for [XYZ] — Proposal No. [specify number, if appropriate]."

ABC Company may issue several RFPs for multiple projects simultaneously or during closeintervals. To ensure prompt and expeditious routing of bidder responses to the right individuals inABC Company at the right time, you may want to consider including a statement in your RFP asshown in the Proposal Format section. Please insert date, time and number, if appropriate, andremove this note before issuing the RFP.

Proposal Delivery

Bidder is requested to submit [specify the number] complete copies of the proposal to the contactshown in Table 1.


Table 1. Proposal Delivery Information

Mail Address: Delivery Address:

Name: Name:

Title: Title:

ABC Company: ABC Company:

Address: Address:

City, State, ZIP: City, State, ZIP:

Telephone Number: Telephone Number:

Source: ABC Company (Month Year)

Proposal Inclusions

All equipment, accessories, database information, training, software, hardware, labor and materialsmust be furnished for the installation in a bill-of-material format. Any additional material orequipment necessary for installation, operation and maintenance of the system(s) not specified ordescribed herein will be deemed to be part of the bidder's proposal.

Standard Agreements

The bidder must provide a copy of its standard product agreements that ABC Company will sign if itawards the contract to that bidder.

Proposal Modification and Withdrawal

Once submitted by a bidder, a proposal may be modified or withdrawn only by appropriate noticeto ABC Company. Such notice will be in writing over the signature of the bidder. A withdrawnproposal may be resubmitted up to the time designated for the receipt of proposals, provided itthen fully conforms to the general terms and conditions of the RFP.

Confidentiality

Proposals submitted to ABC Company for consideration will be held in confidence and not madeavailable to other bidders for review or comparison. Proposals submitted, and terms and conditionsspecified in each bidder's bid response will remain the property of ABC Company.

All information in this RFP is confidential and will not be disclosed, except to those responding tothis RFP. The bidder may designate the portions of the proposal that are proprietary in nature, and


ABC Company agrees not to disclose those portions except for the purpose of evaluating theproposal.

Calendar of Events

Table 2 reflects the project schedule.

Table 2. Project Schedule

Activity Primary Responsibility Date(DateMonthYear)

RFI phase optional Organization

RFP released to bidders Organization

Bidder's acknowledgment of intention to bid Bidder

Provide preproposal conference questions by deadline Bidder

Schedule preproposal conference Organization

Perform site survey Bidder

Provide final questions by deadline Bidder

Proposal delivery and opening Bidder/organization

Evaluation Organization

ABC Company notifies bidder/provider of its selection aswinning bidder

Organization

Contract negotiations completed Bidder/organization

Final contract signed Bidder/organization

System installation and testing Bidder with organizationoversight

System cutover (no later than) Bidder with organizationoversight



Voice Requirements

Define requirements in terms of system capacities and the architecture needed. Quantify sizingrequirements for desk phones, desktop and mobile device soft clients, softphones, public switchedtelephone network (PSTN) trunks and two- to three-year growth projections. Estimate requirementsfor wired and wireless fixed and mobile devices. This gives the bidder a comprehensiveunderstanding of the full range of capacity and functional requirements.

With systems that use Internet Protocol (IP) technology, voice traffic is typically carried over a LANor WAN infrastructure, and call capacity is measured in terms of the bandwidth of the IP channel.Bidders should specify how much bandwidth is required and associated codecs to adequatelytransmit packetized voice conversations.

Bidders must also provide details about call setup time, the architectures of their systems andsystem families (such as switches, telephony servers and gateways), and the redundancy featuresof their proposed solutions.

UC Integration

Multiple scenarios exist for using voice in new ways within a UC environment. Bidders must specifywhether voice call control resides in their own or third-party platforms, as well as whichcommunications industry standards the proposed solution supports. Bidders should also provideblock diagrams describing UC integration options.

Integration capabilities must include:

■ Centralized user interfaces for managing and accessing all UC services, including primaryaccess through a graphical user interface (GUI) or Web client and additional telephony userinterface (TUI) and mobile client options for mobile user convenience.

■ Presence management for user availability, voice and IM communications across multiple end-user client devices.

■ User preference-based contact management across end users' client devices (e.g., the abilityfor the user to select his or her "preferred device" for routing incoming and outgoing calls).

■ Support for a single integrated or unified mailbox that supports email, voice mail and fax mailmessage types.

■ Integrated audio and Web conferencing services for handling multiparty conferencingrequirements in a multisite environment.

■ Centralized user interface for moderating, managing and accessing an end user's conferencesvia a desktop and Web client.

■ Integrated UC client launch of preferred third-party Web conferencing service/application

■ Secure, achievable and auditable enterprise IM services, or the ability to interoperate smoothlywith any pre-existing enterprise IM platform currently in use.


■ Integrated video calling, using PC-based desktop video and voice over IP (VoIP).

In addition, voice solutions should be able to integrate with existing voice communicationresources, such as:

■ PBX and IP PBX systems

■ Voice mail systems

■ Email systems

■ Applications that use analog interfaces and devices

■ Private or public voice networks

■ Telephony dial plans

Using its specific RFP format, bidder should confirm that the proposed UC solution can support thestandard capabilities set forth above and include a brief overview of how the solution meets theserequirements. Proof of availability of high-quality installation and integration services, includingproject management, training and professional services is also essential.

System and User Features for Voice

The buyer lists the functionality and features that the proposed system must provide. Biddersshould provide a response to each item, and should indicate which features are standard and whichare extra-cost options. Providing a system manual is not an acceptable response to this section.Bidders must also cite any system feature limitations relating to software or interaction with otherfeatures.

More than 400 features are available for voice systems, but most organizations use only a smallsubset of them. Define the set that will meet your company's requirements. Ask bidders for a list offeatures that are included in the proposed voice solution that are equivalent to those offered in yourcurrent one, as well as features provided with the base system.

You will have to consider the specific needs of a broad range of personnel in your business. Sometraditional features to consider are included in Appendix A. However, as UC transforms the way inwhich people communicate and systems are managed, this list will change to include new features,while older ones become outmoded.

(See "Toolkit: RFP Template for IP PBX Sourcing and Deployment" [Note: This document has beenarchived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions.] for additional information.)

