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Approve a Professional Services Agreement with Journal Technologies Inc. in the amount of $535,000 for the acquisition of the District Attorney’s eProsecutor case management system as part of a comprehensive criminal justice/public safety integrated software system; Approve a software license, maintenance, and support agreement with Journal Technologies Inc, for the eProsecutor case management system in the amount of $285,750 annually with a CPI annual adjustment not to exceed 5% to commence following the Go Live date for a five-year term; Approve a Renewal Amendment Agreement with Journal Technologies, Inc for the JustWare case management system in the amount of $83,805 annually, while the eProsecutor case management system is built; Approve a contract with AgreeYa Solutions for a not to exceed amount of $141,700 to lead the development and implementation of the eProsecutor case management system for the period July 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026; and Delegate authority to the County Administrator to execute the contracts and any subsequent amendments, with County Counsel concurrence, up to a per contract aggregate of $74,999
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Published Notice Required? Yes ____ No _X _
Public Hearing Required? Yes ____ No _X _
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The District Attorney recommends that the Board of Supervisors:
1. Approve a Professional Services Agreement with Journal Technologies Inc. in the amount of $535,000 for the acquisition of the District Attorney’s eProsecutor case management system as part of a comprehensive criminal justice/public safety integrated software system;
2. Approve a software license, maintenance and support agreement with Journal Technologies Inc, for the eProsecutor case management system in the amount of $285,750 annually with a CPI annual adjustment not to exceed 5% to commence following the Go Live date for a five-year term;
3. Approve a Renewal Amendment Agreement with Journal Technologies, Inc for the JustWare case management system in the amount of $83,805 annually, while the eProsecutor case management system is built;
4. Approve a contract with AgreeYa Solutions for a not to exceed amount of $141,700 to lead the development and implementation of the eProsecutor case management system for the period July 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026; and
5. Delegate authority to the County Administrator to execute the contracts and any subsequent amendments, with County Counsel concurrence, up to a per contract aggregate of $74,999.
SUMMARY:
The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) has been working with the Law and Justice departments to upgrade their current case management systems (CMS) by integrating the Public Defender, Probation, Solano County Superior Court, and the District Attorney’s Office to share information and documents electronically. The District Attorney’s Office is the last department to upgrade to the Journal Technology Incorporated (JTI) “eSuite” platform. The Courts upgraded to eCourts, the Public Defender and Alternate Defender upgraded to eDefender, and Probation upgraded to eProbation. The District Attorney’s Office is currently using JTI’s legacy case management system JustWare, a product that was phased out by JTI in 2021.
Based on the need to transition to a replacement case management system, the District Attorney’s Office reviewed various systems from other vendors. In collaboration with DoIT, it was determined that JTI’s eProsecutor was the appropriate product for the District Attorney’s Office due to its integration with other Law and Justice partners, the interfacing capabilities with local law enforcement to electronically upload reports, and the familiarity that DoIT staff has with the “eSuite” case management systems.
Several contracts are needed to get this project underway including a professional services agreement, a software license, maintenance and support agreement and a renewal amendment with JTI, along with a contract with AgreeYa Solutions to lead the development and implementation of this project.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The total cost of the eProsecutor project is $1,211,210. This includes $535,000 for the creation and implementation of eProsecutor, $180,500 for 241 licenses for users of eProsecutor, $105,250 for cloud storage of eProsecutor, $167,610 for two years of support of the current JustWare case management system while eProsecutor is built and $141,700 for one year of AgreeYa professional consulting services. It is also anticipated there will be an additional $81,150 in interfacing costs, which is currently included in the total project costs.
The Board approved initial funding for this project in the FY2023/24 Adopted Budget and has rolled over funding since then to cover this project as the scope was determined and a contract was developed with JTI for implementation. Funding for this project is included in the FY2025/26 Recommended Budget.
The primary funding source for this project is County General Fund; however, there is $100,000 allocated from DA Asset Forfeiture Funds, approximately $55,700 from the Consumer Protection Account. The remaining $1,055,510 is County General Fund.
There is an estimated annual ongoing cost for this project of $285,750 annually and will be included in the District Attorney’s future Recommended Budgets.
DISCUSSION:
JustWare Renewal Amendment
On February 20, 2020, the District Attorney’s Office received notification from JTI announcing that their JustWare case management system would reach “end-of-life” and no longer receive updates starting July 1, 2021. During the implementation period of the eProsecutor case management system, the District Attorney’s Office will need to continue to utilize the JustWare system. The District Attorney’s Office has a Support Agreement dated July 1, 2014 and the Renewal Amendment will provide limited maintenance to address critical bugs for which there is not workaround and support/technical assistance for error messages, critical bug fixes, and troubleshooting until the Go Live of eProsecutor. This amendment is for a twelve-month period and will automatically renew for successive one-year terms if eProsecutor is not live. The cost for a two-year period of this support has been included in the total cost of the project.
JTI eProsecutor Professional Services Agreement
From April through August of 2020, a committee of DA and DoIT staff met virtually with multiple counties and received demonstrations of the leading CMS products: eProsecutor, Prosecutor by Karpel, and JWorks. In February 2021, DoIT approved the DA’s Automation Improvement Request (AIR) to move forward with eProsecutor. In September 2021, the DA and DoIT began contract negotiations for the eProsecutor project. While JTI provided an initial quote, the amount of customization of eProsecutor required detailed and lengthy negotiations which made determining the final costs challenging. One of the outcomes of the negotiations was that three interfacing costs were eliminated, saving $60,000 in production costs. The Professional Services Agreement accounts for the new and current business rules, workflows, searches, reports and document templates needed for the District Attorney’s Office. There is an estimated completion date of spring 2027.
The County Purchasing and Contracting Policy manual, Section 1.1.12, Standardization of Common Materials and Equipment, allows the County to standardize many products commonly used throughout the County. Both the Public Defender’s Office and the Department of Probation make use of a JTI case management system. eProsecutor will be interfaced with both eDefender and eProbation. Therefore, this purchase is exempt from competitive bidding.
JTI eProsecutor Software License, Maintenance and Support Agreement
This agreement provides the Hosting Services, Maintenance and Support Services for the eProsecutor case management system once it is in use by the District Attorney’s Office. The first year of this agreement is included in the cost of the project and totals $285,750; however, this is an annual cost that includes a CPI inflation not to exceed 5%. The term of this agreement if 5 years after final Go Live. A new agreement would be necessary after that.
AgreeYa Solution Contract
AgreeYa Solutions, Inc. (AgreeYa) was one of the three agencies selected by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) through an RFQ process conducted in October 2021 for technical support and project related services. Contract services include business systems analysis, solution design, facilitation of automation between departments, and project management. This contract is to provide contracted professional services by AgreeYa to lead the development and implementation of the eProsecutor case management system through August 31, 2026.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. The Board could elect to not approve one or more of the contracts with Journal Technologies Inc. This action is not recommended as the JustWare case management system has reached end-of-life and needs replacement. The contract and service agreements will provide the Solano County District Attorney’s Office with a case management system that is integrated with the Courts, Probation, and Public Defender’s Office.
2. The Board could elect to not approve the contract with AgreeYa Solutions. This action is not recommended since this firm was selected through an RFP process to provide a range of licensed technical and professional services required to deliver support services to departments. If the contract is not awarded the project completion could be significantly slowed or result in schedule delays and possibly increased project costs.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The Department of Information Technology, District Attorney, County Counsel, and the General Services Department in coordination with the County Administrator have reviewed the contracts.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION