IT director: land-records migration, network refresh and MFA rollout to accelerate after contract signings

The Dodge County IT director reported the countys year-to-date IT budget is on track and called out several projects that will move quickly once pending agreements are finalized.

"There has been no surprises at this point," the IT director said, summarizing the budget picture and noting a one-time annual charge for a research contract with Infotech: "It's a 1 time annual charge, so nothing else will be allocated to that." The director said most external application work is charged to a separate account (1530) and that remaining consultant funds are limited: "There's a little bit of money left if we need to use consultants."

On one of the largest operational items, the director said the county's land-records and tax system vendor GCS was acquired by a company called Catalyst and that the county must complete a data migration to Catalyst's new platform. "We were hoping to start the project by now already, so, we're kind of at the point where we need to just get this signed so we can move forward with implementation," the director said. "So it'll be fast paced once we get it signed." The director told the committee corporation counsel is still reviewing the contract.

The committee also heard a timeline for a network infrastructure refresh: staff are finalizing a scope of work with the purchasing agent and hope to post an RFP by the end of the month or early April, with a quick response window because the county may need third-party support by June if existing switch hardware is not replaced.

Emergency communications were described as an ongoing priority after a tornado last May. The director said three county buildings have nonfunctional public-address systems and that recent tests of a VoIP-based PA alternative revealed some headset and alert routing issues; the county is evaluating IP speakers for common areas as a lower-cost interim option.

The committee was also briefed on an authentication upgrade scheduled for the UKG human-resources and payroll system "tomorrow at noon" to prepare for multi-factor authentication (MFA). The director said on-site county IP addresses will be whitelisted so staff will not need MFA while on county networks; off-site staff will generally use county-issued phones or personal cell phones for authentication.

Staff work on applications and content management was highlighted: the director praised system analyst Malia Bachleitner for leading server migrations for Human Services and PR communications staffer Megan Sheridan for managing the website rollout and social-media recruitment timing.

The director closed the update by restating that several projects require contract or procurement steps before work ramps up and asked the committee to expect accelerated implementation once contracts are signed.

The committee took no formal votes on these items during the meeting; next procedural steps are completing contract review with corporation counsel and posting the network RFP.