System Features for Converged Networking

With voice traffic being transported as data packets over local- and wide-area data communicationsnetworks, and over links to the PSTN, networking features and capabilities are critical.

Bidders should answer these questions:


■ How will the proposed system interface with established local and long-distance publicnetworks?

■ What is the system's capability to support trunk aggregation?

■ How does the system support compatibility with specific Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunksat the carrier trunk, system level and the SIP handset level, and for what respective codecs?

■ What standards and techniques for quality of service (QoS) are supported to ensure acceptableand consistent voice quality over the data network?

■ How does the system support time-of-day (TOD) routing, which allows the call routing patternsaccessed to be changed based on the TOD? How many TOD tables does it support? Howmany times per day can this occur?

■ What classes of service and classes of restriction does the system support?

■ What is the proposed solution's ability to interoperate with existing voice communicationresources, such as PBX systems, voice mail systems, conferencing systems, private or publicvoice networks directly or through software or hardware gateways?

Network Assessment and QoS Requirements

VoIP traffic is sensitive to a number of data transmission parameters. In this section, the buyershould specify the unique transmission parameters that the proposed system must fulfill, including:

■ Latency requirements

■ Jitter requirements

■ Packet-loss requirements

■ R-Factor or mean opinion score (MOS) for real-time applications

Ask bidders if specific QoS or class-of-service parameters will be required in the enterprisecommunications network to achieve the specified transmission characteristics. This process iscritical to assessing whether the organization's networks are suitable to carry VoIP and video trafficwith acceptable quality. It also serves to identify the specific data networking equipment (includingPower Over Ethernet [PoE]) and upgrade expenses associated with the proposed UC solution, andclarifies who will be accountable for the activity, the proposal's required scope, and the costs.

UC Endpoints

Bidder must confirm that the proposed range of wired and wireless audio endpoints:

■ Has been tested and certified to interoperate with the proposed UC solution, and that theendpoint vendor participates in UC bidder's partner program

■ Offers integrated call controls, with optional support for video calls and collaboration whererequired


■ Supports personal call management across multiple devices (i.e., desk IP, soft and mobilephones)

■ Enables centralized management, control and distribution of new features and upgradesdirectly to the audio endpoint

■ Supports wideband high-quality audio; noise-canceling microphones to reduce backgroundnoise; digital signal processing to filter static from incoming calls; and complies with regionaland local regulations to reduce noise at work

■ Provides choice of wearing styles to ensure comfort and enhanced ergonomics

Bidders should describe the various telephones, headsets, softphones and associated stationfeatures that are being proposed, and, at a minimum, include:

■ The variety of telephone set sizes and configurations, especially the number of actualprogrammable functions available, the mix of line and feature buttons for each instrument style.Types of current handsets that can be reused, and, if applicable, what restrictions this mayplace on functionality.

■ The type of alphanumeric displays that are available with the proposed telephone sets, and theirdisplay resolution.

■ The proposed configuration of IP handsets or multibutton telephone sets to replace establishedmultibutton positions, and whether soft or hard labeling of user templates is required.

■ Softphone voice quality, ease of deployment and simplicity of user interface.

■ Power requirements of IP phones and support for PoE.

SIP Endpoint Requirements

Bidder's proposed SIP endpoints must meet the following minimum requirements:

■ Standards: The SIP endpoints included as part of the proposal must conform to the InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF) SIP standards, as well as other industry standards, as previouslyspecified in the RFP.

■ Flexibility: A variety of SIP phones must be available, with the flexibility for the buyer to choosefrom basic to high-end capability based on end-user and/or location requirements. Any phoneproposed must be supported across the entire enterprise.

■ Investment protection: All SIP endpoints must be capable of firmware upgrades/softwaredownloads to support future compatibility with changes in the UC solution, such as improvedsecurity and personal management.

Bidder should confirm that the solution meets the minimum requirements set forth above. Biddershould state any areas of noncompliance.


SIP Phones Description

Bidder should provide a brief description, with pictures, of available SIP phones offered. Indicatewhich of the devices have been proposed.

Power Requirements

Bidder should confirm SIP phones conform to IEEE 802.3af PoE standards.

Acoustic Requirements

All SIP speakerphone models proposed must be full duplex. Additionally, all SIP phones shouldsupport the G.722 wideband codec silence suppression (value-added distributor [VAD]) and echocancellation to ensure the highest voice quality. Bidder should confirm compliance to theseminimum requirements.

Applications Support Requirements

Bidder should offer SIP phone models that provide integrated application support for LightweightDirectory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories, a customized phonebook, call log and openstandards customizable application download via XML, Java, HTML and Wireless MarkupLanguage (WML). Bidder should confirm which models support these capabilities and describeintegrated functionality.

Add-on Functionality

Bidder should offer SIP phone models that support add-on adapters or modules to expand thephone's functionality (e.g., additional buttons). Describe adapters and modules available.

Additional SIP Phone Attributes

Bidder should describe the attributes, other than those detailed above, that distinguish its SIPphones, including planned enhancements to the SIP phones and expected time frames for release.

SIP Softphones

SIP softphone capabilities must meet the following minimum requirements:

■ Customizable GUI

■ Call control features (e.g., hold, transfer, message waiting)

■ Dialing via the keypad, address books, call lists, using drag/drop or copy/paste

■ LDAP integration

■ Call lists (missed calls, received calls, attempted calls)


■ Postconnect dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) dialing

■ Access to online help

■ Video support

Bidder should confirm compliance with the requirements and describe soft client capabilities,including, but not limited to, mobility, call handling features and video support. Provide graphics,where applicable, depicting the GUI. Also, provide the minimum customer-provided PCrequirements for supporting the SIP softphone.

Attendant Services

The proposed solution must support a PC-based soft client application for the provision ofattendant services for the number of attendants specified in (Attachment 1 from ABC Company).The bidder's proposed attendant must meet the following minimum requirements:

■ Provide an easy-to-use GUI with customizable views

■ Provide attendant-specific function keys, speed dial lists and directory functionality

■ Provide call queuing, call selection and recall handling with call indicators and real-timestatistics (i.e., calls in queue, time in queue, etc.)

