Brazos County leaders used the Feb. 25 workshop to review a cluster of IT and software requests and to discuss standing up an IT governance committee to prioritize purchases. Items on the table included agenda software, records‑management and hotel‑tax collection platforms, Fleetio or similar fleet/work‑order software, a VoIP phone system with CAD upgrade, log‑management software and a third‑party Oracle Fusion upgrade/testing service (OpKey).

Staff urged commissioners to coordinate software procurement under a governance process so county systems can be standardized and compatibility issues avoided. Eric, an IT staff member, said the county needs a revived IT governance group to “rack and stack” software needs and to avoid ad‑hoc purchases that create duplicate systems and reduce interoperability.

Commissioners agreed to a two‑part approach: (1) ask staff to form an IT governance committee that will develop requirements and evaluate cross‑department solutions, and (2) include a $200,000 placeholder in the proposed budget to fund initial procurement or allow the committee to move quickly for an identified solution. The $200,000 figure was described as a starter amount to avoid relying entirely on contingency later in the fiscal year.

Several departments told the court that specific packages (records management, fleet software, VoIP/CAD, log management) are at different priorities and that certain items (log management, OpKey testing for Oracle) are safety or mission‑critical for IT operations. Commissioners asked that software requests be grouped where possible, that the governance group include department heads and IT staff, and that staff return with a prioritized procurement plan.