Title
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Five-Year Agreement with Maverick Networks Inc. for (1) Telephone Hardware and Implementation Services and (2) a Cloud-Based (Zoom) Unified Communications Telephone System for a Total Compensation Not to Exceed $569,618. (Information Technology C80500)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Gerry Beaudin, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda’s (City) telephone system no longer meets the needs of a modern, mobile workforce. Over several months, the Information Technology (IT) Department worked directly with staff across six City departments to: document how each team currently communicates; identify gaps such as limited mobile access, after-hours coverage, and reporting; and build internal consensus on the features a replacement system must deliver. Using those documented requirements, staff ran a competitive process and solicited proposals from three qualified cloud communications providers. Zoom, delivered through Maverick Networks Inc., was selected as the best overall fit for cost-savings, functionality, and long-term flexibility. Both the software and hardware components of this project are available through competitively awarded cooperative purchasing contracts, which satisfy the City’s procurement requirements without the need for a separate formal solicitation.
BACKGROUND
The City’s current telephone system is aging and increasingly limits how departments can serve the public. Staff cannot work from the field or other remote locations with easy access to office telephone systems. Several departments rely on personal cell phones to cover after-hours calls. The current system offers little to no reporting on call volume or staff workload. In addition to these issues, departments have identified a growing need for text messaging, multilingual call routing, and better integration with the tools staff already use, such as Microsoft Teams. These limitations, combined with rising maintenance costs for aging equipment, prompted staff to begin planning a citywide replacement of the City's telephone system.
DISCUSSION
Stakeholder Engagement: Staff undertook a collaborative, human-centered approach to identify current pain points with the existing telephone system. Staff met individually with stakeholders from across the organization in both externally and internally facing departments and to understand current workflows and day-to-day challenges. These meetings surfaced consistent, organizational priorities, including mobile and softphone access, text messaging, better call routing and after-hours coverage, multilingual support, and call analytics for workload planning, as well as some department-specific needs such as paging integration for Fire stations and HIPAA-compliant e-fax for both the Housing and Human Services Division and Fire Department. This process ensured that department leadership had input into, and support for, the direction of the project before a solution was selected.
Competitive Provider Evaluation: Using the requirements gathered from these meetings, IT requested and evaluated competitive proposals from three qualified Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) providers: Zoom, RingCentral, and 8x8. Each proposal was evaluated for its ability to meet the functional needs identified by staff, overall value, and availability through an established cooperative purchasing contract. Following this evaluation, staff determined that the Zoom solution offered through Maverick Networks Inc. provided the strongest combination of functionality and value and therefore recommends it for this contract.
Procurement Compliance: Because this project was informed by a competitive process among three qualified providers, and each of those providers offers access to cooperative purchasing agreements, the City can proceed with acquisition through those existing contracts rather than issuing a separate, standalone bid.
The Zoom UCaaS licensing will be purchased under the OMNIA Partners Cooperative Purchasing Contract #R240303. The related telephone hardware and professional implementation services will be purchased through Maverick Networks Inc. under the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Contract #120122-MBS. The use of these cooperative contracts satisfies the requirements of Alameda Municipal Code Section 2-61.7 (Joint Purchases with Public Agencies) and the City’s Purchasing Policy for cooperative procurement.
If approved, the City would enter into two related agreements with Maverick Networks Inc.: (1) a Professional Services Statement of Work covering project management, system configuration, onsite installation, cutover support, staff training, and the purchase agreement for the desk phones and related hardware needed at City facilities; and (2) a five-year UCaaS Agreement for Zoom Phone licensing and services.
ALTERNATIVES
• Maintain the status quo and make no changes to the current telephone system.
• Direct staff to issue a separate, standalone Request for Proposals for a telephone system, rather than proceeding through the cooperative purchasing contracts identified above.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
With potential cost-savings of 25% to 35% over the next five years compared to our current telephone system, this project presents one-time and recurring costs. One-time costs total $96,627, consisting of $47,577 for hardware and $49,050 for professional implementation services by Maverick Networks, Inc., procured through the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Contract #120122-MBS.
Recurring costs consist of the five-year Zoom UCaaS Agreement, procured through the OMNIA Partners Cooperative Purchasing Contract #R240303 for a five-year total of $472,991.
|
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|
Phone Hardware |
$47,577 |
|
|
|
|
|
Implementation Services |
$49,050 |
|
|
|
|
|
Recurring Zoom Costs |
$74,789 |
$99,551 |
$99,551 |
$99,551 |
$99,551 |
|
Total Annual Cost |
$171,415 |
$99,551 |
$99,551 |
$99,551 |
$99,551 |
|
|
|
Total Zoom Cost |
$472,991 |
|
Total Agreement Cost |
$569,618 |
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
Pursuant to Alameda Municipal Code section 2-61.7 (Joint Purchases with Public Agencies), purchase of equipment, among other items, may be purchased without resorting to formal bidding provided that the price paid by another public agency was itself the subject of competitive bidding. Product licensing will utilize the OMNIA Partners Cooperative Purchasing Contract #R240303 while phone hardware and implementation services will utilize the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Contract #120122-MBS. In accordance with City Administrative Instruction Number 5 (“Purchasing Policy”), products and services may be purchased through cooperative purchasing such as OMNIA & Sourcewell.
This action is subject to the Levine Act.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action does not constitute a “project” as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 and therefore no further CEQA analysis is required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
There are no identifiable climate impacts or climate action opportunities associated with the subject of this report.
RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager to execute a five-year agreement with Maverick Networks Inc. for (1) telephone hardware and implementation services, and (2) a cloud-based (Zoom) unified communications telephone system for a total compensation not to exceed $569,618.
Respectfully submitted,
Demetrius Cagampan, IT Director
By,
Demetrius Cagampan, IT Director
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Ross McCarthy, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Service Provider Agreement
2. UCaaS Agreement
3. OMNIA Partners Cooperative Purchasing Contract #R240303 (Zoom - UCaaS)
4. OMNIA Partners Cooperative Purchasing Contract #R240303 (Revised Survival Clause)
5. Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Contract #120122-MBS (Maverick - Telephone Hardware and Implementation Services)