Stevens County approves move from state phone platform to Microsoft Teams

The Stevens County Board voted to migrate the county’s telephone numbers and service from the state platform to Microsoft Teams calling and accepted vendor support and licensing quotes to complete the migration.

IT Director Vicky Townsend told the board that the state had notified counties of a change to a Webex calling platform and that the county had to choose whether to remain on a state‑provided system or move phone numbers into its Microsoft environment. Townsend said the migration would consolidate telephony on users’ computers and allow staff with remote access to receive and place county calls using their laptops or county cell phones.

Townsend summarized costs: an additional Microsoft Teams calling licensing line (about $1,252), one‑time hardware and professional services (roughly $6,850), and ongoing monthly support of about $2,823. She compared that to the county’s current monthly cost of roughly $2,300 and the state‑proposed Webex cost of about $3,400.

"We actually have to be off of the state system by July 1," Townsend said, explaining the timeline driving the procurement. The board approved the licensing, vendor support and hardware as presented and directed IT staff to proceed with porting numbers, staff training and implementation steps to meet the July 1 deadline.