Toledo City Council received a briefing yesterday on a proposed $8 million to $10 million upgrade of the city's financial accounting system that, if purchased, will put even more burden on the city's strained capital improvements budget.
In the meeting, from which council's new "working majority" of A-team Democrats was noticeably absent, a consultant said the cost of the system could top $11 million over the first two years and up to $33 million over 12 years.
Neither of the other two Democratic members, Frank Szollosi and Mike Craig, nor their alternates, Michael Ashford and Joe McNamara, were present. However, all four attended a Lucas County Democratic Party unity event that began about the time the council committee meeting was ending.'
Councilman Mark Sobczak, the B-team Democrat who heard the presentation, said, "They want to be leaders, they need to start showing up."
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070828/NEWS16/708280...
You cant always judge on the cost of an item. Remember, this is the Blade who is reporting on it - they editorialize in their headlines. Apparantlly the blade is against it. If they were for it perhaps the headline might read "May SAVE millions..."
Here's the question that is never asked around here - What is the return on investment? If spending "X" saves 10X, then is it worth it??
"In the meeting, from which council's new "working majority" of A-team Democrats was noticeably absent..." You know where they were? At a photo shoot!! Now THERE's your new 'workers'...
Here's something else... It bears keeping a damn close eye on politicians who are opposed to a new accounting system that will be able to provide instantaneous viability to where our money is going!!
...own thoughts about the issue
http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/08/city-council-united-in-stat...
But I agree with Billy. What is the 'value' of current financial information on which decisions can be based? What is the 'value' of being able to track current spending and having real-time data about such spending? And how do we compare that 'value' against the 'cost' of a new system?
Most people will understand that the city needs to spend some money in order to have a good method of tracking budgets.
My concern is that individual priorities (like refurbishing Southwyck - which we don't even own) will take precedence, especially with a 'working majority' on council that doesn't include the republicans and Sobczak...
Any organization in the business community understands that regular investment in the accounting practices and system that it uses are critical to its success. Perhaps if the city hadn't waited for so long to make such an investment, it would not be costing so much. Further delay will probably only lead to additional costs for what the city will eventually have to do.
Tim Higgins
justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com
Perhaps the city should contract out payroll / benefit withholding to ADP, HPY, or some other firm.
Maybe use AMEX for Expense reporting and Travel. Include expense alert triggers. Use airline points to seek economic development.
Maybe use AMEX or Chase for Supply Chain Purchases.
Have both feed into the next step.
Purchase off the shelf slimmed down enteriprise system.
The former would probably save enough in labor and benefits to justify the latter.
I'm sure the OEMs will be more than willing to supply interface contractors to insure the sale of their services.
BOTTOMLINE: old people in government don't like real-time, electronic transparency. I guess they rebel against "new school"!
Now, where is Dogbert the Consultant when you need him?
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
An ERP Package (which some of you have probably heard-of by the brand names SAP, PeopleSoft, etc) is much more than a beefed up Quick Books.
It's exactly what it sounds like: Enterprise Resource Planning. It's designed to track expenses across the org and give you advanced modeling, implementation and reporting tools needed to track costing, capacity, personnel, equipment, and, of course, accounting.
Modern companies--especially (but not limited to) Manufacturing companies--are absolutely RELIANT on software of this type. It's been proven in the business world time and again.
This is probably the right move for the city. Yes, it's expensive, but that's because it's not just some software package you install on the computers and call it a day. In addition to hardware costs that are far from insignificant, the largest share of ERP installs is the labor costs associated with integrating the application with your other legacy systems and developing the reporting needs that are specific to your Organization.