Council committee approves $30,000 increase for city CRM while members press for fixes to 311 rollout

Pittsburgh City Council's Intergovernmental and Educational Affairs Committee on Monday approved an amendment increasing the city's contract to upgrade its customer relationship management system by $30,000, even as council members urged faster fixes to ongoing 3-1-1 problems.

The resolution (bill 20-58) would raise the total contract authorization to $1,125,755.33 over three years for the platform Encapsulate, which was later acquired by Accenture. The additional funds pay for roughly 60 more licenses, raising the counciloffice and departmental license pool from 120 to 180, city staff said.

Heidi Norman, director of the Department of Innovation and Performance, told the committee that some improvements have been implemented but acknowledged members' concerns about the new system's rollout. "I don't believe that my concerns have been resolved," Norman said at the meeting when describing lingering questions about how the platform meets operational needs.

Wendy Urbana, manager of 3-1-1, told the committee staff and users have struggled with the transition. "It's been a struggle," she said, describing weekly debugging meetings and the time needed to customize a larger, more complex platform.

Council members recounted constituent complaints including closed-but-unresolved service tickets and missing notifications. Several members said they want the administration to prioritize 3-1-1 stability: councilman Coghill requested a guarantee that core 3-1-1 issues tied to customer intake and ticket handling be resolved in coming months and suggested revisiting the procurement if problems persist. Director Norman said the technical issues identified are slated to be resolved by the end of the calendar year.

Administrators defended the choice of platform, saying the selected vendor's proposal was less costly than rival bids during the RFP. Staff also said the new system offers features not present in the prior QSend/QAlert platform, including unified views of constituent engagement across city systems, duplicate-ticket detection, GIS-based routing and the capacity in later phases to gather social-media signals for situational awareness.

Members asked for weekly status updates on tickets and debugging, more transparency when a work order is closed, and clearer service-level expectations for routine requests such as missed trash pickups or pothole repairs. Staff said they would continue weekly meetings with departments and provide updated issue lists to council offices.

After debate, the committee voted to approve the $30,000 increase; the clerk recorded an affirmative recommendation with one member recorded as opposing. The administration said the additional licenses are intended to support public-safety, nightlife and other operational needs while staff continue to refine the system configuration and user training.