ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE

 

5.

CONSIDER RATIFICATION OF EXPENDITURE OF BUDGETED FUNDS TO PURCHASE MICROSOFT OFFICE 2010 UPGRADES AND MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT 2010 SERVER SOFTWARE

 

Meeting Date:

August 6, 2010

Budgeted: 

Yes

 

From:

Darby Fuerst,

Program/

Capital Assets – Acct.

 

General Manager

Line Item No.:     No. 9160

                                                                                                              

Prepared By:

 

Rick Dickhaut

Cost Estimate:

$13,927

General Counsel Review:  N/A

Committee Recommendation:  The Administrative Committee reviewed this item on August 6, 2010 and recommended _________________________.

CEQA Compliance:  N/A

 

SUMMARY:  District staff is currently using the 2003 version of Microsoft Office.  Microsoft issued an upgraded version of Office in 2007, but the decision was made by staff not to upgrade at that time even though funding had been included in that fiscal year’s budget.  Microsoft has now released the Office 2010 upgrade and staff has determined that an upgrade is prudent at this time due to the addition of many new features and capabilities since the 2003 version.  Funds were available in the Fiscal Year 2009-10 budget and 30 copies were purchased in June 2010 at a total cost of $7,650. 

 

The District is also in the process of scanning and storing paper documents electronically.    The Water Demand Division has already started the initial scanning process and there are a lot of other documents in the other divisions that need to be scanned and stored electronically.  Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 server software (Sharepoint) is a good tool to store, manage and search these documents.  In addition, the website needs to be overhauled and SharePoint makes content management easy.  It will allow staff to setup compliance measures ”behind the scenes”, with features like document types, retention polices, and automatic content sorting; and then let staff work with the data in Microsoft Office 2010.  Furthermore, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 makes it easier for people to work together.  Using SharePoint, staff can set up individual and shared Web sites to share information with others internally and externally, manage documents from start to finish and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.  For Information Technology staff, SharePoint helps cut training and maintenance costs, saves time and effort, and allows focus on higher business priorities.  Funds were available in the Fiscal Year 2009-10 budget and staff purchased various Sharepoint software license at a total cost of $6,277.

 

Due to Chief Technology Officer Inder Osahan’s unanticipated absence from work, authorization for the purchases of the Microsoft Office and Sharepoint software was not obtained from the Administrative Committee and Board of Directors in advance of the purchases.  Ratification of the purchases is requested at this time.

    

RECOMMENDATION:  District staff recommends that the Board consider ratification of expenditure of budgeted funds for the purchase of 30 copies of the Microsoft Office 2010 upgrade at a total cost of $7,650 and various Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 server software components at a total cost of $6,277.    

 

EXHIBITS

None

 

 

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