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Approve three contract amendments for one-year extensions for the term of August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2025 with AgreeYa Solutions, Inc., 22nd Century Technologies, Inc., and vTech Solutions, Inc. to provide as-needed professional services to support defined scope projects/work efforts; and Authorize the Chief Information Officer to execute the professional amendments and designated scopes of work; and Authorize the County Administrator to execute Appropriation Transfer Requests not to exceed $900,000 of existing salary appropriations for professional services
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Published Notice Required? Yes ____ No _X _
Public Hearing Required? Yes ____ No _X _
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) recommends that the Board of Supervisors:
1. Approve three contract amendments for one-year extensions for the term of August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2025 with AgreeYa Solutions, Inc., 22nd Century Technologies, Inc., and vTech Solutions, Inc. to provide as-needed professional services to support defined scope projects/work efforts; and
2. Authorize the Chief Information Office (CIO) to execute the amendments and designated scopes of work; and
3. Authorize the County Administrator to execute Appropriation Transfer Requests (ATR) not to exceed $900,000 of existing salary appropriations for professional services.
SUMMARY:
One February 1, 2022 the Board approved 2-year contracts with AgreeYa Solutions, Inc. and 22nd Century Technologies, Inc., to provide services to Solano County as a temporary remediation for staffing shortages. On November 7, 2023 both of these contracts were extended to July 31, 2024, and the Board approved an additional contract with vTech Solutions, Inc., for the same purpose.
DoIT is recommending the Board approve amendments to extend these agreements to enable the department to continue to temporarily mitigate the continuing staffing shortage in the department by providing staffing services on an as-needed basis to defined scope projects/work efforts. The statements of work (SOW) planned for these firms conform with normal IT operations and development.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Any cost incurred for the professional/technical staff support services will be paid from existing salary savings incurred due to existing vacancies. There is no dollar value associated with approval of these master agreements, as dollar values will be associated with each separately approved SOWs. This item does request authorization for ATRs not to exceed $900,000 to move salary savings to professional services to cover the costs, as needed.
DISCUSSION:
While DoIT and Human Resources have made progress in reducing a prior vacancy rate of 25% seen in January 2022, the department is still experiencing staffing shortages with a current vacancy rate of 21%, up from 17% as of December 2023. DoIT is working closely with Human Resources to resolve the staffing shortage and continues to identify robust strategies to attract and recruit new talent. However, the staffing shortage continues to impact DoIT’s ability to meet the needs of the greater Solano County organization.
As such, DoIT is seeking relief by the way of short-term contractors to take on key projects and important initiatives to maintain a high quality of information technologies services for Solano County. Key to this strategy is to redirect budget appropriations originally expected to fund salaries to professional services.
The intent of this effort is to be short-term in nature while the efforts to solve the root causes of the staffing shortage are addressed. Contracted SOW’s will be designed to be discrete, project based, or deliverable based. A meet and confer with SEIU has been completed wherein SEIU does not object to the proposed contract amendments.
In October 2021, DoIT conducted a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to provide technical support, staffing and project related services, including Project Management, IT Business Analysis, IT Service Management, Network Management, and Data Management services. AgreeYa Solutions, Inc., 22nd Century Technologies, Inc. and vTech Solutions, Inc were selected based on qualifications and experience. It is recommended to continue contracting with these agencies to continue access to quality candidates during their current contract term.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. The Board could elect to award fewer than three contracts. This action is not recommended since the firms were selected to provide a range of licensed technical and professional services required to deliver support services to departments. If the contracts are not awarded, IT support services, capacity, and responsiveness will be diminished as multiple, individual professional services contracts must be available for use on any given IT engagement and/or project by project basis, significantly slowing the development and delivery of these engagements, resulting in diminished service quality, schedule delays, and possible increased project costs.
2. The Board could elect not to enter into master services agreements and approve the limited use of salary savings for professional services. This is not recommended as the integrity of IT Services delivery is currently under threat from a staffing shortage.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel has approved the agreements as to form.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION