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County software migration stabilizing but staff burden remains, managers tell commissioners
Summary
Thurston County managers reported progress on TC Connect after a difficult live cutover: a new implementation partner (Baker Tilly) is reducing outages, some user features are functioning, but staff continue heavy testing workloads and the issue backlog remains substantial.
County managers briefed the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners on March 25 about progress and remaining work on TC Connect, the county'wide enterprise software migration intended to replace multiple legacy systems with a single Oracle-based platform.
County staff said the migration addresses siloed legacy systems but has been a difficult live implementation. "We were operating in a live production environment that still required significant testing and refinement," said Brandon Weber of the TC Connect steering committee, describing configuration gaps and an accounts-payable backlog that staff and the new implementation partner, Baker Tilly, have since worked to clear.
Presenters described an active issue log whose counts changed during the briefing (staff cited roughly 115 resolved and 108 outstanding issues at one point and referenced a later tally approaching the mid-200s). County leaders emphasized that each ticket requires staff subject-matter time to document, escalate and test fixes in a live production environment while meeting statutory payroll and reporting deadlines.
Officials underscored user-facing improvements already in place: managers can approve invoices via email, employees can self-update benefits and recruiting workflows have improved for hiring managers. However, staff attrition and extended overtime in finance and payroll teams remain concerns. Auditor Hall told commissioners several senior finance staff left because of workload and work'life issues, and she warned that continued attrition could hamper statutory reporting and audit readiness.
County leaders described next-phase work: establishing governance and change-management procedures, undertaking business process re-engineering (starting with budget/EPM and cash management), building priority reports (flexible period and labor distribution), and conducting targeted sprints with Baker Tilly to resolve critical production issues.
Managers said these steps aim to move TC Connect from reactive problem-solving to a more disciplined improvement cycle and that success will require continued staff time and possible additional resources to sustain testing and reporting responsibilities.
Attribution: Quotes and program remarks are drawn from the TC Connect presentation by the county manager, TC Connect steering committee members and Baker Tilly updates during the March 25, 2026 work session.
