Ocala City Council members will discuss and vote on a three-year contract for Microsoft 365 subscriptions and licenses that will cost over $1.57 million.
The contract will be discussed at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2, during the council’s regular meeting at Ocala City Hall (110 SE Watula Avenue). Christopher Ramos, the city’s Information Technology Director CIO, will present the matter.
According to city records, the contract calls for payments of $523,897.65 each year for three years to SHI, a privately owned company based in New Jersey.
The pricing proposal shows multiple large-ticket line items, including $364,229 for 595 subscriptions of “M365 G5 GCC” (Microsoft 365).
Records show the city’s government offices have been using Office 365 and Microsoft’s SaaS Cloud Solution since 2015.
According to city staff, the subscriptions offer several benefits, including the flexibility of working remotely and the ability to access emails and Office products on multiple devices (e.g., phones, tablets, desktops, and laptops) without additional licensing fees.
City staff also says that when an employee is terminated, the software “automatically” revokes that employee’s access.
Additional security features include built-in resiliency and disaster recovery, continuous threat and vulnerability management, protection of sensitive data, and improved compliance controls for payment card or personally identifiable data.