Anne Arundel County RFP for New Radio System

[ThePhotoGuy]

It has taken many years for this to happen...

DESIGN, DELIVERY, INSTALLATION AND TESTING FOR COUNTY’S NEXT GEN P25
TRUNKED RADIO SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT, SUB-SYSTEMS AND
SERVICES
http://www.aacounty.org/departments...s-for-radio-system/Documents/Document?index=1

 

[maus92]

Yea, I'm not liking this clause:

"THE PRE-QUALIFICATION PROCESS
2.1 Maryland State Law allows government agencies to restrict the access to highly sensitive technical information related to these systems when the release of such information could pose a risk to the general public, the ability of the government to respond to emergencies, or the release of the information could reveal specific tactics, emergency responses, or security procedures. As a result, the RFP which will outline the functional requirements of the System and associated operating procedures, and certain design parameters of the System, will only be released to (a) Responding Entities that execute a Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement, and (b) can demonstrate that they are qualified to deliver this System, and provide a turn-key performance on these complex requirements. Those Responding Entities meeting all the initial pre-qualification requirements, as well as the Non-Disclosure Agreement will be permitted to proceed onto the next step in the Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation process."

I can understand the need for security, but this statement seems a bit broad to me.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

Yeah, the RFP is pretty disappointing compared to some of the recent eastern shore counties RFP's when they included tons of information.

 

[troymail]

It has taken many years for this to happen...

DESIGN, DELIVERY, INSTALLATION AND TESTING FOR COUNTY’S NEXT GEN P25
TRUNKED RADIO SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT, SUB-SYSTEMS AND
SERVICES
http://www.aacounty.org/departments...s-for-radio-system/Documents/Document?index=1

I'm finally getting around to reading this -- turns out it expressly states this isn't an RFP for a system but rather a request for those who might be interested in replying to a future RFP "pre-qualify" by providing responses to the questions. This includes things like providing details of work each potential bidder has done in the past (systems designed and built, etc.), was the work completed on time and on budget, references, etc.

It's just more slow roll....

 

[Ravenboy2003]

I'm finally getting around to reading this -- turns out it expressly states this isn't an RFP for a system but rather a request for those who might be interested in replying to a future RFP "pre-qualify" by providing responses to the questions. This includes things like providing details of work each potential bidder has done in the past (systems designed and built, etc.), was the work completed on time and on budget, references, etc.

It's just more slow roll....

The difference is that this time the budget and schedule proposed schedule is APPROVED. $52 million over 5 years with actual monies being spent THIS YEAR. The budget documents are available on line if you look hard enough.

The RFQ for pre-qual is there so that the county can send the actual RFP to pre-qualified bidders ONLY. You will not see a full RFP let to the general public. That is by design.

Rumor on the street that the pre-qual rules were so tight they even disqualified Harris, to which Harris has already protested. Off to a good start! NOT.

 

[troymail]

The difference is that this time the budget and schedule proposed schedule is APPROVED. $52 million over 5 years with actual monies being spent THIS YEAR. The budget documents are available on line if you look hard enough.

The RFQ for pre-qual is there so that the county can send the actual RFP to pre-qualified bidders ONLY. You will not see a full RFP let to the general public. That is by design.

Rumor on the street that the pre-qual rules were so tight they even disqualified Harris, to which Harris has already protested. Off to a good start! NOT.

/\/\ probably wrote the RPF... eliminate competition - so we the taxpayers can pay more....

It was also clear from the pre-qual RFP they are trying to be "super secret" about the details of the system....

 

[clbsquared]

At least they're issuing an RFP. My county doesn't even know what those letters stand for. But they know who they're going to bend over for. I'm just wondering how much Vaseline is included in the purchase of our new system.

Sent from my HTC One A9 using Tapatalk

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

It was also clear from the pre-qual RFP they are trying to be "super secret" about the details of the system....

It's so stupid how the county won't release the RFP for the public when basically every other county in the state releases very detailed RFPs.

 

[troymail]

It's so stupid how the county won't release the RFP for the public when basically every other county in the state releases very detailed RFPs.

It probably won't offer alot of information that will be all that useful to scanner users anyway. It'll be a P25 system and it isn't hard to figure things out when the system comes up. If any talkgroups are encrypted, it won't matter - you can't listen to them anyway.

I suspect the concerns are more about the infrastructure details which probably shouldn't be posted all over the place.

 

[maus92]

It's so stupid how the county won't release the RFP for the public when basically every other county in the state releases very detailed RFPs.

It might be interesting to review the county's purchasing regulations / "Sunshine" laws to see if secret RFPs are permitted. My take on the RFQ was to eliminate bogus bidders who couldn't possibly meet the requirements / have the ability to build the system. But it may be that they have (some) legitimate system security concerns - let's just hope this isn't a tactic to conceal moving to a full time encrypted system like what is prevalent in Florida, and other areas that don't need it. OTOH, maybe this is a way to avoid the Tiburon fiasco of several years ago...

 

[ResQguy]

$52 million to build a 588 mi² system with in building coverage? I'd say we are getting a pretty good deal if that's truly the case.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

Has anyone heard anything more on this? Anyone know if they actually released an RFP and picked a company yet?

 

[Dispatcher308]

$52 million to build a 588 mi² system with in building coverage? I'd say we are getting a pretty good deal if that's truly the case.

Agreed