Lake Forest council approves $169,785 move to BSNA cloud for city software

The Lake Forest City Council voted 8–0 on May 18 to authorize a $169,785 agreement to migrate the city’s BSNA enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the vendor’s cloud platform.

City staff said the move is intended to strengthen cybersecurity and disaster recovery, modernize access with a browser-based interface and improve data cohesion across finance, payroll, utility billing and permitting modules. “Moving to the cloud platform allows the responsibility of hosting data and hosting BSNA … to BSNA as a company,” said Cameron, the staff presenter. He told the council the vendor maintains redundant backups in U.S. data centers and that the cloud system will enable a new customer portal for residents.

Council members asked about competitive sourcing and operational impact. A council member pressed why the city did not go out to bid; Cameron said other platforms are not compatible with the city’s existing implementation and that BSNA is the incumbent software the city uses across departments. He also said vendor staff will perform workflow conversions for the city’s customized processes and that internal staff time will focus on training and testing.

The staff presentation laid out an implementation timeline that anticipates contract finalization this spring, data cleanup during the summer, a planned vendor-led conversion starting around November and user testing and training in late winter and early spring. After discussion, the council moved and carried the motion on a roll-call vote.

The vote authorizes execution of the agreement and begins the procurement and implementation process; the contract amount was listed on the agenda as $169,785. There were no public comments on the item at the meeting. The council then moved on to other business and later adjourned into executive session to discuss collective bargaining.