CCP 11-26-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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. . . ~ ~HILLS MEMORANDUM DATE: November 20, 2001 TO: Joe Lynch, City Administrator @ FROM: Terrance Post, City Accountant SUBJECT: Financial Software Replacement Backl!round Prior to 1993, the City of Arden Hills purchased financial accounting data processing services from a servIce bureau at an approximate cost of $18,000 per year. 1n late 1992, the City purchased Banyan Data Systems (BDS) financial software for fund accounting, payroll and utility billing at a cost of $10, 130. The BDS software is MS-DOS based, and was adequate entry level software. Issues The BDS Software is the sole surviving DOS software at City Hall. Its use also requires the use of a dedicated dot matrix printer. Finally, the software supplier (Banyan) appears to have adopted a revenue "harvest" strategy and has not been forthcoming with a true Windows product from a software development perspective. In light of this support issue, two neighboring cities of about Arden Hills' size (Vadnais Heights and Little Canada) have dropped Banyan in the last two years. Discussion In tenns of converting financial software, an ideal time is the beginning of a new financial reporting year or in the City's case, January 1, 2002. A financial software package that the aforementioned cities of Vadnais Heights and Little Canada went with is the Springbrook financial software product. The City of Roseville is also using this product. The City of Arden Hills can purchase the software at a cost of $13,000 With the City ofRoseville also using the product, and the City of Arden Hills utilizing the Roseville network, there would also be the advantage of Roseville being, defacto, an application server in terms of upgrades and server redundancy. Subsequent Discussions This item was discussed at the November 19, 2001 Council Worksession. Financiuc Although the conversion from the DOS-based BDS software has long been contemplated, it was always dependent upon moving into a new facility with appropriate network support. With the new City Hall construction schedule somewhat problematic when the 2001 budget was prepared, this capital item was not mcluded. Funding would come from the General Fund ($8,250), the Water Utility Fund ($2,375), and the Samtary Sewer Utility Fund ($2,375). Recommendation Staff recommends that the City Council approve this 2001 unbudgeted $13,000 capital purchase request on the Consent Calendar at the regular meeting of November 26, 2001.