TCSF Request for Proposal
Internet Service Provision

TAHOE CENTER FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Proposal Overview and Objective

This document is a Request For Proposal (RFP) to provide services for Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future (TCSF) and it's partners.

The objective of the Request For Proposal is to allow the Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future (TCSF) and it's Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TBWAN) partners to find the optimum solution for their Internet Service Provider/Web Server needs. TCSF is issuing this Request For Proposal (RFP) to establish firm pricing and service offerings to assist TCSF in providing necessary and sufficient 1) web hosting services for our Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TBWAN) membership, 2) regional Geographic Information System (GIS) server capabilities and, 3) access to the Internet.

1.2 Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future Mission

The mission of the Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future (TCSF) is to facilitate the provision of information, resources, education and training in an effort to achieve a sustainable future in the entire Lake Tahoe Region

The Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TBWAN) is an electronic information network linking institutions, organizations, and government within the Tahoe to each other and the Internet. TCSF's primary mission is to provide collaborative networked information services to its members in support of education, research, public service, and government activities. The Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network currently consists of twenty-six member organizations. TCSF provides technical support and training services to its TBWAN members, develops seminars, and holds conferences showcasing uses of networking and information technology by its members.

1. TCSF Background

TCSF is a 501(c)3 non-profit organizations which originated as a community project in October, 1992 at the first regional conference of what is now the Tahoe Truckee Regional Economic Coalition (TTREC).

1. TCSF Programs in Action
   

TCSF is establishing collaborative efforts to leverage resources and implement it's mission. Current programs include a Sustainability Curriculum Program, an Information and Technology Program, and Partnerships to Promote Sustainability. This RFP addresses primarily the needs of the Information and Technology Program.

Information and Technology Program

• Using technology to meet future environmental and economic challenges.
• Developing systems to make better decisions with partners Sierra Economic Development District, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, California Tahoe Conservancy, and others.
• Provide information through the creation of a wide area network, application development, and use of Internet technologies for natural resource management and economic development.
• Use computer tools to identify ways to achieve environmental standards using least-cost approaches.
• Provide regional and international educational links via the Internet.

1.5 Components of the TCSF Information and Technology Program

Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TBWAN)

http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/reg_orgs.html

• A network of government, business, and community based organizations which share information about our sustainable future.
• Intends to foster communication about the environment, economy, and human well being to encourage more efficient use of limited resources.
• Linked to other regional interests through the Regional Index and to other information resources world-wide.
• Currently includes 25 local organizations such as the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Town of Truckee, City of South Lake Tahoe, League to Save Lake Tahoe, Tahoe Truckee Regional Economic Coalition, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the US Forest Service, Tahoe City Public Utility District, Incline Village General Improvement District, Lake Tahoe Community Trust, Sierra Business Council and many more.

Tahoe Regional Index

http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/reg_info.html

• An index to information about the region important to residents and visitors.
• Makes links to the Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network and other networks (such as business networks)
• Creates an organized structure to promote full development of Internet capabilities in the Tahoe Region.

Internet Training Workshops

http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/training.html

• A series of public workshops to increase knowledge and use of the Internet. Workshops currently held at Sierra Nevada College and Lake Tahoe Community College.
• Topics include basic internet use, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and homepage creation, document transfer (ftp), and geographic information systems (GIS).

Provision of Information and Resources

http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/data_resource.html

• TCSF is working with organizations and agencies throughout the Region to create an on-line catalog of information about the environment and economy. This catalog will provide links to data available over the internet.
• TCSF is working with area agencies/organizations to increase the quality and quantity of data available over the Internet including TRPA's Tahoe Environmental GIS database (TEGIS).
• TCSF offers local expertise for hardware and software troubleshooting.

Application Development

• TCSF sponsors an on line adult literacy program to improve reading skills and demonstrate one use of the Internet for distance learning.
• TCSF is working with the World Resources Institute, Institute for Sustainable Development, TRPA, USGS, and others to use technological tools in identification and development of least-cost methods for environmental restoration.
• TCSF is working to devise a self-supporting regional GIS, a critical application for tracking environmental indicators and associated thresholds for measuring the restoration of the environmental quality desired for the Lake Tahoe area.
• TCSF has established the Sustainability Learning Resource Center to provide information and links related to sustainability education. This resource includes information on student projects and the Community Leaders in Classrooms Guide.

2 OVERVIEW OF REQUIREMENTS

There are three separate and distinct services to address in this RFP. TCSF is looking for a partner/service organization that can providing necessary and sufficient 1) web hosting services for our Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TBWAN) membership, 2) regional Geographic Information System (GIS) server capabilities and, 3) access to the Internet.

1. PRIORITY I: Web Hosting TBWAN members

The TBWAN (http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/reg_orgs.html) is currently comprised of eleven (11) non-profit organizations, three (3) local schools, eight (8) government agencies and four (4) private local companies. These 26 organizations have web sites on the CERES server (California Environmental Resources Evaluation System is part of the California Resources Agency) under the current National Telecommunication Information Administration (NTIA) grant. At the end of the grant period (approximately October of 1997) all or part of this group of web sites will be moved to a new host location. We are looking for an ISP that is interested in hosting these sites.

Hosting service requirements:

• Individual accounts for each site with control over content and maintenance
• Password protected FTP site services (files available via password protected FTP)
• High performance large-scale servers and high-speed network connections including:
  • ample disk space available
  • adequate performance with regards to traffic and speed (bandwidth)
  • auto-responders, redundancy and backup
  • service interruption plans
• Web statistics package
• CGI scripting capability
• On-line Forum (currently utilizing HyperNews 2.9.1)
• Custom domain names allowed (as registered with InterNIC)
• Adequate support services
• Negotiated rate

1. PRIORITY II: GIS Server

TCSF plans to develop a regional GIS that provides public access to data contributed by partner organizations (including the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's TEGIS datasets, USFS datasets, Northern Sierra Nevada GIS datasets, and more). Current plans include developing a prototype system structure to make existing (and future) GIS information more widely available to the professional planning and management community and to the general public.

Numerous software applications based on Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) technology will be showcased in several demonstration projects: GEODESY (GIS for student use K-12), Index (GIS for the public and decision makers: a computer aided planning tool using community indicators offered by Criterion Inc.) and ArcView Internet Map Server. TCSF will coordinate collaborative project teams supporting the development of GIS models and desired indicators.

TCSF and Northern Sierra Nevada GIS have recently partnered to apply for a grant with NTIA to test several of these GIS technologies within the Tahoe Basin and the Northern Sierra timberbelt. GIS server capabilities will become a requirement when this grant gets underway. Please see the GIS Feasibility Study at http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/GIS/feasibility.html

1. PRIORITY III: Internet Service Provider for many, or all, of the Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network members and TCSF contractors.

The final priority may be to find an Internet Service Provider which will offer services to the group of TBWAN organizations and to the TCSF contractors at a reasonable rate.

3 REQUESTED INFORMATION

This section will give a summary of the vendor's approach to fulfilling the requirements described in this document. Proposals may outline the general capabilities and strengths of their firm as well as present a brief overview of their history.

1. General Overview

• Describe why and how your company meets the definition of an "Internet Service Provider".

• Describe the 'mission' of your company's role as an 'Internet Service Provider". Describe how over the past twelve months your company has addressed this mission giving specific and detailed account addressing stability, reliability, and robustness. For example, what formal policies exist between your company and other ISP's, what is the typical number of outages per week, what is the typical number of open problem tickets, what is the nature of most problems and how do you plan to reduce the occurrences of this class of problem.

3.2 Network Infrastructure and Routing

• Describe your company's effort to maintain an inter-operable, interconnected global Internet and your policy and commitment to same over the next five years.

• Describe your backbone topology. Include:

a) All current and planned hub locations and associated backbone connections

b) Current internodal link speeds and protocol (eg, FDDI, ATM, etc)

c) Planned schedules to upgrade internodal link speeds and/or protocols

• Describe your routing policy, technique and justification, including:

a) Routing technique and strategy interior to your backbone

b) Routing technique and strategy connecting customer networks

c) Route filtering -- specifically, how do you prevent erroneous announcements from

customers or other ISP's from corrupting your network?

d) Route poaching -- describe your policy to prevent 'poaching' of TCSF routes by

other ISPs.

e) Routing registry usage

f) Other routing registry utilization(s)

• Describe your current presence in the Tahoe Basin. Include telephony POPs, as well as backbone routing infrastructure.

• Describe your company's plan to migrate to new protocols with particular emphasis on coordination with and support of customer requirements.

