Agenda - Council - 09/27/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CASE # AUTHORIZE SUBMISSION OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR A~QUISITION OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE/HARDWARE By: Jessie Hart, Finance Officer Background:~ As you may all ~'ecall, there has been a significant amount of discussion regarding the existing data processing capa,bilities current]y at the City of Ramsey. This entails no~ only the capabilities of the financial and w~rd processing systems currently used, but the lack of automated data processing in other areas. We have spent t~e last several months reviewing the needs of the City as it pertains to automated systems and haqe found that there are many areas that should or could be automated to a higher degree with fav{rable effects. Some of these areas, to name just a few, are licenses and permits (including buildi~ag related permits); police; data retention; networking throughout all departments; and automated o~tsh receipting. The daily activities in some of these high volume areas are still being done by hand and typewriters. Included in the !995 Proposed General ?und Budget is $134,000 toward upgrading our current automated sysmms. To offset this amount, there is available $100,000 in the equipment replacement fun~, thus, new dollars for 1995 total $34,000. ideally we would like to accomplish the up~ade with~the utilization of as much of the current hardware as possible and acquire higher levels of software.. At this time, it i~ appropriate to send out requests for proposals (RFP's) to various vendors of software. In con~unction with their response on software, we will detail the types and levels of current hardward and software packages we utilize and ask, based on that information, what portions of that h~dware could be maintained with their particular software. Keeping in mind, of course, even if w~ keep the majority of the existing hardware, there will be up~ades necessary in certain areas to ~n new generation software. If the software they provide cannot utilize all or any of the existing hardware, they will be asked to provide a bid for the purchase and installation of hardware that wo~ld be appropriate under the circumstances. As I stated before~ it is the intent at this time to maintain as much of the hardware currently utilized, with the necessary, upgrades to run new software and add applications that do not currently exist. It is anticipated k{eping all of the MAC desk top PC's and incorporating them into a network, as well as obtaining/~dditional PC's for the Police Department, which will also be networked into the entire system. Al~o included will be the acquisition of upgraded hardware for the MAC systems to accommodate dat~ retention onto CD ROM devices, rather than maintaining ali information on a particular hard dr~ve or removable disk, and the addition of a lap top computer to assist police officers in the preparation of reports. The officers would have the ability to prepare information while in the squad~ and down toad onto a system upon returning to the Municipal Center. I have begun the p~eparation of the RFP utilizing a sample obtained from a CPA firm that does this type of work for it~ clients. This RFP deals mainly with software. Most computer purchases and upgrades are donel backwards, buy the hardware and then find software that is compatible. We wish to do it theicorrect way and acquire software that meets our needs and then find the appropriate hardw~e to run it. We are hoping that the software we find will be compatible with at least a portion of the existing hardware and that we will be able to obtain all of the software and hardware needs within the current proposed budge'[. -