Committee renews cybersecurity monitoring and approves mobile-device management services

The Homewood City Finance Committee on June 30 approved multiple IT-related contracts to strengthen cybersecurity monitoring and to begin centralized management of city mobile devices.

IT Director Mister Sims presented three related items: a renewal of Huntress's endpoint detection and response (EDR) monitoring service; a 12-month managed mobility service engagement with Dataprise (to audit carrier plans, identify savings, and assist life-cycle management); and a 12-month mobile device management (MDM) implementation engagement (also with Dataprise) to centralize device enrollment and on- and off-boarding. Sims said Huntress provides 24/7 monitoring and response for desktops, laptops and servers and can isolate endpoints and monitor Office 365 accounts. He said the base Huntress contract remains at the previously budgeted base amount of up to $24,000; additional services taken earlier had raised the total to $49,000 but this item was limited to the base EDR renewal.

For managed mobility and MDM work, Sims said Dataprise would perform an initial assessment (three months of billing data) to identify potential cost savings, lifecycle-management opportunities, and a baseline inventory of devices and plans. He and staff told the committee Dataprise identified approximately $3,000 per month in potential savings from rate-plan optimization, although actual savings depend on usage and whether low-use lines must be retained. The proposed one-year managed-mobility engagement was listed at $13,002.60 in the presentation and would be paid from the maintenance contracts line item. Sims described the MDM engagement as the complementary technical work to move devices from unmanaged personal accounts into enterprise-managed accounts, a process that typically requires wiping and re-provisioning existing unmanaged devices and will be phased for new devices going forward.

Council members asked whether the city could perform these tasks in-house; staff said the city intends to use the vendors for a one-year implementation and reassess whether to retain ongoing services. Committee members also discussed potential insurance/cyber implications and were told the measures should reduce risk and could affect insurance exposure.

The committee approved motions to renew Huntress and to enter 12-month agreements for managed mobility and MDM services by voice votes (each 3-0). Staff said the work aims to centralize device management, control carrier costs, and improve security posture for city endpoints and cloud accounts.