Golden opportunity from needy councils

By ADAM GIFFORD

More than a quarter of local government is likely to need new software in the next few years, making it a happy hunting ground for specialised systems vendors.

Technology One country manager Roger Phare said many systems used by regional, city and district councils were designed in the early 1980s.

"There are about 70 councils ... We believe there will be about 20 reasonable prospects coming up.

Technology One has sold its Finance One and Proclaim One suites to Hutt City and Porirua City, bringing its number of New Zealand local government sites to eight and its total number of sites to 41.

It also sold to South Taranaki and Hastings District Councils this year.

Phare said that in three years Technology One had increased its New Zealand revenue from nothing to almost $5 million, and its staff from three to 12.

"We focus on asset-intensive and service-intensive sectors. You can't try to cover the whole field," said Phare, who will soon move to Brisbane to run the company's Queensland operation.

He will be replaced by former SSA Global country manager Don Glenn.

Phare said the market for mid-range councils was contested by Technology One, which is an Australian listed company, Civica, Geac with its Pathway and GEMS systems, and systems integrator Jigsaw, which is offering a hybrid of Geac Pathway and Peoplesoft Enterprise One Financials, the former JD Edwards product.

New Zealand company Napier Computer Systems also had a strong presence, particularly among smaller councils.

The largest councils have gone for big systems such as SAP in Auckland and Christchurch or Peoplesoft in Wellington and Manukau.

Hamilton's city council has upgraded to a full Peoplesoft 8 licence for financials and a system from Australian vendor Civica for rating and regulation.

Local government needs software which can do specialist functions, such as rating and dog registration, and cope with complex regulations. .

Hutt City information management manager Sarah Allison said Technology One's software was selected because it offered integrated finance and regulatory software.

Residents would eventually be able to pay fines and and buy dog registrations over the internet, and the software would make it easier for people to do business with the council.

Peoplesoft New Zealand manager Andrew Batchelor said Peoplesoft was gaining ground in local government with its original Peoplesoft product and with Enterprise One.

Thames Coromandel District Council recently bought Enterprise One through Jigsaw.

"All of the local authorities and the public sector are looking more at customer service and promoting council services. Our software allows them to do that," Batchelor said.

Hamilton city finance and administration manager Blair Bowcott said the council had to choose between upgrading to Peoplesoft 8, a major exercise because it involved a platform change, and a complete Civitas Authority suite.

Civitas incorporated earlier versions of Peoplesoft Financials into Authority, but has now gone it alone.

Bowcott said the council would continue to use Authority for rating, but Peoplesoft had superior features for other aspects of its work.