Unified Communications (Phone System) Replacement

Unified Communications (Phone System)
Replacement
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
Unified Communications (Phone System) Replacement
9/14/2026

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
II. Solicitation.................................................................................................................................. 3
III. Scope of Work ............................................................................................................................ 3
IV. Selection Criteria ..................................................................................................................... 11
V. Selection Process .................................................................................................................... 12
VI. Management ............................................................................................................................. 13
VII. Term of Contract ...................................................................................................................... 13
VIII. Payment .................................................................................................................................... 13
IX. Terms and Conditions ............................................................................................................. 13
X. Required Documents ............................................................................................................... 15
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I. Introduction
Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), organized as Dena' Nena' Henash or "Our Land
Speaks," is a sovereign tribal consortium with a board of directors consisting of 42 Tribal
communities across Interior Alaska, representing 37 federally recognized tribes. TCC is
an Alaska Native non-profit corporation that provides health and social services for the
more than 18,000 Alaska Native people in the Interior Alaska region. TCC was formed in
1962, but its history dates back over 100 years, when tribal chiefs from throughout the
region banded together to protect their Native land rights. TCC's main office is in
Fairbanks, Alaska. TCC region covers 235,000 square miles of Interior Alaska, which is
equal to about 37 percent of the entire state. The region is divided into six sub-regions:
Yukon Koyukuk, Yukon Tanana, Lower Yukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Yukon Flats, and Upper
Tanana.
II. Solicitation
Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) Information Technology is seeking proposals from
qualified vendors for the replacement of its enterprise Unified Communications (UC) /
telephone system. The incumbent ShoreTel/Mitel platform (version 14.2) has reached
functional end-of-life, with manufacturer end-of-support announced for December 2029.
TCC seeks a modern, reliable UC platform serving approximately 1,200 employees across
more than 30 locations, including headquarters facilities in Fairbanks, two subregional
clinics, and 22 remote village clinics across Interior Alaska. This RFP does not prescribe a
specific manufacturer or deployment model; on-premises, cloud-hosted, and hybrid
architectures will all be considered, provided the proposed solution satisfies the
requirements in Section III, Scope of Work.
Questions regarding this solicitation and/or proposal submissions shall be emailed to
aaron.gibson@tananachiefs.org.
Proposal Submission Deadline:
Proposals are required to be submitted no later than 10/14/2026.
Proposals received after the time announced will not be considered.
III. Scope of Work
Project: Enterprise Unified Communications / Telephone System Replacement
Each bidder shall thoroughly examine the contract documents. The failure or
neglect of a bidder to receive or examine any contract document or any part
thereof shall in no way relieve it from any obligations with respect to its quote or
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to the service contract. No claim for additional compensation shall be allowed
which is based upon a lack of knowledge of any contract document.
A. Background
Over the past decade TCC has grown from approximately 600 to 1,200 employees, and
the existing telephone platform has not kept pace. Documented operational failures
include dropped and misrouted after-hours crisis calls, unreliable softphone connectivity,
emergency paging that does not reach softphone users, and village clinic phones going
offline during internet outages. In most villages, the clinic phone is the community's only
medical emergency contact. A comprehensive needs assessment covering all 22 TCC
departments was completed in June 2026; the requirements below are drawn directly
from that assessment.
B. Current Environment
* Platform: ShoreTel/Mitel UC system, version 14.2, on-premises, centered on a
headquarters (CPJTB) core server with physical and virtual appliances distributed
across sites.
* Scale: Approximately 1,479 configured extensions (1,183 active in the last 180 days),
1,229 physical phones, 325 softphones, and roughly 279,000 calls per 90 days.
* Trunking: A mix of PRI/T1, SIP, and analog trunks across CAIHC, CPJTB, Tok, Galena,
Nenana, and Tanacross; several trunk groups run at or near 100% peak utilization.
* Village clinics: All 22 village clinics operate two parallel systems (legacy NEC plus
ShoreTel remote IP phones) over deteriorating copper, terrestrial microwave, and
satellite circuits. Dual Starlink circuits are being deployed by TCC IT.
* Adjacent systems: Microsoft 365 E5 with Teams (adopted by all 22 departments),
Active Directory / Entra ID, ServiceNow, AlertMedia, TigerConnect, BrightMetrics
reporting, Avail Solutions crisis answering service, a third-party pharmacy
prescription IVR, and Athena EMR.
