The New York State Museum (‘State Museum’) wishes to contract with Axiell ALM Canada Inc. (“Axiell ALM”) to provide for the continuation of support and maintenance services for the MIMSY XG Collections Management software system currently in use by the Museum. Axiell ALM has exclusive rights to the manufacturing and distribution of the MIMSY XG software application. During the past 21 years, the State Museum has made a substantial investment in implementing and developing MIMSY XG. The database application was purchased by the State Museum in 1997 and it has been fully functional and in active use by State Museum staff since that time. Support and maintenance services are critical to the continued use of the system. Because the support and maintenance services must be compatible in all aspects with the existing system installed at the State Museum, and because Axiell ALM has proprietary information about that system, the services cannot be reasonably acquired from another source. Therefore, the State Museum requests sole source procurement of the following items: CONTINUATION OF ANNUAL MIMSY XG SUPPORT AGREEMENT (“Technical Support”): Renewal of the annual support agreement is essential to the continued operation of MIMSY XG at the State Museum. The State Museum has contracted with the software vendor for Technical Support since the system was purchased in 1997 and has found it to be invaluable. The Technical Support package includes the following products and services: ? Unlimited access to written, electronic (e.g., e-mail), and telecommunication consultation with a member of the Axiell ALM Help Desk from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Standard Time Zone in North America. ? Free upgrades to the most recent release of the Software running on the same version of the Oracle DBMS on which the Software was originally installed. ? Free support for all standard MIMSY XG add-on utilities and uploads. Membership in the Axiell ALM User group. ? Crystal Reports installation and procedural assistance. Free electronic copies of software documentation (user manual, data structure, reporting workbook, and report definition manual). ? Free consultation relating to complex data issues. Service agreements provide a cost effective method for dealing with the inevitable technical issues that occur with any complex software product. In terms of staff productivity and efficiency, provisions for technical support are also critical. Expeditious resolution of technical issues minimizes down time. Rapid response to end-user questions regarding functionality also increases productivity. Additionally, the service agreement entitles the State Museum to free upgrades as they become available. Because MIMSY XG is a proprietary technology and the source code is proprietary to the Manufacturer, Axiell ALM is the only vendor who could provide a maintenance contract. CONTINUATION OF TECHNOLOGY ESCROW ACCOUNT PARTICIPATION: MIMSY XG is a software application that is critical to the operation of the State Museum. As such, the State Museum has requested that the software vendor establish a technology escrow account and add the State Museum as a beneficiary. A technology escrow account is an essential risk management strategy used to protect the licensee’s software investment and avoid losses in productivity and revenue. In the event the vendor becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to provide the support necessary to utilize the software, an escrow agreement will enable the State Museum to obtain the source code for the software it relies on. With the source code, the State Museum will be free to pursue other options for maintaining or transferring the information held in the system. The State Museum is currently listed as a beneficiary to a technology escrow account established by the vendor with CodeKeeper. The State Museum wishes to continue participation in the escrow agreement in order to protect its information assets. MIMSY XG ON-SITE AND REMOTE TRAINING: Employee training is vital to maximizing an organization’s investment in computer technology. Training improves the effectiveness of the staff using the system and translates into increased productivity and better customer service. Since MIMSY XG was purchased in 1997, the State Museum has contracted with the vendor to provide on site training to new employees or other new users of the system. MIMSY XG training courses are not offered by NYSED Information Technology Services (ITS), nor are they offered by any of the local IT training centers. Because MIMSY XG is a proprietary software product and because the vendor has a thorough knowledge of the State Museum data as it has been uploaded in the database environment, Axiell ALM is uniquely qualified to provide training. DATA MIGRATION: The museum currently has digitized specimen data in legacy files that are not incorporated into the MIMSY XG database. These legacy files not being incorporated into MIMSY XG makes finding and using the data associated with them incredibly difficult and inefficient. The State Museum wishes to contract with Axiell ALM to develop a detailed plan to prepare and upload the raw data from the State Museum’s legacy files to MIMSY XG. The incorporation of these data will greatly facilitate the State Museum’s staff’s efficient use of MIMSY XG. Because Axiell ALM has proprietary information about the MIMSY XG system and is familiar with the system configuration at the State Museum, they are uniquely suited to this task and this data migration service cannot reasonably be acquired from another source. THESAURI (TAXONOMIC AUTHORITY) CONSTRUCTION SERVICES Controlled terminologies vastly improve the quality of data retrieval and they are essential to the effective sharing and dissemination of information. Thesauri also drastically reduce data entry as the broader level classifications needed to describe an object are entered automatically when the user selects a term from the thesaurus. The State Museum wishes to contract with Axiell ALM to build and upload several thesauri for use with the biological collections. Taxonomic thesauri are critical for cataloging natural history specimens. DATABASE PROGRAMMING SERVICES Maintenance of a database system requires alterations be made to the system when necessary in order to support changing business requirements and/or procedures. Changes to a software application may involve changes to the underlying database, changes to the actual data held in the system or changes to the application by which data is viewed and manipulated. Such changes are a fundamental aspect of software application maintenance and are critical to the proper management and stewardship of any database system. Changes to a software system are implemented by means of programming scripts (codes). Axiell ALM provides programming services on a time and materials basis. Because the services provided must be compatible in all aspects with the existing systems installed at the State Museum, and because Axiell ALM has proprietary information about the system, programming services cannot reasonably be acquired from another source. Reason for advertising exemption: Sole Source Award recipient: Axiell ALM Canada Inc. Any questions or comments regarding this notice of sole-source, single-source, or procurement otherwise exempt from advertising in the NYS Contract Reporter should be directed to the contact person listed for the contracting agency or public authority. Ad end date:10/20/2021 Contract term: 11/1/2018 - 10/31/2023 County(ies): Albany Location: Albany, NY

Bid Protests Not Available