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Negotiating with Vendors, Do’s and Don’ts in the New

Economy

Catherine MarasBexar County

Tuesday June 14, 2011

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Agenda

Bexar County

Bexar County Information Technology Department (BCIT)

The New Normal for Local Government

Negotiating Do’s and Don’ts

Questions

Bexar County – Who we are

Organized in 1837 as one of the original counties of the Republic of Texas

Bexar County – over 1.7M Population $374.1 million General Fund budget $1.556 billion Total Adopted budget 4,500 Bexar County employees $10.8 million General Fund IT Budget

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Information Technology Department

119 Budgeted Positions (6 Frozen) Support over 30 Offices/Departments BCIT operates large shared service center to

support: Justice Public Safety Constituent Services Community Resources Financials & Administration

Thousands of applications accessed by over 4500 internal users

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BCIT Strategic Plan

Mission To support the mission of Bexar County with high

quality, innovative, and cost effective information and communication technology solutions

Vision An efficient County government supported by an

integrated information environment created through strong departmental partnerships & provided by a highly trained and diverse workforce deploying effective technologies

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Strategic Objectives

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Information Technology Department

E-Serve Site Enterprise-wide Lawson ERP implementation

Win7 and MS Office 2010 Standardized Desktop, Tools and Technical Architecture

County-wide Integrated Justice Initiative-includes new Case Management, Mug Shot, Digital Evidence and Inventory Systems, e-Citations

Centralized County Data Center

Document Management System

The New Normal for Local Government

Unfunded Mandates continue at a faster pace

Consolidation of City/County Governments

Number of Employee Furlough days has increased

Local Governments have had to reduce service levels and shut down for days in order to balance budgets

NegotiationDo’s

Be Creative-More Art than Science Negotiate on an Enterprise Basis Request Customer References and Plan a

Visit Reduce project risk by instituting

measureable goals that both parties can agree to

Realize your Value as a Customer Employ a County/City team approach

based on initiative

NegotiationDo’s

Engage colleagues from either internal or external to your local government

Do your Homework

Give and Take

NegotiationDon’ts

Don’t rush to a conclusion-Listen

Don’t focus on one area of the negotiation, but rather ensure all facets have been covered

Don’t follow the same old vendor license model and pricing terms if it does not meet your needs

NegotiationDon’ts

Don’t think anything is out of scope

Don’t follow the vendor’s contract documents but create your own

Don’t rush with the negotiations-keep the natural pace

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Contact Information

Catherine Maras

Bexar County Chief Information Officer

(210) 335-0207

cmaras@bexar.org