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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/07/09 Technologies April 7, 2009 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES BOARD HELD ON April 7, 2009 The Regular Session of the TECHNOLOGIES BOARD of The Colony, Texas was called to order at 6:30 pm on the 7th of April, 2009 at CITY HALL, in the City Managers Conference Room, City Hall, 6800 MAIN STREET, THE COLONY, TEXAS, with the following Technologies Board members present: Bill Swink Tim Tomlinson Steven Steele Steve Hoffman With four out of six members present a quorum was established and the following items were discussed. 1.0 Call Meetin to Order: 6:30 P.M. Meeting called to order at 6:30. 2.0 DISPOSITION OF MINUTES Acceptance of Technologies Board Minutes for a meeting held on March 3, 2009. 3.0 CITIZEN INPUT None 4.0 AGENDA ITEMS 4.1 Discuss, nominate, and vote on board appointments for vacant positions. Steven Steele volunteered to fill the vacant position of Secretary. 4.2 Discuss and request approval to replace the current phone systems with a new Digital/IP Phone system. Bruce Maker, IT Manager for the City, explained that the current system reached its end of life approximately 10 years ago. He would like to have one uniform system for the entire City and this would be the starting point. Steven Hoffman asked what the annual upkeep is for the current system. Mr. Maker said that we have spent approximately $2,500 this year. Mr. Swink asked if the parts are getting hard to find. Casey Wedgeworth with C2M Technologies, which currently supports the system, said that the replacement phones are relatively easy to come by but the parts for the cabinet are getting harder to find. Mr. Hoffman asked how upgrading to this system will allow the City to get rid of phone lines. Mr. Maker said that we would start by eliminating some fax machine lines. The new system will allow us to have desktop faxing capabilities. He said 1 April 7, 2009 the main goal is to reduce the number of lines. He estimated that we spend around $9,000 a month on phone service. Mr. Tomlinson asked what we would expect the monthly spending to be on a fully deployed system. Mr. Maker said we would probably have a total of 15 phone lines with a fully deployed system and those would be dedicated fax lines and emergency lines. Mr. Wedgeworth explained that the new system would give us some capabilities that we currently do not have such as transferring calls between City facilities and from a service standpoint he would be able to do it remotely versus sending a Technician out to the location. Mr. Hoffman asked what the $9,000 per month would go down to if we reduced the lines. Mr. Maker estimated that we could possibly go down to $600 per month. Mr. Hoffman asked why we just do not do the entire City to take advantage of the savings because it seems as though we would recover the cost through savings in as little as one year. Mr. Maker said that the savings would be realized when we do the entire City. To fully outfit all City buildings and take advantage of that savings we would probably have to spend and estimated $150,000 versus $65,000 for City Hall. Mr. Steele asked which system they are recommending. Mr. Wedgeworth said they are recommending the Samsung 7400. Mr. Steele asked what the survivability is as far as power outages. Mr. Wedgeworth said they would have to look at what type and size of UPS would be in place. Mr. Maker said the current UPS will keep the phone system up for about one and a half hours. Mr. Maker explained that the new system will not affect the 911 ring down phones at the Fire Stations and Aquatic Park. Mr. Swink asked if City Hall is backed up by generators. Mr. Maker said that the Police Department, Office Creek Pump Station, and the Fire Stations are. Mr. Hoffman asked what we would be getting for $65,000. Mr. Maker explained that they would come in and take out the old system and install the new system over a weekend. Mr. Hoffman asked if we would be getting rid of the current plexar system. Mr. Maker said we would not because that is what the Police Department is currently using. Mr. Hoffman asked if we would need to do the entire City at one time to take advantage of it. Mr. Maker said the main reason for getting the new system is to replace the one at City Hall but to also get us IVR capabilities for Utility payments. Currently the Utility department is taking approximately 20 calls per day. The system will be programmed into the financial software and eliminate the need for a Customer Service Representative to be on the phone for an extended period of time. Mr. Tomlinson asked if the $65,000 includes the programming for the IVR. Mr. Maker said it does. Mr. Steele asked if they had looked at the price for the entire system. Mr. Maker said he had not priced it out. Mr. Hoffman asked why we would not consider doing the entire system at one time because of the cost savings. Mr. Swink asked if we were waiting on the Police Station because of the current expansion. Mr. Maker said the fiber is not up and running yet and they are still working on the remodel plans. He does not know what they will need until that is complete. Mr. Maker said this item is not funded for this year and they would like to do it in increments. Mr. Hoffman asked if we could work out some sort of deal for doing the entire system. Mr. Wedgeworth said that he would have to look at it. Mr. Steele asked if we would have to get bids. Mr. Maker explained that because it is over $50,000 we would have to go out for bid and then to City Council. Mr. Steele said there is a lot of new technology with Centrex and asked if we had looked at that as an option. Mr. Maker said that in doing IP we would want to keep it in house. Mr. Wedgeworth explained that you would have a hosted environment with Centrex and there are several things you would lose with that even something as 2 April 7, 2009 simple as making a call where as if one of our systems goes down they would be able to route the calls through one of our other systems. Mr. Steele asked what the life of the product is. Mr. Wedgeworth said that the Samsung is a true mix and match system. You can upgrade several components in the cabinet without having to replace it. Mr. Steele asked if the system tops out at 500 lines. Mr. Wedgeworth said that he did not want to say that it is unlimited lines but with IP you have several options of binding cabinets to make more extensions. Mr. Tomlinson asked if they had any estimates on support and maintenance for the new system versus the old system. Mr. Wedgeworth said that he could probably support it for a very long time because he is constantly removing old systems like ours and he has an abundance of them but he will eventually run out of parts. He said the new system will have remote administration and a 5 year equipment warranty for everything. They would then go to a base maintenance agreement but he has included training for the IT staff in the package and he feels that they would be able to maintain it. Mr. Steele made a motion to recommend approval to replace the current phone systems with a new Digital/IP Phone system. Mr. Tomlinson seconded the motion. Motion carries. 4.3 Discuss National Communications System (NCS) Priority Telecommunications Services. Mr. Maker explained that the NCS is a Federal program that works under Homeland Security along with FEMA. The first program is called TSP or Telecommunications Service Priority and it means that all circuits we deem as a necessary for emergency responses are put on a priority service as needed. The provider should arrive at our site within an hour to begin working to restore services to those circuits. Mr. Hoffman asked if this is a free service. Mr. Maker said it is a free service to municipalities and emergency government situations. We would provide NCS with our numbers and they would put it in their system. We would have priority over other jurisdictions that do not have this service. The second program is called GETS or Government Emergency Telecommunications Service is basically a calling card. The card is free to have but not necessarily free to use. During an emergency if all circuits are busy you would activate the calling card and have priority service to land lines. These would be provided to first responders on staff. The third program is called WPS or Wireless Provider Service and we are currently talking to the wireless provider about implementing this and trying to get the monthly fee of $4.50 waived. There is a monthly cost and an activation fee per device that you have it on. We would be looking at having it on 12 phones. Mr. Swink asked if this would be dedicated to the device. Mr. Maker said it would be. With this program you will dial a specific code before dialing the number and you would then have priority service as you would with the GETS system. Mr. Swink asked if this would drop someone else off of a call and Mr. Maker said it would not. Mr. Hoffman asked if Mr. Maker needed a recommendation on this. Mr. Maker said it was for information purposes only to let the Technology Board know what is being looked at. 3 April 7, 2009 5.0 ADJOURNMENT With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m. APPROVED: ,--7- R --L - fAf Y) Andrew urner, Chairman Betty P b~p fin, Reco ding Secretary 4