Sealed proposals will be received electronically through the link on www.stcharles.k12.la.us under “Quick Links” by selecting “Online Bids, RFPs, etc.”, or in hard copy at the St. Charles Parish School Board Office, 13855 River Road Luling, LA, until 2 p.m. on Friday, April 17, 2009, for the following:



Multi-function Printers & Services



Additional information and documents will be furnished free of charge upon request at www.stcharles.k12.la.us under “Quick Links” by selecting “Online Bids, RFPs, etc.”, or by contacting Stephanie Steib in the Technology Department at (985) 785-3126.



Each proposal received in hard copy shall be sealed in an envelope with the company name and address indicated in the upper left-hand corner and clearly marked on the outside as follows:



Proposal: Multi-function Printers & Services



Advertising dates in the Herald-Guide, official journal of St. Charles Parish

Schools shall be:



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Thursday, March 26, 2009



The St. Charles Parish School Board reserves the right to reject any and all proposals.



St. Charles Parish Public Schools

Dr. Rodney Lafon, Superintendent

P. O. Box 46

Luling, LA 70070

Additional Notes/Requirements

The following is a list of vendor questions and district responses: 1. Is it the intention of SCPSB to sign a lease agreement? Yes. If so, are there any additional terms and conditions that are not outline in the RFP? Please respond to the RFP as written. 2. Please explain the reason for reducing the present fleet from 109 devices to 90 units requested in the RFP. Please respond to the RFP as written. 3. Since Trade- In value is being requested; how long has SCPSB owned the current devices? Most of the devices are 4 years old. 4. Was the present equipment acquired through purchases or leases? Purchase. 5. What are the current expenses and amounts associated to the present fleet? The district is simply paying a per click amount for services and supplies not including paper. 6. Are any of the present devices eligible to stay in place? If so, please identify which ones. It is not our intention to keep any devices in place. 7. Please explain in detail the expectation for submitting pricing? 1. Pages 12, 14, 16, and 18 have a cost field for each item versus page 19 has a CPC based on 36 and 48 months Pages 12, 14, 16, and 18 are simply for you to provide a list of ‘optional’ equipment for the MFP that you are recommending, and any additional cost (if any) associated with that option. 2. For the CPC, what is the minimum monthly commitment that SCPSB is guaranteeing? The question is do you (the vendor) require a minimum commitment from St. Charles. All Hardware Specifications have minimum memory specifications and Internal Print Servers. 1. Are their any specifications for the internal print server? Please see the specifications for printer RAM. 2. Would SCPSB consider reducing the print RAM on printers 1 and 2 down to 512MB. Most Internal Print Servers have at least 20GB Hard Drives. For example, the State Contract for connected multifunction products the printer RAM was no where near 1GB. Requiring 1GB of printer RAM will require external print servers which will significantly drive up the costs to SCPSB. It also will eliminate the number of Vendors that will be able to bid on this RFP, which will also result in unwarranted increase in cost to SCPSB. The review committee will not ‘throw out’ proposals that do not meet the specs. Please respond to the RFP with the ‘best option’ MFPs that your company can provide close to those specifications. 8. Please rate the vendor service and equipment performance of your current fleet This would be a subjective response, and the rating that I would provide may not be the same as the rating that any number of persons from the district would provide. 9. Please explain your definition of Job Accounting Users should be able to be required to enter a password in order make an impression. The district/school should be able to set a maximum amount of impressions that user(s) are allowed. Impression counts should be tracked by user. 10. Please explain your definition of signature booklet Our definition would be a folded ‘program’ with center stapling. 11. What responses did you receive from the advertisement for the RFP in the Herald-Guide? We do not keep track of where vendors heard about our RFP. 12. Please provide questions and answers from other vendor inquiries for this bid. I will be composing all questions/responses and posting them to the web. I will be sure to send you the link. Posting should be up by Monday 4/13. 1. Attachment A "average monthly usage per machine": Based on this attachment, total monthly volume calculates out to around 1.8 million impressions. What will be the total monthly minimum volume commitment? That is our question to you (the vendor). 