Sealed Bid Invitation for Procurement Services

Background
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) is seeking proposals for an enterprise-grade managed cybersecurity monitoring and incident response solution. The goal is to enhance the University’s ability to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats across its institutional technology environment. This includes a complex infrastructure supporting academic, administrative, and research functions. This RFP aims to secure a comprehensive, cloud-delivered managed security service that provides continuous monitoring and advanced threat detection.

Work Details
The selected vendor will provide a managed cybersecurity monitoring and incident response solution that includes:
- Continuous monitoring of approximately 9,500 active users and 300 servers.
- Integration with existing infrastructure for centralized visibility and management of security events across identity, endpoint, email, server, and cloud workloads.
- Access to a 24x7 Security Operations Center (SOC) staffed by trained professionals.
- Initial cybersecurity assessment of the university's environment covering identity controls, email security, endpoint security, server security, and cloud workloads.
- Managed protection against email threats including malware and phishing.
- Managed detection and response for user workstations and endpoints.
- Support for incident response coordination with university personnel.
- Provision of documented findings and recommendations for configuration changes.

Period of Performance
The contract will be for three years with the possibility of two one-year renewals.

Place of Performance
The services will be performed at The University of Southern Mississippi located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Bidder Requirements
Vendors must demonstrate experience in delivering managed cybersecurity services in an enterprise environment. They must be a Microsoft aligned Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) or equivalent. Vendors are required to provide at least three customer references from higher education institutions that have implemented similar solutions within the last 12 months.