Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Erp Readiness topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission approves $145,000 GFOA contract to guide enterprise resource planning readiness
Summary
The commission authorized consulting services from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) not to exceed $145,000 to lead a readiness project ahead of procurement for a new county enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Douglas County commissioners on March 26 approved a consulting agreement with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) not to exceed $145,000 to conduct a readiness assessment and prepare procurement materials ahead of a future enterprise resource planning (ERP) procurement.
Russell Schlapper, the county’s project and IT software manager, said the readiness work will document and analyze current finance, HR and payroll processes, create a centralized repository of process documentation and translate the county’s future-state requirements into procurement specifications. Schlapper told commissioners the county’s existing ERP (implemented about a decade ago) suffers from limited vendor support, fragile upgrade processes, and a lack of modern APIs, and staff want GFOA help to define a position-by-position, process-by-process procurement requirement.
Jamie Schuhr, county clerk, summarized the county’s last ERP effort (2015 implementation) and said the scope this time includes finance, budget, HR/time entry and procure-to-pay processes. He described GFOA as a nonprofit professional association that produces many current best-practice guides and said the association will provide workshops, gap analysis versus best practice and contract negotiation support.
IT Director Starla Jones and Finance staff said cybersecurity and business continuity will be addressed; Jones noted the current system is on-premises and that modern cloud-based options could improve resilience. Commissioners discussed the likely need for temporary staff to backfill subject-matter experts during readiness and implementation phases.
The commission approved the GFOA proposal in a recorded vote that passed 5-0. The readiness work is scheduled to begin with a project kickoff and staff workshops in April 2025, continue into 2026, and support procurement planning for a vendor solicitation expected in the second half of 2026. Implementation of a new ERP is projected to begin in 2027.
A vote to approve the GFOA contract concluded the item; the commission directed staff to schedule a kickoff and return with implementation and resource plans as the readiness work progresses.
