Park County weighs switching to Microsoft Office 365 and other IT costs as FY27 budget is drafted

Park County officials spent most of their May 21 budget meeting on information technology needs, including an urgent recommendation to commit to a Microsoft Office 365 subscription before a vendor price increase and several hardware and software projects county staff said are necessary to avoid security and operational problems.

An IT staff member told commissioners that Microsoft has announced rate increases effective July 1 and presented a lowest bid of about $35,000 a year for Office 365; two other bids were discussed at roughly $36,000 and $38,000. "Microsoft has just announced that they are going to raise all of their rates July 1," the IT staff member said, urging the commission to allow a June commitment to lock current pricing.

The move to cloud hosting stems from older on‑premises Exchange servers reaching end of life, staff said. The presenter said vendors are increasingly refusing to support older on‑prem setups and that the county would face security and functionality losses if it delays. The presenter added that the county can convert to a subscription model and manage the number of paid user accounts so archived historic mailboxes are not counted toward the subscription fee.

Commissioners and staff discussed how to allocate the new recurring Office 365 expense. One commissioner asked whether the fee should come from the general fund or be split by department based on user counts; staff said they can break out user counts and recommended charging departments by usage so the county knows which departments drive IT costs.

Law enforcement equipment and software costs were also prominent. Staff described a five‑year GTAC hardware lease for deputy devices, saying the total amortized cost would be split with the city and that the county's share works out to roughly $20,000 a year under the quoted amortization. SmartCop, the records and dispatch system, will require migration and new SQL licensing; staff said the county portion of that upgrade would be about $10,000 (half of an estimated $20,000 total cost).

Staff reported that a backup appliance and host upgrades were part of an approximately $81,000 DES cybersecurity grant; the hosts were replaced at a cost of about $60,000, and staff said the grant approval is complete but federal reimbursement has been delayed. "The grant approved that. They just haven't given us the money," the presenter said.

Discussion also covered application hosting for accounting systems. Staff outlined moves for Taxwise and the Tyler ERP modules from on‑prem to hosted solutions, saying recurring costs for some Taxwise services could rise (one line item discussed as increasing from about $21,000 to roughly $31,000) and estimating a combined annual increase across accounting and tax software near $10,000. A one‑time implementation fee was discussed in the meeting (the transcript lists a figure of $2,520,000 as a one‑time fee for full implementation; meeting speakers did not clarify whether that number reflected a transcription or formatting error and did not provide a breakdown during the session).

Museum technology was raised by a museum representative who described aging cabling and unreliable workstations that slow volunteers and staff. The representative said a partial cabling and cleanup quote of about $5,500 was available and noted a past private donation of roughly $20,000 that had funded newer computers.

The meeting included suggestions to centralize IT prioritization and budgeting so IT staff can propose and sequence infrastructure projects rather than reacting department by department. Commissioners and participants discussed creating a facility‑by‑facility IT accounting code or an IT project ranking system to guide funding decisions.

A caller identifying himself as Terry Taylor asked where to find the annual budget and whether the DES grant had been received; staff directed callers to parkcounty.org and reiterated that DES reimbursement remains delayed at the federal level.

No final procurement votes were recorded during the session. Commissioners scheduled followup: a full Tyler suite discussion was set for the next Tuesday agenda or for June 2 when key staff can attend; staff said Office 365 and related renewals need action in June to lock pricing. The meeting proceeded to public comment and adjournment.

The county said the exact funding source and department apportionments for each project will be determined in subsequent budget sessions, and commissioners asked staff to provide a user breakdown and updated quotes before formal approval.