Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

City's IT department posts savings

Date: 11/23/2010

Nov. 22, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD -- At a time in municipal government where every penny counts, one department in Springfield has taken steps to save the city considerable money.

At a City Council committee meeting last week called by Councilors Timothy Rooke and James Ferrera, it was announced the Information Technology (IT) Department has saved the city the following amounts:

• A $19,200 annual reduction on the cost of Xerox printers;

• A $36,000 annual savings on the reorganization of city cell phones;

• A $310,000 refund from Verizon with the discovery of a three-year billing error;

• A $93,520 refund from Verizon from a double billing error; and

• The annual savings of $165,159 by removing unused telephone lines and circuits.

Rooke also highlighted the annual savings of $274,000 by switching the city's payroll service from an outside firm, ADP, to an in-house service.

The Finance Control Board had brought the payroll services to ADP several years ago and Robert Maggi, deputy chief information officer for the IT Department, explained to Rooke and Ferrera the city needed "ADP to step in and set up the infrastructure."

"They did all the heavy lifting for us," Maggi added.

Ferrera said the city had been paying $5,000 a week to manage the payroll.

Andrew Doty, chief infor-mation officer for the IT Department, explained ADP used a program called Kronos Time/At-tendance system and the city purchased the program direct from the manufacturer.

Doty said, that besides the savings to the city, the move created, it also allows city officials to "use the program to its potential."

"We can mold it to what we need it to do," he added.

The contract with ADP will expire in December and the city will begin to use the in-house system then. Rooke noted the new system was implemented without hiring any additional employees.

"This is the way government should work," he said.