Council approves new $10 million system

By Dan Hilborn
Published June 4, 2005


Burnaby city council has agreed to pay almost $10 million to buy a new Internet-based computer finance system that will eventually allow the public online access to a wide variety of city services.

"Oftentimes we get a lot of credit for spending $10 million on a new pool, rec centre or ice rink," Mayor Derek Corrigan said Monday night. "But this (computer system) is as much a part of the city infrastructure as a water or sewer works."

Corrigan said the old financial system software at city hall has been in use for 20 years and, while city staff have done an "excellent job" of working with the old system, the new program will allow the city to "grow into the future."

"The technology we use in our corporation has a huge impact on how we are able to run our city. I think that's what this is all about - improving our efficiency," Corrigan said.

Burnaby will become the first city in Canada to use the latest mySAP enterprise resource planning system, which is scheduled to be fully online by January 2007.

A report to council said that the system will handle all kinds of financial, human resource and work management information for the more effective 24/7 operation of city facilities such as community centres, fire halls, libraries and police centres.

For the public, the system will allow for automated payments and improved record updating capabilities. The system will also allow authorized users to make more use of online transactions such as invoicing, payments and cheque reconciliations.

Council agreed to pay $2.3 million for the purchase of the software, another $343,130 in annual licensing fees to SAP Canada Inc., $385,000 for the purchase of Oracle Database Software to run the system, $253,000 for Adobe software to support the system, plus $3.9 million to Telus to implement the system.

Council agreed to draft a bylaw in the amount of $9,817,744 to pay for the entire cost. However, the city will receive a GST rebate of almost $600,000, said Dan Johnston, chair of the finance and civic development committee.

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal, who is scheduled to retire from Telus this fall, excused himself from voting on the subject because of a potential conflict of interest.