PA - Financially Strapped Computer Firm Abandons County Court System

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Financially Strapped Firm Abandons Northampton County'S Court System

Overhaul Is In Limbo After Computer Company Runs Into Money Problems. Source: Allentown Morning Call Publication date: 2000-06-02

The Salt Lake City computer company that has presided over Northampton County's rocky and delay-plagued court system computer overhaul has fallen on financial difficulties.

The problems have placed court officials efforts' to alleviate lingering problems with the system's implementation in limbo.

Court Administrator James Onembo said employees of the company, Progressive Solutions Inc., told him this week that the company is in disarray and that employees have not been paid.

He said he does not know if the company has declared bankruptcy, but county finance director Jean Mateff said the financial problems are severe and that it is only a matter of time before Progressive shuts its doors.

Onembo said he grew concerned when Progressive computer consultants failed to show up for work this week as scheduled, following a mid-May meeting with company executives to discuss ongoing problems.

"The first two weeks they had people here every day," Onembo said. "This week, the people didn't show. When we called and spoke to some of the employees they were in disarray, hadn't been paid and were told the company was having resource problems."

Mateff said the county has paid the company $347,000 for the computer system. The amount is 89 percent of the company's total $389,000 bill, but she said the project is far from 89 percent complete.

Phone calls to the company's Salt Lake City headquarters went unanswered Thursday afternoon.

Onembo said company employees told him Progressive was seeking to be purchased by several other companies, including Freemont, Calif.- based Tiburon Inc., which specializes in law enforcement computer systems.

But Tiburon Chief Financial Officer Chuck Bridges said his company is not in discussions to acquire Progressive.

The uncertainty about Progressive's future leaves county officials uncertain about their options, but Onembo said he is hopeful the county's court system computer overhaul can be completed.

`Right now, everything is pretty fluid and the entire process has been troubling all of us,` Onembo said.

Onembo said a group of Progressive technical support workers have informed the county that they are seeking to form a company to service and complete the county's computer installation.

Onembo said he hopes the county can rely on those support personnel to maintain and complete the system.

Systems for Orphans Court and the Register of Wills have not been completed, Onembo said, while the civil courts are still experiencing some data entry delays and glitches.

Lewis said the county is already preparing requests for proposals to employ another company to provide new computer systems to serve the Orphans Court and Register of Wills at additional cost to the county.

The civil court `glitches` have frustrated title searchers, who have complained that they have been unable to complete 100 percent reliable title searches because the computer system is months behind in its listing of liens.

Searchers have been forced to manually search handwritten rosters of court judgments, and many have refused to certify clean titles beyond Dec. 15, 1999, the date the old computer system was taken offline.

Lower Saucon title researcher Robert Rudas said that if the problem isn't resolved by July 1, the Land Title Association of Pennsylvania has threatened to stop writing title insurance for Northampton County properties.

Onembo said court officials will address the problem by putting newly filed title information on a searchable compact disc database and printouts that will bring it up to date until the computer update is completed and problems with a search function are resolved.

Rudas said that should be acceptable, but in the long run he hopes Progressive Solutions is unable to complete the computer system and the county is forced to install new computers.

"That would turn out to be a plus for (title searchers ) and a negative for county taxpayers," Rudas said. "We are all of the opinion that the system cannot be corrected."

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), June 04, 2000


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