Comprehensive WAN RFP Template

We have already covered the importance of selecting a qualified WAN consultant for your RFPs in a past post. But what about constructing a WAN RFP? For the uninitiated, it can be a daunting task filled with frustration. Luckily, we’ve done all the hard work for you! Below you will find a comprehensive mock WAN RFP you can use as a basis for your own custom, WAN RFP. We’ve even made this WAN RFP template into a PDF, which you can download here.   This can assist you in areas even for simple Tier 1 ISP designs and pricing without the hassle of speaking to countless account teams. Enjoy!

CLIENTX GLOBAL WAN REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL 

Overview

Headquartered in xxx, CLIENTX (market: symbol) is a new breed of xxx company—one that delivers a unique combination of high growth, diversification and high profitability. We are enabling a better-connected and safer world by delivering breakthrough xx technologies for xxxxxx. 

Today, CLIENTX is the global leader in designing and producing xxxxx.  Our products help shape the way that prople around the world interface with technology applications.  We are focused on the vertical marketing including yyyy and zzzz.

CLIENTX is certified to the ISO9001 international quality standard and ISO14001 environmental management standard. CLIENTX has multiple design centers, fabrication sites, manufacturing, assembly and test, and operational facilities throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Click xx to view our facilities. In addition, CLIENTX offers xx that represents a key core competency within our business. The xxx provides access to, and control of our broad range of proprietary technologies in an asset light, cost effective structure. 

 

WAN – Current State

CLIENTX has 50+ sites around the world with a heavy concentration in the United States and Asia Pacific.  The current WAN is an integration of multiple networks resulting from mergers and acquisitions.  Many sites have MPLS from one of (4) MPLS service providers and most sites also have Internet connectivity; connecting back to key sites via DMVPN.  Approximately 300 mobile users and 20 dedicated SOHO sites require access to the private network.  Primary data centers are located in xxx as well as xxx.   Voice is a mix of service providers and includes centralized and decentralized SIP trunk, as well as some TDM services.

 

CLIENTX Global WAN RFP Objectives

CLIENTX is seeking to build and deploy a global WAN that optimizes application performance and the end-user experience, while also maximizing security, and consolidating visibility and management of the global network.   Based on the tenure of current circuits, CLIENTX expects to gain a significant increase in total network throughput while also achieving net monthly WAN cost savings.

SD WAN is of interest to CLIENTX, but respondents should focus on their core competencies and propose a complete solution that is fully supportable. A complete listing of sites is included in the RFP, which includes the total current WAN throughput (current MPLS and Internet) and utilization statistics for each location.  

The RFP also includes a section (Section 13) for respondents to provide a brief overview of add-on services that may be of interest to CLIENTX.    CLIENTX would like to understand how the respondents can provide additional value with competitive services that augment the proposed WAN solution.

 

• Background & Instructions

You are one of several suppliers invited to participate in CLIENTX selection process for its telecom services.  We will provide a description of the required products and services in the subsequent sections of this RFP, and provide all participating suppliers with an opportunity to ask questions of the project team for any elements that need clarification.  Please review all sections herein, and respond to all questions in a complete and concise manner. We appreciate your participation in this RFP, and look forward to reviewing your response. 

1.1 Confidentiality Provisions: 

The terms of this RFP, and all related information provided by CLIENTX in connection with this RFP, are to be treated by Supplier as strictly confidential and proprietary to CLIENTX. Such materials are to be used solely by the Supplier for the purpose of responding to this RFP. Access to this RFP, and all related information provided by CLIENTX in connection with this RFP, shall not be granted by Supplier to third parties except upon prior written consent of CLIENTX and upon written agreement of the intended recipient to treat the same as confidential. CLIENTX may request at any time that any of its material be returned or destroyed, and Supplier agrees to comply with such request. Should you decide not to respond to this RFP, you must destroy this RFP and all such information and duplicates thereof. In the event that Supplier and CLIENTX have entered into a non-disclosure agreement, the terms of the non-disclosure agreement shall take precedence and control over the terms of this Section  The existence and provisions of this RFP will be considered to be CLIENTX’s confidential information under the non-disclosure agreement. 

