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Contract No.: Sole Source No.16-17-036
Current Term: N/A
Expiration Date: N/A
Title: Solar Powered Smart Benches (Soofa)
Recommendation:
K Sole Source Contract
Procurement Contracting Officer:
Victoria Girard()
❑ Solicit Competition
❑ Access Contract
❑ Other
Background:
Parks has been tasked with locating a viable resource to purchase smart benches for the City of Miami
(City's) parks facilities. The smart benches would provide Wi-Fi, act as cellular charging stations, track
park patron usage, in addition to, tracking atmospheric measures within 150 feet. Parks was the
recipient of a $10,000 Public Space Challenge Grant, and would like to initiate a pilot program to
introduce the smart benches to its park patrons. Parks plans to launch the pilot program within the five
(5) City district park locations. Each district would receive one (1) smart bench in a district park for
approximately twelve (12) months. After the initial twelve (12) months, Parks will evaluate the
feedback from park patrons and data collected from the smart benches to determine if the program
was a success, and if additional purchases should be made. If successful, applications for additional
grant funding will be sought, or future purchases will be incorporated into the annual budget request.
Research Conducted:
Market research was conducted by the Procurement Department (Procurement), and it was
determined that the Soofa Solar Powered Smart Benches (Soofa) is a sole source, due to the
proprietary algorithm system.
Comparable Contracts:
No comparable contracts were found. However, the following municipalities have started pilot
Programs with Soofa:
City of Sunny Isles
City of Doral
City of Boston
City of Austin
City of Los Angeles
City of Boulder
City of New York
City of Cambridge
All municipalities that have initiated a pilot program stated above have done so with their municipalities
small purchase threshold.
Recommendation:
A sole source purchase is in the best interest of the City for the following reasons:
1. Soofa is the only solar bench that transfers data to a cloud based application where it can be
downloaded as raw data.
2. The system has proprietary algorithms for data analysis that gather information for certain reports
needed by parks.
3. This device has a sensor which measures passively any mobile Wi-Fi device that is in a 100-150
foot radius of the bench.
It is recommended that the City enter into a sole source agreement to allow for the procurement of
solar powered smart benches on an as needed basis.
Procurement Contracting Officer:
Procurement Contracting Manager:
Director/Asst. Director:
Date:
Date:
5/9__q
Date: y[ /(