City to Update Software & Hardware Used for Operations

The City currently uses a patchwork of antiquated software/hardware and stand alone programs to operate the City. It is very labor intensive, requires manual input of data and is not interconnected across all City organizations. There is a definite, uncontested need for a modern, secure system to facilitate City operations.

Staff will be presenting their plan for defining, purchasing and installing a so called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to the Council on Tuesday, June 13 at 3pm in Council chambers. Georgetown is preparing to spend $6.5M to $12.3M on ERP over the next 10 years. 

What is an ERP?

Consider a municipal government. It has departments for finance, human resources, purchasing, and information technology as well as other departments that operate like their counterparts in private organizations, providing internal services to the rest of the organization. Other departments exist that oversee essential services that are provided to the community they serve to include utilities, public works, parks, engineering, building, and public safety (police and fire) to name a few. Each department performs a series of common, repetitive tasks: issuing permits, performing inspections, making zoning determinations, among many others. And, of course, there are ongoing, administrative responsibilities: writing checks, accepting and processing payments, processing payroll, hiring staff, and others. 

The management of the business functions and processes within these departments requires software that serves their unique needs: financial software for accounting purposes; HR software for personnel management; and police software for coordinating dispatch and records. However, when organizations operate with a “silo” mentality, not sharing information across departments, the amount of complexities and inefficiencies increases. Redundancies become commonplace through the proliferation of “shadow systems” (i.e., offline spreadsheets and databases separate from the primary system), with data entry duplicated and then synchronized across multiple departments to ensure accuracy.

The City consultant, plante moran, a midsized CPA firm based in Michigan, recommends private or public cloud deployment. Their report is here: http://agendas.georgetown.org/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=17524&MeetingID=2187

   Over the last few years, cloud-based ERP solutions have emerged, a centralized system of management, where applications and data are accessed via the Internet. Vendors will tout this model as a seamless process that eliminates the need for individual computers to become bogged down with expensive software and documents while delivering: 

Quicker, more efficient deployments. Tapping resources remotely speeds time-to-market and reduces the costs associated with implementations that are performed on-site.

Additionally, cloud service vendors are committed to security, lessening government IT burdens and providing other cost savings.

Innovation is enhanced with software stored in the cloud, product enhancements can be shared across a user group, leveraging the capabilities of advanced technologies quickly and at minimal cost. 

Scalability, Cloud-based ERP software enables governments to add or subtract components as needed, customizing functionality (within the constraints of the software package) to suit current needs. 

One model of cloud-based computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), is a subscription model whereby applications do not reside on end user computers but rather “in the cloud,” whereby the same instance of that software is shared with all of the other entities using that software. 

Within the governmental setting, there has been some level of resistance in adopting this model as concerns related to the security, ownership of data, the ability for unique local customizations, the disentanglement of services, and others have resulted in a slow adoption of this computing model. CIOs will need to read through the rhetoric when conversing with providers of cloud-based ERP solutions and understand the trade-offs and benefits when considering such a solution as compared to more traditional software models.

However, experience has shown that design and implementation of new hardware and software systems cost much more and take much longer than originally estimated.

Given this background, several questions arise.

1.    Does the city staff have the knowledge and experience to manage and implement such a complex system?

2.    Is the City prepared to hire certified cloud sercuity experts that fetch a salary up to $140K annually to assure the contractors/vendors are providing the security the City expects?

3.    There are serious and far-reaching issues to be addressed with a cloud based ERP. What is the EXIT strategy if vendors are changed in the future? Who owns the data?  What are the security protocols? And many more.

4.    Can the City cope with the cloud vendor updating hardware and software on the vendor’s schedule, not the city’s schedule? How is the training accomplished when the vendor changes the system? Does this affect employee productivity?

8.    Should the City set up a citizen’s steering committee whose members have extensive experience with cloud based systems to guide this project?

9.    City staff should provide a list of cities to Council that have implemented a cloud based ERP along with contact information to allow Council to get first-hand feed-back.