■ Provide interposition transfer with real-time availability views of other attendants in attendantgroups

■ Provide overflow (to another attendant)

■ Support paging system access

■ Provide softphone call-handling controls with one-click access (e.g., logon/logoff, answer,disconnect, hold, retrieve from hold, dial, transfer, consult)

■ Provide a screen pop for incoming calls (e.g., calling party number, called number, queue name,wait time)

■ Provide visual status of user's line (i.e., busy, ringing, idle)

■ Provide night service capabilities.

■ Support Intrusion (break-in/override)

■ Support trunk-to-trunk transfer

Bidder should confirm compliance with the requirements and describe the attendant capabilitiesaddressing each of the requirements set forth above and how the attendant meets therequirements. Provide graphics, where applicable, depicting the GUI. Also, provide the minimumcustomer-provided PC requirements and any additional server requirements to support theattendant(s).


Analog Devices

The proposed configuration should support existing analog devices, DTMF, fax and modems.Bidder should describe how these devices, which include analog phones, connect to the system.

Voice Mail and Unified Messaging

If you need to consider more-detailed needs than those listed below, then see Appendix B for sometraditional features. However, as UC transforms the way in which people communicate and howsystems are managed, this list will change to include new features, while older features becomeoutmoded. Basic requirements are:

■ Out-of-office reply options

■ Auto attendant

■ Multilingual capabilities

■ Message waiting indication

■ Web-based messaging features

■ Integration capabilities with enterprise-based or hosted email applications, such as MicrosoftOffice Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes

■ Mobility options for devices and message send/listen

■ Message broadcast capabilities

■ Message classification options that protect confidentiality and limit distribution

■ Scalability of proposed solution

■ Business continuity options

■ Personal user interface tools and capabilities

■ Message storage and archiving capabilities

■ Infrastructure design and upgrade requirements

■ Features that support compliance

■ System maintenance and support features

Email Messaging

Bidders are required to describe how their proposed solutions support the following attributes:

■ Scheduling features and tools

■ Calendaring capabilities


■ Speech access options for users and callers

■ Recommendations for backing up and restoring

■ Message search features

■ Out-of-office reply options

■ Web-based messaging features

■ Single in-box capabilities for email, fax and voice mail messages

■ Integration capabilities with desktop UC clients, such as Microsoft Lync and IBM LotusSametime

■ Mobility options for devices, message send/read, search, document retrieval

■ Message classification options that can protect confidentiality and limit distribution

■ Scalability of proposed solution

■ System and personal management tools and capabilities

■ Message storage and archiving capabilities

■ Infrastructure design and upgrade requirements

■ Features that support compliance requirements

■ System maintenance and support

■ Anti-spam/antivirus features

Presence and IM

Multiple scenarios exist for using rich presence in new and useful ways within a UC environment(see "UC Vision Scenarios: Rich Presence").

Presence Management

The UC solution must provide a single point of control from which users are able to:

■ Manage their own personal presence, including setting aggregate presence state and selectionof any preferred telephony device to receive/make all inbound/outbound calls

■ Track the presence status and availability by media of colleagues in their contact list

■ Track presence by media, including IM presence and telephony presence, across all dialabledevices (PC clients, PBX phones, mobile phones, PDAs and other PSTN phones)

■ Route requests for contacts seamlessly across all the various networks and devices commonlyused for business communications, including private voice/data/wireless networks and publicwired/wireless networks


Bidder should confirm compliance with the above presence management requirements anddescribe how this is accomplished.

Future Presence Event Notification Functionality

The UC solution must provide a user with a means for requesting notification of changes inavailability or presence state of a contact who is currently not available for live contact. Thisnotification should persist until acknowledged or acted on by the user. In addition, the proposedsolution must support notifications beyond visual indications via the client.

Bidder should confirm compliance with this requirement and describe this functionality.

Presence Automation

Bidder should confirm that the solution can support this functionality, and describe how thisfunctionality is supported.

Ask bidders if their solutions support:

■ Ability to map user presence to the user's calendar, such as in Microsoft Outlook or IBM LotusNotes.

■ Automatic adjustment of presence status based on calendar information, communication mode,device type, network connectivity status, location, type of activity, identity of other parties incommunication, etc.

■ Number of modes of status sufficient to support optimal work habits, such as online, offline, donot disturb, on a call/conference, busy, limited availability, out of office.

■ Authorized users to visually observe the status of another person on the network — mandatoryrequirement.

■ Ability to adjust the user name or nickname displayed with the presence indication.

■ Presence to be viewed in lists or groups based on user, administrator or software assignmentsof groups.

■ Presence to be determined across groups of people, based on the highest level of availabilityfor one or more members of that group.

■ Initiation of any mode of communication from the presence indication, including IM, email,calling, conferencing, collaboration, etc.

■ Ability to change from one mode to another, as appropriate, during a session.

■ Ability to limit the communication modes based on the presence status of the selected user(e.g., call user is not presented, or active, if the user is in "do not disturb" mode).

■ Group chat functionality whereby users must have the ability to initiate a group chat at anytimeand to populate the invited members from a predefined or automated group list (from email) or


buddy list (from IM). In addition, specify the cost standards required to securely federate IMwith other specific enterprises or systems.

■ Ability for presence information to be imbedded into business applications, such as CRM andERP systems.

Peer-to-Peer IP Communications

Ask bidders if their solutions support the following capabilities:

■ Initiate a communication by selecting a user from a variety of sources, including:

■ User's presence indication in buddy list, email address, email group list, etc.

■ An enterprise directory or a personal contact list

■ Communicate to the selected party via a range of methods and media, including:

■ IM (or chat)

■ VoIP call between appropriately equipped endpoints

■ Desktop sharing (or Web sharing) between endpoints

■ Video conversation (video and voice) between appropriately equipped endpoints

■ Combinations of the above communication methods and media, as appropriate

■ Amount of bandwidth required to various modes of video communication

Audio, Video and Web-Based Conferencing

Ask bidder to specify what components the proposed conferencing solution requires to support thefollowing capabilities:

■ Provide conferencing (i.e., simultaneous shared communication) between two to 100 partieswith any combination of the following four functional types:

■ Voice communications

■ Video communications

■ Web collaboration via presentation of documents

■ Web collaboration via editing of documents

■ Initiate a conference via a meeting invitation or via ad hoc formation of a conference by calling aperson or by adding people to an existing call.

