Howdy TAGITM!

It’s Fall in Texas y’all, football season is back in full swing and it’s a brisk mid 90’s in our neck of the woods. I try not to complain about Texas heat because Mrs. Mc’s sister lives in New England and it’s already cold up there. I find that to be a nice reminder that maybe the beatdown we all take in the summer is worth the nice temps we see in other seasons. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve been taking another kind of beatdown recently. Anyone else getting hit with ridiculous and uncommunicated renewal costs? I’m sure you are, and it’s wildly frustrating. I’m not certain if this month’s message is going to be a rant or a call to action, so let’s see where this goes. 😊

I’ve been a director since 2018, and tech costs have greatly outpaced standard budget increases in recent years. I think it’s part inflation and part this is just how tech works these days. Probably throw some greed in there too. Whether it’s basic communication or endless mergers and acquisitions that never seem to fare well for preexisting customers, most corporations either fail to understand or flat out do not care about local government budgeting constraints. Broadcom fumbling the VMware acquisition is the premier example of late, but fact is there are substantially more that have greatly impacted the larger community.

One really annoyed me recently. Our PRTG renewal shot up 250%. It was never communicated, never a heads up that licensing was going to skyrocket. Like most of you I submitted my budget months ago. Earlier this year the Easy Vista Goverlan acquisition resulted in a 70% licensing increase. It wasn’t that long ago when a 5-10% bump would cover projected licensing and support year over year. Not anymore. It feels like the tech industry has become the wild west. Failure to understand a customer base and being dismissive of our budgeting limitations is a red flag for me. That’s not a sign that someone will be a good partner. Something my org looks for in those we choose to work with, and something that has been incredibly powerful (i.e. financially beneficial) for many of our partners over the years.

That said, recently one company proactively communicated a large price increase. Beyond Trust was after me for a while. I handed them off to our Security Manager and we found out they were giving us a year heads up to budget for a 100% increase in licensing. That kind of increase is ridiculous, of course, but I can at least give them props for understanding local governments need a long runway to prep for that. Out of the 100 or so licensing and support renewals I manage on behalf of my city annually, Beyond Trust is the only example I can think of that did this.

I don’t know what the answer is. I felt the same way about the pushback I got on SLA’s when I first transitioned into local government. SLA’s were standard practice in my previous sector. It seems feasible if you pay a premium for a service and that service fails to be delivered within defined contractual parameters there should be a penalty. Uptime, support tickets, whatevs. I never gained traction and eventually moved on, perhaps this needs to be revisited with recent price hikes. Perhaps TAGITM should consider leveraging the power of our community. Even better, I’d love to see DIR mandate this through their numerous contract vehicles. Feels like an appropriate quid pro quo. If budgets are going to get jacked put some skin in the game.

I’ll move on. Paessler really got under my skin. That’s not conducting business through accountability/ integrity to me, and I expect better. There’s that being authentic thing again! Something way more positive is TAGITM is in full swing with our regional summits and if you can believe it the annual conference is beginning to take shape. I am stoked, y’all! Angie, Lana, Lindy, the Conference, Education, and GIS Committees are knocking plans out of the park. I’m not ready to proclaim anything official, but there are some BIG things in the works. The one-day regionals are going to be killer, but if you can’t make one of those, trust me when I say YOU DO NOT want to miss the annual event. We already fill La Cantera to capacity, but we may need to leave the back door open so more folks can get in on the awesome sauce being brought to the table. I cannot wait to share what’s coming with y’all, stay tuned. Until then thank you for reading and have a wonderful month!