07-16-10 BPU RPT 14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

W A T E R I E N E R G Y I l I E E RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES Board Memorandum P U B L I C U T T I I T T F $ BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES DATE: July 16, 2010 ITEM NO: 14 SUBJECT: URGENT PURCHASE OF REMITTANCE PROCESSING HARDWARE AND RELATED SOFTWARE ISSUE: That the Board of Public Utilities approve the urgent purchase of hardware and software for remittance processing system. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Public Utilities approve an agreement with Netvantage, Inc., of Rockville, Maryland, in the amount of$65,407 for the urgent purchase of hardware and software for remittance processing system. BACKGROUND: The existing remittance processor system used by the Finance Division to capture Utility payments is an obsolete NCR brand 7780 machine. The City acquired the existing system in 1999. This aging equipment fails frequently and availability of parts has become a serious problem. Over the past several months, failures have occurred almost daily. This equipment is critical to capturing and depositing millions of dollars in checks and credit card payments. A failure that requires even a few hours to resolve can result in missing bank deadlines for deposits and loss of interest income. Depositing Utility payments on a daily basis is extremely important and given the increasing frequency of problems, parts availability issues and prolonged resolution times ordering a replacement system has been escalated to an urgent necessity. Staff from Finance, Public Utilities, and Information Technology agreed that acquiring a replacement system from the existing software provider, Netvantage, Inc., was the most expeditious, least disruptive and lowest cost approach to resolve this matter. Additionally,acquiring software and hardware through one vendor precludes further delays. Because of the critical nature of the billing software, and the recent failures in the system, the City's Purchasing Services Manager has waived the competitive procurement requirements for the acquisition of the hardware and software, as it is in the best interests of the City to do so. With such waiver, staff was able to proceed quickly with this procurement and avoid further failures. Also, because of the cancellation of the July 2, 2010 Board meeting, staff presented this procurement to the City Council for consideration on July 13, 2010. FISCAL IMPACT: The total purchase price is $65,407. Sufficient funds are available in Account No. 6004009330-42680006. Prepared by: Steve Reneker, Chief Information Officer Approved by: David H. Wright, Public Utilities General Manager Approved by: Belinda J. Graham, Assistant City Manager Approved as to form: Gregory P. Priamos, City Attorney