■ Invite users to a conference through an invitation that is consistent with an email-basedcalendar, including accepting, rejecting or proposing alternative times for a meeting.

■ Integrate existing conferencing products with the new conferencing function.


■ Log conferencing activity for billing and usage analysis.

■ Enable the use of capabilities such as IM, desktop sharing, voice and video calls to expand asession in real time (e.g., from call to conference) and/or to add or remove communicationmodes (e.g., desktop sharing, video).

■ Enable linking to collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint. Integration withcalendar, tasks and documents to allow prompt, appropriate action on pending project steps.

Video for UC Integration

Bidder must confirm that proposed video solutions have been tested and certified to interoperatewith the proposed UC solution; that video bidder participates in UC bidder's partner program; andaddress the following attributes of the proposed video solutions:

■ Describe the specific use cases, access methods and scalability for the proposed videosolutions (i.e., desktop, room-based, mobile, tablet, etc.).

■ Specify the industry standards supported by the proposed video solutions, and whethersolutions are fully or partially proprietary.

■ Specify video formats supported with corresponding bandwidth and technical specifications.

■ Describe enterprise network requirements and specifications to support high-quality video andaudio transmission, low packet loss and node failure, as well as how reliability and performanceof the proposed video solutions would be affected by the use of the public Internet.

■ Describe the video-specific hardware infrastructure (cameras, multipoint control units [MCUs],servers, gateways, microphones, speakers, etc.) and software proposed to support integrationwithin a UC environment. Include virtualized or cloud components.

UC Clients

Bidder should describe the desktop, Web and mobile clients, as well as softphones anddashboards proposed that provide a single interface to many or all communication functions.Include communication modes and devices, collaboration and business applications, integratedpresence, use of SIP compliant trunks and devices, and LDAP, as well as compliance, security,mobility and extensibility.

Mobile Communications

Mobile Solutions Support

Bidder should provide a brief overview of any mobility solutions included with the proposedconfiguration, as well as optional mobility solutions available. Bidder should answer the followingquestions:


■ What mobile operating platforms do your mobile solutions support (i.e., Android, iOS, Symbian,BlackBerry, carrier-based multi-OS solutions)?

■ What devices does your solution support (e.g., desktop PC, laptops, smartphones and tablets)?

■ What third-party products are your mobile communications solutions compatible with?

■ How does your solution support a common user experience across a broad set of clients?

■ How many distributed application servers are required, and how is the system managed overallto support users in dispersed locations?

■ How does your mobility solution integrate with IP PBX and PBX environments?

■ Do your UC applications support SIP or H.323 technology?

■ Does your solution support VoIP over the cellular data channel (3G/4G)? If so, specify requiredbandwidth, latency, loss, etc. needed from the wireless service.

■ How do you license mobile communications solutions?

■ What other UC-based applications or related services are available either through licensing oras an add-on to the mobile commutations services?

■ How does the proposed solution provide mobile users with tools that enable them to accessUC functions and relevant information from enterprise business applications for specificprocesses and jobs?

■ Does your mobile client interoperate with UC and business applications from disparate bidders?

■ How does your mobile client integrate with enterprise voice mail and email?

■ How does the proposed solution provide mobile users with access to UC functions such as IMand presence?

■ Do presence and IM capabilities come as standard features of your mobile client, licensing andcompatibility supported with other vendors? If so, which vendors?

Fixed Mobile Convergence

Fixed mobile convergence seamlessly combines fixed enterprise VoIP, wireless LAN (WLAN) andcellular mobility on a single mobile device. Bidder should describe capabilities that enable users toroam across wireless (Wi-Fi) and cellular networks without dropping calls and with all the callfeatures of the telephone system.

Bidder should also include:

■ Any capabilities that support dual-mode phones

■ User feature access to the telephone system and roaming capabilities

■ Hardware and software architecture and requirements


Communications-Enabled Business Processes

Business applications are separate from communication applications. It is possible, however, toinvoke communication functions directly from a business application, which can facilitate howbusiness processes are handled and completed. One example is basic notification, which consistsof a business application sending a simple communication notification when an event occurs. Thenotification is single-channel, commonly email (see "UC Vision Scenarios: Communications-EnabledBusiness Processes" and "Leveraging Four New Ways to Integrate Business Processes andCommunications").

Ask bidders to describe:

■ What APIs, service interfaces, development tools and prepackaged functionality they offer tofacilitate the integration of business applications with communications tools and applications.

■ How CEBP can be initiated by a person or an application that raises alerts and notifications,sets up conference calls or leverages presence.

System Redundancy, Reliability and Survivability

Bidders should define the reliability, redundancy or duplication and survivability options they offerthat support the ability to configure systems to appropriate levels of resiliency for the followingoptions:

■ Redundancy within a site

■ Redundancy and hot failover at an alternative site

■ Redundancy and warm (manual intervention) or cold (date restoration and system configuration)failover at an alternate site

■ Automatic data and content backup and restoration at a local or remote site

Bidders should also describe:

■ The connectivity, and how access to the solution is accomplished in the event of partial or fullsystem failure of the solution

■ How the redundancy, reliability and survivability are affected with system growth

■ Backup power for the system or phantom power to handset

Standards

Ask bidders to:

■ Specify the various standards supported by their solutions.

■ Explain whether the system provides industry-standard APIs.


System Networking

Require bidders to describe:

■ How the proposed presence and IM capabilities will interface with the proposed voice solution.

■ Differences in the networking integration between local and remote users.

■ How the solution is centralized or decentralized.

■ Any messaging feature/functionality that does not carry through the network.

■ Options for networking this solution with other systems.

■ The reroute/backup plan incorporated into their design in the event of a network failure.

■ Any limitations on the number of networked users.

■ How remote and main-site messaging users can be part of the same "logical network" asrelated to applications.

System Security

The proposed system must provide for secure, encrypted communications between endpoints forpeer-to-peer communications, and between endpoints and servers for all other communications.Signaling channels and media streams must be secured. The response must address the methodsused for securing this communications function.

Users of the system from outside the enterprise premises (i.e., outside the enterprise firewalls) musthave the ability to maintain the security of the communications signaling and media streams.Securing the communications should not require additional hardware or software elements (such asVPNs) to create and maintain the secure communications channels.

