Agenda

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Finance Committee

Meeting Date:	07/10/2018
FROM:	Bill Gallardo

Subject:

Software/Hardware Maintenance Support and Online Subscription Service Agreements

RECOMMENDATION

Authorize the Purchasing Agent to approve renewal agreements with various support services providers for the life of the computer software or hardware and for online software subscription services; and
Authorize the Purchasing Agent to issue purchase orders for these renewal agreements and subscription services that do not to exceed available budget appropriations.

BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION

To help ensure the functionality of Brea’s network infrastructure, servers, and personal computers, the City uses computer hardware/software maintenance and support agreements and online vendor-hosted software subscription services for required updates, technical support, and software customizations.

These agreements are typically proprietary to the companies that provide the particular software application or hardware device. Some of these support and online subscription services may be available through cooperative agreements while very few are obtained through solicitation of competitive offers. For the support providers obtained through competitive bidding, it is common to continue to stay with the same vendor for the duration of the City's use of the program.

The current fiscal year total of these agreements is $623,439. The majority of these agreements are within the Purchasing Agent's authority to approve on an annual basis. This year, there are four agreements that are over the Purchasing Agent's authority to approve dollar amount of $25,000:

ActiveNet for Community Services registrations and activities;
Spillman for the CAD/RMS software for the police dispatch and record management system;
County of Orange for the 800 Mhz public safety radio backbone system; and
Superion for the City's financial software

The proprietary agreements and subscription services typically are based on a fixed annual increase from the vendor that are not subject to negotiation. For the agreements that may be acquired through cooperative agreement and/or competitive bidding, the Purchasing Agent, the Information Technology Division, and/or user department periodically will seek whichever means offers the best available pricing solution for Brea.

Staff requests that Council authorize the Purchasing Agent to approve the renewal of the existing software/hardware maintenance support and online service agreements without having to return to the City Council for approval of each agreement that exceeds $25,000. The Purchasing Agent will continue to submit periodic reports to the Finance Committee of any agreements approved under this authorization. Any award recommendations of new software systems and the initial software support agreements that exceed the formal procurement threshold, will continue to be presented to the City Council for their review and consideration.

SUMMARY/FISCAL IMPACT

Since a majority of the hardware/software maintenance and support renewal agreements and online subscription services are proprietary, have fixed annual increases and are not subject to negotiation, and in an effort to help ensure continuity of service from the support providers, staff requests that Council authorize the Purchasing Agent to approve these agreements and issue as-needed purchase orders based on available budget appropriations for the fiscal year in which they occur.

The City Council adopted Fiscal Year 2018-19 Budget has sufficient funding available for these purchases. There is no additional fiscal impact based on this action.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED

William Gallardo, City Manager
Prepared by: Neil Groom, Procurement and Contracts Administrator
Concurrence: Cindy Russell, Administrative Services Director and
Randy Hornsby, IT Manager