Northampton to borrow and spend $648,000 on new telephone system

On Thursday’s agenda:

Upon recommendation of the Mayor and Finance Committee

The sum of $648,000 is appropriated for the replacement of City-wide telephone systems; that to meet such appropriation the Treasurer with the approval of the Mayor is authorized to borrow $648,000 under M.G.L. c. 44, 7 (9) or any other enabling authority; and that the Mayor is authorized to contract for and expend any federal or state aid available for this project; and that the MIS Department with the approval of the Mayor is authorized to take any other action necessary to carry out this project.

From an earlier blog:

On April 1 of this year the city of Northampton issued a Request for Proposals for telephone systems for the city, schools, and library. The closing date for bids was yesterday, May 12 at 2 PM. There’s not much I can tell you about RFPs except that they are complicated, even for government experts. Take a look at the telephone system RFP, available below as a PDF file. It’s 52 pages long. I suppose if an RFP was exceedingly complicated there would be few bidders. The RFP calls for 165 phones for the city proper, 103 for the schools, 75 for Smith Vocational School, 20 for Forbes Library, and 10 for Lilly Library. In addition to the counts above, Forbes Library will require four (4) wireless IP telephones and Lilly Library will require two (2) wireless IP telephones. Five (5) additional IP telephones will be provided to the City for its use as required.

Northampton Telephone System Request for Proposals (PDF)

Northampton Round House Request for Proposals (PDF)

Here’s a few of the requirements from the telephone system RFP, there are many, many more:

• Hot Line Service – provides the capability for stations to automatically place a call to a preassigned number simply by going off-hook.
• Off Premises Stations – provides ability to extend stations to off premise locations.
• Outbound Caller ID – provides the ability to select what outbound caller ID information is transmitted, including the ability for certain lines to send no outbound caller ID, on a per station basis.
• Authorization Codes – ability to require, if desired, that all or certain selected users dial an
  authorization code when making certain outgoing calls.
• Display – Typical User and Heavy User IP telephones shall have displays of a minimum of 2” by 3” size.
• Distinctive Ringing – provides the ability to have a different ringing tone to distinguish between internal, external, and priority calls.
• The City has a requirement for its workforce to be mobile, and requires a telephone system to support this mobility for home workers (telecommuters) and mobile workers.
• For staff that will work remotely, regardless of frequency, the system shall have the ability for staff to make and receive calls as if the worker was in the office. The City envisions functionality allowing workers to “log in” from a remote site, using a Soft phone client. This functionality shall provide all the capabilities that the worker would enjoy if he/she was at his/her office. When activated, incoming calls to the worker’s extension shall ring at the remote site, and provide all the information (caller ID, for example) and feature access (call transfer, conference, for example) that the worker has when working from the office. Also when activated, outgoing calls shall access City network (PSTN) facilities and shall be captured and reported on by the call accounting system. The worker shall be part of the City 4-digit dial plan when this feature is activated. Contractors shall submit a detailed description of the mobility functionality included in their proposals to support telecommuters, and also provide a description of other telecommuter capabilities available with the proposed solution. Contractors shall submit details regarding the client software.
• Describe the capability for cell phone-desktop phone integration to support mobile staff. This capability is not to be confused with simple call forwarding to a cell phone. The preferred capability is that office extensions can be extended to a cell phone, without the caller knowing that the call is being extended. Contractors shall describe this functionality in detail, including any necessary hardware or software, the process by which the feature can be activated locally and remotely, and costs. Include the capability for ten (10) individuals to utilize this feature, and provide the unit cost to support additional users.
• Contractors shall submit descriptions of the desktop integration features available in their systems. Include in his discussion the following, at a minimum:

1. Ability for users to manage telephone feature configuration from the desktop
2. Ability for users to manage voice mailboxes from the desktop
3. LDAP Integration
4. Presence and status features
5. Ability to dial from a directory (click-to-dial)
6. Ability to access voice mail messages from the desktop

• Provide pricing as follows:
  1. Cost for complete unified messaging system with voice mail and email integration to support 1,500 users, with the system located at the City Hall campus
  2. Cost for a complete voice mail/automated attendant system to support 100 users located at JFK Middle School.
  3. Fax integration with an initial capacity of 8 ports and 25 users at City Hall.

The state runs a procurement system that municipalities can utilize known as Comm-PASS and have made available BUYSMART, a FREE online system for Massachusetts public entities. Apparently Northampton officials have foregone using this system with regards to the telephone system as they did previously when they issued an RFP for the Round House parking lot that gave us the Hilton Garden Inn. City officials apparently prefer instead to go it alone in issuing RFPs. All of that’s fine provided the city follows Mass. General Law 30B, which can be accessed below at the link for the Office of the Inspector General.

Comm-PASS Massachusetts Procurement Access & Solicitation System