Meeting summary - Dec 9th

1. Communication with the Campus Community

A draft letter to the campus community has been sent to the AVP IST for forwarding to the VP Admin. and Provost for approval. Once approved the letter will be sent to all members of the campus community, posted on the CPAG web page and an article placed in the Courier.

2. Technical specifications for RFP

The subgroup has been struck and will be meeting Dec. 16 to review proposed configurations for a standard desktop, enhanced workstation and laptop systems to be included in the RFP.

3. CPAG Web Page

The draft web page is available for comment and review at url http://www.mcmaster.ca/develop/cpag. Content is still in the process of being posted. Access for this web page will be restricted to McMaster employees as the information is not "public".

4. RFP

Terry Galan will be incorporating comments and suggestions received to date. Advisory group members will have an opportunity do a final review of the RFP once the technical specifications have been incorporated into the document (expected for our Dec. 17 meeting). All comments must be received by Terry Galan no later than January 5th after which the RFP will be distributed to a list of suppliers. Terry has booked the Council Chambers (GH110) for Jan 15 from 1:30 pm onwards for the combined supplier meeting. It is expected this meeting will be approximately 1.5 hours long.

5. Evaluation of RFP submissions

Terry Galan submitted a draft of possible criteria for evaluation of supplier responses to the RFP. Heather Grigg will circulate by email for the benefit of those not in attendance. A copy of the photocopier evaluation criteria was included for information. Suggestions or comments should be sent to Terry for inclusion in the draft list for our Dec 17th meeting. The advisory group will review the draft - adding, deleting or combining as appropriate. The next step will be to agree on a ranking or weighting system for the various items. It would be best if the final version were complete for the January 15th supplier meeting as suppliers should be apprised in advance how their submissions will be evaluated.

6. List of suppliers to be invited to respond to the RFP

The Advisory group reviewed the list of computer suppliers that departments have purchased from over the past year and reduced the list to 12 names based on a combination of purchase volume, the desire to deal directly with the manufacturer wherever possible as well as anecdotal experiences regarding service and support.

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