Lewiston should begin using the same e-mail, office, budgeting, job tracking and motor vehicle registration software as Auburn, the Citizens Commission on Joint Lewiston and Auburn Cooperation said.

Auburn should begin using the same assessing software as Lewiston, and both cities should work to find better software for tracking building permits and inspections, and managing documents.

“But none of this needs to happen right away,” said Peter Garcia, co-chairman of the commission. “We’re not recommending anyone go out and start upgrading their software. These systems have a limited shelf life, and they need to be replaced regularly. We’re saying that when it’s time to replace certain pieces of software, they replace them the way we’ve recommended.”

The commission met in Lewiston City Hall on Thursday morning to discuss a software needs study written by management consulting firm Berry, Dunn, McNeil and Parker. The study looked at computer software in both cities, evaluating which was best suited and which was newest.

In many departments, Lewiston’s software was the most in need of upgrading, Garcia said.

“Auburn had just completed upgrades in several areas, and Lewiston knows that it’s going to have to do the same thing,” Garcia said.

Those upgrades would amount to $1.3 million.

According to the report, Lewiston is already moving away from Novell’s Groupwise software for e-mail and calendar tracking in favor of Microsoft’s Exchange server software. Auburn uses the MS Exchange and Outlook.

Lewiston also relies on several different office, spreadsheet and word processing applications including Corel’s Word Perfect and a 2003 version of Microsoft Office. The study suggests it instead upgrade all office programs to Microsoft Office 2007, the latest version. Auburn already uses that software.

Lewiston uses a variety of budgeting programs to handle general budgeting, property tax accounts receivable, and water and sewer billing. Auburn uses one, the MUNIS program written by Tyler Technologies.

Auburn also uses MUNIS to manage motor vehicle registrations and the study recommends Lewiston adopt the program and follow suit.

Assessing functions were the one area where the study suggests Auburn adopt Lewiston’s software – CLT-IAS by MUNIS maker Tyler Technologies. That would let assessing functions tie in better with the other Tyler Technologies software the cities use.

The study also suggests the cities find better solutions for tracking building permits and inspection and scanning and document managing systems for human resources.

The commission also recommended the two cities begin sharing staff in the assessing department, but maintain separate offices. Garcia said the cities could reduce assessing staff size by two employees through attrition.

“It would be a virtual consolidation of the departments, and rather than share an office, the employees would work together over the phone and computer,” Garcia said.

Now, the commissions work goes to the two city councils.

“We’re not a legislative group,” Garcia said. “We don’t have power to do anything, other than recommend ideas to the council. So now this is in their courts.”