R2007-141 ACCEPTING BID AND AUTHORIZING CONTRACT

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DECATUR POLICE DEPARTMENT MEMORANDUM#07-47 TO: Mayor Paul Osborne and the Decatur City Council SUBJECT: Recommendation to City Council Purchase of new System I(formerly AS/400) machine DATE: July 27, 2007 SUBMITTED BY: James Anderson, Chief of Police � Edward D. Smith, Deputy Chief of Police�o",�C ' Dave Johnston, Director MIS �' SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: The recommendation of the staff of the Decatur Police Department and MIS is to accept the bid and purchase the 9406-520, system I machine, as specified from Levi, Ray Shoup, (LRS); Springfield Illinois for a purchase price of$41,535.00. BACKGROUND: The series I(formerly AS/400) is the data warehouse for all criminal justice activities performed by the Decatur Police Department and also to some extent the Macon County Records Division. ' The operation and maintenance of this machine is of such importance that the recommendation of the Police Department was to sole source this bid to LRS who have been our sole source and maintenance provider since 1995. There were two bids accepted for the new machine, the LRS bid which is $41,535.00 and the MSI Systems Integrators bid at $38,097.02, a difference of$3,437.98. Though MSI's bid is lower than LRS, there are some important distinctions that must be made prior to the acce tance P of this bid. MSI went out of the specifications of the bid and proposed an"express"machine, mode19405- 520. Though this is basically the same machine as specified in the bid there are some issues. In lay man terms the "express machine is equivalent to purchasing something off the rack,while the original bid called for a designer machine specifically configured to fit the needs of the Decatur Police Department. Though there are more"bells and whistles" on the express machine, they do not come without costs, an example would be the extra '/4 tape drive. This drive was not specified in the original bid and will add a$25 to $30 to the yearly maintenance cost (per IBM). The current machine is 10 years old, this added maintenance expense alone would account for $3000.00 unneeded costs over the life of the machine.