Travis County Commissioners Court
September 15, 2009,
Item 18
You are here on what item?
number 18?
okay.
18.
approve modification no.
32 to contract no.
ma980095, tiburon, inc., for agreement for extended services.
Commissioner Davis has a question, I believe.
>> I had a few questions that I would like to --
>> [indiscernible]
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> a little bit with some of the convergent efforts using tiburon as they have gone through departments and tried to maybe convert to what we need to -- we need to look for as far as rjs and also the facts system.
the question is where are we on percentages of those conversions?
using this particular system?
and if downtown have the answer for me today, I would appreciate it in the near, immediate future, like next week.
i would also like to know on the conversion of -- for this month, an example, September, where are we on any of those particular departments that were scheduled to -- to be converted?
because over the past, of the times that we have been looking at, there's a lot of slippage in conversion dates.
i don't know whose fault it is, it doesn't matter.
but the point is at end of the day, we have had significant slippage as far as those conversion dates for these departments to be converted in the scheme of things.
now, I guess my question is -- I would like to -- you know, because what we're looking at here is a five year contract.
you know, what -- over half a million dollar a year.
and even though it's one year option, in other words, renew every year.
if I'm incorrect on any of this, what I'm saying, can you correct me.
>> I will.
>> five years, for one year, for each year, over $500,000, we are talking about over $3 million.
and my question, though, is that I'm not -- and have been considered a bit shaky about this from its and you its, as shaky I was dealing with the unisys system.
and thank god we finally got rid of unisys that had been around for a thousand year.
i'm not really comfortable in dealing with this situation.
i know that it's a deadline, from what I understand, it's a deadline that we must meet.
it doesn't make me feel any more comfortable when it comes to this kind of money, taxpayer money that we have to deal with and initiate.
that information if you can maybe provide to me where we are --
>> absolutely.
>> on the conversion efforts as far as the departments all across the county.
those that are close to all have been completed.
and those that need to be completed.
>> absolutely.
judy pitsford, ips.
i apologize that the backup didn't provide enough education, Commissioner, because this agenda item has absolutely nothing to do with the court's maintenance agreement.
this is the public safety module, they went in on time and they have been successful, we're in the process of a version upgrade that the court had approved for two million dollars.
so this maintenance agreement has nothing to do with that.
when we started this 10 years ago, this maintenance agreement, it was a total of $447,000.
for about 13 different applications.
the purchasing agent and her office did an excellent job, excellent job negotiating that price.
we -- we have kept it to less than -- less than 5%, although the upper cap for that maintenance agreement was 6%.
we have kept it to less than 5% for the last 10 years.
so -- so the court and the purchasing agent, as well as I will say my staff, have been very, very good stewards of that money.
on the facts side, the court system, that is a wholly separate agreement.
and -- and you are absolutely right, that has flipped.
i will say that -- that -- that everybody is installed on facts, but the j.p.
the j.p.'s have been a significant implementation.
the quantity of data, the meet the gasb financial rules that data has to be cleaned up, reconciled and balanced.
i will give you a comment on the facts side, although this item, I guess it's okay to talk about facts even though it's not posted on the agenda.
the district clerk went through her first audit.
and she said -- she said in a recent meeting, that -- that -- actually michelle brinkman, her chief deputy, said this is the best financial audit they have ever received.
she gave facts tiburon systems -- she does not want to switch out of facts tiburon court system.
i think if she was watching this, she would come over and say that.
to answer your question on the implementation, sent 21st, when you and I talked earlier, is the -- is the public safety version upgrade.
we intend to bring down all systems this -- this --
>> tomorrow.
>> tomorrow?
>> and -- and all justice departments for public safety, that includes thesheriff's office, the officers in the field, the prosecutors, pretrial, that includes counseling and education and all idb users, all integrated database users, which are our external partners.
will -- will work without that justice system.
i have been here and I was in on the beginning of this project, I'm very proud of this project.
we've taken a lot of criticism on this project.
i am 11 days from walking out of Travis County.
i feel a political freedom this morning.
