SPI Insights

Municipal officials are budgeting for tech upgrades in 2022

Technology firms offering software and related services will find an abundance of upcoming opportunities in local government next year. Municipal leaders throughout the country have announced plans to upgrade old technology, and software purchases are imbedded in almost every plan. It is important to note that interested contractors should get involved immediately because most technology upgrades have launch dates in early 2022.

Federal funding will continue to flow to state and local governments for technology modernization and almost every municipality in the U.S. has critical needs. For too many decades, governmental entities have struggled because funding was simply not available for technology modernization. That situation has been reversed, and municipalities are about to make giant strides to modernize old legacy systems. Most of the modernization efforts will involve some sort of software.

 
Tennessee
The city of Knoxville plans to spend $30,000 in 2022 on an analytic software enhancement for a 311 system that will provide better data for training and issue planning. The city will also spend $50,000 in 2022 to implement software that will modernize and streamline budgeting and reporting. For public safety purposes, the city has allocated $170,000 next year for software that will provide greater security enhancements for the server network, all applications, and email filters.

 
Ohio
The city of Cincinnati has several software purchases and upgrades planned for 2022 including $70,000 for recovery of data in case of a disaster. The objective is to provide the logistics, materials, and documentation that is required to maintain and upgrade duplicate enterprise data at the city’s secondary storage facility. It will ensure that in the event of a disaster, data can be accessed in a timely manner and city operations can be restored. To follow compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the city will spend $15,000 for a closed captioning service that requires software and hardware and cloud-based captioning services. It will also provide automated closed captioning of real-time video, hardware encoder, software, and some cloud-based automation. Finally, the city has $50,000 allocated for a software program that shortens turnaround time for public record requests, improves legal services to clients, and services the courts.

 
Virginia
The city of Chesapeake plans to spend $265,000 to replace and upgrade the fire department’s materials monitoring and system detection capabilities. The city also plans to provide a new traffic signal management software system in 2022 at a cost of $350,000. A project requested by the Information Technology Department, but not yet funded, is the purchase of updates and replacements for software currently used throughout city government. The price tag for this purchase is $250,000.

The city of Norfolk has announced that $2 million is allocated for a software upgrade for the Department of Utilities’ billing system. Other planned purchases include an electronic health record system, security appliances, cybersecurity services, and upgrades to an e-services platform.

 
Texas
City leaders in Dallas plan to spend $2 million for long-term strategic planning for security projects and $720,798 for public safety-related software. The city has allocated $320,000 to acquire an IT project management software solution which will allow better management of more than 70 annual technology projects.

 
Kansas
The city of Overland Park’s 2022 budget outlines an expenditure of $39,625 for software maintenance and support for the police department. The city also has $450,000 to spend in 2022 for cybersecurity. Other expenditures are allocated for finance, administration, and economic development.

 
Florida
City officials in Tallahassee recently released the proposed fiscal year 2022 budget which has apportioned $27.8 million for technology purchases. Approximately $10.5 million is earmarked for replacement of the city’s current customer information system that manages customer accounts, provides data analysis, monitors financials, and supports city billing.

 
Idaho
Public officials in Boise plan to spend $150,000 on upgrading proximity access cards which will be used with a software platform to gain access to all city facilities. City leaders also want to spend $75,000 in 2022 to engage with a contractor for a long-term analysis of vital updates needed at all branch libraries that are critical to technology infrastructure.

 
Maryland
The Baltimore City Information and Technology (BCIT) division will receive an Innovation Fund loan of $200,000 to invest in an automated online messaging system for 311 service requests in 2022. The new system will provide real-time support to citizens and reduce the call volume pressure on 311 call centers. Additionally, the BCIT budget includes $14.5 million for the second phase of an enterprise resource planning system. The project will involve replacing and integrating the city’s human resources system, payroll, and financial systems. The overall project goal is to reduce manual data entry and allow access to real-time financial data in one platform.

 

These planned technology purchases represent just a small sampling of what can be expected in 2022. Technology upgrades will be so prevalent next year, upgrading software will become the norm.