Sampson County approves $441,000 one-time investment to unify county software with Tyler system

SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. — The Sampson County Board of Commissioners voted to move forward with a countywide technology modernization using Tyler Technologies’ suite of government software, county leaders said at their November meeting.

County Manager Vann introduced the plan and formally recommended the investment. “You charged us with innovating and working more efficiently,” Vann said, introducing Brandon Wiggins, the county’s special projects manager, who led the presentation.

Wiggins told commissioners the project aims to unify separate systems used by finance, the tax office and departments such as public works and building inspections into a single enterprise ecosystem. “Integration is key,” Wiggins said, arguing that a single platform would eliminate redundant data entry and manual reconciliations that now slow county operations.

Finance Director Melissa Burton framed the proposal as a financial modernization, saying the county spends significant staff time on manual reconciliations that an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system would reduce. Burton said the investment would “dramatically accelerate financial reconciliations” and improve reporting cadence.

The board approved a one-time implementation cost of $441,000, with roughly $160,000 charged to the water department and the remaining $281,000 to come from the county’s fund balance. Wiggins estimated the new annual operating cost at about $90,000 and an annual savings of roughly $140,000 compared with existing expenses, a gap he said would allow the project to “pay for itself within 3 years.”

Wiggins described three primary components: consolidating Munis ERP instances, deploying the Tyler utility module to streamline water customer billing, and installing Tyler’s Enterprise Permitting & Licensing (EPL) to modernize inspections and planning workflows. He also proposed centralizing payment processing so residents could view and pay multiple county bills in a single resident-access portal.

Commissioners asked about vendor stability, cloud hosting and training. Wiggins said the county’s data is hosted by Tyler and that the county retains ownership of its data. He described a training-heavy implementation that spreads institutional knowledge across departments to avoid single points of failure.

Wiggins said the county’s timeline would put contract initiation and vendor scheduling this spring, with a targeted go-live in spring 2027. He warned of typical implementation risks, including vendor queuing and the complexity of integrating large datasets such as GIS parcel information.

Following discussion, a commissioner moved to appropriate the funds and proceed; the motion was seconded and carried.

County officials said they will return with contract terms and more detailed project milestones and performance measures. Wiggins said the project will track key performance indicators such as permit-processing times and the percentage of water customers on auto draft to measure the projected return on investment.