In its inaugural meeting in the Maricopa Unified School District administration building, the Maricopa City Council approved spending more than a half million dollars Tuesday night to replace the city’s current software systems and maintain that software for five years.
“The current software suites we are using do not communicate with each other, and the amount of data we are processing exceeds comfortable usage,” said Cynthia Sneed, the city’s finance director.
Sneed said she was first made aware of the issue when she was originally brought on by the city almost a year ago and one of the first tasks handed to her was to find a solution.
“We looked at the current software we were using and found an alarming number of redundant efforts being completed by city staff,” Sneed said.
To gain efficiency, give more people access to the city’s system and overall improve communication, Sneed and her team put together a list of 967 different requirements they were seeking in a software suite to handle the city’s budgeting, accounting and other systems.
These requirements were then put out to bid, with five responses coming back. However, only two of the quotes fell within the budget constraints Sneed was operating under.
“By implementing this new system, I predict we can save almost $115,000 a year,” Sneed said.
The vendor chosen for the project is Tyler Technologies and the software package is known as its Munis ERP Solution.
Across the country, Tyler Technologies has more than 1,400 municipalities using its system, including Oro Valley, Marana, Queen Creek and Fountain Hills.
The system differs from many municipal software packages on the market in that it is not phased out every few years for a new version; instead it is just continually upgraded.
However, despite the savings proposed, Councilman Carl Diedrich was hesitant to approve the contract.
“If you count this, we have now spent $390,000, $80,000 and $20,000 on software,” he said. “I will not approve any more spending on software after this measure tonight.”
Councilman Marvin Brown also raised his concern about buying new software that would replace budgeting software the council had approved for purchase less than two years.
The actual cost of the software was $389,323, which includes the first year of maintenance for free; the next four years of maintenance cost $231,323.
In other action, the council approved a shared parking agreement with Leading Edge Academy, adopted the Capital Improvement Plan and voted to spend $43,000 on the implementation of teen programs.
Photo by Joyce Hollis  |
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