A $1.9 million Salesforce pitch to make city service requests easier to track

Sandy Springs staff want residents to have a clearer way to report a problem, follow its progress and receive updates. Their proposed fix is a Salesforce-based replacement for the city's service-request software, estimated in a staff comparison to cost $1.93 million over five years.⁠[1]

Two proposed awards go before City Council Nov. 3: about $220,833 to Carahsoft Technology Corp. for first-year Salesforce licensing and $711,750 to StackNexus for implementation. Together, the approximately $932,583 first-year cost fits within the project's $1 million fiscal 2027 budget. These are recommendations awaiting council consideration, not completed awards.⁠[1][2]

The problem is less a shortage of records than difficulty using them. Staff say the current Lucity system holds a history of roughly 1.3 million service requests, but departments rely on manual steps and emails while residents have limited visibility into a request's status or closure. The proposed replacement would combine intake, work orders, asset records, mobile field operations and a resident portal with automated communications.⁠[1]

That upgrade carries a premium. The city's five-year comparison lists Salesforce at $1,931,993, OpenGov at $1,382,916 and continued use of Lucity at $208,257. Staff argue that staying with Lucity would leave the service-delivery gaps unresolved.⁠[1]

OpenGov made a substantial counteroffer: its service cost fell about 60% and licensing about 50%, according to the evaluation memo. The city already uses its permitting and licensing system, which the memo says Community Development is happy with. But evaluators still preferred Salesforce, citing concerns about migrating historical data and OpenGov features and integrations that remained on its roadmap.⁠[1]

The comparison is not entirely like-for-like. OpenGov's first-year licensing quote was prorated for a shorter period; Salesforce could also be prorated if the city chooses. Staff say the higher Salesforce implementation price includes more uses, more migrated data and more integration across its products.⁠[1]

The recommendation follows an April cancellation of the original request for proposals after responses exceeded the city's cost, scope and timeline expectations. Staff narrowed the scope and pursued direct negotiations. The evaluation used a qualitative assessment of fit, rather than weighted numerical scores.⁠[1]

Staff project a nine-month implementation from project initiation—not a fixed launch date. Future annual licensing costs would depend on the executed agreement and budget appropriations. Council's Nov. 3 meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the Studio Theatre at City Hall, 1 Galambos Way.⁠[1][2]