Neptune Software for Automated Water Meters

City staff asked City Council to change the water meter software arrangement in their April 16, 2019 meeting.

The City of San Angelo contracted in April 2013 for software that would enable the city and citizens to see their water usage history.  The background packet stated.

Neptune N Sight IQ Software
Financial Impact:  No hardware required by City
Presentation:  None

That software cost roughly $15,000 per year.  City Council minutes reflected:

DEMONSTRATION AND CONSIDERATION OF THE NEPTUNE N SIGHT IQ SOFTWARE WHICH WOULD ALLOW CITIZENS THE ABILITY TO ACCESS THEIR UTILITY DATA COLLECTED FROM THE CITY’S AUTOMATIC METER READING SYSTEM

Water Utilities Director Ricky Dickson, and Charlie Trimble and A.B. Grigsby of Neptune Technology Group presented background information. A copy of the report/presentation is part of the Permanent Supplemental Record.General discussion was held on the positive impacts of the software benefits, support of the software capability, customers without the AMR meter, AMR installation projected completion date of 2015 with 68% installation completed, purchasing a URL to redirect customers to the feature, mobile version capability, $11,900.00 annual hosting fee and $2,900.00 annual web portal maintenance fee, prior customer’s history not available due to security and privacy issues, Neptune procedural audit recently conducted, the savings to the City by the vendor providing the service,

Councilmember Morrison spoke in opposition of the software and AMR system. He recalled the additional service was part of the initial AMR project selling point and implementation. 

Recall Ricky Dickson's presentation which stated no hardware would be required by the city as City Council prepares to take up the item:

Consider authorizing a software service agreement with Neptune Technology Group and its vendor Core and Main in the amount of $6,500 for Year 1 for web hosted meter collector data software platform and option for two additional one year periods (Year 2 pricing $0.75 per meter with estimated annual payment of $28,125; Year 3 pricing $1.05 per meter with estimated annual payment of $39,375), replacing in-kind locally hosted servers and software and authorizing the City Manager to execute any related documents.

Core and Main is the sole provider of Neptune Technology Group products. Neptune meters are the City's metering technology for water service connections. Currently, the City has a locally hosted server collecting the meter usage data. Over the years this server has had to be updated and rebuilt on multiple occasions. It has gone through these extensive updates and rebuilds almost annually as software requirements increase and as the number of connections increase. The current server platform is once again in need of a major platform update to continue handling meter data. The
metering company now offers a web hosted platform which would eliminate the need for local servers creating a more stable platform and all future software upgrades would be included in the web hosting. 

Executive Director of Public Utilities Ricky Dickson will not give the presentation.  Assistant Director of Water Utilities Lance Overstreet will answer City Council's questions, if any.  I hope Lance does better than last time when he failed to answer the most basic questions regarding water collections agencies.

Update 4-17-19:  City Council did not pull this item for public presentation and discussion.  They passed this item as part of the consent agenda.