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Home My WebLink AboutC-3763 - Content Management Server Software Purchase to Upgrade Police Department WebsiteCTl OF NEWPORT BEACH C _ 3r�to3 CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT Agenda Item No. 9 March 22, 2005 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: Paul Henisey, Support Services Division Commander Bob McDonell, Chief of Police SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF CONTENT MANAGEMENT SERVER SOFTWARE PURCHASE TO UPGRADE POLICE DEPARTMENT WEBSITE RECOMMENDATION: Approve the purchase of the Content Management Software from Civica Software in the amount of $66,711 from the Police Department's Support Services Division Computer Services Account #1820 -8091. 2. Authorize the Police Chief to sign the Purchase Agreement with Civica Software. DISCUSSION: Background: The Police Department has established as one of its goals for this year to improve our recruiting efforts. Over the last two years, the Police Department has experienced a significant number of service retirements, several disability retirements, and resignations. All told, we have had to fill 18 sworn police officer positions since January 1, 2003. Currently, we have eight openings for police officers and are expecting another seven openings by the end of this calendar year. At the same time, it has been our experience that the number of highly qualified applicants is small as evidenced by the fact that we hire only approximately 1.2% of all recruit police officer applicants. While this number seems low, it is consistent with our hiring rate for the last several years, and is the fundamental reason behind the quality of our employees, and something experienced by many departments in this region. It is also very important given the nature of the profession that we continue to maintain those high standards for every person we hire as a police Officer. In order to determine how best to enhance our recruiting efforts, the Police Department conducted a study of all of our recruit applicants to determine how they Content Management Sottore Purchase Approval r March 22, 2005 Page 2 were learning about our testing and hiring process. In 2004, we determined that out of 534 applicants, 439 or 82.2% learned about our agency from the Internet and the Police Department's website. Therefore, this aspect of our hiring process must be enhanced to improve our ability to reach out and to make an effort to increase our applicant pool. Our current website is an old version that is slow, very difficult to update, and will not accept the latest technologies, including streaming video segments, interactive messaging, improved navigation capabilities, and much faster operations. Content Management Software is the latest, most technically advanced website development program for our type of operation. Using a very user - friendly browser, this software is powerful, fast, easy to update, edit, and modify. It will allow us to personalize our website with a variety of features and provide a significant increase in the capability to provide information, pictures, sound, and video. The website will feature personal interest stories on several of our current employees and provide the means for prospective candidates to communicate directly with them. This will allow the Department to have a more personal and direct contact with an interested applicant. The new website software will also enhance our capability to communicate more effectively with the Community. It will offer the ability to provide constantly updated information on lost animals and animals that are up for adoption. The Community will be able to provide opinions and comments, and read news bulletins or view information on missing and wanted persons. There are a number of other features, such as event calendaring, quick links, and an information guide that will be helpful to anyone accessing the website. We have analyzed the pricing and features of three different content management software companies. While each company offers a variety of features and options, we did comparisons of the core products and pricing. Of the three companies we considered, it is our recommendation to purchase the Civica Content Management Software. Their pricing for the basic functions and the additional options we desire is $66,711, including sales tax. Civica is a local company, based here in Newport Beach. In addition, they have provided similar services to a significant number of governmental agencies including the cities of Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Inglewood, Irvine, Orange, and many others. We are currently using Civica Software's Crime Connect program to quickly and effectively share important law enforcement information with other Orange County law enforcement agencies and as part of our regular Patrol Briefings. We also have been working with Civica Software and Appian Technology (represented by Civica) in the testing of their license plate recognition software in one of our units. We have found their level of service and responsiveness to questions and issues to be very good. The other two companies were Collage by Serena and CommonSpot by PaperThin. It is only possible to conduct a true comparison of prices based upon the basic software product provided by each company. Civica's base software price is Content Management Soft *e Purchase Approval March 22, 2005 Page 3 $28,000. The base software price for Collage by Serena is $33,650. The base software price for Common Spot by PaperThin is $28,650. It is not possible to perform comparisons for the options we desire, because each company packages or sells the options differently. The additional options we request to purchase from Civica Software include the Design option to create the Department home page and secondary pages, Site Construction and Content Migration to move all approved content to the new program, and various additional modules to build a number of pages such as Animal Shelter and pet adoption information, to event calendaring, to votingtopinion polls. Using Civica's expertise is necessary, in order to establish an effective, professional, interactive website. All of these options are included in the total cost of $66,711. Because we have eight open positions and will soon have more, the Department has realized significant salary savings to date in this Fiscal Year. The salary savings will continue to the end of the year and are projected by the Administrative Services Director to be approximately $1.3 million. As a result, we recommend taking some of these savings to pay for the cost of the software to improve and enhance the Police Department's website and project the best possible image to potential recruit and lateral police officer candidates. As noted above, the first contact the vast majority of our applicants have with our Department is via the website. Our effort to make our website more attractive, easier and faster to use, and more professional in appearance to potential candidates as well as to the Community is a sound investment in our recruiting future. Environmental Review: None required. Funding Availability: As authorized by Council Policy F -3, the City Manager has approved the transfer of $66,711 from the Patrol Division Salary Account #1830 -7010 to the Support Services Division Computer Services Account #1820 -8091 to provide the funding to purchase the Content Management Software from Civica Software. The Administrative Services Director was also consulted in the development of this recommendation. Prepared and Submitted by: � • Paul Henisey, Captain Support Services Divisi n Commander Approved Bob McDonell CHIEF OF POLICE