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BACKGROUND <br />In 2016, the City installed new water meters and automated its meter reading <br />capabilities. This project enhanced operational efficiencies in meter reading, customer <br />service, billing, and overall water resource management including through a Customer <br />Service Web Portal by Smart Energy Systems, Inc., which empowers the City's water <br />customers to manage their water usage and pay their bills online. The City Council <br />initially awarded a professional services contract to SEW for a customer service web <br />portal software implementation and a five-year technical support agreement that started <br />in April 2017 and expired in 2022. Staff then entered into a new one-year agreement for <br />technical support, which expires on June 30, 2023. <br />DISCUSSION <br />The current version of the Customer Service Web Portal allows the City to continue to <br />serve its water customers with the tools they have come to rely on including leak <br />notifications, views of hourly/daily/monthly water consumption, views of utility bills, <br />payment history and the ability to make payments online. For the past few years, staff <br />has been working continuously with SEW to customize the software for the City's <br />customers, such that staff recommends a sole source contract be approved to continue <br />the use of SEW for the City's Customer Service Web Portal for utility billing. <br />The proposed agreement includes a free upgrade to the most current version of the <br />software and offers additional features to enhance the customer experience, valued at <br />69,000. The proposed pricing above includes a 15 percent contingency for any <br />unplanned and needed change requests resulting from state and/or federal legislation, <br />for example, in 2022 there was a change request to add a baseline year (2020) to a <br />comparison chart for drought comparison purposes due to the State's drought <br />emergency proclamation. <br />S bmitted by: Fiscal Review: Appr by: <br />Tamara Baptista Susan Hsieh Gerry Beaudin <br />Interim Director of Finance Director City Manager <br />Operations and Water Utilities <br />Attachment: <br />1. Professional Services Agreement with SEW <br />Page 2 of 2 <br />Docusign Envelope ID: 8554268A-3B16-47CD-A583-5329ACD47579