Identifying tech problems is first step toward success

No one ever said change would be easy. And that’s what city officials are finding out as they attempt to complete the long-awaited modernization of the city’s technology systems.

Mayor Alan Webber, elected in March, made bringing Santa Fe into the 21st-century — kicking and screaming, if need be — one of his signature promises on the campaign trail.

The goal remains putting in place the Enterprise Resource Planning and Land Use System Modernization Project to update aging technology. This should make city offices function better and, most of all, improve customer service. The $8.2 million upgrade was started under Mayor Javier Gonzales, but it is Webber who ultimately will get the blame — or the credit — for its performance.

To his credit, the mayor is not trying to hide the reality that the transformation is more complicated and is taking longer than he had hoped. He and his staff held a news conference Wednesday to update the public. The prognosis was blunt: The technology upgrade is in danger of failing.

The bad news was served up with more than a sliver of hope, however. Outside consultants brought in to evaluate the technology transformation believe the city has the resources to make the techonological improvements necessary. Failure is possible, but it can be avoided.

And if we see success on the other end, it’s because managers at the city did not hesitate in taking bad news to the mayor. They told him things were not working. Together, they acted, hiring expert help and re-evaluating efforts to put the upgrades in place. This is the kind of action that avoids failure before it’s too late and too many millions have been spent. Too often, we have watched as failure loomed and no one stepped up to change course. Change is happening now, although we caution that identifying the problem does not mean it is fixed.

Managers are developing a revised implementation timeline and a new budget (no surprise, it will cost more).

One troubling point: It appears from the update that the city’s third-party project manager, BerryDunn, has not been managing the process with enough attention to detail — and charging more in the process, with its contract up by nearly 300 percent.

Going forward, Webber, City Manger Erik Litzenberg and other top team leaders will have to oversee this technology upgrade closely, especially because in-house project manager Renée Martínez has left the city for a job in Albuquerque.

They should focus on success, but also on value — contracts should not have risen 300 percent through amendments, increasing costs from $444,960 to around $1.3 million. Some of the oversight will have to be backtracking to find out why costs skyrocketed and what was done to keep them under control.

Then, there’s the work to make sure the upgrades happen and succeed — and, while all of that is taking place, the business of the city must continue.

We agree that technology can help city workers do their jobs better and even save money at some point. But efficiency and success will happen only if the upgrade is put in place without excess spending or delay. Time’s a-wasting.