2022-05-10 Services and Organisation Committee Meeting Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                          10 MAY 2022


through EOI, business development activities and online lead generation. The network includes
over 100 companies across many solution categories including simulation.

The market includes a number of vendors with fire behaviour simulation tools, but none that offer
the combination of software and interactive presentation hardware that Council requires for its
decision support and community education needs. Those needs are informed by discussions with
other Council’s that are more advanced in their use of simulation technologies for community
engagement, including Ku-Ring-Gai Council, who have been using the Simtable for a number of
years. Refer to: https://www.governmentnews.com.au/simulator-tool-shows-how-bushfires-
spread/

Simtable™ is a United States based company and, as such, are not listed on any Local
Government Association (LGA) panel arrangement. As such, the Procurement Branch have
advised that if Council is satisfied that Simtable is the only supplier reasonably available, in this
case based on the rationale and market sounding findings provided, Council may resolve to
engage Simtable directly, under section 235(a) of the Local Government Regulation 2012, as
follows:

‘235 Other exceptions’
     A local government may enter into a medium-sized contractual arrangement or large-sized
     contractual arrangement without first inviting written quotes or tenders if –

       (a)   The local government resolves it is satisfied that there is only 1 supplier who is
             reasonably available;’

Subject to Council resolution, the resulting engagement of Simtable will be delivered under a trial
contract term of two (2) years. Following this trial period Council will then review the outcomes,
Council’s continued requirements and the current state of the market and determine the most
appropriate procurement process to undertake should Council seek to continue utilising a 3D
hazard simulation tool.

Previous Council Consideration
Nil.

Finance
Estimated budget for the 2 year trial is $106,000. Funding is provided jointly via the Cat D bushfire
recovery grant and Cat C Community Bushfire grant.

At the end of the 2-year trial Council will retain the SimTable equipment however an annual support
and maintenance fee of AUS$13,394.15 will be required to be paid. This could potentially be
covered by Get Ready funding received annually from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.
Risks & Opportunities
 Risk                                                   Mitigation
 Like any tech investment, the Simtable has a risk of   Ensure that the hardware is extensible to
 technological obsolescence as new solutions are        accommodate other data sets and can be operated
 developed                                              beyond software end of life.
 Tech support will be required to maximise benefit of   Include setup, ongoing maintenance and support in
 the Simtable, customisations including application     contract.
 of local maps and data for the simulations.


Beyond the opportunity to use the Simtable in community engagement settings, the technology
also provides practical value as a decision support tool. By simulating how hazards behave in a
particular set of circumstances (weather, terrain, etc), the tool can inform disaster management
actions such as evacuation orders.
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