No preview available
HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 10e - Extension of IT Consulting Services DATE: November 20, 2018 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM: Hue Quach, Administrative Services Director Wilson Luo, IT Manager SUBJECT: EXTENSTION TO THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH SCIENTIA CONSULTING GROUP, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $362,280 Recommendation: Approve SUMMARY In September 2017, City Council approved a one-year Professional Services Agreement (“Agreement”) with Scientia Consulting Group, Inc. (“Scientia”) to manage the City’s Information Technology (“IT”) Systems. The Agreement expired September 2018. This staff report recommends extending the Agreement for an additional year through September 30, 2019. Due to the constant turnover of IT consulting companies over the past few years, there are many backlogged projects that are just getting off the ground. Changing consultants again at this time would only cause more setbacks and, ultimately, more costs. Therefore, it is recommended that the Agreement be extended for an additional year at this time without re-bidding the contract. Based on Scientia’s overall performance and positive feedback from the internal user community, it is recommended that the City Council approve, and authorize and direct the City Manager to execute, a one-year extension to the Professional Services Agreement with Scientia Consulting Group, Inc. through September 30, 2019. The total cost of renewing the IT consulting services with Scientia is $362,280. DISCUSSION Over the course of the past year, Scientia has demonstrated expertise in supporting the City’s IT operations and a strong commitment to customer satisfaction. Scientia came on board with many server and network infrastructure issues that were left behind from the prior IT consultant company. Scientia was able to quickly learn and resolved many Extension of Professional Services Agreement with Scientia Consulting Group Inc. November 20, 2018 Page 2 of 3 of the critical issues that were causing regular and significant network and server downtimes. Efforts have been ongoing to ensure that the City’s system continues to run with minimal downtime. As some of those critical network and server issues have been resolved, Scientia has been concentrating their support efforts in resolving other IT challenges and reducing many daily user recurrent issues. While Scientia continues to make progress and have been performing satisfactorily, much of their standard contracted time has been taken up addressing a backlog of critical IT issues as well as the daily troubleshooting calls. Fundamentally, even with much progress that have been made since the contract was awarded, there remains a list of projects affecting operations citywide that need to be addressed. Below is a sampling of in-process and pending major projects that require Scientia’s continued expertise and institutional knowledge to complete in an efficient and effective manner. In process:  Data backup and recovery migration to new software solution  Desktop computer replacement, 35 of 96 pending  Decommissioning of unsupported platforms/migrating essential services  Firewall migration to next generation platform with security packages  Network reconfiguration and segmentation  Public facing web server reconfiguration – security assessment  Virtualization platform upgrade, reconfiguration, and licensing assessments  Vulnerability assessment scanning and risk mitigation strategy planning Pending:  Database modernization, consolidation, and redundancy  Email migration from on premises to Microsoft hosted platform  Microsoft Enterprise Agreement software licensing  Mission-critical services redundancy research and design  Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulatory compliance changes  Public facing web server reconfiguration and migration An additional list of critical and high priority minor projects are currently being worked on in a collaborative manner between Scientia and the City’s in-house IT Manager. While the City currently has an in-house IT Manager and with expectation that this role will reassess service level needs of this agreement, his recent employment limits the ability to properly assess the appropriate level for citywide consultant services at this time. A longer transitional period is necessary to become knowledgeable and fully understand the complexity of our network and infrastructure. The process of bidding out this service and potentially finding a new consultant to partner with is certain to slow the Extension of Professional Services Agreement with Scientia Consulting Group Inc. November 20, 2018 Page 3 of 3 progress that is being made, which can cause additional costs in the long run. A new consulting group would need approximately six to nine months to “learn” and study our system before considering any recommendations or proceed with adding new projects that would layer over the existing system. Projects in line to take place in the remaining fiscal year would have to be pushed further out with potential for downtime or compromising security from the City’s system. Scientia has provided a very reasonable proposal, in that the service rate is proposed to be kept the same as last year’s agreement. The renewal agreement year, arguably, provides savings to the City as the renewed year’s cost is the same, forgoing any inflationary factor that is typical with extended contracts. It is therefore, recommended that the City Council approve, and authorize and direct the City Manager to execute, a one-year extension to the Professional Service Agreement with Scientia Consulting Group for IT Consulting Services through September 30, 2019, in the amount of $362,280. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT The proposed action does not constitute a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), and it can be seen with certainty that it will have no impact on the environment. Thus, this matter is exempt under CEQA. FISCAL IMPACT The cost of extending the information management contract through September 30, 2019, is $362,280. No additional appropriation is requested as this consulting service has been budgeted as part of the City’s annual operating budget process. RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the City Council approve, and authorize and direct the City Manager to execute a one-year extension to the Professional Services A greement with Scientia Consulting Group for IT Consulting Services in the amount of $362,280. Attachment: Proposed Amendment No. 2 to the Professional Services Agreement AMENDMENT NO. 2 TO THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT SERVICES BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF ARCADIA AND SCIENTIA CONSULTING GROUP, INC. This Amendment No. 2 (“Amendment No. 2”) is hereby entered into this ______ day of ______________, 2018 by and between the City of Arcadia, a municipal corporation of the State of California, and Scientia Consulting Group, Inc., a California Corporation, with respect to that certain Professional Services Agreement (“Agreement”) between the Parties dated October 4, 2017, and further amended by Amendment No. 1 dated June 13, 2018. The Parties agree as follows: 1. Section 3.1.2 of the Professional Services Agreement, the Term is hereby extended from September 20, 2018 to September 30, 2019 (“Extended Term”). 2. All other terms and provisions of the Agreement not amended by this Amendment No. 2 are hereby reaffirmed. In witness whereof the Parties have executed this Amendment No. 1 on the date set forth above. CITY OF ARCADIA SCIENTIA CONSULTING GROUP, INC. By: By: Dominic Lazzaretto City Manager Title: Dated: Dated: By: ATTEST: Title: Dated: City Clerk APPROVED AS TO FORM CONCUR: Stephen P. Deitsch Hue Quach City Attorney Administrative Services Director