DATE: May 25, 2021
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Robert W. Bash, Director of Internal Services/Chief Information Officer
SUBJECT: Termination of Agreement with SmartSpace USA, Inc.
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Approve the Without Cause termination of Agreement No. 19-334 with SmartSpace USA, Inc.;
2. Approve and authorize the Director of Internal Services/CIO, or designee, to give 30-day prior written notice to SmartSpace USA, Inc., effective July 8, 2021; and,
3. Approve and authorize the Director of Internal Services/CIO, or designee, subject to approval by County Counsel as to legal form, to execute any documents or certifications necessary to effect the termination of Agreement No. 19-334.
REPORT
Approval of the recommended actions will allow the without cause termination of the agreement with SmartSpace USA, Inc. (SmartSpace), pursuant to Section IV(C) of Agreement No. 19-334. The agreement was nearing the end of its second year and SmartSpace was intended to provide an enterprise-level meeting room and event management platform. However, it will not function as intended without significant additional Microsoft licensing, which would increase the cost of the system. The functionality is vital to primary users to coordinate complex meeting room scheduling. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Should your Board not approve the recommended actions, the Internal Services Department - Information Technology Division would continue to pay for the services through the end of the base term (July 8, 2021) while deploying a different solution in its place.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. The agreement includes $830,000 for implementation costs and software licensing fees. Invoices submitted and approved for total $104,666 and there are no outstanding invoices.
DISCUSSION:
On July 9, 2019, your Board approved the Agreement No. 19-334 with SmartSpace, in order to implement a meeting room management solution, intended to supplement the capabilities of Outlook for calendaring meetings.
SmartSpace was selected after the Department’s - Purchasing Division issued Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 19-054 for Conference and Meeting Room Scheduling Software. The system was intended to allow staff to dynamically manage conference rooms, include a robust visitor management system, and provide data to drive more efficient use of facilities. The system was to be implemented in all the new Department of Social Services buildings, beginning with their new administrative headquarters and training building, but was anticipated to be available for use by any department.
While SmartSpace’s system does supplement the scheduling and calendaring capabilities of Outlook, the solution will not ultimately meet the needs of the County. To perform on-behalf scheduling of meetings within Smartspace’s Microsoft Outlook plugin, the Department would have to acquire a significant number of additional Microsoft licenses for meeting rooms at a cost that makes the solution economically non-viable. This issue did not become clear until well into implementation of the system.
Section IV(C) of the agreement provides that the agreement may be terminated, without cause, by the County upon giving 30 days’ advance written notice of an intention to terminate.
Approval of the recommended actions will allow for the termination, without cause and allow the Director of Internal Services/CIO to provide SmartSpace with 30 days prior written notice, with termination effective July 8, 2021.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #46, July 9, 2019
CAO ANALYST:
Sonia M. De La Rosa