R -- Telecommunications Management Consulting and Support Services

The Smithsonian Institution (SI) Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has the requirement for providing telephonic telecommunication services to all museums, facilities, and offices of the Smithsonian Institution. OCIO is in the process of modernizing its existing telephony systems, which include but are not limited to various legacy PBX systems (including telephone switches, voicemail systems, cable types located in various operational states in voice and data cable plants), to Cisco AVVID Voice Over IP (VOIP) systems. The Smithsonian Institution is seeking proposals from firms to provide consulting, management, and support services for the migration and upgrade of infrastructure technologies of its existing telephony systems. Said services may include but are not limited to: (i) management of existing telephony; (ii) coordination of migration projects from existing telephony to VOIP and other technologies; (iii) redesign of technical support functions, including re-engineering of existing processes and procedures to streamline the overall management of telephony telecommunications at the Smithsonian Institution; and (iv) execution of technical telephony and/or VOIP support operations and functions. Smithsonian anticipates one (1) Open Quantity contract will be awarded for one (1) base year with nine (9) potential option years. The Smithsonian reserves the right to award a contract based on best value. It is anticipated the selected contractor will provide said consulting and management services beginning July, 2004. This is a small business set aside solicitation. The criteria for award will include the offerors prior experience and past performance, proposed staffing plan, proposed management approach, and price. Registering prospective offerors (any entity desiring a copy of the solicitation) must provide complete name, address, point of contact, phone number including area code, email address, and business size. Registering prospective offerors must provide written request for the solicitation from the Smithsonian Institution, Office of Contracting, P.O. Box 37012, 750 9th Street, NW, Suite 6200, Washington, DC 20013-7012, Attn: Cindy Zarate (fax: 202-275-0624). Registered Prospective Offerors will receive a copy of the RFP when it is available, on or about April 23, 2004. Offerors will be required to submit technical and cost proposals as set forth in the solicitation.