The City found itself using a finance system that had reached its technical end of life. Many of the processes in place required manual tasks such as printing various reports and then using those reports to rekey data, sometimes within the same system. Many of the capabilities the City saw as vital for future development were simply not available to them.

Similarly, the Public Safety department had utilized desktop software technology for many tasks, but could go no further. Along with many manual processes, simple requests for information required days or even weeks of manual review by personnel. Police reporting required Officers to return to the station for completion, consuming up to 2 hours of each shift by each officer every day.

The City needed not just a new accounting system, but an entire Enterprise Resource Planning application to tie all of the different areas of the City – from City Hall to Public Safety and Public Works - together into one cohesive whole. They needed a way to add efficiency, reliability, and predictability to their environment.

Sophicity initially conducted an assessment where each department’s use of technology was cataloged, future recommendations developed, and a plan of action initiated. Once complete, we developed requirements for the new systems through detailed interviews of each department and mapping of existing workflows.

Once the assessment and requirements were gathered, we were able to draft a robust, 70-page RFP that detailed exactly what the city needed. We then managed the distribution to a number of vendors in the ERP space and assisted the City through the RFP process by building consensus on the critical decision factors and guiding City personnel through making sound decisions based on objective proof and evidence. 

The City was able to quickly, and easily choose the right vendor to implement the system. Once the City decision makers had chosen, Sophicity was able to garner unanimous agreement on the Vendor of Choice by all 29 City Departments. We then helped City staff make the presentation to City Council, resulting in the Council’s unanimous approval of the project and Vendor.

Once the contract with the Vendor was negotiated, Duluth was able to attribute a savings of $1.6 million to Sophicity’s expertise and involvement in the project based on Sophicity’s advice during the selection and negotiation phases of this project and our detailed requirements and workflow mapping provided to vendors prior to the purchase of the ERP systems. The detailed RFP allowed the Vendor to exactly tailor the response to the City’s needs instead of providing a more costly one-size-fits-all solution.