REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL PURCHASE OF ONE (1) POSTAGE/MAILING EQUIPMENT ONE (1) FOLDING/INSERTING MACHINE BID CLOSING: MAY 25, 2010 3:00 PM
I. GENERAL CONDITIONS 1. General Information -The Treasury Department of the Town of St Marys will receive at its office located at the Town hall, 175 Queen Street East, Lower Level by 3:00pm on Tuesday May 25, 2010 proposal responses. Proposals shall be enclosed in a sealed envelope bearing the name of the bidder, due date and title. Proposals shall be written in ink, computer generated, or by typewriter. Mistakes may be crossed out and corrections inserted adjacent thereto and must be initialed in ink by the person signing the bid. Proposals are to be verified before submission as they cannot be corrected or altered or signed after proposals are opened. This Request for Proposal is posted on the Town of St Marys website, www.townofstmarys.com under Town Hall then Public Tenders and Addendum. It is bidders responsibility to check back on the website for any addenda that may have been issued prior to the proposal due date. No addenda will be issued within 48 hours of bid closing. Questions relating to this bid should be directed to Jim Brown, Treasurer. Bidders are encouraged to email (treasurer@townofstmarys.com) questions with responses being posted on the Town website for viewing by all prospective bidders. 2. Form of Bid - The bidder shall determine the form of the proposal submission. Bidders will determine which solution best fits the Town s requirements. Additional information may be submitted including catalogs, brochures, drawings, photographs along with optional pricing. Fax or phone bids are not accepted. A separate proposal is to be submitted for each equipment request. 3. Interpretation of Bids Should a bidder find discrepancies in, or omissions from the specifications, or should bidder be in doubt as to their true meaning, bidder may submit to the Treasurer a written request for an interpretation. Changes in the proposed documents will be made only by an addendum and shall become part of any contract awarded. The Town will not be responsible for any other explanation or interpretations. 4. Addenda - Any addenda issued by the Town during the time of bidding shall be covered in the bid and shall be made a part of the contract. 5. Bid Openings - Bids shall be delivered to the Treasury Department of the Town of St Marys on or before the day and hour set for the opening of bids. A bidder may withdraw a bid, either personally or by written request, at any time prior to the scheduled time for opening of bids. Any bids received after the scheduled time of opening will be returned unopened. At the time of opening only the names of the bidders will be announced. 2
6. Award or Rejection The bid will be awarded to the proponent with the highest evaluation score and successful completion of demonstration in the case of the folding/inserting machine. The Town, however reserves the right to reject any or all bids, to accept or reject any one or more items of a bid, or to waive any minor irregularities or informalities in the bid. It is anticipated that both items will be purchased; however, the Town reserves the right to make the award to one bidder, or split the award amongst the bidders for each item listed on the proposal. 7. Payment Terms The standard terms of the Town of St Marys are Net 30 days. 8. FOB Point It is understood that the bidder agrees to deliver the equipment to the Treasury department FOB destination, with no freight charges to the Town. All costs for packing, delivery, postage, freight, express or for any other purpose are to be borne by the bidder. This also includes all costs related to the demonstration unit. 9. Inspection All items furnished shall be subject to the inspection of the Town, and unsuitable items may be rejected. Defective items shall be made good by the vendor in a manner satisfactory to the Town. 10. Warranty Terms of any warranty offered by the manufacturer or the bidder shall be included with the bid. 11. Termination for Default - The Town may, by written notice of default to the vendor, terminate any resulting order in whole or in part should the vendor fail to make satisfactory progress or fail to deliver within time specified therein. 12. Proposal Evaluation Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of information provided by the bidder at the time of submission, testing results and previous experience of the bidder in the marketplace. Proposals will be evaluated by appropriate staff members most inclined to use the equipment. The evaluation criteria may include but not limited to the following: 1. Purchase price 2. Service call and service contract pricing 3. Warranty 4. Information obtained through references 5. Companies relevant experience 6. Distance of service location and response time 7. Compliance with the proposal submission requirements. 3
Postage Machine only: 8. Cost of consumables 9. Meter rental and update costs 10. Transaction cost to purchase postage Folding/Inserting Machine only: 11. Results of equipment testing II. DETAILED SPECIFICATIONS - Postage/Mailing Equipment The Town of St Marys Finance Department is requesting proposals to purchase a new postage machine with scale. The current equipment to be replaced is a Pitney Bowes Model DM55. The approximate monthly volume is 2,000 letters. Minimum Required Specifications 1. Postage machine must process 125 pieces per minute or more and automatically feed material of up to a thickness of 5/8. 2. Postage machine shall process mixed envelope configurations (i.e. sealed and no seal, various sizes from post card to 10 x 13). 3. Postage machine must have an integrated minimum 2-kg weighing scale/platform that automatically calculates postage. 4. Unit must be automated to include rating, adding postage funds and updating postal rates. 5. Vendor to provide sufficient training to main operators to operate the equipment correctly and safely and to make minor adjustments as needed. 6. Equipment will include first year free maintenance, repair and service warranty. Include in your proposal the maintenance fees which will include all parts and labor, for the second and third year after purchase. State whether an annual cleaning/maintenance service is included. After first year of ownership the Town will decide whether to purchase a service contract. Pricing is also requested on service call costs including whether travel time should a service contract not be chosen. 7. Service Response Time It is highly desirable that the Town of St Marys receives a response time of 24 hours or less. Indicate the service location from where the technician will be based and the anticipated service call response time. 8. A detail listing of consumables including ink (including yield), tapes, transaction costs for meter refills, meter rental and postage rate updates is to be provided. 4
9. Please provide three (3) customer references where same equipment has been in service at least one year. III. DETAILED SPECIFICATIONS - Folding/Inserting Machine The Town of St Mary s Finance Department is interested in purchasing a new folding/inserting machine. The current equipment to be replaced is a Pitney Bowes 3 Series. Minimum Required Specifications 1. Unit must be a 3 station (2 full pages plus an insert) capable of 2,000 or more inserts per hour in to a #10 window envelope. Optical mark recognition is not required. 2. Unit must have 3 automatic feeders, each with double feed sensors and capable of processing letter and legal size paper. 3. Each feeder should have a manual feed option and thickness detector. 4. Inserter should have a minimum of 10 programmable job options, the capability of fold only and a resettable job counter. 5. Should a stand be available on which to operate the machine a separate purchase price is requested. 6. Vendor to provide sufficient training to main operator to operate the equipment correctly and safely and to make minor adjustments as needed. 7. Equipment will include first year free maintenance, repair and service warranty. Include in your proposal the maintenance fees which will include all parts and labor, for the second and third year after purchase. State whether an annual cleaning/maintenance service is included. After first year of ownership the Town will decide whether to purchase a service contract. Pricing is also requested on service call costs including whether travel time should a service contract not be chosen. 8. Service Response Time It is highly desirable that the Town of St Marys requests a response time of 24 hours or less. Indicate the service location from where the technician will be based and the anticipated service call response time. 9. Please provide 3 customer references where same equipment has been in service for at least 1 year. 5
10. The Town request at no cost a demonstration unit identical to the unit proposed for a period of one month or access to the same within ½ hour commute from St. Marys. The purchase will depend on the results of testing. 6