Council OKs five‑year RingCentral phone contract, staff says it will cut costs

The Cleburne City Council unanimously approved a five‑year contract not to exceed $237,171 with RingCentral for phone equipment and services on June 1.

City IT/communications staff explained the move as a response to recent reliability issues with the city’s current Mitel VoIP system and said RingCentral offers cloud‑hosted services that reduce the need to maintain on‑premises servers. Staff estimated a conservative 90‑day deployment and described features such as "softphone" capabilities that allow employees to place and receive office calls on smartphones or laptops.

The presenter said the contract amount includes a 10% contingency and a projected growth rate of five new phone lines per year. Staff estimated the total annual cost at roughly $40,152 and stated the change would lower the city’s annual phone costs by about 30%, from approximately $58,387 to $41,142, and would avoid roughly $36,000 in annual Mitel support and maintenance costs. The proposal also contemplated renting new phone devices at $1 per month and noted the East Texas Council of Governments helped negotiate pricing and will provide implementation assistance at no additional cost.

"This will lower our annual cost by 30%," the presenter said during the briefing. Councilmembers expressed support for the solution and noted similar moves by neighboring jurisdictions. Oliver Cosby moved to approve the contract as presented; Diana Weaver seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Staff will execute the contract through TIPS to meet competitive purchasing requirements and proceed with implementation and device provisioning as planned.