Please note: This is a Sole Source Notification. Maintenance for IBM Mission Critical Hardware and z16 Mainframe. At this time, there is no alternative vendor that could provide these services. They would have to be authorized by IBM to work on they IBM systems, their pricing would be in addition to IBM's, and they may not be able to meet the coverage requirement times if a situation arises with hardware that is operational 24 hours per day. The maintenance is on IBM equipment and IBM-trained engineers validate the issue, coverage, repair, warranty of IBM hardware; Due to the timeline and nature of the coverage, ILSOS is going directly to IBM to ensure proper coverage on the IBM equipment in the environment as IBM requires authorized IBM trained engineers to ensure all agency services continue without interruption. Mission critical systems which provide support and services for the duties of the Secretary of State's office to be carried out are supported by IBM Mainframe hardware and software. These critical systems have been implemented for many years by Information Technology to provide the processing of all 25 office departments. IBM Mainframe is ILSOS's infrastructure to provide computer access in order to process services to the Illinois citizens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In order to meet this requirements, IBM hardware maintenance is required to expedite any issues, downtime and repairs.
