McLean County approves IT hardware purchase and $89,600 change order; officials report ERP (Munis) on track for November

McLean County's Executive Committee on Monday approved two Information Technologies items: the purchase of HP Inc. Aruba network switches and a change order to purchase additional professional services hours tied to public-safety system interfaces.

The committee voted to approve the purchase of Aruba switches through a joint-purchasing master contract. Assistant Director of IT Mr. Berger described the purchase as "the annual replacement of switches that are slated to be end of life and replaced this year," and said the county plans to replace a batch of switches each year. The committee approved the purchase by voice vote.

The committee also approved a change order authorizing an additional $89,600, to be paid from the shared sales tax fund, to finish time-and-materials professional services hours on interface work needed to connect the county's systems. Information Technologies representative Mr. Nelson told the committee, "The amount of the request is 89,600 to come out of the shared sales tax fund." The change order was presented as necessary because the county had "burned all the hours in the T and M" and still requires vendor hours for final work and trainer refresh.

County IT staff described the interface work as a dependency for other projects: "This project is a dependency in order to take the new jail system live and the court system live," Mr. Nelson said, while noting there are "known risk and unknown risk" that may require returning to the committee for further funding after go-live.

Separately, IT staff delivered the first monthly report on the county's enterprise resource planning (ERP) replacement project. The county plans to replace its current New World ERP with Munis, a Tyler Technologies product, and is focusing first on the financial system with a target go-live in November. The report said the county contracted Sanford Hess as an internal project manager and is updating its chart of accounts to current Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) standards.

Staff said the project remains on schedule but identified communication gaps with the county auditor's office. The project team is "hoping to wrap up the definitions and the workflow" for the chart of accounts, then turn the build over to Tyler, and noted work on vendor-file cleanup and a third-party virtual warehouse for data the county will not convert. Project staff said if the chart-of-accounts work is completed soon, the county should remain on schedule for the planned November financial go-live.

All IT items on Monday's agenda passed on voice votes.