|
Tax Manager 2000 - Purchase/Upgrade of Desktops
The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee recommends the adoption of the recommendations of the Budget Committee embodied in the following transmittal letter (February 18, 1998) from the Budget Committee:
Recommendation:
The Budget Committee on February 17, 1998, recommended to the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee, and Council, the adoption of the following recommendations of the Corporate Services Committee:
"that the report (February 2, 1998) from the Commissioner of Corporate Services be approved in principle; and further, that the Commissioner of Corporate Services be requested to submit a report directly to Council for its meeting scheduled to be held on March 4, 1998, on the relative merits of purchasing versus leasing the workstations".
Background:
The Budget Committee on February 17, 1998, had before it a letter of transmittal (February 16, 1998) from the Corporate Services Committee advising that the Committee on February 16, 1998, had before it a report dated February 2, 1998, from the Interim Executive Commissioner of Corporate Services regarding the Tax Manager 2000 - Purchase/Upgrade of Desktops.
(Transmittal letter dated February 16, 1998, addressed to the
Budget Committee from
the Corporate Services Committee)
Recommendation:
The Corporate Services Committee on February 16, 1998, recommended to the Budget Committee, and Council, that the report (February 2, 1998) from the Commissioner of Corporate Services be approved in principle; and further, that the Commissioner of Corporate Services be requested to submit a report directly to Council for its meeting scheduled to be held on March 4, 1998, on the relative merits of purchasing versus leasing the workstations.
Background:
The Corporate Services Committee on February 16, 1998, had before it a report (February 2, 1998) from the Interim Executive Commissioner of Corporate Services seeking authority to acquire workstations for the implementation of the new tax system for the City of Toronto; advising that this being part of the new tax system, it should be funded through the Transition fund; and recommending that 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 $150,000.00.
_______
(Report dated February 2, 1998, addressed to the
Corporate Services Committee from the
Interim Executive Commissioner of Corporate Services)
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 through the Transition fund.
Recommendation:
It is recommended that 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 $150,000.00.
Background:
The tax administration system, Tax Manager 2000 (TXM2000) is to be implemented and put into production on March 27, 1998. The application 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 |
0.00 |
|
Scarborough |
31 |
26 (replacement) |
0 |
|
York |
8 |
3 (new) |
8 |
|
Training and Testing |
0 |
4 |
0.00 |
|
Total |
|
42 |
8 |
The minimum workstation requirement for the tax system is:
Pentium based;
32 Mega Bytes of RAM; and
minimum of 50 Mb of free space after application is 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. Twenty-two of these units are four year old 486's scheduled for replacement, any upgrade costs will need to be justified over a one year time frame, as the cost to upgrade these systems will be approximately $800.00 ($350.00 for disk drive, $125.00 for Win 95 upgrade, $155.00 for RAM, minimum $125.00 installation cost) as compared to $800.00 per year for a new system ($2,600.00 Compaq Pentium 166MMX, including a 15 inch 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 three-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 three 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 inch monitor the cost of each workstation will be approximately $2,600.00 before taxes, the upgrades are estimated to be $800.00 per workstation. Therefore, the total cost for 42 new workstations and 8 upgrades will be $114,800.00 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 $650.00 per workstation. For 16 workstations this would be $10,400.00 plus taxes.
The total for desktop hardware would be $125,200.00, plus applicable taxes for a total of (this would be) $143,980.00. 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 Technology
(Scarborough Office) City of Toronto
Telephone: (416) 396-7300 Telephone: (416) 392-8421
Fax: (416) 396-4205 Fax: (416) 392-3966
|
