Finance committee approves five‑year MHC Software contract to lock pricing while legacy system is retired

Portage County's Finance Committee on May 12 approved a five‑year contract with MHC Software Holdings Inc., the vendor that supplies the county's document indexing platform, to lock pricing while the county phases out a legacy record system.

A county staff member told the committee the county has used the software for more than 20 years and that multiple departments rely on it to store and index documents for retrieval. The staff member said the county intends to retire the legacy system within five years and that a multi‑year contract would both secure a lower annual cost and provide continuity during the transition. "If you do a 5 year contract, we'll lock you in at a price $8,000 less than what you would be paying annually," the staff summary said, read aloud at the meeting.

Nut graf: Approving a multi‑year contract was presented as a cost‑management step and as a way to guarantee continued access to an indexing system while the county transitions away from its legacy platform.

County staff said the vendor restructured its payments this year and proposed a significant annual price increase; the 5‑year agreement was offered to lock in a lower rate. Committee members moved and seconded a motion to approve the contract; the motion carried at the meeting.

Next steps: county staff will execute the contract and continue planned work to retire the legacy system over the five‑year period, then reassess whether the indexing software remains necessary afterwards.