The county’s information technology department has been approved to enter into a contract with Office 365 to provide Microsoft programs for county departments.
The cost of the contract is $17,000 to $19,000 a year for 80 to 90 licenses, IT assistant Laura Minett said.
The department is currently not paying for Office programs now, but they are “antiquated,” Minett said.
The contract would include subscriptions for Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel along with updating the county’s operating systems from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Minett said she and IT Director Ric Fox had looked at buying individual licenses for each program, but this plan is cheaper. It also includes security and technology support. Individual licenses cost $100, which would result in $80,000 to $90,000 spent just on the individual programs.
“It’s going to cost a lot of money no matter what you do,” she said.
She said IT’s budget will be able to cover the contract for 20 subscriptions this year, but they will need more money next year to cover more subscriptions and other subscription-based products “because this is the way things are going.”
Minett said it would be a “slow rollout,” which is why the county would only have to pay for 20 subscriptions this year. Hiring additional people to help with the rollout will not be necessary, she said.
The IT department has looked at the various county departments to see how many subscriptions they would need to cut down on costs. “We’ve looked at where we can cut licenses, where we don’t need them,” Minett said.
