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9.f) Staff Report-digital documents-CrabtreesSCANDIA Staff Report Date of Meeting: January 21, 2014 To: City Council From: Colleen Firkus, Treasurer & Brenda Eklund, Deputy Clerk Re: Digital Document Storage Agenda Item #: Background: Storing documents digitally has been suggested by the Council in the past in discussing storage space needs. Storage space is limited at City Hall and access to past documents can be challenging. Council has approved an allocation of $12,500 for Electronic Data Storage in the 2014 Capital Improvements Fund budget. Issue: Should the city proceed with digitizing its documents and which vendor should the staff use to implement the process? Proposal Details: Crabtree Companies sells and supports a digital Enterprise Content Management solution created by Laserfiche. The solution includes a Server to control access to the repository and database, Web Access, a Workflow module for automating and optimizing work processes, and an Advanced Audit Trail that allows monitoring and provides reports on Laserfiche activities. Value is experienced by improving efficiency in search, retrieval and filing documents, saving money and time, and making it easier to comply with regulations, and providing employee/customer convenience. Since the city no longer has to pay sales tax, their original proposal has been reduced to $12,114.69. This includes a scanner, installation and training. In addition we would like to purchase a module from Banyon for $595 that will allow us to print a bar code on all checks which will allow automatic coding/filing of all payments into the document storage system and save hours of data entering to set up indexes. Crabtree made a presentation to the Council last April. We also checked with another company that sells Docuware along with Toshiba copier equipment. They were able to offer software similar to Laserfiche at a significantly reduced cost by bundling it with leasing a new copy machine. But upon further research we discovered it was not an apples -to -apples comparison and to have the Banyon auto -indexing we would need the upgraded version for a total cost of $13,377. Part of that cost is also buying out the remaining lease of our current copier contract. Also, there is only one other city that I found using Docuware as most cities use Laserfiche. Brenda, Judi and Colleen had a virtual meeting with both companies and reviewed both software packages. We prefer Crabtree Companies as the Laserfiche software appears to be superior to Docuware, they have significantly more experience with cities and an impressive support system. Toshiba's main focus is their equipment, not their software. Fiscal Impact: Pricing quotes & comparisons attached. Total cost for Crabtrees with Banyon auto -indexing module is $12,709.69. Options: 1) Approve purchase of Crabtree Laserfiche system and Banyon Module for $12,709.69. 2) Continue with current processes and storage practices. Recommendation: Option 1