The City of Allen entered into a contract with Tyler Technologies in
2014 to replace the City's entire administrative systems/enterprise
resource planning (ERP) software. The City has successfully implemented
the first 3 phases (Financials, Human Resources/Payroll, and Community
Development) and is scheduled to kick-off the final phase for Utility
Billing in September.
The City's current ERP software has been in place for 20
years. Although operational processes and procedures have been adjusted
and improved over this time frame, there are some aspects of our
internal processes that are limited by the functionality of the computer
system or are completed manually. Implementation of this new software
requires an analysis of our business operations. This change has and
will continue to touch every department and employee at some level and
provide the opportunity for us to improve efficiencies and automate and
streamline our operations.
Prior to implementation of the Tyler product, city staff
visited with the City of Mesquite about their recent implementation of
the Tyler software program. As cities typically do, the Mesquite staff
shared a tremendous amount of information and materials to provide
guidance and advice on their experiences. The City of Mesquite project
team stressed how critical change management and consistent
communications are to the success of the project. In fact, Mesquite
used a consulting firm, Berry Dunn, to provide expertise in the
implementation of their Tyler software.
We researched the firm of Berry Dunn McNeil & Parker to
find that they have a very unique set of expertise that will provide
invaluable assistance to the City of Allen. The firm began as a
Certified Public Accounting firm and has grown into a consulting firm
with focus on local government and information technology services.
Most beneficial is the fact their project team possesses a unique
combination of expertise including experience working for Tyler
Technology, experience working for municipalities, and experience with
clients converting from HTE (our current vendor) to Tyler
Technologies.
In early March 2014, the City of Allen entered into a
narrowly defined professional services contract with Berry Dunn for
assistance with the Chart of Accounts at a total cost of
$9,800. We specifically engaged the two project members who have been
involved in the Mesquite project. Based on their initial work and our
increasing comfort level with their expertise, we engaged Berry Dunn in
May 2014 to provide an expanded scope of work around change management
throughout the Tyler Technologies ERP Implementation. Their assistance
has been very helpful in the ensuring the success of the implementation
of the first 3 phases. Rather than separate agreements for each project
task, staff believes it is a better approach to broaden the scope with a
"not to exceed" project budget to gain a better price for the complete
scope of work.
The scope of work will include the following areas: initial
project planning activities and schedule review, implementation
recommendations and guidance, user-acceptance-testing (UAT) oversight, and a "go-live readiness"
assessment. These areas were identified as the ones with the most
potential for change/risk and need for an outside perspective on
ensuring successful implementation of the new Utility Billing phase of
the ERP.