VOIP Phone System

Lancaster County, South Carolina (“County”), is soliciting proposals from qualified firms to provide, implement, support, and maintain a hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and unified communications solution with mandatory Microsoft Teams integration. The County intends to select the solution offering the best overall value, considering functionality, reliability, implementation approach, support, security, and total cost.

The County currently operates a provider-managed telephone environment supporting general government, courts, public safety, and public-facing services. Departments use desk phones, hunt groups, auto attendants, call queues, shared lines, paging, voicemail, and related functions.

The Proposer will work with Lancaster County IT to gather requirements and shall design and build a system which will operate all VoIP phones in Lancaster County with all required options available and controllable by Lancaster County IT or its designees at one flat rate.

Microsoft Teams Integration

Microsoft Teams integration is **mandatory**. Designated users must be able to place and receive PSTN calls from the Microsoft Teams desktop and mobile clients.

Core Calling and Administration

• Voicemail and voicemail-to-email; desktop/mobile calling; caller ID; call history; hold, park, pickup, transfer, forwarding, waiting, three-way calling, and do-not-disturb.
• Hunt/ring groups, shared call appearance, auto attendants, business/holiday schedules, call queues, receptionist/attendant functions, and conference calling.
• Four-digit dialing between County offices; unlimited domestic calling within the United States; spam/unwanted-call protection; call analytics and exportable reporting.
• A secure centralized administration portal allowing authorized County staff to manage users, numbers, devices, call flows, schedules, queues, voicemail, and routine settings without vendor intervention.
• Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on and role-based administrative access.

Phones and Analog Services

- Provide new business-class desk phones for County-designated users and common areas. Phones shall support Power over Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet pass-through. Price power supplies and accessories separately.

Reliability, Security, and Support

• The proposed solution must provide a minimum service availability of **99.99%** uptime.
• Provide 24x7 support for service-impacting outages and critical calling issues.

Implementation and Acceptance

• Complete implementation within 180 calendar days of purchase order or notice to proceed unless otherwise approved by the County.
• Provide administrator and end-user training plus final as-built documentation, number/call-flow information, licenses, warranties, support contacts, and an electronic device inventory including model, serial number, MAC address, extension/number, user or function, and location.

Warranty

Phones must include a full maintenance agreement to repair or replace any device for five (5) years and must be included in the cost.

Response submittals for this Request for Proposal will ONLY be received electronically and must be submitted ONLINE, through Lancaster County’s e-Procurement Portal on the Lancaster County website. Facsimile and Electronic mail (email) forms of Proposals will not be accepted.

The County intends to award a five-year contract.

Evaluation

• Technical Solution and Teams Migration (Max 40 Points)
• Qualifications of Staff and Service Capabilities (Max 25 Points)
• Past Performance (Max 20 Points)
• Total Cost / Overall Value (Max 15 Points)

Each Proposer must complete and submit the *Cost Proposal Form* and upload separately from Proposal.

Insurance

• General Liability: personal injury and property damage, each occurrence $1,000,000.00
• General Liability: aggregate combined single limit personal injury and property damage $2,000,000.00
• Automobile Liability: Combined Single Limit (CSL), each occurrence $1,000,000.00
• Workers Compensation: Statutory Limits
• Excess Liability Policy: $2,000,000.00

The Proposer must provide at least three (3) references.