Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Mark Church, Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Chief Elections Officer
Subject: Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Elections (ACRE) Assessor Property Assessment System (APAS) Data Cleansing Project
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution authorizing an amendment to the agreement with Sapient Corporation for APAS Data Cleansing and Conversion project and increasing the amount of the agreement by $3,886,400 for a new not to exceed amount of $20,188,348.
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BACKGROUND:
At the core of the business operations of the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Elections’ (ACRE) Appraisal Services Division is a digital data management system which stores and processes data relating to the ownership, characteristics, and assessment values of all taxable properties in the County. This Board at its December 11, 2018 meeting approved the Assessor Property Assessment System (APAS) Project (Resolution # 076320) to replace the Assessor’s legacy data management system (the EZ Access System).
An essential component of the APAS effort is the cleansing and conversion of data from the legacy systems to the newly developed APAS system. ACRE conducted an extensive evaluation of Assessor data sources that would be within the scope of the APAS Data Cleansing and Conversion Project and determined that the APAS development and the APAS Data Cleansing and Conversion Projects could run in parallel. ACRE determined, however, that the projects did not have to start at the same time.
In July 2019, the ACRE team completed the evaluation of data sources that need to be cleansed and converted and documented the Data Cleansing and Conversion Project requirements. In September 2019, ACRE submitted the APAS Data Cleansing and Conversion Project Requirements to Sapient for them to provide a fixed bid for the project. The data cleansing and conversion project will run in alignment with the APAS project phases to provide the cleansed data in increments that support the APAS testing and production deployments.
DISCUSSION:
ACRE, in consultation with ISD, Procurement, Legal, and ACRE’s APAS Consultant, Gartner, Inc., identified that the majority of the legacy system replacement projects utilize a single vendor for both the legacy data cleansing/conversion and the development of the new system because such projects have significant interdependencies. The working group therefore determined that the lowest risk and most cost-effective option is to sole source the Data Cleansing and Conversion project to Sapient who already has the requisite knowledge to efficiently complete the project. The APAS Solutions Committee and APAS Executive Steering Committee approved requesting a fixed bid from Sapient as a single source vendor for the Data Cleansing project at their May 28, 2019 meeting.
During the APAS Definition Phase, the Sapient team invested significant time understanding the Assessor’s business process and connecting it to the underlying data relationships. This understanding can be leveraged during the Data Cleansing and Conversion project.
Additionally, Sapient’s partnership with Hamer Enterprise on the APAS project will be extended to include the Data Cleansing project. Sapient, since the beginning, has recognized the value of having Hamer Enterprise (EZ Access System developer and owner) on their team, as their partner for the APAS project. Hamer team’s knowledge of the EZ Access data and the Assessor’s industry data is a critical component of the Sapient proposed Data Cleansing proposal.
ACRE believes that it is in the best interest of the County to waive the RFP process for the Data Cleansing and Conversion project. Rather, the project should be executed by the APAS vendor, Sapient. Sapient’s acquired domain knowledge and proven capabilities as well as the existing working relationship with ACRE will create efficiencies in the project that will lower the cost and avoid delays.
ACRE therefore requests that the Board waive the competitive process for the APAS Data Cleansing and Conversion project, which is in the best interests of the County, and approve Amendment of the APAS Agreement to add the APAS Data Cleansing and Conversion Project to the scope of work on the APAS Agreement.
County Counsel has reviewed and approved the resolution and amendment as to form.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Appropriations to cover the costs of this agreement are included in the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder’s FY 2019-21 Adopted Budget and will be included in future budgets. These costs will be fully funded by a transfer from Non-Departmental Services.