Lantzville will soon have new software that will allow it to better manage its assets.
On Monday night, District of Lantzville councillors voted in favour of adopting a motion that would see them purchase asset management software worth $21,400 from CityWide Solutions, an Ontario-based company. The asset management software comes with an annual licensing fee of $4,000. There will also be $9,850 set aside for staff training and implementation of the software, but 50 per cent of those costs will be covered using a grant that the district received from the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.The new software is designed to give Lantzville staff marked ability to manage the district's assets such as roads and sewages. The software would be able to provide detailed information about assets including age, lifespan and amortization schedules.
Councillors Denise Haime and John Coulson were both opposed to the motion. Coulson said he couldn't support the motion because of the costs associated with it, adding that staff didn't provide any concrete numbers in terms of savings or benefits.
"I cannot support this in any way, to me this is much like our discussion on the payroll software for accounting, no denying there would be some benefits and efficiencies to this software, but that is a lot of money and I really don't see the economic justification to it," he said. "The staff report spoke to how much time we spend on it right now and how much time they think they will save with the software but there were no numbers given. If we are spending a lot of time on whatever the asset management program is, we should be able to define that."