For City Council Meeting November 12, 2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Michael Milhiser, Interim City Manager
FROM: Jonathan Ballard, IT Manager
Title
Request City Council to: (1) Approve the amendment to the contract with Park Consulting Group by increasing the funds of the contract by $372,000 for the completion of Phase 1, (2) Authorize the Interim City Manager (or Designee) to increase the contract with Park Consulting Group in a not to exceed amount of $100,000 for Phase 2, and (3) Authorize the Interim City Manager or Designee to Execute All Documents.
(ACTION)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
1. Staff recommends the City Council to approve the amendment to the contract with Park Consulting Group by increasing the funds of the contract by $372,000 for the completion of Phase 1.
2. Approve the City Manager (or Designee) to increase the contract with Park Consulting Group in a not to exceed amount of $100,000 for Phase 2.
3. Authorize the City Manager (or his designee) to execute all necessary documents.
BACKGROUND
The City of Rialto sought quotes from qualified companies to assist with the implementation of its new land management software. Park Consulting Group (PCG) came highly recommended by other Tyler EPL clients for their highly specialized knowledge of the EPL system. City staff quickly realized that the breadth and complexity of the EPL software required expertise and project team resources beyond the capabilities and capacity available to the City to successfully deliver the project. Park Consulting was engaged to assess the project’s health, collaborate with the software vendor and City stakeholders to identify and verify departmental needs, and lead the configuration and development of the new application to deliver upon the City’s project objectives. To ensure the successful completion of Phase 1, the City is requesting Council approval for a contract amendment to increase funding by $372,700, allowing PCG to finalize Phase 1 and maintain project momentum. Upon completing Phase 1, Phase 2 will begin, focusing on integrating the utility division, overhauling the fee structure for FY25-26, and conducting a final review of all participating departments. For Phase 2, the City also seeks Council approval to authorize the City Manager or his designee to increase the contract by up to $100,000 if sufficient funds are unavailable.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
On January 31, 2022, the City executed an agreement with Tyler Technologies, Inc. (TYL), a Plano, Texas-based company publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), for the conversion from our internally hosted, aging application to their SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, Enterprise Permitting & Licensing (EPL) Software, formerly known as EnerGov. The project began in mid-January of 2024, following the implementation of Tyler Technologies, Inc., Enterprise ERP (EERP). However, City staff quickly realized that the breadth and complexity of the EPL software required expertise and project team resources beyond the capabilities and capacity available to the City to successfully deliver the project.
On May 21, 2024, the City entered into an agreement with Park Consulting Group (PCG) to assess the project’s status, ensure alignment with Tyler Technologies’ scope of services, and manage and own various aspects of the project delivery on behalf of the City. PCG's role includes being a City-side advisor for vendor contract and scope issues, managing the project timeline and vendor resources, designing and configuring the software based on the City’s requirements and specifications, facilitating working sessions with departmental subject matter experts (SME), and providing regular progress updates with both project team members and department leaders through regular meetings. PCG also recently facilitated discussions with Tyler Technologies to get more qualified team members assigned to the City’s project team and working sessions to onboard the vendor’s new members. PCG was able to utilize their past client experiences at other Cities and relationship with these team members to find the right fit for the City to find the right team members to be assigned to the project.
Over the past 7 months, PCG has successfully delivered on its initial scoped services. As a result, the latest status report reflects a project status of “Green - On Track,” where all parties, including PCG, Tyler Technologies, and City’s team members are aligned and on-track to deliver the EPL software by June 2025. As the City continues to make progress on the project the Park Consulting Group team plans to work with City staff to successfully deliver Phase 1. The following is a summary of the planned project tasks and activities for the next 8 months for the City and PCG team to execute and complete Phase 1:
Build and Validate:
Build and Validate is the current stage of the project, and the stage is nearly halfway completed with a planned completion date of February 2025. Park Consulting has established weekly working sessions with each of the 6 departments scoped for Phase 1 (Building, Planning, Business License, Engineering, Fire and Code Enforcement). These working sessions also include IT and Finance for impacts to City-wide processes and systems. The remaining planned work will be to continue to work with each of the department Subject Matter Expert groups to detail requirements into specifications. PCG will also continue to perform the resulting configuration to enable business processes and facilitate guided working sessions with staff to validate and approve the developed system processes and functionality. Also during this stage, the PCG team will work with the staff and vendors to complete Data Conversion, Integrations with MUNIS (EERP) & GIS, and reports/ forms development.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT):
This phase is planned for March through April 2025. It will include 8-9 weeks of iterative, in-depth process testing of the developed configurations in the EPL system. Issues and enhancements identified by the project team will be tracked in a shared project tracker that will provide awareness across the various parties and team members participating on the project. PCG and Tyler Tech will resolve system and configuration issues and update approved configuration changes. Resolved items will be tested in resolution cycles by the staff until the City approves the business processes ready for Go-Live.
End User Training:
This stage will kick-off 4-weeks of training in May 2025 with Tyler Tech’s trainers performing a curriculum of onsite and remote training sessions with all team members, system administrators, and department staff. This will be the critical milestone and activity during the project where all other City staff that have not participated on the project to have Tyler Tech onboard them onto the EPL system. PCG will be supporting these training by recommending the appropriate curriculum and reviewing logistics planning by the City. Additionally, PCG will support the City-staff when they are leading supplemental trainings where the department SMEs provide their staff additional training beyond the Tyler Tech system basics with tailored guidance aligned to actual City processes.
Cutover, Go-Live, and Hypercare Support:
The project is currently on-track for a planned Go-Live of June 2025. Cutover encompasses the 2 weeks leading up to Go-Live with activities and tasks focused on successfully transitioning the City’s systems, data, and processes to the new EPL system. To support this PCG will work with the City to track and own various Cutover activities related to configuration and data conversion. Additionally, after Cutover has successfully completed and the EPL system is Live, PCG has planned to have 3 consultants onsite during the first week of Go-Live to provide ‘over-the-shoulder' in-person hypercare support for the City. The PCG team will also provide 3 additional weeks of remote Post-Go-Live hypercare services until the EPL system becomes a stabilized environment to transition to Tyler Tech support.
The City plans to kick-off Phase 2 immediately after the Phase 1 stabilization period in late July 2025 and will span through the end of 2025. Phase 2 consists of key initiatives that will implement the configuration and development required for the comprehensive fee update planned for the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 and onboarding the Utilities department permitting processes from a manual, paper-based process into the EPL system.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The requested City Council action is not a “Project” as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Pursuant to Section 15378(a), a “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. According to Section 15378(b), a Project does not include: (5) Organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY
Complies with the following Rialto General Plan Guiding Principle:
Our government will lead by example, and will operate in an open, transparent, and responsive manner that meets the needs of the citizens and is a good place to do business.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed and supports this staff report
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Operating Budget Impact
The cost of phase 1 of this project is $372,700 with an optional additional $100,000 for phase 2. Funds are available in the Information Technology Contract Services Fund Account No. 10102152-52011.
Capital Improvement Budget Impact
The proposed action will not impact the Capital Improvement Budget.
Licensing
If applicable, prior to execution of the Professional Service Agreement/Purchase Order/Construction Contract, the vendor shall submit a business license application and pay a Business License tax, as well as Administration and State fees.