Comprehensive County Software Implementation Delayed Until January

(Juneau) The Dodge County Board received an update Tuesday night on the progress of a software change for the Finance Department. The current program, JD Edwards, has been in place since 1997 and was established to bring all financial records into one place. The system oversees various procedures including accounts payable and receivable, budgeting, cash management, contracts and the payroll budget.

In 2017, the board approved to update JD Edwards to a more current software and last year the county finalized negotiations with Tyler Technologies to purchase the new program called Munis. The system was originally set to go-live on May 1st of this year but was push backed to July 1st and again to January 1st of 2020. Several county board members questioned why the launch date was extended.

County Administrator Jim Mielke says the biggest factor was training. He says training the users of the program is extremely important and without proper training it would be a huge risk. Mielke says in order to provide the right amount of training to all who need it the decision was made to extend the go-live date. He says the project team should get credit for working tirelessly to get this program up and running. Mielke says it is an extremely dedicated group of employees who are busting their tail day-in-and-day-out on behalf of the county.

The cost for the project is just over $2.1-million dollars and Mielke says, once everything is completed, it is estimated to come in roughly $233-thousand dollars under budget.