Partner Tulsa trustees table vote on GovSense ERP implementation after questions about cost, timeline and data migration

Partner Tulsa trustees voted to table consideration of an agreement to adopt the GovSense enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, a proposed software consolidation that would move Partner Tulsa finance, asset and customer-relationship management into a single system.

The item, presented as a contract for the GovSense platform and an implementation package shown in the staff memo as a $156,580 expenditure, prompted detailed questions from trustees about cost, expected savings, the timeline for migration and how previously paid CRM work would be handled. After discussion the board approved a motion to table the item to the August meeting and asked staff to return with a cost-benefit analysis and an implementation plan that identifies project leads and estimated staff hours.

Renita, who introduced the item, said the platform would replace disparate systems (Munis, the existing CRM) and centralize payroll, accounting, budgeting, purchasing, contract and grant management, asset management and a CRM module in one environment. Staff told trustees the implementation timeline would be about three months and that GovSense is a NetSuite-based, cloud-hosted SaaS used by several local governments. Staff said funds for the purchase were available from current appropriations in the fiscal-year budget.

Trustees pressed staff on how much the shift would actually save and on prior CRM investments. Staff said the organization spent roughly $150,000 on a CRM implementation previously and has paid about $50,000 annually for licensing and services for the Microsoft Dynamics (Sikich) CRM. Staff described GovSense costs being spread over multiple years, and said adopting the GovSense CRM module could reduce or eliminate separate CRM vendor fees; staff also said the transition could increase recurring costs by about $20,000 per year overall, based on a three-year projection presented during discussion.

Trustees also raised operational and technical concerns: whether it would have been possible to secure better data access from the city’s Munis system rather than replace it, how existing CRM data would be converted, whether implementation would require manual rekeying versus automated migration, and whether cloud storage met government security expectations. Staff described GovSense as cloud-hosted on Oracle infrastructure with backups and security consistent with governmental ERP best practices and said GovSense’s implementation team would perform the data upload from a spreadsheet-template export; staff acknowledged the migration would require significant staff time to set up and error-check the uploaded data.

After further questions about who would own and lead the migration work and how many staff hours would be required, a trustee moved to table the item until the board’s next meeting and asked staff to provide a cost-benefit analysis and an implementation plan including a named project lead and estimated staff hours. The motion was seconded and approved by roll call.

Staff indicated they will schedule demos for trustees in committee and will return in August with additional details, including clearer financial detail and a strategic implementation plan.

Votes at a glance: the motion to table was adopted by roll call (recorded yes votes include Craig Abrahamson, Paul Bracey, Councilor Ringle, Eliana Hurtado/Tatum, Andy McMillan, Ashley Phillipson, Katie Plahockey, Aaron Parsley and Terrell Siegfried).