To: County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector (ACTTC) and Information Systems Department (ISD)
Staff Name and Phone Number: Blane Jolliff 565-8322 and Shane Lewis 565-6031
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Agreement with Simpler Systems for Reporting Technology
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Authorize the Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector and Director of Information Systems Department to execute a Professional Services Agreement with Simpler Systems, Inc. for reporting services, licenses, and maintenance for the period January 13, 2021 to January 12, 2026 for a total amount not to exceed of $649,900.
end
Executive Summary:
The Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office (ACTTC) and Information Systems Department (ISD) request the Board authorize the ACTTC and ISD Director to execute a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) in an amount not to exceed of $649,900. The PSA includes $379,900 in professional services for reporting technology of three distinct data warehouses (EZ FAMIS, EZ EFS, and EZ eP), travel and training, $240,000 for licenses and maintenance fees for five years, and $30,000 for platform upgrades.
Discussion:
The County of Sonoma began using the Simpler Systems in 2005 with EZ FAMIS, a platform that provided a simple interface and increased functionality for end users to access the legacy data in the mainframe financial management systems. In 2014, Simpler Systems developed EZ eP to provide a similar interface and functionality to the County’s human resources data in the ePersonality application. In 2015, Simpler Systems extended the platform to the County’s new PeopleSoft financial management system with EZ EFS. In support of systems, ACTTC and ISD held various contracts with Simpler Systems for reporting, licensing and maintenance. In 2016, the Board approved the current comprehensive agreement that includes all services, licenses and maintenance in order to improve contractual oversight and management of technical services. This agreement included $417,900 in new services and $242,000 in recurring services, and is set to expire January 12, 2021.
A Request for Proposal (RFP) was not issued as retaining consistency, reporting capability and access to historical data is important especially with the telework posture the County is operating under. In addition, to transition to a new vendor and solution would have required significant development effort of an alternate reporting platform, templates and reports resulting in substantially increased costs, as well as immediately creating a large scale training and change management need across the organization that would need to be immediately addressed and would be extremely difficult given the pandemic.
Simpler Systems, Inc. develops, implements and supports a software platform that allows end users to navigate data independently using templates (dataapps) accessing various data warehouses allowing for hundreds of query-type reports using a combination of user interfaces versus static reports which need to customized with each different query. The ACTTC and ISD, in coordination with General Service Department’s Purchasing Division, have obtained a single source waiver based on determining it is in the best interest of the County to continue to contract with Simpler Systems as the reflected services are required to maintain consistency, reporting capabilities, and storage of existing data. The following criteria were considered:
1. Simpler Systems provides reporting systems using proprietary software which meets County departments’ requirements.
2. The technology allows department specific reporting from mission critical enterprise resource planning such as financial, budget and human resource-payroll systems.
3. The platform provides end users with a single, centralized view extracted from several disparate data warehouses in which the first such warehouse was accessed in 2005. Since that time, the County has expanded to include additional data warehouses to create a multi-component solution used by all County departments for which County owns the licensing from all end users.
4. The user community has embraced the EZ Platforms because of its user friendly interface. Other reporting mechanisms have not been able to meet the full needs of departments with the level of flexibility provided by Simpler Systems technology.
To ensure customer reporting needs continue to be met, the ACTTC and ISD recommend contracting with Simpler Systems for custom reporting and data integration for the three dataapps (EZ FAMIS, EZ eP, and EZ EFS), training, travel, licensing and maintenance costs. The total costs shall not exceed $649,900.
A breakdown of services and costs is included in the table below. Historical EZ FAMIS data is static and, therefore, will not be subject to licensing, maintenance or platform upgrade fees.
|
Services |
Unit |
Cost |
|
Professional Services-templates for EZ FAMIS, EZ eP, EZ EFS |
2,000 hours x $185 per hour |
Up to $370,000 |
|
Professional Services-Training |
40 hours x $185.00 per hour |
Up to $7,400 |
|
Travel Expenses |
Airfare, lodging, ground transportation |
Up to $2,500 |
|
Subtotal Professional Services |
Up to $379,900 |
|
License and Maintenance Fees EFS/PeopleSoft HRMS/ePersonality |
$2,000/month x 60 months $2,000/month x 60 months |
Up to $120,000 Up to $120,000 |
|
Subtotal License and Maintenance Fees |
Up to $240,000 |
|
Platform Upgrades EFS/PeopleSoft HRMS/ePersonality |
$15,000 $15,000 |
Up to $15,000 Up to $15,000 |
|
Subtotal Platform Upgrades |
Up to $30,000 |
|
Total Contract Not to Exceed |
Up to $649,900 |
Prior Board Actions:
1/12/2016: Item #13 - Board authorized the Director of Information Systems and Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector to execute a Professional Services Agreement with Simpler Systems, Inc. for reporting services, licenses, and maintenance for the period of January 13, 2016 to January 12, 2021 for a total amount not to exceed of $659,900.
6/17/2014: Item #10 - Board authorized the Chair to execute and agreement with Simpler Systems for financial data reporting, maintenance and licensing of EZ FAMIS for the period of July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2019 for a total amount not to exceed of $128,400.
6/25/2013: Item #52 - Board authorized the ISD Director to execute a second agreement with Simpler Systems for human resources and payroll data reporting to increase the amount of the agreement an additional $13,340 for a total not to exceed of $37,340 through August 2013.
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 20-21 Adopted |
FY21-22 Projected |
FY 22-23 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
$130,000 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
The costs associated with this PSA request are budgeted in the ACTTC’s Enterprise Resource Planning Internal Service Funds and are funded through user charges referred to as Enterprise Resource Planning System Charges. Internal service funds are separate from the County’s General Fund and are typically used to report activity that provides goods or services to departments of a primary government and/or other governments on a cost-reimbursement basis.
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Staffing Impacts: N/A |
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Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
Professional Services Agreement
Single Source Waiver
Exhibit A Scope of Work
Exhibit B Insurance Requirements
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
N/A