City staff ask council to approve nearly $100,000 testing support for Workday ERP rollout

City staff asked the Idaho Falls City Council on Sept. 2 to authorize a contract change order of $98,400 to add Whitlock as a third‑party testing quality‑assurance partner for the city’s Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation.

The request, presented by Mark Hagedorn, the city’s treasurer and an ERP project lead, would pay Whitlock to review test scenarios, compare them to functional requirements and help track defects during configuration and end‑to‑end testing. “Testing is the biggest risk,” Hagedorn said. “It reduces the risk of rework, protects our investment, and ensures accountability.”

Why it matters: Idaho Falls plans to replace a 25‑year‑old financial and HR system and go live on Workday in summer 2026. Council approval for the Whitlock change order is required because it increases an existing contract above the city’s $75,000 threshold for council action, staff said.

Scope and timeline: The administration said focused configuration and unit testing is underway, and the Whitlock engagement would run roughly September 2025 through February 2026 to support 8–10 week testing cycles and the city’s end‑to‑end testing phase. Staff told council the testing backlog is sizeable — roughly 1,500 test cases now with more expected — and that Whitlock would assign a dedicated resource to help close gaps between test scripts and functional requirements.

Cost and funding: Hagedorn described the request as an $88,400 base cost plus contingency and travel, producing a total request of $98,400. City staff said the ERP program included $350,000 previously budgeted for travel and contingency; the administration proposes repurposing part of that line to pay Whitlock rather than adding new appropriation. Hagedorn said the $350,000 had been intended for resourcing support and travel contingencies tied to the Workday contract.

Questions from councilors focused on the nature of the risk (timeline and rework costs rather than security) and whether the contingency already budgeted was intended in part to cover this kind of expense. Hagedorn confirmed the request is intended to relieve internal staff workload and avoid costly delays in meeting the project timeline.

Next steps: Staff presented the change order request to council for consideration and said they would return with formal contract documents for approval. No final vote on the Whitlock change order was recorded in the Sept. 2 meeting record.

Ending: The ERP implementation remains on track for a mid‑2026 go‑live, according to city staff; the Whitlock request aims to shore up testing capacity so the project meets its schedule and reduces the risk of later rework.