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Approve a 2 year contract with Avenu Insights & Analytics for an amount not to exceed $530,192 to provide project management services to the property tax administration system replacement project for the initial term of January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021, including a provision for 3 subsequent one-year renewals for an additional total amount not to exceed $877,511; Authorize the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to execute the contract and to negotiate and execute change orders with Avenu not to exceed 10% of the contract amount within the relevant fiscal year, within departmental appropriations, and with County Administrator’s concurrence
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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 the Board:
1) Approve a 2 year contract with Avenu Insights & Analytics for an amount not to exceed $530,192 to provide project management services to the property tax administration system replacement project for the initial term of January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021, including a provision for 3 subsequent one-year renewals for an additional total amount not to exceed $877,511; and
2) Authorize the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to execute the contract and to negotiate and execute change orders with Avenu not to exceed 10% of the contract amount within the relevant fiscal year, within departmental appropriations, and with County Administrator’s concurrence.
SUMMARY:
On April 4, 2017, the Board approved to replace the County’s current legacy property tax system that was initially created in 1982 with Thomson Reuters Aumentum solution, a commercially developed and supported modern software package. In conjunction with the Assessor - Recorder, Auditor - Controller, Treasurer - Tax Collector - County Clerk, and County Administrator’s Office (CAO), the Department of Information Technology is in the early stages of implementing this enterprise level property tax administration system. In support of this effort, the County hired a contracted Project Manager on July 2018. The project management services were previously merged into the IT Managed Services contract with Avenu Insights & Analytics. Services provided for IT Managed Services and fixed scope Project Management are materially different and this contract separates the two into individually manageable agreements.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The FY2019/20 projected expenditures for the two-year project management contract is for an amount not to exceed $530,192. Additionally, the contract includes a provision for three subsequent one-year terms at a total amount not to exceed $877,511 if neither party has cancelled the contract. Such cancellation is to be made by providing 60-day written notice to the other party. Funding to date for the project management services has originated from the Solano County Integrated Property System (SCIPS) migration fund. Ongoing funding will continue from the SCIPS migration fund which has sufficient appropriations for this contract. The current available budget for the SCIPS migration project is $9,534,918.
The costs associated with preparing the agenda item are nominal and absorbed by the department’s FY2019/20 Adopted Budget.
DISCUSSION:
Solano County’s property tax system was initially created in 1982 and was developed in Cobol and Cognos Powerhouse on an HP3000 platform. In 2010, a system modernization project was completed, primarily to replace the unsupported HP3000 platform to run on a combination of Unix and Windows servers and to provide a web browser-based user experience. The current programming and systems support are managed in-house using a combination of newer development tools while still relying heavily on the legacy Cobol programming language. The system also employs “emulation” technologies that allow much of the system to mimic the way old technology worked.
While the resulting system is hosted on a modern platform, the underlying application structure and business rules are approximately 30 years old. The current system has been in production for over nine years and continues to be maintained by seven technical positions for the application, and contracted positions support the hardware platforms and database. The system complexity and 30-year-old design has proven to be a maintenance challenge and limits the departments’ ability to improve business processes as well as limits the County's ability to take advantage of new service-based technology. Operation of the system is heavily dependent upon the institutional knowledge of how the application works, including its idiosyncrasies and numerous workarounds.
Due to the limitations and risks inherent of the current system, on April 4, 2017, the Board approved to replace the County’s current legacy property tax system with Thomson Reuters Aumentum solution, a commercially developed and supported modern software package. In conjunction with the Assessor - Recorder, Auditor - Controller, Treasurer - Tax Collector - County Clerk, and County Administrator’s Office (CAO), the Department of Information Technology is in the early stages of implementing this multiyear replacement enterprise level property tax administration system. In support of this effort, a dedicated contracted project manager was brought into the County in July 2018 to guide the replacement project.
The original intent which is echoed today is for this dedicated project manager to remain contracted through the entire life-cycle of the software implementation. The nature of the work for a deliverables-based software implementation is different than the work of support of ongoing operations and such the measurements for success in each contract are different. Controlling and measuring success for a statement of work for this discrete SCIPS replacement project becomes more clear when a stand-alone success criteria is agreed upon. Furthermore, creating a singular and discrete contract for the SCIPS replacement project manager will make financial reporting more transparent and will simplify total project expenditures reporting.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Board could choose not to approve the contract for project management services for the property tax administration system replacement project. However, this is not recommended as it will negatively impact SCIPS replacement project and County staffed project manager would have multiple focus areas and responsibilities and may not provide the same level of service to the project that would be provided by a dedicated resource. Additionally, if a County staffed project manager were dedicated with sole focus to the project, some other body of work would have to halted.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel reviewed the contract as to legal form.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION