Questioning the way we do things is one of our greatest opportunities of this budget crisis. It is important for all of us to look around to see if what we are doing makes sense. -Jim Morgan, Financial Management Division Manager, Washington State Department of Natural Resources
From: DRESSEL, JOSH (DNR)
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1:42 PM
To: Carlyle, Reuven
Cc: GEBHARDT, PAT (DNR); Packard, Heath (DNR); Toso, Aaron (DNR); YOUNG, LENNY (DNR)
Subject: RE: government contracts
Importance: High
Dear Representative Carlyle,
I’m not sure if you received a response to your question but here’s what I see…
Our agency is vendor driven. I believe the entire state might be similar in nature. Instead of contacting vendors after consultants and R&D has put time into mapping agency needs, vendors contact those individuals with purchasing authority and pitch the merchandise they claim works best. This might get the job done, but it is an inefficient way of doing business.
Gary Donnelly has a publication explaining methods he believes vendors should use when pursuing procurement from state and local governments. In it, he recognizes the role political influence plays in government contracts. In terms of technology, the dominant name also happens to be that of the company with the largest amount of lobbying power. I believe this is directly related to the DNR being a Microsoft shop. We have MS Office, SharePoint, Active Directory, and Exchange Server but I don’t believe we have the research to back this as the best strategy.
My idea wasn’t to completely switch the agency to open source. However, I do believe it’s necessary to use open source whenever it makes financial sense to do so. The one area I see instant savings and gratification from is converting to the OpenOffice.org suite. If this was done throughout the state, the savings would be around $318 per machine. For our agency, this is a savings of over $600,000. Along with the adoption of OpenOffice.org is the need to change from MS Outlook email to something that will work with Exchange Server. While looking for solutions, one of the DNR systems analysts found an answer with a product called Zimbra and estimated the total savings (OpenOffice.org + Zimbra) to be $1.8 million over the next biennium.
The initial cost of something like this isn’t monetary, it’s in the training of staff. The personnel for doing this however are already in place. There is a financial expense for continuing with the products already in use. Once a switch has been made and the hurtle of training staff overcome, the savings are sustainable.
Outlook and Exchange Server are examples of how entwined our agency is in the use Microsoft products -but we’re not dealing with Lock Blocks that won’t fit with Legos. The more our state moves away from Microsoft standards towards open standards, the less likely it is we’ll run into compatibility issues. Open source works the same across all hardware and software platforms. This allows an agency to effortlessly exchange data with the public and other agencies. It is also the very essence of open government.
The status of IT at the DNR is we continue to be a Microsoft shop without any sound data to back staying this course.
Sincerely,
Josh Dressel
IT Specialist
Department of Natural Resources
Over time business needs, technology and the tools that employees use to do their jobs do change. It is good to periodically review the way we do business and the infrastructure that affects our overhead costs and work center expenditures. -Jim Morgan, Financial Management Division Manager, Washington State Department of Natural Resources
