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Owosso council votes to end ACE portal utility service over low use and costs
Summary
Citing roughly 4% uptake and about $23,000 annual cost, Owosso officials voted to discontinue the ACE portal (Harris UCA) for utility customers and to notify users of alternatives including the city—s BS&A utility portal and low-cost leak-detection devices.
The Owosso City Council voted Oct. 7 to discontinue the ACE portal utility-service offering provided by Harris UCA, after staff said the tool had low adoption and produced implementation problems.
City staff told the council the portal served roughly 4% of the municipality—s roughly 66,100 utility accounts while costing about $23,000 a year. Staff said the portal was part of a larger meter-upgrade package implemented in 2017–18 and that a vendor sale and systems integration meant the portal required substantial implementation effort to integrate with the city—s BS&A billing software. Staff described a delay in data processing that could postpone leak-alert notifications by as much as a day, giving users a false sense of security.
Council members asked whether any initial hardware or implementation costs could be resold; staff replied those items were not resalable. Staff suggested alternatives including the BS&A online utility section, calling the city office for up-to-date billing information, or recommending inexpensive third-party leak detectors that can alert customers faster than the portal. After discussion, council moved and approved discontinuation by roll call.
City staff said they would notify existing users and outline proposed alternatives; staff did not announce a final termination date at the meeting.
