Title
Authorization FOR THE purchase OF tableau software licenses, services, and maintenance from CDW-G Utilizing a Cooperative purchasing Contract
Staff Contact: Charles Murphy, Chief Information Officer, Innovation and Technology
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Purpose and Recommended Action
Recommendation
This is a request for City Council to authorize the expenditure of funds in an amount not to exceed $467,500 for the purchase of Tableau software licenses, services, and maintenance from CDW-G. This cooperative purchase is available through an agreement between the State of Arizona and CDW-G (Contract No. ADSPO17-149774) and is effective through September 30, 2021.
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Background
Tableau is a business intelligence solution which provides the ability for staff to integrate data from multiple business applications and to transform the data into meaningful and useful information which can be used to make strategic and tactical decisions. A cross-departmental team selected Tableau as the enterprise-wide business intelligence solution which best meets the City’s operational requirements.
Business intelligence (BI) encompasses a variety of technologies for analyzing data <http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/data> and presenting actionable information to help business managers and other end users make more informed business decisions. Using BI, organizations can collect data from internal systems and external sources, prepare it for analysis, develop and run queries against the data, and create reports, dashboards <http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/business-intelligence-dashboard> and data visualizations to make the analytical results available to corporate decision makers as well as operational workers.
BI technology enables large amounts of data to be quickly analyzed based on established business criteria to answer business questions. The resulting information provided to the user is often in a graphical format which facilitates faster comprehension and decision making. There are three initial areas where BI will be applied in Glendale.
Sales Tax data sent from the State of Arizona will be compared to the City’s data to ensure that appropriate revenues are being received. Glendale has approximately 15.5K businesses which will require significant ongoing analysis of that data.
Water services has an ongoing need to implement BI technology. Water Services monitors over 20K process points each day to ensure that the plants are operating per specification. BI will allow the water plants to begin trending the data over time, and comparing data from various locations to determine if any changes are occurring in their processes. This data can help determine if failures of certain equipment are beginning to occur and identify usage anomalies that may indicate issues within the process.
The Glendale Police Department generates a significant amount of data daily which drives the need for BI analysis. BI can assist the police by providing an ongoing breakdown of the type, frequency, and location of incidents as the data is collected. This can have an immediate, positive impact on resource deployment and response times.
The absence of a BI solution will require more time and resources to derive actionable information from existing data. This can result in less effective utilization of resources, inefficient business processes and a stagnation of service delivery.
Analysis
Cooperative purchasing allows counties, municipalities, schools, colleges, and universities in Arizona to use a contract that was competitively procured by another governmental entity or purchasing cooperative. Such purchasing helps reduce the cost of procurement, allows access to a multitude of competitively bid contracts, and provides the opportunity to take advantage of volume pricing. The Glendale City Code authorizes cooperative purchases when the solicitation process utilized complies with the intent of Glendale's procurement processes. This cooperative purchase is compliant with Chapter 2, Article V, Division 2, Section 2-149 of the Glendale City Code, per review by Purchasing.
Previous Related Council Action
On 6/14/2016, Council adopted the FY2016-2017 budget that included funding for a business intelligence project which was recommended by the City’s Technology Steering Committee.
On 12/20/2016, Council Approved Linking Agreement with CDW-G in an amount not to exceed $4,250,000 over the life of the agreement.
Community Benefit/Public Involvement
This project supports Council’s goal of Creative, Innovative, Efficient Systems by providing departments easily accessible and actionable data, creating transparency, and ultimately providing improved citizen services.
Budget and Financial Impacts
This amount is budgeted and will be paid from by the Technology Projects Fund. Licensing costs after the first year will be built into the future Information Technology budget that is submitted annually for Council review and approval.
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Cost |
Fund-Department-Account |
|
$467,500 |
2592-18500-522700, Technology Projects |
Capital Expense? Yes
Budgeted? Yes
Requesting Budget or Appropriation Transfer? No
If yes, where will the transfer be taken from?