Memorandum

Memorandum

To:                   David Corliss, Ass’t City Manager

Debbie Van Saun, Ass’t City Manager

Cc:                  Alan Landis, Purchasing Specialist

From:              Ron Hall, Information Systems Director     

Re:                  Disaster Recovery Service

Date:               September 15, 2005

Please include the following item on the consent agenda for the September 20, 2005 City Commission meeting.

Disaster Recovery Services for iSeries/400 System

Project Description: The City Hall iSeries/400 computer system houses mission-critical application and data for city operations.  These applications include budget and accounting functions, purchasing, payroll, utility billing, accounts receivable, fixed assets, code enforcement, building permits, land management, special assessments, and cemetery records.  This project includes off-site computer redundancy services to enable these critical applications to continue functioning in the event of a service disruption to the City Hall iSeries/400 computer system.

Project History:  Disaster recovery services for this system have been provided for a number of years by SunGard Availability Services.  Since the SunGard contract was due to expire in October 2005 a request for proposal was prepared for disaster recovery services and sent to interested vendors and placed on the DemandStar website.

Project Status:  Proposals were received from five vendors that could offer off-site computer facilities for hosting critical data.  All of these vendors offered remote access to their computer resources as well as the ability to send city personnel to the remote site if necessary.  A summary of responses is shown in the following table:

	Huber &	SunGard	Synergistic	Choice	First National
	Associates	Availability	Online Solutions	Solutions	Technology
Hosting Fee	$0.00	$0.00	$14,800.00	$9,900.00	$8,400.00
Setup Fee	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$2,670.00
Vendor-provided iSeries	$18,400.00	$18,000.00	$0.00	$7,800.00	$25,260.00
Remote connection charge	$0.00	$2,400.00	$0.00		$540.00
Testing Fee (48 hours/year)	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$1,200.00
Workspace monthly retainer	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$292.00	$5,760.00
64xx Printer				$1,600.00
Drop-ship equipment retainer	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$2,724.00
TOTAL ANNUAL	$18,400.00	$20,400.00	$14,800.00	$20,792.00	$45,354.00

Project Details:  Information Systems recommends entering into agreement with Synergistic Online Solutions for several reasons:  Aside from being the lowest cost proposal Synergistic also provides the closest facility to Lawrence at 32 miles to their Lenexa facility.  Synergistic will provide a dedicated iSeries/400 system at their Lenexa facility and offer nightly data backups to that system.  This will provide a second backup source for the City and offer a very acceptable recovery method.  Lastly Synergistic has been providing hardware maintenance service for the City’s iSeries/400 computer system for a number of years and is a proven service provider.

Project Funding:  Project funding for disaster recovery has come from several supporting departments in past years and would continue in a similar manner.  Specifically funding is derived from the following accounts:

            001-1070-557.26-05            Information Systems 18%

            501-1069-559.26-05            Finance/Utility Billing            53%

            501-7100-580-26-05            Utilities                                     6%

            502-3510-571.26-05            Public Works                         10%

            502-3520-572.26-05            Public Works                         10%

            505-3900-579.26-09            Storm Water                            3%

Action Request:  Information Systems staff requests approval from the City Commission to authorize the City Manager to enter into a three-year agreement with Synergistic Online Solutions for disaster recovery services in the amount of $14,800 per year.