Discussion and possible action to approve a professional service contract between Webb County and Smart-procure, Inc. dba Gov-Spend for a 3-year agreement for five (5) Gov-Spend SmartSearch Licenses effective December 16, 2024, through September 30, 2027, for a total amount not to exceed $8,657.00 for the entire three (3) year term subject to annual appropriations pursuant to the Texas Local Government Code; 262.024 Discretionary Exemption: 7(a) items for which competition is precluded because of the existence of patents, copyrights, secret processes, or monopolies and any other matters incident thereto. [Account #1001-1310-001-432001 (Professional Services)]
 
Issue: There is a need to have access to other governments' information about vendors and contracts in order to secure better prices for informal and formal bids as well as to be able to validate sole source companies for Webb County.
 
Solution: Approve recommended GovSpend SmartSearch Licenses that represent a suite of proprietary software applications developed and offered exclusively by GovSpend and patented by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (U.S. Patent No. US 2014/0188948 A1)
 
Result: Increase results of vendor participation for formal and informal bids in order to secure financial savings and procurement efficiency as well as exclusive software to validate companies claiming sole source status.

With this product, Webb County benefits from GovSpend’s database of hundreds of millions of local, state and federal purchase order records to:
 
1) find the best price on products and services they need to purchase
 
2) easily find hard to locate products
 
3) find the vendors - and their contact information - who offer these products and services
 
4) complete a one-click request for quotes from these vendors
 
5) see an Agency’s aggregated purchasing information and performance
 
6) provide community access to the Agency’s purchasing information
 
7) validate sole source companies