February 10, 1998
To: Corporate Services Committee
From: Interim Executive Commissioner of Corporate Services
Subject: TAX MANAGER 2000 - PURCHASE/UPGRADE OF DESKTOPS
Purpose:
To acquire workstations for the implementation of the new tax system for the City of Toronto.
Source of Funds:
This being part of the new tax system, it should be funded throught the transition fund.
Recommendation:
It is recommended that:
1. Desktop workstations and upgrades to support the implementation of the new Tax Administration System, Tax Manager 2000, be purchased; at a cost not to exceed $150,000.
Background:
The tax administration system, Tax Manager 2000 (TXM2000) is to be implemented and put into production on March 27, 1998. The application which will collect an estimated $2.2 billion in revenues and will service over 650,000 property tax accounts. This requires a number of networked desktop workstations to be purchased along with upgrades to other existing workstations to allow users of the new tax system the desktop hardware to process transactions and inquiry.
The purchase and installation of the new hardware and upgrades to existing workstations is critical to meeting the targets for the implementation of the TXM2000. The project plan calls for the delivery and configuration of the workstations by January 31, 1998 in preparation for the testing of the application software and the network. Delays in the purchase of this equipment will mean potential delays in the production date of March 27, 1997 for TXM2000.
Comments:
An inventory of the hardware in each of the former municipalities was taken to determine what would be required to bring all workstations to at least a minimum requirement to run the tax application. It was determined that the former Cities of Toronto, North York and Etobicoke would not require new workstations or any upgrades, their current inventory would be adequate for the new system. The other municipalities will require new equipment or upgrades as indicated below:
|
Municipality |
Existing Hardware |
New/Replacement Required |
Upgrades |
|
East York |
0 |
9 |
0 |
|
Scarborough |
31 |
26 (replacement) |
0 |
|
York |
8 |
3 (New) |
8 |
|
Training and Testing |
0 |
4 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
|
42 |
8 |
The minimum workstation requirement for the tax system is:
Pentium based
32 Mega Bytes of RAM
Minimum of 50 Mb of free space after application loaded
East York has no PC workstations and will require new workstations for all their tax users.
Scarborough has identified 26 units that need to be upgraded or replaced to meet the needs of the new tax system. As 22 of these units are four year old 486's scheduled for replacement. Any upgrade costs will need to be justified over a 1 year time frame, as the cost to upgrade these systems will be approximately $800 ($350 for disk drive, $125 for Win 95 upgrade, $155 for RAM, minimum $125 installation cost) as compared to $800/year for a new system ($2,600 Compaq Pentium 166MMX, including a 15" monitor and warranty upgrade). Therefore, it is recommended that these 22 units be replaced with new purchased equipment. It should be noted that the annual cost for the new equipment is based on a 3 year replacement.
Aside from the cost factor, upgrading the existing equipment will just meet the current minimum qualifications for this project. Other new city software standards, such as office suites and operating systems, will place additional requirements on this equipment and will probably push them beyond their limits.
York will require 3 new workstations to replace existing workstations, which are not suitable for upgrades.
Included in the request are four workstations to be used as training and test machines which will be used on an on-going basis for both training and testing.
Based on current prices for a Compaq Pentium 166mmx with 32 Mb of memory, 1.5 Gb disk and a 15" monitor the cost of each workstation will be approximately $2,600 before taxes, the upgrades are estimated to be $800 per workstation. Therefore, the total cost for 42 new workstations and 8 upgrades will be $114,800 before taxes. The cost of desktop office automation software required is not included, for the new PC
=s which are not replacement machines, the additional cost would be approximately $650 per workstation. For 16 workstations this would be $10,400 plus taxes.
The total for desktop hardware would be $125,200, plus applicable taxes this would be $143,980.
The vendor to supply the above mentioned hardware would be selected for one or more of the current vendors of record which already have existing contracts with one of the former municipalities.
Conclusion:
Purchase of the above workstations and upgrades is required to establish and implement a new tax administration system to provide a first class service to the taxpayers of Toronto.
Contact Names:
Graham Kemp Jim Andrew
Director, Information Technology Interim Director, Information Technolgoy
(Scarborough Office) City of Toronto
Telephone: (416) 396-7300 Telephone: (416) 392-8421
Fax: (416) 396-4205 Fax: (416) 392-3966
Margret Rodriques
Interim Executive Commissioner of Corporate Services
