Davis County IT warns Esri license changes could double GIS costs; staff to inventory and consider consolidation

Davis County—s director of information services told commissioners during an Aug. 19 work session that the county—s Esri geographic information system (GIS) licensing costs could rise sharply under the vendor—s new pricing model and asked departments to inventory current licenses so staff can propose consolidation or alternate strategies before the contract renewal.

Jeff, the county—s director of information services, told the commission Esri is currently charging the county roughly $150,000 a year for GIS licensing. Under the vendor—s new licensing structure the county would face a roughly 50 percent increase to maintain the same functionality next year, and the company—s published pricing could raise costs to nearly $300,000 a year by the third contract year. Jeff said he requested a stripped-down renewal quote that replicated the county—s current license footprint; that quote came back at about $214,000, still roughly a 50 percent increase over the current cost.

"Their new licensing structure by the third year of our contract will be double what it is today," Jeff said, explaining the shift toward named-user and subscription models that tie charges to users rather than machines or site licenses. He warned that the county—s GIS footprint is the baseline technology for many departments — recorder, surveyor, library, sheriff and that swapping platforms or rearchitecting integrations would carry high implementation costs and staff time.

Jeff outlined options for the commission and department directors: accept the price increase and request additional budget, switch to a lower-cost commercial GIS (with the risk that a vendor could later move to subscription or named-user pricing), move to an open-source GIS (which carries compatibility, support and maintenance risks), consolidate creator licenses and centralize GIS work on a smaller team, or outsource GIS work to vendors on a project basis. He said any transition would require licensing Esri for at least another year to allow time to rebuild the county—s existing services on a new platform.

To begin the work, Jeff asked Cheryl to circulate a department-level list of current Esri licenses and named users and asked directors to consult with their staff on whether they can reduce creator licenses or rely on "reader" roles. Jeff said his team currently has three GIS specialists plus one developer assigned to integration work; the county holds about 50 creator-level licenses distributed across departments. He noted server components and other fixed costs mean license-count reductions do not translate to strictly proportional price cuts.

Cheryl will send each department its license list this week and Jeff said he would schedule a follow-up briefing for about two weeks out. Jeff also noted broader licensing pressure across county systems: Munis (ERP) is moving to a cloud subscription model and other vendors are shifting from perpetual to named-user subscriptions, which could increase county software costs beyond GIS.

No vote was taken; commissioners asked departments to review their license rosters and be prepared to discuss consolidation and procurement options at the follow-up meeting. Jeff set a practical deadline tied to the county—s Esri contract: the county must have a plan before the contract renewal in January.