Columbia County authorizes multiyear IT renewals and connectivity upgrade

The Columbia County committee approved multiple information-technology contract actions to ensure software licensing and connectivity align with the county’s fiscal year and to expand broadband capacity.

Technology Services’ presenter, Mister Blanchard, told the committee the county is in the final year of a three-year Microsoft Enterprise agreement and requested authorization to pay $376,954.52 from next year’s operating budget to maintain Microsoft licensing for operating systems, Office, SharePoint and Teams. “That’s who we contract with in order to get operating system software, Office, SharePoint, Teams, all those kind of things,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard also presented a renewal with Fred Daniel Mapping Services to keep parcel maps current; the GIS department budgeted $50,000 for mapping services and Blanchard said the likely cost this year is about $45,054 with additional contingency for programming tweaks. He described the longstanding relationship with the vendor and recommended approval.

The committee approved a master services agreement with Segre to add an additional 10 gigabits-per-second connection to support more customers; the recurring monthly cost presented was $2,800 on a five-year agreement.

Two actions related to Tyler Munis, the county’s enterprise resource planning software, were also approved to realign the vendor’s renewal cycle to the county fiscal year. The committee authorized paying a quarterly pro‑rata invoice of $149,195.70 to cover April–June charges from IT’s operating budget and approved payment of $596,782.78 for the next fiscal year to ensure continued hosted support and maintenance. Blanchard explained the hosted model provides built-in disaster recovery and regular updates.

All items were moved to the consent agenda and advanced for approval. Blanchard said the county continues to evaluate vendor performance and lifecycle needs for core systems.