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TO: Mayor John Laesch
FROM: Dave McCabe, Fire Chief
Mike Kaufman, Fire Assistant Chief of Support Services
Ram Tyagi, Chief Information Officer
Jeff Anderson, Deputy CIO
DATE: August 11, 2025
SUBJECT:
A Resolution authorizing the Director of Purchasing to purchase video conferencing hardware and services from Burwood Group, Inc., Chicago, IL, for a total amount not to exceed $280,000.
PURPOSE:
As part of a larger implementation of video conference capabilities in city-owned buildings, City staff seek to implement full-featured Microsoft Teams Room functionality in the City Fire Stations to replace the beyond end-of-life Cisco Telepresence system installed in 2010.
BACKGROUND:
In 2010, the Fire Department from the City of Aurora and City of Naperville received a grant to install a shared video communications platform that has been utilized successfully since that time. The core of this system has been hosted by Aurora and an Intergovernmental Agreement was put in place to share the costs of maintaining the system.
The Aurora Fire Department utilizes this system daily for leadership and personnel meetings, incident reviews and scheduling and planning meetings. In addition, this system has been utilized for remote education and training of fire personnel.
In June of 2020, Cisco stopped supporting this Telepresence Video Communication Server utilized by both cities. In 2022, Naperville stopped utilizing this system and moved to a Microsoft Teams-based platform (Teams). Several times since 2020, Aurora IT staff have purchased used parts and equipment from third-party resellers to keep the system running. It has become increasingly difficult to source parts.
After a competitive bidding process and subsequent discovery project, resolution R23-006 awarded configuration and migration of Microsoft SharePoint services and Microsoft Teams environment remediation to Burwood Group ("Burwood").
As part of the services included with R23-006 Burwood completed a thorough evaluation of the current SharePoint environments which included interviews with key members of every City department. This evaluation allowed Burwood to understand how SharePoint and Teams were being utilized throughout the City. Burwood then made recommendations for migrating data to the Microsoft SharePoint Online environment as well as modifying Microsoft Teams for better utilization by city staff.
Burwood performed above expectations of City staff while creating and remediating these foundational services. Due to the detailed knowledge of the city's SharePoint and Teams services, city staff believes Burwood is best suited to build upon the SharePoint and Teams foundations in place.
DISCUSSION:
The existing video conference room is the primary tool utilized for daily communication amongst AFD staff as well as other city departments and outside agencies. As such, having a flexible, user-friendly interface to connect with outside agencies is paramount.
The current solution is no longer supported and is prone to configuration and compatibility issues that impact the performance of the room. The proposed solution will correct these issues and ensure compatibility with other video conferencing solutions utilized by city staff and other agencies.
The total not to exceed for all Fire Stations is $280,000.
A multi-year decision package was approved during the 2025 budget cycle that allocated funds for implementing Teams solutions at key locations throughout the city. Funds from account 287-1280-419.32-80 will be utilized for these services.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
Implementation of this video conference equipment will replace an outdated system and continue to provide significant communications improvements and reduced travel costs for Fire Department personnel for both in-room and remote attendees.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Request the proposed resolution be adopted.
cc: Infrastructure & Technology Committee
CITY OF AURORA, ILLINOIS
RESOLUTION NO. _________
DATE OF PASSAGE ________________
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A Resolution authorizing the Director of Purchasing to purchase video conferencing hardware and services from Burwood Group, Inc., Chicago, IL, for a total amount not to exceed $280,000.
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WHEREAS, the City of Aurora has a population of more than 25,000 persons and is, therefore, a home rule unit under subsection (a) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution of 1970; and
WHEREAS, subject to said Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, as part of its Technology Strategic Plan, the IT Department of the City is identifying and replacing its outdated and underperforming systems; and
WHEREAS, the existing video conferencing solution utilized by the Aurora Fire Department is inadequate and no longer supported; and
WHEREAS, video conferencing is utilized daily by Aurora Fire Department for communicating with personnel; and
WHEREAS, Burwood Group has exceeded expectations on previous SharePoint and Teams work; and
WHEREAS, Burwood Group has gained detailed knowledge of the city's SharePoint and Teams environments; and
WHEREAS, funds are available in account 287-1280-419.32-80 for this project.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Aurora, Illinois, as follows: that an agreement authorizing the Director of Purchasing to purchase video conferencing hardware and services from Burwood Group, Inc., Chicago, IL, for a total amount not to exceed $280,000 is hereby authorized and further
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Director of Purchasing shall be and hereby is authorized to execute on behalf of the City such documents, orders or agreements necessary to carry the purposes of this Resolution into execution.