THE PURCHASING DIVISION AND THE FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DEPARTMENT/ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTIONS.
This item supports the Board's value, "Consistently delivering responsive, efficient, quality services to the public and internal customers"; and its goal, "Build into every process and service effective checks and balances that do not cause inefficiency, but rather ensure consistency, continuity, and quality".
The purposes of these contracts are to provide the County maximum flexibility in choosing wireless solutions, various cellular products and services tailored to the County's operational needs.
On June 10, 2014 (Item No. 39), the Board approved the only one reasonable source designation and authorized the Director of Purchasing to negotiate, approve and execute open-end agreements per the State of Nevada Wireless Contract No. W4-2201, part of the Western State Contracting Alliance National Associations of State Procurement Officials (WSCA/NASPO) between Sprint Solutions, Inc. (Sprint), T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless Personal Communications LP D/B/A Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireless of the East LP D/B/A Verizon Wireless by Cellco Partnership, its General Partner (Verizon). Entering into the WSCA/NASPO agreement allowed the County to achieve greater discounts from cellular plans.
The State of Florida Department of Management Services Division of Telecommunications (DivTel) also provides telecommunications services through a technology program, known as SUNCOM. In early 2014, Enterprise Technology Services Division (ETS) analyzed the State of Nevada WSCA/NASPO contracts and the State of Florida SUNCOM contracts as part of an evaluation of options that best fit the County's operations. At the time of this evaluation, the SUNCOM contracts were strictly controlled by the State of Florida Department of Management Services and required the County to relinquish ownership of cellular phone numbers. Additionally, the State of Florida acted in the role of intermediary for the billing and collection of payments. This outsourcing model by the State of Florida was deemed as too restrictive. In contrast, the WSCA/NASPO contract allowed the County to maintain ownership of the cellular assets and provided flexibility of options across the selection of cellular carriers.
A recent cellular contract analysis indicated that the State of Florida SUNCOM Contract No. DMS-10/11-008 underwent necessary changes, providing municipalities and counties the ability to interact directly with the cellular carriers for services and equipment. County agencies will have the option to utilize either agreement vehicles relative to their line of business, without acquiring activation fees or early termination fees. Additionally, the State of Florida SUNCOM Contract No. DMS-10/11-008 renews annually and the County shall renew in accordance with the State of Florida, including extensions thereto.
The County intends to retain certain cellular plans under the WSCA/NASPO contract that offer the best cost efficiencies and transition other cellular plans to the State of Florida SUNCOM contract. ETS estimated a potential annual cost savings of $213,000 by utilizing a combination of these contracts, and calculated current usage while factoring allowances for growth and movement between the carriers. Additionally, this estimate included cellular communication residing at County traffic intersections, transit vehicles using cellular communications, telemetry and global positioning services. The total cumulative estimated annual amount for County wireless voice services, wireless broadband services, accessories and equipment utilizing both the State of Nevada Wireless Contract No. W4-2201 (WSCA/NASPO) and the State of Florida SUNCOM Contract No. DMS-10/11-008 (SUNCOM) is $1,600,000 (Exhibit 5).
Cellular services obtained through either the WSCA/NASPO or SUNCOM plan, each has an assigned unique business account number. ETS will be managing the County’s usage of cellular services through on-line portals provided by each carrier and will be able to distinguish contract usage and specific terms and conditions through the unique business account numbers. The business account numbers also allow ETS to review billing and device ownership.
A Sunshine meeting was held for each participating addendum: Verizon on June 7, 2016 and Sprint on July 7, 2016.
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