HANCEVILLE — Hanceville is taking a one-stop shop approach to security, backup storage and troubleshooting for city-operated computer systems.

In a 3-2 vote Thursday evening, the Hanceville City Council approved a one-year contract with SmartFox Solutions, a Decatur-based Information Technology management firm.

Council members Charles Wilson and Kim Brown voted against the contract.

During a lengthy discussion period, Wilson questioned the cost effectiveness of the $950 per-month service. An attempt to contact Brown by phone after the meeting late Thursday was not successful.

The agreement will provide the city with a number of security features its current networked computer infrastructure presently lacks. The contract buys the city a 12-month period of unlimited, cloud-based backup storage, firewall security, biweekly maintenance site visits by a SmartFox engineer, and remote troubleshooting.

“I think this is an excellent plan,” said council member Sharon Porter, who said the city lacks a strong contingency plan in the event of hacks, data loss and other cybersecurity mishaps. “It covers everything we can think of, and then probably some things we haven’t thought of.”

Wilson, who also serves on the city’s water board, said the water department had been well served by a $600 per-year subscription-based backup service called Carbonite.

A SmartFox representative countered that data backup is only one aspect of the broader suite of services his company — which he said would essentially serve as the city’s “IT staff” — is offering.

Mayor Kenneth Nail abstained from Thursday’s vote in order to “avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest,” he said, “because one of the folks with SmartFox is a friend.”