C. Required Features
The proposed solution must deliver each of the following requirements. Items marked
"Enterprise-Wide" were required by three or more TCC departments. For every item, the
proposal must state whether the capability is native to the base platform, available as an
add-on module or license, or achieved through a third-party integration.
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Voice & Calling
* REQ-001 - Carrier-Grade Voice Call Reliability (Enterprise-Wide). The platform
must sustain carrier-grade call quality and availability under TCC's bandwidth-
constrained, geographically distributed network, including sites served by terrestrial
microwave and LEO satellite, with no unacceptable degradation during scheduled or
unscheduled network events.
* REQ-002 - Program-Level, Position-Based Hunt/Ring Groups (Enterprise-Wide).
Calls must route to programs or teams rather than individuals, with extensions
assignable to positions so staff turnover does not break routing. Ring groups must
honor an individual member's active call-forward setting rather than ringing an
unmanned desk phone.
* REQ-003 - After-Hours Emergency Routing with Schedule Automation. After-hours
routing must be schedulable in advance (by date, time, and recurrence) without IT
intervention, and must fail safely to a defined after-hours state if no manual change
is made. At clinical sites an after-hours routing failure is a direct patient safety risk.
* REQ-004 - Reliable On-Call Escalation Chains. Configurable multi-step escalation
trees (primary on-call office backup supervisor/next tier) with self-service
rotation management so departments can update the on-call destination on a
weekly or monthly basis.
* REQ-005 - Director / Executive Assistant Intercept Model. Inbound calls to director-
level staff must be configurable to ring the executive assistant first and roll to the
director only on no-answer, manageable by department administrators (including
remotely) without IT involvement.
* REQ-006 - Physical Desk Phones for High-Volume Fixed-Desk Roles. A broad
catalog of enterprise-grade IP desk phones with validated headset compatibility for
schedulers, travel coordinators, front desk, pharmacy, and similar all-day call-
handling roles.
* REQ-007 - Site Survivability During Internet Outage (Critical at village sites). Village
clinic phone service must remain operational during WAN/internet outages via local
survivability appliances, backup PSTN/SIP paths, or equivalent fallback engineered
into every clinic site, interoperating with the dual-circuit Starlink architecture being
deployed by TCC IT.
* REQ-008 - Unified Phone System / NEC Decommission at Village Clinics
(Enterprise-Wide). Elimination of the legacy NEC systems at all 22 village clinics is a
required outcome, with transition planning that guarantees no clinic experiences a
service gap during cutover.
* REQ-009 - DID Block Retention with Existing Carrier (Critical). TCC's DID blocks
cannot be ported away from the current carrier. The platform must support SIP
trunking or Direct Routing that keeps the existing carrier as PSTN provider,
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connected through a certified session border controller or equivalent. Any
architecture requiring number porting to a new carrier is disqualifying.
Messaging & Collaboration
* REQ-010 - Voicemail-to-Email, Universally Provisioned with Bidirectional Sync
(Enterprise-Wide). Voicemail-to-email must be the default provisioned
configuration for every user, with immediate, bidirectional deletion sync across desk
phone, PC/web client, and email.
* REQ-011 - Shared Program/Position-Level Voicemail Boxes. Program-level
voicemail accessible by all designated team members, with access management self-
serviceable by department administrators.
Meetings & Video
* REQ-012 - Native, Bidirectional Microsoft Teams Integration (Enterprise-Wide).
Staff must be able to make and receive PSTN calls from within the Teams client using
their TCC number; presence must sync bidirectionally with call state; call
notifications and queue alerts must be routable to Teams channels. Proposals must
document the integration method (Direct Routing, Teams Phone, or certified side-
by-side client/plugin).
Contact Center
* REQ-013 - ACD / Contact Center with Real-Time Queue Reporting. Full ACD
capability including agent log-in/log-out, real-time queue dashboards (calls waiting,
current wait time, agents available), and historical per-agent reporting (calls
handled, average talk time, abandonment rate). Must fully replace the existing
BrightMetrics analytics add-on or support its continued use.
* REQ-014 - Call Recording with RBAC and Defined Retention Policy. Role-based
access control preventing inappropriate access to clinical or sensitive recordings,
configurable retention periods, and a full audit trail. Recording will not be activated
in production until TCC Compliance and Legal Counsel approve access policy,
retention schedule, and use guidelines.
