El Dorado County is nearing the launch of its new enterprise resource planning system, an effort the county has been working on since 2012.
Chief Technology Officer Vern Pierson provided an update on the system, called FENIX, at the County Board of Supervisor’s Dec. 13 meeting, where he called the effort a “successful implementation in progress."
El Dorado County began the project four years ago with the vendor demonstrations and the release of a request for proposal. In 2013, the county approved a $5.6 million contract with Tyler Technologies to build the FENIX system.
Enterprise functions are currently running on the county’s legacy mainframe, which is approaching end of life. When the FENIX project was initiated, El Dorado County Information Technologies created a five-year modernization plan to move administrative functions off the mainframe. Pierson said staff is able to maintain the existing system as of right now, and once tasks outlined in the plan are completed, county financial, accounting and HR functions will be managed via a consolidated ERP system.
Referred to by County Auditor-Assessor Joe Harn as being “like a root canal without Novocaine,” the process to deploy an enterprise resource planning system is long, tedious and can involve significant financial risk, a lesson El Dorado County learned by observing other municipalities' ERP efforts.
Pierson referenced Marin County as a specific example at the meeting. He explained how in 2015, Marin contracted with Tyler Technologies for $8.2 million, after an unsuccessful attempt to implement an ERP system, a failure that cost the county approximately $34 million. Ron Mikulaco, chair of the board, said the lessons gathered from witnessing Marin County execute the initiative has helped save El Dorado County money.
Although the project has made progress, the county still has some steps to take before the system’s launch. Between March and June next year, staff plans to upgrade software, run modification testing and update user guidelines, followed by two rounds of training in August and then September. The official go-live date for FENIX is scheduled for Oct. 1, 2017.
“We’re shooting for more than just functional replacement of our existing system here,” said board member Michael Ranalli. “Information turns on our existing systems are very limited. The faster you can get information in your financial system or your enterprise, the better decisions you can make, the more nimble you are.”
