SUBJECT/RECOMMENDATION:
Title
Approve License and Services Agreements to Tyler Technologies, Inc. of Yarmouth, ME, for an amount not to exceed $2,094,449.00 for financial accounting software licensing, software maintenance, and professional services, and authorize the appropriate officials to execute same. (consent)
Body
SUMMARY:
The City has used Aptean’s Ross Financial Software (Ross) since 1992, specifically the current version since 2004. Ross has become an increasingly poor fit for the unique aspects of governmental accounting. The City’s agreement with Aptean expires in September 2019, and the system will be retired at that time.
In October 2015, the Information Technology and Finance departments formed a project team and contracted SoftResources, an unbiased software selection consulting firm, to aid in the procurement and contract negotiations for a new system. The process kicked off in November 2015 with three days of workshops in which the team and SoftResources staff collected questionnaires and held face-to-face meetings with more than 50 Ross users across the City, representing all City departments. Feedback was analyzed and used to create a needs assessment report listing over 150 functional requirements. This information formed the Scope of Work for RFP #16-16 issued on March 15, 2016.
On April 28, 2016, ten proposals were received and nine were deemed responsive to the proposal’s requirements. In September 2016 two firms, SunGard and Tyler Technologies, each held two-day demonstrations at the Main library, led by SoftResources. The demonstrations were attended by more than 75 employees from sixteen departments.
City employees provided evaluation feedback, and the indication by large margin and in agreement with the project team, was a preference for Tyler Technologies and their product Munis.
SoftResources and the project team have worked together with Tyler’s sales, implementation and legal staff to create a statement of work and contract for the licensing, installation, configuration, training, professional services and maintenance related to the implementation of the product. The following modules and services will be implemented: accounting, general ledger, budget, accounts payable, cash management, contract management, fixed assets, project and grant accounting, procurement, accounts receivable, general billing, forms processing, content management, analytic and reporting, systems management (optional), disaster recovery (optional), and change management.
The requested not-to-exceed amount includes all implementation expenses for licensing, professional services, travel, hardware, and a project contingency of 12% ($1,870,044 and a contingency of $224,405). Total cost-of-ownership for the first 5 years is anticipated to be $839,420 for software maintenance and hardware upgrade.
The implementation for phase one, consisting of the above-listed elements, is projected to take approximately 13 to 14 months. Future phases are contracted as options, and may include: bid management, cashiering, eProcurement, asset scanning, employee expense reimbursement, HR management, applicant tracking, payroll with employee self-service, professional development, risk management, and a transparency portal.
The evaluation of future modules could result in the reduction and replacement of software applications across the City, the largest one being our current HR/payroll solution PeopleSoft.
Tyler, founded in 1966 with over 15,000 current clients, is the largest company in the U.S. solely dedicated to public sector software and services. Munis will transform the City’s financials into the future with options such as user dashboards, electronic documents, more detailed and timely reporting abilities, and streamlined procure-to-pay processes.
APPROPRIATION CODE AND AMOUNT:
Funds are budgeted and available in the Finance CIP project cost codes 94828-564300 (computer software >$5,000) and 94828-530100 (professional services) for planned expenditures in the current fiscal year. Any implementation expenditures for future fiscal years will be budgeted in the same project. Maintenance and hardware expenses in out years will be budgeted in the IT Admin Services budget.