Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Information Systems Department

TO:	David Corliss, Interim City Manager
FROM:	Ron Hall, Information Systems Director
CC:	Bobbie Walthall
Date:	June 26, 2006
RE:	July 11, 2006 Agenda Item

Please include the following item on the City Commission consent agenda for consideration at the July 11, 2006 meeting:

Computer software training for city employees

This would be an agreement with New Horizons Computer Learning Center in Overland Park to provide onsite software training classes. These classes would be held in the city’s computer training facility at 1 Riverfront Plaza at a cost not to exceed $695 per day.

Project History. A request for proposals (RFP R06018) was recently placed on the Demandstar website as well as mailed to several qualified training companies requesting information for onsite computer software training for city employees. The RFP requested detailed information about company qualifications, sample training materials, references, classes offered, and pricing for onsite classes primarily for Microsoft Office software.

VENDOR PRICING

Vendor	Cost per Day
New Horizons	$695
Premier Knowledge Solutions	$994
ExecuTrain	$1,100 - $2,000

Project Status. A review committee consisting of Ron Hall, Jim Wisdom, Elizabeth Smyth, and Eric Gruber reviewed proposal materials from three responding vendors. In addition to their being low proposal, the committee rated them highly on courses offered, strength and stability of the company, quantity and quality of instructors, and the support after the initial training. Premier Knowledge Solutions was also rated highly but the committee felt the higher cost per day of training put them at a disadvantage.

Project Details. New Horizons would provide onsite training in various Microsoft Office courses including Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, and Outlook. Additional courses related to web design and programming will also be offered for a total estimated projection of 40 classes. Last year Douglas County employees joined with City employees to fund and attend computer training classes and will continue to participate in future training. Since classes are a fixed rate per day, filling classes to capacity translates into a lower cost-per-student to take the training. Pending approval of this recommendation, City and County representatives will cooperatively schedule employees for training this fall in the City’s computer training facility located in the Riverfront offices.

Project Funding Funding for these classes would come from participating department’s existing training budgets. Class costs are charged back to the student’s department at a rate of $695 divided by the number of students in the class.

Action Request Information Systems staff requests that approval be granted to enter into contractual agreement with New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, (Overland Park, KS) to provide PC software training for City and County employees this year for a cost not to exceed $695 per day including expenses.