Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDERATION OF APPROVAL OF CONTRACT SERVICES AGREEMENT FOR MAINTENANCE AND HARDWARE SUPPORT FOR TWO HEWLETT-PACKARD (HP) SERVERS TO ABTECH TECHNOLOGIES (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
The City’s previous financial application, IFAS, had an end-of-life as of December 31, 2020 as the original vendor no longer services the version used by the City; the replacement of this application is Tyler Munis which has handled City’s financial applications needs for the last two years, starting December 16, 2019. The IRS recommends retention of financial data for 7 years which means the City should keep the data from the IFAS system for approximately five (5) more years to be available for staff to access. Additionally, Human Resources routinely has a need to access the financial data from IFAS that it would not be able to do without support. Abtech Technologies, Inc. is the only local third-party company that has the spare parts and certified engineers with experience in hardware and software maintenance necessary to support all service requirements of these systems thereby justifying procurement of such support services as a sole source. The City Council is being asked to waive the bidding requirements under the sole source exception allowed under CMC Section 2611(e). Since the cost of this maintenance and support exceeds the amount that the City Manager may approve, the City Council is also being asked to approve the service contract for an amount not to exceed $50,862.00.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
TAKE the following actions:
1. WAIVE the bidding requirements for the Cason Municipal Code (CMC) pursuant to CMC Section 2611(e) (“Sole Source Purchasing”); and
2. APPROVE a five-year agreement for contract services with Abtech Technologies in the amount of $50,862.00; and
3. AUTHORIZE the Mayor to execute the same upon approval as to form by the City Attorney.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
None.
IV. BACKGROUND
On December 31, 2020, the City’s previous financial application, IFAS, had an end-of-life as all the data has been transferred to the new financial application, Tyler Munis; that transfer took place approximately two years ago, December 16, 2019. The IRS recommends retention of financial data for 7 years which means the City should keep the data from the IFAS system for approximately five (5) more years to be available for staff to access. Additionally, Human Resources routinely has a need to access the financial data from IFAS which it would not be able to do without support. Because the IFAS application is no longer supported and the OS (IBM UNIX) is extremely outdated (more than 25 years old), we were unable to find any providers to support it, other than Abtech Technologies, Inc.
On March 17, 2021, the Information Technology Division (ITD) solicited three (3) additional quotes from various vendors for this service.
1. Impex Technologies - Unable to quote
2. SHI - Support for hardware only, no software support
3. GHS Technologies, Inc. - Vendor unskilled with end-of-life software
Abtech Technologies, Inc. is the only third-party hardware maintenance company that has the spare parts, W-2 engineers experienced in HP9000 and Dell R33/DL4300 support, and W-2 OEM certified hardware and software engineers on staff to support all three service requirements of these systems. Therefore, ITD has created a contract with Abtech Technologies, Inc. for a 5-year term not to exceed $50,862.00. This will allow support until this legacy equipment is no longer needed and will be decommissioned.
Since the total cost of this maintenance and support exceeds the amount that the City Manager may approve, the City Council is being asked to approve the award of 5-year service contract. The City Council is also being asked to waive the bidding requirements under the sole source exception allowed under CMC Section 2611(e).
V. FISCAL IMPACT
Funds have been budged for these items in FY 2021/22 in account number 101-50-520-101-6004. Funds to reflect the future annual contract costs will also be included in succeeding annual budgets.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Abtech Technologies Contract Agreement. (pgs. 3 - 30)
2. Abtech Quote Dated 08/26/2021. (pgs. 31 - 32)
Prepared by: Kevin Kennedy, Information Technology Manager