The Pittsburg Parks and Recreation department received the green light to spend just over $60,000 on new software that, they say, will make things more “end-user friendly.”

Despite spending money up-front, Parks and Recreation Director Kim Vogel said that, in the end, the city will save money.

“We’ve had issues with our current software and that prompted us to look at others,” Vogel said.
Currently, the city has used RecWare software, which is from The Active Network, Inc. and TicketSage at Memorial Auditorium.

Vogel said that the new software, made by Vermont Systems, Inc., will offer web tools that will allow people to register for events online as well as provide a new ticket purchasing module for Memorial Auditorium that allows the city to keep full profit from ticket sales.

She said that the software will also interface with the city’s accounting software — INCODE — which means there would not be any duplication of data entry in the city’s finance department. The Vermont Systems, Inc. software also provides for more technical support than if the city stayed with its current software package.

If the city were to stay with RecWare and TicketSage, it would cost approximately $20,000 per year for technical support, but with the Vermont Systems, Inc. package, that maintenance cost is just over $5,000 per year.

Pittsburg Finance Director Jon Garrison said that the maintenance agreement with Vermont may go up after 2012.

“The fee is annual,” Garrison said. “Sometimes they do go up, but it’s just about 3-5 percent so it is nominal.”

Garrison said that the four departments the software would be used for — Four Oaks Golf Course, Parks and Recreation department, Memorial Auditorium and the Pittsburg Aquatic Center — are expected to generate $562,000 each year and over five years, the $81,000 the city will spend on the Vermont package is just under 3 percent of the total expected revenues from those entities over five years.

“We think this will give us superior access to information,” Garrison said. “If we don’t do anything, we’re going to spend $100,000 in five years, or we can do this and only spend $81,000.”

Source:http://www.morningsun.net/news/x191997825/Software-purchase-gets-OK

cc The Putnam County Commission has voted to purchase nearly $500,000 worth of software for its juvenile and circuit court systems, after officials in those departments said their current equipment is out of date, unreliable and inefficient.

The purchase, which carries a price tag of $446,260, including $25,000 for contingency, first received approval in committee last week. Officials with the juvenile and circuit court systems say the software needed is extremely specialized — the county had only received a total of three bids. After a brief discussion, the commission approved the measure in a 22-1 vote.

Meanwhile, the commission deferred a decision on the appointment of an interim road supervisor. Long-time department head Billy “Red” Lamb passed away in February, and even though there is an election in August, by state statute, the commission has 120 days — or until June — to fill that position.

The commission recessed its meeting until next week in order to properly advertise the action and will hear a recommendation from the nominating committee at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 27. The agenda released for last night’s meeting had both Randy Jones, who earned the Democratic nomination during the May 4 primary, and Terry Lamb, Red’s brother and the current assistant road supervisor, recommended for the position.

The new software for the juvenile and circuit court offices will replace equipment that is 15-17 years old. Randy Porter, head of the county’s technology committee, had warned the commissioners in March that the upgrade would be coming — and it would be costly. Both he and Greg Bowman, court administrator, said the current software has become unreliable.

“Nothing pains me more than having to come here and ask (for this),” Bowman said. “There’s just so many (problems). Friday night I came back to work at 9 o’clock. I tried to get our software back up and running because we were slammed at our detention center. We got it back up and running. And I walk in (Monday) morning, and we’re down again.

“It’s just not productive,” he continued. “The juvenile software is on its last leg. The technology has surpassed what the database can do.”

The commission was presented with a couple of different options to help finance the software purchase, which County Executive Kim Blaylock said would not be cause for a property tax increase. The motion approved last night would use $98,000 leftover from the capital project fund with the remainder to be funded through a capital outlay note from the debt service fund. Officials also mentioned last week that $100,000 had already been allocated in the budget for this fiscal year.

District 7 Commissioner Joe Trobaugh recommended the county auction off some of its property to help cover the debt. And District 2 Commissioner Bob Duncan said the county could also dedicate the 2 cents allocated to the capital projects fund from the county tax rate to completely cover the leftover cost.

“There’s $100,000 in the current budget, there’s going to be approximately $98,000 left from projects that will be completed this month, so that leaves roughly $250,000,” Duncan said. “If the budget committee recommends, we can fund that $250,000 with basically the 2 cents and it’s paid for — without any long-term debt implications or anything like that. You’d basically wipe it all out in next year’s budget.”

District 4 Commissioner Andy Honeycutt was the lone no vote. District 10 Commissioner Kevin Maynard, who voted against the purchase in committee last week, abstained.

Source:-http://www.herald-citizen.com/view/full_story/7465820/article-Commission-approves-software-purchase?instance=homesecondleft