May 28th, 2015

Craig Rapp, Assistant Attorney General

Ohio Attorney Generals Office
30 E Broad Street, 17th Floor
Columbus, OH 43125
Dear Mr. Rapp:
This correspondence is in response to a series of letters we have received from the Ohio
Attorney Generals Office (AGO) requesting 3M Cogent take action to resolve a number of
issues with the Ohio background check system and provide a program credit to the State of
Ohio in the amount of $6.2 million.
Top-notch customer support and superior product performance have always been hallmarks of
our organization, and it concerns us greatly to learn that you feel we are not living up to our
reputation.
While we respectfully take issue with the assertions made in your letters, we value our long and
successful relationship with the State of Ohio. We have been working closely with you to listen
to your concerns, investigate the issues you have identified, resolve those that are within 3M
Cogents control, and continue our relationship with you.
Thank you for your willingness to approach this situation collaboratively and arrive at a mutually
agreeable action plan. 3M Cogent is committed to the following:
1. 3M Cogent has 2 full-time engineers on site working with the AGO to resolve
production issues. 3M Cogent also has temporarily assigned a third on-site engineer to
support the AGO. This is a temporary solution that we look forward to formalizing in our
contract extension.
2. 3M Cogent has assigned a new project manager and 2 off-site engineers to support
project work with the AGO.
3. 3M Cogent is actively participating in the new daily AGO ITS meetings.
4. 3M Cogent disagrees with the assertions in your correspondence concerning
programing credits alleged to be owed to the State of Ohio. Our position is that our
system maintained 99.5% uptime or better, and that no such credits are owed.
5. 3M Cogent also disagrees with statements made by representatives of the AGO to the
media and in face-to-face discussions with us that 3M Cogent is responsible for the
issues that exist with the States AFIS system. We have advised the State for many
years of the need to consider upgrading its system, a system which was first deployed
in 1997 but never upgraded. Additionally, the State determined in 2011, as part of your
most recent contract renewal with 3M Cogent, to assume the responsibility for most of
the system hardware components within the AFIS system in exchange for a more
economical cost structure. Many of the issues you are encountering pertain to these
components, which belong to the State and are not within 3M Cogents control or area
of responsibility.

Craig Rapp, Assistant Attorney General

Ohio Attorney Generals Office

Page Two

6. That being said, to address the staff shortage that the AGO has experienced, 3M
Cogent will issue a programing credit of $252,585 to be applied in 2015/2016 Ohio
fiscal year to project work that the AGO requests. This credit will be issued upon a
simultaneous execution of a renewal agreement and a satisfactory waiver and release
from the State of the aforementioned claims.
We appreciate your willingness to discuss and resolve these issues.
As you have acknowledged, many of the identified problems will be resolved upon upgrading
your aging system. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you on upgrading to the
CAFIS 6.0 version as soon as possible.
Sincerely,

Angela B. Dreis
US Sales and Marketing Manager
Public Security
Traffic Safety and Security Division

c:

Mary Mertz, First Assistant Attorney General, Ohio Attorney Generals Office
Kim Murnieks, Chief Operating Officer, Ohio Attorney Generals Office
Ervan Rodgers, Chief Information Officer, Ohio Attorney Generals Office
Ann Anaya, Senior Counsel, 3M
Richmond B. Rolfs, Senior General Counsel, 3M
Mike Caputo, Director of Government Affairs, McDonald Hopkins, LLC