Report Prepared by: Jeff Bennyhoff, Director of Information Technology
Title
SUBJECT: Agreement for Professional Services with THOR, Inc. for AS/400 Programming Services
REPORT IN BRIEF
Authorizing a Professional Services Agreement with THOR, Inc. for $176,000 for AS/400 programming services to support SunGard application suite.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion approving Professional Services Agreement with THOR, Inc.; and, authorizing the City Manager or Assistant City Manager to execute the necessary documents.
Body
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve as recommended by Staff; or
2. Deny; or,
3. Refer to Staff for further evaluation.
AUTHORITY
Charter of the City of Merced, Section 200.
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
As provided for in the 2018-19 Adopted Budget.
DISCUSSION
The Information Technology Department had two staff members retire several years ago. These two employees supported the City’s SunGard software suite. This software suite runs on technology created in the late 1960s, called RPG, which requires a very unique skillset. Currently the department has no one with these skills in-house. All recruitment efforts have failed to find an applicant with these unique skills. As the professional community of people that support this type of older technology is currently experiencing mass gentrification, it will become increasingly important to move off our aging SunGard systems.
The SunGard software suite runs many of the City’s critical business operations, including payroll, utility billing, GMBA, business licenses, building permits, and more, for the past 29 years. The retired staff members modified the existing programs provided by SunGard to fit the needs of the departments over that period of time.
On February 20th, 2018 Council approved a contract with NexLevel for a Needs Assessment, and Procurement services for a replacement to the SunGard System. Support for SunGard AS/400 system will need to continue until we have fully transitioned all departments off the SunGard AS/400 system. This support will decrease in future years as we continue to replace the SunGard modules and move them to new systems.
Currently the City uses the Thor Group to support these custom modifications to the SunGard software suite. The Thor Group is a professional staffing agency, which specializes, in this type of older technology. We utilize a Thor employee that was formerly a programmer for SunGard through the 1990’s. This contract will allow the City to continue to utilize this person on a time-and-material basis of $109/hour to support our modified SunGard software suite. We have used this contractor for two years to support our SunGard systems and has proven to be very professional, courteous, and responsive to our business needs.
Professional services from this fiscal year budget will be used to fund this contract.
IMPACT ON CITY RESOURCES
Funding is available in the following fund: 672-0404-512-1700; $176,000.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Thor Client Services Master Agreement