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County IT staff recommend switching Microsoft support to CompuNet to cut costs
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Summary
IT staff proposed replacing direct Microsoft enterprise support with a three‑year CompuNet contract that they say would provide comparable services and save the county roughly $55,000 annually (transcript figures: Microsoft ~ $122,000 vs CompuNet ~ $67,000), and asked for higher spending authority to execute a multi‑year agreement.
Information‑technology staff told the Spokane County Board of County Commissioners that the county’s existing enterprise support arrangement with Microsoft no longer represents good value and that a managed‑service arrangement with CompuNet would provide comparable support at lower cost.
Staff said the Microsoft support arrangement provides reactive cloud and on‑premise support across services including email, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Defender Suite, desktop/server operating systems and key applications. The Microsoft pricing model is consumption‑based under the enterprise agreement, which staff said made budgeting and value assessment difficult.
IT staff said a CompuNet arrangement would supply tier‑2 engineers to handle most issues and would escalate to Microsoft only when necessary; staff provided a cost comparison on the record, stating Microsoft support was quoted at roughly $122,000 for the year while CompuNet was quoted at about $67,000, with three‑year totals showing CompuNet materially lower and an estimated three‑year savings of about $172,000. Staff said CompuNet already provides services to the county (since 2017) and had helped with Splunk and other services.
The board asked about contract timing and termination of the Microsoft agreement; staff said the Microsoft contract terminates in mid‑May and that CompuNet could be picked up to follow it seamlessly. Staff requested board consideration for spending authority to enter a multi‑year purchasing contract with CompuNet.
Why it matters: The proposal could reduce IT operating costs and change the county’s vendor support model for critical systems such as email and cybersecurity tools.
What’s next: Staff requested authority to proceed with procurement and said they will include the item for board consideration; details on termination timelines and specific pass‑through escalation costs would be provided in the purchasing documents.
