City staff recommends Workday for ERP replacement; seeks council authorization to proceed to statement of work
January 27, 2025 | Idaho Falls, Bonneville County, Idaho
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City staff recommended Workday as the vendor to replace Idaho Falls’ aging enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and asked the council on Jan. 27 to authorize moving to a statement of work and contract negotiations.
City Treasurer Mark Hagedorn and staff presented the project and said the ERP replacement would consolidate separate financial, payroll and HR systems, reduce manual Excel-based processes, and provide a unified workflow platform. Hagedorn told the council: “We’ve been on this journey for some time” and described the Workday proposal as the core of that plan.
Why it matters
The city is using multiple legacy systems for finance, payroll, accounts payable/receivable, timekeeping and other business functions. Staff argued that a modern, integrated ERP would reduce transactional overhead, improve transparency, and free staff to focus on planning and service delivery.
What staff proposed
- Vendor selection: Staff recommended Workday for financial and HR modules and ScribePoint (referred to in the presentation as Sprite Point/Scribe Point) to handle work-order and asset management integration.
- Estimated cost: Staff presented an acquisition-plus-first-year maintenance estimate of roughly $3,500,000 for implementation over a 12–18 month schedule. Annual subscription/service costs were shown materially higher than current maintenance (current ~ $200,000; projected ongoing subscription approx. $500,000 per year), with a possible $150,000–$200,000 in annual savings if many existing licensed products are retired.
- Timeline: Staff described a statement-of-work phase to run through May, followed by implementation, training, testing and deployment; Workday’s typical goal was described as 12 months from program management to live with a reasonable upper limit of 18 months.
- Project organization and staffing: An executive (steering) committee chaired by the mayor’s chief of staff and including department directors will provide oversight. A core team (project manager, finance manager, CIO, business intelligence analysts and power users) will handle day-to-day tasks. Staff said they had hired five positions to support the project: two accountants, two business analysts and one administrative support position, and that backfill will allow senior staff to focus on implementation.
- Consulting and quality assurance: Staff recommended contracting Whitlock as an independent quality-assurance consultant in addition to the implementation partner (Workday’s implementer was shown as Strata/StrataPoint). Whitlock’s role would be to provide a neutral third-party review and help avoid issues seen in prior implementations.
Council questions and staff responses
Councilors raised implementation, resource-allocation and cost-allocation questions. Staff said cost was a factor during vendor evaluation and that Workday’s proposal fell near the middle of the 10 proposals received. Staff explained the project will be cloud-hosted (SaaS) and that APIs will allow integration with other systems; the customer information/utility billing system (CIS) will be a separate, later project (phase 2) with its own RFP. On staffing, staff said dedicated hires and backfill reduced the risk of critical employees having to perform regular duties while implementing the ERP.
Funding approach discussed
Staff proposed allocating costs between governmental and enterprise funds using a three-year average of total budgets to apportion the project cost; enterprise funds would pay their portion through fees while the government portion could be financed (an internal loan repaid over five years was suggested as an option) rather than funded entirely from current capital reserves.
Next steps discussed
Staff told the council they would present a vendor-approval request at the regular council meeting later in the week and begin a statement-of-work with Workday if the council approves the vendor selection. Whitlock’s QA contract would be brought as a separate item once the vendor selection is approved.
Direct quotes in the record
“We’ve been on this journey for some time,” said City Treasurer Mark Hagedorn when introducing the update. On the project’s purpose Hagedorn said the ERP effort is intended “to repair where the situation that we’re in” and to reduce inefficient manual processes.
Why some council members signaled support
Several council members said they supported careful, measured procurement and implementation, emphasizing that thorough scoping, a realistic Gantt chart and independent quality assurance are important to avoid the problems the city experienced in a prior implementation. Councilors asked staff for regular status updates and a project timeline after the statement of work is complete.
