The purpose of this project is to implement the Microsoft Campus Agreement across UBC. The project began in December 2009 with the official approval of the agreement from UBC Finance. The a project approach will engage in the planning and complete the tasks in order to implement the agreement for the first year, and ensure the appropriate processes are in place to support the agreement for future years. The project will also establish initial and ongoing communication mechanisms to help the campus understand how the agreement works and to make sure faculty and staff are aware of its availability.
Background
Historically, UBC has not had a central mechanism for the purchase and distribution of any software licenses on campus. Some licenses have been purchased and re-sold by UBC IT or the UBC Bookstore, and others are negotiated and distributed directly by departments or individual faculty and staff. In some cases, such as for highly specialized software, this arrangement may result in the best possible pricing. However, for highly commoditized software such as Microsoft products it results in the University paying significantly higher prices for some of the most common licenses in use. In addition to increased costs, other impacts include legal liability if departments aren’t compliant, and increased indirect costs as thousands of licenses are purchased in small amounts, requiring more paperwork and license tracking by many different people across the University.
A Microsoft Campus agreement will save the University money by consolidating purchases and ensuring that staff and faculty are obtaining commonly used software at the lowest possible prices. A Microsoft Campus agreement is similar to renting software versus purchasing it. Instead of a onetime purchase and then cost of upgrading to new versions, or installations on new PC’s, a campus agreement allows you to pay an annual fee based on the number of FTE’s, and provides staff and faculty access to all the latest versions of that software. A number of UBC departments covering half the UBC campus have already entered into campus agreements at the department level.
UBC departments should be aware they no longer own future versions of the software. The agreement allows them to license upgrades to existing software and to use new installs, but does not provide ownership. If UBC no longer wishes to pay the annual license fee, the license for the software would revert back to the original version purchased.
Strategic drivers for this project include the need to cut costs across the University, reduce risks of liability as a result of non-compliance with software agreements, and the desire to reduce the staff time in procuring and managing licenses.
View the details of the original business case for the UBC Wide Campus Agreement.