3.3 Administrative Services

Describe your Administrative Center (or Network Operations Center), including specific responses to the following:

a) number of staff

b) organization and management

c) engineering (network design) capabilities

d) network monitoring including reports detailing availability and utilizations that are provided to customers. On what frequency are these reports made available?

e) notification of problems to customer, customer problem escalation procedures

f) availability of staff for technical support and problem resolution

g) trouble ticket system

h) capability (and method) for monitoring/managing customer owned customer premise

equipment

i) days and hours of operation for all services, including network monitoring and problem resolution, including weekends and holidays

j) your procedures for working with NAPs, Routing Arbiters, and other networks to support end- to-end connectivity and problem resolution between TCSF and other Internet locations

k) average response time to customer inquiries via (1) phone, and (2) electronic mail

l) mailing lists for distribution of up-to-date information detailing customer outages and other problems affecting customer inter-connectivity

m) disaster recovery plans and procedures

1. other services available

3.4 System Reliability and Capacity

TCSF requires capacity sufficient to accommodate an initial group of subscribers (26 TBWAN members) and will expand the capacity to meet the growth of members. Service providers must be able to guarantee that the service has adequate reliability and capacity as measured by accessibility during peak hours of subscriber demand, such that no more than 1 out of 100 calls shall receive a busy signal during the busiest time of the day. This means that there shall be no more than 1 busy signal for every 100 connection attempts, regardless of time of day.

3.5 Price Quotation

Provide firm, fixed pricing for connections supporting the routing of IP (Internet Protocol) for the bandwidth indicated. Price quotation must include all non-recurring and recurring costs.

3.6 Discounts

Describe any discounts available offered by your company such as:

1. Enhanced discounts if additional TBWAN members are added
2. Discounts for non-profit organizations, schools and government agencies
3. Multi-year contract
4. Discounts available as the sole provider of proposed services.

1. Cancellation Notice Requirements

Describe any cancellation notice requirements. Describe any penalties resulting from cancellation of, or reduction in services.

3.8 Other Costs or Services

Identify all other costs related to any aspect of the Proposal not addressed above.

4 PROPOSAL INFORMATION

4.1 Introduction

This RFP is issued for Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future (TCSF) by Heather Babcock. All inquiries and responses should be addressed to:

Heather Babcock

Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future

Post Office Box 8020

Tahoe City, CA 96145

Voice (916) 525-9100

Fax (916) 525-9151

Email heatherb@siera.net

4.2 Proposal Guidelines

The Proposal should respond in general to Section 3, Requested Information. The Proposal should also respond to each requirement (Priority I, Priority II, and Priority III) separately regarding proposed solution and pricing.

1. Timetable

The following are target dates for the RFP and Contracting Process:

June, 1997	RFP Released
September, 1997	RFP Responses due
December, 1997	TCSF awards successful proposal and orders desired services
January, 1998	Proposal implementation operational

1. Evaluation Criteria

Responses to this RFP will be reviewed by the RFP Review Committee (comprised of several TCSF contractors and Board members). TCSF reserves the right to award requested services to one or more proposals as determined by the TCSF RFP Review Committee.

Proposal evaluation criteria will include but not be limited to:

Vendor's understanding of the scope and magnitude of the functionality to be delivered, as evidenced by the Proposal

Vendor's technical approach and completeness of the Proposal

Development and support capabilities

Qualifications and relevant experience of the vendor in offering similar services

References from existing installations with similar requirements

Service/Maintenance/Support commitments including:

Location/number of administrative personnel

Location/number of service/technical support personnel

Guaranteed response times to service calls

Costs (including all non-recurring and recurring costs)

Discounts available

Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future (TCSF) reserves the right to:

Reject any and all Proposals received in response to this RFP

Reject any and all unsolicited Proposals

Request clarifications, modifications, and changes to Proposals

Consider Proposals or modifications received at any time before the selection is made

Accept a Proposal other than the lowest bid.

4.4 Cost Liability

Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future and it's directors, employees and contractors, assume no responsibility and no liability for costs incurred by vendors in the preparation and submission of their respective Proposal.

4.5 Acceptance of Proposal Content

The contents of the Proposal of the successful vendor may become a part of the contract awarded as a result of this procurement. A contract based upon the response to this RFP is valid only if signed Joseph Kruth, Chair of Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future.