Syracuse officials report progress on payroll modernization; $8.1 million spent to date

Syracuse City staff updated the Human Resources Committee on April 14, 2025 on the city's multi-year payroll modernization effort, saying timekeeping software is being rolled out department by department while the city reevaluates which human capital management (HCM) product to adopt for payroll and other HR functions.

The project, officials said, is intended to replace paper-based processes and a 30-year-old AS 400 payroll system. "AS 400 has processed over a billion dollars worth of payments for payroll," said Michael Cannizzaro, Commissioner of Finance. City staff told the committee roughly $8.1 million has been spent on the overall effort to date; a $10 million figure circulating publicly was described as a total contract ceiling rather than money already spent.

Why it matters: Syracuse pays more than $100 million a year in wages to roughly 1,900',300 employees (growing seasonally), across nine bargaining units and 32 departments, officials said. Payroll errors or interruptions can immediately affect take-home pay for employees who often live paycheck to paycheck, and the city must meet enhanced New York State retirement reporting requirements that staff said are currently a year overdue.

What city staff described

- Timekeeping rollout: City staff said the Syracuse Workforce timekeeping system (SWC) has been reconfigured, retrained and resumed department rollouts after earlier problems. Josh Sireson, Innovation Project Leader for the Office of Analytics, Performance and Innovation (API), said SWC reached about 98% alignment during testing after reconfiguration and training and that a water-department pilot is in parallel testing at "just under 90%" accuracy; parks then DPW are next for rollout. Officials said some early comparisons between SWC and paper records showed only a 60% match before system fixes and training.

- Public-safety scheduling: Police and fire continue to use Telestaff, a scheduling product designed for 24-hour operations; staff said Telestaff and SWC are from the same vendor family and can work together, but that some public-safety scheduling features would be difficult to replicate in a single civilian-oriented system without heavy customization.

- HCM decision pending: The city has paused committing to a single HCM product. Staff said the team is reconsidering Oracle Fusion (the prior path) and is demoing alternatives such as PeopleSoft, Dayforce, UKG payroll options and even outsourced payroll with ADP. "We're reevaluating whether or not the path we were headed on is really the right path for the city in the long term," said Corey Dunham, Chief Administrative Officer. Cannizzaro added that Oracle license costs (about $350,000 cited for licenses) and the ongoing internal support needed to sustain a product are key factors in the decision.

Costs and resource notes

City officials gave several cost estimates and clarifications during the meeting: roughly $8.1 million has been spent to date on the initiative; staff described that spending as split about half on timekeeping and half on the HCM/payroll side. An internal exchange estimated that roughly $3.5'$4.0 million of that has been associated with timekeeping efforts, though officials said they would provide a detailed breakdown later. Staff proposed a conservative additional outlay of a few hundred thousand dollars to finish timekeeping rollouts (the figure $200,000 was cited as a conservative estimate) and put HCM implementation costs for a new system in the range of $500,000 to $1,500,000, with annual licensing in the half-million-dollar range depending on product and scope.

Staffing and sustainability concerns

Multiple speakers stressed staffing and institutional knowledge risks tied to the legacy AS 400 system: Cannizzaro said much of the city's AS 400 expertise is held by longtime employees nearing retirement and a retired programmer who currently consults. Officials described a preference for a cloud (SaaS) licensing model that reduces the need to hire and retain highly specialized internal programmers.

Training, compliance and near-term steps

API and digital services staff described a phased implementation with department-level manager and employee training before each go-live. Staff said the city has established a Tuesday-noon internal deadline for managers to approve time records to ensure consistent payroll processing. The team expects to present a final recommendation on the HCM solution within approximately 3— weeks and said it will return to the Council to explain the choice and any budget implications.

Quotes from meeting participants

"AS 400 has processed over a billion dollars worth of payments for payroll," Commissioner Michael Cannizzaro said, describing the legacy system's long history and institutional dependence. Corey Dunham said, "We're reevaluating whether or not the path we were headed on is really the right path for the city in the long term." Josh Sireson described progress on timekeeping: "We went live in December" with SWC and, after additional configuration and training, reported accuracy that staff now consider acceptable to proceed toward departmental payoffs.

What was not decided

Committee members pressed for a historical accounting of project spending and earlier timelines; staff said an ongoing IT audit will review past work and that the project team will supply a more detailed cost breakdown. No formal vote or contractual award was taken at the meeting.

Next steps

Staff said they will continue phased rollouts (water pilot, then parks, then DPW), complete the vendor evaluation for the HCM/payroll platform and return to the Council with a recommended path, implementation plan and budget implications. City staff said they expected to have a vendor decision within three to four weeks and to be transparent to the Council about costs and timing.

Ending

Committee members thanked staff for the update and requested the more detailed cost and timeline documentation that staff said would be provided and included in the IT audit work.