At the Aug. 18 budget workshop, a representative for the county's IT vendor, who identified himself as Sam of Goldsmith Solutions, recapped the services the vendor provides and how those services appear in the county's budget.

Sam told the commissioners the monthly IT bill combines fixed and variable costs: fixed costs include Microsoft Office licensing, email hosting and backup, endpoint and firewall security, and backup and disaster-recovery services; variable costs are primarily labor under a TIPS cooperative agreement. Sam said the vendor negotiates equipment prices and sometimes purchases software and services by volume, which can produce lower prices for the county.

He described other pass-through items and services included on monthly invoices: Starlink Internet service for Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 as a failover when local phone-company service is interrupted; parts and cabling that the vendor purchases as a direct pass-through; hosted services such as Dropbox and Zoom; and generator maintenance under a certified Generac dealer agreement.

On pricing and markups
Sam said physical parts and small equipment (desktop scanners, cables) are passed through without markups and that those invoices can be provided on request. He explained that software licensing purchased through a Microsoft partner includes a contractual markup, but that the county's cooperative agreement (TIPS) sets preapproved, competitive pricing. "We go and compare what we charge Calhoun County or other counties to the alternatives and TAC is an alternative to provide that service. And we are cheaper than TAC price, and we're on a pre approved price so that you know it's competitive," Sam said.

Why this matters: The IT vendor's costs are part of the county's operating budget. Knowing which items are pass-through, which include markups, and which services are fixed or variable helps the court evaluate recurring expenses and one-time capital purchases tied to the courthouse move and annex work.

Ending
Sam said his phone is available for questions and that the vendor welcomes inquiries about invoices and pricing. The court took no formal action on IT contracting during the Aug. 18 workshop; the IT services agreement was discussed and approved in a prior meeting, Sam said.