Ask bidders to describe the:

■ System security measures in place with your solutions

■ Access entry security for system administrators

■ Access entry security for users

■ Security associated with accessing databases and other files

■ System diagnostics and alarms

■ Tools available for security monitoring

■ Method of notification for security violations

Security factors covered must include:

■ Use of a dedicated virtual LAN (VLAN) segment for voice

■ No split tunneling for voice over the VPN


■ Effective encryption over VPN

■ Firewall protection at the application layer

■ Protection from unauthorized access

■ User authentication

■ Protection from unauthorized use

■ Protection from unauthorized invasion of privacy during calls

■ Protection from voice spam

■ Protection from denial of service (DOS) attacks

System Management

System management requirements of the proposed solution are described in the sections thatfollow.

Overall System Management

Bidder should confirm that the proposed management solution supports the basic faultmanagement functions listed and should describe fault management capabilities. Describe methodsand procedures used to detect troubles and component failures in the proposed system, as well asalarm monitoring and diagnostic tools provided by the proposed system.

The system management solution must meet the following minimum requirements:

■ The system management tool must provide maximum flexibility for rapid, efficient and cost-effective configuration changes to the VoIP/UC solution through a standard browser-basedinterface (including, but not limited to, format screens, pull-down menus, valid entry choices,online help and templates).

■ Administration, system monitoring, diagnostic and maintenance operations for all locationsmust be supported using a centrally located server(s) with distributed client workstations.Simultaneous access from multiple locations by multiple users must be supported.

■ Ability to access remotely so someone can be on standby.

■ Moves, adds and changes must be able to be implemented transparently across all locations.

■ Online system administration must not disrupt service. The telephone system must remainoperational during backups, updates and upgrades.

■ The solution must support strong security features (including, but not limited to, passwordattribute customization, authentication logging, audit logs and multilevel authorization access).

■ Support open protocols, including SNMPv3, SOAP, XML and HTML.


■ Support centralized provisioning, maintenance and troubleshooting.

■ Offer a single administrative point that is simple, intuitive and consistent across all systems andapplications.

Bidder should confirm that the management solution proposed complies with the requirements setforth above, and include a brief overview of the proposed management solution, including thefollowing:

■ Overall capabilities, briefly addressing how the management solution meets the minimumrequirements set forth above.

■ Major hardware and software components, and any customer-provided server and client PCrequirements.

■ Whether the software to support the functionality is included in the overall system price orprovided at an additional charge.

Configuration Management

The bidder's proposed management solution must support centralized configuration managementto include, but not limited to:

■ Station user moves, adds and changes

■ VoIP and UC endpoint/subscriber profiles and parameters

■ VoIP and UC group definitions and assignments

■ Call restriction assignments

■ Class-of-service definitions and assignments

■ Dial plan and routing parameters

■ Call admission control (CAC) parameters

■ Trunk group definitions and individual trunk circuit programming

■ Trunking gateways

■ Media and voice conferencing servers

Automated Functions

Describe any automated functions that allow a deployed SIP device to autoconfigure from acentralized server. Describe mass provisioning capabilities, including capabilities related to usersand endpoints.

On-Site Remote Location Administration

Describe any services that must be administered locally at a remote site.


Online Data Availability

Is the online data readily available for viewing by the system administrator? If so, please describe.

Licensing Management

The licensing for the system should be dynamic (i.e., the total number of devices that canconcurrently place/receive calls is determined by the total number of dynamic licenses purchased).Licenses should be supported by the proposed system and used anywhere in the enterprise. Biddershould confirm compliance and describe any licensing management capabilities provided with theproposed management solution.

Basic Fault Management

The goal of fault management is to recognize, isolate, correct and log faults. The bidder's proposedmanagement solution must support centralized fault management to include, but not limited to:

■ Performing diagnostics and troubleshooting

■ Provide monitoring and filtering of alarms, faults and associated logs

■ Provide real-time statistics regarding system performance, including checking server andprocess status

■ Support Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps to external umbrella managementsystems

Basic Performance Management

The goal of performance management is to collect, analyze and report on a variety of systemoperations. The bidder's proposed management solution must support centralized performancemanagement to include, but not limited to:

■ A traffic tool providing graphical and numerical data for call attempts, traffic load, incoming/outgoing calls and busy-hour call completion (BHCC) for selected periods

■ Traffic measurements (statistics and counters) on business groups call usage and patterns,feature usage, hunt groups and CAC

Bidder should confirm that the proposed management solution supports the basic performancemanagement functions listed and describe performance management capabilities.

Security

Security features within the management solution must include, at a minimum, passwordrequirements with configurable parameters, access authorization levels, authentication, secureaccess, logging activities and backup/restore and patching/update capabilities. Bidder should


confirm compliance and describe security features of the proposed management solution asrequested below.

Passwords and Access Authorization Levels

Describe the administrative user access levels of various capabilities to restrict administrationaccess and the flexible password configuration parameters (e.g., password length, aging,complexity).

Secure Access

Describe the mechanisms utilized to ensure secure access to the management solution, includingauthentication, secure Web capabilities, session/history logs for access and changes, invalidaccess attempt settings, tracking and lockout capabilities.

Backup, Recovery and Updates

Bidder must describe the mechanisms supporting backup, recovery and update activities. Thesystem must remain operational during backups, recovery and updates. Bidder must describe howthis is accomplished.

Accounting Management

The goal of accounting management is to track service usage and costs. The bidder's proposedmanagement solution must support centralized call detail records, which can be utilized by anexternal call accounting application. The system should generate call detail recordings (CDRs) forincoming and outgoing calls, call attempts on trunk facilities and station-to-station calls. Biddershould describe how the system supports CDR, including the level of detail generated for a CDRrecord, methods for capturing and transferring data for processing and CDRs' buffering capacity. Ifadditional hardware/software is required, bidder should delineate these requirements.

Optional Management Add-On Capabilities

Based on the objectives provided in the RFP, the bidder should describe any optional managementtools it recommends to specifically enhance operations and the ability to manage the proposedsolution.

Session Border Control (Optional)

Bidder should confirm the value of a session border controller (SBC) solution and ensure that it canmeet the following requirements:

■ Has been thoroughly tested and documented as an integral part of the enterprise UC solution,including common use cases, such as SIP trunking, remote worker, remote contact centeragent, video, etc.