>> [laughter] I would like to say to you thank you, thank you, thank you, for affording this wonderful integrated justice system.
it is the only integrated justice system that does what it does today.
this justice system, a group from washington came down, roger jeffreys and I work with them, we were able to give them data within hours, they are still waiting on data from other counties.
thank you for your support for the integrated justice system.
back to the implementation for facts, that was your question, I wrote that down.
it has slipped.
i just talked to -- to the application support manager for that, and --
>> [indiscernible]
>> could you come up because this is all -- still all interrelated.
>> not really.
>> same company.
so that's -- that's part of -- same company, different agreement, different products, this agenda item has nothing to do with that implementation.
>> this is for janice brown, its.
this has to do with public --
>> [multiple voices]
>> yes, sir.
the implementation schedule as it stands right now, we will go live with our first j.p.
on November the 1st, November the 2nd.
then one thereafter each month.
as you will recall, part of our deal was that we put in probate earlier this year which is another implementation that needed to be done, right now another thing that causes a little bit of a slippage was that its was beginning to do the trainings.
whereas historically the -- the departments have done their own internal training and its led training.
that was an additional implementation task, its, like I said, historically not done.
that means that we have been the ones developing the user manual as well as the training outlines, documentation for that.
in the meantime, in the current thread, we are also running conversions, straightened conversions, we are pretty postured, ready to go, things look good.
>> it is the same company.
>> yes, sir.
>> see, my concern, though, on one hand you have problems with -- with things that this company -- that we are dealing with.
just as you have indicated, as I have indicated, slippage on a lot of conversion things.
the same thing, this company being looked at in this particular regard.
my concern is all intertwined with tiburon, that's why I'm bringing the issue up as I'm bringing it, because the relationship is still there, I'm just really concerned about that.
i'm just laying it out.
on the one hand we've got slippage and we haven't gotten fully there yet.
i know we haven't over the course of the years it been a big headache, a big problem.
on the other hand we have a situation that may not be as severe, but represented by the same company.
so this is -- I'm trying to mingle and separate this out.
i think you need to do that.
>> Commissioner, it's a valid concern.
to be concerned about a vendor.
i don't believe that -- that you can have a 10 year relationship with any vendor, so I applaud you for that concern.
we, too, are concerned and that's why this agreement for public safety will be -- will be renewable each year.
and -- and tiburon, the company, has -- has changed hands.
>> it's changed hands?
>> we watched that very carefully.
we have met with the president last week.
they are very -- from a financial standpoint, they are stronger from a financial standpoint.
>> because at one time tiburon was kind of in disarray.
and I remember that discussion also coming up before this court.
and in fact I think that we even hired some employees -- f.t.e.'s from tiburon, is that correct?
>> yes, sir.
>> you see what I'm saying?
so I'm concern about the nitty-gritty of the matter.
i'm trying to flush things out because I knew there was some instability at one time with tiburon.
i haven't heard anything different since then.
i don't know if they became stable, where they could do adequate enough service for Travis County.
those are the kind of concerns that I'm trying to flush out.
>> I understand your concerns and I would say to you, as a Travis County employee, that has worked here 10 -- 15 years, and 30 years at i.b.m.
prior, that -- that you either trust your staff to keep an eye on that, or you don't.
and we are keeping an eye on that a long with the financial people, along with everyone.
i feel like it is our job to keep you informed of that.
when we know there is a financial problem with tiburon, I believe that we will bring that to the court.
or if we know that the -- that they are not delivering.
but currently, they are delivering their product.
we are on top of them.
the delay in the implementation of facts as you said has been both parties.
it's been a tiburon delay, but it's also been a Travis County delay.
it's also been a Travis County data problem, also a Travis County -- we reconcile financials, we have two new employees in -- that started with the j.p.'s that we're very proud of.
they have -- I think we have finished the reconciliation.
but they -- the auditor left us in very good notes and they were able to pick up on it pretty quickly, but there was a transition time there that they had to learn that.
so -- so I would say, I asked you to trust your staff.
i'm walking out this door and I ask you to trust your staff to keep you informed and we apologize that the backup was not good enough.
>> no, well, with all of the things of the history that I've been dealing with this particular vendor, there's a history to this.
and of course it doesn't lay out the history and -- in the conflict that I'm having.
i just want to lay that out.
which I think is -- is something that -- that I need to know, you need to know and the public needs to know.
