Money-wise upgrade a success for county

Spokane County upgraded its financial computer system last week, and with barely a hiccup.

And by doing it themselves, county computer staff saved local taxpayers lots of money.

“We easily saved a couple hundred thousand dollars by doing it in-house, because consultants are so outrageously expensive,” said Bill Fiedler, Spokane County Information Systems Department director.

After months of preparation, county computer staff spent three days making the final switchover from PeopleSoft 7.5 to PeopleSoft 8.4.

The change means that county financial, ledger, budget and purchasing records will be based on a central system online rather than on each employee’s personal computer.

Staff also had to rewrite training manuals and other support materials.

Most government agencies and private companies hire consultants to do such work, said Michael Sperling, a spokesman for Oracle, which recently purchased PeopleSoft.

“It depends on the skills and resources within the government agency or company. It sounds like they had the skills and resources to do this,” Sperling said.

Fiedler said the biggest problem encountered with the new system is county employees forgetting their log-in codes.

County CEO Marshall Farnell called the changeover a huge accomplishment.

“When we flipped the switch, a lot of people – not me – assumed it would blow up. It didn’t,” he said.

Doing the work themselves means county computer staff will be better equipped to handle any glitches that may arise down the road, Fiedler said.

“We don’t like hiring consultants and having all the information leave when they leave,” he said. “Our experience is it’s better to do it in-house and keep that knowledge here.”