To: Board of Supervisors
From: Anna Roth, Health Services Director
Report Title: Purchase Order with Computacenter United States Inc. to renew Citrix Licenses
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Purchasing Agent, or designee, to execute on behalf of the Health Services Director, (1) a purchase order with Computacenter United States Inc. in an amount not to exceed $456,818 for the period from October 31, 2023, through October 30, 2024, and (2) Computacenter Master Services Agreement for the period from October 31, 2023, through October 30, 2024 for Citrix software licenses.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of this action will result in expenditures of up to $456,818 and will be funded by Hospital Enterprise Fund I revenues.
BACKGROUND:
The Epic Electronic Health Record (EHR) system requires the use of Citrix software license. Citrix software allows Contra Costa Health (CCH) staff access to the Epic EHR system using published applications, which are the method of application delivery that Citrix enables. It allows installation of the application on a few servers and publishing the application to thousands of virtual desktop machines for telehealth. Citrix improves remote access to Epic EHR. The CCH IT Department is renewing the annual subscription for Citrix Universal Premium Concurrent Licenses to comply with Epic requirements.
This action is a renewal of Citrix licenses through third party reseller Computacenter United States Inc. Computacenter is the authorized reseller for Citrix banded software and hardware offerings. Citrix offers this reseller a discount not extended to other vendors, including Kovarus, Inc. Attempting to replace Citrix would create a substantial cost and take significant time to find a suitable replacement. There would also be a substantial cost for training, which would make the bid unjustifiable. As this is also a mandate by Epic, any replacement would need Epic's approval.
On October 4, 2022, the Board approved agenda item C.61 to execute purchase order #23645 with Kovarus in the amount of $373,313 to renew Citrix licenses for the period from October 31, 2022 through October 30, 2023, and approved the Citrix End User License Agreement, which also governs this renewal.
Computacenter’s Master Services Agreement (1) limits Computacenter’s liability to $100,000, and (2) obligates the County to indemnify Computacenter for claims arising out of County’s negligence or infringement of intellectual property. Approval of this request will allow the department to renew Citrix licenses through October 30, 2024.
Computacenter United States Inc. is one of multiple authorized Citrix resellers in the area and is approved by the Purchasing Agent through the term end date of October 30, 2024, at which point Health Services must work with Purchasing Services to prepare and post a solicitation.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Without ongoing licenses from Citrix, CCH Epic system would not function. This will result in EHR accessibility issues and potential connectivity failures.