ORDINANCE approving and authorizing contract between City of Houston and CS DISCO, INC to provide Electronic Discovery Software and Services for Houston Information Technology Services and the Legal Department; providing a maximum contract amount - 4 Years with 2 one-year options - $2,354,000.00 - Property & Casualty and Other Funds

Request for Proposals received July 8, 2021, for S33 -T29822 - Approve an ordinance awarding an agreement to CS Disco, Inc. in a maximum contract amount of $2,354,000.00 to provide electronic discovery software and services for Houston Information Technology Services and the Legal Department.

Specific Explanation:
The City Attorney, the Chief Information Officer, and the Chief Procurement Officer recommend that City Council approve an ordinance awarding a four-year (4) agreement with two (2) one-year options to renew to CS Disco, Inc. in a maximum contract amount of $2,354,000.00 to provide electronic discovery software and services for Houston Information Technology Services and the Legal Department.

The Contractor will provide and perform electronic discovery software, implementation, and professional services. This agreement will allow the City to replace the old eDiscovery application that has limited capacity to meet the City’s current needs and allow for the purchase of a new commercial off the shelf solution that streamlines and automates the search for, preservation, collection, retrieval, review, and production of electronically stored information (ESI). ESI includes emails and documents stored in their native form on hard drives, personal and network drives, servers, cell phones, tablets, laptops, workstations, and in the cloud. This purchase will enable the City to effectively and efficiently manage the collection and comply with court rules governing how ESI is identified, preserved, collected, and produced. This agreement allows for professional services to be provided by Contractor, including without limitation, litigation support services, technical support, technological solutions, litigation document preparation involving ESI, discovery, document collection and management, trial support, and litigation support.

The Request for Proposals (RFP) was advertised in accordance with the requirements of the State of Texas bid laws. As a result, proposals were received from eleven (11) firms: Capsicum Group, LLC, CloudNine® Cloud9 Discovery, LLC, Consilio, LLC, CS Disco, Inc., Exterro, Inc., IPRO Tech, LLC, Legal Imaging, LLC, Lighthouse Document Technologies d/b/a Lighthouse, Modus eDiscovery, Inc., SHI Government Solutions, Inc., and TEQSYS, Inc. The Evaluation Committee (EC) consisted of City employees from the Legal Department and advisors from Houston Information Technology Services. The evaluation was based on the following criteria:

1. Responsiveness of Proposal
2. Technical Competence
3. Price

CS Disco, Inc. received the highest overall score and was deemed the best qualified firm to meet the requirements outlined in the RFP.

This item was presented to the Transportation, Technology, and Infrastructure (TTI) Committee on December 1, 2022.

MWBE Participation:
MWBE Zero Percentage Goal Document approved by the Office of Business Opportunity.

Pay or Play:
The proposed contract requires compliance with the City’s Pay or Play ordinance regarding health benefits for employees of City contractors. In this case, the contractor provides health benefits to eligible employees in compliance with City policy.

Hire Houston First:
The proposed contract requires compliance with the City’s Hire Houston First (HHF) ordinance that promotes opportunity for Houston businesses and supports job creation. In this case CS Disco, Inc. does not meet the requirements for HHF designation; no HHF firms were within three percent.

Fiscal Note:

• Funding for this item is included in the FY2024 Adopted Budget. Therefore, no Fiscal Note is required, as stated in the Financial Policies.

• No significant Fiscal Operating impact is anticipated as a result of this project.

$1,954,000.00 - Property & Casualty Fund (1004)
$   400,000.00 - Equipment Acquisition Consolidated Fund (1800) **

$2,354,000.00 

** Total Previously appropriated by  Ord.  No. 2021-705