Notice of Intended Procurement
NAME OF PROCURING ENTITY
The Governing Council of the University of Toronto (the “University”)
CONTACT PERSON AND CONTRACT PERSON COORDINATES
Harneer Batra
215 Huron Street, 3rd Floor
Toronto, ON M5S 1A2
harneer.batra@utoronto.ca
PROCUREMENT DOCUMENTS
The procurement documents are available at www.merx.com.
Note that obtaining access to the procurement documents will require prospective suppliers to register and pay a registration fee. Pricing and Payment Terms are available on the MERX website.
DESCRIPTION OF PROCUREMENT
The University is conducting an RFP for AI Computing and Storage
Proponents are able to submit proposals for either or both the Categories. Proponents should submit separate technical and financial submissions for each category they would like to submit a Proposal for. The evaluation and award will be done per category. The University will select only one Proponent for each Category and may award both the Categories to the same Proponent.
The Deployment of the Compute and Storage solution(s) will be located at the SciNet data centre at 7700 Keele St, Unit 7, Vaughan where SciNet/UoT acts as a co-location facility while Vector staff are responsible for the management of the solution(s).
The PAICE program has a budget of $21.3 Million as part of operating and capital cost for the overall program. It is the intention of the University to maximize the scale of the environment by procuring the largest number of compute nodes as per the requirements stated in this RFP. This RFP specifically represents first phase of the overall purchase.
The procurement is anticipated to involve negotiation. An electronic auction is not anticipated.
ADDRESS AND FINAL DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS
Submissions must be submitted electronically at https://utoronto.bonfirehub.ca/ on or before Friday, January 05, 2024 (2:00 PM local time). The submissions will not be opened publicly.
CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION
The procurement is subject to the following conditions for participation:
N/A
APPLICABLE TRADE AGREEMENTS
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):
- The Canadian Free Trade Agreement, Chapter Five
- The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Chapter 19
- The Ontario-Quebec Trade and Cooperation Agreement, Chapter 9
CONTRACT DETAILS
The term of the resulting Agreement from this RFP is anticipated to be five years.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The University will base its selection of qualified suppliers on the following criteria:
Evaluation criteria for Category 1 Weighting (Points)
Experience and Qualifications 10
Technical Requirements 50
Delivery, Installation, Warranty and Support 10
Pricing 30
Evaluation Criteria for Category 2 Weighting (Points)
Experience and Qualifications 10
Technical Requirements 50
Delivery, Installation, Warranty and Support 10
Pricing 30
NOTES
Suppliers should note that information contained within this notice is subject to change. Suppliers are encouraged to obtain the procurement documents which contain the most current information. If there is a conflict between the procurement documents and this notice, the procurement documents will take precedence.