■ Has been incorporated into the certification configurations of the enterprise UC solution with theSIP trunk service provider

■ Provides support and maintenance services for UC and UC application security

■ Has a large installed based in the service provider market, ensuring the enterprise deploymentof the SBC will mesh well with the service provider's SBC

■ Provides a full set of security features, including prevention of DoS and distributed DoS (DDoS)attacks, as well as botnet attacks from a group of computers that are controlled from a singlesource; and supports analytics to include user behavior patterns and compliance

■ Supports UC infrastructure resiliency and disaster recovery features

■ Scales well from about 25 to many thousands of concurrent sessions in two specific use cases:

■ In small sites, such as remote branches, and large sites, such as centralized data centers

■ During early stage deployments with planned growth for later-stage deployments

■ Can be deployed in a stand-alone configuration for data networking applications, or forconverged voice and data applications

■ Supports high-traffic, high-availability enterprise and contact center use cases

■ Offers pricing and a licensing model that enables cost-effective growth

■ Supports interoperability with a range of session manager and voice platform bidders

■ IPv4/IPv6 interworking

Bidder Design Summary

Bidders must provide one or more illustrations showing all physical distribution of the softwaremodules on servers, routers, appliances, etc., by location and geography, as appropriate.

Solution Architecture

Bidder must provide detailed answers to these questions:

■ Can your solution for presence and IM be architecturally independent from the proposed voicesolution? Could it work without the support of the rest of the proposed solution?

■ How does the proposed solution work and interface with IP- and time-division-multiplexing(TDM)-based systems?

Network Diagrams

Bidders should provide one or more (as needed) illustrations showing the network topology andconnectivity of the solution for:


■ Specific network elements included in the RFP

■ Interoperation with existing or prerequisite network elements

■ Interoperation with external networks (PSTN, Internet, cellular, WLAN/WAN, etc.)

Physical Requirements

Bidders should specify:

■ Floor space to support the proposed solution

■ Floor-loading requirements

■ Raised-floor requirements

■ Minimum ceiling height

Environmental Requirements


■ System power circuit breaker panel location

■ Lighting requirements

■ Long- and short-term environmental ranges that the system can tolerate, including the:

■ Desirable temperature range

■ Desirable humidity range

■ Heat dissipation of the system at maximum configuration in British thermal units (Btus) perhour

Power Requirements


■ Voltage and phase parameters of the main components, such as server and gateways

■ Circuit breaker panel requirements relative to the number of circuits and amperage ratings

■ Recommendations for reserve power requirements in stand-by hours and battery capacity(ampere-hours), if an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is proposed

■ PoE requirements for handsets

■ Centralized and local power and cooling requirements


Warranty, Maintenance and Training

After the warranty period, the successful bidder will be required to service, maintain and providetraining support for the entire working life of the proposed system.

Warranty

Bidders should specify the warranty periods for all solution hardware, as well as the softwareassociated with running the proposed systems and applications.

Maintenance

The bidder must quote maintenance on a contractual basis — indicating the annual fixedmaintenance rate after warranty expiration, including the rate for the next three years. The quotesfor system maintenance options should include annual hardware and software support, softwareupgrades and remote monitoring.

The bidder should be able to support an emergency response time of no more than two hours,24/7. ABC Company will be able to choose different service levels for different locations. Forinstance, branch locations and headquarters may need different service levels.

Bidders should:

■ Define the number of factory-trained service technicians available through the local servicedepot, and identify the centers from which technicians will be dispatched after hours, onholidays and during weekends.

■ Provide a copy of the standard maintenance contract and details of optional extras.

■ Describe committed response times and mean time to repair (MTTR) by type of servicedisruption.

■ Provide a copy of normal maintenance escalation procedures, and include communicationswith affected parties — with names and contact details of all parties affected.

■ Provide an emergency contact number if normal channels of fault-reporting communicationsfail. Describe how that emergency contact number will be answered and by whom:

■ Are there any times or restrictions by day, week or month on this service?

■ What information will those answering a call have available?

■ Will they have specific information on the system being proposed for the organization?

■ Describe the procedures for software updates and upgrades; detail what, if any, costs would beassociated with upgrades.

■ Define major and minor alarm conditions, and how the system responds to each circumstance.

■ Describe the capabilities for remotely monitoring the system.


■ Describe the capabilities for automatically reporting fault conditions, both to organizational andsupplier personnel.

■ Describe supporting tools, such as expert systems, used to assist in problem diagnosis andservice restoration.

■ Indicate where the local and regional parts depots are located.

■ Provide an inventory of all spare parts, including pricing that will need to be maintained in on-site inventory.

Training

The successful bidder will be required to provide on-site training to users and system managementcommunities. If training costs are not included as part of the system pricing response, then thebidder must provide those costs, along with a detailed training schedule. The schedule shoulddenote class sizes, length of a typical training session and how one-on-one executive training willbe organized. Pricing for alternative modes of training delivery is also required.

Emergency Response

The bidder must provide a detailed in-place plan to restore service if the system is rendered totallyinoperative as a result of a major malfunction or catastrophe. The bidder must specify the maximumtime to provide limited service. In the event of a major system failure, a replacement system mustbe made available. The bidder must state where the replacement system is located and the timerequired to restore full service.

Furthermore, the bidder should recommend installing telephones within the organization to beconnected directly to the PSTN, so that emergency communications will be possible in the event ofa total system failure.

Implementation

Bidders should describe how they will manage the implementation project, stating who will providethe necessary resources, and who will pay for them.

