Subject: FIRST AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT FOR CONSULTING
SERVICES WITH ACUENT, INC.
Approval of a First Amendment to the Consulting Services Agreement with Acuent, Inc. for the upgrade of the Human Resources/Payroll System to increase the compensation by $54,000 in an amount not to exceed $951,200 by re-allocation of funds from existing project resources, from May 22, 2001 to June 30, 2002
The City currently utilizes PeopleSoft version 7.02 to facilitate human resources and payroll processes. This version of PeopleSoft is currently scheduled to be retired in early 2002 and will not be supported by PeopleSoft after this time. In January, 2001, the Human Resource / Payroll Project (HRPR) Executive Steering Committee, comprised of members from the departments of Human Resources, Information Technology, and Finance and the City Manager’s Office determined that the City should proceed with the planning and execution of an upgrade to the most recent version of PeopleSoft.
On May 22, 2001, the City Council approved a consulting services agreement with Acuent, Inc. for a version upgrade of the City’s Human Resources / Payroll System. The upgrade, scheduled for completion by the end of December 2001, assures ongoing application maintenance support, while providing opportunities to streamline current human resource and payroll business processes and customizations. The upgrade will also enable the City’s application support team to further embrace the e-government initiative by phasing in varied levels of employee self-service.
Acuent, Inc. was selected as the City’s upgrade partner based on a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) issued earlier this year. Acuent successfully demonstrated an ability to assist the City with the highest level of upgrade assistance. Among other attributes, Acuent had the highest level of public sector upgrade/implementation experience, worked with PeopleSoft to beta-test the new version, and maintains credentials necessary to be a certified PeopleSoft Implementation Partner.
In addition to the Acuent contract, the City carried forward an agreement with Resource Support Associates (RSA), who is primarily responsible for providing consulting services related to the continued implementation of the City’s web-based Time Card Front End (TCFE) system. Ultimately, once the upgrade is completed, both the PeopleSoft and TCFE applications will be upgraded to accommodate the web-enabled environment and new functionality resident in PeopleSoft Version 8.0.
A significant part of the upgrade process, as outlined in the contract between the City and Acuent, is to streamline current business processes and reduce application customizations, where possible. The majority of customized processes in the City’s Human Resource / Payroll System can be found in the PeopleSoft Time and Labor (T&L) Module. All time reporting definitions and rules resulting from the varied agreements between the City and nine separate bargaining units are outlined in the T&L Module. Processes conducted each pay period within the T&L Module ensure that time reported by employees via timesheets or the TCFE web-entry system is ultimately paid correctly and on time.
At the present time, more than 65% of all City employees submit their bi-weekly time and attendance information via the TCFE web-entry system. This stand-alone system was designed to enable City employees to submit time via the City’s intranet and ultimately interface to the Human Resource/Payroll System for payroll payment. To seamlessly interface, TCFE functionality was designed around the rules and customizations inherent in the Human Resource/ Payroll System T&L Module. As part of the current upgrade process, it will be necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of TCFE and T&L Module integration and functionality to ensure uninterrupted processing.
During the upgrade planning stages, the level of enhancement incorporated into the new version of the T&L Module was undetermined. Acuent and the City have determined that an additional $54,000 is required to properly address T&L Module issues during the upgrade. As previously mentioned, the project budget includes an allocation to RSA, a consultant that the City has contracted with to assist in the design and implementation of TCFE. Currently, there is $70,000 remaining on the RSA contract.
Due to Acuent’s competencies in PeopleSoft version 8.0, specifically the Time and Labor Module, staff recommends $25,000 of the amount allocated to RSA for the TCFE design and implementation be re-allocated to Acuent. Staff further recommends that $29,000 in upgrade project salary savings be allocated to Acuent. The additional $54,000 change to the existing contract between the City and Acuent will not require any new budgetary funding. Existing upgrade project budgetary resources, as defined above, will be used to fund the additional resources.
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This memorandum has been coordinated with the Departments of Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology, the City Attorney’s Office and the Manager’s Office.
This Amendment to the Agreement will be funded from the General Fund (001) from monies currently allocated to the Payroll/Human Resources Project Citywide appropriation.
SCOTT P. JOHNSON KAY WINER WANDZIA GRYCZ
Director Acting
Director Chief
Information Officer
Finance Department Human
Resources Department Information
Technology