County To Replace Mainframe Computer Software Company Lowers Price For Chance To Showcase System

Spokane County commissioners agreed Tuesday to replace the county’s 14-year-old mainframe computer system.

Commissioner Kate McCaslin voted against spending $730,000 on a PeopleSoft system, saying the company’s warranty is inadequate. It requires the county to take the company to court if the system fails and covers only the cost of the software, not the county’s time for installation, training and troubleshooting.

Commissioners John Roskelley and Phil Harris voted to buy the system, noting the warranty is standard for the industry.

The three commissioners said there’s no question the county’s current system should be replaced.

Some tasks that can be performed in minutes on home computers take hours in the courthouse, said Vickie Birkenthal, director of information systems.

Birkenthal said it would take eight employees two years to overcome programming problems expected when the date changes to 2000 - an event feared by computer programmers. The PeopleSoft program was designed to deal with the date change without failing.

Birkenthal said the PeopleSoft system originally was priced at $1.4 million.

The company offered the county a lower price because it’s trying to claim more of the lucrative market for government agencies and plans to use the county as a showcase. The company hopes to help the county design a program for utilities billing and would pay the county a royalty each time the program is sold.

“We always considered PeopleSoft to be way too expensive for us,” she said.

The new system will be installed between now and January 1999, Birkenthal said, and should begin paying for itself the following year, when the county’s lease for its current software is due to increase.

PeopleSoft is the personnel software used by such major companies as Boeing, Microsoft and Ford Motor Co.

, DataTimes