Staff recommends award of a contract to Carahsoft for e-PlanSoft software for the first year subscription, implementation, and training costs totaling $87,872.55.

Planning, Building, and IT staff have been pursuing online permitting and electronic plan review solutions for several years and have seen a number of available programs. Given the challenges that exist at this time to fully integrate into the CitySuite software, and the need to efficiently and effectively offer online electronic services in a timely fashion to better serve our customers during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have determined that a stand alone, web-based software program is the best option at this time. e-PlanSoft offers a user-friendly public portal along with a robust workflow management platform and feature-rich plan review program.

The implementation of this program will achieve the following goals: 
- User-friendly online submittals. In most cases, customers will no longer need to visit city offices to apply for a permit, submit plans, make a payment, receive corrections, or pick up materials.
- City staff will have much less in-person interaction with the public and handle less paper with plans being submitted electronically instead of hard copies.
- Plan reviews will be distributed to the various departments electronically: Building, Planning, Fire, Engineering, Health Dept, County Departments. In most cases, paper copies of plans are currently routed to each department.
- Project or plan revisions can easily be submitted, reviewed, and added to the record set. 
- Less paper waste: all plan reviews will be completed electronically and only the final approved set of plans will be printed. 
- Improved record keeping: The plans, applications, and supporting documents will be stored digitally, which will eliminate our current need for scanning the record copy and will save space in lieu of storing paper plan sets and files.
- Quick implementation: This program is web-based and can be implemented before the end of the year to meet CARES Act reimbursement requirements.

Additionally, the State of Montana is a participating agency in cooperative purchasing contract SPB15-2895P with Carahsoft to provide e-PlanSoft as a cloud services solution provider.  Therefore, pursuant to MCA 18-4-402, the City may take advantage of the cost savings realized by the State's volume purchasing without further competition.

This software solution is necessary to meet the current and future needs of the City, its customers, and citizens.



 

City Council may:

• Approve a contract award with Carahsoft, and take any other actions necessary, to procure a one-year subscription to e-PlanSoft in the amount of $87,872.55 or,
• Decline to approve the recommended action and provide further direction to staff.

The initial price for e-PlanSoft is $87,872.55 (see attached quotation). The purchase includes 36 user subscriptions for City and County Staff, the online portal license, implementation, and training.

Funding:
To fund the recommended procurement, staff is requesting reimbursement through the CARES Act. The initial one-year term will allow City staff to implement the program and determine how many licenses each division or department will need. After determining an accurate annual usage, the resulting annual subscription fee will be borne by the departmental budgets utilizing the software going forward. The Building Division will budget the entire cost of the 'goPost' portal in subsequent years. The implementation of this system will save the Building Division around $10,000 annually that is currently budgeted for scanning plans and project documents into digital format, which will be applied toward this program.

Should the CARES Act reimbursement request fail, the Building Division will cover the cost for the first year from reserves and would consider a 'technology fee' for commercial submittals if needed.