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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: Amendments to Existing City Contract Nos. C106037 and C106038 with N.
Harris Computer Corporation to Provide Continued Technical Support and Maintenance and Professional services for Glendale Water and Power Customer Information and Billing Systems and Modules.
1. Motion authorizing City Manager, or his designee, to execute Amendment No. 6 to the Technical Support and Maintenance Agreement (Contract No.
C106037) with N. Harris Computer Corporation for an additional five years in the amount not to exceed $4,211,906 through Fiscal Year 2028-2029, for a total contract not-to-exceed amount of $7,327,908.
2. Motion authorizing City Manager, or his designee, to execute Amendment No. 5 to the Software Implementation and Professional Services Agreement (Contract No. C106038) with N. Harris Computer Corporation for an additional five years in the amount not to exceed $600,000 through Fiscal Year 2028-2029, for a total contract not-to-exceed amount of $1,887,853.
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Consent Item
Approved for June 4, 2024 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Harris Computer Systems (Harris) has been providing Glendale Water and Power (GWP) Customer Service with Customer Information and Utility Billing System (CIS), and payment processing services since May of 1999. The current version of the CIS software GWP is using is called NorthStar Utilities. NorthStar is Harris Computers flagship software and continues to stay relevant with new and integrated technologies.
This Contract covers the annual license, technical support, and maintenance for GWP’s NorthStar Customer Information and CIS, and associated software programs and modules, including My GWP web portal for customer online billing and payments services, Outage Management System, Service Order Management, and integrations with third party software to support customer engagement solutions. It also provides “as needed” professional services and system modifications and enhancements to support new software programs, new state and local initiatives, and services. 2{{section.number}}c
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RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager to extend the term and execute amendments to two existing agreements with Harris for an additional five-year term for each, Technical Support and Maintenance for a total amount not to exceed $4,211,906, for a new contract amount of $7,327,908, and C106038 Software Implementation and Professional Service agreement for an amount not to exceed $600,000 for a new contract amount of $1,887,853 pertaining to the City’s utility customer information and billing system and its modules for a five-year term for a total amount not to exceed $4,811,906, for a new contract amount of $9,215,761.
ANALYSIS
Harris Computers Systems have been providing GWP with Customer Information and Utility Billing System (CIS) services since May of 1999.
The Harris NorthStar System is GWP’s system of record for all utility customers and meter data and has grown exponentially since it was first installed. Today, the system and its modules provide vital information and data for many of the GWP Modernization systems including integrations with the Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI); Meter Data Management System (MDMS); Openway Electric Meter Collection engine; Water Savesource Fixed Network; OSIsoft Pi Historian; Outage Management System (OMS); “My GWP” Billing and Payment website, and the new SMART VX virtual billing module.
Additionally, the CIS system and its modules have over 700 users citywide and is used on a daily basis by GWP, Finance, Public Works, The Fire Department, The Police Department, Neighborhood Service, Community Development, and the City Clerk to respond to customer requests; investigative work; data analysis; financial reporting, and billing for electricity; water; sewer; rubbish; hazardous waste; fire permits and licenses; fiber optic services; paramedic membership, and utility users tax. The system also supports over 1,000 custom and automated reports and over 50 integrations using the TIBCO enterprise service bus which supports many data integrations for customer engagement programs such as WaterSmart, Opower, Franklin, Sagewell, etc.
The extension of the existing two agreements with Harris Computers is critical to the daily operation of GWP Customer Service and utilizes multiple services and modules provided by Harris on a daily basis, as indicated below, including:
•NorthStar CIS - daily billing and payment processing, customer information, move in/out services, service orders, financial information, meter data, and more; •“My GWP” online billing and payment web portal;
•Mobile Service Order Management System (mCARe) for field service order and investigations, move in and move outs, disconnects, meter replacements and exchanges;
•Executive Information System (EIS) - view and read only CIS ‘light’ module used by Fire, Police, Community Development, City Clerk, Neighborhood Services amongst other city departments;
•DataVoice OMS - management and reporting of electric and water outages, dispatch field crews, and notify customers;
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•Integrated Voice Recognition (IVR) - provides customers the ability to report an outage, make a payment and provide billing and payment information over the phone;
•Meter Exchange Module - used to exchange small and large amounts of water and electric meters and validates the information prior to updating the CIS; •Automation Platform - automates several manual business processes within the CIS;
•TextPower - integrated texting messaging module to manage communication, opt outs, and sign ups;
•eDocs - integrated document management system;
•Invoice Cloud - hosted PCI compliant payment processing solution for check and credit cards payments, and
•SmartVX - personalized virtual Billing and customer communication and engagement module.
The Harris NorthStar software and its modules are vital to GWP operations and meeting the evolving needs of our organization and utility customers. Staff recommends amendments to the two existing agreements for technical software support and maintenance and software implementation and professional services for continued use of the NorthStar CIS and its modules through Fiscal Year 2028-2029. Please see Exhibit B for the five-year cost breakdown.
STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
Not applicable.
FISCAL IMPACT
The total not-to-exceed cost to provide Technical Support and Maintenance for software platforms Contract No. C106037 including, but not limited, to NorthStar CIS and its modules, as listed above, with N. Harris Computers for the five-year period is $4,211,906. Funding associated with the first year of the contract ($788,377) is in the FY 2024-25 Proposed Budget, per the table below.
Proposed FY 2024-25 Budget
Amount Account String Funding Source
$ 614,934 GL: 43110-5820-GWP-4521-P0000- Electric Works Revenue Fund
$ 173,443 GL: 43110-5920-GWP-4521-P0000- Water Works Revenue Fund
The total not-to-exceed cost for N. Harris Computers Software Implementation and Professional Services Contract No. C106038 for the five-year period is $600,000.
Funding associated with the first year of the contract ($120,000) is in the FY 2024-25 4{{section.number}}c
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Proposed Budget, per the table below.
Proposed FY 2024-25 Budget
Amount Account String Funding Source
$ 93,600 GL: 43110-5820-GWP-4521-P0000- Electric Works Revenue Fund
$ 26,400 GL: 43110-5920-GWP-4521-P0000- Water Works Revenue Fund
Funds for future years of the agreements will be requested through the annual budgetary process. Please see Exhibit B for the five-year cost breakdown.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
The action herein is not a project and as such the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is not applicable.
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
In accordance with the City Campaign Finance Ordinance No. 5744, the following are the names and business addresses of the members of the board of directors, the chairperson, CEO, COO, CFO, Subcontractors and any person or entity with more than ten percent interest in the company proposed for contract in this agenda Item report:
Please see the Campaign Disclosure for N. Harris Computer Corporation attached as Exhibit A.
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Alternative 1: Decline to approve the two amendments for continued technical software support and maintenance and software implementation and professional services agreements with Harris Computers through Fiscal Year 28-29.
The contracts will expire in June of 2024, and the City will no longer be able to bill utility and other City services and collect payments.
Transitioning to another customer information and billing system vendor would take at least two to three years, including the initial Request For Proposal (RFP) process, implementation, data migration, integration with other systems, and testing and at a total estimated cost of between $10 and $20 million based on similar projects at surrounding utilities.
Alternative 2: Consider any other alternative not proposed by staff. 5{{section.number}}c
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ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Submitted by:
Mark Young, General Manager - Glendale Water and Power
Prepared by:
Scott K. Mellon, Assistant General Manager - Power Management Michelle Nall, Utility Business System Support Administrator Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit A: Campaign Disclosure with N. Harris Computer Corporation Exhibit B: Fee Schedule for FY 2024/2025 through 2028/2029