City of St. Petersburg Saves US$1.2 Million, Lowers Total Cost of Ownership by Reducing Customizations with In-House Enterprise Applications Upgrade
 
 

City of St. Petersburg Saves US$1.2 Million, Lowers Total Cost of Ownership by Reducing Customizations with In-House Enterprise Applications Upgrade

Printer View Printer View

The City of St. Petersburg, with a population of nearly 250,000, is the fourth most populous city in Florida. Located on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is a popular vacation destination.

Approximately seven years ago, the City of St. Petersburg implemented Oracle E-Business Suite as its enterprise application foundation. In 2011, it began planning for its upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.

The city wanted to upgrade to the latest version of Oracle E-Business Suite to ensure continued support, take advantage of new functionality, and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO)—ultimately optimizing use of taxpayer dollars. With the upgraded applications, it has improved contract and retainage management (managing a portion of the agreed upon contract price that is withheld until work is completed); customer records management; as well as lease and loan management. Additionally, the city established a scalable platform that will enable it to completely automate many of its processes, particularly in the payables department.

Facing significant budget constraints in a challenging economic climate, the city needed to complete the upgrade in the most cost-effective way possible. As such, it decided to manage the upgrade in house, ultimately, saving US$1.2 million that it would have spent on consulting costs.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from City of St. Petersburg

  • “Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 applications are powerful, flexible, and reliable, and they help us to better meet the needs of our citizens and employees.” – Christine West, Oracle E-Business Solutions Manager, City of St. Petersburg

  • Upgrade to latest version of Oracle E-Business Suite to ensure continued support, take advantage of new functionality, and reduce total cost of ownership, which ultimately optimizes use of taxpayer dollars
  • Enable the city to provide more responsive and efficient service to its citizens and partners in a time of tight budgets
  • Ensure a cost-effective enterprise application upgrade

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Upgraded to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 to take advantage of new functionality that allowed the city to eliminate costly-to-maintain customizations—particularly around centralized payables and contract management—reducing TCO and streamlining management going forward
  • Benefitted from new retainage functionality in Oracle Services Procurement, which enables the city to withhold payments to contractors until work has been completed, allowing it to eliminate a costly-to-maintain custom application and gain control over the complex payment requirements related to construction services
  • Benefitted from the integration between Oracle Loans, Oracle Payables, and Oracle Grants Accounting to enable the city to standardize public sector, loan-related origination and management processes and centralize customer information across origination, credit, servicing, and collections
  • Established a scalable platform that will enable the City of St. Petersburg to fully automate many of its internal business processes, particularly in the payables department
  • Completed the upgrade in-house, ultimately saving US$1.2 million on consulting costs

Resources