1.2 Coverage and Participation: 

The intended coverage of this RFP, and any agreement resulting from this solicitation, shall be for the use of the requesting CLIENTX. The CLIENTX reserves the right to add and/or delete elements, or to change any element of the coverage and participation at any time without prior notification and without any liability or obligation of any kind or amount. Upon receipt of this RFP, Supplier shall have previously submitted a signed copy of a Confidentiality Agreement (CA) or Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with CLIENTX. The CA or NDA shall be applicable to this RFP, your response, and all future dealings between Provider and CLIENTX until CA or NDA termination or expiration. 

1.3 Proposal Costs: 

Supplier is responsible for all costs associated with preparation of your proposal, and submission of a proposal in no way obligates CLIENTX to you in any manner. In addition, such costs may not be charged back to CLIENTX if a mutually agreed to definitive agreement is entered into with CLIENTX. Supplier Obligations and Responsibilities: The act of submitting a response to this RFP indicates Supplier’s agreement that it will be held accountable for understanding and/or providing the following: 

1. The conditions under which the services provided by the Supplier will meet CLIENTX’s requirements, including those outlined within this document, 
2. The conditions that satisfy the contents of this RFP and all other contracts and documents applicable to the services offered in your response, and 
3. The conditions that satisfy all prevailing laws, ordinances, provisions, rates and labor conditions. 

Any failure, error or omission by Supplier will not relieve Provider from the obligation to successfully execute and deliver the terms therein. 

1.4  Modifications or Withdrawals: 

Prior to the time and date specified as the RFP deadline, responses to this RFP may be modified or withdrawn. Withdrawn proposals may be re-submitted up to the time and date specified as the RFP submission deadline, provided that the response is consistent with the instructions in this RFP. Any modification to a proposal submitted after such deadline may result in the disqualification of the proposal in CLIENTX’s sole discretion. 

1.5 Right to Select: 

CLIENTX reserves the right to select and negotiate with those Suppliers it judges as having submitted a competitive proposal and to terminate negotiations at any time without incurring any liability to any Supplier. No Obligation: CLIENTX is under no obligation to procure or contract for the services described in this RFP or Supplier’s response to this RFP. CLIENTX also reserves the right to select one or more preferred Suppliers to best support its business units. You waive any right to claim damages of any nature whatsoever based on the selection process, final selection, and any communications associated with the selection. 

1.6 Final Agreement: 

It is expected that any or all contents of a Supplier’s proposal may be eligible for inclusion into a final definitive written agreement. 

1.7 Event Time line

Remittance of Signed Non-Disclosure Agreement	Prior to Bid Receipt
RFP open for suppliers’ review and responses	June 1st
Deadline to submit questions	June 6th
CLIENTX’s response to submitted questions	June 8th
Proposal submission deadline	June 29th
Evaluation of participant proposals	Week of July 9th
Meetings with finalists	Week of July 16th
Conditional award notification	TBD
Negotiations and finalization of contract terms	TBD

1.8 Good Faith Statement:

All information provided by CLIENTX in this RFP is offered in good faith. Individual items are subject to change at any time. CLIENTX makes no certification that any item in this RFP is without error. CLIENTX is not responsible or liable for any use of the information or for any claims asserted there from. Note – All RFP communications between CLIENTX and Supplier solicited by or for clarification of this RFP are considered confidential and shall not be distributed outside of these entities. 

