Online payment option coming for utility bills

Talk about it

Chances are you don’t think much about utility billing software, but when the city of Rosemount implements its new software later this year residents may notice.

The city approved purchasing new utility billing software from Civic Systems during its Aug. 6 meeting. The new software will provide online account access and payment options, said finance director Jeff May. May said he anticipates having an online pay option will be a popular among residents.

“We have people call and tell us we are the only bill they don’t pay online,” May said.

While the feature is a bonus, the new software is a long time coming. The city has not updated its billing software since 2000. May said staff has talked with the city council for several years about finding a replacement, but it was hard to justify the large price tag if the current system worked.

The new system will cost more than $25,000 including the software, implementation and training expenses.

The current system has experienced frequent problems, though, and May said the council feels like it’s time to upgrade.

“It was getting to a point where the system isn’t working,” said May.

Staff reviewed four billing software packages. In the end the decision was between Civic Systems, which is the city’s current utility billing software provider, or Tyler Technologies Incode, which is the city’s financial software provider.

May said staff researched both packages and found that both were capable programs. Civic Systems guaranteed the two programs could work together and the cost for Tyler Technologies was approximately $20,000 more.

The new program has the potential to integrate with other city software including GIS, Laserfiche, Cartegraph and other SQL-based software systems. Residents will be able to access their history for the last two years and the software will provide the ability to generate reports for data collection more easily.

May said he anticipates they will be able to start taking online payments at the end of the year.

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