CITY OF SAN MATEO
CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 17 Section Name: CONSENT CALENDAR Account Number: 10-2111 File ID: 25-10250 TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Information Technology Department
MEETING DATE: August 18, 2025
SUBJECT:
Customer Relationship Management Software and Services — Agreement RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt a Resolution approving an alternative purchasing procedure to award a three-year agreement to Catalis Public Works & Citizen Engagement, LLC for a Customer Relationship Management software system in the amount $140,500; approve $38,500 supplemental appropriation for the IT Department’s operating budget from the General Fund unassigned fund balance; and authorize the Director of IT to execute the agreement in substantially the form presented and issue amendments within the Agreement amount.
BACKGROUND:
City Council established a Council priority to explore the implementation of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, or 311 system. Staff was asked to research methods by which the City currently receives service requests and back-end systems where requests are managed, and then to select a suitable CRM that will work with existing back-end systems.
In response, a citywide CRM committee, consisting of representatives from each department, was established. The CRM committee developed requirements and issued a CRM request for proposals (RFP) on April 21, 2025. The City received 13 proposals by the May 19, 2025 deadline. A subset of the CRM committee reviewed and scored all proposal submissions considering functionality, vendor experience and qualifications, implementation timeline, and support and maintenance.
The scoring results for the top four vendors were as follows.
Vendor Overall score (out of 100) Ranking
Catalis 94 1
NebuLogic Technologies 85 2
Verint Systems, Inc 82 3
Comcate 80 4
The four highest scoring vendors were invited to present demonstrations to the CRM subcommittee. The demonstrations took place on June 16, 17, and 18, 2025. The CRM subcommittee determined that these demonstrations confirmed the vendor rankings as scored from the submitted proposals.
The full CRM project committee met on July 8 for a final discussion, and agreed to move forward with Catalis, the top- ranked vendor. Catalis supplied three municipal agency customer references, who were interviewed by members of the CRM committee. Feedback from all of the submitted references was highly positive. The breakdown of Catalis’ costs are as follows.
CITY OF SAN MATEO
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total
Request Management Enterprise – Software
Subscription Fees
$38,500 $38,500 $38,500 $115,500
Request Management Enterprise Implementation
– One-Time Professional Services Fees
$25,000 $25,000
Yearly totals $63,500 $38,500 $38,500 $140,500
San Mateo Municipal Code Section 3.60.030 generally requires competitive bidding for agreements of $100,000 or more.
San Mateo Municipal Code Section 3.60.070(h)(3) authorizes the City Council to approve an alternative purchasing procedure when it finds doing so is in the best interest of the City. In this case, utilizing the RFP process is more beneficial to the City because the City is not required to accept the lowest bid, but rather may evaluate other factors in addition to price such as functionality, vendor experience and qualifications, implementation timeline, and support and maintenance.
In addition, an RFP allows the City to consider proposals where the purpose and/or performance is known but for which no unique specification exists. This process is in the best interest of the City as proposals are considered upon ability along with cost savings to the City.
Based on the above, staff recommends awarding the CRM agreement to Catalis Public Works & Citizen Engagement, LLC because their proposal received the highest scoring based on the rating criteria, in addition to positive references with other municipal agencies. Project timelines will be laid out at the project kick-off meeting. It is anticipated to be a four-to- six-month project. We will conduct a communications campaign to bring awareness of the new system to residents, businesses and visitors.
BUDGET IMPACT:
In the adopted FY 2025-26 budget, $25,000 has been appropriated for the annual subscription fee based on preliminary estimates. If the proposed CRM agreement is approved, additional budget of $38,500 will be required to cover the subscription fee and one-time implementation costs, and years 2 and 3 subscription fees will be incorporated into future year operating budgets of the Information Technology Department.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
This agreement is not a project subject to CEQA, because it can be seen with certainty that it will not cause a physical change in the environment. (Public Resources Code Section 21065.)
NOTICE PROVIDED
All meeting noticing requirements were met.
ATTACHMENTS
Att 1 – Proposed Resolution
Att 2 – Agreement
STAFF CONTACT
Pete Owen, Director, Information Technology
[email protected]
(650) 522-7074