Since 2011, the City has utilized a Customer Management System (CMS) software known as Harris Govern (formerly MS Govern) to bill customers for water and sewer services.  The software serves as the City's utility billing software and includes components such as invoicing, accounts receivable, cash receipting, service transfers, rate management, and meter reading.  Harris was chosen in part because the City also uses their Financial Management Software (FMS), called GEMS, with which MS Govern’s accounts receivable integrates.

 

The City currently mails all billing notices and does not offer electronic notification (paperless billing).  This is one of the most requested services by Brentwood customers.  While Harris Govern does not support this service directly, it has partnered with InvoiceCloud, a company which does provide electronic bill presentment and payment services.  Because of this partnership, there is an integration of data, such as billing and payment history, between the two products.  This integration ensures that customers viewing their bills online will have accurate and up to date billing and payment history, and will also enable payments to be posted back to the City’s database.  InvoiceCloud is the only bill presentment service that currently integrates with Harris Govern.

 

Additional configuration and modules must be installed before the integration can be enabled for the City.  This includes upgrading the version of the Harris Govern software, as well as additional modules for the eCommerce Interface and Scheduler.  The costs associated with the upgrades include $15,500 for additional modules and $27,650 for 158 hours in implementation services.  After much discussion between Harris Govern, InvoiceCloud, and the City, Harris Govern has agreed to waive the $15,500 cost for additional modules and InvoiceCloud has agreed to pay $7,000 toward the $27,650 integration cost.  This reduces the City’s total cost to $20,650, with annual maintenance costs of $3,100 for year one, increasing in annual increments to $3,914 in year five.

Once the upgrades are completed, the City can begin offering InvoiceCloud’s paperless billing services.  Since InvoiceCloud charges the City $0.20 per enrolled paperless customer per month versus of mailing charge of $0.37 per customer per month, the reduction in postage costs will help to cover the fees and in time may offset the costs for Harris Govern’s upgrades.

 

InvoiceCloud’s services include paperless bill presentment and payment through a mobile friendly web portal with access to 24 months of billing and payment history, customizable email or text reminders, integrated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone payments, and the ability to schedule a single or recurring payment with credit card or check.

 

Please see David Lincicome or Karen Harper with any questions.