PROJECT OVERVIEW
Brunswick County (“County”) is soliciting sealed proposals for a VoIP Phone System to replace the existing end-of-life, end-of-support VoIP system. A majority of the phones reside at the County Complex in Bolivia, NC. The remaining phones are physically located at approximately forty (40) offsite locations within the County. The County also has a need to provide VoIP to remote and mobile workers.
Download the complete RFP - VoIP Phone System Replacement here
SCOPE OF WORK
Brunswick County has established the following objectives for this project. Any changes to the specifications or Scope of Work will be made in the form of an Addendum to this Request for Proposals that will be supplied to all known prospective vendors and posted on the Brunswick County website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, vendors will be responsible for ensuring that they have all addenda. Brunswick County may negotiate and refine the final Scope of Work with the selected vendor. Brunswick County reserves the right to negotiate additional services with the selected vendor at any time after the initial contract award.
Brunswick County seeks an experienced firm to provide a turnkey solution for a VoIP system to replace all existing Mitel equipment.
The primary goals of replacing the current telephone system are:
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Providing users with integrated, uniform functionality for all telephone stations across the County.
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Improving work efficiency by offering unified communications to end-users.
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Investing in a communications system that is scalable to grow with the County.
The new turnkey system shall include Unified Communications and integrate with the County’s Microsoft 365, Teams, Exchange, and Active Directory systems. All existing telephones should be replaced with equivalent IP physical or soft phone. The County intends to replace a portion of the physical phone inventory with softphones. The proposal should include pricing to reflect this option on a per unit basis. Details regarding the current system are provided below and should be used for bidding purposes.
The County requires that any system has the capability to service remote locations and mobile users with the same features and functionality as the main office.
Proposals should include training specifically for system administrators and end users of all phone types and features. Training should be provided over the course of the project and include times with in-person (minimum of 15 in-person sessions) and remote options. Training courses are to be recorded and delivered for future use.
Existing phones numbers must be retained. The proposed system should integrate with the existing telco provider. Existing numbers will not be ported.
Proposals shall include pricing and options for a five- (5) year warranty with and without phone coverage.
Proposal Contents
A complete list of all equipment proposed must be provided, specifying manufacturer and individual model numbers. All equipment and component parts furnished shall be new, meet the requirements stated herein, and be in operable condition at the time of delivery. The vendor must also provide a complete list of personnel and subcontractors involved with the proposed solution and include associated cost broken down by position, number of hours, and hourly rate for said work of each position. Hourly rates may be decreased through negotiation in any contract entered as a result of this RFP, including the original contract and renewals, but cannot be increased.
Current Voice Communications
Brunswick County currently runs a Mitel MiVoice Connect VoIP system. The County utilizes analog and VoIP devices. The local carrier, FOCUS, provides the DID numbers, SIP trunks, and one PRI for faxing. The quantities below are based on the County’s current system to aid interested vendors in preparing a proposal. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the County does not guarantee any minimum or maximum amount of equipment to be purchased under the awarded contract.
The current Mitel system is comprised of and serves:
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Various remote locations connected via site-to-site VPN and metro ethernet
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1,500 DIDs
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1,200 Phone system accounts
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975 physical desk phones with programmable buttons
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16 Conference phones
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Softphone/Mobile App
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Phone VPN capability
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210 Auto-attendants
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130 Fax numbers
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900 Voicemail boxes with unified messaging
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200 Hunt and Workgroups
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Custom scheduling
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911 Kari/Ray Baum Compliance
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Pickup groups
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Number forwarding
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Contact Center with 330 named agents/100 concurrent and 30 groups
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Detailed call reporting with live dashboards
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System virtualized using VMWare
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Classes of Restriction
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Find Me-Follow Me
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Active Directory Compatibility
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Music on hold
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Office 365 Integration
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Call Recording
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Bridge Conferencing Ports
Brunswick County would “highly prefer” the new system to include these additional features:
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Microsoft Teams integration
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Robust mobile and PC client
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Brightmetrics replacement. Brightmetrics is a third-party phone reporting and dashboarding product. It provides live and historical dashboards with client control. It also provides detailed and easily customizable reports.
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Phones with Bluetooth are available for pairing with accessories such as hearing aids and headsets.
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Fax server for faxing via software (one time purchase, not billed by fax volume), single line and multiline ATA devices.
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Support various network connectivity scenarios (i.e. Metro Ethernet connected sites, site-to-site VPN connected locations, wi-fi enabled phones, VPN connected desk phones, microwave connected locations).
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Streamlined voicemail management with simple administrative voicemail deletion or reset from a management console and deletion of voicemail from system when message delivered via email attachment is deleted from email.
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Live connection of calls between differing client types. For example, if a call is received on a mobile device, it can easily and without interruption, be transitioned to a desk phone or PC application.
Other “areas of interest”:
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AI integration – Interactive Voice Response (“IVR”) that understands natural language for easy menu navigation, detect mood of caller for prioritization, call transcription and key points sent via email, call quality analysis, call resolution analysis for quality and performance monitoring, can improve security capabilities.
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Data dipping/Database (DB) Access – The County does not have a central Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution but departments may be able to take advantage of this feature to link callers to pertinent data within the system and present that data to staff for better customer service.
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Nuisance caller blocking – at the system administrator / IT level
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Managed service option Vendor supplied support for system programming and updates. This includes the daily end user account maintenance.