Administration & Management
* REQ-015 - Self-Service / Remote Call Flow Management (Enterprise-Wide).
Department managers must be able to create, modify, and schedule call flow modes,
ring group membership, and after-hours routing without IT tickets, including
advance scheduling for holidays, all-staff days, and early-out days via an intuitive
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self-service portal.
* REQ-016 - Active Directory / Entra ID Integration with SSO and Preferred-Name
Support (Enterprise-Wide). Single sign-on using existing TCC corporate credentials,
directory synchronization from AD/Entra ID, support for preferred/display names
distinct from legal names, and support for auto-provisioning of new-hire extensions
via ServiceNow or HR workflow.
* REQ-017 - Reliable, Network-Resilient Softphone Client (Enterprise-Wide). The
softphone must maintain connection when switching between Ethernet and Wi-Fi,
auto-launch on startup, and coexist without conflict alongside remote desktop tools
such as TeamViewer.
Security & Compliance
* REQ-018 - Overhead Paging Integration with All-Device Reach. Emergency paging
(fire codes, lockdowns, code blue) must reach every staff member on physical desk
phones, softphone clients, and mobile apps, with integration to site-specific paging
infrastructure validated per site during deployment.
Mobility
* REQ-019 - BYOD Mobile App with Corporate Caller ID and Simultaneous Ring
(Enterprise-Wide). A mobile application allowing staff to make and receive calls
using their TCC extension (not their personal cell number), supporting simultaneous
ring with the desk phone, compatible with BYOD personal devices, and optional for
staff who decline BYOD participation. A clear, organization-published privacy
statement describing what the app can and cannot access must be supportable
before rollout.
Integrations
* REQ-020 - ServiceNow Integration. Screen pops for ServiceNow-registered callers,
call recordings linked to tickets, Teams notification triggers on queue metrics, and
new-hire auto-provisioning initiated via ServiceNow workflow. Detailed scoping will
occur with the IT Service Desk team.
* REQ-021 - AlertMedia Compatibility. TCC's AlertMedia mass-notification platform
must continue to function in parallel with the new UC platform without interference;
vendor confirmation of compatibility is a documented evaluation criterion.
* REQ-022 - Automatic After-Hours Crisis Routing to Avail Solutions (Critical). After-
hours crisis calls to Behavioral Health must be automatically and forcibly routed to
the Avail Solutions answering service with no mechanism for a caller to inadvertently
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reach administrative voicemail. This is a non-negotiable patient safety requirement.
* REQ-023 - Pharmacy After-Hours Prescription IVR Forwarding. The existing after-
hours forwarding path to a third-party prescription IVR must be preserved, with
vendor identity confirmed and compatibility validated before go-live.
* REQ-024 - TigerConnect Coexistence. The UC platform must coexist with TCC's
TigerConnect secure clinical messaging platform without workflow friction; no
integration is required at initial deployment.
* REQ-025 - Carrier Coordination and Local Number Retention at Village Clinics.
Local published clinic numbers must be retained or consolidated to toll-free
equivalents where copper infrastructure is deteriorating, with a comprehensive
carrier coordination and number documentation plan completed before any clinic
cutover.
* REQ-026 - Salesforce Integration - Patient Travel Program. The platform must
integrate with TCC's Salesforce environment used by the Patient Travel program,
including screen pops that display the caller's Salesforce record when a recognized
phone number reaches the Patient Travel queue, click-to-dial from Salesforce, and
logging of call activity to the associated Salesforce record. Proposals must identify
the integration method (native connector, certified CTI adapter, or API-based
integration), any additional licensing required, and any Salesforce edition or API
prerequisites. Detailed scoping will occur with the Patient Travel team during the
design phase.
D. Minimum Viable System
On day one of production operation the proposed system must deliver: carrier-grade call
reliability under distributed and bandwidth-constrained conditions; program-level hunt
groups with position-based routing; a BYOD mobile application with corporate caller ID
masking and simultaneous ring; a network-resilient softphone client; self-service call flow
management for department administrators; scheduled and automated after-hours
routing that fails safely; full ACD capability with real-time queue dashboards for clinical
contact center departments; voicemail-to-email provisioned universally with
bidirectional deletion sync; native Microsoft Teams integration with bidirectional
presence; local survivability at all village clinic sites; decommission of all legacy PBX
systems; DID retention with the existing carrier; and emergency paging reach to all device
types. Platforms that cannot deliver the above without complex third-party workarounds
for multiple items will not be considered.