2. Multi-Function Printer Minimum Specifications: "Job accounting requirement" Please explain what level of job accounting you are requiring. Users should be able to be required to enter a password in order make an impression. The district/school should be able to set a maximum amount of impressions that user(s) are allowed. Impression counts should be tracked by user. 3. Multi-Function Printer Minimum Specifications: Would SCPPSB consider modifying the monthly duty cycle on MFP #2 from 500,000 to 300,000 and MFP #3 from 300,000 to 200,000? The average monthly volume of the current machines MFP #2 will replace is 34,761 and volume of current machines MFP #3 will replace is 11,561. This modification would open up more options for the district while still receiving devices that are well suited to handle the volume ranges. The committee will not ‘throw out’ proposals that do not meet the specs. Please respond to the RFP with the ‘best option’ MFPs that your company can provide close to those specifications. 4. Is the Copy Center part of this RFP similar to the previous MFP Services RFP back in 2004? No. 5. Cost Summary: 36 & 48 Month Lease - Is the intent of SCPPSB to own the equipment at the end of the contract term? No. Please respond to the RFP with your best possible option for the district. 6. Cost Summary: Can you please explain how the Minimum Annual Cost is to be calculated. If you require a minimum annual cost, it should be calculated based upon your companies cost per copy and the minimum volume commitment that you would impose on the district. 1. Good Morning, can I get a Word Doc for the RFP please? Please follow the web link provided on the advertisement page of the RFP to get the digital copy. 1. Hi Stephanie- as I was going through the RFP, I did not see staples being part of the requirement. Is that correct? Our definition of supplies is ‘any and all parts, fuser oils, toner, and other supplies necessary to maintain multi-function printers’. Or in short, anything to keep the copiers running except for the paper. 1. Please explain the following from page 6, Performance Criteria: “The guidelines listed below will be used to determine acceptable performance for continued monthly service and yearly contract renewal.” What do you mean by – yearly contract renewal? There must be an ‘out’ clause in the contract if the vendor consistently does not meet performance criteria. 2. Do you currently have an on-site technician with Imagistics? No. 3. Who will be responsible for the managing of the supplies for all the schools? Currently, there is a designated employee at each site that is responsible. 4. How many people are currently staffed in the copy center? Are they SCPPS employees? The copy center is staffed by St. Charles Parish Public Schools. 5. How many of the current units are leased? How many are owned? All current units are owned. 6. How is your current provider participating with the Partnership Reinvestment? They have participated in different ways throughout the 4 years. One is that they set up a ‘show’ floor at our Satellite Center. The units that were placed there were not purchased or leased by us. We have only been responsible for per copy costs at the same rate as our other machines. 7. Will you consider right-sizing the fleet? Please respond to the RFP as written. 8. Will any of the current units be allowed to remain in place? No. 9. Will there be a vendor meeting? As the RFPs are reviewed, we will contact vendors on an as-needed basis to clarify portions of the proposal. 10. Will you narrow down to 3-4 vendors before making your final decision and allow those vendors the opportunity to make a presentation to a committee? All vendors will be rated on the same scale as written in the RFP. The vendor with the highest overall score will be recommended to our Superintendent, and in turn to our School Board. 1. What’s the monthly maintenance cost on the gear and did that cost include a monthly minimum allowance for the volume? If so, what is the excess meter rate if the School District exceeded the allowance? For the initial 3 years of the ‘purchase’ contract, we were paying $0.0065 / copy. For this past year (not part of the original contract) we were paying $0.009 / copy. There was no minimum allowance to meet. 2. If there was no allowance in the maintenance cost, what was the monthly cost per copies for the devices? Same answer as above. 3. On the RFP, you all have the monthly volumes on each unit; can you give me your best estimate in percentage of what ratio is copy vs. print? (Example: 50% copy & 50% print) and do you all see your print volume increasing in the future with these new units? I could only give you a best guess. On the large machines my guess would be 99% copy to 1% print. On the model 35 machines, my guess would be 90% copy to 10% print. Yes, we hope that the print volume will increase. 1. Hi Stephanie- would you be able to send us the RFP electronically in a Microsoft Word Format? Please follow the instructions on the Public Notice page to obtain an electronic copy.