HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - PURCHASE ORDER - 9190625Page 1 of 2
MEMORANDUM
DATE: 3/20/2019
TO: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
THROUGH: Gerry Paul, Purchasing Director
Dan Coldiron, City CIO
Pat Johnson, Senior Buyer
FROM: Mary Evans, IT Application Services Mgr. Utilities
RE: Request for Exemption to the Competitive Purchasing Process with Next Axiom
Technology, Inc. for purchase of Enterprise licensing and maintenance.
Purchase Amount: $89,377 one-time, $47,850 annual support/maintenance
Executive Summary
The purpose of this memo is to request approval of an exception to the competitive purchasing
process for expanding our middleware licensing of the Next Axiom development tool from 5
licenses to an Enterprise license for use by Utilities (unlimited users). Besides the large number
of existing integrations developed using Next Axiom, as we move to providing Municipal
Broadband, the need for the Next Axiom tool expands to a requirement beyond the current 5
licenses for developers. Next Axiom has offered a favorable pricing package and funding for this
is covered in the IT Application Services 2019 budget.
Exception to Competitive Bidding Rationale
Utilities has significant number of integrations and programs written in Next Axiom now
Tool is efficient and allows for more rapid development
Takes advantage of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which is becoming a standard.
Using services to exchange data between system highly desirable and works well with
modern Enterprise systems.
Utilities IT has embraced the technology and has well-honed skills using it.
Programming logic can be nested 15 levels deep.
Will continue to use Next Axiom for development of interfaces to the new Utilities Billing
system and Municipal Broadband.
Changing tools at this point would cause much rework and unnecessary cost to re-write3
all the highly critical integrations now in place.
Moving to another tool would result in substantially higher cost to the City & significantly
impede the City’s administrative functions and the delivery of services, such as Utility
Billing.
Price being offered is favorable and allows unlimited users.
Financial Services
Purchasing Division
215 N. Mason St. 2nd Floor
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6775
970.221.6707- fax
fcgov.com/purchasing
DocuSign Envelope ID: 501ED4AC-07AD-405F-97DF-25F588888A9E
Page 2 of 2
In accordance with Code Section 8-161(d)(3), City Council approval is not required for
exceptions less than $200,000.
Code Section 8-161(d)(1)(b). Although there exists more than one (1) responsible source, a
competitive process cannot reasonably be used, or, if used, will result in a substantially higher
cost to the City, will otherwise injure the City’s financial interests, or will substantially impede the
City’s administrative functions or the delivery of services to the public.
Background and Justification
IT Application Services for Utilities has actively been using the Next Axiom development tool
since approximately 2010. Next Axiom facilitates rapid development of interfaces between
major business applications as well as new development. For example, the Time of Day rates
were developed largely relying on Next Axiom. Next Axiom also was used to automate the
process of a customer requesting a new Utility service on-line and turning that into a Work
Order and automatically turning on the service (reducing wait time for customer from 3 days to 1
day). The Utility Billing system currently has ~ 80 integrations that use Next Axiom as their
basis.
Financial Impact
The one-time cost to go to Enterprise licensing is $89,377 and annual maintenance/support will
run $47,850. By comparison, the annual maintenance/support for just 5 licenses is $32,629. By
moving to the Enterprise license scenario, we will be paying $15K more per year to have
unlimited user licensing for the Utilities developers. We are currently using all 5 licenses
available to us, and as we bring on the new Open Smart Flex Billing System and move into
Municipal Broadband, we will need more Next Axiom licensing to support those providing the
development and interfaces in support of these critical Utilities business applications.
Recommendation
Recommend approval of an exception to the use of the competitive bid or proposal in
accordance with City Code Section 8-161(d)(1)(b) and 8-161(d)(2) and (3) which authorizes the
City Manager to approve exceptions less than $200,000.
Further recommend use this approval, as authorized by City Code Section 8-161(d)(4), as the
basis for negotiating the additional purchase of services from Next Axiom Technology, Inc. for
up to five one-year terms.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 501ED4AC-07AD-405F-97DF-25F588888A9E