In 2005, the City of Boise developed a strategic information
technology assessment and plan. This assessment concluded that the
City was underutilizing and under-supporting its Tier 1enterprise
resource planning (ERP) software, PeopleSoft. This system provided
Payroll, General Ledger (GL), Accounting, and Budgeting functions.
Most Tier 1 software applications are utilized by large
enterprises that include multi-language, multi-national sites. In
effect, the city was attempting to use a product built for large
companies, not mid sized cities. To put the city's financial
size in perspective, here are a few statistics. The City's
Operating Budget is approximately $250 million and has a biannual
(every two years) budget build with six year projections. The
City of Boise has a full time employee staff of 1,600 with an
additional 450 seasonal peak.
In 2008, the City conducted a return on investment analysis of its ERP, which
identified benefits of moving from the City's PeopleSoft 8.8
Financial Management System (FMS) and Human Resource Management
System (HRMS) to a mid-market solution.
Following this report, the City of Boise has been undergoing a
business process re-engineering effort for the key functions within
the ERP system. The resulting ERP Functional Analysis and
Recommendation reports can also be downloaded from the City's
website listed above. These reports identify recommended "to-be"
process, business rules, and system changes for
timekeeping/payroll, business planning/budgeting, accounts
payable/purchasing/contract management, human resources, and
accounts receivable/billing/cash receipting.
In July of 2010, the City of Boise selected a time collection
system from a company called Cybershift, we are currently underway
with this project and will be rolling this out in phases to the
departments starting in February of 2011. In November of
2010, after an extensive process the city selected Lawson's
software package and will be working with a company called Ciber to
implement the product. Implementation is expected to begin
January, 2011.