Primary Department: Universal Services
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Sindhu Menon, Executive Director and CIO
Managing Department: Universal Services
Managing Department Head/Elected Official: Sindhu Menon, Executive Director and CIO
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Investment Memo
Investment Memo Type: Final Investment Memo
Project Name: Telephone System Repair/Replace
Project ID (if applicable): NI026
Vendor Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Achievement (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable):
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Incremental Authorization Requested: $560,000
Total Estimated Project Cost: $1,520,000 (FY26 & FY27)
Request Summary:
title
Request for approval of the Final Investment Memo for the Telephone System Repair/Replace project for an incremental authorization of $560,000 for a total authorization of $760,000 for FY 2026.
end
Project Description:
This project replaces end-of-life voice equipment including phones, media gateways, session border controllers, and related solutions within the data centers and across 200+ locations.
Voice equipment is replaced on an approximately 15-year cycle, requiring the replacement of handsets and related peripheral equipment.
Data center infrastructure would continuously need to be expanded in capacity due to the constant increase in the county’s needs.
Anticipated Project Expenditures and Timeline:
|
Project Scope Breakdown |
Estimated Cost |
Estimated Completion |
|
1,700 Phone replacement |
$459,000 |
08/31/2026 |
|
Gateway and Session Border Controller upgrades |
$150,000 |
07/31/2026 |
|
FISK-Swapping out phones |
$81,600 |
09/30/2026 |
|
10% Contingency |
$69,400 |
09/30/2026 |
|
FY26 Total Authorization |
$760,000 |
|
|
Unencumbered existing project balance to carry into FY26 |
($200,000) |
|
|
Total |
$560,000 |
|
At this point, US is asking for authorization of $760,000 for FY26, CP allocation will be requested later when the PO is ready to be issued.
Justification & Alternatives:
Harris County has a significant amount of voice equipment, including but not limited to handsets, media gateways, session border controllers, virtual machines, physical hardware, and various licenses.
These items need to be refreshed periodically to minimize equipment the vendors no longer support. Most of this equipment is on sites outside the data center and some is already unsupported.
Some refresh and capacity increases are required in the data centers to support the branch office refresh as described.
Having a lifecycle-based repair and replacement strategy will keep us from having unsupported equipment as well as ensure security and software updates continue to be provided as technology evolves.
This in turn helps ensure scalability, reliability, and security that supports our voice connectivity for internal entities, external customers, and remote devices.
If not funded, there is the potential risk that an out-of-support telephone system could fail, and we would not be able to return the telephone system to operational status without replacing it completely.
The affected department(s) would be down or with limited capabilities until funds for cabling, network hardware, and VoIP telephones are secured and the work is implemented.
Many departments rely heavily on voice communications for business operations.
Some of these include the District Attorney’s intake division, multiple public safety offices (Constable and Sheriff), Office of Emergency Management, IT helpdesk, and the EDC; just to name a few.
Anticipated Impact on Other Funds (If Applicable):
|
Fund Code |
Description |
Estimated Cost |
Funding Method (Existing or Future Budget Request Required) |
Estimated Date of Needs |
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$- |
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- |
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$- |
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- |
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Total |
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$- |
|
- |
County Strategic Plan Goal: 2. Connect our community with safe, reliable, equitably distributed, and well-maintained infrastructure.
County Strategic Plan Objective: N/A
Justice/Safety Initiative (Goal 1): E1: Modernize data and technology architecture across the legal system.
Infrastructure Initiative (Goal 2): F1: Strengthen the County’s commitment to Vision Zero principles and goals.
Economy Initiative (Goal 3): M1: Develop a County economic development strategy that advances effective and equitable economic growth.
Health Initiative (Goal 4): N/A
Climate/Resilience Initiative (Goal 5): T2: Make County buildings more energy efficient.
