Item - 2019.GL5.11

The General Government and Licensing Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council authorize the General Manager, Toronto Employment and Social Services, and the Chief Information Officer to negotiate and enter into a non-competitive contract with Nimble Information Strategies Inc. for the digitization and storage of the City of Toronto's Ontario Works paper files for an initial term of five years from the effective date of the contract in the amount of $6,000,000, excluding all taxes ($6,105,600 net of Harmonized Sales Tax recoveries), with the option to renew for five additional separate one-year periods in the amount of $3,750,000, excluding all taxes ($3,816,000 net of Harmonized Sales Tax recoveries), for a total contract value of $9,750,000, excluding all taxes ($9,921,600 net of Harmonized Sales Tax recoveries), based on the terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Toronto Employment and Social Services, and the Chief Information Officer and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

The purpose of this report is to seek authority for Toronto Employment and Social Services to negotiate and enter into a non-competitive contract with Nimble Information Strategies Inc. for the digitization and storage of the paper files of Ontario Works (OW) clients in the City of Toronto.  

The Province of Ontario is implementing electronic document management in their Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) offices, and Nimble Information Strategies Inc. was the successful proponent of the provincial RFP for the digitization of ODSP client files.

Utilizing Nimble provides the opportunity for the City of Toronto to leverage the provincial infrastructure to create a province-wide electronic document management solution to modernize the delivery of social assistance, improve the overall client experience of social assistance recipients, and realize administrative efficiencies. Contracting with a vendor other than Nimble would result in the City incurring costs to establish the infrastructure that would enable the vendor to communicate with the Province's network and interface with OpenText repository. Digitized records in the OpenText repository will be accessible to City and provincial OW staff through the Social Assistance Management System (SAMS).

The contract will be for a period of five years from the effective date of the agreement, with the option to renew the contract for an additional five separate one-year periods. The City's option to renew will be based on the annual review of the vendor's performance level over the prior years and the availability of funds in the City's Operating Budget for the renewal term.

City Council approval is required in accordance with the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 195 (Purchasing) where the current request exceeds the Chief Purchasing Officer's authority of the cumulative five-year commitment limit for each vendor under Article 7, Section 195-7.3(D) of the Purchasing By-law or exceeds the threshold of $500,000 net of HST allowed under staff authority, as per Section 71-11A of the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 71 (Financial Control By-law).