Conn. and Mass. towns upgrade financial systems through ASP

Conn. and Mass. towns upgrade financial systems through ASP

• By Jason Miller
• Aug 07, 2001

When officials in Billerica, Mass., and Greenwich, Conn., decided it was time for new financial systems, they concluded that hiring an application service provider made the most sense-financially and technologically.

'We get a number of features without having to buy any additional equipment,' Greenwich comptroller Ed Gomeau said. 'An ASP made a lot of sense to us because we don't have to maintain it or upgrade or worry about backups. Essentially, all we have to do is run it on our desktop computers.'

The two towns today awarded contracts to Tyler Technologies Inc. of Dallas. The contracts are jointly worth an estimated $2.1 million over three years, just over $1 million for each city.

Billerica and Greenwich employees will tap their financial systems data-housed on IBM RS/6000 servers at a Tyler facility in Falmouth, Maine-through virtual private networks. By converting the towns' data to its Munis software, Tyler will handle payroll, accounts payable, budgeting and human resources management. Munis can run under Microsoft Windows NT and 2000, as well as Unix.

'This relieves the burden on our information technology staff and allows them to better support other areas,' said Richard Montouri, Billerica town manager, in a statement.