The City of Grande Prairie hereby provides notice of its intent to directly award to Softchoice for the supply and delivery of Azure hosting services.

The City has chosen to direct award a three (3) year spend of $360,000 for these goods/services and not to request proposals for the following reasons: 

1. Supplier qualifications. The Supplier has the understanding, qualifications, skills and expertise to provide the requirements of this contract. Softchoice is uniquely suited to meet these requirements as the City’s and GPPS’s long-term Microsoft licensing partner and the provider that built the current Azure environment in which core GPPS and PSCC applications are hosted. 

2. Product / Service Requirements and Compatibility. Compatibility and integration with existing equipment and/or technology necessitates use of a specific supplier. Engaging another supplier would incur significant effort in migration, increased cost, and unnecessary disruption to high stake public safety operations without clear benefit and ultimately delay PSCC and GPPS go-live target. Their familiarity with the existing setup ensures continuity, reduces risk, and avoids the added cost and effort of transitioning to a new vendor.

3. Time limitations. The Supplier has immediate availability of sufficient staff and resources to meet the City’s schedule, including performance of the required services commencing immediately.

4. Cost. The City considers this approach to be the lowest cost alternative to providing the requirements of this contract or the approach which provides best value to the City over the contract term.

BACKGROUND

The Service is a license to use the hardware already in place for our corporate network and compute needs.  

This Notice is issued for transparency purposes only.  Notices of Intent, Expressions of Interest, or Challenges are not being considered in response to this posting.