TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Terry Hackelman, Information Technology Director
Tatyana Roujenova-Peltekova, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Enterprise Project Implementation Quarterly Update of Munis Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and EnerGov Land Management System (LMS) Solutions; Consideration of a Resolution Approving Amendment No.4 to the Munis ERP Contract with Tyler Technologies for Executime Time and Attendance Module with an Estimated Prorated Total Value of $54,088 (Information Technology Director Hackelman).
a) RECEIVE REPORT
b) ADOPT RESOLUTION NOS. 21-0015
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
a) Receive the quarterly status report regarding the implementation of the two enterprise solutions; and
b) Adopt Resolution No. 21-0015 approving Amendment No. 4 to the Munis ERP Contract with Tyler Technologies for Executime Time and Attendance module with an estimated prorated total value of $54,088.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The total estimated amount for adding the Executime module to the Munis Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is $54,088. The cost includes $43,934 in one-time fees (licensing, implementation, and project management) and $10,154 in prorated maintenance fees (starting July 24, 2021) for the next two years coinciding with years four and five of the Munis ERP contract. Information Technology’s Fiscal Year 2020-2021 budget has sufficient funds for the one-time cost of $43,934. The annual maintenance services for the module will be included in the future budgets accordingly.
BACKGROUND:
On July 17, 2018, the City Council approved the purchase of two major software enterprise solutions: 1) Tyler Munis ERP system, supporting all financial, human resources, payroll, utility billing, and business license activities; and 2) Tyler EnerGov Land Management System (LMS) supporting planning, permitting, inspection, and code enforcement activities. During that meeting, the City Council requested quarterly updates on the implementation of both projects to ensure they remain on target and within budget. Prior project updates were provided to the City Council on January 2, 2019, May 7, 2019, November 19, 2019, February 18, 2020, June 23, 2020, and November 4, 2020. It should be noted that due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, the project was put on hold in March 2020 and was restarted in July 2020.
DISCUSSION:
The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on the City’s routine operations, including the implementation activities associated with the ERP and LMS projects. Because of the COVID-19 impacts on the City and the vendor implementation staff, the projects were placed on-hold in March 2020. In July 2020, the City re-initiated implementation efforts under an amended schedule.
Tyler Munis ERP
Under the amended schedule, the City went live with the Tyler ERP financial modules on January 4, 2021, as planned. The financial modules implemented support general accounting (general ledger), budget, project accounting, purchasing, contracts, accounts receivable, general billing, cashiering, accounts payable, and more. In addition to the modules mentioned above, staff implemented a full range of integrations between the systems (e.g. EnerGov, Content Management, Cashiering, and Hub). As a result, this phase provides the foundation upon which the subsequent ERP modules will be implemented (i.e. Payroll, Human Resources, Utility Billing, Licensing and Asset Management).
As a result of COVID, to implement the ERP financial modules, the staff and implementation consultant had to reconsider originally planned implementation processes and methods. A key constraint that had to be overcome was implementing the system using an implementation consultant that would deliver 100% of their services virtually. Implementing a municipal ERP system in this virtual fashion is unprecedented and required staff to be agile and make additional efforts to ensure success. Implementation of the ERP financial modules required more than 50 virtual meetings/sessions to complete training, system configuration, user acceptance testing, Go-Live planning, and end-user training. The implementation involved staff not only from the Finance and Information Technology Departments, but also all other City departments who will be using the new system. The dedication and commitment of the Finance and Information Technology staff were instrumental in project success.
Key benefits received from the ERP financial module implementation includes:
• Improved intuitive browser-based user interface for staff
• Automation of key processes (e.g. purchasing, vendor management, account payable, P-cards, etc.) to streamline operations and achieve a paperless environment
• Improved reporting tools for staff to provide enhanced decision support
• Electronic integrations between core City systems such as EnerGov, Cashiering, document management, and enterprise dashboards
With the ERP financial modules implemented, the staff is initiating the next phase of the ERP project, which is Human Capital Management (HCM). This phase will include payroll, human resources, and timekeeping. Based on lessons learned from the January 4 ERP financial modules implementation, the staff has revised the schedule for the subsequent phases as follows:
• HCM - September 2021
• Business License - December 2021
• Utility Billing - December 2022
• Asset Management, Transparency - December 2022
With the signing of Amendment No. 4, the City will implement the Tyler Executime solution that will support employeetime entry and reporting needs for the HCM implementation. It has been determined that the current ERP time reporting system lacks the features and functionality to provide the fully automated, 100% paperless time reporting processes that the City is seeking. The Executime solution is a powerful platform to manage staff time and attendance, as well as advanced scheduling, robust multi-level workflow, and improved staff self-service functionalities (including mobile device support). Executime provides a solution that will meet the City’s long-term time management and reporting needs to ensure streamlined and automated processes.
Tyler EnerGov LMS
As discussed in previous quarterly updates, the initial phase of the EnerGov system was implemented in January 2020 and included online permitting, field mobility, and Customer Self Service (CSS) components of the overall system. In February 2020, staff aggressively moved to begin implementing electronic permitting. As was the case in the ERP Munis implementation, the EnerGov project progress was disrupted by COVID as the project resources were redirected to support remote work capabilities as well as reconfiguring the system to enhance remote business transactions for customers, such as enhancement of on-line plan submittal capabilities.
Despite the impact of COVID, the Community Development Department staff have continued to implement online permits to the point where all City permits are now available online. Furthermore, the City no longer accepts paper plans and is doing electronic reviews to continue on the goal of moving to a fully electronic environment. It is also worth noting that as part of the Phase 1 implementation, Community Development and Finance in conjunction with Information Technology implemented an online payment system to support the online permit and planning activities.
The EnerGov implementation team is now focused on implementing version 2020 of the EnerGov application that will include enhanced features and functionality that will allow staff to further refine business processes and achieve more efficiencies to streamline operations. An important component of the current implementation phase is further automation of the electronic plan review process to move to a truly paperless environment via Bluebeam integration with EnerGov.
CONCLUSION:
While the project timelines for both the Munis and EnerGov projects have been modified as a result of the COVID pandemic, staff has successfully implemented critical systems that provide the foundation for continued improvement and automation. Staff has had to revise the schedule several times due to COVID and the realities of implementing complex systems in a vendor virtual environment. While the project timelines have slipped due to COVID, the phases implemented to date are on budget and staff intends to deliver the remaining phases according to the original budget.
In this quarterly report, staff is proposing the implementation of a powerful time management and reporting system that furthers our objectives to streamline processes and improve data accuracy.
In closing, Staff recommends that the City Council: a) receive the quarterly status report regarding the implementation of the two enterprise solutions; and b) adopt Resolution No. 20-0128 approving Amendment No.4 to the Munis ERP Contract with Tyler Technologies for Executime Time and Attendance module with an estimated prorated total value of $ 54,088.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant effect on the environment; therefore, pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA; thus no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has approved the agreement as to form.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 21-0015
2. Attachment No. 4 - Tyler Technologies