[Noisebridge-discuss] Berkeley Rent Board Considering $200, 000 no bid software contact. (for meeting agenda packet, Wednesday, June 15th at 6:00 p.m. in the Law Library (2001 Center Street, 2nd Floor, Berkeley).)

[Asa Dodsworth]

At this time I believe we would be failing in our due diligence if we
approve an RTS(rent tracking system) software contract without seeking
alternative bids to inform us of our options.
Additionally we have one great resource available to us to do this
work. We payed
$20,000 for SoftwareAG to write up workflows from which the actual RTS
Database will be built. The "work flows" will greatly streamline any process
to get alternative bids as Database Firms, and Technicians regularlly bid on
contracts without this depth of information to allow them to accurately
assess the work at hand.

All we need now is a clear system specs cover sheet, which should be routine
with any software bid.
The details required, which IT should be able to copy and paste together,
are the Hardware and Software specs of our existing original RTS system
(which we will be translating data from), The Rent Board Hardware and access
point software (the computers/terminals the staff will access the database
from), the software that our IT staff are trained and capable of supporting,
and the Departments within the City of Berkeley's hardware and databases
(which our RTS database must be compatible with)

System Specs are the details anyone needs when acquiring software, and as
such are prominently featured on any website featuring free, or payed
software. However these details have not been clearly featured on the only
available report
to assess our pending/impending $200,000 purchase. I have attempted to
ferret out some of the details, but I may be misinterpreting, and or reading
old data.  Ultimately I have been wasting the time of all the techs that I
have asked for advice, because one cannot find out what can be done if they
do not have the information describing the platform they will be working
with(ie the system specs). IT is the only department qualified to provide
this information and though presumably we have provided this information to
SoftwareAG, the company payed $20,000 to tell us how much they should charge
us for building Database. We must have this information publicly available
to solicit accurate alternative bids.

To be absolutely clear, I will oppose any effort to approve a No-Bid
multi-hundred thousand dollar software contract.  This is the Berkeley Rent
Board, not the Defense Dept.
All I ask is for a clear system specs sheet and three weeks to informally
solicit Bids from out local Tech Community. We live and govern in an
epicenter of Computer Programers, Database Developers, Webdesigners etc, I
strongly encourage the Rent Board staff work with IT to do the same.
To be absolutely clear the system spec sheet must detail what we have, what
we want, who it must be compatible with, and what our IT staff can support.

With Respect,
Asa Dodsworth, Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner

PS, I made a simple piratepad where anyone interested can share relevant
information with the public about the software, alternatives and choices at
hand. http://piratepad.net/BTZdZOMxIl
Pirate Pad is publicly accessible, doesn't delete the history of its
document, and can be easily saved and downloaded to preserve valuable
details, enjoy..
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