The Information Technology Division is the arm of Administrative Services which provides and maintains appropriate hardware and software to City staff, develops and maintains a secure network infrastructure, manages the City’s data and voice infrastructure, maintains the City’s telecommunication systems, and manages the City’s website.

Information Technology Division Request For Proposal:

The City Information Technology Division utilizes an outside agency for the purpose of supporting and maintaining City technology and infrastructure. The agency handles all tasks that would be handled by a fully staffed in-house IT division and reports directly to the Senior Management Analyst and Administrative Services Director. 

City staff has been directed to release a Request For Proposal for ongoing technology support. Below you will find a link to the RFP/Bid page where you will find details.

Important Dates:

Responses to Clarifying Questions:

Q1. How many users, Virtual Servers and Physical Servers would need to be supported?

A1. 30-50 users, 2-4 Virtual Servers, 2 Physical Servers.

Q2. How many workstations (Convertibles, Laptops, Desktops) will need to be supported?

A2. Currently 87 workstations are needing support with a reduction to that number likely, prior to contracting, due to decommissioning of obsolete technology.

Q3. Does the San Mateo County Sherriff's Office provide your Policing services?

A3. Yes; and the San Mateo County Sherriff's Office provides their own IT support. While occasionally the City's IT division and IT management contractor may be expected to assist with specific needs of the Sherriff's Office, any such assistance is minimal and not expected to take up any significant amount of time.

Q4. How much data is currently being backed up? Do you anticipate that number changing in one to three years? If so, by how much?

A4. Approx < 3TB; Yes, though not likely by very much; <1TB

Q5. Can you confirm that the proposal should be equivalent to 20 pieces of paper or 40 pages of content? 

A5. We understand that the language on page 14 may not have been a clear as intended. We request that the proposals not exceed 10 equivalent pieces of "paper" or what would equal 20 pages of content. Since the language was not clear we will accept proposals with up to a maximum of 40 pages of content or what would be the equivalent to 20 pieces of actual "paper". 

Q6. The RFP lists the locations as City Hall, Annex, Recreation Center and the Police Station/EOC. Are there any other locations that would need to be supported? Where are these additional locations (address)? 

A6. The Corporation Yard at 880 Stone Pine Rd. We also may need rare assistive support at the Half Moon Bay Library however it is primarily served by the San Mateo County IT Department.

Q7. What are the total number of staff being supported? How many of the supported staff are fully remote?

A7. The City supports about 35 staff on average; 10 Council & committee members (email only); and occasionally other contractors where they need to utilize or temporarily integrate into our systems. No Staff are fully remote per policy but we do have a hybrid environment. All systems are now cloud based and VPN services are relegated only to IT support staff only

Q8a. How many servers (Microsoft Server OS's) are in use? (Page 5). The RFP lists two physical hosts; how many virtual servers are running on each host? 

A8a. 2; 8 Windows 2016 virtual servers, 1 Photon OS, 1 Cent OS

Q8b. Are there any servers located outside of the City Hall? If so where are they located?

A8b. No

Q8c. What is the general age of the servers?

A8c. 5 years

Q9. What is the total count of supported workstations? How many of these workstations are laptops? How many of these workstations are desktops? What is the general age of the workstations?

A9. Currently 65-70 total workstations, though we currently have quite a few that are being removed from service due to their age and are not going to be replaced. Internal IT staff is handling this process. There are currently approx 20 laptops. We have approx 45 desktops. Workstation age ranges from 1 month - 6 years. 

Q10a. How many mobile devices are there? Android based Phones? Android based tablets? iOS based phones? iOS based tablets?

A10a. 10 Android tablets

Q10b. What MDM application is used to manage mobile devices?

A10b. None. These devices are not active and not officially deployed at this time. 

Q10c. Are the managed mobile devices owned by the city or are they personal devices? 

A10c. City owned.

Q11. How many firewalls are there?

A11. 3

Q12. Where are the firewalls located?

A12. 1 SG 230 is at City Hall, 1 Sonicwall NSA 2400 (will be replaced prior to contract) is at the Corp Yard, 1 Sophos Red 50 is located at the Library.

Q13a. Does the City currently use MFA for securing access to systems and/or services? 

A13a. Yes; required and enforced

Q13b. Which MFA solution is in use?

A13b. Microsoft Authenticator/Azure

Q13c. Will all staff have cell phones for an MFA app or would the City purchase tokens or other access devices?

A13c. Staff are required to provide their own phone for utilizing the Microsoft Authenticator application as a condition of their access. Staff that is not permitted to work remotely or that have limited needs to access the network are provided other methods for MFA authentication if they are unable to utilize a phone capable of running the Microsoft Authenticator application. 

Q14. Does the organization currently outsource any technology services to other vendors? (examples: Phones, Printers, Security, etc.)

A14. Yes; Printers and Elevator services

Q15a. What is the frequency of backups? 

A15a. Daily

Q15b. What is the size of the backup currently?

A15b. <3TB

Q15c. Are the backups going off-site? If so, what is the method? (Manual rotation, cloud sync, etc.)

A15c. Yes, Cloud Sync

Q15d. What third-party software is being used to backup SharePoint Data?

A15d. Veeam

Q16. What software / methods are in place to accomplish this?

A16. Sophos VPN; This is only permitted for IT management as we no longer have need of VPN services for staff based on the configuration and due to the modernization of City services. 

Q17. Are law enforcement services continuing to be provided by the San Mateo Sheriff's Office? (And therefore out of scope of the RFP)

A18. Yes; We historically have provided Mitel VOIP phones to the Sheriff's substation however at the conclusion of the recent remodel, the Sheriff's department has transitioned to their own phone system. We will be removing those phones and supporting equipment over the next several months, with that being concluded likely prior to the start of a new IT management agreement. IT services for law Enforcement should be considered out of scope of the RFP.

Bid / Request For Proposal Page