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HomeMy WebLinkAbout15.F.2. Laderfiche Digital Imaging System CITY OF SHAKOPEE IS: F. ~~ Memorandum TO: Mayor and City Council Mark McNeill, City Administrator FROM: Judith S. Cox, City Clerk SUBJECT: LaserFiche Digital Imaging System DATE: April 14, 2005 INTRODUCTION: City Council is asked to consider authorizing the purchase of a LaserPiche digital imaging software system. BACKGROUND: The City Council authorized a contract with Bradley & Guzzetta, LLC on October 19, . 2004 to prepare a request for proposals (RFP) and to work with staff on the acquisition and implementation of a digital imaging system. Attached is a copy of the memorandum from Ms. Tracy Schaefer, Bradley & Guzzetta, LLC, outlining the steps that have been taken thus far, the benefits of a digital imaging system, information on the vendors who responded to the RFP, phases for implementing the system, budgetimpact, and recommended actions for Council consideration (Action Requested on page 4). Hand in hand with the acquisition of the imaging system is the recommendation to increase the part-time Records Clerk position to full-time. The Records Clerk will be the person who will be scanning and indexing the city's records. See separate memo regarding the Records Clerk position elsewhere on the April 19, 2005 agenda. RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that City Council hear the presentation by Ms. Schaefer on the imaging system, obtain answers from her on any questions that might arise, and, if Council concurs, take action on her recommendations, as outlined in her memo on page 4 under Action Requested. g:\clerk\judy\digital imaging City of Shakopee Memorandum TO: Telecommunications Commission Mayor, City Council Mark McNeill, City Administrator FROM: Tracy Schaefer, Bradley & Guzzetta, LLC SUBJECT: Purchase LaserFiche Digital Imaging System MEETING DATE: April 19, 2005 Introduction It is recommended that the City Council enter into an agreement with Crabtree Companies, Inc. ("Crabtree") Twin Cities LaserFiche vendor to implement a digital imaging scanning system to store and manage city records electronically. Background As the City continues to grow, so have the number of City documents. By purchasing a digital imaging system, rather than relying on paper documents and expensive storage cabinets, the City will be able to realize workplace efficiencies, cost savings, increased access to records for the public and city staff and improved document security. The digital imaging committee (Tracy Schaefer, Bradley & Guzzetta, LLC, Judy Cox, City Clerk, Lori Hensen, Records Clerk, Bonnie Mauritz, Building Department Secretary and Kim Henke, MIS Coordinator) reviewed and interview numerous vendors and digital imaging software providers before determining it was in the City's best interest to send RFPs to LaserFiche vendors. A few city benefits realized from purchasing a new LaserFiche digital imaging system: 1. Increased records security. Protect record integrity with comprehensive security measures. 2. Disaster recovery features. Unlike paper documents that can be destroyed in a natural disaster, LaserFiche imaging software will allow for disaster recovery and off-site backup protection. 3. Ensure long-term records preservation with digital archiving. LaserFiche is a non-proprietary file storage format that maintains future accessibility. 4. Open architectures. This simplifies integration with standard municipal applications such as GIS and other municipal software. 5. Decreased time-consuming document searches. Currently, city staff must navigate between multiple floors and buildings to gain access to a document for internal or external needs. 6. Decrease storage space costs. The City has been spending thousands ,of dollars annually purchasing storage cabinets and is running out of space at City Hall for more document storage. 1 7. Improved public and staff access to information. After the launch of the new city website, the city will have the capability (Phase II) to make documents such as plats available online for public viewing. 8. Decrease expensive document reproduction and distribution methods. 9. Reduce or eliminate misfiling. 10. Scalability. LaserFiche allows the City to budget for future installations and expand organization wide, minimizing implementation risks. Vendor Background After City Council approved sending out the digital imaging RFP to LaserFiche vendors, the RFPs were sent to five (5) LaserFiche providers in the Twin Cities. Three (3) proposals were received; however, one proposal was received after the deadline. After consulting with the City's legal counsel, the decision was made to reject that proposal and to only open the two (2) remaining on-time proposals, Crabtree Companies, Inc. and TBS Automations. Although both proposals were of high quality, Crabtree's proposal a) had a lower overall price b) was much more experienced in deploying LaserFiche systems than the other proposer. Crabtree has successfully installed LaserFiche systems into over 50 organizations and over 1000 workstations within those organizations. A few city clients include the cities of Savage, Prior Lake.and Apple Valley c) Crabtree also worked with Savage to be the first LaserFiche vendor in the country to integrate GIS and LaserFiche applications d) Crabtree has a thorough knowledge and working relationship with staff at LOGIS. After B&G completed a thorough review of the proposals, price and reference checks, the digital imaging committee met to review the information and felt very comfortable recommending Crabtree to the City Council to implement and maintain Shakopee's digital imaging system. Phases Due to the cost, staffing resources and the time to implement the numerous products that LaserFiche has to offer, it is recommended that the City not purchase all applications during Phase I, but to implement the full system in phases. Phase I I. Work with Crabtree to install and setup software and configure the LaserFiche server and workstations. 