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Department Approval <br />��. .�: �� <br />Item Description: <br />BACKGROUND <br />��i <br />� <br />REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION <br />Date: 03/08/10 <br />Item No.: �3/ d <br />City Manager Approval <br />Authorization to Purchase a Software Upgrade for the City's Financial Software <br />Package <br />Since the mid-1970's, the City has relied upon software programs to record, monitor, and report the City's <br />financial transactions. The last major software purchase made for this purpose was in 1999 when the City <br />purchased the Springbrook Financial Software Suite. <br />Financial software companies typically provide software patches on an annual or semi-annual basis to fix <br />any errors or glitches. Generally speaking, these smaller-scale changes can be made with minimal <br />interruption to the customer, and do not feature any substantive changes to the software itsel£ However, <br />every few years, it is customary for financial software companies to undertake a major overhaul of the <br />software itself to accommodate changing customer needs, industry practices, and newer technologies. The <br />last major upgrade took place in 2003. <br />In 2009, Springbrook announced its intention of implementing an upgrade to their system. It has recently <br />completed its beta-testing and is now actively rolling out upgrades to customers across the country. As is <br />customary for all software providers, Springbrook will continue to support the older version of their <br />software but only for a limited time. The City of Roseville must upgrade to the new software version in the <br />coming year or so to continue receiving customer support. <br />Some of the enhancements featured in the software upgrade include: <br />❖ Processes, calculations, etc, are performed on the server rather than on the user's workstation. This <br />means the end user's computer is not `tied up' during these processes allowing them to perform <br />other tasks. And because most servers are faster than an individual computer, these processes are <br />completed faster. <br />❖ Security is improved as it will now be maintained at the network level using the same security <br />features employed network-wide. <br />❖ Software patches can be deployed centrally instead of at the workstation level, saving an average of <br />30 minutes per computer per patch. <br />❖ Numerous reporting capabilities have been added to allow greater customization, and data <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />