Agenda - 02-14-2000 - 9a - Laserfiche WebLink

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adaptation of their services should needs change. National studies by rating organizations in the IT industry were also reviewed. Staff and IT Committee members consulted could not identify any Orange County firms providing on site help desk support services. The proposed vendor, Alternative Resources Corporation (ARC), is a nationally recognized provider of such services, has a local office in Cary, NC, and was rated highest in a nationwide study of help desk support providers. The contract services are at a reasonable hourly rate of $29, for a total contract cost not to exceed $38,976. Current IS Sunnort_O,perations The IS Support Center is a problem resolution service provided by the IS Department for assistance to internal and remote users with computer and network questions and problems. The IS Support Center is reached by those requiring assistance at a single County phone extension or via a single a-mail address. Since late 1996, when the IS Support Center was created, over 4,000 calls have been handled. The IS Support line has been staffed by temporary employees and to a lesser extent by regular IS staff members as backup. Current IS Support staff consists of three full-time positions, and one temporary staff position at 30 hours per week, to provide daily operations and user support for the County mainfi-ame, 400 user PCs, 160 printers, nine network servers, Internet and Intranet technology platforms and all a-mail services. These staff resources also support the planning and most of the installation work related to the IT Plan. The support staffing of the Orange County IS Department can be compared with other support operations, using a standard measure common in the computer industry. This measure is the number of PCs and. printers divided by the number of dedicated support staff. For Orange County this ratio is 320, with current staffing resources. Other organizations reporting recently provide a comparison as shown in the table below. Organization PC/Printers Supported Per Staff Position Oran a Coun 320 Cha el Hill-Carrboro Ci Schools 429 Wake Coun MIS 250 Oran a Coun Schools 235 LTNC Cha el Hill Administrative Com utin 62 This IS Support outsource contract would improve this performance ratio from 320 to 230, resulting in better, more responsive resolution of user calls for assistance. Bene ats o this IS Su rt ontract - sts O set and ustomer ervice Combining all available work hours of current IS staff resources shows 430 hours of work required beyond the hours available. To supplement this staff, a contractor has been used in the past to assist with IT Plan PC and printer installation, amounting to 208 hours at $75 per hour, a total of $15,600. The contract proposed here for IS Support phone services will free up full time and temporary staff resources, at a much lower hourly rate than the installation contractor rate, and make it unnecessary to use these annual installation contract resources, at a savings of $15,600. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The FY 1999-2000 budget includes operating funds to cover the cast of this contract, which will lead to $15,600 in cost avoidance by eliminating the need to continue contracting for additional outside installation support.