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E. Additional Required Design Outcomes
Based on documented patient safety incidents and compliance obligations, the following
are also treated as required design outcomes:
* Dedicated Behavioral Health crisis queue: a crisis-call queue separate from the
general Behavioral Health administrative queue, with direct routing to the on-call
crisis counselor and a failsafe to Avail Solutions.
* Scheduled call flow changes: advance scheduling of routing modes for holidays, all-
staff days, and weather closures (inseparable from REQ-003 and REQ-015).
* Anonymous compliance hotline: a dedicated inbound number that accepts calls
without logging caller ID, supporting anonymous internal compliance reporting, with
implementation model confirmed by TCC Compliance and Legal Counsel.
F. Desired Features
Proposals should identify which of the following can be supported and whether each is
native, an add-on, or an integration: simultaneous (all-ring-at-once) ring group option;
return-to-operator option from voicemail; location-based security routing to a single
universal security extension; shared/exportable team contact directories; voicemail
transcription; ad-hoc conference calling with in-call add-participant; Teams-calendar-
based presence sync (auto meeting mode, scoped to meeting-type events only); basic call
volume reporting for non-contact-center departments; supervisor monitor/listen-in for
quality coaching; queue-scoped call recording access for QA coaching; callback / hold-my-
place queue option; hot desk / extension login to any workstation phone;
operator/receptionist switchboard interface with busy-lamp-field console; simplified call
handling profiles/templates; proactive outbound notification for weather or clinic
closures; duress alarm integration with the phone/paging system; DECT/wireless
handsets for mobile-within-space staff; provider/vendor caller ID screen pop for
Pharmacy and Scheduling; intercom/PA capability within the Laboratory; EMR (Athena)
integration for outbound scheduling notifications and call transcription (future phase;
must not be foreclosed by platform selection); and AI-assisted routing / auto-provisioning
roadmap capability.
G. Implementation, Training, and Transition Requirements
* Phased deployment: Proposals must include a phased implementation plan that
establishes platform stability at the Fairbanks headquarters sites first, then
subregional clinics (Galena and Tok) with survivability validation, then village clinics
with individual site surveys and zero-service-gap cutover management. Village clinic
sequencing must be driven by per-site connectivity readiness, not a calendar target.
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* Training as a funded deliverable: Role-specific, department-tailored training for
system administrators and end users must be included as a scoped, budgeted line
item of the implementation not a post-go-live activity. A post-deployment training
reinforcement pass for rural clinic teams is expected.
* Reporting continuity: For departments that depend on real-time queue dashboards
(Central Scheduling, IT Service Desk), the proposal must describe how reporting
continuity will be preserved during migration, including any parallel-run validation
period before legacy reporting is decommissioned.
* Call recording gating: Recording must not be activated in any production queue
before TCC Compliance and Legal sign off on access policy, retention schedule, and
use guidelines.
* BYOD communication: A plain-language communication explaining exactly what the
mobile app can and cannot access on a personal device must be available before
mobile app rollout.
* Number inventory: The implementation plan must include an audit and
documentation of all active toll-free (800) numbers, with assigned ownership,
before migration begins.
* Extension design: The vendor will support a department/position-based extension
numbering standard developed with TCC before system build begins.
H. Proposal Content Requirements
At minimum, each proposal must include:
* A requirements fulfillment matrix responding to every item in Sections C, D, and E
above, designating each as Native, Add-On (with required license/module
identified), Integration (with third-party components identified), or Not Supported.
* A proposed architecture description, including deployment model (on-premises,
cloud, or hybrid), survivability design for subregional and village clinic sites,
trunking/SBC design preserving the existing carrier relationship, and contact center
components.
* Licensing and cost detail, including a five-year total cost of ownership covering
licensing (perpetual and/or subscription options), hardware, implementation
services, training, and ongoing support/maintenance. TCC's existing Microsoft 365
E5 licensing should be leveraged where applicable to avoid duplicate telephony
licensing.
* An implementation plan and timeline consistent with Section G, including migration
methodology from the existing ShoreTel environment and NEC decommission
approach.
* A training plan scoped by role and department.
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