Explanation
This legislation recognizes a cooperative effort between the City Auditor and the Department of Finance and authorizes the City Auditor to enter into contract with Tier Technologies, Inc. to upgrade existing financial and procurement software. There is an increasing demand for more complex and detailed accounting management information and related accounting, procurement, and reporting capabilities. The City's current systems have been in place for several years. As a result, the City will be faced with declining support for such systems.
The City of Columbus has been selected as a test site for Tier Technologies, Inc.'s new "Tier Financials" applications and will also be participating in the development of this upgrade, resulting in substantial savings to upgrade the City's systems. Because Tier Financials will be an upgraded version of the City's current systems, it will utilize existing software licensing and, therefore, create even further savings as well as eliminate the need for competitive bidding on an entirely new financial system. The upgrade of the City's procurement module to Tier's hosted "WebProcure" provides the advantage of having a web based application that delivers comprehensive eprocurement capabilities complete with industry standard ecatalog support.
Fiscal Impact: Bonds for this project have yet to be sold; therefore a transfer of cash from the Special Income Tax Fund is necessary. The total cost of this software upgrade is $1,283,000.
This legislation is considered an emergency measure to ensure that the contract is in place so that the Auditor's Office and Finance may begin work on the program as quickly as possible to be a beta test site.
Title
To authorize and direct the City Auditor to transfer $1,283,000 from the Special Income Tax Fund to the Auditor Bond Fund; to authorize the City Auditor to enter into contracts for the acquisition of professional services and computerized systems necessary to ...
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