ADP Board Approves Annual Contract for New World Software
to Facilitate Efficiencies in County’s Purchasing and Payment Processing
ADP Board Regular Meeting - September 10, 2024
Meeting Details: The Automatic Data Processing Board (ADP) held a Regular Meeting at 2:00 pm on September 10, 2024 in the Geauga County Auditor’s Office Appraisal Conference Room at 231 Main St. Chardon, OH 44024. Virtual access was available via MS Teams, and the agenda was provided in advance. This observer attended via MS Teams.
Public Comment: ADP does not have a written public comment policy. In practice, public comment is solicited at the end of the meeting.
Board Attendance:
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Auditor/Chief Administrator – Charles Walder
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Clerk of Courts – Sheila Bevington
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County Commissioner – James Dvorak
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Engineer – Katie Taylor for Joe Cattell
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Board of Elections – Michelle Lane or Nora McGinnis (absent)
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County Prosecutor – Jim Flaiz
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Recorder – Celesta Mullins
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Sheriff – Scott Hildenbrand
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Treasurer – Caroline Mansfield for Chris Hitchcock
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Coroner – John Urbancic (absent)
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Court of Common Pleas – No representative yet named
ADP Staff Attendance:
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Frank Antenucci – Chief Deputy Administrator
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Allen Keener – Chief Technology Officer
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Jeff Vaji - Archives and Records Clerk
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Tracy Rahimi - Help Desk Clerk
Other Government Representatives:
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Linda Burhenne – Assistant County Administrator
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Nick Gorris - Director of Water Resources
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Ron Leyde – Chief Deputy Auditor
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Pam McMahan – Fiscal Office Manager, Auditor’s Office
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Kate Jacob – Chief Compliance Officer, Auditor’s Office (virtual)
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Ashley Serraglio - Senior Archives and Records Clerk (virtual)
Others Present:
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Amy Patterson - Geauga Maple Leaf (virtual)
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Diane Jones - Member of the Public (virtual)
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Carol Benton - LWV Geauga Observer (virtual)
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 pm by Mr. Antenucci.
Minutes: Minutes for the June 11, 2024 Regular Meeting were approved without edits.
The Board took the following actions:
APPROVED - ADP equipment list from June 1, 2024 to July 31, 2024.
APPROVED - ADP purchases list from June 1, 2024 to July 31, 2024.
APPROVED - Tyler Annual Software - New World ERP ($355,000). Mr. Flaiz asked about the costs for one year of the cloud-based New World ERP software at $355,000, which represented a 10% increase over prior year. Observer Note: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a business management software system that is designed to manage and streamline an organization’s functions, processes and workflows with automation and integration. He noted that he understood that it would be costly and time-consuming to implement a new system, concluding that it was not a viable option. Mr. Walder explained that ADP was planning to shift to the cloud-based New World solution by December, noting that the look and feel of the system will change. He also estimated the cost to implement another solution would be $7 million. Mr. Flaiz asked if there was functionality not being utilized that could be removed to lower the price. Mr. Walder explained that they considered this as a part of the annual renewal process. He highlighted two initiatives to be facilitated by New World functionality. First, they are moving away from printing hard copies of checks (currently 28,000 checks are printed annually) to electronic payment of invoices using an outsourced service provider to handle the ACH transactions at no cost. This will reduce exposure to fraud given that attempts by people to mimic the county’s checks have been on the rise. Second, they are moving away from the paper submission of purchase orders (PO) and vouchers. Instead, an electronic portal will be introduced where data will be uploaded to create an electronic purchase order or voucher. It will be processed automatically through the system. If there is an issue, the PO or voucher will be sent back to the creator for correction. Mr. Walder’s expectation is that this functionality will allow for the creation by an outside company of a database to be made available to the public to query and provide transparency of the County’s expenditures. Redaction issues are being addressed. These initiatives are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
APPROVED - Geauga County ADP Price List. Mr. Antenucci noted the key updates to the ADP Price List. ADP added a more bare bones cybersecurity package for those Townships in the County with limited needs and fewer end users. He also pointed out that archives and records pricing was updated based on ADP’s direct experience with this function after it became part of ADP at the beginning of 2024. After some Townships reached out to Records and Archives for records storage assistance, it was determined that the actual costs incurred with third party vendors will be passed along to Townships for these services. Mr. Antenucci also pointed out that the costs of the Community Development module within New World will be charged directly to only the users of the module rather than spread among the entire user base.
Other Business: Mr. Antenucci informed the Board that he, Joe Birli, IT Physical Security Analyst with ADP, and Mr. Gorris recently met with representatives from Mission Communications, LLC, the company that provides the software that monitors water and sewer equipment and collects real-time data and periodic reporting for Geauga County Water Resources’ locations. They discussed the status of Mission’s development of ADP required multifactor authentication (MFA) capabilities within their software. Observer Note: See Observer Report from September 27, 2023 where representatives from Mission Communications committed to having MFA capabilities available in the software by the end of 2023. Mr. Antenucci reported that, although Missions did not meet its previously committed timing of the end of 2023, they were making good progress. They expect Water Resources to participate in beta testing of the new functionality by December 2024.
Public Comment: Mr. Antenucci asked for any public comment/questions. There were none.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:29 pm.
The next meeting of the ADP Board is the Regular Meeting that is scheduled for December 10, 2024.
Minutes when posted are available here: Meeting Minutes | Geauga County Automatic Data Processing
Virtual Meeting Information: Contact Pamela McMahan at pmcmahan@gcauditor.com
Observer: Carol Benton
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Sarah McGlone
Submitted 9/16/24
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