In a request for quotation (RFQ) released Wednesday, the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles – “the first African American museum of art, history and culture fully supported by a state” at its founding in 1977, per its website – is seeking somewhat general IT services, albeit with a high degree of support and availability. Among the takeaways:
- More specifically, CAAM seeks a contractor capable of providing IT “maintenance, repair, troubleshooting and upgrade services with high degree of IT administration support”; a company that has IT technicians in Los Angeles, can have a tech onsite, three days a week for 24 hours a week of service – but also “provide 24/7 support,” per the RFQ.
- Responsibilities include having a “clear understanding of systems administration, network engineering and managing a virtualized enterprise consisting of six servers and 30 workstations,” and having high levels of knowledge with “managing SonicWALL NAT policies, internal and external firewall rules, content filtering, anti-virus, spam, malware and endpoint protection”; VMware, vCenter and vSphere; and “Windows 2012 R2 experience consisting but not limited to ... group policy management and deployment ... and print sharing management.” The company selected must also be “well versed with Ruckus controllers and access point management,” “responsible for asset management for all network devices, appliances, managed switches, access points, printers, software and installations, software upgrades and patch fixes”; and “well-trained on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 , Microsoft Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Exchange Server 2012, Microsoft Hypervisor, Apple 10x iOS, Droid, and iPhone iOS.” The contractor must also “be familiarized with load-balancing, QOS SonicWALL Enhanced OS, HP Managed Switch 10/100/1000 POE switch with VLAN segments, VPN, SSH encryption and fiber-optic uplinks on separate IP segments,” per the RFQ.
- Among necessary offerings, the contractor must provide a help desk ticketing solution, a cloud-based virus endpoint solution, a redundant backup solution and offer on-premise desktop support and "professional consulting skill sets.” The contractor chosen must also provide quarterly refresher training courses as needed. On deliverables, the contractor shall “adhere to schedule developed in partnership with CAAM” to meet goals. A consultant must respond “by email or phone within 24 hours,” unless museum is notified of unavailability beforehand. Consultant must “prepare biannual Independent Security Assessment” to the California Department of Technology “or as needed”; and must submit “monthly compliance progress/status report to the executive director and the administrative manager” that includes “key issues, a work plan, and plan of corrections.”
- Minimum qualifications include having “provided information and technology services for at least five years that involved working with art nonprofit organizations, museums or relevant institutions,” being located within 50 miles of the museum; and references for three clients, one of whom is a client “for whom the proposer has undertaken information technology consulting services within the past three years that involved working with art nonprofit organizations, museum or relevant institutions.” The museum is interested to see the proposer’s “approach to handling in-person support with employees, contractors and owners,” its availability to respond to network outages on weekends; and the company’s “expertise with interconnecting art nonprofit organizations, museum or relevant institutions with virtual reality.”
- The potential contract value is not stated. The contract term will be 18 months, likely from Dec. 1-June 30, 2023. Quotes are due by 4 p.m. Oct. 20, and a contract award is anticipated by 4 p.m. Nov. 9.
