Technical consulting services for statewide next generation 911 (NG911) services and general consulting services for the ongoing transition from legacy 911 operations to NG911

Location:	Nebraska
Posted:	Mar 28, 2025
Due:	May 12, 2025
Agency:	State Government of Nebraska
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

RFP 202591101

PLEASE NOTE: THE BELOW SOLICITATION IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AGENCY LISTED BELOW. ANY INQUIRIES OR CONCERNS REGARDING SUCH SOLICITATION SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE AGENCY CONTACT LISTED BELOW.

AGENCY:

Nebraska Public Service Commission

CONTACT:

Dave Sankey

Phone:402-471-3101 Email: dave.sankey@nebraska.gov

OPENING DATE:

May 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM CST

The bid opening will occur in accordance with the Schedule of Events detailed in the solicitation linked below.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The Nebraska Public Service Commission (“NPSC” or “Commission”) is issuing this solicitation for the purpose of selecting a qualified bidder or bidders to contract to provide professional technical consulting services to assist with statewide next generation 911 (NG911) services and provide as-needed general consulting services for the ongoing transition from legacy 911 operations to NG911.

Written Questions regarding the project are due no later than April 15, 2025.

Project Documents	Date Posted	Document Format(s)
Request for Proposal:	03/28/25	PDF

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PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

FOR TECHNICAL CONSULTING SERVICES

Public Service Commission

300 The Atrium, 1200 N Street

Lincoln, Nebraska 68509

COMMISSIONERS:

ERIC KAMLER

CHRISTIAN MIRCH

TIM SCHRAM

KEVIN STOCKER

DAN WATERMEIER

Executive Summary

The following is a summary of this Request for Proposal (RFP), the bidding process, and the contractual process.

Services to be Provided

The Nebraska Public Service Commission (“NPSC” or “Commission”) is issuing this solicitation for the purpose of selecting a

qualified bidder or bidders to contract to provide professional technical consulting services to assist with statewide next

generation 911 (NG911) services and provide as-needed general consulting services for the ongoing transition from legacy 911

operations to NG911.

Length of Contract

The term of the contract will be 1 (one) year commencing upon the last date of execution of the contract by the Commission and

the vendor (Parties). The contract includes the option to renew for 2 two additional one-year periods upon mutual agreement of

the Parties. The Commission reserves the right to extend the period of this contract beyond the termination date when mutually

agreeable.

Key information about this RFP

• Proposals under this RFP are due May 12, 2025.

• This Request for Proposal process will include an optional Solicitation Conference. Please see the Schedule of

Events for the specific date and time.

• This RFP process will have written questions and answers (Q&A). Please see the Schedule of Events for the specific

time period of the Q&A.

• All information provided by the Commission about this solicitation will be posted publicly to the DAS website:

https://das.nebraska.gov/materiel/bidopps.html.

• All responses received regarding this solicitation may also be posted to the DAS website. In submitting, any vendor

must request that proprietary information be excluded from the posting. The bidder must identify the proprietary

information, mark the proprietary information according to state law, and submit the proprietary information in a

separate file or section conspicuously named as "PROPRIETARY INFORMATION.” For more information on this,

please see Proposal Instructions, below.

Overview of Request for Proposal Process

The Commission has established its own Request for Proposal process. This process is similar to the process conducted by the

Department of Administrative Services (DAS) pursuant to the State Procurement Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 73-801 et seq., and those

agencies that are subject to the State Procurement Act. While the Commission is not subject to the State Procurement Act for the

purposes of services, it has chosen to issue a formal competitive solicitation, and so will be following its own established

procedure (contained in this RFP). DAS is not responsible for this RFP and should not be a point of contact for any questions.

The RFP is made of four main parts: the Project Requirements and Scope of Work, Procurement Procedure, Proposal

Instructions, and a Glossary.

1. The Project Requirements and Scope of Work describe the services and deliverables to be completed by a contractor;

2. The Procurement Procedure describes how this RFP will be conducted;

3. The Proposal Instructions describes what must or should be contained in the proposals from vendors; and

4. A Glossary has also been included to define the terms used throughout.

Overview of Contracting Process

After an Intent to Award is issued, the Commission will work with the winning bidder to formulate a final Scope of Work, based on

the Project Requirements and Scope of Work in the RFP and the bidder’s response. The Procurement Procedure and Proposal

Instructions will not be included in any final contract.

This final Scope of Work will harmonize any differences between the Project Requirements and Scope of Work and the bidder’s

proposal, although it may not expand upon the scope of the Project Requirements and Scope of Work nor provide the winning

bidder with any chance to modify their proposal nor costs to achieve any kind of competitive advantage over other bidders. The

harmonization process will only streamline the glossary, scope of work, cost proposal, and deliverables to ensure the Commission

has clearly defined costs, contractual obligations, and deliverables.

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Project Requirements and Scope of Work

Bidders should review these Project Requirements and Scope of Work and other sections below. Bidders should provide a

response to this section consistent with the Proposal Instructions, below. This document, along with bidder’s response, will be

incorporated into the resulting contract from this RFP as described in the Procurement Procedure, below.

PROJECT OVERVIEW AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In 2017 Nebraska adopted a state plan for the 911 service system1 and has been transitioning from a legacy 911 or e911 based

state-wide system to NG911. Nebraska currently has 67 Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) that are divided into six

regions. Two PSAPs in each region act as host centers and separately maintain two sets of primary equipment. This allows each

host to provide backup and overflow support in the event of equipment failure, natural disaster or other disruption of service. All

of the other PSAPs in a region operate as fully functional remote centers connected to the two hosts via the regional IP Networks.

This allows the PSAPs within a region to save money by sharing costly resources.

