Technology Solutions recommends utilizing professional implementation and support services via cooperative purchasing program contracts (e.g., Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR), U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)) for professional services to address the needed resources to address recent vacancies in key areas and hard to fill positions as well as to implement strategic projects and support critical operations in the applications, infrastructure, and security areas of responsibility.
This request will fully appropriate the Technology Solutions (TS) operational and project budgets to include encumbered funds from the previous year, not originally identified, making it available for use. TS will only use what is deemed necessary. In addition to addressing critical vacancies, these resources are crucial for fulfilling the demand for variable and surge skill sets, which are either lacking within the current team or not typically required at elevated or surged levels. Adopting this augmented staffing approach enables the department to adapt flexibly to diverse requirements as they arise, without committing to skill sets that may become redundant after the project or operational surge concludes.
These resources will primarily be used to fill recent vacancies of historically hard to fill positions like the Chief Information Security Officer, Applications Support Analyst Lead, and Sr Project Manager roles which are key roles in the success of Technology Solutions’ day to day operations as well as critical to addressing project backlog. They will also be focused on supplementing resources for strategic projects like Development Services System Replacement, PD Records Management System Replacement, Fire Station Alerting, SalesForce Business Process Modernization and Automation, Utility Billing System Replacement, and the Security Strategic Plan. The projects typically need key roles like business analyst, integrations specialist, and development resources for surge capacity to augment staff.
Over this past two years, Technology Solutions has established the use of staff augmentation contracts that have been successful for the Technology Solutions Department, enabling the City to respond to critical technology project implementations and operational support needs. The ability to leverage variable capacity resources in this manner is critical to meeting the dynamic and changing demands of our projects and customers. This request to use implementation resource services is an extension of our staff augmentation approach, targeted to using variable capacity to address the implementation needs of our Technology Solutions Steering Committee (TSSC) approved strategic projects. This approach does not specify a singular agency but provides flexibility and competition through purchasing programs to leverage additional resources and utilize placement companies specializing in technology professionals. Therefore, Technology Solutions 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.
Leveraging implementation resource services in this manner allows the City to 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 required proficiency, the vendor will provide resource options for the City to select a replacement in a timely manner.
Examples of implementation resource activities may include, but are not limited to:
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Technology strategic projects requiring skilled resources for business analysis, data analysis, project management, integration, development, implementation, and post-implementation support activities. Currently, the Technology Solutions team is engaged in over 50 ongoing projects. Based on the current staff capacity and capabilities, implementation resources will be required for several of these efforts which all require highly skilled and specialized resources.
If the City of Plano does not approve this request for implementation services, the Technology Solutions department will encounter significant delays in filling key positions that require subject matter expertise and will be unable to provide adequate and timely project support and implementation services across multiple critical strategic projects for the City as approved by the TSSC and essential for departments' operations.
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. 2024-0461-O)