Housing Initiative (Goal 6): N/A
Decision Analysis Matrix Score (rubric on last page): 13
Previous Court Action:
|
Date |
Agenda Item # |
Action Taken |
|
7/10/2018 |
6.b.5 |
Request for approval of funding for project cost $2,540,000 |
|
7/31/2018 |
4.j.6 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $2,540,000 |
|
11/12/2019 |
4.g.2 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $1,040,000 |
|
7/20/2021 |
21-3590 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $1,510,000 |
|
3/22/2022 |
22-2029 |
Request for SFY22 authorization of $900,000 |
|
8/23/2022 |
22-4958 |
Request for an FY23 total authorization of $814,830 |
|
8/8/2023 |
23-4369 |
Request for an FY24 incremental authorization of $1,210,000 |
|
10/10/2023 |
23-5838 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding $605,000 for a total of $5,695,000 |
|
12/5/2023 |
23-7153 |
Request for approval of decrease commercial paper funding $800,000 for a net CP funding $4,895,000 |
|
2/27/2024 |
24-0931 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding $250,000 |
|
6/4/2024 |
24-3367 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding $500,000 |
Address: Multiple
Precinct(s): Countywide
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Fiscal and Personnel Summary |
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Funding Sources |
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Existing Budget |
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Total Current Budget |
$ |
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Additional Budget Request |
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Total Additional Budget Request |
$ |
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Total Funding Request |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Personnel (Fill out section only if requesting new PCNs) |
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Current Position Count for Service |
- |
- |
- |
- |
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Additional Positions Request |
- |
- |
- |
- |
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Total Personnel |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Anticipated Court Date: 8/26/2025
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): 10/1/2025
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Legal funding compliance confirmed by: Paige Abernathy, Special Assistant County Attorney, 7/22/2025
Department Approval by: Heather Merkel, Director of Budget, Universal Services 8/8/2025
OMB CIP Team Approval by: William McGuinness, Director-Capital Projects & Infrastructure, 8/1/2025
________________________________________
Commercial Paper Request (For OMB use only):
Receiving Department: N/A Choose an item.
Project PeopleSoft ID: N/A
CP Series Description: N/A
OMB Financial Management contact: N/A
Decision Analysis Matrix scoring tool - Commissioners Court has approved the rubric below for scoring capital projects. Please complete the last two rows for OMB review.
|
Scoring option |
Strategic Plan alignment (3x weighting) |
Evidence base |
Impact on outcomes |
Cost effectiveness |
Ease of implementation |
Collaboration / partnerships |
Environmental sustainability |
Equity |
Total |
|
-1 |
Antithetical to one or more aspects of the Strategic Plan |
Evidence shows net negative impact on the intended goal |
Impact is clearly negative |
Costs expected (or shown) to outweigh benefits |
County has no/limited existing capabilities and dependencies are likely to impede |
Could negatively impact relationships with partners |
Negatively impacts environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Inequitable |
n/a |
|
0 |
Does not align to a Strategic Objective |
Evidence base is not well defined or measurable |
Size of impact on one or more strategic outcomes is negligible or unclear |
Net comparison is unclear |
County has no/limited existing capabilities or dependencies are likely to impede |
Does not involve collaboration with partners |
Net neutral impact on environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Does not consider equity to a meaningful degree |
n/a |
|
1 |
Aligns to a Strategic Objective but not to a Strategic Initiative |
Limited evidence-based research on outcomes; may have qualitative/theoretical support |
Outcomes are defined but without target levels and/or expected impact is moderate |
Moderate direct/indirect benefit relative to costs |
County has existing capability to implement or dependencies are unlikely to impede |
Moderately expands County leverage through collaboration with partner(s) |
Marginally positive impact on environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Considers equity to a meaningful degree, but not comprehensively |
n/a |
|
2 |
Aligns to a Strategic Objective and a Strategic Initiative |
Outcomes are directly supported by evidence base or credible research supports anticipated outcomes |
Outcomes are clearly defined and include target levels; expected impact on outcomes is high |
Significant direct/indirect benefit relative to costs |
County has existing capability to implement and dependencies are unlikely to impede |
Significantly expands County leverage through collaboration with partner(s) |
Positively impacts environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Considers equity meaningfully and comprehensively |
n/a |
|
Score (-1,0,1,2) |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
|
Rationale |
More efficient phone system |
New phone systems are easier to support and require less travel for repairs |
The impact of not replacing the phones will lead to quality of our provided service going down |
Some of the technology costs are coming down over time. |
These upgrades are a part of an existing plan that has been in place for years. |
Installations would definitely be done with our business partner support. |
New systems require less power and space. |
Phone technology is used equally by all. |
n/a |