Background and Purpose
McMaster University invites qualified bidders, Cisco Certified Gold Partner Vendors, to submit responses for the supply of a preferred supplier to work with the University to acquire the goods and services to specifically support, warranty, maintain, supply and deliver product for the University’s established Cisco network environment in accordance with the terms of this Request for Proposals.
The primary deliverable for this RFP is for the successful Proponent, as a Cisco Certified Gold Partner Vendor, to act as a non-exclusive Vendor of Record (VOR) to supply and deliver to the university Cisco Certified equipment, and the related services including support, warranty, and maintenance.
A deliverable is also the provision of SMARTnet Service and annual maintenance and support contracts; Cisco One Wireless Enterprise Agreement Licenses and related support contracts. Vendors must bid the SMARTnet Service support as identified in this document as a minimum; however, the University will review alternate support models. As such a Vendor branded solution is acceptable but must include direct and unlimited access to Cisco Technical Assistance Centre (TAC) and Cisco Connection Online (CCO) with no requirement to contact the Successful Vendor’s partner prior to contacting TAC.
Supply, delivery, configuration and disposal (full lifecycle management capability) as required of hardware and software solutions to enhance and expand the existing environment.
Advanced technical ability using Cisco (Cisco Validated Design documents) and industry best practices to provide support and expertise for, but not exclusive to, Nexus Data Centre, wireless mesh, firewall/load balancing, VoIP, IPv6, and routing and switching, network and architecture design.
Bidders must quote the entire bid. Partial bids will not be accepted.
Term
The term of this agreement is for an initial term of three (3) years with an option to renew for up to an additional two (2) years to be renewed on a yearly basis as required, at McMaster’s sole discretion.
