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TO: Mayor Thomas J. Weisner
FROM: James J. Dahl, MIS Director
DATE: January 26, 2016
SUBJECT:
Requesting authority to purchase a five-year Cisco Systems SMARTnet support and maintenance agreement through Sentinel Technologies to be financed through Key Government Finance, Inc. in the amount of $452,271.80 annually.
PURPOSE:
Cisco Systems has provided services for the City of Aurora since 2007. The company offers maintenance and support on all Cisco equipment. Cisco also provides Network Engineers at no cost for network design and planning. This request will consolidate several Cisco support agreements into one, and offer significant savings to the City of Aurora.
BACKGROUND:
In 2007 the City of Aurora standardized on Cisco network switch and routing equipment. In subsequent years, the City grew the network in phases and standardized on Cisco for its VOIP solution. Each phase of development involved purchases of equipment with associated SMARTnet agreements. As a result, the IT Department ended up with several individual support agreements. In 2015 IT staff met with Cisco to combine all renewable contracts into one agreement.
DISCUSSION:
Step one in combining agreements was to pro rate and co-term the various SMARTnet contracts. This was completed in 2015 and all current SMARTnet agreements will expire on February 25, 2016.
By combining all agreements into one contract Cisco is saving on administrative costs, and is able to offer further volume discounts. As a result, 2016 SMARTnet costs will decrease by approximately $220,000.00 and five year savings to the City will be about $660,000.00. Cisco has named Sentinel Technologies, Inc. as the City of Aurora's sales channel partner, and is offering these discounts through Sentinel.
The SMARTnet coverage also includes equipment used by OnLight, and they will reimburse the City for their share of $21,939.40 annually.
As older Cisco equipment is repl...
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