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Monroe County approves $232,498 renewal for Microsoft licensing after annual true-up
Summary
The Monroe County Commissioners approved a one-year renewal of the county's Microsoft licensing agreement totaling $232,497.76, noting a roughly $24,000 increase from last year driven by new hires that consumed the county's license buffer.
Monroe County Commissioners on Feb. 27 approved a one-year renewal of the county’s Microsoft licensing agreement with Softchoice for $232,497.76, funding the contract from Camino Capital Fund (fund number 11 38).
The renewal, described by a county IT staff member as the department’s annual “true-up,” covers Microsoft 365 licensing, SQL server licenses and server operating systems along with Teams. The staff member told commissioners, “When you add 20 licenses, you’re adding $24,000 to your annual agreement.”
The IT staff member said the increase from the prior year is not due to a Microsoft price hike but to new hires that exhausted a small buffer of spare licenses the county keeps on hand. The staff member also said the county evaluated additional security and service improvements requested from Microsoft and its Softchoice vendor but found those options would add more than $100,000 to the renewal, a cost the county deemed too large to accept at this time.
Commissioners discussed the per-user cost. One commissioner said, “I didn’t — I had no idea that was so expensive.” The IT staff member confirmed the county’s lowest-level general-office license averages about $3,000 per person per year and noted additional costs associated with onboarding new positions (computers, cell phones, wiring and other equipment).
A commissioner moved to approve the renewal and the motion passed on a 3-0 vote. The motion recorded: approve renewal of the Softchoice Microsoft licensing agreement for one year, amount $232,497.76, funded by Camino Capital Fund (11 38). No amendments or conditions were recorded.
The renewal requires the county to sign off no later than 30 days before the agreement’s renewal date, a deadline county staff said led to last-minute work to finalize the numbers.
Votes at a glance: Motion to approve renewal of Softchoice Microsoft licensing agreement — mover: Commissioner (unnamed); second: not specified; tally: yes 3, no 0, abstain 0; outcome: approved.
The commissioners moved on to other business after the vote; no public comment was recorded on the licensing item.
