BACKGROUND: |
Since 1998, ISD has utilized Customer Information Management System (CIMS) resource accounting system maintained by CIMS Labs Inc., to aggregate and report on IT resources usage and costs, by individual departments and programs. We provide many of the municipalities within the County with similar information – in those cases where the County has partnering arrangements with the municipality. This system is well established, however, it has significant dependencies upon the County mainframe. Since the County has announced plans for County mainframe elimination, this is an appropriate time to upgrade the system and move off the mainframe. |
DISCUSSION: |
CIMS Labs has developed a product called CIMS Server that provides greater functionality than the current software and will reside on a non-mainframe platform. CIMS Server has functionally rich, web based and customizable reporting features. Additionally, this software will be compliant with existing County IT standards. Migrating from mainframe-based software to CIMS Server is the upgrade path recommended by the vendor. The annual maintenance costs for the current version of the software is $23,800. By executing this agreement for software maintenance over a five year period, CIMS Labs Inc., has agreed to waive: 1. A one time licensing fee, for the CIMS Server product, of $75,000 2. Any market increases in maintenance fees. Additionally, the maintenance for our current software will be included for the duration of the conversion. Since CIMS Labs Inc., owns intellectual property rights to the software, they are the sole source providers of the maintenance services. Additionally, we estimate that the cost, over five years, for a replacement system will exceed the total amount of this contract by as much as 200%. Hence we believe that it is in the County’s best interest to waive the Request for Proposals process. County Counsel has reviewed and approved the Resolution and Agreement. |
FISCAL IMPACT: |
The term of this Agreement is November 8, 2005 through November 7, 2010. The total obligation under this Agreement $129,900. Funds have been included in the FY 2005-06 budget and will be included in ISD’s recommended budget for future years. |