News
New
There has been a lot of activity in Austin. Representatives of TAMUS met with staff members of the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and Senator Nelson the week before Spring Break to comment on SB20 and HB15. The issue of no-bid contracts, contract management, and cooperative contracts were discussed.
Three bills are worth looking at: HB3753 is related to a telecommunication services discount for educational institutions, libraries, hospitals, and telemedicine centers. SB20 is related to procurement. HB3361 is related to state agency contracting for information technology commodity items and services. HB3361 is the only one that is concerning at this moment (no IHE exemption and rather onerous procurement requirements).
Ed Pierson found a good site dealing with the impact of accessibility issues: http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html
System-Wide Contracting News
New
We were unable to cobble together a large enough number of licenses to obtain sharply discounted prices from ViewFinity. They were wanting at least 15,000 licenses and we were only able to garner interest for 7,500 licenses (including Members already under contract). We can make another run at ViewFinity if enough Members are interested in acquiring the product or increasing their license counts.
AT&T notified TAMUS about a new pricing promotion they are rolling out. Under this new promotion, customers who sign a three-year agreement during the next 90 days will see no change in the rates they’ve been paying under the HB2128 program until June 30, 2016. On July 1, 2016, the rate is increased by 40%. On July 1, 2017, there will be a 30% increase. This offer covers the same AT&T services available in the HB2128 program, as well as in the first promotion we offered earlier this year. If you have any questions or would like some assistance in contacting the appropriate AT&T sales rep, please let contact:
Kelly Curbow
AT&T External & Legislative Affairs
DIRECT: (512) 457-2211
CELL: (512) 450-4334
In Process
Procurement is finalizing the RFP for Member Governance and the RFI for a replacement of Maestro.
TAMUS is reviewing the latest RFP draft for Banner Services.
The Digital COE Committee is prepared to submit its RFP to Procurement for Mobile Development/Support.
Repeats
Siteimprove checks web pages, every five days, for spelling, grammar, broken links, and accessibility. The cost is 54 cents per web page per year. Any Members interested in adding this service need to contact me directly.
The System-wide agreement with Cisco WebEx allows Members to purchase licenses for their entire faculty/administrators at the low cost of $1.44/month/license.
Syncplicity licensing is available for all Members.
Projects
New
The HR/Payroll Executive Steering Committee will make the decision on which vendor the System will begin negotiations with this week.
In Process
Utilities & Energy Services is working with Agrilife to serve as the pilot of Cisco EnergyWise.
SCIO Trips/Visits
- LEARN (March 25th)
- Austin (March 27th)
- South Texas (April 13-15th)