Schuylkill County Commissioners will be asked on Wednesday to approve a contract that approves spending more than $238,000 for Microsoft 365 software.
It’s one of several items coming before the Commissioners as they reconvene for the first time in two weeks on June 7.
According to the Agenda for the Commissioners Work Session meeting, the contract renewal for Microsoft 365 software covers up to 525 users and will cost $238,434. The money for the contract comes from the County’s MIS department budget.
Based on The Canary’s calculations, for 525 users, the annual cost per user is $454.16, or about $37.84 per month.
The term of the contract runs from July 7, 2023 until July 6, 2024.
Microsoft 365 is a suite of office software that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Its primary competition in this arena is Google Workspace, which numerous tech experts agree is less expensive than Microsoft 365. However, some argue that Microsoft’s offering is better because the apps included are more “feature-rich” than Google’s.
Based on our interactions with the Courthouse, particularly with obtaining documents, those “rich” features are rarely, if ever, used.
For instance, when we had to endure a long drawn-out Right to Know process to obtain a copy of the 2023 budget, in the end we received a version that was printed and then scanned, making it impossible to simply extract information from it.
Here’s a full look at the Agenda for the Schuylkill County Commissioners Work Session meeting on June 7:
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