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CR 2003-166 Purchase Of a New Telephone System• November 18, 2003 • Proposed Action Staff recommends that the Council approve the following motion: Move that the Hopkins City Council approve the expenditure of $101,000 for the purchase of a new telephone system for the City. Adoption of this motion will result in the installation of a new telephone system serving City facilities. Overview The City's current telephone system is eleven years old. The Equipment Replacement Plan contained $119,000 to replace the system in 2002. During the last two years the City has looked at upgrading the software of the current system in order to prolong the life of the system. The new facility projects, however, requires additional equipment. The City solicited bids for both upgrading the existing system, with some additional equipment for the new facilities, as well as completely replacing the telephone system. Only one provider bid on the upgrade at a cost of $85,000. A completely new system will cost approximately $101,000. Staff is recommending going with the low bidder. The next lowest bid was $108,000. In addition to the purchase cost, there is the cost of maintenance. A new telephone system will actually cost significantly less over the next seven years than either keeping the current system or simply upgrading it. Primary Issues to Consider • What are the costs associated with this project? • How will the project be paid for? • What additional benefits can be had from this project? Supporting Information • Analysis of the Issues Genellie ssistant City Manager PURCHASE OF A NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM Council Report 2003 -166 Council Report 2003 -166 Page 2 • Analysis of the Issues What are the costs associated with this project? There are the initial system costs as well as on -going maintenance costs. The total cost of the new system over seven years will be approximately $108,000. The estimated cost of keeping the current system over the same period would be over $120,000. The estimated life of the new system should be at least ten years. How will the project be paid for? Money is available from the Equipment Replace Fund, enterprise funds, and the money that was budgeted for this purpose in the facility projects. What additional benefits can be had from this project? • Eliminate the need to dial "1" for local area codes. The current software does not recognize the new local area codes, 612, 763 and 651 as being different from long distance area codes. • Dial "911" directly instead of "9 911". Because you have to dial 9 in order to get an outside line with our telephone system you cannot dial "911" directly. It is currently not possible for the Police Department to know where an "internal" 911 call originates. • Allows message on attendant console to be given to callers when they have been waiting a predetermined length of time. Currently if the attendant is dealing with one caller, any additional callers just hear the phone ring. It appears that we are simply not answering the phone. • Caller ID. Inbound caller ID would be a welcome addition for most employees. The Police Department would especially find it useful. Outbound caller ID is becoming increasingly necessary. Some people receive information showing them receiving a call from the City of Hopkins. Others get a message that it is an out of area call. As more and more people get caller ID they come to expect to be able to see who is calling them. Some people will not answer calls that are not identified or have software that blocks these calls. Other people, who receive the information that the call came from the City of Hopkins, call us back to try to find out who called them. The receptionists have no way of knowing which employee made the call. The new software would identify the individual employee's phone number on caller ID displays. This feature will be able to be turned off if, for example, Police undercover officers need to make calls that should not be identified. • The backup emergency response center, the new fire hall, will have a backup for the telephone system. If anything should happen to City Hall, all calls can be routed to the fire station. (Also as part of the facility project, the new fire station will have a backup of the City's computer system. That cost is not part of the telephone system.) • Council Report 2003 -166 Page 3 Alternatives 1. Authorize the purchase of a new telephone system. 2. Do not authorize the expenditure of funds. Staff recommends Alternative #1.