(NU/1752) - Upgrade or Replacement, and Maintenance, of a Fire Alarm Monitoring System

The University wishes to appoint a suitable Contractor to upgrade or replace the eBMS system, to an agreed plan and programme, resulting in a single fire alarm monitoring system to allow users to control and monitor all the fire alarm systems in the building or Campus as well as providing an open platform for integration of other systems on site. To include but not limited to: • maintaining both the existing systems whilst upgrading eBMS to CrossTalk 3, or replacing the eBMS system; • migrating the Bold system to the new fire alarm monitoring system; • interfacing the new system directly with Planon to allow defects to be raised automatically direct to the fire alarm service company without the need for helpdesk intervention; • interfacing the new system directly with CCTV and intruder alarm systems / security software; • developing the new system to raise an automatic defect request to service providers or internal teams for all alarms; • maintenance and expansion of the new fire alarm monitoring system; • Provision of training and system/user documentation in Microsoft Office and PDF formats. Fire alarm monitoring is currently carried out on two different systems, the Tyrrell eBMS system and the Chubb Bold system. Over a period of time we have been migrating from Bold to eBMS. Both the Bold and eBMS systems are now out dated and require urgent upgrade or replacement, because Bold has been unsupported for a number of years and the front end sits on a stand-alone pc with an outdated operating system that is now also unsupported; eBMS has two servers located in the University data centre, however the software is not an enterprise business solution; Tyrrell has recently superseded eBMS with their next generation system, CrossTalk 3. It is envisaged that an upgraded or new system will provide better integration / automation with other systems to improve safety management and control, and resource efficiencies for the University: • The system will be loaded onto virtual servers and addresses the NUIT requirements for Enterprise software. • The system should interface directly with a large number of alarm systems and other security software such as CCTV and intruder alarms; it should also interface with Planon, E&F’s current Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system. • All alarms routed to the system from building management systems should also raise an automatic defect request to service providers or internal teams. A smooth changeover of equipment and systems is required to make sure that monitoring continues to operate correctly and that there will be no down time or risk to business through a failure to maintain alarm delivery. The University is relying on Contractor's expertise and knowledge of the appropriate systems and hardware to identify all requirements and costs for the Contract.