Bidders must provide an implementation plan that includes:

■ Project stages and milestones

■ Resources required

■ Responsibilities of each of the parties

■ Sources and skills required of the project manager

■ Sources and skills required of other resources, and who will pay for them

■ Integration with other telephony systems

■ Integration with applications


■ Communication processes for reporting the project's progress

■ Recommendations for briefing the project manager, and possibly the organization's workingparty or steering committee members

■ Training schedule by type of audience

■ Fallback plans

System Pricing and Licensing

Bidders should describe the system and user application licensing model for the proposed solution,and provide a table or spreadsheet in editable electronic format with all pricing information showingline-item detail for any item that has a separate price, even if the item is sold as part of a bundle.Column headings should reflect:

■ Item description

■ List price

■ Discount amount

■ Net unit price

■ Quantity

■ Total net price

Bidders should provide pricing for the following components:

■ Voice, messaging, IM and presence, conferencing, communications-enabled business process(CEBP)

■ Standard features

■ Optional features

■ Data network upgrades, including PoE

■ Field system design

■ Installation and cabling

■ Database development

■ Software

■ Documentation

■ Training

■ Delivery costs

■ Project management costs


■ Applicable taxes

Incremental Costs

Gartner recommends that buyers request itemized cost schedules for several scenarios, such as:

■ Adding 25 IP telephones and two IP trunks to the base configuration. This information mustinclude which major hardware and software components would be reused, as well as those thatwould not be reused.

■ Adding twice the number of telephones (50) and twice the number of IP trunks (four).

■ Adding the requirements for a small office. Request itemized quotes for office sizes of 25, 50and 75 people, for example — or whatever number is applicable. Request quotes for sites withtheir own telephony servers, as well as sites supported by a server in another enterpriselocation.

■ Adding 25 unified messaging users to the specified voice mail system. This information mustinclude which major hardware and software components would be reused, as well as those thatwould not be reused.

■ Adding twice the number of unified messaging users (50).

The bidder will need to provide pre- and post-cutover unit prices and the associated labor costs onprincipal system components, such as line and trunk cards and station equipment. Unit prices willhelp you as the buyer adjust the final system cost if actual installed quantities differ from thosespecified in the RFP. These unit prices will also help buyers calculate the costs of any expansion,and understand the bidder's price model to achieve cost-effectiveness.

As the buyer, you should mandate that all prices remain firm for a period (usually one year) aftersystem acceptance.

Unified Communications as a Service Pricing (Optional)

UC offers businesses the ability to significantly improve how individuals, groups and companiesinteract and perform. The majority of UC deployments to date have been on-premises-basedsolutions. However, with the advent of cloud computing and new business models, providers nowhave the ability to offer unified communications as a service (UCaaS).

With UCaaS, the provider owns, manages and hosts the UC infrastructure in its facilities. Theinfrastructure is typically multitenant or virtualized to allow customers to share hardware resources(and thereby reduce the provider's cost structure). Users then pay subscription fees for UCservices, as opposed to making capital investments for an on-premises-based infrastructure.

If UCaaS or a hybrid solution of on-premises-based and UCaaS is proposed, the bidder shouldprovide UCaaS pricing on a monthly per-user basis. (See Appendix C for the UCaaS price form.)The objective is to categorize costs based on the UC modules that are activated for each endpointincluded in the proposed solution.


UCaaS typically has professional service costs relative to engineering, installation and integration.

Bidders have the option to:

■ Include professional service costs associated with the service (state costs explicitly for eachmodule)

■ Embed the professional service costs in the costs of the service

It is expected that each employee will have a core VoIP component. This is essentially a PBXreplacement capability. Certain employees will then have the option to select additional modulesbased on their job requirements. These modules will be procured on an a la carte basis.

■ IM/presence

■ Unified messaging

■ Mobility

■ Conferencing

Bidder is to identify if there are additional support costs related to the UCaaS offering. Typical costsinclude moves, adds and changes, and technical support. Please specify whether such costs areincluded with the core service, or if there is an extra fee. Explicitly specify what, if any, costs will becharged.

UCaaS respondents may include value-added services that are part of the UCaaS offering. Pleaseidentify whether each of these categories (e.g., local voice, WAN management) are included, and, ifso, the additional associated costs.

Additional contract parameters:

■ Contract length: What is the contract duration for your UCaaS contract?

■ Size: Specify the minimum number of endpoints required for this pricing to be valid.

■ Software maintenance: UCaaS supplier will be responsible for any software maintenance andpatches required.

Subscription Pricing (Optional)

Hosted solutions from service providers and integrators have enabled organizations to procurecommunications on a utility model, typically a monthly payment for a set of services provided toeach user in the network.

As an option, bidders should provide monthly per-user pricing for the ability to license software on asubscription basis in place of the traditional right-to-use license for each of the core UCcomponents: voice, messaging, IM and presence, conferencing and clients. Buyer understands thatit will still be necessary to purchase the hardware infrastructure, such as servers, handsets, videoterminals and gateways.


Finance

If leasing arrangements are available, then the bidder should provide a sample lease, or lease andpurchase agreement, with the terms and conditions for these deals.

When there are currency exchange rate considerations in the prices quoted, the bidder must definethem and spell out policies to allow for fluctuations in exchange rates.

Bidders always request payments based on a schedule that corresponds to key project milestones.As the buyer, you should understand the major events to which these payments are linked and theexpected percentage payments. You must approve the payment schedule. If an initial proposal isunacceptable, then the schedule can be a negotiating point with bidders that make the shortlist.

It is also important to seek information on the proposed warranties, including the period(s) coveredand the conditions attached.

Bidder Qualifications

Company History

The bidder must provide:

■ A brief description of its company.

■ Description of its experience in providing communication systems.

■ Evidence of financial stability with an annual report, Form 10-K, or audited financial statement.

■ Name of the manufacturer of the proposed system.

■ Name/location of a technical support center that provides remote maintenance.

■ List of other types of customer support available from the technical support center.

■ Options for emergency service.

■ At least three reference customers with systems similar to the one proposed. Customerreference information must include company name and location, contact person, telephonenumber and the system name with model number.

■ The quantity and location of qualified personnel available to support the proposed solution.

Responsibility for Proposed System Implementation

The bidder must include a statement describing the terms of the agreement with themanufacturer(s) of the proposed solutions. The statement must define the distributor's authorizedterritory, note the current contract expiration date, and include a statement from the manufactureragreeing to support the product, the distributor and the buyer for a minimum of seven years.

If the bid is from more than one party, such as a combined proposal from a manufacturer and adistributor or system integrator, then the accountabilities of each party must be spelled out clearly.


The prime contractor and the account management structure proposed must be acceptable to thecustomer.

Bidder Support and Structure

If the proposed system will function within a multisite, networked environment, then the bidder mustexplain its capability to provide regional and national support for multiple locations.

