Iowa City OK's partial settlement in software snafu

IOWA CITY – Iowa City has partially settled a lawsuit over a computer software agreement gone bad.

The City Council Tuesday night approved a $30,000 settlement with Canada-based Harris Computer Systems Inc.

The city will continue to go after Innoprise Software of Broomfield, Colo., which the city says owes it another $156,000.

Iowa City contracted with Innoprise in 2009 to have the company supply and implement enterprise resource planning software. The plan was to get a new computer system for its human resources and payroll, financial and utility billing functions.

But the software developed bugs and Innoprise started missing deadlines before the city ended the deal in 2010 and negotiated a settlement for $196,000 of the $254,179 it had already paid the company.

Innoprise only paid $10,000 toward the settlement and then was acquired by Harris in April 2011. After that, Innoprise would not respond to Iowa City's inquiries, city officials said.

City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes said Harris' liability was minimal and it would have been an uphill battle to get the full amount from the company.