What the council will be asked to decide
Staff asked council to approve the selection of Workday and the implementation partners so staff can proceed to a statement of work and contract negotiations. Council members indicated a desire for continued oversight and for periodic progress reports during implementation.
City Treasurer Mark Hagedorn and staff presented the project and said the ERP replacement would consolidate separate financial, payroll and HR systems, reduce manual Excel-based processes, and provide a unified workflow platform. Hagedorn told the council: “We’ve been on this journey for some time” and described the Workday proposal as the core of that plan.
Why it matters
The city is using multiple legacy systems for finance, payroll, accounts payable/receivable, timekeeping and other business functions. Staff argued that a modern, integrated ERP would reduce transactional overhead, improve transparency, and free staff to focus on planning and service delivery.
What staff proposed
- Vendor selection: Staff recommended Workday for financial and HR modules and ScribePoint (referred to in the presentation as Sprite Point/Scribe Point) to handle work-order and asset management integration.
- Estimated cost: Staff presented an acquisition-plus-first-year maintenance estimate of roughly $3,500,000 for implementation over a 12–18 month schedule. Annual subscription/service costs were shown materially higher than current maintenance (current ~ $200,000; projected ongoing subscription approx. $500,000 per year), with a possible $150,000–$200,000 in annual savings if many existing licensed products are retired.
- Timeline: Staff described a statement-of-work phase to run through May, followed by implementation, training, testing and deployment; Workday’s typical goal was described as 12 months from program management to live with a reasonable upper limit of 18 months.
- Project organization and staffing: An executive (steering) committee chaired by the mayor’s chief of staff and including department directors will provide oversight. A core team (project manager, finance manager, CIO, business intelligence analysts and power users) will handle day-to-day tasks. Staff said they had hired five positions to support the project: two accountants, two business analysts and one administrative support position, and that backfill will allow senior staff to focus on implementation.
- Consulting and quality assurance: Staff recommended contracting Whitlock as an independent quality-assurance consultant in addition to the implementation partner (Workday’s implementer was shown as Strata/StrataPoint). Whitlock’s role would be to provide a neutral third-party review and help avoid issues seen in prior implementations.
Council questions and staff responses
Councilors raised implementation, resource-allocation and cost-allocation questions. Staff said cost was a factor during vendor evaluation and that Workday’s proposal fell near the middle of the 10 proposals received. Staff explained the project will be cloud-hosted (SaaS) and that APIs will allow integration with other systems; the customer information/utility billing system (CIS) will be a separate, later project (phase 2) with its own RFP. On staffing, staff said dedicated hires and backfill reduced the risk of critical employees having to perform regular duties while implementing the ERP.
Funding approach discussed
Staff proposed allocating costs between governmental and enterprise funds using a three-year average of total budgets to apportion the project cost; enterprise funds would pay their portion through fees while the government portion could be financed (an internal loan repaid over five years was suggested as an option) rather than funded entirely from current capital reserves.
Next steps discussed
Staff told the council they would present a vendor-approval request at the regular council meeting later in the week and begin a statement-of-work with Workday if the council approves the vendor selection. Whitlock’s QA contract would be brought as a separate item once the vendor selection is approved.
Direct quotes in the record
“We’ve been on this journey for some time,” said City Treasurer Mark Hagedorn when introducing the update. On the project’s purpose Hagedorn said the ERP effort is intended “to repair where the situation that we’re in” and to reduce inefficient manual processes.
Why some council members signaled support
Several council members said they supported careful, measured procurement and implementation, emphasizing that thorough scoping, a realistic Gantt chart and independent quality assurance are important to avoid the problems the city experienced in a prior implementation. Councilors asked staff for regular status updates and a project timeline after the statement of work is complete.
What the council will be asked to decide
Staff asked council to approve the selection of Workday and the implementation partners so staff can proceed to a statement of work and contract negotiations. Council members indicated a desire for continued oversight and for periodic progress reports during implementation.
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