Preston to vote on new software

Preston — Voters will be asked at a town meeting Thursday to approve spending $99,624 to purchase a new financial and accounting software system to replace an obsolete system set to be discontinued June 30 by its parent company.

The town meeting will be held at 8 p.m. at the Preston Plains Middle School. All purchases over $20,000 must be approved by residents at a town meeting. The funding would come from the town’s capital nonrecurring account. Officials have posted a PowerPoint presentation explaining the proposed purchase on the town website, www.preston-ct.org.

The town and school system have used the Phoenix software for payroll, accounts payable, budgeting and some human resources functions since 2009. The system’s parent company, Sungard, was acquired in 2017 by PowerSchool, which plans to discontinue Phoenix June 30.

Preston joined a collaborative bid process with three other towns, including North Stonington and Plainfield, and 11 boards of education, including North Stonington, Griswold, Lisbon, Plainfield and Canterbury, through the regional education agency, LEARN. The collaborative bid process resulted in nine bids for replacement software and the selection in December of Infinite Vision software through Tyler Technologies with a bid of $99,624 for Preston.

In September, after receiving a bid of $171,218 for software services for town and school services, the town decided to instead join the collaborative bid process to save money.

First Selectwoman Sandra Allyn-Gauthier said a committee of town leaders, former First Selectman Robert Congdon, now on the Board of Finance, town Treasurer Sue Nylen and town and school Finance Director John Spang, reviewed the proposed financial software system and consulted with towns using it before making the recommendation.