The software system of the Columbia city will be updated by an outside vendor. According to Tony St. Romaine, the deputy manager of the city, this is undoubtedly a huge project which City has taken in the last 25 years. They are still in the beginning stage and there are lot more steps to go.
From 8 p.m. of Friday to 10 a.m. of Sunday, it will not be possible for the customers to do utility payment online because of the scheduled maintenance of the system of utility billing.
Most of the basic functions of the city are done by the help of software. All the necessary works like reviewing the plans of buildings, building permits, utility billing etc. are conducted by software. This planning system is going on there from the year 1997.
The software companies have been given a proposal for replacing the system and the proposals will be due till 11th January, 2013.
Well, the amount which the city is going to pay for this replacement has not been disclosed by Mr. St. Romaine who is actually coordinating all this initiatives. According to him the officials are not supposed to do so before the bidding period because it can affect the proposals of the vendors. According to him at least $5.2 million will be spent for the improvement of this project.
According to Romaine, “This is no doubt a very huge project. However, this will surely be beneficial for the people of the Columbia city.”
A consultant from outside has been hired to review and understand the needs of software for the city. At the moment the city has SunGard/THE system which is on IBM AS/400 iSeries. This report has been published by Plante Moran. Well, according to the report from the day the software has been installed extra applications have been introduced with the actual infrastructure. The information technology of the city was decentralized with this according to the report.
Now, to run a department software is needed to be up to date. On that note changing software which is 15 years old will be better for the departments for sure. According to the chief of Fire department Mr. Brad Fraizer, the software what they use now for their work is clunky for all the users. Therefore, the necessity of changing the software is quite clear.
According to Mr. Fraizer, the new software system will help the employees of the department to save more time for issuing the permits. There is no doubt about the fact that any kind of improvement to any system is always welcomed by the departments as it seems beneficial for the public also.
One thing is assured, that the new software will surely make the way smooth of doing the works of various departments. It will help the employees of those departments to do work more quickly and thus they will be able to provide better service to the public. It will save time, and it will also solve the problems related to old software.