Q&A for RFP - Database Development and Maintenance Q: What is the standard browser staff uses? A: Staff members use both Windows Internet Explorer and Firefox. There is flexibility for this. Q: Is an estimate of the number of records expected in the database available? A: No. Each broadband service provider is required to provide data by census block. North Carolina has 232,404 census blocks and over 70 service providers. Some providers serve a small number of census blocks while others cover a large part of the state. Many census blocks have multiple providers. The e-NC Authority will also include data collected through other surveys that will also be coded by census block. Q: Please clarify what is meant by "...the database design will inform required elements in the broadband surveys." A: As part of the e-NC Authority’s mapping project (NC BRIM), data will be collected from citizen surveys and a survey about adaptive use by businesses. All of this will need to be part of the database. Staff and the database designer will need to work together to ensure all elements match. Q: Will the queries to be run by the staff require the ability to create and run ad hoc queries of any database fields, or will there be a set of pre-determined queries to be included for staff use? A: The e-NC Authority will need to be able to run ad hoc queries. Staff may also have pre-determined queries that can be set up. Q: Is there a preferred database platform and/or web interface platform with which to proposed solution should interface? A: To contain costs, an open-source database is preferred. The e-NC Authority can be flexible with the Web interface platform. Q: Is the vendor expected to provide required database software licenses, or will existing state licenses be used? If the vendor is to provide database software licenses, for how many users are licenses required? A: To contain costs, an open-source database is preferred. If the database is not open source, the preference is that the vendor own the licenses and quote the price needed to recover the e-NC Authority’s portion of the licensing cost. The e-NC Authority would expect that as a current provider of database service, bidding vendors would have established licenses with trained staff and regularly scheduled updates. The e-NC Authority would anticipate only 2-3 internal users/seats. Q: Regarding the import of updates to the tables, will the updated data already be in the expected format, or is reformatting required as part of the upload process? A: Generally, reformatting should not be required. Broadband providers are required to submit data to the e-NC Authority in plain text, tab-delimited files. These files will be imported into the database by the e-NC Authority. Data from other surveys will be added to the database by the e-NC Authority over the next 5 years of the planning project (ex. consumer survey, citizen surveys, etc.), but it is likely that the e-NC Authority would work to compile this data into an easily upload-able format. For additional information about how the e-NC Authority will use collected data and the forthcoming database in a Data Confab in Spring 2010, please reference the e-NC Authority’s NTIA application (http://www.e-nc.org/pdf/eNC_Proposal_NTIA.pdf). The e-NC Authority anticipates continued use of the database throughout the 2-year contract period of this RFP. Q: Regarding the import of updates to the tables, will the database be expected to recognize new, changed, and deleted records, or will the import be a complete refresh of all data? A: The database will need to recognize new and changed records. All updates will be through data import, but the prior data collected will need to be retained. (Broadband providers are to supply data updates every six months. Prior data will be maintained for comparison and analysis.) Q: Will staff need the ability to manually add, change and delete records in the database, or will all data updates be through data import? A: The e-NC Authority anticipates that all updates will be through data import. It is possible that the e-NC Authority would want one staff person to have the ability to manually add, change and delete records. This item could be discussed during contract negotiations. Q: Is preference given to in-state vendors? A: In-state vendors may receive minor preference due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s stated goal about job creation, with this grant targeted for North Carolina. However, the best overall bid to the RFP will receive the award. Q: Is preference given to women-owned businesses? A: Women- and minority-owned businesses may receive minor preference but the best overall bid to the RFP will receive the award. Q: Support (c) (4) states the Vendor must provide all updates to the software during the two year term of the contract. Should the proposal include the estimated costs and time to perform the upgrades for database platform software (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle) that has not yet been developed or released? What if the actual costs upon release differ from the estimated costs? Will e-NC allow for a reasonable adjustment in the charges? A: Microsoft SQL Server is currently available on the server that hosts the e-NC Authority’s Web site. This software is maintained and upgraded by the hosting company, so software costs and time to perform upgrades should not be included. If another platform is bid, these costs should be included. The bid should present careful pricing on the project. The e-NC Authority expects to contract for the full 2-year period with a set budget. However, the project budget and expected adjustments can be addressed during contract negotiations. Q: Does the entire project need to be operational by January 31, 2010, or just the database itself (without query and/or import capability)? A: The timeline for this project is fixed by the NTIA grant contract. A full set of mapping data for the state needs to be in place no later than Jan. 31, 2010 so that the e-NC Authority can meet the requirement to submit a substantially complete set of data to the NTIA on Feb. 1, 2010. The e-NC Authority will need to test the import and query functions in February so that the database can be made functionally available to evaluators prior to the Data Confab in Spring 2010. These parameters are not flexible. Q: Does e-NC prefer to pay for this project as a fixed firm cost or on a time and materials basis? A: Bidders can propose either or both. The e-NC Authority only requests the best possible response to the RFP coupled with defensible pricing of the bid. Q: In responding to the RFPs, can bidders just use the first RFP as a "main document" and then include a detailed response to the other 4 RFP's as separate documents - thus reducing paper and time needed to prepare bids for all 5 RFP's? A: Each RFP is different; each response must address all specific/unique items within that individual document Site Map info@e-NC.org 1-866-627-8725 Copyright © 2008, 2004 e-NC Authority, © 2001 North Carolina Rural Internet Access Authority The authority is housed with the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center design by ML Company