MOOSE JAW — , but continued technical glitches keep pushing back the program’s go-live date.
— city administration rolled out the virtual city hall module last year for employees and city council, and, after receiving feedback, made modifications to address issues, said a second-quarter report presented during the Aug. 26 regular council meeting.
One issue was that there were roughly 4,000 duplicate customers in the ERP software, which occurred after the implementation of the new tax system, the report continued. The finance department worked on cleaning up those duplicate accounts before launching the virtual city hall this year.
“This work moved into quarter three as there are some complications related to running the customer ID consolidation process without it interfering with the integration file used to update Business Central,” the document stated. “Further testing is scheduled.”
Finance continued to work with the IT department on a solution during the second quarter to identify the “volume of non-standardized address abbreviations” that required cleaning up. This maintenance is required to activate the tax search and certificate modules within the virtual city hall.
Business Central
With the implementation of the Business Central module, the IT department has set up the reporting environment and developed and rolled out its first few financial reports, the council report said. IT is also working with other departments to “tweak the reports to provide maximum value.”
Through the module, IT created fleet reports first since the operations department identified those as a significant need, while the module also created a report listing all saleable city lands and properties. Meanwhile, in the third quarter, IT continued to develop, modify and roll out reports for Business Central and other software systems.
Cash management
IT worked on implementing the rollout of the cash management module in ERP during Q2, with this module consisting of electronic funds transfers (EFTs) for paying suppliers, the report said. The department spent time working with a technology-focused contractor on the module to test it.
The department is still finalizing information based on the work it performed with the contractor. It will then test the module once it completes the finalization, acquire confirmation from the bank that the Business Central-generated file satisfies the financial institution’s processes, and conclude the remittance advice that the system produced.
“The city is nearing completion of the implementation of its new ERP systems. There are still a few areas to implement and then a period of fine-tuning and refinement will occur throughout 2024,” the report added. “The implementation continues to involve reviewing of all financial system processes to gain efficiencies and leverage the ERP system to the city’s benefit.”
City hall’s response
City manager Maryse Carmichael told MooseJawToday.com that she is pushing staff to clear up the issues so the virtual city hall can launch. However, she did not know specifically when the program would go live.
“It’s not a waste of time. I know that before my arrival at the city, there was one solution that was looked at and started. And that didn’t work out, so it had to be another one,” she said, noting having the right system — this one — makes a “tremendous difference” in how the city manages its affairs and remains accountable.
Many residents are asking when virtual city hall will launch because they conduct their business online, so the program will make a difference upon activation, Carmichael added.
City hall later said that the project remained within budget.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 9.
