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Item # 4.c.

City Council (FY24)

Meeting Date:	06/11/2024
Department:	Information Technology
Key Focus Areas:	Public Safety Infrastructure Development and Maintenance Financial Health and Organizational Excellence

AGENDA CAPTION:

Consider action on a Resolution approving of the purchase of thirty-four (34) Panasonic rugged laptops and accessories for police vehicles and fire apparatus through DIR, the Texas Department of Information Resources contract with MCT, Mobile Concepts Technology in an amount not to exceed $174,652.00.

BACKGROUND:

The existing rugged laptops were purchased and installed in 2017. Since the last purchase, the Police and Fire Departments have been contributing to the Information Technology Equipment Replacement Fund on an annual basis. This fund allows the Town to replace systems, including hardware and software, on a regular basis in order to be adequately responsive to the increasing demands on the network. Based on the IT equipment replacement program, we are scheduled to outfit the police cruisers and fire apparatus with rugged laptops every 3 years. However, due to the low hardware failure rate, we have been able to use the existing devices for the last seven (7) years.

Due to needed functionalities, a unique operating environment, and limited real estate to operate these devices, a decision was made not to release an RFP to purchase these devices. Instead, we began evaluating three (3) different systems. These devices were installed in selected police cruisers and were tested by the committee members for almost three months.

The committee's main objectives were to select a solution that offers:

Ease-of-usage and environment-friendly devices, which were the main concerns for the staff, and
Flexibility, compatibility, modularity, reliability, adaptability, and scalability, which were the Information Technology staff’s concerns.

Committee members were pleased with the performance of the Panasonic Toughbook models.

The Town will purchase these laptops from MCT, Mobile Concepts Technology on a contract through the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR). DIR is an agency that bids out services and products for its members to provide the leverage to achieve better pricing on products, equipment, and services.

RECOMMENDATION:

Staff recommends approval.

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