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Council Meeting Minutes October 11, 1994 Page 12 Council Business After analysis by HTA and staff, it is recommended that Vicom's Tadiran Coral and T ALKX products be awarded the bid. If approved, the system would be installed over the Veteran's Day holiday. The reasons for the purchase of the Vicom system are: features and operations related similarly to the higher price product; the company's strong municipal and school district experience; flexibility in call routing and voice mail; technical support; maintenance; and training needs. Barry Todd, HT A, explained the many strengths of the new system compared to the current system. The new system utilizes a digital component which gives the user a higher sound quality. The system allows for assigning of individual employee phone numbers which will reduce transferring of calls from the switchboard. It utilizes a shared network system, and provides much flexibility to customize its user needs. Gunderman asked if the company has experience with non-profit organizations. Todd said Vicom has installed systems in the Richfield, Osseo, and Moundsview school districts and other municipalities. Gunderman asked if the bid includes a warranty. Todd said staff and HTA created a "Project Objective" document which state the reasons for the system installation and objectives to accomplish with the installation. The City's acceptance will be tied into progress payments which will eventually determine the award of the final payment upon fulfillment of all City expectations. Todd noted that the response time for system repair would be 1 1/4 hour. Jeanetta does not recall an incident when the current system had failed. Gunderman asked for clarification of the services provided by the bidders. Todd explained that staff prepared a decision making model which allowed each vendor to illustrate their ability to satisfy a particular set of criteria. Gunderman asked if school district employees were polled of their satisfaction. Todd spoke to the system administrator at each location and discussed user satisfaction and implementation. Jeanetta said a group of City employees researched the system and called users at each school district. The Moundsview School District's voice mail system is different that the one the City's proposes to purchase. The Robbinsdale School District is very pleased with their system. Staff was fully prepared to recommend the higher price product if they felt there were qualities of that system which justified the higher cost. Williams noted Gunderman's apprehension in endorsing a system that Moundsview Schools had difficulties. He noted the importance to determine those reasons which had burdened the Moundsview systems. Todd noted that Moundsview has been a Vicom partner for sometime, but implementation of their system evolved over a period of time. Because of this, not all departments have the same design systems. Samuelson asked how long the product has been available and if the system would be updated. Todd said the product platform has been available since 1986. One criteria that a vendor was required to provide their most mainstream product platform, and any new features in the platform. Samuelson asked if this system will work well with this size of organization. Todd feels the product platform is ideal for the City's size and provides much flexibility and is easy to administrator and support. Samuelson noted that the bid came in favorably. Jeanetta confirmed Vicom will interview each user to determine the style of phone and service needed. Council Business I Purchase of Phone System Report 94-237 I I