 

1.9 Intention to Bid: 

Suppliers must notify CLIENTX of their intention to bid or decision not to bid by June 5th, 20ZZ. Notification should be in writing via email. Supplier’s response should be forwarded to the following RFP contacts:   

 

1. Scott Bryan, President  MacroNet LLC   scott@macronetservices.com 603-758-3075
2. Xxx xxx, IT Infrastructure Services xxx.xxxx@ClientX.com 555-555-5555

 

1.10 Supplier Presentations: 

Suppliers submitting a valid bid meeting the requirements outlined in this RFP may be asked to make a presentation to the Infrastructure Services Evaluation Team. The presentation will take place in our Headquarters location and Supplier will be expected to provide phone and web conferencing services so that CLIENTX’s associates from other locations can participate. If asked to make a presentation, a representative from CLIENTX will contact you to schedule your presentation time after an Intent to Bid has been received. CLIENTX has no obligation to grant the right to make a presentation to Supplier. We may also opt to schedule onsite visits to your business location and data center at this time. 

1.11 Evaluation Criteria: 

The evaluation of each response to this RFP will be based on its demonstrated competence, compliance, completeness, format, and organization. The purpose of this RFP is to identify those suppliers that have the interest, capability, and financial strength to provide CLIENTX with the required Telecom Services as outlined in solicitation for such services. A systematic evaluation and scoring of RFP responses will be conducted which will include the following evaluation criteria, subject to change at CLIENTX’s discretion: 

1. Cultural fit between companies; 
2. Governance to ensure high levels of quality and control; 
3. Capability of Supplier to meet or exceed requirements set forth in RFP; 
4. Strength of defined WAN services framework including Network Services and Network Security; 
5. Financial stability of Supplier and strength of business; 
6. Demonstrated long term partnerships with clients similar to CLIENTX; 
7. Competitive pricing and cost effectiveness of Supplier’s solution;
8. Ability and skills of technical support staff and account team structure; 
9. Strength of testimonials from supplier references; 
10. Implementation Management capabilities and strength; 
11. Overall Rating. 

 

1.12 Method of Evaluation: 

Suppliers determined by CLIENTX to possess the capacity to compete for the Telecom Services, will be selected to move into the negotiation phase of this process. Written notification will be sent to these providers via email. Those Providers who were not selected for the negotiation phase will also be notified via email. 

1.13 Contract Duration: 

CLIENTX may consider contracts of approximately three (3) years in length, subject to early termination based upon certain events. The actual term of any final contract will be mutually determined by CLIENTX and the successful Supplier. CLIENTX expects that any contract extension will be based on continuous improvement of supplier performance in quality, service, and cost. 

1.14 Pricing: 

All Suppliers must provide pricing information for the areas of services outlined in this RFP for which they will be able to provide services. The Supplier must agree to keep these prices valid for 120 days from the due date of the RFP response. 

1.15 Questions:

Questions will be answered as quickly as possible. All questions should be directed to:

1. Scott Bryan, President  MacroNet LLC   scott@macronetllc.com 603-758-3075
2. xxx xxxx, IT Infrastructure Services xxx.xxxx@ClientX.com 555-555-5555

 

COMPANY INFORMATION

This section is to provide general company and contact information.

Bidding Company Name:
Address:
Tax ID Number:
Sales Representative Name:
Telephone Number:
e-mail address:
Technical Advisor:
Telephone Number:
e-mail address:

 

2.1 Executive Summary

Briefly describe the key elements of your proposal. Highlight any major features, functions, or areas of support that differentiate your service offering from your competitors’ offerings. Please give a brief overview of your Company.

 

2.2 Supplier’s Company Background 

Provide a brief overview and history of your company. Provide a brief overview of your global network capabilities and insert global network maps.

 

2.3 Financial Information

Provide financial information on your company and companies for which you are reselling services as part fo the CLIENTX solution (e.g., annual report); direct links to public financial information will suffice.  If you are not a publicly traded company, provide us with a profile of your revenue growth since inception, profit or loss over this period, capital expenditures, SG&A expenses, etc., as can be shared. Please state your financial backing, such as venture capital, business partners, etc. We are seeking information that will give confidence that your organization is financially viable over the long-term. Please confirm you are not undergoing any restructuring. Do you foresee any acquisition, merge or divestiture in your organization within the next year?  

