By the end of 2017, you could be paying your city utility bills online.

A new motion was passed at City Council last night allocating funds towards a new, cloud-based financial management system. The current system, JD Edwards World, was designed over 30 years ago, and city officials say it can no longer keep up in an internet-based society.

"There will be more opportunities for our customers to make online payments, specifically for utility billing," Kathy Hopfner, General Manager of Corporate Services for the City said. "Currently, people get their bills in the mail, and once this system is implemented, they will be able to get their bills electronically, and make payments electronically as well."

Funding will partially come from the 2017 budget, but also an allocation has been granted from the 2019 budget of $364,000.

"For us to get our JD Edwards subscriptions current in 2018, we would have been looking for an increase either way," she said.

Hopfner says in 2019, the city forecast the cost to upgrade the system would be $990,000. A discount is being given by the company granted the contract for moving ahead now, and not in 2019.

In total, the new system will cost $954,000. There is also an annual subscription fee, for which the city passed a motion to pay 60 months in advance for a total of $1,635,512.

The contract, rewarded to Oracle Fusion and impac, would allow for a new system that includes utility billing, cash receipting and an online portal for customers to see and pay their bills. It is a custom build for the City by the companies.

While there have been concerns over the safety of cloud-based technology before, Hopfner says the new system will be more secure than the old.

"Information will be probably more secure than what we have here at the City of Swift Current, mostly because with that organization their security software that they use is being continuously upgraded and it will always be current," she said. "They have a whole team of IT expert that maintain security on those cloud websites."

Hopfner adds that the demand for an online system has been a long time coming.

"Our customers have been requesting more online services for a number of years, which is part of the reason why we're moving."