Technology Services recommends utilizing professional service staffing firms via cooperative purchasing program contracts (i.e., Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR), and U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)) for professional staffing services for up to 7 months to address immediate needs in the areas of Telecommunications, Geographic Information System, and Business Intelligence. More specifically, these three technology professional service staffing needs are in critical areas where the has been a combination of attrition or temporary absence due to family medical leave.
Over this past year, staff augmentation contracts have been successful for the Technology Services Department, enabling the city to quickly respond to immediate technology support needs. This staff augmentation contract doesn’t specify one agency but provides flexibility through the cooperative purchasing programs to additional staffing support and placement companies specializing in technology professionals. Therefore, Technology Services will channel requests through cooperative contracts that function as the consolidation point for a pool of vendors to meet our specific skills on an as-needed basis. Additionally, with the use of staff augmentation, the city can evaluate the skills and abilities of highly qualified technologists through a contractual staffing approach. Lastly, if a contracted employee is not performing in accordance with desired proficiency, the contractor will provide resource options for the city to select a replacement.
An award based on these cooperative purchasing program vendors would be in the estimated amount of $327,600.
If the City of Plano does not contract for these support services, Technology Services would not be able to provide timely support for critical service areas and projects, more specifically, in telecommunications support for the city’s phone system, the implementation of the Emergency Services IP network (ESInet) for Public Safety, and the support of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and data analytics functions to support data-driven decision making across the organization.
The city is authorized to purchase from the State Contract list pursuant to Chapter 271 Subchapter D and Federal Contract list pursuant to Chapter 271 Subchapter G of the Texas Local Government Code and by doing so satisfies any State Law requiring local governments to seek competitive bids for items. (City of Plano Internal Contract no. 2021-0513-O)