TOWN STAFF REPORT RECCOMENDATIONS
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Consider approving expenditure of budgeted funds in the amount of $23,837.69 for Zoom Meeting and Telephone Services Licensing; and take appropriate action (Jason Power, Director of Information Technology)
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STAFF: Jason Power, Information Technology Director
BACKGROUND:
The approved FY24 budget includes funding for Zoom meetings and telephone services licensing up to $24,600. The quote received for October 2023 through September 2024 for these services is $23,837.69, which is $762.31 less than budgeted. The quoted amount is using Texas DIR negotiated pricing, which allows us to have better pricing for our relatively small organization.
Zoom services are used across our entire organization -
Westlake Academy - 123 phone licenses, 2 meetings licenses.
Town Hall - 34 phone licenses, 21 meeting licenses.
Fire Department - 14 phone licenses, 2 meeting licenses.
Phone licenses are used for phones for staff, classrooms, and common areas as well as virtual connections into the paging system at Westlake Academy, and panic buttons at Westlake Academy and Town Hall.
In FY23 we had 60 Zoom meetings licenses but reduced it to 25 meetings licenses for FY24 for two reasons:
1) Staff used Zoom meetings less than expected in FY23, so we are keeping licensing only for those who used the service.
2) Westlake Academy added 11.5 FTE's and additional office and classroom space in the new modular buildings. The phone licensing needs to increase to provide phone service for the additional employees and spaces. Reducing the meetings licenses will also help cover some, but not all the additional costs for phone licensing for the new staff and spaces.
Further Background:
We started discussing options for business continuity regarding our phone system with Staff and Council in 2020. Our on-premises phone system had limited features, and our only option for business continuity during 2020 and part of 2021 was to forward calls to mobile ...
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