The County Parks Department is looking to upgrade its online registration system and make it easier for the public to reserve its facilities; also, to save the department money by passing on credit card fees to its customers.
Parks and Recreation Director Tanya Richardson’s report laid out the need to upgrade the old system. “The Parks and Recreation Department relies on a registration software program to manage reservations for campgrounds, lakes, parks, facilities, events, and programs,” Richardson said. “However, the current registration software is very limited and lacks essential functions, such as: self-serve activity registration, dynamic pricing flexibility, discounted passes, mobility in the field, and advanced reporting. In addition to function limitations, the current system is challenging for staff and public patrons to use.”
A new system, which is being outsourced to a contractor Vermont Systems, Inc., is expected to cost over $399,000 to get up and running and then another $58,000 a year for licensing.
Vermont Systems’ contract, covering software licensing and “implementation services,” was for $274,000. Richardson said this new system would improve the success rates for those who try and reserve a facility online without having County staff help; improve the experience users get form the website; and “enhanced accessibility for underserved populations and people with disabilities to independently register for programs. This aligns with the department’s goal of providing recreational opportunities for all.”
The new program would also help the department with its bookkeeping and would allow the County to charge back any credit card fees it used to pay out of it’s revenues. So expect the actual cost of County facilities to increase by at least that much, usually 2-3% per transaction for typical convenience fees.
The County would join a slew of other businesses that have sought to pass along these convenience and processing fees to the consumers, instead of paying the fees out of their revenues.
The department asked County Supervisors for the funding from two reserve funds — a regional parks fund and a community parks fund — with the remainder coming out of the Countywide Automation Reserve Fund.
So the funding would be broken down as a minimum of $200,000 from the Parks Reserves and $199,000 from the technology fund.
Broken down, the costs are: $42,000 for vendor service and 1 year of system hosting; $140,000 for project management/business analysis; $150,000 for equipment and infrastructure; and, $68,000 in contingencies.
This ought to come online right about the time the County finishes rebuilding the Cayucos Vet’s Hall. The Recreation and Parks Department plans to handle all booking for that community-meeting hall going forward, instead of the Lions Club, which had been in charge of booking the venue for a very long time.
The ongoing annual system costs after it’s up and running are projected at $58,000 a year, Richardson’s report said, but they’ve got that covered.
“This expense is anticipated to be fully offset by the reduction in credit card fees,” Richardson said. “No additional General Fund support is expected to be requested by the Parks and Recreation Department to support operating costs for this registration software system.”
Richardson’s report predicts the switch in credit card fees “is expected to reduce transaction costs to the Department by an estimated $60,000 to $80,000 per year.”