Each region is connected to one another via the statewide ESINet consisting of a vendor-hosted statewide fiber optic ring with

two out of state geographically diverse data centers. The ESINet provides real-time communication and failover support from

PSAP to PSAP and region to region across the State of Nebraska.

Nebraska would like to locate a NG911 provider who is willing and able to provide one or more IP points of interconnect and data

centers within Nebraska to improve redundancy and reliability of NG911 services in Nebraska. Cost, however, is a factor, so the

request for proposal contemplated will need to provide flexible pricing and service options. The awarded Contractor will be

required to assist the Commission in preparing the detailed technical design and functionality requirements for the upcoming

RFP that will select the vendor for the statewide ESINet.

SCOPE OF WORK

A complete solicitation intended to provide for a competent vendor for Nebraska’s 911 Service System.

NG911 Continued Implementation and Improvement of Nebraska’s 911 System Consulting Services

1. 911 Service System Design

Modification of the current state design and development of a vendor-hosted statewide fiber optic ring with connection

to at least two geo-diverse data centers with at least one being within the state of Nebraska that will serve as the ESInet

that interconnects multiple regions of PSAPs, including assisting the Commission with the preparation of an RFP to

identify a vendor for ESInet and NG 911Core services.

2. NG911 Core Services

Design and development of NG911 core services that allow for geospatial call location and routing, including the

Location Validation Function, (LVF), Emergency Call Routing Function (ECRF), Policy Routing Function (PRF),

Emergency Services Routing Proxy (ESRP), and Border Control Function (BCF).

3. Geographic Information System (GIS)

Accurate GIS mapping is a critical component of an operational Next Generation 911 system. In the Next Generation

environment, 911 calls will be routed, 911 callers will be located and first responders will be dispatched using GIS

technology. Therefore, the GIS data supporting the 911 Service System in Nebraska must be as accurate as possible. To

meet this need, the 911 Department employs one in-house GIS Specialists and outside GIS Contractors to provide GIS

data development and quality control/quality assurance services. The awarded Contractor will be required to provide

technical GIS assistance to the State 911 Department as requested.

4. General Consulting Services

In addition to providing the above-referenced services in connection with NG911 implementation, the awarded

Contractor will also be required to assist the State 911 Department and the Service System Advisory Committee on an

as-needed basis with technical and operational aspects of the system. The State 911 Department will request such

general consulting services from the awarded Contractor on an as-needed basis.

The awarded Contractor should have successful experience in, and be able to provide professional consulting services

to the Commission, in the following areas relevant to 9-1-1:

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1. Evaluation of PSAP technical needs;

2. Call Handling Equipment selection;

3. Evaluation of vendor presentations;

4. Geographic Information Services;

5. Text-to-911 design and deployment;

6. IP and PSTN network configuration;

7. Network security and vulnerability;

General consulting tasks as described in this section will be assigned to the awarded Contractor by the State 911

Director from time-to-time on an as-needed basis. The Commission’s annual hourly requirements for General

Consulting Services will vary as circumstances arise and cannot be reliably estimated in advance. Therefore, there can

be no minimum or maximum number of general consulting hours that are guaranteed or expected to be assigned to the

awarded Contractor as a result of this RFP.

The quantity of General Consulting Services required by the Commission during the duration of the contract will likely

vary from approximately 200 hours to 300 hours. Contractor’s fixed-price cost proposal should include both consulting

work in developing the RFP and general consulting services for the duration of the contract.

DELIVERABLES AND DELIVERABLE APPROVAL PROCESS

See Cost Proposal.

Deliverables are subject to the Deliverable Approval Process, contained in the terms and conditions.

1 https://psc.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/911ServiceSystemPlan.pdf

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Procurement Procedure

GENERAL INFORMATION

This solicitation is designed to solicit responses from qualified bidders who will be responsible for providing the service

described in this RFP at a competitive and reasonable cost. This Procurement Procedure describes how the solicitation

will be conducted through bidding and contract award.

The Commission reserves the right to reject a bidder’s solicitation response, withdraw an Intent to Award, or

terminate a contract if the Commission determines there has been a violation of this Procurement Procedure.

PROCURING OFFICE AND COMMUNICATION WITH STATE STAFF AND EVALUATORS

Procurement responsibilities related to this solicitation reside with the Commission. Please note, again, that the

Department of Administrative Services is not a contact for anything related to this solicitation. The point of contact (POC)

for the procurement is as follows:

RFP Number:

Name:

Agency:

Address:

Telephone:

E-Mail:

RFP 202591101

Dave Sankey

Nebraska Public Service Commission

1200 N Street, Suite 300

Lincoln, NE 68508

402-471-3101

dave.sankey@nebraska.gov

From the date the solicitation is issued until the Intent to Award is issued, communication from the bidder about or

concerning this RFP is limited to the POC listed above. Furthermore, Bidders shall not have any communication with or

attempt to communicate or influence any evaluator involved in this solicitation.

After the Intent to Award is issued, the bidder may communicate with individuals the Commission has designated as

responsible for negotiating the contract on behalf of the Commission, or pursuant to any protest process. No

Commissioner, member of the State Government, employee of the State, or member of the Evaluation Committee is

empowered to make binding statements regarding this solicitation. The POC will issue any answers, clarifications, or

amendments regarding this solicitation in writing.

The following exceptions to these restrictions are permitted:

Contact required by the schedule of events or an event scheduled later by the POC; and

Contact required for negotiation and execution of the final contract.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

The Commission expects to adhere to the procurement schedule shown below, but all dates are approximate and

subject to change.

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This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.

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Technical consulting services for statewide next generation 911 (NG911) services and general consulting services for the ongoing transition from legacy 911 operations to NG911

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See also