The Administration recommends approving and authorizing the City Manager to execute Amendment No. 1 to the agreement with Vermont Systems, Inc., to provide a software license, maintenance and support agreement, dated August 25, 2017; the purpose of said Amendment is to add web hosting services provided by the Contractor, subject to final negotiations by the Administration and review and form approval by the City Attorney; and further authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the Amendment.

Vermont Systems, Inc. (“VSI”) is an employee owned company, focused on providing a range of applications that increase efficiency and productivity. Since 1988, VSI has specialized in developing fresh software products for managing recreation and parks operations for municipal, county, state, federal and military governmental entities.  VSI currently has over 950 Municipal RecTrac customers with thousands of users. VSI markets and fully supports this software primarily on a national basis.  The software is also marketed to private business with similar needs, such as golf courses and fitness centers.

VSI has several products, two of which cater towards recreational programming and facility needs:

• RecTrac recreation tracking software provides 12 integrated modules for recreation management. With options and features for any size organization, RecTrac includes: Activity Registrations, Facility Reservations, League Scheduling, Court Reservations, Trip Reservations, Tee Time Reservations, Custom Reporting and Dashboards, Pass Memberships, Point of Sale/Inventory Control, Venue Ticket Sales, Equipment/Site Rentals, Personal Trainer Scheduling and Locker Rentals.
  
  
• WebTrac is an Integrated Internet Software that provides real-time customer access. WebTrac offers patrons the following online services: Activity Registrations, Facility Reservations, League Registrations, Court Reservations, Trip Reservations, Tee Time Reservations, Pass Memberships/Renewals, Merchandise Sales, Event Ticket Sales with Graphical Venue, Campsite/Marina Rentals, Personal Trainer Reservations and Locker Rentals /Renewals.

During the September 25, 2017 City Commission Meeting, Resolution No. 2017-29996 (Exhibit A) was passed waiving, by 5/7ths vote, the formal competitive bidding requirement, finding such waiver to be in the best interest of the City, and approving and authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a Software License, Maintenance and Support Agreement with VSI in a form acceptable to the City Manager and the City Attorney, for a three (3) year term, with two (2) additional one (1) year renewals, in an amount not to exceed $104,035.00 for the initial Year 1 purchase price, and $10,284.00 each year thereafter for annual maintenance services, for a Parks and Recreation Department software for activity registration, facility reservations, inventory control, ticketing, payment processing, and related services. 

During the May 16, 2018 City Commission Meeting, Resolution No. 2018-30298 (Exhibit B) was passed adding an additional $3,360 for the annual maintenance to the VSI agreement, in order to standardize the software for both the Flamingo Park and Miami Beach tennis centers.

The VSI agreement is set to expire in November 2022 (Exhibit C). Recent software updates and upgrades have concluded that it is in the City’s best interest to amend the agreement for the remainder of the contract period to include web hosting services by the contractor.

Together with the IT Department, the Parks and Recreation Department has worked with VSI to bring the software up to date. Updates/upgrades are available to VSI customers almost twice a month, which in turn is very complex and time consuming to maintain. These updates/upgrades are very important for the efficiency and user-friendliness of the software. Updates in the past have included features that have greatly benefited the tennis centers internally and externally. Often these updates include the correction of bugs, which may be detrimental and is important to have pushed out to our system immediately. One of the greatest benefits of having VSI host the software is that the City will never be behind on updates/upgrades. Currently, the Parks and Recreation Department must submit a request to the IT Department to perform the update/upgrade. The IT Department must communicate with VSI to test the upgrade/update in order to proceed scheduling the implementation. Having the Contractor host the software allows for a smooth and immediate update/upgrade. 

The IT Department has met with VSI and feels confident that the hosting change meets all security measures and they currently have a plan in place to transition hosting capabilities once the amendment is executed. All future updates/upgrades will be scheduled overnight in order not to disturb operations.

The additional cost to include web hosting services by the contractor is $15,840 for Year 1 and 2 and $16,315 for Year 3, which is an increase of 3%. The annual cost is minimal compared to the amount of City staff time spent on an annual basis implementing the updates/upgrades to the system.

FY 2021 - $15,840

Budget Account: 011-0950-000312-28-406-545-00-00-00-

The remaining years will be included in the department's CSL Budget request.