Page 230 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

CONTRACTUAL ISSUES REGARDING THE PURCHASE OF AN AFIS 215

sulted for specifics on warranties, and appropriate clauses should be incorpo-
rated into the RFP. There are several practical issues that will be covered in the
RFP. The RFP and resulting contract need to be clear as to when the warranty
period commences and when the maintenance period commences. Generally
speaking, the warranty period would not commence until after successful com-
pletion of acceptance testing. However, whether acceptance must be of the
entire System or some phased approach is dependent upon the nature of the
acquisition. From the government’s perspective, it can be argued that it con-
tracted for a System and the System does not have value until it is tested and
accepted. From the vendor’s perspective, it can be argued that it is fundamen-
tally unfair to require full system acceptance, especially in a large AFIS. Accep-
tance is very important to the vendor, as it generally triggers the government’s
obligation to make payment and establishes when the government assumes its
responsibilities for the operation of the AFIS. Further, in the hardware envi-
ronment, the maintenance period normally does not commence until the end
of the warranty period. Hardware maintenance payments would not start until
that time, so the longer the warranty period, the longer the maintenance expen-
ditures are deferred.
• Test Bed System: Depending on the nature of the AFIS, it may be beneficial for
the RFP to request information and pricing on the availability of used hard-
ware or hardware dedicated to a test bed system. This concept is most relevant
when the AFIS environment must have extremely high availability, such as a
criminal application that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The used equipment could be configured into a test bed system so that inter-
faces, patches, new releases, upgrades, etc., can be tested in an environment
that does not impact the production system. While some would argue that this
testing is an obligation of the vendor and should be conducted on the vendor’s
equipment, such an argument disregards the fact that many AFIS are just one
component of a larger system. In a criminal justice context, the AFIS processes
the fingerprint images and identifies likely candidates. The identifying infor-
mation on the candidates, however, is maintained in a separate database, often
referred to as computerized criminal history (CCH) records. The government
separately maintains the CCH and may establish separate access to the CCH,
such as for law enforcement and judicial purposes. There are numerous inter-
actions and relationships between the two systems that must be maintained and
tested. Different vendor systems may be used for the capture of fingerprint
information and the associated identifying information, which must be segre-
gated between the AFIS and the CCH. There are numerous scenarios in which
a test bed would be of extreme value to a governmental agency.
While incorporation of a test bed system necessarily adds to the overall costs
because of increased hardware, software, and maintenance needs, in certain