Orange County NC Website
1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: June 15, 2021 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 8-1 <br /> SUBJECT: Innovative Interfaces, Inc. Multi-Year Contract <br /> DEPARTMENT: Information Technologies (IT) <br /> and Library Services <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> Jim Northrup, 919-245-2276 <br /> Lucinda Munger, 919-245-2528 <br /> PURPOSE: To authorize the Manager to sign a multi-year maintenance and support contract for <br /> $164,396.09 (paid over three years) with Innovative Interfaces, Inc. <br /> BACKGROUND: Orange County first entered into an agreement with Innovative Interfaces, Inc. <br /> in November 2012 as a means to replace an aging integrated library management system (ILS). <br /> The Innovative agreement includes support for Sierra and Encore cloud-based applications. <br /> The Sierra application provides the following functions: <br /> • Manages the inventory of all library materials <br /> • Manages all circulation transactions (checkouts, returns, renewals, etc.) <br /> • Sends automated notices for hold pickups, overdue items, and billed items <br /> • Manages all patron (user) records <br /> • Manages the acquisitions process for new materials <br /> • Manages fines for overdue materials and billing process for damaged and lost materials <br /> The Encore application is the Library's public catalog and provides the following functions: <br /> • Online catalog that users can use to browse library collections at home and in the buildings <br /> • Allows users to place holds, track reading history, create lists, and renew items through an <br /> online account <br /> Annual software maintenance and support costs are centralized under the Information <br /> Technologies Department (IT) and are typically renewed on an annual basis. This renewal <br /> process involves getting an annual quote from each of the one hundred vendors IT actively <br /> manages. The best rates are subsequently negotiated for that particular year in order to prevent <br /> increases in maintenance costs. Decreasing agreement costs is always the goal. <br /> Often vendors annually increase their price by a certain percentage. This percentage can vary <br /> widely from year to year and from vendor to vendor. Negotiating multi-year contracts is a means <br /> to decrease support costs for any given product or to at least keep costs predictable for future <br /> years, with decreasing agreement costs always the goal. In recent years, an effort has been <br /> made to seek written contracts for all annual maintenance agreements and wherever possible <br /> negotiate multi-year agreements. Typically on new software acquisitions, IT assesses the value <br />