HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999 10 11 Consent Item E
COMMISSION AGENDA
ITEM
E
CONSENT X
INFORMATIONAL
PUBLIC HEARING
REGULAR
10/11/99
Meeting
MGR. ~ /DE~
Authorization
REQUEST: The City Manager is requesting Commission authorization to enter
into a contract with Ameritek Orlando, for consulting services and
implementation of a new financial package for the City, and to
authorize the expenditure of an amount, not to exceed $45, 130 for
this consulting/project management.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this agenda item is to ask the Commission to authorize the
expenditure of money and for the City Manager to enter into a contract
with Ameritek Orlando, Inc., Advanced Support Group Division, for
consultation and implementation of a new turn-key financial system, both
software and hardware,
CONSIDERA nONS:
In 1994, the City of Winter Springs purchased a financial package from a
company called Tresun, which sold Pentamation software products. The
package included Fund Accounting, Human Resources, Fixed Assets,
Purchasing, and Occupational Licenses. Since that time, ownership of
Tresun has changed several times and the company is currently owned by
Pentamation, Inc., headquartered in PA. Although the Florida office still
exists in south Florida, we have found that service and technical support is
almost non-existent which makes the task of correcting problems almost
impossible. The support level that we receive from Pentamation is very
low.
The software itself is very cumbersome to work with and not user-friendly
at all. The ability to retrieve data from the existing system is also almost
non-existent Any data that needs to be retrieved, if there isn't already an
existing report written, has to have a report written for that purpose, which
costs additional money. There are no ad-hoc reporting capabilities.
The City needs a more user-friendly system; one that has ad-hoc reporting
capabilities, and one that does not require programming in order to retrieve
Page 2 of2
Consent Agenda Item E - Request for Authorization to contract Ameritek as consultants
October 11, 1999
a report or to retrieve data needed for daily, weekly, monthly, or even
yearly tasks,
Ameritek has been consulting with the City for a couple of years now and
has been involved in the planning and implementation of the City's entire
network, including network infrastructure, up to this point. Ameritek
kriows the City's systems inside and out and will be better able to help us
fulfill our needs in finding a software solution that fits our needs and will be
scalable into the future.
Ameritek's tasks would be to:
· work with the City and develop and analyze a needs definition
· develop an RFP, set up and attend any and all necessary pre-bid
conferences and site surveys .
· collect, analyze, breakdown, review and compare proposals received
through the RFP process
· report, review, and recommend a software package and company that
would best suit the City of Winter Springs
· be the project manager over the implementation of the software to
include software conversion, data conversion, and cut-over.
· be the liaison between the City and the new and old software (and
hardware if necessary) vendors
· ensure that City employees are properly trained on the new system by
the new vendor
· ensure that all testing of the systems and data conversions are
completed and correct
· be totally responsible for the entire project from start to finish, A turn-
key solution.
FUNDING:
Funding to come from anticipated 5 year note,
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Manager be given authorization to enter into this
contract with Ameritek, and that the authorization for the expenditure of$45, 130
be granted.
IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE:
Project to begin upon Commission approval.
COMMISSION ACTION:
U:\Docs\DOCS\Agenda Items\Consent Item for Financial System Consultant.doc