Upgrading software

Throughout the new year, Rockville Centre’s software system will improve, bit by bit and byte by byte.

The Board of Trustees has initiated an effort to better the village’s financial software infrastructure by installing an entirely new system. The new software, provided by KVS Information Systems, will be implemented over the next two years, and will cost the village almost $432,000 — an expense that was included in the 2013-14 budget.

“We like this system,” said Village Administrator Keith Spadaro. “We think it can help us with the regular village stuff, and also the electric and water utilities.”

John Peters, who heads Rockville Centre’s information technology department, explained that the software will cover the village’s entire scope of finances, including general ledger, accounts payable, purchasing, inventory, payroll, human resources, budgeting and electric and water billing. The improvements, he continued, have been a long time coming.

“Our current financial software package is over 30 years old,” said Peters. “We’ve supplemented it as an IT department — there are two of us that program, [and] we’ve written numerous programs to supplement it — but we need to bring in something modern to move forward.

Currently, electric and water bills are all paid on paper, not electronically, and department heads must resort to phone calls and hand deliveries when looking to obtain budget information or pass along payroll time sheets. The new system will allow easy access to accounting software that will vastly speed up administrative activities.

But new financial software is just the beginning. Peters said that the village is seeking to upgrade its hardware as well, and that he and his department have taken steps to ensure its safety in case of a natural disaster like Sandy.

“Over 10 years ago we purchased servers and set up a server farm,” said Peters, who mentioned a site in Hicksville where the village will operate a redundant server, ensuring data will not be lost. “We’re going to be virtualizing our environment, and we’re setting up a recovery site.”

Peters also mentioned an improvement to the village’s tax system, which has remained the same since the 90s. The upgrade, which will be announced next month, will allow residents to pay their property taxes online. But the implementation of these new systems, as is the case in any major overhaul, is bound to be incremental.

“It’s going to be a lot of work, and as in any conversion, there’s always little hiccups along the way,” said Peters. “But we’re dedicated, and we’re going to make it work.”