KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The Tullahoma Utilities Authority Board of Directors recently approved of a conversion of its fiber billing system to NISC.

In a memo from TUA President Brian Skelton, he said up reviewing TUA’s current software providers, Local Government for electric, water and wastewater billing and Great Lakes Data Systems for fiber billing, TUA staff decided to move to one software for all systems would be beneficial for both staff and customers. He stated during the October meeting that the board had approved moving utility software to NISC in August, but did not include the fiber billing conversion and cost as they were on a separate system, and were looking at available options before making the recommendation.

Per Skelton, a few of the benefits of moving to one system include: one software that customer service representatives can use to search for customers and post payments; customers will have a profile that will show all balances that are due, including LightTube; reduce the number of manual entries required by the current systems and will allow payments to be accepted through the NISC application for all customers.

Noted in the memo that there will be in an increase of $65,000 in one-time implementation fees and $43,704 of annual recurring cost. When asked what the price difference, Skelton said TUA was paying less with the current systems, which was $32,300 annually for licensing and support fees.

“With the benefits that a full conversion presents, staff recommend including our fiber system in the NISC software package originally presented at the August board meeting,” Skelton said.

TUA Board Chairman JT Northcutt said to be able to have one contractor that handles all the needed responsibilities makes a big difference.

“To have a system that can do the things that (NISC) talks about to me is worth the small variance in price,” Northcutt said.

With no further discussion, the board unanimously approved the contract with NISC for a fiber billing system.