Consent 1.D.
City Council Regular Business Meeting
- Meeting Date:
- 03/09/2026
- TITLE
- Approval of Software Agreement with SHI International Corp. for Safe Software FME Local Government Subscription
- PRESENTED BY:
- Jeff Sprock
- Department:
- Information Technology
Presentation:
No
Legal Review:
Yes
Project Number:
N/A
RECOMMENDATION
Approve the software agreement with SHI International Corp. for the purchase of a Safe Software FME Local Government Subscription in the amount of $27,065.30 for the coverage term April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027, and authorize the Mayor to execute the agreement.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Billings has been testing and utilizing Safe Software’s FME (Feature Manipulation Engine) platform for approximately two years to support enterprise system integration and data transformation needs. Based on successful operational results, staff recommends formalizing continued use by purchasing a Local Government Subscription through SHI International Corp.
FME serves as the City’s enterprise Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) platform and has proven reliable for integrating disparate municipal systems and automating workflows.
The total annual subscription cost through SHI is $27,065.30
FME serves as the City’s enterprise Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) platform and has proven reliable for integrating disparate municipal systems and automating workflows.
The total annual subscription cost through SHI is $27,065.30
BACKGROUND (Consistency with Adopted Plans and Policies, if applicable)
FME is an integration product that in operational use by the City. Staff have deployed FME to:
The Local Government Subscription model provides enterprise access to both FME Form and FME Flow, allowing the City to scale integrations without incurring additional vendor costs. This aligns with the IT Department's integration strategy and supports enterprise-wide automation initiatives.
Staff will purchase the software through NASPO cooperative purchasing Contract #AR2472, which ensures a competitive public procurement process and is consistent with the legal principles of open access, fairness, and transparency. The NASPO contract is available to eligible government entities and complies with all City purchasing policies and Federal contract provisions. The NASPO contract was competed via State of Montana cooperative purchasing Contract #AR2472. SHI is an authorized reseller pursuant to the OMNIA Partners IT Solutions, Products & Services contract.
- Integrate Airport Leasing software into CitySuite Financials.
- Transform 811 locate request emails into Cityworks inspections and automatically report completed inspections back to OneCall.
- Extract VertexOne water-usage data and import it into GIS to enable visualization and analysis of water consumption across the City.
The Local Government Subscription model provides enterprise access to both FME Form and FME Flow, allowing the City to scale integrations without incurring additional vendor costs. This aligns with the IT Department's integration strategy and supports enterprise-wide automation initiatives.
Staff will purchase the software through NASPO cooperative purchasing Contract #AR2472, which ensures a competitive public procurement process and is consistent with the legal principles of open access, fairness, and transparency. The NASPO contract is available to eligible government entities and complies with all City purchasing policies and Federal contract provisions. The NASPO contract was competed via State of Montana cooperative purchasing Contract #AR2472. SHI is an authorized reseller pursuant to the OMNIA Partners IT Solutions, Products & Services contract.
FISCAL EFFECTS
The total annual subscription cost is $27,065.30 for the period April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027.
Funding is available within the approved IT software budget.
Funding is available within the approved IT software budget.
STAKEHOLDERS
ALTERNATIVES
- Do not approve the agreement.
- This would require discontinuing or replacing FME with another ETL platform, resulting in significant disruption to existing integrations, increased manual processes, and potential risks to data reliability.