Tauranga City Council staff have obtained permission to make a $900,000 computer deal, without going through normal purchasing channels.

Council granted the exemption to its normal open procurement rules before Christmas, so staff could take advantage of a $900,000 bargain on computer system upgrades.

In the report to council, chief information officer Grant Strang says both Spark and Dimension Data submitted a solution and a plan, when approached, and both included prices and a price breakdown, even though the price was not requested by council staff.

Staff took the issue to council because the lower price is unlikely to be repeated.

In the information and communication technology world, when a large complex solution is requested a vendor will approach their preferred manufacturer and register the opportunity to secure the manufacturers support price for the project, says Grant Strang's report.

'Once the price is registered no other vendor in NZ will be offered a better price from that manufacturer for that registered opportunity.

'We are trying to be prudent. We didn't make a mistake, but we are in this positon where we do have pricing we would like to move on.”

To obtain the ‘just under $900,000' price the order had to be in before Christmas. The price would also be going up at least 20 per cent in the New Year, council staff were told.

The price increases will also impact the final pricing solution of the VDI solution council requires by about $150,000 + GST due to adjustments to reflect current exchange rates with USD. Globally the majority of the ICT infrastructure equipment is based on USD.

The council's virtual database infrastructure is the physical information communications and technology providing city council contractors and staff with access to the council's VDI environment.

The VDI procurement is required to add capability to manage forecasted growth in council ICT environments. The council now requires 64 bit processing to meet the needs of business.

It's currently using 32bit technology which is no longer fit for purpose.

The 32bit computing cannot support the ICT systems that council business units now require to deliver services and drive the digital platform strategy, says Grant's report.

The buy will allow staff and contractors remote access, hot-desking, open plan workspaces and skype type conference calling.

The upgrade to council computers is budgeted for in the council's Long Term Plan.