Redwood City seeks bids to replace Universe system

[timbered]

This was shared by someone on one of the other MV groups:

http://www.redwoodcity.org/Home/Components/RFP/RFP/243/2322

[timbered]

"... [while] it is fully functional, its programming language, PICK BASIC (PB), is an older, character-based programming language. Software Developers able or willing to develop in PB are becoming more difficult to find. The native screens are mostly character based, which is cumbersome, and not user friendly."

I wonder which $200 per hour consultant told them to rip-out-and-replace aka start over from scratch...

There is nothing in that report that says the current system isn't doing something they want it to do. Sounds like classic "...it's old so it must need to be replaced..." thinking.

Glad I'm not a taxpayer in that town. Or a city worker that depends on this system.

[Will Johnson]

Yes I shared it because I would certainly prefer if a Multi-Value Vendor were to bid

[S Yeomans]

Let's put a team together and bid. :)  Who's in?

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[ERNIE VEGAS]

I am interested in your idea. Please contact me directly so we can
discuss further.

Thanks,

Robert Norman
ROBERT NORMAN AND ASSOCIATES

[John Doe]

There is something fishy about this city.  On page 8 of the biding proposal is stated that the city employs 810 (560+250) people for a total population of 77K that is 11.57 employees per thousand.  New York on the other hand has 8.4 millions inhabitants and only 325000 employees that is 3.87 per thousand.  Therefore Redwood employs 3 times and some, as many people per capita !  Somehow it doesn't sound legit to me but more like siphoning public money.  Beware not to become a pawn in some kickback scheme.

[S Yeomans]

Perhaps Redwood City is more affluent than NYC and/or they are including schoolteachers?

The local government I worked for awhile in Connecticut had a population of about 22K, and by the time all the police, highway department, teachers, administrators, etc. are all figured in, I wouldn't be surprised if it was near 500. (I should know the number - there were a few light nights printing payroll checks I think I have blocked out of my memory.)

Your tax dollars at work.

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[Kevin Powick]

You're conflating per capita and per thousand.  Per capita means per person.

More importantly, your maths are off for both Redwood and New York, but for New York, by an order of magnitude.  Using the number of employees and city populations provided in your original comment, I get the following results.

Redwood ~ 10.5 employees per 1000

New York ~ 38.7 employees per 1000

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Kevi Powick

[John Doe]

ME WRONG

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 5:37:50 PM UTC+3, Kevin Powick wrote:

Redwood ~ 10.5 employees per 1000

New York ~ 38.7 employees per 1000

Kevin Powick

[Tony Gravagno]

I've seen this "thing" happen too many times. Misinformation leads to sale of a generic system that will never do the job, resulting in loss of people who actually understand the business environment, huge cost overruns and time delays, terminations and early retirements, sometimes followed by reinstatement of the original environment.

What I really don't like is that this end-user felt it necessary to advertise for a replacement with no interaction in this community and (assumption alert) no inquiry from Rocket to industry professionals about who can help to keep this site on the map.

I have some time to follow-up on this one.

T

timbered wrote:

"... [while] it is fully functional, its programming language, PICK BASIC (PB), is an older, character-based programming language. Software Developers able or willing to develop in PB are becoming more difficult to find. The native screens are mostly character based, which is cumbersome, and not user friendly." .