'Historic' County, City Collaboration Nets $34.2 Million Software Purchase

News Report

Hillsborough County commissioners unanimously approved their part of the funding for the largest multi-jurisdictional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in the nation.

The $34.2 million contract was awarded to Applications Software Technology Corp., with Hillsborough County’s share pegged at $18.9 million.

The system will be used by the Hillsborough County Administration, Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Hillsborough County Civil Service Board and the City of Tampa, which voted on its part of the funding Feb. 23.

The commissioners’ vote came a day earlier.

“This is probably one of the most important and historic events in our local government since our founding . . . having these entities working together to come forward and do something as complicated as this and as expensive as this," said Commissioner Mark Sharpe.

The ERP system reportedly will replace aging, disparate and redundant systems that will improve information access, support management decision-making, reduce total ownership cost and risk and improve current business processes in the following areas: accounting, budget, procurement, human resource administration, payroll and, for the city only, code enforcement.

For Hillsborough County this means the replacement of a variety of software, including a 20-year-old financial system.

“We need to change the way we do business to leverage technology and become more efficient at what we do,” said Dan Klein, clerk to the board, with the Clerk of the Circuit Court. “This is not just an IT project. It is a business transformation project.”

This effort is a first between the county and city.

The consolidated purchase supports the opportunity for efficiencies and improved intergovernmental cooperation for each of the participating agencies in the future.

In his presentation to the board, Strategic Planning & ERP Implementation director Eric Johnson said, “We have two governments that are not consolidated but are working together to buy one solution.”

“This is a positive outcome from different government cultures coming together to save the taxpayer millions of dollars," said Commissioner Victor Crist.

In fact, the joint acquisition resulted in an estimated $6.5 million in savings over independent ERP implementations by Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa using the same vendor, software and services.

The county's estimated savings are $4.4 million. This includes a $318,000 incentive reduction in costs predicated on if both the city and county approved their funding by the end of February.