Summary
To: Town Commission
From: Stefan Massol, Director of Support Services
Date: 2/2/2021
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Subject:
Title
Internet and Voice Services Purchase with Spectrum Enterprise
Summary:
Following negotiations staff has received favorable pricing and terms from Spectrum Enterprise for internet and phone hardware and services.
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Body
Background/Problem Discussion: Last year staff was notified that the Town’s Shoretel phone system is reaching end-of-life and would no longer be supported by Mitel, the new controlling company. The Town has experienced periods of outage in recent years for internet as well as phone service. In 2017, following Hurricane Irma, the Town lost internet services at its facilities over four days while power was taken down in the area. This past year the Town was without reliable phone services over multiple weeks when there was extensive damage to underground lines. The line was not properly repaired until three months after the initial outage.
Last month, in the interest of improving the survivability of both voice and internet services, Commission instructed staff to begin negotiations with Spectrum Enterprise for a secondary internet connection and to have phone traffic carried through fiber internet instead of a separate voice connection. Staff has received favorable pricing and terms from Spectrum Enterprise that will offer a modern phone solution.
The new phone system will have additional redundancy with the benefit of two separate internet and voice connections. If one goes down, internet and voice will continue to be available. In the unlikely scenario that both internet connections experience outages simultaneously the new phone system will automatically fail over to designated cellular phone numbers. The auto-attendant menu would still function the same in outages, which is a big improvement from our current system. In addition, this new system will allow staff members to answer calls on their work computers if they are working from home.
Financial Implications: The Town would be paying $10,287 additional per year for phone equipment and services, as well as $7,428 additional per year for fiber internet services. Meanwhile there would be savings of roughly $9,000 through cancelling our existing phone contract with DMS, resulting in a net cost increase of $8,715 per year. Considering that purchasing the phone equipment new would be an upfront cost of roughly $50,000, this pay-as-you-go approach for the phones will ensure our equipment is always up-to-date.
Recommendation: Approval of multi-year contracts in the amount of $17,715 per year as provided in the enclosed attachments.
Proposed Motion: I move approval of multi-year contracts in the amount of $17,715 per year as provided in the enclosed attachments.