LAKE MARY, Fla., July 19, 2002 -- HTE Inc., a provider of enterprise-wide software solutions for public sector organizations and utilities worldwide, announced recently it has been selected to provide integrated software solutions to three California government agencies: Victor Valley Water District, County of Lake and City of Imperial Beach.
The organizations cited the HTE NaviLine™ Windows-based browser interface, superior functionality, seamless product integration and outstanding reputation for customer support as key reasons for the selection.
"HTE will give us the ability to link all of the disciplines within our organization -- operations, administration and engineering," said Steve Borrowman, treasurer/controller for Victor Valley Water District in San Bernardino County. "That, along with the usability of the NaviLine interface and the products' outstanding features, will take us to a new level of excellence."
Borrowman, who lives in neighboring Cucamunga County Water District, became interested in HTE when he saw the level of detail appearing on his home water bills and how quickly he was able to receive information and service when he needed it. "I wondered how they could do the things they could do, what type of technology they had to make those things possible. When they told me they used HTE, I made the phone call. We have 17,000 connections and they deserve the best. We're especially excited about giving our customers on-line account access with Click2Gov."
Improving customer service using Click2Gov is a top priority also for Imperial Beach, near San Diego, said John Herrera, the city's administrative services director and treasurer. "Our council has been interested in providing e-government services to citizens and businesses for several years now. We're going to use the Business Licenses and Building Permits modules. Our businesses and citizens will appreciate this convenient tool for doing business with the city."
Herrera had used HTE in a previous position he held at another California city, San Jacinto. When Imperial Beach outgrew its software, he included HTE in the search process.
"We needed a fully integrated solution city-wide, with sophisticated internal controls and report capabilities. It had to be easy to use and able to serve us well into the future," Herrera said. "It's easy to find software to meet short-term needs; finding a solution for the future is another matter. We found HTE had everything we needed, at an excellent value. We are all looking forward to having it in place."
The County of Lake, located north of San Francisco, used HTE Payroll/Personnel but had added a number of pieced- together financial programs as a stop-gap measure to get through Y2K.
"We'd had a great experience with HTE over the years and that weighed heavily in our decision to choose them for financials. HTE is a solid company and we know it's going to be there for us," said Kelly Cox, administrative officer for the county.
"It was especially good to find such feature-rich software that was government-specific," said County of Lake Information Technology Director Martin Franusich. "We found that most of the other products on the market need a lot of customizing, but the HTE products do exactly what we need, right out of the box."
The customers also said the fact that HTE products run on the IBM iSeries influenced their decision.
"It impressed me that the software runs on the iSeries, which we've been using for payroll for years. It has been a workhorse without a day of problems. We have to have reliable hardware, and I trust the iSeries," Cox said.
Cathy Saderlund, chief deputy auditor-controller for County of Lake, agreed. "The iSeries is a solid platform. We have a lot of good experience with it."
Saderlund said for her organization, HTE customer support was one of the deciding factors. "Their service is better than anything else we looked at in the evaluation process. Being able to get help 24/7 is a big plus."
General Manager Randy Hill said Victor Valley Water District was sold on HTE by other customers. "We interviewed line employees and heard time and again that people enjoyed using HTE software and would choose it again. For us, that's the bottom line."
HTE President/CEO Joe Loughry said the contracts with County of Lake, Imperial Beach and Victor Valley Water District bring added momentum to the growth of HTE in California.
"This is a very important market for HTE and we are well on our way to achieving dominance in our segment. The enthusiasm of our existing customers in California has created exciting opportunities for us, and we are capitalizing on them with great products, great service and great value."
HTE Inc.
HTE, Inc., a provider of government information technologies, provides a broad range of innovative software solutions to more than 2,200 government offices, agencies and utility companies throughout North America.
The company's products address the wireless computing requirements of a rapidly changing public sector market and support the end-to-end delivery of e-government access to citizens and businesses. Founded in 1981, the company is headquartered near Orlando, Florida. Additional information is available at http://www.hteinc.com or by calling HTE Marketing Services at 1.800.727.8088.