Each bidder should describe the structure of its organization, with organization charts showing theexecutive, engineering, sales and field support (installation, service and training) entities within thecompany.

The bidder should state how many people it employs in each of the following job categories:

■ Project management

■ Engineering support

■ Customer service

■ Interface to telephone service provider

■ Switch installation

■ Data networking

■ Station and cable installation

■ Training

A bidder should:

■ Provide a copy of its most recent annual report, or at least a financial status statement includingannual revenue, profit, net worth and other data.

■ Have a technical support center that provides remote maintenance.

■ Explain what other types of customer support are available from the technical support center.

■ Describe its standards and processes for providing emergency service.

Finally, as the buyer, you should request references for at least three customers (from the bidder)with comparable systems in terms of size, geography and features. Customer references should begermane to your vertical market, such as finance, government, healthcare, hospitality or retail.References should include the company name, contact name, telephone number and the systemnames or model numbers installed and used.

Appendix A: Voice Features

■ Speed dialing or abbreviated dialing


■ Automatic callback

■ Automatic callback message

■ Call forwarding/call coverage

■ Caller ID

■ Call pickup

■ Conferencing

■ Hunting

■ Integrated directory

■ Intercom

■ Last number dialed

■ Music on hold

■ Night service; auto attendant

■ Paging

■ Ringing pattern

■ Station lock

■ Telecommuting/remote user/softphone features

■ Speech recognition

■ Integrated voice response (IVR)

■ Computer-telephony integration (CTI)

■ Emergency notification (e.g., E911) capabilities

Appendix B: Voice Mail Features

■ Automated attendant capabilities

■ Caller options

■ Support for multilingual capabilities and multiple time zones

■ Broadcast message options

■ Login announcement options

■ User messages storage and delete options

■ User greeting options

■ Message creation and addressing capabilities


■ Dial-by-name feature

■ Mailing list options for users and system administrators

■ Choices for message delivery markings

■ User message notification options

■ Message retrieval options

■ Fax messaging capabilities

■ User mailbox security options

■ System security capabilities

■ Mailbox system administration capabilities

■ System diagnostics and alarms capabilities

■ System management reports capabilities

■ Integration between the IP PBX, voice messaging system and email application

■ Methods of user message waiting notification

■ Proposed and future mailbox capacity

■ SMS integration

Appendix C: UCaaS Pricing

Table 3 identifies seven UCaaS modules, with space on the table to insert monthly charges andcomments for each module category.


Table 3. Sample Pricing Format for Included UCaaS Components

UCaaS Module Module Category MonthlyCharge

Comment

Core VoIP Handset Define handset model

PBX feature set

Voice mail

Other

Professional services Please define

Total core VoIP price Engineering, installation,integration and cutover services

IM/Presence IM/presence functionality

Other Please define

Professional services

Total IM/presence a la carte price

Unified Messaging Voice mail to email (WAV)

Speech to text

Email If provider includes hosted/cloudemail

Other Other UM capabilities provided

Professional services Engineering, installation,integration and cutover services

Total UM a la carte price

Mobility Single-number ring Specify devices support —iPhone, Android, RIM

Mobile device PBX feature set

Other Other mobility capabilitiesprovided




Comment

Total mobility a la carte price

Conferencing Audio

Web

Video

Other Other conferencing capabilitiesprovided


Total conferencing a la carte price

Support Costs Moves, adds and changes

Technical support

Other

Total support costs

ComplementaryServices

Local voice calling

Long-distance voice calling Assume in-country only

SIP trunks

Data network

Security

LAN management Specify whether providersupplies the LAN switches

WAN management Specify whether providersupplies the WAN router

Other

Professional services



Comment

Total complementary service pricing


Recommended ReadingSome documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

"Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony"

"Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony"

"Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications"

"User Experiences Reveal Best Practices for Deploying Unified Communications"

"Q&A: What You Should Know About Session Border Controllers, but Were Afraid to Ask"

"How to Choose a Corporate Telephony Vendor in a Turbulent Market"

"Case Study: Indiana University Deploys Unified Communications"

"Case Study: McDonald's Deploys Unified Communications and Collaboration"

"Case Study: University of Kentucky Uses Unified Communications to Enhance Communication andCut Costs"

"Unified Communications and Collaboration Key Initiative Overview"

"Gartner's Four Levels of Cost Optimization Can Help Support the Business Case for UnifiedCommunications"

"Fitting Unified Messaging Into Your Unified Communications Plan"

"A Technology Framework for Enterprise Unified Communications"


Regional Headquarters

Corporate Headquarters56 Top Gallant RoadStamford, CT 06902-7700USA+1 203 964 0096

Japan HeadquartersGartner Japan Ltd.Aobadai Hills, 6F7-7, Aobadai, 4-chomeMeguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0042JAPAN+81 3 3481 3670

European HeadquartersTamesisThe GlantyEghamSurrey, TW20 9AWUNITED KINGDOM+44 1784 431611

Latin America HeadquartersGartner do BrazilAv. das Nações Unidas, 125519° andar—World Trade Center04578-903—São Paulo SPBRAZIL+55 11 3443 1509

Asia/Pacific HeadquartersGartner Australasia Pty. Ltd.Level 9, 141 Walker StreetNorth SydneyNew South Wales 2060AUSTRALIA+61 2 9459 4600

© 2011 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. Thispublication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Gartner’s prior written permission. The information contained in thispublication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness oradequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in such information. This publicationconsists of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. The opinions expressedherein are subject to change without notice. Although Gartner research may include a discussion of related legal issues, Gartner does notprovide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner is a public company, and itsshareholders may include firms and funds that have financial interests in entities covered in Gartner research. Gartner’s Board ofDirectors may include senior managers of these firms or funds. Gartner research is produced independently by its research organizationwithout input or influence from these firms, funds or their managers. For further information on the independence and integrity of Gartnerresearch, see “Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity” on its website, http://www.gartner.com/technology/about/ombudsman/omb_guide2.jsp.


http://www.gartner.com/technology/about/ombudsman/omb_guide2.jsp

http://www.gartner.com/technology/about/ombudsman/omb_guide2.jsp

Documents

How to Develop a Comprehensive RFP for Unified Communication