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Chief Administrative Office, Procurement and Contracts Division, recommending the Board dispense with competitive bidding procedures in accordance with Section 3.12.160 B of the County Purchasing Ordinance; and authorize the Purchasing Agent to make a sole source purchase from Avaya Communications in an amount not to exceed $385,000 for hardware and software necessary to upgrade the County's telecommunications infrastructure.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approve.
FUNDING: Available within Information Technologies' budget.
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Fiscal Impact/Change to Net County Cost: No Change in Net County Cost.
Reason for Recommendation: Information Technologies was recently informed by Avaya of a forthcoming new release of the County telephone system management interface. The County is significantly behind in upgrades to the current telephone system. As a part of the telecommunications upgrade, Information Technologies planned a phased upgrade to the Avaya Communications Manager v3.0 Right to Use (RTU) licenses.
Avaya has announced the release of Communications Manager v4.0. End users below version 9.1 of the old management interface (the County is at v7.4) must upgrade their RTU licenses prior to February 5, 2007 in order to take advantage of significant discounts. Failure to purchase by this deadline will result in a substantial increase in cost to the County.
During the FY 2006-07 budget hearings, Information Technologies presented its telecommunications upgrade path plan to the Board, the Chief Administrative Officer, and the Information Technology Steering Committee. With the deadline imposed by Avaya, the Information Technologies Department is leveraging the purchase of RTU licenses and will also purchase current fiscal year upgrades to telecommunications equipment.
Avaya is currently marketing a special purchase plan, offering a 42% to 50% discount off national list price (discount varies by component type) to customers on Avaya equipment and maintenance support plans. This discount rate is only offered through Avaya directly. These discounts are not available through any Avaya channel partners.
Procurement and Contracts has verified that this special purchase plan for the requested software licenses and hardware is available only from Avaya direct. Therefore, your Board is being asked to authorize the Purchasing Agent to dispense with formal competitive bidding procedures in accordance with Section 3.12.160 of the County Purchasing Ordinance as competitive bidding would produce no economic advantage for the County given the unique nature of this discount offered by the manufacturer direct and authorize a sole source purchase to Avaya Communications in an amount not to exceed $385,000.00. A spreadsheet of the requested licenses and equipment is attached for your convenience.
In addition, Information Technologies will be coming back to the Board with a Professional Services agreement to support the installation of the telephone system upgrades.
Action to be taken following Board approval: Following Board approval, the Purchasing agent will issue a purchase order to Avaya Communications in an amount not to exceed $385,000.00 from Information Technologies 2006/2007 budget.
Contact: Bonnie H. Rich, Purchasing Agent x5940
Concurrences: Not Applicable