Agenda Packets - 1997/10/06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City of Mounds View Staff Report October 3, 1997 Page 2 connected by a leased telephone line; for the other systems, we assumed that we would need to • purchase a new computer file server in year one and year six, and that the software purchased would need to be upgraded to a new platform in year six at the same cost as the initial purchase. While this may not be needed, it provides a conservative method to evaluate the products in relationship to LOGIS. LOGIS - after first contacting them, they revised their pricing structure with discounts in the first several years. They recommended looking at a ten year period to get a true picture of the actual Information System's cost. Overall, LOGIS appears to be a provide a good product, however, it still appears to be very costly. In addition, several of the cities that we contacted who use LOGIS were exploring other options; due to LOGIS's pricing practice of allocating its costs between all cities on their system, as the number of users decreases, the cost to the other users will likely increase. While the offset should also be true (more cities should lower costs), LOGIS has not added any new cities in the last several years. In addition, LOGIS indicated that it intends to change some of its programs within the next several years which would require additional conversions and training. Overall, the software does not appear to be in the best long term interest of the City. Banyon - a low cost system without many capabilities or enhancements. Enhancements and support are lacking and most cities we contacted indicated that as a result, they are looking for new software. Also, most cities indicated that they have been trying to obtain a date when a • windows product would be available but have not receive any indication other than that it is being developed. This would likely result in us being required to use the existing product initially and then to convert to a new product in the next several years; this would require additional training. Overall, the software does not appear to be in the best long term choice for Mounds View. Micro Arizala. This firm has few customers in our region. Roseville presently uses them but has indicated that they are looking for a new system. The product appears to be similar to Banyon in that it has few options or enhancements. We also had to contact them numerous times before they would return our phone calls which appears to confirm some of the comments we heard relating to poor customer service. Overall, the software does not appear to be in the best long term choice for Mounds View. Computer Management Systems. This firm has a large presence in Iowa and Wisconsin and recently purchased another vendor that had a large presence in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. They are in the process of combining their product lines and will have two different products to offer, one being written in COBOL (referred to as CMS in the attachments) and the other in a windows environment(referred to as Pace in the attachments). Overall, they have in excess of 750 users within our region. All the comments we received on the windows product were vary favorable. The product should have the longest life of any of the products we looked which should reduce future costs for purchasing a new product, and training and converting to such a • product. The product also has the most capabilities which should provide the users