Leveraging Procurement Expertise

Kitsap 911 is the Primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for Kitsap County, Washington, serving a population of approximately 280,000 residents. The agency provides dispatch services for seven law enforcement agencies and six fire/EMS agencies, as well as Kitsap Animal Control, Medical Examiner, and Port Gamble Natural Resources. The consolidated communications center handles more than 300,000 calls annually.

For nearly two decades, Kitsap 911 relied on the same Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, updating it every five years to keep the solution current. As Kitsap 911 approached one of their regular CAD upgrade periods, their member agencies asked for a holistic look at CAD systems available on the market to ensure they were still using the best software to meet their needs. The agency began a thorough evaluation, including a detailed RFP process and software vendor demonstrations.

Ultimately, the evaluation led Kitsap 911 to select their long-time software vendor and upgrade to their next-generation CAD solution. With an extremely thorough selection process behind them, Kitsap 911 leadership sought a partner to provide resources and expertise that would help ensure their project and their long-term relationship with the vendor would remain successful.

Why National Public Safety Group?

Kitsap 911 was introduced to National Public Safety Group (NPSG) through a colleague from a nearby agency. During the initial conversations, the Kitsap 911 leadership team quickly recognized the value of working with a partner whose expertise was focused entirely on public safety software.

“When we first sat down with NPSG for a high-level conversation, we were really impressed with their experience and expertise. Some of the things they told us about contract terms and negotiations was not what we had been thinking about, and it was really eye opening” explained Deputy Director Brandon Wecker.

The way the NPSG team explained their experience negotiating contracts, and the fact that NPSG’s team is made up of former public safety and public safety software professionals, gave Kitsap 911 confidence that they had found the right partner to strengthen their position during the CAD contract negotiation phase.

Strengthening the Procurement Process

NPSG has negotiated hundreds of public safety software contracts, and the team has decades of experience working with most of the major public safety software vendors. That is why during contract negotiations NPSG becomes an agency’s advocate to ensure protections around implementation, annual maintenance, costs, and other terms that may be detrimental to an agency.

Phase III: Procurement

NPSG began with a detailed review of Kitsap 911’s RFP, documentation, and processes by conducting a brief Needs Assessment – an important first step that builds a foundation of every NPSG-guided project. The preparation combined with NPSG’s expertise in working with the selected software vendor allowed negotiations to move quickly and efficiently.

Working closely with Kitsap 911 leadership, NPSG reviewed the vendor’s contract in detail, helping the agency determine where negotiations could deliver improvements and set expectations for where flexibility might be required.

“We had a really productive meeting where we laid out everything Kitsap hoped to include in the contract,” Wecker said. “National Public Safety Group walked us through which items they’ve successfully negotiated elsewhere and which ones might require some flexibility. That gave us a much clearer sense of what we could confidently push for and where compromise would likely be necessary.”

NPSG advocated for Kitsap 911. One of the agency’s biggest concerns was the vendor’s licensing model which created limitations for the communications center in serving multiple agencies. Through negotiations led by NPSG, the vendor ultimately agreed to a licensing structure that worked for Kitsap 911.

NPSG also helped Kitsap 911 revisit the Master Services Agreement that had governed their relationship with the vendor for many years, identifying opportunities to strengthen the long-term protections and improve the overall agreement.

During the contract negotiations, NPSG helped facilitate productive conversations between Kitsap 911 and the long-time vendor they’ve had a positive relationship with. By serving as a knowledgeable intermediary, NPSG allowed agency leaders to have candid internal discussions about priorities while ensuring negotiations with the vendor remained constructive.

“We’ve had a good relationship with our vendor,” explained Wecker. “But this is one of those rocky parts in a relationship where you have to talk finances and rules of engagement. I could openly have frank conversations with NPSG, and then they would take that to our vendor and argue on our behalf if necessary.”

This approach helped both sides navigate the more complex aspects of contract negotiations while preserving their long-standing relationship.

Phase IV: Project Management

During contact negotiations, Kitsap 911 leadership recognized that NPSG delivered immediate and tangible results and had both 9-1-1 agency and software experience that helped to reduce project risk. NPSG helped to guide the Procurement phase with transparency, structure, and expertise. Meanwhile, Kitsap 911 had already realized that managing a CAD implementation internally would require time and resources they didn’t currently have available.

This led Kitsap 911 leaders to sign a contract to extend their partnership with NPSG for Project Management services. Bringing NPSG in for Project Management would allow the agency to maintain focus on their daily responsibilities and core mission while knowing their partner was ensuring their CAD implementation continued to go smoothly.

Strong Terms, Stronger Partnership

“Working with National Public Safety Group has already proven to be a smart investment,” Executive Director Maria Jameson-Owens said. “Their guidance gave us clarity, confidence, and a far stronger negotiating position.”

By the end of the Procurement phase, Kitsap 911 had secured a significantly stronger agreement supporting the agency’s long-term needs. NPSG helped the agency save time, discover areas of improvement, set internal expectations and helped navigate difficult conversations through a transparent and collaborative process.

With procurement complete and implementation underway, Kitsap 911 moves forward with confidence knowing their CAD project is support by experienced guidance and a contract to support their long-term needs.