 Negotiating with Vendors, Do’s and Don’ts in the New Economy Catherine Maras Bexar County Tuesday June 14, 2011

2 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

4 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

5 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

6 Strategic Objectives

7 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

Negotiation Do’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

Negotiation Do’s  Engage colleagues from either internal or external to your local government  Do your Homework  Give and Take

Negotiation Don’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

Negotiation Don’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

13 Contact Information Catherine Maras Bexar County Chief Information Officer (210)