By Richard Halstead, The Marin Independent Journal, Novato, Calif.
The county’s latest attempt to install a computer system that works well is on schedule and so far coming in $1 million under budget.
What a difference a decade can make.
Ten years ago, the county installed a $30 million computer and software system that became so problematic and expensive to maintain that officials abandoned it four years later. The county sued vendors alleging bribery and fraud, and spent $5 million on the litigation before settling the case for $3.9 million.
“Clearly the lessons learned from that implementation guided this new implementation,” County Administrator Matthew Hymel told supervisors Tuesday during a briefing on the new project, dubbed “Administrative Technologies of Marin” or ATOM.
Hymel said one of the major differences this time around is that county employees, who will be using the new computer system, participated in its design.
“The key message is we are on time and on budget,” said Tim Flanagan, enterprise systems manager for the county’s Department of Information Services and Technology.
Flanagan said the first phase of the project, creating the software for the county’s finance department, has nearly been finished and is $1 million under the projected cost. The finance department will make the switch to the new system next month.
“The go-live weekend is scheduled for the July 4th holiday,” Flanagan said. “We are expecting some disruption as part of this transition. Change of this magnitude is difficult.”
County supervisors have allocated $14 million for the ATOM project with the bulk, $8.2 million, going to Tyler Technologies of Texas. The company specializes in public-sector software and services. Flanagan said one of the reasons the project is under budget is that county departments have absorbed some of the cost of employee time spent working on the software development.
While some bumps are expected during implementation, Flanagan said he believes county finance employees are well prepared for the transition. Between March 29 and June 24, some 330 employees received training. Flanagan said a survey found that 89 percent of these employees report they are ready.
“One of the most important lessons learned was around user engagement,” Flanagan said. “It was important for us to recognize early on that this is not a system that we are delivering to our users. This is a system that we are building with their partnership.”
Maureen Lewis, chief assistant director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, said, “One of the things that is most important about this implementation is that staff really has been engaged from the beginning. It is involved with the development team on a daily basis.”
Flanagan said the next phase of the project has already begun. Design work on the software that will be used by the county’s human resources and payroll departments began in January. The target date for going live with that software is July 2017.
©2016 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
