Posted Thursday, July 23, 2020
SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Offices of the Treasurer & Tax Collector and Controller announced today the on-time and on-budget implementation of a new cloud-based tax billing and collection system that will process hundreds of thousands of property tax bills and payments totaling over $3 billion annually. TaxSys®, built by government software provider Grant Street Group, replaces a mainframe system that has been in use for over 50 years.
“This is the kind of powerful, easy to use solution the public deserves, and I am proud that we delivered the project on time and on budget,” said Treasurer José Cisneros. “Implementing a new tax system in 18 months would have been a huge challenge in a normal year, but when you add the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and having to complete the last five months of the project working remotely, this is truly a remarkable success. I am grateful to Grant Street and our team of dedicated City employees for their tireless work.”
Home to nearly a million people, San Francisco, the Bay Area’s cultural, technological, and financial center, becomes the second California client to implement TaxSys in the past year (following the County of San Mateo). San Francisco and Grant Street employees avoided potential disruptions due to COVID-19 and met the intended 18-month implementation deadline, by moving all communications online.
“The launch of TaxSys® couldn’t have come at a more critical time for our City,” said Controller Ben Rosenfield. “This is the first property tax system built by Grant Street that includes a Controller’s module, and I am thrilled that we could deliver such a large and complex technology implementation under these circumstances.”
To put into perspective how massive an undertaking the implementation was, 50 determined San Francisco staff members worked with 43 Grant Street engineers, business analysts, and project managers nearly every day, for a year and a half straight, to remain on budget and schedule.
“This was a herculean effort and we applaud the leadership of San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros and the efforts of all the City’s professionals involved in the project,” said Ian Yorty, Chief Business Development Officer at Grant Street. “San Francisco will be the first in California to utilize TaxSys functionality for the Controller’s office, and we look forward to serving the City Controller Ben Rosenfield and his team of experts, alongside the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector.”
For more information about the TaxSys implementation, please contact Amanda Fried from the City and County of San Francisco Treasurer’s Office at Amanda.Fried@SFGov.org or John McCarthy from Grant Street Group at John.McCarthy@GrantStreet.com.
Amanda Kahn Fried
Chief of Policy and Communications
Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector
Amanda.fried@sfgov.org
(646) 509-7026 (cell)