Our Town Wolfforth: Software upgrade in place to accommodate growth

WOLFFORTH, Texas (KJTV) - When a community undergoes major growth, changes need to be made. In the next decade, Wolfforth is expected to double in size. One of the changes needed is an upgrade in software, which has been used since 2007.

“This software package is going to add customer portals for utility billing, going to give you the ability to look at previous bills, set up your own payment methods, change your own payment methods online, a lot of the functionality that our customers are used to- with other utility companies,” said Terri Robinette, Wolfforth City Secretary. “They’ll now be able to see with their water, sewer and trash bill that comes from the city of Wolfforth.”

Not only will this transition help out the residents, Robinette says it will also benefit the staff.

“Our staff needs ways to become more efficient- to kind of get out of the habit of doing so many things manual, and so this software is going to allow us to do that as well,” she said.

Randy Criswell, Wolfforth City Manager, says the upgrades are tailor-made for all city employees, in all of the different areas.

“It’s a software that is absolutely targeted toward city government function, and so we’re rolling into it right now. We just rolled into a billing software component of it,” he said. “There’s also Municipal Court, there’s also inspections in permitting, and of course: the finance portion of it will come a little bit later.”

With any new system, hiccups are expected. So far, the city management has prepared their residents for possible problems.

“We go through a tremendous amount of testing, including in the utility billing world: we do a parallel billing,” Robinette said. “So at the end of September, we build through our old system. We did that same billing in the new system, and what the customers are seeing is the billing through the new system.”

Criswell says citizens should soon be able to see the positives from the change.

“Through the use of this software, we’re going to create a more interactive and more efficient use of our people in the services that we provide, make them easier for the public to access, and easier for them to use and understand.”

When it comes to taking care of needs, Robinette says one of the biggest changes people will see is the reduction in time.

“And, it helps our customers save time. It helps our front office staff save time, and so we’re just looking for that overall efficiency factor to increase: both on the customer and and here in the City as well.”

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