New multimillion-dollar IT system for council

The Rotorua Lakes Council has spent more than $3 million on a software upgrade. Photo/File

A $3 million-plus upgrade of the council's information technology software will take at least 18 months to put in place - but ratepayers probably won't notice any difference.

Rotorua Lakes Council has signed a contract with Australian software company TechnologyOne to provide new software that will bring all online services and internal processes under one system.

TechnologyOne provides its OneCouncil software to 25 other councils in New Zealand and more than 300 around the world.

According to a press release from TechnologyOne, the council chose to team up with it "to increase its community service culture and improve efficiencies".

"OneCouncil will give Rotorua Lakes Council the ability to deliver online, self-service capabilities to the community, enabling quick and efficient services from any device, anywhere at any time," the statement said.

The council's chief financial officer Thomas Colle said: "It was critical for us to partner with a provider committed to ongoing research and development.

"This ensures we receive a future-proofed solution that is constantly delivering new ways of working."

TechnologyOne executive chairman Adrian Di Marco said: "The software significantly reduces the time, cost and risk associated with large scale enterprise-wide software implementations.

"Our integrated OneCouncil solution is built specifically for local governments and has a focus on providing benefit to council's customers."

Mr Colle said the council was preparing to replace its existing multiple software system with OneCouncil with the process expected to take about 18 months.

"The replacement was approved in the 2015-25 Long-term Plan, adopted in July 2015, with $3.2m allocated and an additional $200,000 allocated in the 2017/18 Annual Plan."

He said the new software was chosen after two years of investigating options.

"It's tried and tested by councils and already fit-for-purpose so we can buy it 'out of the box'.

"Other systems we looked at would have needed significant modifications, adding to the cost.

"Ongoing annual costs like licensing, maintenance and support are expected to be $60,000 less than the current cost per year."

But, he said the public "won't necessarily notice the change".

"We'll have the ability to add more online service once it's in place but our focus for the next 18 months, with assistance from TechnologyOne and contractors, will be on the changeover.

"Council needs to migrate more than 500 processes to the new system which needs to be done without disruption to services and it will take about 18 months to systematically work through that."

The council did not respond to questions regarding whether it would need to employ more staff to run the new system or what it would mean for the average ratepayer.

The project will be implemented in two phases with the first going live in
November and phase two in July 2018.

Council software upgrade
Will cost more than $3.4 million
Will replace the council's existing software services
Provided by Australian company TechnologyOne
Will take 18 months to roll out