Commissioners authorize notice of intent, contract talks for county ERP after consultant recommendation

After a nearly year‑long vendor selection process the Morrow County Board of Commissioners authorized next steps to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Tammy Warren, senior consultant with Barry Dunn (SEG 606), summarized the RFI, two rounds of evaluation, more than 35 hours of vendor demonstrations and reference checks that reduced the field to a short list. The evaluation team recommended a combined solution using Univeris (integrator) with SAP Business ByDesign for core ERP financials and UNA (budgeting/planning) to provide advanced budgeting and forecasting functions.

Warren described typical implementation timing: "once you kick off implementation, you're usually looking at a 9 to 12 month process minimum" before the system is fully operating (SEG 787–794). Staff said the county tested integration and vendor compatibility during demonstrations and emphasized the importance of project management to keep implementation on schedule.

Commissioners voted to: (1) post and communicate a notice of intent to award to Univeris/Una and start the seven‑day protest period required by procurement rules, (2) authorize staff to enter contract negotiations and develop statements of work with the proposed vendors, and (3) accept Barry Dunn's proposal to provide full implementation project management assistance and enter contract negotiations for that task. Those three actions were moved, seconded and carried by voice vote.

Officials said the county will not begin contract negotiations until the protest period ends, and that contract language will include security and disaster‑recovery language coordinated with a separate county business continuity project. Staff also recommended hiring or designating a risk/procurement manager to support procurement and implementation processes.