ELECTRONIC RECORDS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SOLUTION RFP AWARD

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT

TO: Council DATE: May 14, 2025 FROM: Sarah Jones, Dir. Corporate Admin. Mel Denys, Records Coordinator/Archivist MEETING DATE: June 3, 2025

ELECTRONIC RECORDS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SOLUTION RFP AWARD

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Electronic Records and Information Management Solution project (C-004) be awarded to Elantis Solutions Inc. in the amount of $164,710 net of taxes.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

• Option #2: Council may choose to not award the Electronic Records and Information Management Solution project, resulting in an increasing number of electronic records and information left unmanaged.
• Option #3: Council may approve the award of the Electronic Records and Information Management Solution project to a different proponent. However, this is not recommended due to the fact that the other proponents were not considered to be the leading proponents.

PURPOSE:

To seek approval for the award of the Electronic Records and Information Management Solution project.

BACKGROUND:

As described in the attached Project Summary (C-004), the Town of View Royal requires a compliant data and records lifecycle management system, using Microsoft products leveraged in the Town’s existing Microsoft365 (M365) tenant.

The budget will see the Town’s information migrated into the cloud and managed with M365 solutions. Data loss prevention, cyber security, and privacy safeguards will be deployed across the purpose-built environment and will allow for centralized information collections, collaboration, and efficient workflows. Ease of document retrieval will be supported by enhanced search functions and OCR (optical character recognition) machine-readable text. The amount is $172,000 with an allocation for operational costs.

The project was competitively bid through an RFP process that closed on March 19, 2025.

Ten proposals were received from proponents located across Canada and the United States. Proposals were evaluated on methodology and demonstrated understanding; proponent qualifications and experience; design functionality; pricing structures and cost estimates; and ease of use for end users.

Six of the proposals were over budget, one was determined to not sufficiently demonstrate an understanding of the project scope and deliverables, and three were subsequently interviewed.

The interview process confirmed that the recommended firm:

• assigned project personnel with extensive municipal (including British Columbia) experience with strong references;
• demonstrated a solution very much in keeping with the scope and deliverables the Town seeks; and
• provided an in-budget cost structure that is both flexible and provides opportunities for cost savings.

Staff recommend the award of the project to Elantis Solutions Inc. in the amount of $164,710 net of taxes.

ANALYSIS:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

Community Impact: The Town creates, captures, and receives electronic content throughout its daily administrative and operational duties while providing services and support to residents, businesses, and Council. The system that houses these records must ensure efficiency, transparency, and accessibility, and include standards-based frameworks complete with cyber security and risk mitigation to meet compliance with numerous legislative, regulatory, and insurance obligations.

Municipal governments of all sizes across Canada (for example, Colwood, Langford, Capital Regional District, West Vancouver, Penticton, London) are transforming their information management in pursuit of organizational excellence and strong service platforms. Digital operations are no longer a futuristic functionality; local government is expected to have the capability of joining business partners and community online – today. Meeting the demands of an increasingly tech savvy public, while protecting information assets from data loss and “bad actors” requires an investment in innovative tools that foster efficiencies and mitigate risk.

Improved response times for Freedom of Information requests.

Stronger interdepartmental workflows to enhance processing/turnaround times on permits and applications.

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Financial Implication: The recommended proponent is within the allotted budget.

Post-implementation, the Records Coordinator/Archivist will continue to guide the information management component, while a consulting technician will provide ongoing support for the M365 system and required IT operations. Leveraging the use of the Town’s existing Microsoft platform provides a cost-effective solution with such benefits as a broad familiarity for the system amongst IT consultants and end users.

Information governance has become a priority with the realization that the cost of an average data breach in Canada is $6.32 million (IBM’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024”), not including the cost of reputational damage. With 27,000 breaches each year in Canada (75/day), it is important to consider the risk appetite for class action lawsuits, insurance premium increases or insurance denials, and the loss of the public trust. While one thinks of cybersecurity incidents in relation to businesses (for example London Drugs and LifeLabs), local governments are also targets (Fort St. John, Hamilton, Panoka, Huntsville).

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

• Strategic Plan: Organizational Excellence – nurturing productive working relationships, pursuing excellence, commitment to innovation, transparent and responsive, best practices, enhancing customer service.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is:

[ ] Inform [ ] Consult [ ] Involve [ ] Collaborate [ ] Empower [x] N/A

TIME CRITICAL:

This project has been supported by Council for a number of years. The decision to hold off until now has been technology-based – awaiting the development of M365 features to match the requirements of rigorous records and information management standards. In the interim, staff have dedicated time and training to ensure the project will successfully govern the interconnected flow of information throughout each department in the organization. With the increasing number of records being generated by staff to conduct the Town’s operations, along with the advancements made in the M365 platform, now is the time to proceed with this transformational move.

CONCURRENCE:

REVIEWED BY:

ATTACHMENTS: Project Summary C-004