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Software Company Visits Lewis County, Talks Possible Budgeting Program Solution [The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash.](Chronicle, The (Centralia, WA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 30--Could Lewis County be on its way to solving a failed implementation of budgeting software? If a meeting that took place at the Lewis County Courthouse last week is any indication, it's entirely possible. Representatives from Tyler Technologies, a company whose stated mission is providing software solutions to the public sector, met with several officials from Lewis County Oct. 21 to speak about the county's $1.1 million investment in Microsoft Dynamics GP, budgeting software that ultimately didn't work for the county's intention of using it to control payroll, taxing districts and more. Michael Strozyk, the county's Central Services director, was in on the discussion and said it involved a rehash of the county's problem with implementing Dynamics GP -- and also what could be different in a new version of the software known as Dynamics AX 2012, presumably a more full-featured set of software that the county isn't anywhere near sold on quite yet. "We invited Tyler for an informal meeting, and out of that meeting came a lot of questions," Strozyk said. "It was a very general type of meeting, very preliminary. We're going to make a list of where things went wrong and we'll be in touch again." The meeting with Tyler Technologies came after county chief financial officer Larry Grove and budget administrator Steve Walton attended a budget conference at which Tyler representatives were present. The meeting that took place last Tuesday involved Grove and Walton, as well as a government account representative for Microsoft. Tyler Technologies has Washington state offices in Renton and Olympia, and the company partners with Microsoft to implement software such as Dynamics AX 2012 to public organizations, according to its website at www.tylertech.com. The county had previously worked with A Systems Integrator of Bend, Oregon, from 2009 to 2013, paying more than $788,000 for implementation of the software package that ultimately failed, the county said, due to reasons beyond either party's control. But critical to the conversation is the fact the county still holds the license to Microsoft Dynamics GP -- having paid about $326,000 for the software in 2009 -- and is looking to see if it can possibly leverage that fact when it comes to rectifying the issue. Dynamics AX is a possible solution, and according to a May 2014 pricing guide on Microsoft.com, the price of the software varies depending on how many machines it's installed on and uses it is deployed for. Strozyk said the county is proceeding with a great deal of caution before even remotely committing to anything, considering the problems that plagued the four-year attempt at implementation of software the county was hoping would replace a system that has been in place for two decades. "We haven't given up on the project, but we'd like to take a good 30,000-foot view of what this software can even do," Strozyk said. Christopher Brewer: (360) 807-8235 ___ (c)2014 The Chronicle (Centralia, Wash.) Visit The Chronicle (Centralia, Wash.) at www.chronline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |