S17-H26086- approve spending authority for the implementation of Microsoft Office365 for the fleet of city desktops in an amount not to exceed $405,200.00 through the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) for the various departments.
Specific Explanation:
The Chief Information Officer and the Chief Procurement Officer recommend that City Council approve spending authority for the implementation of Microsoft Office365 for the fleet of city desktops in an amount not to exceed $405,200.00 through the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) for the various departments. Additionally, it is also recommended that authorization be given to issue purchase orders, as necessary, to the DIR Go-Direct vendor Microsoft Corporation. The spending authority is estimated to sustain the departments for 12 months.
The Microsoft Corporation team will provide assessments, analysis, planning, training, installation, deployment and migration to Microsoft Office 365; and other components which include Office 365 security setup and data migration; along with Skype for Business for City of Houston users. These specialized professional services will provide guidance and expertise for the upgrade and migration of all City email traffic.
In 2009, HITS on behalf of the City of Houston, negotiated and entered into a tiered, multi-year Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement to purchase licenses and software maintenance for the fleet of city PCs. The purpose of this agreement was to continue the process of updating the City’s technology to current software standards and ensure that the City remains in compliance with stringent software licensing requirements.
The support for the on premise Exchange 2007 platform which maintains the City of Houston email services will end on April 11, 2017. Rather than replacing the out dated hardware and upgrading the Operating System (OS) and Exchange platform which would also require a significant change to underlying architecture, it was determined to be more cost effective to move such services to the “Cloud”. The City of Houston email component will be migrated to the government cloud version of Microsoft Office 365. This will include the migration of over 18,000 mailboxes to the new Office 365 platform in order to continue to receive support from Microsoft and mitigate security risks. Microsoft Office 365 licensing was previously approved by council on September 14, 2016 via Motion No. 2016-0435.
M/WBE Participation:
M/WBE Zero Percentage Goal document approved by the Office of Business of Opportunity.
Hire Houston First:
This procurement is exempt from the City’s Hire Houston First Ordinance. Bids/proposals were not solicited because the department is utilizing an interlocal agreement for this purchase.
Fiscal Note:
Funding for this item is included in the FY2017 Adopted Budget. Therefore, no Fiscal Note is required as stated in the Financial Policy Ord. 2014-1078.
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John J. Gillespie, Chief Procurement Officer Department Approval Authority Signature
Finance/Strategic Procurement Division