08-19-1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

Comm. Minutes--August 19, 1991 721 13. The Judge and State's Attorney feel the software is feasible if it links the three departments together. Judge Racek suggested having a demonstration where county employees who would use the software could review how it works and have input on its implementation before it is purchased, and he suggested input from District Court on the court's portion of the package. Mr. Willis said the jail has a program tailored to their needs but he saw some positive things about JALAN's capabilities of integration with the courts and state's attorney, and he thinks the jail program could be expanded. Glenn Ellingsberg, Sheriff's Department, said agreements must be made with the vendor so modifications can be made when needed. Mr. Shannon said that is part of the local customizing that can be done. Data Processing Director Mike Steiner said two other software packages offer about the same modules as JALAN. He estimated the cost of purchasing the software at $218,000. Judge Racek said purchasing software would save the county dollars in the areas of staff and office space. He said there will be a significant increase in the number of staff needed by the courts to do data processing work if a software package isn't purchased soon, and he said much effort is duplicated county-wide at the present time. Commissioners were in agreement to continue looking at the options of purchasing a packaged software, to view at least one other leading firm's integrated software package and to give consideration to the cost-benefit ratio. County Coordinator Bonnie Johnson suggested a subsequent demonstration for staff and looking at the jail and sheriff packages to determine some kind of linkage with other systems. Mr. Shannon will try to arrange for a sub-committee meeting in the next week to determine the manner in which to proceed. DATA PROCESSING BUDGET AMENDMENT, Tax package modifications and purchase of Office Visions Mike Steiner asked the Commission to transfer $35,000 from the County contingency fund to the data processing budget to cover the cost of continued work on the new tax package. Auditor Mike Montplaisir said modifications on the tax package were not completed last year as anticipated so the money wasn't spent then. He said there would be about $60,000 left in the contingency fund if this transfer is made. Included in the amount to be transferred is $10,363 to purchase Office Visions software, which would be utilized by offices that don't presently have word processing capabilities. He said there are a number of offices that would utilize it for forms and it is also needed to run JALAN, if the County purchases that. Mr. Steiner said he budgeted for Office Visions in 1992, but purchasing it by October 22, 1991, would result in a savings of $2,912 over next year's purchase price.