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Middlesex committee recommends best‑of‑breed ERP approach; staff flags phased rollout to limit first‑year costs
Summary
Middlesex County staff and a selection committee recommended using two vendors — Edmonds GovTech for finance, payroll and permitting, and Avenity for tax and revenue — after vendor demonstrations. Staff emphasized a phased implementation to avoid an estimated first‑year bill of roughly $611,000 if both systems are implemented concurrently.
Middlesex County officials said the county’s ERP review committee is recommending a best‑of‑breed approach to replace its aging financial and permitting systems, selecting Edmonds GovTech for core financials, payroll and permitting and Avenity for tax and revenue functions.
“Following a very comprehensive year‑long project … the ERP review committee is recommending pursuing a best of breed approach for selecting a ERP,” Anne Marie, a county staff presenter, told the board during vendor demonstrations. She said the county wants “the strongest available software for each of our … functions.”
Edmonds representatives demonstrated a cloud‑hosted finance suite, dashboards and permitting modules that include online permit applications and drill‑down reporting. “The financial dashboard … is an extremely good tool,” Connor Whelan of Edmonds said during the demo, showing graphical and tabular budget and expenditure views staff can share ahead of meetings.
Avenity’s presentation focused on tax and collections. Avenity staff described County 1, the vendor’s taxpayer portal and interfaces that pull assessment, DMV and payment data into the commissioner and treasurer offices’ workflows.
County staff shared a high‑level cost estimate during the meeting and said implementation sequencing matters. Anne Marie said implementation and one‑time costs quoted by vendors total about $155,000 for Edmonds and $287,000 for Avenity, with first‑year subscription fees roughly $55,000 and $115,000 respectively. “If we did it all at once, dollars $611,000 in that first year,” she told the board, adding the committee expects to phase the purchases.
Selection committee members and supervisors pressed for clear interface scoping — for example, how online permitting payments will flow to the treasurer’s office — before any contract is signed. Ross, the county’s project lead, said that scoping will be part of the next phase of work with the vendors and the project team.
The board did not take a procurement vote at the meeting. Staff said they will return with contract timing and sequencing recommendations, and that implementation likely would be spread over multiple fiscal years to limit up‑front budgetary impact.
