County IT recommends ProMed for Drupal upgrade; board raises governing-law concerns for HPE, Broadcom contracts
June 17, 2025 | Scott County, Iowa
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Scott County IT managers asked the Board of Supervisors on June 10 to allow negotiations with ProMed for a countywide upgrade of the Drupal content-management system and also discussed two large procurement items—HPE servers and Broadcom’s VMware virtualization software—whose vendor terms reference California law.
IT staff said the county’s current Drupal implementation is on a version that has been in place for roughly a decade and needs an upgrade to a supported release. The procurement attracted 33 responses; IT short-listed six vendors, interviewed finalists, and scored proposals on technical ability (40%), cost (25%), project approach (25%) and experience (10%). IT recommended ProMed, citing a thorough response, local-government focus and a competitive price range. Staff requested authority to negotiate a contract and return to the board for approval. “We'd like to replace our current constituent response form that we have… and they responded to that,” Matt said, describing ProMed’s responsiveness in the RFP process.
The IT presentation also revisited two items tabled at an earlier meeting: acquisition of servers and storage from HPE and the Broadcom acquisition of VMware. Both vendors’ terms and conditions listed California as the governing law. County counsel reviewed the contracts and advised staff that while the county prefers Iowa law, the absence of Iowa choice-of-law clauses does not automatically disqualify the contracts. IT said HPE suggested the county could submit a written request to change the governing law, but staff were not optimistic about obtaining that change and worried about losing the currently quoted pricing if negotiations delayed the purchase. A supervisor suggested sending the request but proceeding with negotiations to preserve pricing.
IT also noted HPE’s pricing appeared aggressive due to end-of-fiscal-year timing and flagged broader supply-chain risks, including potential tariffs affecting component prices. Staff said their experience with similar procurements over 25 years suggests low litigation risk and that vendor implementations have typically succeeded. IT asked the board to allow contract negotiations with ProMed under a not-to-exceed amount and to proceed with the HPE and Broadcom procurements while sending written requests to change the governing-law clauses.
Supervisors praised the procurement process and asked for follow-up during contract negotiations; no formal votes were recorded in the transcript.
IT staff said the county’s current Drupal implementation is on a version that has been in place for roughly a decade and needs an upgrade to a supported release. The procurement attracted 33 responses; IT short-listed six vendors, interviewed finalists, and scored proposals on technical ability (40%), cost (25%), project approach (25%) and experience (10%). IT recommended ProMed, citing a thorough response, local-government focus and a competitive price range. Staff requested authority to negotiate a contract and return to the board for approval. “We'd like to replace our current constituent response form that we have… and they responded to that,” Matt said, describing ProMed’s responsiveness in the RFP process.
The IT presentation also revisited two items tabled at an earlier meeting: acquisition of servers and storage from HPE and the Broadcom acquisition of VMware. Both vendors’ terms and conditions listed California as the governing law. County counsel reviewed the contracts and advised staff that while the county prefers Iowa law, the absence of Iowa choice-of-law clauses does not automatically disqualify the contracts. IT said HPE suggested the county could submit a written request to change the governing law, but staff were not optimistic about obtaining that change and worried about losing the currently quoted pricing if negotiations delayed the purchase. A supervisor suggested sending the request but proceeding with negotiations to preserve pricing.
IT also noted HPE’s pricing appeared aggressive due to end-of-fiscal-year timing and flagged broader supply-chain risks, including potential tariffs affecting component prices. Staff said their experience with similar procurements over 25 years suggests low litigation risk and that vendor implementations have typically succeeded. IT asked the board to allow contract negotiations with ProMed under a not-to-exceed amount and to proceed with the HPE and Broadcom procurements while sending written requests to change the governing-law clauses.
Supervisors praised the procurement process and asked for follow-up during contract negotiations; no formal votes were recorded in the transcript.
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