Notice of Intent to Award a Contract

Notice is hereby given that the City of Abbotsford (the “City”) is contemplating making a direct award for continued use of Star Garden, which is currently embedded in our operational infrastructure. The software supports critical business functions and is integrated with multiple systems across the organization.

Justification:

The Abbotsford Police Department (AbbyPD) have had the Star Garden, Human Resources Information System Software integrated for the past five years. AbbyPD are contemplating the direct award of this agreement to extend the services due to the following reasons:

• Operational Continuity: The software is deeply embedded in our workflows. Replacing it would cause significant disruption to services and require reengineering of integrated systems.
• Disruption to Services: The software supports critical business functions. Replacing it could lead to downtime and service delays.
• Data Migration Issues: Transitioning to a new system poses risks of loss of confidential data, corruption, or compliance breaches.
• High Transition Costs: Includes licensing, implementation, training, customization, and support.
• Hidden Costs: Productivity losses, police recruiting disruption, temporary staffing, and consulting fees.
• Financial Impact: Transitioning to a new platform would incur substantial costs including licensing, implementation, training, and data migration.
• Organizational Risk: Staff are trained on the current system. A change would result in productivity loss and require extensive retraining.
• Training Burden: New systems require extensive training, impacting staff productivity.
• Loss of Institutional Knowledge: Customizations and workflows developed over time may be lost.
• Security Vulnerabilities: New systems may introduce unknown risks or require new protocols.
• Compliance and Security: The current system meets all applicable security and privacy standards with particular consideration to the unique requirements of policing. A new system would require a full compliance review.
• Compliance Gaps: Ensuring new software meets privacy and regulatory standards (e.g., FOIPPA) would require significant review.