 

PROPOSED SOLUTION SUMMARY

3.1 Provide a detailed overview of the solution that your team is proposing to CLIENTX.  Include a summary of how your solution meets CLIENTX’s requirements.  Describe all of the Services included in the solution.  Describe how you will solve for access and PoP diversity where applicable.  Describe how your solution addresses next generation network security.  Insert diagrams as applicable.  Additionally, respondents are encouraged to state how your productized offering and operational support of your solution might address or impede various regulatory compliance requirements including ITAR, DFARS, and GDPR.  

 

SD WAN & SECURITY SERVICE TECHNICAL DETAIL

Answer content should address the below queries:

1. Provide an overview of your SD WAN technical solution including the technology partners inherent to your proposed SD WAN service offering. Which components of your solution does your company provide and which are provided by partners.
2. List the key technical factors that differentiate your SD WAN service offering from other top carrier solutions.
3. Within your architecture, please explain all options for where key functionality is located including: orchestration, control, optimization, and security.
4. How does your architecture support any-to-any communications.
5. Describe in detail the edge device and CPE options for all levels of scalability from small sites to HA data center deployments.
6. Explain to what extent the service is managed and the functionality that CLIENTX is able to control in 2018.  Highlight future plans for client control including possible API.
7. Explain how your SD WAN solution aggregates and monitors links including carrier provided links and third party WAN links.  How often are metrics gathered, how are they correlated, what actions are taken by your NOC?
8. Explain in detail how your solution will ensure performance and quality of service for cloud services used by and applications delivered to branch offices.
9. How does your solution enforce business policies for cloud services used by and applications delivered to branch offices.
10. Describe the Policy model that your SD WAN solution supports and describe how your solution will support provisioning of various policies on a global scale.
11. Describe the security features and functions of your SD WAN offering as proposed.  If not proposed, does your solution provide a roadmap to a full Unified Threat Management (UTM) security solution?  
    1. How does your solution improve the security of cloud applications and services accessed from a branch?
    2. How does your solution make implementing security notably less complex that in traditional WAN solutions?
    3. What capability does your solution have to detect security breaches?
    4. Does your company provide SIEM and security response services?
    5. What other security services could you propose, that are not proposed in this RFP response, to support a complete security profile for CLIENTX?

 

MPLS SERVICE TECHNICAL DETAIL

Answer content should address the below queries:

1. Describe your MPLS service offering, including technical differentiators from competitors in the global marketplace.
2. Describe the global presence of your MPLS service offering include a listing of core PoPs (by city) where PE Routers are provisioned in proximity to CLIENTX’s global site list.
   1. List global PoP sites sites that enable connectivity to major global cloud exchange points.  Describe your global cloud exchange services and capabilities.
3. Please detail the level of diversity you are able to provide to each location.    For example, if multiple locations are connected each PE (POP/CO) how are multiple circuits handled?
4. Do you provide preferred local loop carrier choice? If yes, please provide a list of carrier choices for each of our Platinum and Gold site types.
5. What protocols do you support on CE-PE route exchange?
6. How many QoS profiles/classes are available in your MPLS cloud?
7. How many different “sub classes” or DSCP markings can be used in each of your classes of service.   In addition, if special handling are applied, i.e. greater drop precedence?   
8. Is your MPLS cloud IPv6 ready?
9. Do you provide SIP trunking within your MPLS cloud?  If yes, please briefly describe related services and features.
10. Do you support multicasting services?  If yes, please briefly describe your multicasting support, i.e. ASM/SSM, PIM requirements, MVPN limits, etc.

 

INTERNET SERVICE TECHNICAL DETAIL

Answer content should address the below queries:

1. Provide an overview of your Internet Transit backbone.  Insert metrics including global AS ranking, total concurrent core Tbps, total peering capacity.
2. List countries and cities where you have PE router assets for provisioning dedicated internet access.
3. Summarize the value proposition of your Dedicated Internet Access offering, including add-on or inherent service features that might be of interest to CLIENTX.
4. Summarize your ability to aggregate, bill, and support offnet internet access (such as global BroadBand solutions).

