By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(May 3, 2018) The Ocean Pines Association appears to close to purchasing new software systems with the goal of having them running by next May.

During a public meeting on Saturday, two members of a technology working group, Tom Terry and Len Smith, outlined almost two years of activity and how new systems could improve operations.

Following the presentation, the board of directors met in closed in session to discuss a contract. No resolution was reached and an additional closed meeting was scheduled Wednesday morning, after press time.

According to the technology work group report, the volunteer committee was formed in 2016 and started with an assessment of existing software and systems. Department heads were interviewed about their experience and information was compiled, ranked and prioritized.

The committee’s evaluation led to conclude that the current software was “unreliable, outdated and poorly integrated.”

“The Ocean Pines network during the winter of 2016-2017 was a patchwork quilt of networks which were fragile and failed frequently,” the report said.

Additionally, departments functioned on “independent islands of automation, with no data sharing” and point of sales systems “caused multiple issues for accounting,” including posting and reconciliation of daily sales and deposits, the report said.

A request for proposals was released last December and responses were received in January. The committee developed a baseline cost of “what we would spend over the next six years if we did not change anything,” the report said, and bids were evaluated based on that model.

Between Dec. 2017 and April 4, five companies offered demonstrations and four remain on the active vendor list: NorthStar, Jonas, Yadi and IBS–Imperium.

The goal, according to the report, is to improve business operations across all departments, making work more efficient and less frustrating for personnel. The report said purchasing “an integrated ‘all in one’ HOA specific software solution” would bring the association into the 21st century, help provide monthly financial reports in a more timely fashion, and “achieve better services” for membership.

“We are proposing that Ocean Pines purchase state-of-the-art software that provides the most integration possible for our systems, provides the best operational support, [and] has proactive maintenance and enhanced services available to us from that vendor,” Terry said.

He said planning would occur from June through September, and implementation and testing would start in October. Duplicate systems would run in March and April, and new systems could be live by next May.

“After months of working on this report, it is delivered today,” Terry said, adding some specific vendor information was omitted from the version made public. “We will be discussing that detail in a closed session with the board later.

“The proposed vendor will be presented to the board by us in that session, along with that vendor’s information and the reason for our proposal for their selection, and we hope to move forward as soon as possible in order to … get a contract in place with them,” he added.

Terry said any contract would have to be approved by the board of directors.

The directors did not respond to questions about the Saturday closed session.

The full report is available in the April 28 meeting packet online at www.oceanpines.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/4-28-18-Board-Packet-reduced.pdf