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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 03191996 - D4 s . Y 4 SCL ........... Off, TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS "' '� - .. n,.,,., tra r ; FROM: Phil Batchelor County Administrator '�, _ �"" ` :c� 1��OSta DATE: March 19, 1996 'A'co.... SUBJECT: New Human Resources, Benefits and Payroll Computer System SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS : 1. ACKNOWLEDGE that the County's current Human Resources, Benefits and Payroll systems are antiquated, over 20 years old, and are expensive to maintain and operate. 2. , ACKNOWLEDGE that the Department Heads, for almost nine years, have indicated that a new Human Resources, Benefits and Payroll system is a top priority for information systems in the County. 3. ACKNOWLEDGE that the current system will cost a projected $2,300,000 to operate over a three year period ending June 30, 1996 and that costs will escalate in future years when the antiquated system will require "patching"to comply with federal, state and County employee agreements. 4. APPROVE the contracts, listed separately on the consent calendar, with PeopleSoft, IBM and Infomix for system hardware and software costs of$1,049,000 over a three fiscal year period. 5. DIRECT the Project Steering Committee and Data Processing staff to continue to secure necessary technical support to implement the project over the next three fiscal years. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X_YES SIGNATURE: :v (1 RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR_RECOMMENDA N OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF BOARD ON March 19, 1996 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED_OTHER The Board.'APPROVED recommendations 1,2,3,4.and 5; and REQUESTED that the Finance Committee monitor the performance of the program, and report on the progress in executing the program. VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN AYES: NOES: ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ON MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. Contact:Tony Enea,646-4094 ATTESTED March 19, 1996 PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR cc:CAO B X" DEPUTY . 1 BACKGROUND/REASON(S) FOR RECOMMENDATION(S): t The County's current Human Resources (HR), Benefits and Payroll (PR) systems are antiquated (over 20 years old), and are expensive to maintain and operate. This was recognized nine years ago by the County's Department Heads as they cited replacement of the County's HR, Benefits and Payroll systems as the number one priority for Information Systems in the County. Since early in 1995, the current effort has been lead by a Steering Committee, chaired by the Auditor-Controller and Human Resources Director and including the Director of Data Processing and the County Budget Officer. Two in-house attempts in nine years never made it past the initial requirements stage. The Committee has secured the services of experienced system consultants and the effort has advanced to the software selection stage and is poised to advance into the implementation process. The Committee has selected PeopleSoft of Walnut Creek as the software system which best fits the County's needs and the decision involved a rigorous process that included: * Development of Detailed Requirements by a Project Team and two Focus Groups made up of staff from all the key Departments in the County. * Issuance of an RFP which included these Requirements to over forty (40) HR, Benefits and Payroll vendors. The vendors conference was attended by about twenty (20) vendors and eight (8) submissions were received. * Detailed review of the submissions to select vendor finalists. * A finalist review process that required a detailed presentation and software demonstration, a hands-on session for County users, and visiting and contacting vendor reference sites. The PeopleSoft software will provide a number of benefits to the County: * Because it is an integrated system, it will eliminate many of the redundancies and inconsistencies inherent with the County's current non-integrated, and, in some cases, disjointed systems. * Because it is a comprehensive, modern system, it will eliminate many of the manual workarounds that are currently necessary to complete the HR, Benefits and Payroll processes in the County. * Because it is a distributed, on-line system, information will be available directly to the people who need it most in a timely and efficient manner. * Because it is proven, up-to-date technology, maintenance and operation costs will be significantly reduced vis-a-vis the County's current systems utilizing the mainframe computer. * Because it includes state-of-the art workflow software, it will be a both a catalyst and a vehicle for re-engineering the business processes surrounding Human Resources, Benefits and Payroll. By signing the contract prior to PeopleSoft's March 22, 1996 fiscal year-end date, the County will be receiving a discount of almost $200,000 off the original bid for the software license. This initial reduction also translates into an annual maintenance fee savings of over $15,000 per year for the life of the system. The PeopleSoft software requires an underlying relational database and an "open systems" computer processor to run. The County did an extensive price/performance comparison of the alternatives presented by PeopleSoft, and found the best choices to be Informix for the database and IBM for the computer hardware. Direct negotiation by County staff with Informix and IBM has produced savings upwards of$200,000 off the original pricing in the PeopleSoft bid. Additional technical support will be required to implement the project over the next three fiscal years. The Steering Committee and Data Processing staff are working together to insure that as much work as possible will be completed by in-house staff and that contract services are secured at competitive rates. The new system will be financed through several sources. Savings achieved from other data processing projects in fiscal year 1994-95 have been set aside to offset planning costs as well as 2 some implementation costs. Additional savings from data processing projects will be earmarked for this project in fiscal years 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1997-98. If these savings are insufficient to cover the total project cost, the Project Steering Committee will pursue monies from the Productivity Investment Fund or direct assessments to departments. The alternative of continuing with the existing system is a more expensive option. The current system will cost the County an estimated $2,300,000 to operate over the three year period ending June 30, 1996. These costs do not include the staff time in the Auditor-Controller and Human Resources Departments necessary to operate the system but only the staff and mainframe computer time of Data Processing. Also, it excludes current costs and time necessary to prepare and maintain such reports needed in affirmative action and for County training purposes. The new system is expected to require less staff time to operate and maintain than the current system.