 

SERVICE PORTAL CAPABILITIES

1. 1. Provide a detailed overview of each portal that CLIENTX will interface with to manage and monitor the solution that you are proposing.   Explain in detail the level of control that the client will have of the services that you are proposing
   2. List out all pertainent account management functionality available via the portal(s).

 

SLA’s and TROUBLE MANAGEMENT

Answer content should address the below queries:

1. Include your standard Service Level Agreements in this section, and be specific per type of offering and technology what your service levels are for each of the solutions you propose to us. Include your Key Performance Indicators and their method of calculation.
2. What are your procedures for trouble reporting and escalation, including the trouble ticketing methodology? Insert your trouble handling priority matrix.
3. Insert an escalation list, including hierarchy up to executive levels along with their contact information. 
4. Are your trouble tickets and escalation contacts viewable to us real-time through a single customer web portal?

 

BILLING

Answer content should address the below queries:

6.1 State current billing services offered and indicate planned enhancements. Describe your flexibility in accommodating various billing cycles/requirements. Client requires monthly by means of a single bill for all services, and each billing cycle should give Client the opportunity to review and agree billing details prior to giving approval for a vendor bill to be issued.

6.2 Do you provide a hierarchy structure for flexibility in organizing the information presented on the invoice? If so, please describe the levels in your billing hierarchy. 

6.3 Can we provide our own account codes and Client site names for organizing the billing hierarchy and sorting?

6.4 Describe the media options offered for invoice information and please provide a sample Bill that exemplifies the proposed services.

6.5 Describe your billing reporting capabilities.

 

 SUPPORT & SALES INFORMATION

9.1 Please describe the different roles of the account team assigned to our account. Please include the names of specific individuals and their credentials that will be assigned to our account.  CLIENTX values an account team that is fully versed in the unique nature of our business and expects dedicated account support.

 

9.2 Frequent and candid communication is vital to maintaining a good working relationship between our company and our provider of communication services. Explain how the team assigned to our account would maintain communication with our team with respect to new installations, upgrades, network problems, billing issues, changes to the services, and new products and services? 

What assurance can you give us that this communication will be proactive, relevant and forthright? Describe how empowered the account team is in support of our account? For instance, can the account team circumvent normal operating procedure to serve as our advocate to address an important service request? 

 

  PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Answer content should address the below queries:

1. Describe your Project Management organization.
2. Describe how your company will support the implementation of the proposed network.
   1. Explain in detail what you propose for a Proof of Concept relative to the CLIENTX solution.
3. Summarize how your company will support the cutover process specifically.
4. Insert an organizational chart of the team that will support the implementation of the proposed network.

 

  FIELD OPERATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Answer content should address the below queries:

1. Define the capabilities of your Field Services organization
2. Provide an overview of the scope of capability of your Professional Services organization
   1. Describe in detail the ability to provide on-site technical resources to implement network services in the US and on a global scale.

 

  VALUE-ADDED SERVICES

Briefly describe other services that may augment the proposed WAN solution.

 

 REFERENCES

Provide contact information for a minimum of two references that are similar in size to CLIENTX. CLIENTX will not contact the references below without providing the Sales representative 48 hour prior notice.   If you prefer to coordinate the calls please advise.

 

CONFIGURATION/PRICING Assumptions

Pricing submitted as part of this RFP should use the following assumptions. 

1. Refer to “CLIENTX_WAN_Bidsheet_date.xls” for data circuit information per office location.
2. Layer 3 IP VPN services with preferred Ethernet handoffs.   Please note where Ethernet handoff is not available.
3. Demarcation point is to be installed in server room whenever possible.  Exceptions must be noted.
4. All NRCs should be included in the pricing presentation.

 

See “CLIENTX_WAN_Bidsheet_date.xls” accompanying this document.  C

 

  PROPOSAL SUMMARY – TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Terms and Conditions – The vendor shall include a copy of standard terms and conditions as part of the submittal package.  Include all applicable Service Exhibits.

 

Thank you.

Appendix – Site Classification

Appendix – Site List, Baseline, and Forecast