Council paying $1.12m for Gems system

By ADAM GIFFORD

Enterprise software middleweight Geac has won a $1.12 million contract to install its Gems system into the Wellington City Council.

Andrew McKenzie, the council's finance information infrastructure director, said Gems was the most cost-effective and it was not vapourware.

More than 20 companies responded to the tender, but McKenzie said many were offering custom development rather than packaged solutions.

The council is replacing an internally built system installed in 1989. It wanted a system that could interface with its Peoplesoft financial software and with the databases it has created of properties and customers in the past couple of years.

"Because the market does not deliver a product with property information in all the formats councils need to get an integrated view of the customer, Wellington decided to build a database ourselves," McKenzie said.

The Rates and Water modules are due to go live in July, with Geac doing the implementing. The Cashier model will follow.

McKenzie said the council expected to get greater levels of automation, making it more cost-effective than the present system. He is also looking forward to more accurate reporting and detailed modelling.

Garry Dohnt, general manager of Geac's local government division, said more than 100 councils in New Zealand and Australia used Geac.