Sandy Springs pays $1.93 million to overhaul 20-year-old city records system

The Sandy Springs City Council approved a five-year contract worth $1.93 million on Nov. 3, replacing the city’s 20-year-old database with a Salesforce platform. This decision represents an increase of more than 800% over the cost of the current system. The new software will manage resident services, including property records and repair schedules.

Council members described the nearly $1 million annual expense as expensive but necessary. Staff members stated that work on the nine-month project will start after the New Year. The city also approved a separate $711,750 contract with StackNexus to implement the new system. When combined with the $220,833 first-year license fee for Salesforce, the total stays within the city’s $1 million budget for its Digital Innovation initiative this fiscal year.

Local governments typically use customer relationship management tools to track public assets like pipes, streetlights, and signs. These systems also handle repair scheduling and maintenance costs. The Salesforce platform will replace Lucity, the city’s existing back-end system. It will also integrate the Sandy Springs Works portal, which currently uses SeeClickFix from CivicPlus, and the online permitting platform, which relies on OpenGov.

Keith McMellen, the city’s director of data strategy, analytics, and AI integration, explained that the current system is inexpensive but difficult to use. He noted that the manual, email-based structure creates a service delivery gap. McMellen said, “While all of that operational data exists, it’s really hard to get access to; reporting is very challenging, or connecting systems.”

McMellen added that residents currently have limited visibility into their requests. “For residents, they have very limited visibility into status, updates, any closure … they have to call back in, remember their ticket number,” he said. The new system will provide automated updates and a unified interface for both staff and the public.

Council Member Andrew Chinsky acknowledged that the contract might go unnoticed by the public but called it “sneaky super important.” He emphasized the need for solid foundational work and high-quality customer service. “I’m in favor of this; I know it’s the most expensive option. The delta is really the first year and the implementation cost, so this is not going to be an ongoing cost to taxpayers,” Chinsky said.

The city currently operates three separate technology platforms for different administrative tasks. The new Salesforce contract will consolidate these functions into a single, cloud-based environment. The project aims to reduce the manual effort required to track and resolve non-emergency issues reported by residents.