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Davis County IT warns ESRI licensing could double; county to inventory licenses and explore consolidation, open‑source and outsourcing
Summary
The county’s IT director warned that ESRI’s new licensing could push GIS costs from about $150,000 to nearly $300,000 annually; staff will inventory departmental licenses and return with consolidation options ahead of a January contract renewal.
Davis County’s director of information services told a work session on Aug. 19 that the county faces sharply higher costs for its core GIS platform and laid out options including consolidation, open‑source migration, outsourcing or buying lower‑cost commercial alternatives.
"Current licensing is $150,000 a year," Jeff told the commission. Under ESRI’s new licensing structure he said the county could see costs "by the third year of our contract will be double what it is today" — approaching $300,000 a year — and that an initial stripped‑down quote to replicate current capabilities came back at about $214,000 for the first year.
Jeff reviewed licensing models (perpetual vs. subscription; machine vs. user licensing; named user vs. concurrent) and warned that even open‑source approaches carry implementation, maintenance and compatibility costs, especially where county systems must interoperate with state agencies that also use ESRI.
He proposed several practical steps: departments should review and consolidate creator licenses (the county currently has roughly 50 creator licenses spread across departments), shift occasional users to lower‑cost reader roles where feasible, consider centralizing GIS creation work to a small number of dedicated staff, and request new vendor quotes based on a consolidated license list. He also said outsourcing project work or selectively building internal solutions remain options depending on functionality, timeline and cost.
Jeff assigned Cheryl to distribute a list of current departmental license counts and asked departments to provide feedback within about two weeks; he noted the ESRI contract renewal is due in January and urged a quick review. "I'll probably schedule something for two weeks from now as a follow‑up," he said.
The work session also covered related items including Munis’ migration to a cloud subscription and county LIDAR flights and data‑sharing practices. Commissioners discussed prioritizing GIS projects and the potential to recoup more LIDAR costs from municipalities.
Next steps: staff will distribute a license inventory, departments will report back on consolidation opportunities, and IT will return with a recommendation and new vendor quotes before the January renewal window.
