ADMINISTRATION - Bryan Schafer, Planning & Community Development Director
Title
AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR AND CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT WITH INTUITIVE MUNICIPAL SOLUTIONS (IMS) TO REPLACE THE EXISTING PERMITTING SOFTWARE SYSTEM IN THE AMOUNT OF $99,918.
Background
The City has been using an early, and now outdated web-based version of TRAKiT to process and manage all permits within Building and Community Standards since 2006. The company that originally developed and sold TRAKiT systems has been sold multiple times and the customer service has eroded to the point where our current system is no longer supported. Over the past 6 months a user group of staff from IT, GIS, Community Standards (Fire), Planning, Building Inspections and the City Clerk’s office have been working on finding a solution to replace our TRAKiT software.
The user groups at the City agree that any new system should utilize the latest technology that would be a web-based application where citizens and contractors are able to pay fees, check the status of reviews and inspections, and schedule inspections online. Improved software and online permitting would increase overall efficiency and customer service (especially for future natural disasters, such as the hailstorm of 2016). An important future add-on request will be electronic plan review software. This will work in conjunction with the new permit tracking software to let multi-departmental teams review, markup, modify and update the same plans at the same time while working with designers and contractors.
Four vendors were contacted and their products, both on-site and cloud-based were reviewed. After many hours of software demos, proposal evaluations and reference checks, staff believes that the proposal from Intuitive Municipal Solutions (IMS) is the best solution for the City. A decision matrix spreadsheet was created with IMS scoring highest on meeting the City’s needs. IMS was also the least expensive proposal. Vendor bids ranged from $100,000 (IMS) to over $600,000.
The State of MN Construction Codes and Licensing Division has also dropped TRAKiT and has switched to IMS.
It is recommended that the City Council approve the permit tracking software replacement request and enter into a contract with IMS in the amount of $99,918.00 (includes acquisition cost and 2019 annual support and maintenance service). The new system would be installed and brought up to speed by sometime late summer/early fall. The 2020 support and maintenance cost for IMS would be just over $33,000.
Recommendation
By motion, authorize the Mayor and City Manager to enter into a contract with IMS for the replacement of the City’s permitting software system in the amount of $99,918.