TO:
Honorable Mayor Powell and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
David N. Carmany, City Manager
FROM:
Robert Espinosa, Fire Chief
Bruce Moe, Finance Director
Gwen Eng, General Services Manager
SUBJECT:Title
Purchase of Fire Department Workforce Management Software in the Amount of $35,776.25 and Supplemental Appropriation of $12,025 from Unreserved General Funds.
WAIVE FORMAL BIDDING, APPROVE, APPROPRIATE FUNDS
Body
____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
a) Waive formal bidding in accordance with Municipal Code Section 2.36.140;
b) Authorize the City Manager to purchase Kronos Workforce Management software in the amount of $35,776.25; and
c) Appropriate $12,025 from unreserved General Fund balance.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The total cost to purchase this software, server, phone equipment and labor is $47,397. Funds totaling $35,372 are budgeted in fiscal year 2012-13.
Although the vendor indicated that a desktop computer could be used to host this software solution, staff determined that a computer server would be more effective given the software processing requirements. In addition, the initial budget request was for a single module of the workforce management software suite but it was later determined that it would be beneficial to procure all the necessary modules for operation of this software. Therefore, the original budget is insufficient and additional monies totaling $12,025 are needed to complete this purchase. An appropriation of $12,025 is required from the General Fund in order to commence this project. If this purchase is approved, funding for future maintenance and support will be budgeted accordingly (approximately $4,200 annually).
BACKGROUND:
One of the 3-year goals identified in the City's Strategic Plan is to "increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency". Good management of the Fire Department requires the effective use of expensive, life-saving resources - stations, vehicles & equipment, and personnel. Toward these goals, the Fire Department identified a tool, automated workforce management software, to assist with accomplishment of daily operations. The software will help the department more efficiently make sound decisions about deployment of staff.
Each year, the Fire Department is responsible for scheduling and accounting for nearly 100,000 hours of staff time. The current personnel staffing software used by Fire Department supervisors and managers is an integrated module in the department's record management system. However, this program is a roster accounting tool and is not designed to facilitate staffing efforts. Consequently, management of daily staffing and filling of vacancies is accomplished by Fire Captains using a manual paper system of index cards, post-it notes and writing tablets. This labor-intensive and time-consuming practice is inefficient, prone to human error and is open to subjective interpretations of human resource policies.
DISCUSSION:
Automated workforce management software would resolve these issues and provide a tool to forecast budgetary planning and staff scheduling. In addition, the software will:
1. Allow employees to access work calendars via smart phones and internet when off-duty
2. Ensure implementation of personnel rules in a fair and consistent manner
3. Manage dynamic daily roster of all activities
4. Generate detailed staffing and usage reports
5. Interface with the Fire Department's records management software
6. Allow for telephone, pager, and smartphone delivery of staffing requests and general messages
7. Maximize Paid-call staffing for revenue generating ALS (Advanced Life Support) and BLS (Basic Life Support) ambulance programs
This system would be particularly useful in the event of an emergency recall of off-duty resources. The Battalion Chief could conduct staffing while at the scene of an incident and the system would automatically notify all personnel in the event of a major emergency.
Staff has researched various products and only Telestaff meets the Fire Department's needs. This software is available through Kronos, a company that specializes in workforce management solutions. The factors that differentiate Telestaff from other vendors are the electronic notification options as well as ability to integrate with the current records management software.
The Telestaff solution costs include software licenses, telephony hardware, programing, and one-year maintenance agreement. If this purchase is approved, deployment will occur within 120 days.
Attachment:
1. Software agreement with Kronos