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HomeMy WebLinkAboutINS-18-004 - Mobile Workforce Management System - Purchase Order ExtensionREPORT TO: Finance and Corporate Services DATE OF MEETING: 2018-02-05 SUBMITTED BY: Greg St. Louis, P. Eng., Director, Utilities PREPARED BY: Les Jones, P. Eng., Utilities Engineer (Gas) WARD(S) INVOLVED: ALL DATE OF REPORT: 2018-01-24 REPORT NO.: INS-18-004 SUBJECT: Mobile Workforce Management System Purchase Order Extension ___________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION: That an extension of the purchase order be issued to Clevest Solutions Inc. for the mobile workforce management system in the amount of $221,055, plus H.S.T. of $28,737.15, for a total of $249,792.15 BACKGROUND: Through a request for proposal process, the City awarded the development and implementation of a mobile workforce management system for the three (3) Kitchener Utilities business areas: water meter, gas meter, and the rental water heater program/gas service to Clevest Solutions Inc. for $587,540.11 including H.S.T. The Clevest mobile workforce management system is asoftwareinterface to SAP and will replace the current manual intensive paper based system used to manage gas and water and rental water heater activities.With this software,SAP service orders will be scheduled and dispatched to becompleted by a Utilities technician using a mobile device in the field.The automation will increase efficiency and provide a seamless integration with other systems within the City. *** This information is available in accessible formats upon request. *** Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance. 3 - 1 REPORT: This report is being brought to council for approval in accordance with the Purchasing By-Law 2017-106, as the additional funding request is greater than $100,000 or 10% of the original contract price. Within the request for proposal process, staff looked for vendors to propose various systems which would provide a solution which would include varying levels of configuration and integration with our existing financial system SAP. The request for proposal process focused on obtaining the solution which provided the best value and staff wanted to enable the potential vendors to provide a creative solution to the resourcing constraint. During the initial stages of working with Clevest through the solution design document, it was identified that a significant amount of dedicated staff time would be required under their plan.Clevest had proposed a twelve (12) month project, from start-up to project completion in the Request For Proposal. This plan required blended project tasks so that all Utilities business areas would be engaged at the same time.Although this approach may be efficient for an aggressive project timeline, it was soon realized that staff could not devote the proposed amount of time on the development of the software, without affecting their day to day duties. This approach would likely impede or stop work groups within Utilities from completing their daily work and could ultimately prohibit customers receiving gas, water or rental water services in a timely fashion. Staff considered backfilling the positions however, itwas estimated that in order for City staff to accommodate the timeline, up to five (5) City staff would have to be dedicated to the project essentially full time during this twelve (12) month span. Based on the cost and learning curve required for these positions, this was not pursued. Working together, Clevest and the City identified that changing the approach to be multi-phased and extending it over an eighteen (18) month period will allow City staff to concentrate on the implementation of the software that affects their specific business area. Essentially, staff will be required to be engaged on project tasks that only affect their business area for shorter periods of time, with longer breaks to allow them to complete their regular duties, and minimize delays in delivering core services.This will also allow for any adjustments to the implementation/ training approach from lessons learned, for subsequent rollout to the other business areas. To accommodate this change Clevest will need their configuration and implementation teams to be dedicated to the project longer and to be engaged in three separate testing ort the three City workgroups. From the Clevest viewpoint, this will be aless efficient process requiring them to dedicate more resources. As an example, during the later stages of the project as one team is engaged in user acceptance testing for City business area, another team is working on configuration and implementation for the other two City business areas. 3 - 2 The extended implementation schedule will also require greater onsite presence by Clevest. Clevest has increased the number of onsite visits to ensure thorough requirements gathering, proper training of City staff as trainers and support during the separate rollout. Increased onsite visits will ensure better communication between our teams, lower the chances of unexpected project delays due to misinterpretations or missing information thereby reducing the likelihood of change requests and additional costs. The extension of the purchase order also incorporates the purchase (including maintenance and support for a ten year period) of two software tools. The first software is a routing tool called Nokia HERE which assists the scheduling engine to provide optimal routing and therefore sequencing of appointments within the Clevest solution. The alternative to utilizing the Nokia HERE software tool is to create the module.Using the ESRI software would require enabling the Network Analyst module within the Citys ESRI licencing agreement with an associated cost greater than using Nokia HERE software. The second software is a configuration tool called Genesis. With the purchase of the Genesis configuration tool, the City will be able to make any future modifications to the system without requiring the procurement of services from Clevest and will enable emerging end user business requirements to be completed in a timely manner. This ability to implement any modifications in a short period of time will provide City field technicians to see visible response to their feedback leading to greater ownership and adoption of the technology. Often these modification projects can have a cost between $15,000 to $45,000 depending on the scope of the requested changes and based on the cost benefit analysis, the purchase of this software configuration tool would be justified in the event the City has three modification projects within a 10 year period. ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN: vision through the delivery of core service. 3 - 3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The net cost for this tender (A), is fair and reasonable for a purchase of this scope and the upset limit is within the budget allowance (B) provided within the budget. The Operating costs are for 10 years annual maintenance. The estimated surplus (D) will remain in the account to fund similar work conducted by the City. P16-055 Mobile Workforce Management System as at Jan. 24, 2018 Original PO Extension Estimated Cost TenderRequestedNew Total Proposal P16-055 costs, including HST587,540.11 249,792.15 837,332.26 less: HST rebate(67,593.11)(28,737.15)(96,330.26) Net Cost Being Awarded519,947.00 221,055.00 741,002.00 A Projected Costs: Hardware purchases -tablets273,179.71 Staff Time -data conversion100,000.00 100,000.00 Total Estimated Cost for this Phase of Work619,947.00 221,055.00 1,114,181.71 C Funding Available Operating Costs134,947.00 60,825.00 195,772.00 Capital Costs493,409.71 425,000.00 918,409.71 Total Budget for this Phase of Work628,356.71 485,825.00 1,114,181.71 B Estimated Surplus/(Deficit) forthis Phase of Work (B -C)8,409.71 -D This project has been in the capital budget since 2015. With this proposed increase, which is funded by the 2018 approved budget, the Clevest software solution is still significantly lower cost than the other proposals which had been received for this project, and provides the best value to theCity COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: INFORM with the agenda in advance of the council / committee meeting. PREVIOUS CONSIDERATION OF THIS MATTER: FCS-17-116 Award of the Mobile Workforce Management System June 5, 2017 Committee of the Whole ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Cynthia Fletcher,Executive Director,Infrastructure Services 3 - 4