Award of Contract – Information Technology Managed Service Provider
Staff report evaluating proposals for IT managed services and recommending a contract award to E.S. Williams & Associates Inc.
TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT
TO: Council DATE: October 8, 2019 FROM: Dawn Christenson, Director of Finance MEETING DATE: October 15, 2019
Award of Contract – Information Technology Managed Service Provider
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT Council approve the award of a contract for Information Technology Managed Services to E.S. Williams & Associates Inc. (ESW) at a monthly cost of up to $55 per user and $220 per server (exclusive of taxes) for a two-year term effective January 2, 2020, with up to three (3) additional one-year extensions.
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:
I concur with the recommendation.
PURPOSE OF REPORT:
To consider the results of a competitive process and award a contract for Information Technology Managed Service Provider to the proponent that represents the best value to View Royal.
DISCUSSION:
Novus Consulting has been View Royal’s information technology managed service provider (IT MSP) since 2008. At the time, View Royal had approximately 25 user devices (workstations and laptops) and 8 servers. Managed service fees over the last five years were:
| Year | Actual |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 52,750 |
| 2016 | 54,087 |
| 2017 | 54,122 |
| 2018 | 54,164 |
| 2019 | 60,164 |
A request for proposal for an IT MSP was issued on August 2, 2019 that allowed four weeks for proponents to prepare their responses. The scope of the work identified in the RFP included that currently provided by the incumbent, with the addition of the management of View Royal’s hybrid on-prem and cloud environment with Office 365. Five proposals were received before the closing time at 4:00 pm on September 3, 2019. All proponents were represented at the mandatory site meeting on August 9, 2019.
Given the highly technical nature of the work involved in this RFP, View Royal staff were assisted by an independent technology consultant firm, Regroove Solutions Inc. (Regroove), in preparing the RFP document and evaluating the responses. The proposals were evaluated by two individuals from Regroove, Director of Finance Dawn Christenson, and IT Coordinator Angela Atkinson, based on the stated criteria. The evaluation criteria included proposed service standard, service delivery methodology, qualifications and experience of both the firm and personnel assigned to the work, additional value-added service offerings, proposal completeness and clarity, and pricing. Proposals were scored individually before being aggregated and ranked. After the initial scoring, the top two proponents were invited to present their proposal in person and to respond to specific questions to provide additional clarification. These interviews were completed by the evaluation panel on September 27, 2019.
After careful consideration, the evaluators found that all proponents offered strong proposals, within a range of 15 points, as described below:
| Proponent | Score, excluding pricing | Pricing score | Total score | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E.S. Williams and Associates | 77.1 | 20 | 97.1 | 1 |
| Westcom Business Solutions | 73.1 | 18 | 91.1 | 2 |
| Softlanding Solutions Inc. | 76.3 | 10 | 86.3 | 3 |
| Myra Systems Corp. | 67.7 | 17 | 84.7 | 4 |
| Sea to Sky Network Solutions | 65.9 | 16 | 81.9 | 5 |
The evaluation committee recommends ESW as the successful proponent, having received the highest overall score and the lowest price. ESW is an Alberta-based firm with its main call centre in Calgary. View Royal will be assigned a dedicated local resource to service its needs under a service level agreement with specified response times depending on the severity of the issue.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
Based on the most recent count of 46 users and 16 servers, the annual cost for IT managed services is estimated at $6,050 per month or up to $72,600 per year. The billed cost will be adjusted monthly based on the actual number of users and servers. The contract will confirm the per unit price structure for the initial two-year term, with future rates to be negotiated prior to contract renewal.
The 2019-2023 Financial Plan projects IT contracted service costs in 2020 to be $62,950, with a 2% inflationary factor for subsequent years. The approval of this contract would require an increase to the annual budget by about $10,000 or 16% for 2020 and subsequent years. The cost increase reflects the growth in utilization of technology at View Royal, with metrics nearly doubling in 10 years.
The results of this RFP process confirm the IT service delivery model currently used by View Royal in contracting out for IT managed services rather than bringing them in-house, given the width of scope and depth of skills and abilities offered by a large firm versus a single resource.
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT Council approve the award of a contract for Information Technology Managed Services to E.S. Williams & Associates Inc. at a monthly cost of up to $55 per user and $220 per server (exclusive of taxes) for a two-year term effective January 2, 2020, with up to three (3) additional one-year extensions.
SUBMITTED BY: Dawn Christenson, Director of Finance
REVIEWED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer
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