>> I think the vendor is stable.
they are doing a large project at harris county.
that starts I think this month.
this month?
so I think that the vendor is stable.
we are definitely watching them.
i believe mr.
rose in p.b.o.
is keeping an eye on that from a financial standpoint.
we are watching it from our job is to make sure they deliver technically and Commissioner, I will tell you, I don't think that you have any better staff in this county than what's in its right now.
>> okie-doke.
i got my question answered and I really appreciate it and if you can have for me that information that I requested, if you can have it to me the next week, the week after, since this is a one year contract, renewable each year, that will lay out situations to take good look, peek-see, what's going on with the required -- with the required -- will of the court to extend it one year at a time.
so we have some room there.
but I just want to make sure that I'm in the loop.
my staff is on the loop.
on any of this transitional situation as we go through this process.
>> I would recommend one of your staff attends the
>> [indiscernible] steering committee, we have this monthly, it's very detailed, it's a good meeting.
we will get in touch with them and see which one might want to come to those meetings.
>> thank you.
>> I appreciate it.
>> anything else from court members?
how do we make payments under this contract?
>> laurie.
>> we did the technical, I think laurie in purchasing has --
>> what I'm looking for, do we pay the vendor monthly, quarterly, annually?
>> annually.
>> in advance or afterwards?
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> after what?
>> come up, because I can't hear what you are saying.
>> we pay -- I till when it started, let me say, there I think this is what's happening, when we implemented, we went a whole year before we paid our first maintenance.
so we're paying I think --
>> [indiscernible]
>> normally, we would pay them before the expiration date because it is due before.
but -- but since it's expiring on the 17th of this month, this year we're actually going to pay them the check will be cut --
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> right.
>> but we pay --
>> so the check will be cut in September but work -- for work to be performed.
>> throughout the year.
>> in the future.
>> uh-huh.
>>
>> so this contract provides that?
>> yes.
>> up front?
>> this provides our 24/7 support.
>> anything else --
>> how do we measure it?
that's my whole point of what I'm looking at, too, with the measurement of what we're doing here.
yes, here we are, how is it going to be measured as far as what the outcome is or the results of what we are about to enter -- how is it measured?
based on what guidelines, the performance that has --
>> measured with tiburon --
>> as far as what they are delivering.
>> we measure all systems in all applications, our primary and -- if you read our work plan, it's 99.9% system availability.
and -- and customer satisfaction.
>> right.
>> and -- and this year that system has -- if I remember right, was 98.4.
so -- so our -- or 90 -- it was 99.2, I think, I will have to go look.
but from a measurement standpoint, if we're down, we're up in -- in a matter of minutes.
>> minutes, right.
>> and depending on the problem, Commissioner.
sometimes it could be hours.
>> that's true, it could be a failure, you have -- ups doesn't quick in, a project bug, I understand all of that.
but I just wanted to know if overall performance, there has to be some measurement because some folks, especially when making these contracts, sometimes they are delayed or aren't there and the location where they have to come from and -- you have to throw all of that into consideration.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners] the response time are others are also -- right now I think we only have 50 tsrs with the go light set for tomorrow and Monday.
so we are really cracking through it and their response has been phenominal.
>> that's multiple systems.
>> that's right.
that's like nine different applications.
>> regardless of how many face yourself or anything we have, with any system that we have that's running, whatever it is, any department that's using it, whenever they are on call back to come and deal with this stuff, it doesn't matter about the number of times, it's just a flat-out contract that they have to provide the service for the course that year to make sure the maintenance -- record less of the time they come out.
it's not a type of situation where you do it one step at a time and you get credit for the number of times thaw have to come out.
>> if I'm understanding you correctly, yes.
>> in other words, the number of times they have to come out, in other words, just general service contract for the year, regardless of how many times they have to come out and maintain.
>> that's correct.
>> what's the effective date of the modification?
>> I'm sorry, judge?
>> what would be the effective date of the modification?
>> September 18th.
>> right around the corner.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you all very much.
>> thank you for that information.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 2:14 PM
