The new software the county will switch to in March comes from Civic Plus. The county currently uses MinuteTrag, a product from IQM2/Granicus, but the company decided to discontinue the software after it was bought out.
The Civic Plus software comes with live streaming capability as well as the option to post meeting videos to the county's website and Youtube.
County information technology director Cory Meyer said Granicus encouraged customers to switch to another product as it begins phasing out MinuteTrag in September. County IT officials tried out demos of other software to see which one best fit the county's needs.
"We got in contact with other counties, asked them what they were using," Meyer said. "It's a mix of products out there. There's no clear leader as far as total number of customers, but there was one that was showing more progress, more change and also knew what we were using and wanting to move from. That's Civic Plus. They're a product from Civic Clerk."
Meyer said he and senior administrative assistant Cindy Kabriel and public information officer Vivienne Leyva reviewed Civic Plus' product and decided it would work well for the county.
"We went through it, saw that it had all the functionality that we currently have and then some," Meyer said. "As with any product, it's new. It's different. Different feel, modern feel. It's all web-based, no more application to be installed, no more headaches with updates which have to be installed."
In its first year, Civic Plus will cost the county $20,375, but the price will decrease in subsequent years. The county will use $12,000 from the IT budget originally intended to renew its contract with Granicus. The rest will come from money budgeted to replace MinuteTrag.
County IT officials will prepare a training schedule to ease the switch in March.
"Civic Plus has agreed that they will be working with us to help us come live in March," Meyer said. "We wouldn't need to do any renewal with Granicus and we would transition."
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