City updates council on enterprise software review; RFPs for ERP and utilities planned

Stillwater — City IT and consultant Barry Dunn updated the City Council Aug. 18 on a multi-month evaluation of the city's core software systems and the plan to procure replacements and integrations for finance (ERP), utility billing/customer systems and enterprise asset management. "There have been over 70 meetings conducted by Barry Dunn with city staff," Brad Stewart, the city's IT director, told the council while introducing the presentation. Ryan Doyle, principal at Barry Dunn, said the firm has documented roughly 5,000 software requirements and developed an RFP strategy aimed at issuing competitive solicitations to the vendor community. Doyle said the intended procurement approach is to begin with the ERP (finance/payroll/human resources) solicitation — generally the longest implementation — followed by utility billing. He told council staff expect to issue RFPs with responses coming in October and to complete evaluation and vendor selection in the months that follow, with contract finalization targeted in the March timeframe. Doyle described the scope as four functional groupings: finance/HR (ERP), utility billing/customer information, community development/permitting, and enterprise asset management. He emphasized the project includes not only software selection but process and policy review so the city avoids "lift and shift" automation of inefficient manual processes. "We reviewed 5,000 software requirements," he said, describing a line-by-line review with city staff. Councilors asked about timeline, data conversion, hosting and security. Doyle said most ERP offerings now are cloud-based, that vendors typically use major cloud providers, and that the procurement would require vendors to detail security, encryption, recovery objectives and staffing plans. On implementation timing, he said phasing is common and "you could see anywhere from about 9 to 12 months per phase." Funding for the project will come from identified capital funds and utilities where applicable, Doyle and city management said. Why it matters: The city relies on more than three dozen disparate systems and staff said consolidation could reduce manual work, improve public-facing services and provide integrated financial and utility reporting. Next steps: Staff will finalize the RFP package and issue solicitations; council will see procurement documents and, later, contract award recommendations.