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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF UTILITY SERVICES Date: December 18, 2018 To: Jason E. Brown, County Administrator From: Vincent Burke, P.E., Director of Utility Services Through: Cindy Corrente, Utilities Finance Manager Prepared By: Rita Strickland, Utilities Accountant Subject: Approval to Use Paymentus for Merchant Services DESCRIPTIONS AND CONDITIONS: Indian River County Department of Utility Services (IRCDUS) has recognized the need to advance the technology used in our department to a more digital -friendly environment in order to enhance the customer's experience as well as streamline the payment and electronic billing process. With our growing community and the digital environment, a more advanced platform is needed to enhance the payment and information experience. An analysis of the current merchant processing system for credit cards, phone, online, and point-of-sale for customer payments identified the need for a more modern platform. Although we are a relatively small utility compared to AT&T, Comcast, or Florida Power and Light, our customers expect the same level of e -services to be made available to them. Modernizing our features would provide a platform for more payment methods and easier online access to their utility bill. The analysis involved comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the cost, labor, accessibility, and security needed in the Water and Wastewater Utilities Sector. IRCDUS currently uses Total System Services (TSYS) Bank as its merchant service provider for credit card payments and Regions Bank for the customer online banking, Automated Clearing House (ACH), and paper lockbox payments. By advancing the technology used in our department to a more digital -friendly environment, the customer's expectations and experience, along with internal processes, would be updated and improved. On July 12, 2016, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) approved adopting Invoice Cloud as its e - service provider. At that time, staff began to work with Invoice Cloud representatives for a targeted implementation date of January 2017. During late fall of 2016, staff inadvertently discovered that the Customer Information System (CIS) payment gateway (or handshake) between Invoice Cloud and Harris Advanced Utility Systems (Harris) would no longer be supported by Harris. Harris has at least four updates annually. That meant that any time either party had a software enhancement or patch, the two systems would not communicate. 113 Page 1 of 3