Title
Resolution Approving a Contract in the amount of $500,000.00 for the Custom Development and Implementation of a New Plan Review Software System for Electronic Plan Submittal and Review
Body
Department: Information Technology
Council District: n/a
Public Hearing: n/a
Advertising Date/By: n/a
Contact 1 and Phone: Jane Nickles, IT, 2314
Contact 2 and Phone: Aimee Walker, IT, 2016
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this contract is to engage a software developer to create a new Plan Review custom software suite to provide numerous benefits for the application users, the City of Greensboro, and the developers, engineers, and architects in the Greensboro region. For the application users this includes providing a cohesive and seamless experience; providing new features and functionality, and generating efficiency increases for the user workflows. From a technology standpoint, this includes bringing the code to a supported platform with a maintainable code base and ensuring the underlying server system is on the latest operating system with the latest security patches.
BACKGROUND:
The first four (4) modules of the Plan Review system were developed and introduced to the City of Greensboro on contract around the year 2000. As the years passed, staff added additional modules to grow it into the twelve (12) separate systems that make up the Plan Review software suite today. The primary users of this system include City departments such as Planning, Engineering and Inspections, Water Resources and Fire as well as engineers and architects in the Greensboro area. Yearly, the Plan Review system processes around 4000 plans and generates an estimated $250,000 in revenue according to 2016 data.
Over the last seventeen (17) years, as individual Plan Review modules were developed by staff, the system grew in many different pieces rather than as one complete system. Additionally, each piece of software was not maintained from an upgrade or integration standpoint. This was primarily due to limited staff time and resources, developer turn over, and competing projects and priorities. This has resulted in a system that utilizes many different programming technologies, some 5-10 years out of date, with the rest aging rapidly. The result is a lot of overhead for IT staff and frustrations for end-users. IT has no significant staff time to rewrite a system of this size and complexity in a short time.
Recently the state of the system was studied by, TESKA, an independent consulting firm who engaged both staff and the development community for user experiences and opinions. Some of the many observations, paraphrased for the sake of brevity, are as follows: 1) The system is electronic but not automated, many tasks have to be done manually, this causes data issues and is considered user unfriendly, 2) Plan Review business processes have changed over time but the software hasn’t, 3) The current system was built to focus on speed rather than collaboration, review comments are hard to view across plan reviews, 4) Administrative functions are limited in the system such as contact and review comment management, 5) Staff are frequently utilizing creative workarounds to manage Plan Review processes, 6) There is not a common way for staff to see all relevant information, etc.
The TESKA study also resulted in the opinion that IT staff time required to manage the system is high. IT agrees with this opinion and estimates that it costs approximately $3,012.83-$6,890.00 per month for break/fix maintenance only. This figure also includes expenses for the hardware lease.
Engaging in a contract to rewrite the Plan Review software will have many positive impacts including the following: The system will utilize the latest supported and secure technology, staff efficiencies will be realized, the City of Greensboro will gain effectiveness, transparency, and increased communication for their customers, the foundation for online payments will be laid, users will gain significant new features and functionality, users will experience a more cohesive and integrated system, and a fully customized system will be delivered in a shorter period of time with contained costs as compared to a 3rd party vendor integration.
We solicited 14 vendors which included 8 MWBE specific vendors provided by the MWBE office. We received final responses from 4 vendors, 1 of which was an MWBE vendor. We interviewed candidates from both the MWBE and non-MWBE vendors. In the end we selected TEKsystems (a non-MWBE vendor) because they presented the closest match of technical qualifications to best fit the technology and budgetary demands of the project.
Based on the need for a quick turnaround and a dedicated resource a contract is determined to be the best option to meet the City’s Plan Review software system needs. There are two primary alternatives for this Plan Review rewrite. One is using Application Services staff. The other is moving to a 3rd party system. With current staff, budget, and priority constraints, neither of the alternatives are feasible at this time.
BUDGET IMPACT:
The total amount of the contract is up to $500,000 and expenses will be as follows:
|
DEPARTMENT |
ACCT # |
AMOUNT |
|
Planning |
101-2201-01.6058 |
$370,000 |
|
Water Resources |
501-7011-01.6058 |
$130,000 |
Budget adjustments are required to move funds into the appropriate accounts.
RECOMMENDATION / ACTION REQUESTED:
It is requested the City Council approve a Resolution authorizing a contract in an amount up to $500,000 for the Plan Review rewrite.