The Unisys Contract - Re-evaluate or extend?

The City’s Business Information Services department is recommending a renegotiation of the City’s contract for information/technology services with Unisys Corporation.

The contract is set to expire in January 2013 and costs roughly $11 million a year. Under the proposed terms it would be extended for four years (through 2016) in exchange for some changes in service and a $280,000 savings in 2010 (and additional savings in future years) for total cost to the City of over $45 million. I have had concerns about this contract for some time and do not think we should move forward with this extension without conducting an analysis of alternatives, including potentially going out for open bids on this contract, exploring moving some or all of this work back in-house, and investigating whether open-source software can better meet the City’s needs. I was able to get my colleagues to agree to a two-week delay on this action, and I hope this will lead us to do more due diligence work before extending this costly contract. The matter is set to come back to Council next Friday, August 6. The staff report with more information is included in item 11 here: www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/2010-meetings/20100723/WM_agenda20100719.asp

You can find a copy of the current agreement here:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bis/UnisysAgreement.pdf

I welcome any input, questions, suggestions and opinions.