2. Purchase "base" LaserFiche software with licenses for four full viewers. This will allow the City to implement the system in the Building and City Clerk's Departments. As additional departments are added, the City can purchase more licenses to add more users. 3. City will purchase one 11 x 17 scanner and one desktop scanner to begin scanning backlog and current city 11 x 17 and 8 Yz x II documents. (The scanners do not have the capability to scan large format documents.) 4. Crabtree will provide end user and following up training. 2 5. Purchase.a one-year Crabtree support/maintenance service agreement. The agreement will give the City 10 hours of prepaid on-site support and on-going maintenance of the software, upgrades and patches for the LaserFiche system. 6. City will purchase digital imaging server and appropriate Microsoft Sequel Server software. The City will install and set-up the Microsoft Sequel Server. 7. Work with Crabtree to determine the best option for scanning backlogged large format documents such as plats, maps, etc. Phase II 1. Purchase Weblink Plug-in, $7995 one time cost plus $1590 annual support costs. This option allows users to view stored image files over the Internet. This will allow more city staff to view selected documents over the Internet, without having to purchase additional licenses. This needs to be completed, after the City's new website is launched. 2. Purchase Agenda Manager, $15,000 one time cost plus $3,000 annual support costs. The cities of Chanhassen and Savage are currently using the Agenda Manager to help post their city meeting packets online for the public to view. This needs to be completed, after the City's new website is launched. 3; Purchase additional user licenses, $1, I OO/work station, to allow more city staff to access the system. Phase III I. Deploy to other city departments. Deployment will be contingent on internal and external resources and department needs. Most communities deploy their police departments as the last department, due to the sensitive and unique nature of their documents. 2. Purchase Workflow Plug-in from LaserFiche, $15,000 one time cost and on- going costs, which are included in the annual support agreement. Workflow is a power tool that is setup to emulate a path of records, so that they can be sent for distribution or approval to a set group of users. Budget Impact Although the City Council budgeted $100,000 for this project, due to the recommended department budget cuts the project budget has been "reduced" to the requested Finance Department amount of $80,000 from the General Fund. It is recommended to enter into an agreement with Crabtree for an amount not to exceed $32,738, allocate roughly $26,300 for the City to purchase needed hardware/software and use the remaining $20,962 to scan backlogged documents. The City will need to budget roughly $5,434 annually for the annual support agreement ($3934) and server software ($1,500). Phase I Costs (Recommended 2005 Purchases) Crabtree Provide: 1. Implementation of the LaserFiche software - $6,500 2. LaswerFiche Software - $16,804 3. Training - $5,500 4. I-year Maintenance Support Contract - $3,934 3 TOTAL $32,738 City of Shakopee Purchase: 1. Digital Imaging Server - $15,000 2. Microsoft Sequel Server Software - $1,500 3. 11 x 17 Scanner - $6,500 4. Desktop Scanner - $3,500 TOTAL $26,300 Optional Phase I Purchase: It is recommended to use the remaining $20,962 to outsource the scanning of large format documents. The City currently has thousands of backlogged documents such as plat maps that need to be scanned and entered into the system. Currently, the Community Development and Engineering Departments have been paying for the scanning of such documents out of their operational budgets, as funds are available. It is highly recommended that the City Council authorize funds to allow city staff to work with Crabtree to select a scanning vendor that can assist Shakopee with its large format document scanning needs. B&G did research the cost of purchasing a plat scanner for scanning large format documents and the costs were upwards of $20,000. The scanners normally need to be replaced every few years, require costly maintenance agreements and need additional staff to scan the documents. Outsourcing such documents, at this time, is most cost effective method. On-Going Support Costs of Phase I I. . SupportlMaintenance Service - $3,934 2. Microsoft Sequel Server Software - $1,500 TOTAL $5,434 Phase II Costs To deploy the additional LaserFiche functions of Phase II, as outlined above, the City needs to budget roughly $28,685 (2005 prices) for the additional functions. The deployment of these functions is contingent upon available city resources and readiness of the city departments to utilize the new tools. Phase III Costs The City should budget at least $ I 5',000 for Phase III and potentially more, depending on the new resources that have been developed by LaserFiche or the City's desire to deploy high level functions to work with other city software like GIS. Action Requested With the assistance of the City's consultant, Bradley & Guzzetta, LLC: I) authorize the appropriate city staff to enter into an agreement with Crabtree Companies, Inc ("Crabtree") to purchase, implement, install, and train users on a LaserPiche digital imaging software system 4 2) enter into a separate a one-year software service maintenance agreement 3) authorize the appropriate city staff to purchase the necessary hardware and software to complete the digital imaging system 4) work with Crabtree to find an appropriate method to scan backlog city documents 5) the total project should not exceed $80,000. 5