The needed software system functions include customer billings, payments, meter reading and conservation tracking.
The proposed new system would allow advanced interaction with customers and have an option for “two-way” metering — a system that would allow customers to track their energy use online.
Technical support for the current PeopleSoft system ended in 2009. The system has been maintained by PUD staff.
PUD officials hope to choose a winning bidder by year’s end and have a new system running by about mid-2018, Greg Larsen, the PUD’s information technology director, has said. The new system should last an estimated 15 to 20 years.
PUD staffers have not released estimates of what a new system could cost. A PUD internal policy requires commission approval before launching a bidding process expected to result in a total contract price of more than $3 million, according to the resolution approved.
The PeopleSoft system was expected to cost $10.5 to 11 million, but ended up costing $16 million by the time it was up and running, Larsen has said.
That installation was plagued by missed deadlines, cost overruns and a public outcry sparked by its own computer technicians, who favored a system by the company Oracle, over the system chosen. Oracle ended up buying PeopleSoft in 2005.
Despite the higher-than-expected cost, PeopleSoft has been a solid system, Larsen has said.
The Grant County PUD began using new customer information system software in February 2015, PUD spokesman Chuck Allen said. The total cost of the Oracle system was $4.19 million.
©2016 The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
