11 - Laserfiche WebLink

BACKGROUND The Parks and Community Services Department provides a variety of recreational classes, preschool activities, environmental education and civic arts programs, and paratransit services. It also manages and coordinates all youth and adult sports, recreation activities for developmentally disabled adults, and community -wide special events. The Department advertises these classes and programs in its Activities Guide that is delivered to residents, who utilize the document to register for the wide variety of activities available. As part of an effort to obtain high quality services at the most reasonable price, the Department conducted a Request for Proposals (RFP) process for printing the Activities Guide. On March 15, 2010, 24 RFPs were issued, and 12 proposals were received by the stated deadline. The proposals were reviewed for content and required information submitted. Four (4) firms were invited to a panel interview to review and discuss their proposals. Based on the quality of its proposal, related experience, and results of reference checks, Image X was determined to be the most responsive company to provide these services. DISCUSSION In reviewing the proposals, Image X offered the fastest production times, high quality customer service and displayed high quality print samples. The company has extensive experience producing a large number of activity guides, as well as large booklets. Image X is a print broker and has a large network of printing resources to provide quality and on time delivery of the Activities Guide. Staff considers these important factors, as Pleasanton currently produces a 68 -page Activities Guide and distributes 84,000 copies each year. Folgergraphics, a previous contractor for the City of Pleasanton was the lowest bidder. However, they could not guarantee that the previous printing problems that occurred under their contract would not occur again and could not demonstrate that any quality control procedures were put into place to prevent the error from reoccurring. They did not exhibit any responsibility for the pagination problems and the proposal did not reflect a high level of quality nor detail. Information on one of the options was not correctly outlined per the proper details of the option. During the interview process, Abacus Products' proposal was eliminated due to inaccurate information presented in the submittal. Answers received during the interview process by this company were vague even when asked for detail. It was stated that they had printing presses in Pleasanton, but did not provide a name or location. The turn around time for production was also the longest amongst the four (4) vendors. This printer stated they have experience printing Activity Guides, but did not provide an example. Staff conducted reference checks on the two (2) lowest proposers. Page 2 of 3