Program Summary. Criterion 1: Importance to University Mission / Operations. Importance to Mission

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1 Program Summary DoIT is responsible for negotiating and licensing software available as a site- wide license as well as many volume- license purchases for specific College or divisional use. DoIT also maintains a program for both online and media distribution. Software licensing includes gathering user requirements, identifying appropriate software, then working with vendors to identify and negotiate appropriate levels of licensing. DoIT staff maintain the licensing database of the more than 5,100 software packages ever purchased through this program, ensuring that reporting complies with legal and audit requirements. Of these, only 90 can currently be ordered online from a DoIT website. Software distribution includes maintaining a current software repository, managing orders, verifying use cases meet license restrictions, billing, and either electronic or physical media delivery. Criterion 1: Importance to University Mission / Operations Importance to Mission With Microsoft s campus agreement, all faculty, staff, and students have full and free- to- the- user access to the entire Microsoft Office suite for both business and personal use. Faculty can assign work that requires Microsoft Office products without worrying that students cannot afford the software; students can easily collaborate on document creation, employing the industry standard for tracking and managing content changes; and employers can come to campus expecting that NIU students already have years of experience working with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Of course, many academic courses cannot be taught without discipline- specific or statistical software applications. Ensuring these packages are appropriately priced and available allows faculty the freedom to assign software projects, safe in the knowledge that their students are fully supported. Importance to Operations Centralizing software licensing and distribution, at least for site- wide and large volume purchases, saves both time and money by simplifying contract negotiations, eliminating duplication, streamlining the licensing requirements, reducing time to fulfill software requests, and eventually removing the physical media distribution. Program Portfolio Many campus units spent time fulfilling the requests of their faculty and staff for some volumes of software purchases. While the quick and easy solution might be running to a local computing store or purchasing a quick download online with an NIU Purchasing Card, those seemingly quick and easy transactions add up both in terms of time and money. Single purchases are rarely discounted and unchecked duplication of software costs the university thousands of dollars each year. If this program can be enhanced to centrally manage a software inventory that electronically distributes software and licenses, it can ease the burden of administrative staff throughout NIU. 1

2 Program Synergy Software licensing and distribution is dependent upon a high- speed, high- bandwidth, and highly- available wired and wireless data network. The programs also requires a close partnership with NIU s Procurement Services to ensure appropriate vendor negotiations and purchases. For electronic distribution, integration with the Desktop Support programs "SCCM" management suite will be necessary. All volume purchases of software should coordinate with our cloud- based AnywhereApps service to make the apps available anytime, from anywhere. Criterion 2: Quality / Effectiveness Functions and Services Software licensing includes gathering user requirements, identifying appropriate software, then working with vendors to identify and negotiate appropriate levels of licensing. DoIT staff maintain the licensing database of the more than 5,100 software packages ever purchased through this program, ensuring that reporting complies with legal and audit requirements. Of these, only 90 can currently be ordered online from a DoIT website. Software distribution includes maintaining a current software repository, managing orders, verifying use cases meet license restrictions, billing, and either electronic or physical media delivery. Measures of Quality 1. Mean Time to Fulfill Requests measured from the time a customer places an online order until the product is delivered electronically or in person. 2. Number of software orders each year 3. Percentage of available software applications that are downloaded each year 4. Expanded user availability based on favorable volume licensing 5. Percentage of software packages made available through AnywhereApps Evidence of Quality 1. Mean Time to Fulfill Requests is not measured from time of order, but from time of approval to order. Requests are typically filled within 24 hours of receiving final approval for purchase. 2. 3,285 orders were placed for software applications last year of the most commonly ordered applications are available for online order from a DoIT- managed website and 78 of these software titles were ordered in the last 12 months. 4. DoIT does not currently measure the beneficial expansion of use due to favorable licensing. 5. This is not currently tracked, but will be in 2016 as part of a research and improvement effort. Quality Improvement All site- licensed and high volume purchases should be centralized with a request mechanism that is easy for campus customers to use, both to submit orders and to track their order s progress. All standardized software applications such as operating systems, Microsoft Office applications, and other common productivity software should be distributed through Microsoft s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) used by DoIT and professionally- minded IT staff in the Colleges and divisions for quickly deploying and retiring software on desktops and laptops in offices, classrooms, conference rooms, and labs. 2

3 In all other cases, software should be electronically ordered and downloaded. There may be some exceptions for massive statistical programs, but even the vendors who supply these programs have options for electronic download and installation. Finally, any software application that is used for academic coursework should be deployed through the AnywhereApps service that makes software available anytime, anywhere with a reduced license footprint and cost. Criterion 3: Productivity / Efficiency Scope of Program This program is available to all faculty, staff and students at NIU and its Outreach facilities. The program can resell any available software on the market today, distribute it to campus users, and bill for the service using NIU cost centers. The program manages 90 of the most commonly requested applications through an online order form. These software packages are deeply discounted and limited- use licenses, so DoIT staff must keep accurate and documented proof of purchases for all licensed distributions. In addition, academic software like SPSS, SAS, and the ARC application suite are available to the entire NIU community. Finally, NIU also participates in a number of technology licensing programs in order to provide wide access to important tools in cost- effective ways. These include: Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) to offer Microsoft Office and Windows OS downloads and upgrades without cost to the user. Nearly 17,000 desktop activations and 1,911 mobile device activations have taken place since this contract has been signed. Microsoft Select Agreement that allows departments to purchase Microsoft products not included in the EES program. Microsoft Office 365 applications without cost to faculty, staff or students that provides , calendaring, messaging, audio and video conferencing, and near unlimited storage in OneDrive and SharePoint. Productivity Comparison Peer universities in Illinois differ widely in how they manage centralized software licensing and distribution: some manage an online store that sells direct to students, faculty, staff and partner institutions; others have outsourced the function completely and simply link to third- party software vendors such as journeyed.com; still others, like NIU, centrally manage a repository of supported software and continue to provide physical media distribution; and others have no discernible online method of requesting, much less receiving, centrally managed software. Resource Comparison This program is managed by 1 person with minimal facilities and materials, but with a great deal of manual processes for managing software orders and distribution. With the great majority of software applications available for instant online download, this program could be more automated and eventually managed by less than 1 FTE. 3

4 Cost and Revenues Software prices are driven by the free market of supply and demand. Many applications decrease in price as competition from less expensive or even free open source solutions become available. Other applications increase in price when they find a niche market. Given this volatility, NIU has still achieved a substantial cost savings in software purchases through the Microsoft EES Program. Before this year, it could be properly assumed that several units on campus were not complying with Microsoft, Adobe, or other vendor licensing requirements when a single license was used to install on multiple desktops and laptops in offices and labs. Now, the Microsoft license allows all faculty, staff and students to freely download and install Microsoft Office on up to five personal or work computers. Internal & External Demand External Demand Licensing agreements do not allow this program to be offered outside the NIU community of users. Internal Demand Internal demand for individually- purchased software downloads or media distribution should be on the decline, even if it isn t. Software is best ordered from a Definitive Software Library of appropriately negotiated, easily distributed applications. Software that comes with a price to the user must be securely stored and tracked properly to assure compliance with licensing requirements and allow for proper billing to NIU cost centers or even credit cards. Software is best distributed through centralized management of desktops, laptops, and mobile devices in NIU s offices, classrooms, conference rooms and labs. Both DoIT staff and distributed IT support professionals should be relying on remote management platforms like Microsoft SCCM to deploy and upgrade software applications. Software is best paid for by licensing that allows for concurrent uses instead of per- seat licensing. This cost- savings mechanism allows the AnywhereApps program to distribute expensive software packages to faculty, staff and students in a virtual desktop setting, without downloading and installing the complete package on their desktop or laptop. Criterion 5: Opportunity Analysis Cost Savings Opportunities NIU should insist that all software distribution be moved to an electronic- only download mechanism. This will require development or purchase of a system that would accept PS- FMS cost centers and/or Purchasing Cards and deploy both volume- and site- licensed titles, tracking assets and ensuring compliance with copyright. Future Revenue / Resources This program cannot generate external revenue. 4

5 Improvement Opportunities Ordering software today is a manual process, even though some titles can be ordered through an online form. After the customer places an order, DoIT must order the software via an approved reseller. That reseller than orders the physical media or downloads the software from the manufacturer. Delivery is then made to DoIT and from there to the customer. Finally, DoIT must create a customer bill and pay the reseller. There is simply no reason for this complex order and delivery system in the 21 st century. Opportunities in the Field While electronic delivery and volume licensing are necessary and obvious steps, the real mark of excellence is consolidation. A cost- constrained institution with its eye on the ball would ideally be open to a serious conversation about pursuing volume discounting by adopting a reduced set of software titles for similar sets of functionality. Just as the university only has one accounting system in PeopleSoft and one LMS in Blackboard, we should be open to the conversation about how many different statistics or videoconferencing solutions we need to buy and what emergent benefits could accrue from rallying around a common solution. 5