October 28, 2010
New agreement makes popular software, new computers very affordable
Pssst …wanna score some primo software for nothing, or next to nothing? And how about a fully-equipped computer for the price of latte a day?
You don’t have to arrange for a clandestine meeting near the back of a truck in a dark alley. It’s all available through new strategic partnership agreements negotiated by UW Information Technology and UW Purchasing.
A new agreement between the UW and Microsoft has made the most popular software products, including Windows 7 and Office 2010, available at no charge. The cost to the UW is being met through the new per-capita Technology Recharge Fee.
In addition, a new partnership with CDW’s government division (CDW is a software and hardware reseller) and HP allows UW units to buy computers at competitive prices that come fully equipped and ready to use right out of the box, in many cases. The agreements and negotiated prices apply to desktops, laptops and notebook computers.
“In the past, we had an opt-in system for participating in software purchase,” says Sandra McGowan, assistant director, customer services and operations, UW Information Technology. “Some units would participate and some wouldn’t. People would end up buying software in a variety of places. Some would get a great price and others would buy retail. There was inadequate monitoring of compliance with licensing agreements. Now we have a single agreement covering faculty and staff at all three campuses.”
“The agreement with Microsoft is under a new model that the company has only made available recently,” says Kelli Trosvig, interim vice president and vice provost of UW Information Technology. “We were able to leverage the current Technology Recharge Fee to negotiate these agreements without having to increase the fee this year. In the future we will look at the demands from campus to help guide allocation of the Technology Recharge Fee toward initiatives like this. One of the many areas we are exploring in the coming years is how we deliver desktop telephone service.”
The agreement provides Windows and Office free for faculty and staff for the computers they use at work (Office for home use is available at $10 for a download and $22 for physical media) and server products are available to authorized UW users. In addition, departments had a month in late summer to purchase additional products such as VisioPremium, Project Pro, Visual Studio, and Expressions Studio at an extremely low cost. This software can be obtained from your local IT support person. Complete information, including instructions for those without IT support, is available here.
McGowan credits a diverse group of individuals, representing a variety of computer users on campus, for helping to define the UW’s needs, which were then translated into agreements with key vendors. These included representatives from the iSchool, Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering, The College of the Environment, UW Medical Center, UW Bothell and UW Tacoma. “Negotiating for the University as a whole allowed us to exercise our market leverage and develop agreements that could be cost-effective for the vast majority of computer users,” she says.
A second agreement, involving CDW and HP, has resulted in a simplified process for purchases of many computer systems. A group of users similar to those involved with the software negotiations have developed specifications for computer systems configured in three ways. Using these standard configurations may save purchasers as much as 30 percent on each system. Of course, users can still elect to “build” systems to their own specifications.
Users can purchase the systems so that they come already equipped with the desired software. “The idea was to allow people to purchase systems that come close to being fully operational when they arrive,” McGowan says.
These are just two examples of how UW Information Technology and other UW partners are working to build new strategic partnerships with key vendors that can benefit the UW community now and into the future. Together, these new agreements are expected to save the University hundreds of thousands of dollars.
More information on these packages is available through the eProcurement website; click through to the CDW-G page.
The user group meets quarterly to review current specifications and adjusts the configurations to ensure that the preconfigured computer packages meet campus needs at a good price point.
