The council on Monday, Aug. 11, unanimously approved a contract amendment with Holistic System Integration Solutions for software support. The agreement increases Holistic’s compensation by $15,000. The revised contract is for a maximum of $35,000.
This was originally a Consent Calendar item, but was pulled for separate discussion at the request of District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal.
“We need a lot of technological support to manage this program,” said Community Development Director Alexa Smittle.
She was referring to EPL Land Management Software System.
“A lot of cities use EPL and all of them have that shared experience,” Smittle said.
“We have one IT staff person in house who has a lot of things he needs to support and unfortunately, EPL is outside of the range of his ability in terms of bandwidth right now,” Smittle said.
She said the software will always need additional help. “So the software provider EPL is not able to fix their system, the bugs?” Senecal asked. “What’s going on there?”
Smittle said the city does contract with them for some assistance. “It is the lowest level of assistance because that was the most affordable option to pair the two together,” Smittle said.
District Five Councilman Nathan Steele asked if there were any alternatives to this company.
“We are looking at alternatives to support to get some expertise,” Smittle said.
Smittle said all land use management programs are expensive.
Her recommendation was to figure out how to make this program work as opposed to starting over with a new system with a high price tag.
Background
“Holistic System Integration Solutions (Holistic) has been assisting the City of Seal Beach (City) with providing support services for Tyler Technologies’ (Tyler) EPL Land Management Software System,” according to the staff report by Management Analyst Megan Coats.
“Holistic ensured a smooth transition and optimal functionality of the newly implemented system and has been instrumental in ongoing support of the Tyler system with services including system configuration, comprehensive testing, development of operating procedures, and provision of various remote services,” Coats wrote.
“The initial Agreement, along with Amendment 1 and 2, have designated a budget of $20,000 for Holistic to deliver transitional support services through December 31, 2025,” Coats wrote.
“As the City has advanced, it has experienced a decline in vendor support services,” Coats wrote.
“Amendment 3 would augment the project scope for an additional $15,000 for a total not-to-exceed amount of $35,000 for the continuation of support services to ensure system stability and optimization through December 31, 2025,” Coats wrote.
“Adequate funding is available in Fund 103-300-0231-51303, a fee-based revenue source for technology needs,” Coats wrote.
